A GLUE‐based uncertainty assessment framework for tritium‐inferred transit time estimations under baseflow conditions

The last decade has seen major technical and scientific improvements in the study of water transfer time through catchments. Nevertheless, it has been argued that most of these developments used conservative tracers that may disregard the oldest component of water transfer, which often has transit times greater than 5 years. Indeed, although the analytical reproducibility of tracers limits the detection of the older flow components associated with the most dampened seasonal fluctuations, this is very rarely taken into account in modelling applications. Tritium is the only environmental tracer at hand to investigate transfer times in the 5‐ to 50‐year range in surface waters, as dissolved gases are not suitable due to the degassing process. Water dating with tritium has often been difficult because of the complex history of its atmospheric concentration, but its current stabilization together with recent analytical improvements open promising perspectives. In this context, the innovative contribution of this study lies in the development of a generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation‐based approach for analysing the uncertainties associated with the modelling of transit time due to both parameter identification and tracer analytical precision issues. A coupled resampling procedure allows assessment of the statistical significance of the transfer time differences found in diverse waters. This approach was developed for tritium and the exponential‐piston model but can be implemented for virtually any tracer and model. Stream baseflow, spring and shallow aquifer waters from the Vallcebre research catchments, analysed for tritium in different years with different analytical precisions, were investigated by using this approach and taking into account other sources of uncertainty. The results showed three groups of waters of different mean transit times, with all the stream baseflow and spring waters older than the 5‐year threshold needing tritium. Low sensitivity of the results to the model structure was also demonstrated. Dual solutions were found for the waters sampled in 2013, but these results may be disambiguated when additional analyses will be made in a few years. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of large‐scale seismites in Upper Cretaceous fluvial sandstones in a fault‐proximal setting

Large‐scale soft‐sediment deformation structures occur within fluvial sandstone bodies of the Upper Cretaceous Wahweap Formation in the Kaiparowits basin, southern Utah, USA. These structures represent an exceptional example of metre‐scale fault‐proximal, seismogenic load structures in nearly homogenous sandstones. The load structures consist of two types: large‐scale load casts and wedge‐shaped load structures. Large‐scale load casts penetrate up to 4·5 m into the underlying sandstone bed. Wedge‐shaped load structures include metre‐scale, parallel, sub‐vertical features and decimetre‐scale features along the periphery of the large‐scale load casts or other wedge‐shaped load structures. Wedge‐shaped load structures contain well‐developed, medial cataclastic shear deformation bands. All load structures contain pervasive well‐defined millimetre‐thick to centimetre‐thick internal laminae, oriented parallel to the outside form of the load structures and asymptotic to deformation bands. Both types of load structures formed because of an inverted density profile, earthquake‐triggered liquefaction and growth of irregularities (a Rayleigh–Taylor instability) on the sandstone–sandstone erosional contact. The internal laminae and deformation bands formed during deformation and clearly demonstrate polyphase deformation, recording a transition from liquefied to hydroplastic to brittle modes of deformation. Decimetre‐scale wedge‐shaped load structures on the edge of the large‐scale load casts probably formed towards the end of a seismic event after the sediment dewatered and increased the frictional contact of grains enough to impart strength to the sands. Metre‐scale wedge‐shaped load structures were created as the tips of downward foundering sediments were driven into fractures, which widened incrementally with seismic pulsation. With each widening of the fracture, gravity and a suction effect would draw additional sediment into the fracture. Superimposed laminae indicate a secondary syndeformational origin for internal laminae, probably by flow‐generated shearing and vibrofluidization mechanisms. Large‐scale and wedge‐shaped load structures, polyphase deformation and secondary laminae may characterize soft‐sediment deformation in certain fault‐proximal settings.     

Can the ten-dimensional phase prior to Calabi-Yau splitting of the super-string phase generate the primordial entropy of the universe?

It is shown that the primordial entropy of the universe can be generated in the residual phase prior to Calabi-Yau splitting and following the passing to the field theory limit of the heterotic super-string in ten space-time dimensions, wherein matter is represented by either a radiative equation of state or the equation of state for stiff matter.     

Shock deformation confirms the impact origin for the Cerro do Jarau,Rio Grande do Sul,Brazil, structure

Cerro do Jarau is a conspicuous, circular morpho‐structural feature in Rio Grande do Sul State (Brazil), with a central elevated core in the otherwise flat “Pampas” terrain typical for the border regions between Brazil and Uruguay. The structure has a diameter of approximately 13.5 km. It is centered at 30^o12′S and 56^o32′W and was formed on basaltic flows of the Cretaceous Serra Geral Formation, which is part of the Paraná‐Etendeka Large Igneous Province (LIP), and in sandstones of the Botucatu and Guará formations. The structure was first spotted on aerial photographs in the 1960s. Ever since, its origin has been debated, sometimes in terms of an endogenous (igneous) origin, sometimes as the result of an exogenous (meteorite impact) event. In recent years, a number of studies have been conducted in order to investigate its nature and origin. Although the results have indicated a possible impact origin, no conclusive evidence could be produced. The interpretation of an impact origin was mostly based on the morphological characteristics of the structure; geophysical data; as well as the occurrence of different breccia types; extensive deformation/silicification of the rocks within the structure, in particular the sandstones; and also on the widespread occurrence of low‐pressure deformation features, including some planar fractures (PFs). A detailed optical microscopic analysis of samples collected during a number of field campaigns since 2007 resulted in the disclosure of a large number of quartz grains from sandstone and monomict arenite breccia from the central part of the structure with PFs and feather features (FFs), as well as a number of quartz grains exhibiting planar deformation features (PDFs). While most of these latter grains only carry a single set of PDFs, we have observed several with two sets, and one grain with three sets of PDFs. Consequently, we here propose Cerro do Jarau as the seventh confirmed impact structure in Brazil. Cerro do Jarau, together with Vargeão Dome (Santa Catalina state) and Vista Alegre (Paraná State), is one of very few impact structures on Earth formed in basaltic rocks.     

Documentation of shock features in impactites from the Dhala impact structure,India

The fundamental approach for the confirmation of any terrestrial meteorite impact structure is the identification of diagnostic shock metamorphic features, together with the physical and chemical characterization of impactites and target lithologies. However, for many of the approximately 200 confirmed impact structures known on Earth to date, multiple scale‐independent tell‐tale impact signatures have not been recorded. Especially some of the pre‐Paleozoic impact structures reported so far have yielded limited shock diagnostic evidence. The rocks of the Dhala structure in India, a deeply eroded Paleoproterozoic impact structure, exhibit a range of diagnostic shock features, and there is even evidence for traces of the impactor. This study provides a detailed look at shocked samples from the Dhala structure, and the shock metamorphic evidence recorded within them. It also includes a first report of shatter cones that form in the shock pressure range from ~2 to 30 GPa, data on feather features (FFs), crystallographic indexing of planar deformation features, first‐ever electron backscatter diffraction data for ballen quartz, and further analysis of shocked zircon. The discovery of FFs in quartz from a sample of the MCB‐10 drill core (497.50 m depth) provides a comparatively lower estimate of shock pressure (~7–10 GPa), whereas melting of a basement granitoid infers at least 50–60 GPa shock pressure. Thus, the Dhala impactites register a strongly heterogeneous shock pressure distribution between <2 and >60 GPa. The present comprehensive review of impact effects should lay to rest the nonimpact genesis of the Dhala structure proposed by some earlier workers from India.     

The tidal range energy potential of the West Coast of the United Kingdom

With concerns mounting over the UK’s energy future and the effects of climate change, it will soon become paramount that all viable sources of renewable energy are fully exploited. This study has examined the scope for reliable and fully predictable tidal electricity generation from the conjunctive operation of 5 major estuary barrages on the West Coast of the UK in an attempt to establish the potential scale of the extractable resources. Two levels of investigation have been undertaken: simple 0-D (‘two-tank’) modelling of barrage energy generation under different operational modes, using the hydraulic characteristics of turbine performance; and 2-D modelling of tidal hydrodynamics over a wide sea area in a computational grid incorporating the barrages with turbines and sluices. It has been demonstrated that more than 33TWh per year of electricity should be attainable, from 22GW of installed capacity, this representing close to 10% of present UK demand.     

Classical globally reflected gravity field determination in modern locally oriented multiscale framework

The purpose of this paper is the canonical connection of classical global gravity field determination following the concept of Stokes (Trans Camb Philos Soc 8:672–712, 1849), Bruns (Die Figur der Erde, Publikation Königl. Preussisch. Geodätisches Institut, P. Stankiewicz Buchdruckerei, Berlin, 1878), and Neumann (Vorlesungen über die Theorie des Potentials und der Kugelfunktionen. Teubner, Leipzig, pp 135–154, 1887) on the one hand and modern locally oriented multiscale computation by use of adaptive locally supported wavelets on the other hand. The essential tools are regularization methods of the Green, Neumann, and Stokes integral representations. The multiscale approximation is guaranteed simply as linear difference scheme by use of Green, Neumann, and Stokes wavelets. As an application, gravity anomalies caused by plumes are investigated for the Hawaiian and Iceland areas.     

The mid-depth circulation of the northwestern tropical Atlantic observed by floats

A comprehensive analysis of velocity data from subsurface floats in the northwestern tropical Atlantic at two depth layers is presented: one representing the Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW, pressure range 600–1050 dbar), the other the upper North Atlantic Deep Water (uNADW, pressure range 1200–2050 dbar). New data from three independent research programs are combined with previously available data to achieve blanket coverage in space for the AAIW layer, while coverage in the uNADW remains more intermittent. Results from the AAIW mainly confirm previous studies on the mean flow, namely the equatorial zonal and the boundary currents, but clarify details on pathways, mostly by virtue of the spatial data coverage that sets float observations apart from e.g. shipborne or mooring observations. Mean transports in each of five zonal equatorial current bands is found to be between 2.7 and 4.5 Sv. Pathways carrying AAIW northward beyond the North Brazil Undercurrent are clearly visible in the mean velocity field, in particular a northward transport of 3.7 Sv across 16°N between the Antilles islands and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. New maps of Lagrangian eddy kinetic energy and integral time scales are presented to quantify mesoscale activity. For the uNADW, mean flow and mesoscale properties are discussed as data availability allows. Trajectories in the uNADW east of the Lesser Antilles reveal interactions between the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) and the basin interior, which can explain recent hydrographic observations of changes in composition of DWBC water along its southward flow.     

Offshore-windenergienutzung in Europa und vor deutschen Küsten

Ocean Dynamics - Nachdem mehrere europäische Länder, insbesondere Dänemark und die Niederlande, Offshore-Windparks mit mehreren 100 MW planen, sind auch in Deutschland Initiativen...