Radiochemoecological Monitoring of the Salt Lakes of the Crimea

正1 Introduction The salt lakes of the Crimea contain the practically inexhaustible sources of salts of sodium,magnesium,bromine and other chemical elements(Ponizovskii,1965),being the potential powerful raw materials base for the     

The Multiscale TROPIcal CatchmentS critical zone observatory M-TROPICS dataset II: Land use,hydrology and sediment production monitoring in Houay Pano,northern Lao PDR

Mountain regions of the humid tropics are characterized by steep slopes and heavy rains. These regions are thus prone to both high surface runoff and soil erosion. In Southeast Asia, uplands are also subject to rapid land-use change, predominantly as a result of increased population pressure and market forces. Since 1998, the Houay Pano site, located in northern Lao PDR (19.85°N 102.17°E) within the Mekong basin, aims at assessing the long-term impact of the conversion of traditional slash-and-burn cultivation systems to commercial perennial monocultures such as teak tree plantations, on the catchment hydrological response and sediment yield. The instrumented site monitors hydro-meteorological and soil loss parameters at both microplot (1 m²) and small catchment (0.6 km²) scales. The monitored catchment is part of the network of critical zone observatories named Multiscale TROPIcal CatchmentS (M-TROPICS). The data shared by M-TROPICS in Houay Pano are (1) rainfall, (2) air temperature, air relative humidity, wind speed, and global radiation, (3) catchment land use, (4) stream water level, suspended particulate matter, bed particulate matter and stones, (5) soil surface features, and (6) soil surface runoff and soil detachment. The dataset has already been used to interpret suspended particulate matter and bed particulate matter sources and dynamics, to assess the impact of land-use change on catchment hydrology, soil erosion, and sediment yields, to understand bacteria fate and weed seed transport across the catchment, and to build catchment-scale models focused on hydrology and water quality issues. The dataset may be further used to, for example, assess the role of headwater catchments in large tropical river basin hydrology, support the interpretation of new variables measured in the catchment (e.g., contaminants other than faecal bacteria), and assess the relative impacts of both climate and land-use change on the catchment.     

Middle to Late Pleistocene lake‐level fluctuations of Lake El'gygytgyn,far‐east Russian Arctic

Lake El'gygytgyn, located in central Chukotka, Russian Arctic, was the subject of an international drilling project that resulted in the recovery of the longest continuous palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental record for the terrestrial Arctic covering the last 3.6 million years. Here, we present the reconstruction of the lake‐level fluctuations of Lake El'gygytgyn since Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 based on lithological and palynological as well as chronological studies of shallow‐water sediment cores and subaerial lake terraces. Reconstructed lake levels show an abrupt rise during glacial–interglacial terminations (MIS 6/5 and MIS 2/1) and during the MIS 4/3 stadial–interstadial transition. The most prominent lowstands occurred during glacial periods associated with a permanent lake‐ice cover (namely MIS 6, MIS 4 and MIS 2). Major triggering mechanisms of the lake‐level fluctuations at Lake El'gygytgyn are predominantly changes in air temperature and precipitation. Regional summer temperatures control the volume of meltwater supply as well as the duration of the lake‐ice cover (permanent or seasonal). The duration of the lake‐ice cover, in turn, enables or hampers near‐shore sediment transport, thus leading to long‐term lake‐level oscillations on glacial–interglacial time scales by blocking or opening the lake outflow, respectively. During periods of seasonal ice cover the lake level was additionally influenced by changes in precipitation. The discovered mechanism of climatologically driven level fluctuations of Lake El'gygytgyn are probably valid for large hydrologically open lakes in the Arctic in general, thus helping to understand arctic palaeohydrology and providing missing information for climate modelling.     

Do young martian ray craters have ages consistent with the crater count system?

McEwen et al. (McEwen, A.S., Preblich, B.S., Turtle, E.P., Artemieva, N.A., Golombek, M.P., Hurst, M., Kirk, R.L., Burr, D.M., Christensen, P. [2005]. Icarus 176, 351-381) developed a useful test for the internal consistency of crater-count chronometry systems. They argued that certain multi-kilometer, fresh-looking martian craters with prominent rays should be the youngest or near-youngest craters in their size range. The “McEwen et al. test” is that the ages determined from crater densities of the smallest superimposed craters (typically diameter D ∼ 5-20 m) should thus be comparable to the expected formation intervals of the host primary. McEwen et al. concluded from MOC data that crater chronometry failed this test by factors of 700-2000. We apply HiRISE and other imagery to eight different young craters in order to re-evaluate their arguments. We use existing crater chronology systems as well as the reported observed production rate of 16 m craters (Malin, M.C., Edgett, K., Posiolova, L., McColley, S., Noe Dobrea, E. [2006]. Science 314, 1573-1557; Hartmann, W.K., Quantin, C., Mangold, N. [2007]. Icarus 186, 11-23; Kreslavsky [2007]. Seventh International Conference on Mars, 3325). Every case passes the McEwen et al. test. We conclude that the huge inconsistencies suggested by McEwen et al. are spurious. Many of these craters show evidence of impact into ice-rich material, and appear to have ice-flow features and sublimation pits on their floors. As production rate data improve, decameter-scale craters will provide a valuable way of dating these young martian geological formations and the processes that modify them.     

Two types of differential rotation of the solar corona

The differential rotation of the solar corona has been analyzed using as the input data the brightness of the coronal green line Fe xiv 530.3 nm for more than five activity cycles. It is found that the character of rotation of the solar corona changes during the activity cycle. Approximately at the middle of the descending branch the differential rotation is weakly pronounced, while the greatest differential gradient is observed at the ascending branch and, occasionally, at the maximum of the cycle. An explanation of this difference has been suggested. The total rotation rate of the corona can be represented as a superposition of two rotation modes (components) – the fast and slow ones. The synodic period of the fast mode near the equator is about 27 days, increasing slightly with latitude. The synodic period of the slow mode exceeds 30 days. The changing relative fraction of these two modes results in variation of the latitude dependence of the observed rotation rate during the activity cycle. The characteristics of two principal types of differential rotation of the solar corona have been determined. The first type consists of the fast mode alone and is established approximately at the middle of the descending branch of the cycle. The second type is the sum of both modes with the fast mode dominating at low latitudes and the slow mode at high latitudes. The results obtained can be used for in-depth study of interaction of the velocity field and dynamo mechanism in the Sun and stars.     

Pleistocene marine deposits in the coastal areas of Kola Peninsula (Russia)

On the basis of field data, datings from both electron spin resonance – and optically stimulated luminescence, and micro- and macrofauna, in addition to presence of diatoms, three Late Pleistocene marine units have been identified in the coastal areas of the Kola Peninsula. The stratigraphically lowest sequence is correlated to the Ponoi Beds and the Boreal transgression, attributed to the marine isotope stages (MIS) 5e to 5d in the White Sea depression and to MIS 5e to 5c in the Barents Sea. Thermophilic fauna and diatoms indicate normal water salinity and a water temperature above zero. The second marine unit, referred as the Strel'na Beds, can be correlated with the Early Weischselian transgression, termed the Belomorian transgression. With low water salinity and a water temperature similar or colder than the present times, Belomorian transgressions are reliably detected in the White Sea and are not clearly found in the Barents Sea. The results obtained from the sediments of the Ponoi and Strel'na Beds indicate a continuously existing marine reservoir from 130 to 80–70 ka ago (entire MIS 5) in the White Sea depression. The early Middle Weichselian Barents–Kara ice-sheet invasion and its recession might have caused the glacioeustatic Middle Weichselian (MIS 3) transgression, and the third Late Pleistocene marine sequence has been deposited in the regressing shallow cold sea with less saline waters. The results help in the understanding of the history of Late Quaternary ice sheets in North Eurasia and provide evidence for the debatable Early and Middle Weichselian marine events.     

Landslides triggered by the 1949 Khait earthquake, Tajikistan, and associated loss of life

Earthquake-triggered landslides are a major geological hazard in Central Asia. In July 1949, the M7.4 Khait earthquake triggered many hundreds of landslides in a mountainous region near the southern limit of the Tien Shan Mountains, central Tajikistan. These landslides involved widespread rock-slope failure as well as large numbers of flowslides in loess that mantles the steep slopes of the region. In the Yasman valley hundreds of loess landslides coalesced to form a massive loess flow (est. vol. 245 Mm³) that travelled up to 20 km on a slope of only 2°. In an adjacent valley, the Khait landslide involved transformation of an earthquake-triggered rockslide into a very rapid flow by the entrainment of saturated loess into its movement. It travelled 7.41 km over a vertical distance of 1421 m with an estimated average velocity of ~30 m/s. We estimate its volume as 75 Mm³, an order of magnitude less that previously published estimates. The Khait landslide was simulated using DAN. The number of casualties due to earthquake-triggered landslides in the epicentral region was considerable. Approximately 4000 people were killed in the Yasman valley loess flow as 20 villages (kishlaks) were overwhelmed. In the Khait landslide alone we estimate ca. 800 people lost their lives when the villages of Khait and Khisorak were overrun by rapidly moving debris. Our data indicates that a total of approximately 7200 people were killed by earthquake-triggered landslides in the epicentral region of the Khait earthquake and that, in terms of loss of life, the 1949 Yasman valley loess flow was one of the most destructive landslides in recent history.     

The Fazenda Largo off-craton kimberlites of Piauí State, Brazil

In the late 1990s, the Fazenda Largo kimberlite cluster was discovered in the Piauí State of Brazil. As with earlier known kimberlites in this area – Redondão, Santa Filomena-Bom Jesus (Gilbues) and Picos – this cluster is located within the Palaeozoic Parnaiba Sedimentary Basin that separates the São Francisco and the Amazonian Precambrian cratons. Locations of kimberlites are controlled by the ‘Transbrasiliano Lineament’. The Fazenda Largo kimberlites are intensely weathered, almost completely altered rocks with a fine-grained clastic structure, and contain variable amounts of terrigene admixture (quartz sand). These rocks represent near-surface volcano-sedimentary deposits of the crater parts of kimberlite pipes. By petrographic, mineralogical and chemical features, the Fazenda Largo kimberlites are similar to average kimberlite. The composition of the deep-seated material in the Fazenda Largo kimberlites is quite diverse: among mantle microxenoliths are amphibolitised pyrope peridotites, garnetised spinel peridotites, ilmenite peridotites, chromian spinel + chromian diopside + pyrope intergrowths, and large xenoliths of pyrope dunite. High-pressure minerals are predominantly of the ultramafic suite, Cr-association minerals (purplish-red and violet pyrope, chromian spinel, chromian diopside, Cr-pargasite and orthopyroxene). The Ti-association minerals of the ultramafic suite (picroilmenite and orange pyrope), as well as rare grains of orange pyrope-almandine of the eclogite association, are subordinate. Kimberlites from all four pipes contain rare grains of G10 pyrope of the diamond association, but chromian spinel of the diamond association was not encountered. By their tectonic position, by geochemical characteristics, and by the composition of kimberlite indicator minerals, the Fazenda Largo kimberlites, like the others of such type, are unlikely to be economic.     

Russian eruption warning systems for aviation

More than 65 potentially active volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kurile Islands pose a substantial threat to aircraft on the Northern Pacific (NOPAC), Russian Trans-East (RTE), and Pacific Organized Track System (PACOTS) air routes. The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) monitors and reports on volcanic hazards to aviation for Kamchatka and the north Kuriles. KVERT scientists utilize real-time seismic data, daily satellite views of the region, real-time video, and pilot and field reports of activity to track and alert the aviation industry of hazardous activity. Most Kurile Island volcanoes are monitored by the Sakhalin Volcanic Eruption Response Team (SVERT) based in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. SVERT uses daily moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite images to look for volcanic activity along this 1,250-km chain of islands. Neither operation is staffed 24 h per day. In addition, the vast majority of Russian volcanoes are not monitored seismically in real-time. Other challenges include multiple time-zones and language differences that hamper communication among volcanologists and meteorologists in the US, Japan, and Russia who share the responsibility to issue official warnings. Rapid, consistent verification of explosive eruptions and determination of cloud heights remain significant technical challenges. Despite these difficulties, in more than a decade of frequent eruptive activity in Kamchatka and the northern Kuriles, no damaging encounters with volcanic ash from Russian eruptions have been recorded.     

An intercomparison of model-simulated in extreme rainfall and temperature events during the last half of the twentieth century. Part 1: mean values and variability

In this study we examine the performance of eight of the IPCC AR4 global coupled climate models used in the WCRP CMIP3 Multimodel Dataset, as well as their ensemble mean, in simulating annual indices of extreme temperature and precipitation climate events in South America. In this first part we focus on comparing observed and modeled mean values and interannual variability. Two extreme temperature indices based on minimum temperature (warm nights and frost days) and three indices of extreme precipitation (R95t, R10 and consecutive dry days), obtained both from meteorological stations during 1961–2000 and model outputs, were compared. The number of warm nights are better represented by models than the FD. The interannual variability pattern is also in good agreement with the observed values. For precipitation, the index that is best represented by the models is the R95t, which relates the extreme precipitation to local climate. The maximum of dryness observed over the central Argentinian Andes or the extensive dry season of the Amazon region could not be represented by any model.