Persistent organic pollutants and histological lesions in Mayan catfish Ariopsis assimilis from the Bay of Chetumal, Mexico

Livers of catfish (Ariopsis assimilis) from the Bay of Chetumal were analyzed for organochlorine compounds and hydrocarbons as part of a study to diagnose the environmental health of the Bay after a catfish mass mortality that occurred in 1996. The presence of histological lesions in several organs of the fish as result of chemical exposure was also evaluated. The concentrations of organic pollutants found in the Bay may be considered high if compared to the levels reported for sites affected by chemical pollution. High prevalences of cellular alteration histopathologies were found in liver, including hepatic tumors. The presence of some lesions may be related statistically to environmental pollution in the Bay, specially with chlorinated compounds.     

南极GPS数据质量分析

以多路径误差和电离层延迟为评价指标,利用TEQC软件和QCVIEW软件对南极埃默里冰架、内陆冰盖、纳拉峡海湾、拉斯曼丘陵的实测GPS数据以及部分IGS站点的数据进行了数据质量分析,得到结论： 1)在同一站点上,L2上的多路径误差总比L1上的多路径误差要大;2)在南极不同环境下的多路径误差不同;3)纬度和太阳活动剧烈程度是影响南极地区GPS数据电离层延迟大小的两个重要因素。     

A comparative study of geothermal and meteorological records of climate change in Kamchatka

To reconstruct the recent climate history in Kamchatka, a series of repeated precise temperature logs were performed in a number of boreholes located in a broad east-west strip (between 52 and 54°N) in the central part of Kamchatka west of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski. Within three years more than 30 temperature logs were performed in 10 holes (one up to six logs per hole) to the depth of up to 400 metres. Measured temperature gradients varied in a broad interval 0 to 60 mK/m and in some holes a sizeable variation in the subsurface temperatures due to advective heat transport by underground water was observed. Measured data were compared with older temperature profiles obtained in the early eighties by Sugrobov and Yanovsky (1993). Even when older data are of poorer precision (accuracy of about 0.1 K), they presented valuable information of the subsurface temperature conditions existing 20–25 years ago. Borehole observations and the inverted ground surface temperature histories (GSTHs) used for the paleoclimate reconstruction were complemented with a detailed survey of meteorological data. Namely, the long-term surface air temperature (SAT) and precipitation records from Petropavlovsk station (in operation since 1890) were used together with similar data from a number of local subsidiary meteo-stations operating in Central Kamchatka since 1950. Regardless of extreme complexity of the local meteorological/climate conditions, diversity of borehole sites and calibration of measuring devices used during the whole campaign, the results of the climate reconstruction supported a general warming of about 1 K characteristic for the 20th century, which followed an inexpressive cooler period typical for the most of the 19th century. In the last three to four decades the warming rate has been locally increasing up to 0.02 K/year. It was also shown that the snow cover played a dominant role in the penetration of the climate “signal” to depth and could considerably smooth down the subsurface response to the changes occurred on the surface.     

Inverse Analysis of Deep Excavation Using Differential Evolution Algorithm

This paper presents the applications of the differential evolution (DE) algorithm in back analysis of soil parameters for deep excavation problems. A computer code, named Python‐based DE, is developed and incorporated into the commercial finite element software ABAQUS, with a parallel computing technique to run an FE analysis for all trail vectors of one generation in DE in multiple cores of a cluster, which dramatically reduces the computational time. A synthetic case and a well‐instrumented real case, that is, the Taipei National Enterprise Center (TNEC) project, are used to demonstrate the capability of the proposed back‐analysis procedure. Results show that multiple soil parameters are well identified by back analysis using a DE optimization algorithm for highly nonlinear problems. For the synthetic excavation case, the back‐analyzed parameters are basically identical to the input parameters that are used to generate synthetic response of wall deflection. For the TNEC case with a total of nine parameters to be back analyzed, the relative errors of wall deflection for the last three stages are 2.2, 1.1, and 1.0%, respectively. Robustness of the back‐estimated parameters is further illustrated by a forward prediction. The wall deflection in the subsequent stages can be satisfactorily predicted using the back‐analyzed soil parameters at early stages. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tsunami Probability in the Caribbean Region

We calculated tsunami runup probability (in excess of 0.5 m) at coastal sites throughout the Caribbean region. We applied a Poissonian probability model because of the variety of uncorrelated tsunami sources in the region. Coastlines were discretized into 20 km by 20 km cells, and the mean tsunami runup rate was determined for each cell. The remarkable ~500-year empirical record compiled by O’Loughlin and Lander (2003) was used to calculate an empirical tsunami probability map, the first of three constructed for this study. However, it is unclear whether the 500-year record is complete, so we conducted a seismic moment-balance exercise using a finite-element model of the Caribbean-North American plate boundaries and the earthquake catalog, and found that moment could be balanced if the seismic coupling coefficient is c = 0.32. Modeled moment release was therefore used to generate synthetic earthquake sequences to calculate 50 tsunami runup scenarios for 500-year periods. We made a second probability map from numerically-calculated runup rates in each cell. Differences between the first two probability maps based on empirical and numerical-modeled rates suggest that each captured different aspects of tsunami generation; the empirical model may be deficient in primary plate-boundary events, whereas numerical model rates lack backarc fault and landslide sources. We thus prepared a third probability map using Bayesian likelihood functions derived from the empirical and numerical rate models and their attendant uncertainty to weight a range of rates at each 20 km by 20 km coastal cell. Our best-estimate map gives a range of 30-year runup probability from 0–30% regionally.     

Estimation of the effect of protective piers on wind wave parameters in the Sevastopol Bay

An effectiveness of the storm wave attenuation by protective piers in the Sevastopol Bay of the Black Sea is studied on the basis of numerical simulation using the SWAN spectral model. Analyzed are the parameters of waves generated by winds of four main directions as well as by the southern cyclone during the storm on November 11, 2007. It is obtained that waves from the northwest part of the Black Sea penetrate most intensively into the Sevastopol Bay in case of western wind and, to a lesser degree, in case of northern and southern winds. A protective effect of the piers is observed in the west part of the bay only and the wave attenuation near the southern coast is more significant than near the northern one. The area of the southern coast directly behind the southern pier is completely protected from the storm waves and, as moving away from the pier, the danger of intensive wave effect on the coast is kept.     

The Central-Western Mediterranean: Anomalous igneous activity in an anomalous collisional tectonic setting

The central-western Mediterranean area is a key region for understanding the complex interaction between igneous activity and tectonics. In this review, the specific geochemical character of several ‘subduction-related’ Cenozoic igneous provinces are described with a view to identifying the processes responsible for the modifications of their sources. Different petrogenetic models are reviewed in the light of competing geological and geodynamic scenarios proposed in the literature.Plutonic rocks occur almost exclusively in the Eocene–Oligocene Periadriatic Province of the Alps while relatively minor plutonic bodies (mostly Miocene in age) crop out in N Morocco, S Spain and N Algeria. Igneous activity is otherwise confined to lava flows and dykes accompanied by relatively greater volumes of pyroclastic (often ignimbritic) products. Overall, the igneous activity spanned a wide temporal range, from middle Eocene (such as the Periadriatic Province) to the present (as in the Neapolitan of southern Italy). The magmatic products are mostly SiO₂-oversaturated, showing calcalkaline to high-K calcalcaline affinity, except in some areas (as in peninsular Italy) where potassic to ultrapotassic compositions prevail. The ultrapotassic magmas (which include leucitites to leucite-phonolites) are dominantly SiO₂-undersaturated, although rare, SiO₂-saturated (i.e., leucite-free lamproites) appear over much of this region, examples being in the Betics (southeast Spain), the northwest Alps, northeast Corsica (France), Tuscany (northwest Italy), southeast Tyrrhenian Sea (Cornacya Seamount) and possibly in the Tell region (northeast Algeria).Excepted for the Alpine case, subduction-related igneous activity is strictly linked to the formation of the Mediterranean Sea. This Sea, at least in its central and western sectors, is made up of several young (< 30 Ma) V-shaped back-arc basins plus several dispersed continental fragments, originally in crustal continuity with the European plate (Sardinia, Corsica, Balearic Islands, Kabylies, Calabria, Peloritani Mountains). The bulk of igneous activity in the central-western Mediterranean is believed to have tapped mantle ‘wedge’ regions, metasomatized by pressure-related dehydration of the subducting slabs. The presence of subduction-related igneous rocks with a wide range of chemical composition has been related to the interplay of several factors among which the pre-metasomatic composition of the mantle wedges (i.e., fertile vs. refractory mineralogy), the composition of the subducting plate (i.e., the type and amount of sediment cover and the alteration state of the crust), the variable thermo-baric conditions of magma formation, coupled with variable molar concentrations of CO₂ and H₂O in the fluid phase released by the subducting plates are the most important.Compared to classic collisional settings (e.g., Himalayas), the central-western Mediterranean area shows a range of unusual geological and magmatological features. These include: a) the rapid formation of extensional basins in an overall compressional setting related to Africa-Europe convergence; b) centrifugal wave of both compressive and extensional tectonics starting from a ‘pivotal’ region around the Gulf of Lyon; c) the development of concomitant Cenozoic subduction zones with different subduction and tectonic transport directions; d) subduction ‘inversion’ events (e.g., currently along the Maghrebian coast and in northern Sicily, previously at the southern paleo-European margin); e) a repeated temporal pattern whereby subduction-related magmatic activity gives way to magmas of intraplate geochemical type; f) the late-stage appearance of magmas with collision-related ‘exotic’ (potassic to ultrapotassic) compositions, generally absent from simple subduction settings; g) the relative scarcity of typical calcalkaline magmas along the Italian peninsula; h) the absence of igneous activity where it might well be expected (e.g., above the hanging-wall of the Late Cretaceous–Eocene Adria–Europe subduction system in the Alps); i) voluminous production of subduction-related magmas coeval with extensional tectonic régimes (e.g., during Oligo-Miocene Sardinian Trough formation).To summarize, these salient central-western Mediterranean features, characterizing a late-stage of the classic ‘Wilson Cycle’ offer a ‘template’ for interpreting magmatic compositions in analogous settings elsewhere.     

Slump debris flows in the Akovolwo Mountains area of Benue State,Nigeria

In September 1979, rain-induced complex landslides occurred in two separate localities along the slopes of the Akovolwo Mountains near Jato-Aka in the Kwande Local Government area of Benue State, Nigeria.The two movements developed on bedrock slopes covered by a veneer of colluvium and (or) residuum no more than 1.5 to 2m deep. Each started as a slump and graduated into a debris flow. The slump, extending downhill a short distance away from the head scarp, had been reconstituted into a debris flow as the initial movement (sliding movement) of the soil mass caused remoulding of the saturated moving mass into viscous debris-laden mud. The resulting mass moved partly along a pre-existing mountain stream channel and partly along a fresh channel it cleared in the savanna forest. At the break of slope, the mass of boulders was dumped and a trail of smaller fragments littered the channels towards the Katsina-Ala River.     

Structure Function Analysis of Two-Scale Scalar Ramps. Part II: Ramp Characteristics and Surface Renewal Flux Estimation

Ramp features in the turbulent scalar field are associated with turbulent coherent structures, which dominate energy and mass fluxes in the atmospheric surface layer. Although finer scale ramp-like shapes embedded within larger scale ramp-like shapes can readily be perceived in turbulent scalar traces, their presence has largely been overlooked in the literature. We demonstrate the signature of more than one ramp scale in structure functions of the turbulent scalar field measured from above bare ground and two types of short plant canopies, using structure-function time lags ranging in scale from isotropic to larger than the characteristic coherent structures. Spectral analysis of structure functions was used to characterize different scales of turbulent structures. By expanding structure function analysis to include two ramp scales, we characterized the intermittency, duration, and surface renewal flux contribution of the smallest (i.e., Scale One) and the dominant (i.e., Scale Two) coherent structure scales. The frequencies of the coherent structure scales increase with mean wind shear, implying that both Scale One and Scale Two are shear-driven. The embedded Scale One turbulent structure scale is ineffectual in the surface-layer energy and mass transport process. The new method reported here for obtaining surface renewal-based scalar exchange works well over bare ground and short canopies under unstable conditions, effectively eliminating the α calibration for these conditions and forming the foundation for analysis over taller and more complex surfaces.