Flushing of dense, hypoxic water from a cavity of the Swan River estuary, Western Australia

Flushing of dense water from cavities of the upper reaches of the Swan River estuary in Western Australia was investigated using measured salinity and dissolved oxygen profiles and a two-dimensional, laterally averaged hydrodynamic model (TISAT). Seasonal flushing of dense, hypoxic bottom waters from a relatively deep site took place over ∼3 days at the onset of winter in 1994. Model simulations of the purging of this dense water did not correspond closely with changes in the densimetric Froude number. Purging, expressed as depth of the halocline as a fraction of the total cavity depth, occurred when the simulated mean horizontal velocity at 2 m depth (top of cavity) changed from negative to strongly positive, indicating arrest of upstream flow and continuous downstream flow. This corresponded to freshwater discharge of about 50 m³ s⁻¹. Oxygen depletion of bottom waters was closely related to stratification. Oxygen dynamics at the onset of winter river flow was analysed using an exponential decay model, assuning that there was no net inflow or outflow across the halocline and thus no vertical transport of oxygen during a period of strong stratification. The rate constant for oxygen decay at Ron Courtney Island (RCI) was estimated to be 0.232 d⁻¹ for this period. Bottom waters at RCI declined to less than 1 mg 1⁻¹ prior to complete flushing through increased river flows. This study provided in sights to how freshwater flows may be allocated to maintain suitable oxygen levels in the bottom waters of estuarine cavities.     

Geoarchaeological evidence on a Late Bronze Age earthquake,Ohrid Basin (North Macedonia)

Geoarchaeological investigations on the northeastern shore of Lake Ohrid revealed 3.5 m thick deepwater lacustrine sediments overlying terrestrial vegetation macrofossils, worked wood and abundant potsherds dated to the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Distinct contact of deepwater sediment with the sub-aerial weathered limestone bedrock point to a sudden increase in lake level. According to radiocarbon data, catastrophic flooding occurred shortly after 1214 yr bc. Because the area is located in a highly active seismic zone, we propose that this event was caused by tectonically induced, metre-scale coseismic subsidence related to faults bordering the Ohrid alluvial plain. Moreover, this event coincides well with a dramatic switch in the habitation and settlement strategy in the region. More important, however, is the finding that the age of the proposed massive tectonic event and change in habitation lies within the interval of the proposed ‘earthquake storm’ in the eastern Mediterranean dated to 1225–1175 bc. As the Ohrid-Korça zone belongs to the same tectonic province, a relationship between the abovementioned earthquakes and the proposed event can be expected. This research therefore might provide the first direct evidence of a large-scale earthquake event linkable to the LBA collapse of Europe's first urban civilisation in the Aegean.     

Two and Half Dimensional Simulation of Ridge Effects on the Ground Motion Characteristics

— Seismic responses of weathered and non-weathered ridge models were simulated to study the ridge effects on the ground motion characteristics. The range of ridge slope from 19.98° to 45° was considered to produce a possible set of generalized results. 2.5-D modeling based on parsimonious staggered grid approximation of elastodynamic wave equations was adopted in simulations. Computed results reveal an increase of amplitude of incoming waves with both elevation and the slope of the ridge. Further, the characteristics of surface waves are highly ridge slope dependent. The analysis of responses of weathered and non-weathered ridge models reveals that ridge has caused a strong generation of surface waves near its top. The surface waves are not dominating on the top of the ridge but at some lower elevation. The increase of weathering of ridge further intensified the ridge effect. Analysis in frequency domain, based on spectral ratio method, does not indicate any pattern in the spectral amplification factor and is very much sensitive to slope, source focal mechanism and location. However, on an average there is a continuous decrease of amplification with slope in the vertical component and increase in the transverse component, and it is increasing in the radial component up to slope =38.0° and thereafter decreasing.     

15,000-yr pollen record of vegetation change in the high altitude tropical Andes at Laguna Verde Alta, Venezuela

Pollen analysis of sediments from a high-altitude (4215 m), Neotropical (9°N) Andean lake was conducted in order to reconstruct local and regional vegetation dynamics since deglaciation. Although deglaciation commenced 15,500 cal yr B.P., the area around the Laguna Verde Alta (LVA) remained a periglacial desert, practically unvegetated, until about 11,000 cal yr B.P. At this time, a lycopod assemblage bearing no modern analog colonized the superpáramo. Although this community persisted until 6000 cal yr B.P., it began to decline somewhat earlier, in synchrony with cooling following the Holocene thermal maximum of the Northern Hemisphere. At this time, the pioneer assemblage was replaced by a low-diversity superpáramo community that became established 9000 cal yr B.P. This replacement coincides with regional declines in temperature and/or available moisture. Modern, more diverse superpáramo assemblages were not established until 4600 cal yr B.P., and were accompanied by a dramatic decline in Alnus, probably the result of factors associated with climate, humans, or both. Pollen influx from upper Andean forests is remarkably higher than expected during the Late Glacial and early to middle Holocene, especially between 14,000 and 12,600 cal yr B.P., when unparalleled high values are recorded. We propose that intensification of upslope orographic winds transported lower elevation forest pollen to the superpáramo, causing the apparent increase in tree pollen at high altitude. The association between increased forest pollen and summer insolation at this time suggests a causal link; however, further work is needed to clarify this relationship.     

Estimation and comparison of leaf area index of agricultural crops using irs liss-III and EO-1 hyperion images

Motivated by the increasingly availability and importance of hyperspectral remote sensing data, this study aims to determine whether current generation narrowband hyperspectral remote sensing data could be used to estimate vegetation Leaf Area Index (LAI) accurately than the traditional broadband multispectral data. A comparative study has been carried out to evaluate the performance of the narrowband Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDV1) derived from Hyperion hyperspectral sensor with that of derived from IRS LISS-III for the estimation of LAI of some major agricultural crops (e.g. cotton, sugarcane and rice) in part of Guntur district, India. It has been found that the narrowband NDVI derived from Hyperion has shown better results over its counterpart derived from broadband LISS-III. Linear regression models have been used which with selected subsets of individual Hyperion bands performed better to predict LAI than those based on the broadband datasets, although the potential to overfit models using the large number of available Hyperion bands is a concern for further research.     

Non-Homogeneous Charge-Consistent Model for Acceleration of Iron in the Solar Corona

Acceleration of iron ions by a spherical shock wave moving through non-homogeneous solar corona is considered. The energy dependence of the mean charge of iron, _Fe(E), is determined by the characteristic acceleration time, T _a, trapping time, T _tr, and time for charge changes, T _q. The latter varies along with plasma number density during the propagation of the shock wave in the corona. Our calculations have demonstrated that adiabatic energy changes, Coulomb losses and shock broadening do not sufficiently influence the dependence _Fe(E). According to our estimations, the photoionizing processes can scarcely affect the ionic states of accelerated iron, except probably for the most powerful X10 class events.     

Die Weiterentwicklung der Meßtechnik des Wassergehalts des Bodens auf thermischer Grundlage

Zusammenfassung Durch Untersuchungen vonJ. Bracht [3] und dem Verfasser wurde im Jahre 1940 festgestellt, daß die Wärmeleitfähigkeit des Bodens nicht bei allen Bodenarten eindeutig mit dem Wassergehalt zusammenhängt. Es wird eine Erklärung für diese Erscheinung durch die Verscjiedenheit der Wasserablagerung zwischen den Bodenpartikeln bei Wasseraufnahme und Wasserabgabe gegeben. Von allen Wärmekonstanten des Bodens ist nur die Wärmekapazität wahrscheinlich eindeutig abhängig von dem Wassergehalt des Bodens. Diese Größe kann am einfachsten als der Quotient aus der Wärmeleitfähigkeit und der Temperaturleitfähigkeit des Bodens bestimmt werden. Es mu\ also außer der Wärmeleitfähigkeit auch noch die Temperaturleitfähigkeit gemessen werden.In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein Verfahren zur Bestimmung dieser letzteren Größe beschrieben. Hierbei wird als Geber das Doppelthermometer benutzt, das zur Messung der Wärmeleitfähigkeit des Bodens vom Verfasser [2] beschrieben wurde. Von den beiden Thermometern dieses Doppelthermometers wird das eine in halbstündigen Intervallen je eine Viertelstunde lang geheizt. Gemessen wird dann außer dem Temperaturunterschied zwischen geheiztem und ungeheiztem Thermometer auch der Temperaturgang des ungeheizten Thermometers allein. Aus dem Temperaturunterschied zwischen beiden Thermometern wird in der üblichen Weise die Wärmeleitfähigkeit und aus der Amplitude des Temperaturganges und seiner Phasenverschiebung gegen die Heizung die Temperaturleitfähigkeit des Bodens berechnet.

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Summary Researches ofJ. Bracht [3] and of the present author have shown in 1940 that the thermal conductivity of the soil is not exactly coherent with the content of water in all kinds of soil. An explanation of this phenomenon is given by the difference of water deposit between the soil particles under conditions of imbilition and desiccation of water. Of all thermal constants of the soil solely the heat capacity probably is distinctly dependent on the water content of the soil. This value can be determined in the simplest manner as the quotient of thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the soil. Beside thermal conductivity therefore thermal diffusivity must be measured too.A procedure for the determination of this last value is developed in this paper. The double thermometer which has been described by the author [2] for measuring the thermal conductivity is used as indicator. One of the two thermometers of this double thermometer is being heated during a quarter of an hour at intervals of half an hour. Beside the difference of temperature between heated and unheated thermometer the variation of temperature of the unheated thermometer itself is measured. Then the thermal conductivity is calculated in the usual manner from the difference of temperature between the two thermometers and the thermal diffusivity of the soil from the amplitude of the temperature variation and its shift of phase against heating.

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Résumé Des recherches deJ. Bracht [3] et de l'auteur en 1940 ont montré que la conductibilité calorifique de certains sols ne dépend pas uniquement de leur teneur en eau. On tente d'expliquer cette anomalie par le fait que l'eau s'insère différemment entre les particules du sol lors de l'imbibition et lors de la dessication. Parmi toutes les constantes calorifiques du sol, la capacité calorifique est probablement la seule qui soit en relation univoque avec la teneur en eau. Cette grandeur peut se définir le plus simplement par le quotient de la conductivité calorifique et de la transmission thermique du sol. Il faut donc mesurer séparément ces deux grandeurs.On décrit dans le présent mémoire un procédé permettant la mesure de la transmission thermique. On se sert comme indicateur du thermomètre double décrit par l'auteur [2] en vue de la mesure de la conductibilité du sol. L'un de ces thermomètres est chauffé pendant un quart d'heure toutes les demi-heures. On note alors non seulement la différence de température entre les deux instruments, mais encore les variations du thermomètre non chauffé: la différence de température permet comme d'ordinaire le calcul de la conductibilité, tandis que l'amplitude de la variation du thermomètre non chauffé et son décalage par rapport à l'autre permettent le calcul de la transmission thermique.

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Mit 4 Textabbildungen.     

Cyclicity in the Main and Upper Zones of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa: Crystallization from a Zoned Magma Sheet

The major element composition of plagioclase, pyroxene, olivine,and magnetite, and whole-rock ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr data are presented forthe uppermost 2·1 km of the layered mafic rocks (upperMain Zone and Upper Zone) at Bierkraal in the western BushveldComplex. Initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios are near-constant (0·7073± 0·0001) for 24 samples and imply crystallizationfrom a homogeneous magma sheet without major magma rechargeor assimilation. The 2125 m thick section investigated in drillcore comprises 26 magnetitite and six nelsonite (magnetite–ilmenite–apatite)layers and changes up-section from gabbronorite (An₇₂ plagioclase;Mg# 74 clinopyroxene) to magnetite–ilmenite–apatite–fayaliteferrodiorite (An₄₃; Mg# 5 clinopyroxene; Fo₁ olivine). The overallfractionation trend is, however, interrupted by reversals characterizedby higher An% of plagioclase, higher Mg# of pyroxene and olivine,and higher V₂O₅ of magnetite. In the upper half of the successionthere is also the intermittent presence of cumulus olivine andapatite. These reversals in normal fractionation trends definethe bases of at least nine major cycles. We have calculateda plausible composition for the magma from which this entiresuccession formed. Forward fractional crystallization modelingof this composition predicts an initial increase in total iron,near-constant SiO₂ and an increasing density of the residualmagma before magnetite crystallizes. After magnetite beginsto crystallize the residual magma shows a near-constant totaliron, an increase in SiO₂ and decrease in density. We explainthe observed cyclicity by bottom crystallization. Initiallymagma stratification developed during crystallization of thebasal gabbronorites. Once magnetite began to crystallize, periodicdensity inversion led to mixing with the overlying magma layer,producing mineralogical breaks between fractionation cycles.The magnetitite and nelsonite layers mainly occur within fractionationcycles, not at their bases. In at least two cases, crystallizationof thick magnetitite layers may have lowered the density ofthe basal layer of melt dramatically, and triggered the proposeddensity inversion, resulting in close, but not perfect, coincidenceof mineralogical breaks and packages of magnetitite layers. KEY WORDS: layered intrusion; mineral chemistry; isotopes; magma; convection; differentiation