A Discussion of IGS Solutions and Their Impact on Geodetic and Geophysical Applications

The International Association of Geodesy officially established the International GPS Service (IGS) on Janaury 1, 1994. Its prime objective is to provide support and a rerefence system for a wide variety of scientific and practical applications involving GPS. To fulfill its role the IGS also generates, in addition to its fundamental products (orbital/staion positions and consistent Earth orientation parameters), additional reference-system products providing the necessary infrastructure, standards, and means of calibrations for timing and various atmospheric applications of GPS. The generation and efficient application of IGS products and their impact on a number of positioning and atmospheric applications, including low earth orbit satellites, is reviewed and discussed. @ 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Bayesian approach to an internally consistent thermodynamic database: theory, database, and generation of phase diagrams

An internally consistent thermodynamic dataset has been derived for 148 endmember phases (145 solids and 3 fluids) comprising the elements Li, Na, K, Be, Mg, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Zn, Al, Si, C, H, and O. This has been achieved by simultaneous treatment of phase property (like standard enthalpy of formation, standard entropy, molar heat capacity, molar volume, thermal expansivity, bulk modulus etc.) and reaction reversal data by the Bayesian method. The theory underlying the approach, and the computational methods involved, are briefly outlined. (For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with inference statistics, the basic concepts of the Bayes method are also presented in such a way that they can be grasped intuitively.) Although not yet addressed, this method can be extended to refine the thermodynamic mixing properties of crystalline solutions. The sources of the input data, culled from the literature, are summarized in the Appendix. The resulting database is succinctly documented in this paper. It includes the enthalpies of formation and entropies, their uncertainties, and the correlation among them. The database allows calculation of P-T, T-X _CO2, P-X _CO2, and T-f _O2 sections, with error propagation into the computed phase diagrams on a routine basis. A user-friendly computer program has been written to generate such phase diagrams. It is public domain software. The software and the thermodynamic database (which includes a complete documentation of the thermodynamic data above and beyond those listed (Table 2, here) may be downloaded from the web site http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/niranjan.chatterjee/Index.htm. Examples of computed phase diagrams are given to illustrate the quality of the data and the capabilities of the software. Received: 11 March 1998 / Accepted: 11 June 1998     

Mercury colonial footprint in Darién Gulf sediments,Colombia

The mercury (Hg) deposition history in the Darién Gulf is reconstructed from three sediment cores spanning up to 1,000 years. Knowledge on the contribution to global Hg budget from the Caribbean is limited. Patterns of water circulation, sediment deposition rates, cataclysmic atmospheric inputs, and post-depositional migration have been considered in Hg trapping in the seabed. The sediment delivery rates to the coastal zone over the Late Holocene have increased from 0.2 to 1 cm year^?1 owing to anthropogenic influence. This alteration took the form of geological effects, like coastal morphology change, that played a major role in Hg downcore signal preservation. Natural background Hg levels in Southern Caribbean sediments (77.0 μg kg^?1) are up to three times higher than preindustrial signals at other latitudes, because of volcanic contributions from the Pacific ring of fire. Enrichment factors rose from 0.9 to 1.5 (70.1–113.5 μg kg^?1) within profiles related to Hg usage since Spanish colonial times between the calendar years 1550 and 1811.     

Fluctuations of Outlet and Valley Glaciers in the Southern Andes (Argentina) during the Past 13,000 Years

In the southern Argentine Andes, ten advances of valley glaciers were used to reconstruct the late-glacial and Holocene glacier history. The accumulation areas of these glaciers lie in the Precordillera and are thus independent of fluctuations of the South Patagonian Icefield. Like the Viedma outlet glacier, the valley glaciers advanced three times during late-glacial time (14,000–10,000 yr B.P.). The youngest advance correlates with the Younger Dryas Stade, based on two minimum AMS¹⁴C dates of 9588 and 9482 yr B.P. The second oldest advance occurred before 11,800 yr B.P. During the first half of the Holocene, (ca. 10,000–5000 yr B.P.), advances culminated about 8500, 8000–7500, and 5800–5500 yr B.P. During the second half of the Holocene, advances occurred between ca. 4500 and 4200 yr B.P., as well as between 3600 and 3300 yr B.P. In the Río Cóndor valley three subsequent advances have been identified.     

Granular solid dynamics with eutaraxy and hysteresis

Acta Geotechnica - The dynamics of grain fabrics is captured by means of a hidden state variable , named eutaraxy, which quantifies the propensity for a heat-like micro-seismicity due to disturbing...