Overtopping performance of different armour units for rubble mound breakwaters

This paper describes a major programme of small-scale physical model tests to establish better the influence of armour type and configuration on overtopping. Specifically, 179 tests determined the relative difference in overtopping behaviour for 13 types/configurations of armour. Roughness factors γ_f were determined for rock (two layers), cubes (single layer and two layers), Tetrapod, Antifer, Haro, Accropode, Core-Loc™ and Xbloc™. These roughness influence factors have been included in the CLASH database and are for use in the neural network prediction of overtopping. Individual wave-by-wave overtopping volumes were analysed and found to compare well with current prediction methods. Measured reflection coefficients for the different units are also presented and compared with recent formulae.     

Multiscale Analysis of the Instantaneous Eccentricity Oscillations of the Planets of the Solar System from 13 000 BC to 17 000 AD

Astronomy Letters - The high-resolution Jet Propulsion Laboratory DE431 and DE432 planetary ephemeris are used to evaluate the instantaneous eccentricity functions of the orbits of the planets of...     

The Crati Submarine Fan,Ionian Sea

The Crati Fan is located in the tectonically active submerged extension of the Apennines chain and foretrough. The small fan system is growing in a relatively shallow (200 to 450 m), elongate nearshore basin receiving abundant input from the Crati River. The fan is characterized by a short, steep, channelized section (inner or upper fan) and a smooth, slightly bulging distal section (outer or lower fan). The numerous subparallel channels head in the shelf or littoral zone and do not form branching distributary patterns. Sand and mud depositional lobes of the outer fan stretch over more than 60% of fan length.     

Study of the region 348°⩽l⩽12°, +3°⩽b⩽+17° in the 21 cm line

The study of the region 348°l12°, +3°b+17° reveals strong kinematic asymmetries of the interstellar gas, with a notorious predominance of positive radial velocities, referred to the LSR. The principal cause of this is a very intense source, a ridge-like object (Ridge) which presents very special characteristics and seems to be identical with Lindblad's feature A. It should, therefore, be related to Gould's Belt. The object's velocity dependence onl is in good agreement with Lindblad's model. It can be easily followed into high northern latitudes and also into low southern latitudes, as well as into values ofl remarkably lower and higher than those considered in this work. It seems also highly probable that feature A presents both the cold as well as the hot component of the interstellar medium. In that case, the mean optical depth and the mean spin temperature of the cold component would be and K in the region considered here.Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina (CONICET).The Instituto operates under an agreement between the CONICET, the CIC and the Universities of Buenos Aires and La Plata, and with the support of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.     

Evolution of the Mesozoic Granites in the Xiong'ershan-Waifangshan Region,Western Henan Province,China,and Its Tectonic Implications

Based on the new data of isotopic ages and geochemical analyses, three types of Mesozoic granites have been identified for the Xiong'ershan-Waifangshan region in western Henan Province: high-Ba-SrⅠ-type granite emplaced in the early stage (～160 Ma),Ⅰ-type granite in the middle stage (～130 Ma) and anorogenic A-type granite in the late stage (～115 Ma). Geochemical characteristics of the high-Ba-SrⅠ-type granite suggest that it may have been generated from the thickened lower crust by partial melting with primary residues of amphibole and garnet. Gradual increase of negative Eu anomaly and Sr content variations reflect progressive shallowing of the source regions of these granites from the early to late stage. New 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages of the early-stage Wuzhangshan granite (156.0±1.1 Ma, amphibole) and middle-stage Heyu granite (131.8±0.7 Ma, biotite) are indistinguishable from their SHRIMP U-Pb ages previous published, indicating a rapid uplift and erosion in this region. The representative anorogenic A-type granite, Taishanmiao pluton, was emplaced at～115 Ma. The evolution of the granites in this region reveals a tectonic regime change from post-collisional to anorogenic between～160 Ma and～115 Ma. The genesis of the early- and middle-stageⅠ-type granites could be linked to delamination of subducted lithosphere of the Qiniing orogenic belt, while the late-stage A-type granites represent the onset of extension and the end of orogenic process. In fact, along the Qiniing -Dabie-Sulu belt, the Mesozoic granitoids in western Henan, Dabieshan and Jiaodong regions are comparable on the basis of these temporal evolutionary stages and their initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios, which may suggest a similar geodynamic process related to the collision between the North China and Yangtze cratons.     

Linear Amplification of Horizontal Strong Ground Motion in Zagreb (Croatia) for a Realistic Range of Scaled Point Sources

— The linear amplification of the larger horizontal component of strong ground motion along a selected profile in the city of Zagreb is estimated by examining the synthetic waveforms corresponding to a suite of 16 realistically chosen scaled point sources. The accelerograms, computed for the average bedrock model by modal summation, are propagated through local laterally heterogeneous anelastic models by the finite-difference algorithm. The ratio of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and of the response spectra (RS), obtained by using local and bedrock models, define the PGA and RS amplification AMP(PGA) and AMP(RS), respectively. Even variations of the order of commonly observed uncertainties of only dip and rake angles of the causative fault show that both AMP(PGA) and AMP(RS) vary at some sites by more than a factor of two. It follows that, especially for strongly laterally heterogeneous structures, local effects must be determined for each of the relevant sources considering all associated uncertainties as completely as possible. Such a conclusion certainly holds for the case of the microzonation of Zagreb, where the local geology is quite complex, and the seismicity is not confined to a single seismic source zone.     

Environmental monitoring of magnetic iron phases of urban water reservoir lake sediments (Taiaçupeba Lake,metropolitan region of São Paulo,Brazil) by using Mössbauer spectroscopy

In the present work, we investigate the iron oxides and oxyhydroxides behavior and evolution, related to the geochemical behavior of some metals, which could be retained as solid phases in the sediments from an urban water reservoir lake, placed in Taiaçupeba, Great São Paulo, Brazil. These tasks were performed by the establishment of a proceduring setting for environmental monitoring analysis through Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements associated to hysteresis loops measurements and chemical analysis [X-ray fluorescence (XRF)]. We inferred the possibility of goethite occurrence in broad particle size distribution (5–50 nm), and related to ferrihydrite, and small grain-size hematite (about 8 nm). The magnetometry results pointed to the paramagnetic/superparamagnetic behavior of the magnetic phases present in the samples and also suggested the occurrence of small grain-size magnetite. We also verified the presence of clay minerals related to Fe, as well as the occurrence of Fe³⁺ and/or Fe²⁺ in short-range structural order. Through a straight correlation among Mössbauer spectra data gained at T = 77 K and Al-metal, metal-Fe molar ratios, provided through XRF data, we found remarkable indications of interference on meta-stable phases evolution to its final products. Such results can be pointing for evidences about the possible isomorphic replacing and/or adsorption of Al and other metals in goethite and hematite.     

Rock-magnetic and paleomagnetic results from the Tepic-Zacoalco rift region (western Mexico)

A rock-magnetic and paleomagnetic investigation was carried out on eleven Pleistocene and Pliocene ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dated lava flows from the Tepic-Zacoalco rift region in the western sector of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) with the aim of obtaining new paleomagnetic data from the study region and information about the Earth’s magnetic field recorded in these rocks. Rock-magnetic experiments including measurement of thermomagnetic curves, hysteresis parameters and isothermal remanence acquisition curves were carried out to find out the carriers of remanent magnetisation and to determine their domain structure. Although some samples were characterised by the presence of a single ferromagnetic phase (magnetite), in most cases more phases were observed. Analysis of hysteresis parameters showed a mixture of single domain and multidomain particles, the fraction of the latter varying between 40% and 80%. Paleomagnetic results were obtained in all sites, although in 7 sites characteristic remanence directions and remagnetisation circles had to be combined in order to calculate site means. The six Pliocene sites not showing intermediate polarity yielded a paleomagnetic pole (latitude ? = 81.1°, longitude λ = 94.3°) which roughly agrees with the expected one. Paleomagnetic directions do not indicate significant vertical-axis block rotations in the western TMVB area. Reversed polarities observed can be correlated to the Gilbert chron, normal polarities to the Gauss chron or the Brunhes chron and intermediate polarities to the Cochiti-Gilbert or the Gilbert-Gauss transition. The reversed or intermediate polarity magnetisation recorded in one of the sites (542 ± 24 ka) corresponds either to the West Eifel 4 or the West Eifel 5 excursion, while the reversed polarity observed in the other site (220 ± 36 ka) very likely provides new evidence for the Pringle Falls excursion or the event recorded in the Mamaku ignimbrite.