Variations in climatic and hydrological parameters in the Selenga River basin in the Russian Federation

The variations in average annual surface air temperature, precipitation, and runoff in the Selenga River basin (within Russia) are analyzed. It is demonstrated that the considerable increase in average annual temperature of surface air layers occurred in the 1980s-1990s. The decrease in peak water discharge in the rivers and the increase in the frequency of low-water periods were revealed in the forest-steppe and steppe zones of the Selenga River basin in 2001-2010. In the southwestern mountain regions (the Dzhida River basin) the river runoff increased during that period.     

Exposed cross-sections through the continental crust: implications for crustal structure,petrology, and evolution

The continental crust is exposed in cross-section at numerous sites on the earth's surface. These exposures, which appear to have formed by obduction along great faults during continental collision, may be recognized by exposures of deep crustal rocks exhibiting asymmetric patterns of metamorphic grade and age across the faults and by distinctive Bouguer anomaly patterns reflecting dipping basement structure and an anomalously deep mantle. From an examination of five complexes which meet these criteria, it is concluded that the most prominent layering in the crust is not compositional but metamorphic. The lower crust consists of granulite facies rocks of mafic to intermediate composition while the intermediate and shallow levels consist predominantly of amphibolite facies gneisses and greenschist facies supracrustal rocks, respectively. Post-metamorphic granitic intrusions are common at intermediate to shallow levels. Position of discontinuities in refraction velocity, where present, commonly correspond to changes in composition or metamorphic grade with depth. The continental crust is characterized by lateral and vertical heterogeneities of varying scale which are the apparent cause of the complex seismic reflections recorded by COCORP. Field observations, coupled with geochemical data, indicate a complex evolution of the lower crust which can include anatexis, multiple deformation, polymetamorphism and reworking of older crustal material. The complexity of the crust is thus the result of continuous evolution by recycling and metamorphism through time in a variety of tectonic environments.     

Collapsibility and deformation characteristics of deep-seated loess in China

Lin, Z.G. and Wang, S.J., 1988. Collapsibility and deformation characteristics of deep-seated loess in China. Eng. Geol., 25: 271–282.

As part of a comprehensive research program, laboratory tests were conducted on samples of deep-seated loess from different locations of the loessial regions of northern China, including Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi and Honan Provinces. The information thus acquired on some aspects of the engineering properties of the samples, such as the unit collapse-pressure relationships, the initial collapse pressure versus the “preconsolidation pressure” and deformation–pressure characteristics, is interesting and may prove useful to geotechnical engineers who work on projects on water-poor plateaux or high river terraces in loessial regions throughout the world.     

A climatology of Southern Hemisphere extratropical cyclones

A climatology of extratropical cyclones determined by an objective automatic scheme applied to 15 years (1975–89) of once-daily Australian Bureau of Meteorology hemispheric analyses is presented. Contour maps of the positions of formation (cyclogenesis), dissipation (cyclolysis) together with other cyclone statistics are presented. The distribution of cyclones through the hemisphere was found to be dominated by a permanent high latitude core coincident with the circumpolar trough. During the winter and intermediate seasons, two mid latitude branches are evident in the cyclone density originating in the Tasman Sea and South American sectors, both spiraling poleward and merging with the circumpolar core in the Southern Oceans. Systems were observed to move in an castsouth-east direction, away from their location of formation, exhibiting peak speeds of migration in the mid latitudes. Little seasonality was evident in the densitiy distribution of cyclones through the Southern Oceans, but a considerable amount was found in their central pressure. Correspondence to: I Simmonds     

Late cenozoic bimodal magmatism in the northern basin and range province of southeastern Oregon

Compositional features of 93 samples of primitive Pliocene to recent basalts erupted along the Brothers Fault Zone in the northernmost Basin and Range indicate that they were derived from a shallow mantle source and underwent only minor shallow-level fractionation. Simple mass-balance modelling can derive these basaltic bulk compositions by removal of small amounts of observed crystalline phases from glass compositions produced in peridotite melting experiments. Additional support comes from phase equilibria data on other magnesian basalts having similar bulk compositions. The eruption of these lavas without substantial subcrustal fractionation was probably promoted by progressive extension along the Brothers Fault Zone. This origin is in sharp contrast to that generally proposed for mid-Miocene Columbia River and Steens Mountain basalts, which show clear evidence in their evolved compositions (e.g. Mg # ~ 40) of having stagnated at shallow depth where they differentiated to nearly basaltic andesite compositions. Bulk compositions of northern Basin and Range silicic rocks, together with physical and thermal considerations, suggest that they, like their counterparts in the Snake River Plain, were products of crustal anatexis driven by the injection of mafic magmas, but with meta-volcaniclastic protoliths rather than Archaean basement rocks, as in the case of the Snake River Plain rhyolites. These petrologic features suggest that the arrival of the mantle plume presently beneath Yellowstone produced or strongly influenced most late Cenozoic magmatism in the Oregon northern Basin and Range. This model accounts for many features of the northern Basin and Range in Oregon: (1) the change in basaltic character about 10 to 8 Ma ago from voluminous, evolved Columbia River/Steens lavas to smaller-volume primitive lavas and the lack of younger lavas atop the Columbia River Basalts; (2) the lack of an obvious track of the Yellowstone hot spot west of the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada tri-state area; (3) the “mirror-image” age relationship of silicic rocks in the northern Basin and Range and Snake River Plain; (4) the formation of silicic rocks by crustal anatexis and the general decrease in their volumes with time in Oregon but not along the Snake River Plain; (5) the high elevation of the region; and (6) the high surface heat flow in the Oregon northern Basin and Range. The proposed model obviates the controversy surrounding the pre-Miocene history of the Yellowstone plume by proposing that the plume initiated about 18 Ma ago.