Geology of the Continental Margin of Enderby and Mac. Robertson Lands, East Antarctica: Insights from a Regional Data Set

In 2001 and 2002, Australia acquired an integrated geophysical data set over the deep-water continental margin of East Antarctica from west of Enderby Land to offshore from Prydz Bay. The data include approximately 7700 km of high-quality, deep-seismic data with coincident gravity, magnetic and bathymetry data, and 37 non-reversed refraction stations using expendable sonobuoys. Integration of these data with similar quality data recorded by Japan in 1999 allows a new regional interpretation of this sector of the Antarctic margin. This part of the Antarctic continental margin formed during the breakup of the eastern margin of India and East Antarctica, which culminated with the onset of seafloor spreading in the Valanginian. The geology of the Antarctic margin and the adjacent oceanic crust can be divided into distinct east and west sectors by an interpreted crustal boundary at approximately 58° E. Across this boundary, the continent–ocean boundary (COB), defined as the inboard edge of unequivocal oceanic crust, steps outboard from west to east by about 100 km. Structure in the sector west of 58° E is largely controlled by the mixed rift-transform setting. The edge of the onshore Archaean–Proterozoic Napier Complex is downfaulted oceanwards near the shelf edge by at least 6 km and these rocks are interpreted to underlie a rift basin beneath the continental slope. The thickness of rift and pre-rift rocks cannot be accurately determined with the available data, but they appear to be relatively thin. The margin is overlain by a blanket of post-rift sedimentary rocks that are up to 6 km thick beneath the lower continental slope. The COB in this sector is interpreted from the seismic reflection data and potential field modelling to coincide with the base of a basement depression at 8.0–8.5 s two-way time, approximately 170 km oceanwards of the shelf-edge bounding fault system. Oceanic crust in this sector is highly variable in character, from rugged with a relief of more than 1 km over distances of 10–20 km, to rugose with low-amplitude relief set on a long-wavelength undulating basement. The crustal velocity profile appears unusual, with velocities of 7.6–7.95 km s⁻¹ being recorded at several stations at a depth that gives a thickness of crust of only 4 km. If these velocities are from mantle, then the thin crust may be due to the presence of fracture zones. Alternatively, the velocities may be coming from a lower crust that has been heavily altered by the intrusion of mantle rocks. The sector east of 58° E has formed in a normal rifted margin setting, with complexities in the east from the underlying structure of the N–S trending Palaeozoic Lambert Graben. The Napier Complex is downfaulted to depths of 8–10 km beneath the upper continental slope, and the margin rift basin is more than 300 km wide. As in the western sector, the rift-stage rocks are probably relatively thin. This part of the margin is blanketed by post-rift sediments that are up to about 8 km thick. The interpreted COB in the eastern sector is the most prominent boundary in deep water, and typically coincides with a prominent oceanwards step-up in the basement level of up to 1 km. As in the west, the interpretation of this boundary is supported by potential field modelling. The oceanic crust adjacent to the COB in this sector has a highly distinctive character, commonly with (1) a smooth upper surface underlain by short, seaward-dipping flows; (2) a transparent upper crustal layer; (3) a lower crust dominated by dipping high-amplitude reflections that probably reflect intruded or altered shears; (4) a strong reflection Moho, confirmed by seismic refraction modelling; and (5) prominent landward-dipping upper mantle reflections on several adjacent lines. A similar style of oceanic crust is also found in contemporaneous ocean basins that developed between Greater India and Australia–Antarctica west of Bruce Rise on the Antarctic margin, and along the Cuvier margin of northwest Australia.     

Evidence for methane and hydrogen sulfide venting imprinted on a Quaternary eolianite from southern Israel

Two different and physically separated chemosynthetic communities of bacteria are responsible for the formation of the Beeri native sulfur deposit hosted in a Late Quaternary sandstone on the southern coastal plain of Israel. The enriched concentrations are distributed over an area of about 1 km², within a zone 2–3 m thick at 1–13 m below surface. Two hundred fifty meters below the sulfur deposit, sulfur-reducing bacteria, thriving on methane generated in Neogene marls, reduced the Messinian gypsum to generate hydrogen sulfide, which subaqueously vented together with methane into the siliciclastic Quaternary sequence. Another, different chemosynthetic community ofBeggiatoa-like and unidentified bacteria oxidized the hydrogen sulfide into native sulfur and secondary gypsum, alunite, and iron sulfates. The coupled chemical and bacterial processes attributed to the formation of the sulfur deposit at Beeri are strikingly similar to the processes occurring today in the context of submarine hydrocarbon vents associated with the salt diapirs in the Gulf of Mexico.     

Water vapor in the atmosphere over the northern Tien Shan

Refined data of systematic measurements of total water vapor in the atmosphere from May 1980 to April 2005 are presented. The data were obtained at the Issyk Kul atmospheric-monitoring station by the method of solar molecular-absorption spectroscopy. Over 25 years, the annual mean water-vapor content in the atmosphere increased by 4.5% at a mean rate of increase of 0.18% per year. However, the water-vapor content decreased in the last five years. The results of statistical processing of experimental data (general statistical characteristics, correlation coefficients, composite oscillations) are described. A refined model is proposed for forecasts of temporal variations in the monthly mean and annual mean water-vapor contents for the coming years. The model includes a linear trend and the sum of oscillations with periods close to the periods of a number of well-known geophysical phenomena. Regression equations are proposed to relate the water-vapor content in the atmospheric column to the surface temperature and absolute humidity.     

Methods of fitting the Fisher-Tippett type 1 extreme value distribution

Methods are described for estimating the parameters of the Fisher-Tippet Type 1 extreme value distribution and associated return values from measured extremes, such as maximum wave height. A comparison of these methods, with simulated data, shows that those using Gumbel's plotting position are least satifactory. Maximum likelihood methods give the smallest mean square errors, but the very much simpler method of moments is nearly as good.     

Modelling of the spectral characteristics of the wind wave envelope

A method applied for the determination of the statistical characteristics of the wind wave envelope is considered. It is shown that the correlation function envelope for a normal random process defines the basic properties of the process envelope and it can be expressed through the spectrum width. No limitations are imposed on the form or the width of the spectrum. The model is effective for a developing and steady sea disturbance when the attenuation of the temporal correlation function can be approximated by an exponent. Numerical computations and experimental results for typical cases of sea disturbance are compared.Translated by Mikhail M. Trufanov.