Contemporary versus long‐term denudation along a passive plate margin: the role of extreme events

Short‐term (contemporary) and long‐term denudation rates were determined for the Blue Mountains Plateau in the western Sydney Basin, Australia, to explore the role of extreme events (wildfires and catastrophic floods) in landscape denudation along a passive plate margin. Contemporary denudation rates were reconstructed using 40 years of river sediment load data from the Nattai catchment in the south‐west of the basin, combined with an analysis of hillslope erosion following recent wildfires. Long‐term denudation rates (10 kyr–10 Myr) were determined from terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides, apatite fission track thermochronology and post‐basalt flow valley incision. Contemporary denudation rates average several times lower than the long‐term average (5·5 ± 4 mm kyr^?1 versus 21·5 ± 7 mm kyr^?1). Erosion of sediment following wildfires accounts for only a small proportion (5%) of the contemporary rate. Most post‐fire sediment is stored on the lower slopes and valley floor, with the amount transported to the river network dependent on rainfall–run‐off conditions within the first few years following the fire. Historical catastrophic floods account for a much larger proportion (35%) of the contemporary erosion rate, and highlight the importance of these events in reworking stored material. Evidence for palaeofloods much larger than those experienced over the past 200 years suggests even greater sediment export potential. Mass movement on hillslopes along valleys incised into softer lithology appears to be a dominant erosion process that supplies substantial volumes of material to the valley floor. It is possible that a combination of infrequent mass movement events and high fluvial discharge could account for a significant proportion of the discrepancy between the contemporary and long‐term denudation rates. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parhelia in the planetary boundary layer at newmarket,Ontario: Note

Abstract

Observations of parhelia at Newmarket, Ontario on December 10, 1977 support an earlier suggestion regarding observations made in Toronto on January 22 of the same year. Parhelia were found to occur in the planetary boundary layer (PBL), particularly during the morning hours under blowing snow conditions on clear, cold (ca —17°C) winter days. Thus parhelia which occur in southern Ontario during the winter months can develop in the PBL without the presence of cirrostratus‐type clouds.     

IR-spektroskopische und weitere Untersuchungen an neuen Weichspüler-Wirkstoffen

IR Spectroscopy and Further Analyses of New Fabric Rinse Agents Distearyldimethylammoniumchloride (DSDMAC) that dominated the fabric softener market in Germany in the past is now substituted by three new types of ester-based agents, i.e. imidazoline ester, ester quats, and diester quats what poses new challenges to surface water analytics. The IR spectra and the chromatographic behaviour of these three agents are more or less similar to those of naturally occuring fatty esters. The paper reports about the use of IR spectroscopy, its benefit in the sense of fingerprinting principle, the identification of substances by functional groups, and the analytical tracing of transformation products. The latter relates to the formation of salts with anions that are easily detectable, the clean up, and the final spectroscopic determination. While in 1994 DSDMAC was still determinable in concentrations of 10…20 mg/kg in suspended solids from the Middle Rhine River, the concentration of the substitutes was below the detection limit of 2 mg/kg and 1…2 μg/L in 1995.     

哈萨克斯坦共和国地震学数据库简介

建立哈萨克斯坦共和国地震学数据库是CASIN国际项目的一部分,应由中亚各国来共同完成。项目主要目的旨在建立地震学数据库,以作为今后减小哈萨克斯坦共和国地震危险性的工作基础。哈萨克斯坦共和国地震学数据库由下列子系统构成:1)文件输入子系统;2)信息检索和提交子系统;3)信息元数据存储子系统;4)档案库运行控制子系统;5)信息安全子系统。哈萨克斯坦共和国地震学数据库有以下功能:1)永久存储综合信息并上报和收集(记录)其他资料;2)存储数据和资料计算;3)电子文档的长期存储和管理;4)规定序号进行信息查询和文件的联机保证;5)信息统计和…     

Expression of heat shock protein 70 in a permanent cell line (EPC) exposed to sediment extracts from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea

Heat shock proteins 70 (hsp70) are known to be induced by a great variety of chemical stressors. The effects of different environmental contaminants, which were identified in sediments of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea as main contaminants or as contaminants of special toxicological interest, on the extent of expression of hsp70 in a permanent cell line Epithelioma papulosum cyprini (EPC) were investigated. Concentrations of the single contaminants leading to elevated hsp70 levels were compared to the respective concentrations of these contaminants encountered in the sediment extracts thus allowing an assessment of their contribution to the toxicity of these sediments. Analysis of hsp70 was performed using western blotting techniques with subsequent comparative quantification by densitometry. Eleven of thirteen contaminants have shown a dose-dependent increase in hsp70 levels. An expression of hsp70 was observed in most cases between 0.1 and 10 microg/mL test solution. Some of the investigated stressors led to extremely high hsp70 contents even at low concentrations. However, in most cases contaminant concentrations in sediments were too low to cause an effect. For this reason, effects of the tested sediments are attributed to other contaminants or rather to mixtures of stressors.     

High-resolution well-log derived dielectric properties of gas-hydrate-bearing sediments, Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well, Alaska North Slope

A dielectric logging tool, electromagnetic propagation tool (EPT), was deployed in 2007 in the BPXA-DOE-USGS Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well (Mount Elbert Well), North Slope, Alaska. The measured dielectric properties in the Mount Elbert well, combined with density log measurements, result in a vertical high-resolution (cm-scale) estimate of gas hydrate saturation. Two hydrate-bearing sand reservoirs about 20 m thick were identified using the EPT log and exhibited gas-hydrate saturation estimates ranging from 45% to 85%. In hydrate-bearing zones where variation of hole size and oil-based mud invasion are minimal, EPT-based gas hydrate saturation estimates on average agree well with lower vertical resolution estimates from the nuclear magnetic resonance logs; however, saturation and porosity estimates based on EPT logs are not reliable in intervals with substantial variations in borehole diameter and oil-based invasion.EPT log interpretation reveals many thin-bedded layers at various depths, both above and below the thick continuous hydrate occurrences, which range from 30-cm to about 1-m thick. Such thin layers are not indicated in other well logs, or from the visual observation of core, with the exception of the image log recorded by the oil-base microimager. We also observe that EPT dielectric measurements can be used to accurately detect fine-scale changes in lithology and pore fluid properties of hydrate-bearing sediments where variation of hole size is minimal. EPT measurements may thus provide high-resolution in-situ hydrate saturation estimates for comparison and calibration with laboratory analysis.     

Response of juvenile lemon sharks, Negaprion brevirostris, to a magnetic barrier simulating a beach net

Beach nets are preventative devices used to minimize interactions between potentially harmful sharks and unsuspecting swimmers. Quantitative studies demonstrated that beach nets drastically reduced local elasmobranch populations, as well as caused considerable bycatch mortality. For this experiment, a beach net-like device was constructed and the behaviors of six juvenile lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) were analyzed. Induced by olfactory and gustatory cues, sharks were given the choice to swim through a magnetic or control opening in the net. In the first trial, all six sharks avoided the magnetic region and significantly preferred to swim through the control region of the fence. The magnetic stimulus no longer affected the swimming behavior of three sharks retested after resting 24 h. Results from the retested sharks were correlated with those from repeated tonic immobility trials, which demonstrated a linear decrease in sensitivity to repeated magnetic stimulation. This study serves as a baseline experiment demonstrating that permanent magnets may substantially decrease elasmobranch mortality within beach nets.     

Airborne imagery of a disintegrating Sargassum drift line

Airborne hyperspectral and thermal infrared imagery collected over the Florida Current provide a view of the disintegration of a Sargassum drift line in 5 m s⁻¹ winds. The drift line consists mostly of rafts 20-80 m² in size, though aggregations larger than 1000 m² also occur. Rafts tend to be elongated, curved in the upwind direction, and 0.1-0.5 °C warmer than the surrounding ocean surface. Long weed ‘trails’ extending upwind from the rafts are evidence of plants dropping out and being left behind more rapidly drifting rafts. The raft line may be a remnant of an earlier Sargassum frontal band, which is detectible as an upwind thermal front and areas of submerged weed. Issues are identified that require future field measurements.     

A review of the equations used to predict the velocity distribution within a ship’s propeller jet

Predicting the velocity within the ship’s propeller jet is the initial step to investigate the scouring made by the propeller jet. Albertson et al. (1950) suggested the investigation of a submerged jet can be undertaken through observation of the plain water jet from an orifice. The plain water jet investigation of Albertson et al. (1950) was based on the axial momentum theory. This has been the basis of all subsequent work with propeller jets. In reality, the velocity characteristic of a ship’s propeller jet is more complicated than a plain water jet. Fuehrer and Römisch (1977), Blaauw and van de Kaa (1978), Berger et al. (1981), Verhey (1983) and Hamill (1987) have carried out investigations using physical model. Current paper reviews the state-of-art of the equations used to predict the time-averaged axial, tangential and radial components of velocity within the zone of flow establishment and the zone of established flow of a ship’s propeller jet.