Recent intense hurricane response to global climate change

An Anthropogenic Climate Change Index (ACCI) is developed and used to investigate the potential global warming contribution to current tropical cyclone activity. The ACCI is defined as the difference between the means of ensembles of climate simulations with and without anthropogenic gases and aerosols. This index indicates that the bulk of the current anthropogenic warming has occurred in the past four decades, which enables improved confidence in assessing hurricane changes as it removes many of the data issues from previous eras. We find no anthropogenic signal in annual global tropical cyclone or hurricane frequencies. But a strong signal is found in proportions of both weaker and stronger hurricanes: the proportion of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has increased at a rate of ~25–30 % per °C of global warming after accounting for analysis and observing system changes. This has been balanced by a similar decrease in Category 1 and 2 hurricane proportions, leading to development of a distinctly bimodal intensity distribution, with the secondary maximum at Category 4 hurricanes. This global signal is reproduced in all ocean basins. The observed increase in Category 4–5 hurricanes may not continue at the same rate with future global warming. The analysis suggests that following an initial climate increase in intense hurricane proportions a saturation level will be reached beyond which any further global warming will have little effect.     

Aysén seismic swarm (January 2007) in southern Chile: analysis using Joint Hypocenter Determination

A seismic swarm at the Aysén fjord started in January, 2007, reaching its highest activity between January and April, 2007. It was punctuated by the Mw5.3 23rd January event and the Mw6.2 21st April event which triggered a water-wave due to massive landslides; both with dextral strike slip focal mechanisms. More than 100 events were relocated with the Joint Hypocenter Determination method to study the depth distribution of the events of the swarm recorded by the Chile Ridge Subduction Project local network. The events are associated to a small area of approximately 7?×?7 km located in the Aysén fjord, on one of the main branches of the Liquiñe–Ofqui fault. Distribution in depth is located between 0 and 8 km and presents a west high dip with almost NS strike, consistent with the main trending of the Liquiñe–Ofqui fault and the published focal mechanisms. These characteristics, among others, suggest that the Liquiñe–Ofqui fault is active in this region and thus seismic risk has to be re-determined.     

Full waveform inversion and the truncated Newton method: quantitative imaging of complex subsurface structures

Full waveform inversion is a powerful tool for quantitative seismic imaging from wide‐azimuth seismic data. The method is based on the minimization of the misfit between observed and simulated data. This amounts to the solution of a large‐scale nonlinear minimization problem. The inverse Hessian operator plays a crucial role in this reconstruction process. Accounting accurately for the effect of this operator within the minimization scheme should correct for illumination deficits, restore the amplitude of the subsurface parameters, and help to remove artefacts generated by energetic multiple reflections. Conventional minimization methods (nonlinear conjugate gradient, quasi‐Newton methods) only roughly approximate the effect of this operator. In this study, we are interested in the truncated Newton minimization method. These methods are based on the computation of the model update through a matrix‐free conjugate gradient solution of the Newton linear system. We present a feasible implementation of this method for the full waveform inversion problem, based on a second‐order adjoint state formulation for the computation of Hessian‐vector products. We compare this method with conventional methods within the context of 2D acoustic frequency full waveform inversion for the reconstruction of P‐wave velocity models. Two test cases are investigated. The first is the synthetic BP 2004 model, representative of the Gulf of Mexico geology with high velocity contrasts associated with the presence of salt structures. The second is a 2D real data‐set from the Valhall oil field in North sea. Although, from a computational cost point of view, the truncated Newton method appears to be more expensive than conventional optimization algorithms, the results emphasize its increased robustness. A better reconstruction of the P‐wave velocity model is provided when energetic multiple reflections make it difficult to interpret the seismic data. A better trade‐off between regularization and resolution is obtained when noise contamination of the data requires one to regularize the solution of the inverse problem.     

Sterol geochemistry of sediments from the western North Atlantic Ocean and adjacent coastal areas

Core sections from coastal bay, continental slope, and continental rise surface sediments of the western North Atlantic were analyzed for sterols. Changing rate or type of sediment input, bioturbation, and chemical conversion appear to be processes important in controlling the distribution of sterols in these sediments. Comparisons of individual sterol distributions and variations in the ratio of Soxhlet-extractable to non-extractable saponified sterols indicate that for the western North Atlantic, the extent to which each process is dominant varies with proximity to shore. Evidence is presented to show that sterols in the deep sea may be at least partially terrigenous in origin and not all biogenically derived in the surface waters. These sterols, and by analogy other labile organic compounds, may serve as a source of carbon for benthic organism metabolism.     

Present-day plate interactions in Northeast Asia: North American, Eurasian, and Okhotsk plates

Based on seismicity and focal mechanisms, a separate Okhotsk plate is identified which includes most of the Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka Peninsula, and the Suntar-Khayata Mountains, in the northeastern USSR. Using slip vectors from the largest earthquakes in the region, we obtain a North America-Eurasia pole of rotation near the Lena River delta and a Okhotsk-North America pole off western Chukotka. The computed poles satisfy observed thrust faulting mechanisms in the northern Cherskii Mountains which are discordant with models proposed by previous workers. It is suggested that the Arctic rift propagated through northeast Siberia to the Pacific, separating the Okhotsk plate and causing a recent (<3Ma) change in location of the North America-Eurasia pole of rotation.     

Effects of the Black River (Cape,South Africa) on the distribution and survival of marine psammofauna

The physicochemistry of the Black River and adjacent marine beach, in terms of tidal, daily and seasonal fluctuations of temperature and salinity, presents a highly stressed environment exacerbated by canalization of the river mouth. Riverine pollution further stresses this environment, producing low densities and diversities of marine infauna adjacent to the river. No fauna were found in the river mouth where typical estuarine conditions exist only during high tide. Tolerance of the dominant marine species, Cerebratulus fuscus, to temperature, salinity and river water combinations showed that mortality was more rapid after exposure to river water dilutions than after exposure to distilled water dilutions. Computer-generated models suggested that this species should survive conditions closer to the river than were observed. This confirmed additional stress due to pollution carried in the river from urban and industrial drainage. Lower river water temperatures during winter appear to ameliorate pollution stress, enhancing survivability of the infauna.     

Thermal controls on biodegradation around the Peace River tar sands: Paleo-pasteurization to the west

Bitumens of the Alberta tar sands share a similar primary source rock, but exhibit varying levels of degradation. In the Peace River tar sands area, the wide range of API gravity and sulphur content in Lower Cretaceous reservoirs is investigated in terms of biodegradation processes, using detailed geochemical analyses, burial history modelling and charge/degrade modelling. Decreasing tar sand degradation to the west can be attributed to increasing reservoir temperatures which retard biodegradation. Gething oils west of the Peace River tar sands are derived from the same source, but are minimally degraded due to reservoir pasteurization at 80 °C shortly after charging. Long charge times, reservoir filling and possibly compositional or very low temperature degradation retardation have limited biodegradation of the Alberta tar sands despite long oil residence times and low reservoir temperatures.     

Variations in the composition of particulate organic matter in a time-series sediment trap

A time-series sediment trap was used to collect material for organic geochemical analyses as part of the Sediment Trap Intercomparison Experiment. The flux of particulate matter was more likely related to a change in current direction during the course of the experiment than to small-scale changes in surface productivity. Of the compounds measured, the n-alkanes reflected this change most dramatically, decreasing with the change in current direction.Amino acid and lipid components were measured in the samples. Amino acids made up 15–35% of the total organic carbon flux and 35–75% of the total organic nitrogen flux collected in the traps. Specific amino acids indicative of bacterial biomass or activity suggested that microbial growth occurred in the traps, probably as a result of incomplete poisoning by NaN₃. However, the effect of this growth on the bulk composition of particulate matter appeared to be minimal.The amino acid distribution of particulate organic material collected by large volume filtration (LVF) was not significantly different from the sediment trap material, except that the LVF material did not appear to be affected by bacterial growth.     

Regional Inequality in China: A Case Study of Jiangsu Province

The tremendous changes in China's development philosophy and regional economies during the last two decades have carved out selectively new locations of development across the nation. While politicians heatedly debate the acceptable levels of regional inequality, most scholarly studies focus on broad aggregate trends of inequality among provinces and groups of provinces, and pay little attention to identifying and conceptualizing sources and major agents of spatial change. This paper aims at revealing detailed spatial ramifications of the reforms, and at understanding the impacts of the state, local agents, and foreign investors on regional development. To this effect, we conduct a disaggregated and empirical study of Jiangsu, a coastal province experiencing dramatic economic and spatial restructuring. We show that local agents which favor rural industrial enterprises accelerated new growth in selected rural areas, in contrast to slower growth of older cities and state‐owned enterprises, resulting in a net decline of intercounty inequality. But the coalescence of state policy, local agents, and foreign investment has widened the historical gap between northern and southern Jiangsu, and is likely to accelerate intercounty inequality in the future. Our study demonstrates the utility of the “developments from above, below and outside” framework for analyzing key forces of regional growth in socialist transitional economies.