Empirical NLTE analyses of solar spectral lines

A method is suggested for empirical NLTE analyses of solar spectral lines. Special depthdependent departure coefficients (x) are introduced and the formulas are given for further application. From test calculations it is shown that the separation of the departure coefficients for the upper and the lower level from each other and from the uncertainties in several input parameters (oscillator strength times abundance, turbulent velocities and damping constant) is greatly facilitated when spectral lines are analysed on the disk, around the limb, as well as in the flash spectrum. Therefore it is necesssary that all accessible line data are used, from accurate line profiles to equivalent widths or integrated intensities. To reduce the number of independent variables the analysis should include many multiplets between a few spectroscopic terms.We discuss the advantages of translating the departure coefficients into a set of temperatures. Some published LTE and NLTE analyses are compared in terms of these temperatures. The results do not show inexplicable contradictions. For several atomic spectra the departures from LTE seem large enough to be established quantitatively by the detailed method suggested in this paper.     

New approximate forms for theH-function for isotropic scattering

Three new approximate forms for theH-function for isotropic scattering have been developed. Each of the forms involve three unknown functions of albedo .     

Geophysical Field Pattern in The West Bohemian Geodynamic Active Area

Regional geophysical data from detailed gravity survey, airborne magnetometry and gamma-ray spectrometry were analysed in order to determine the subsurface extent of contrasting geological bodies and to highlight subtle anomalies which can be related to the occurrence of earthquake swarms. Potential field data were compiled into contour and colour-shaded relief maps suitable for detecting structural tectonic elements. A shaded relief map of the horizontal gradient of gravity was used to detect considerable structural and tectonic features. The results of airborne gamma-ray spectrometry, showing the regional total gamma-ray activity, abundance of uranium, thorium and potassium, were included in this study. Only the two most instructive maps – the total gamma-ray activity and the abundance of potassium are shown. The main line of epicentres Nový Kostel – Poátky coincides well with the N-S configuration of abundances of these natural radioactive elements. The epicentres of micro-earthquakes detected by the local seismological network KRASLICE for the 1991 to 1998 period were plotted in the geophysical maps. The hypocentres of earthquakes in the main epicentral zone at Nový Kostel were projected onto the crustal density model based on the interpretation of seismic reflection profile 9HR and gravity data. The average distance between the Nový Kostel epicentral zone and the seismic profile was 4-5 km. Based on the interpretation of gravity data the hypocentres of the main epicentral zone seem to be associated with the western margin of the Eibenstock - Nejdek (Karlovy Vary) Pluton and, beside that, they follow the depth level where the allochthonnous part of the Saxothuringian Zone is thrust over the European parautochton. A drawing of the geodynamic model of the area is also shown.     

Comparison of Absolute and Relative Moment Tensor Solutions For The January 1997 West Bohemia Earthquake Swarm

Moment tensor solutions for 70 clustered events of the 1997 West Bohemia microearthquake swarm, as calculated by two different methods, are given. The first method is a single-event, absolute moment tensor inversion which inverts body-wave peak amplitudes using synthetic Green functions. The second method is a multiple-event, relative method for which Green functions are reduced to 2 geometrical angles of rays at the sources. Both methods yield similar moment tensors, which can be divided into at least two or three different classes of focal solutions, indicating that, during the swarm activity, different planes of weakness were active. The major source component of most events is a double couple. However, the deviations from the double-couple mechanisms seem to be systematic for some classes of solutions. Error analysis was based on transforming the estimate of the standard deviation of amplitudes extracting from the seismograms into confidence regions of the absolute moment tensor. They show that the non-DC components are significant at a fairly high confidence level.     

A 1052-year tree-ring proxy for Alpine summer temperatures

A June–August Alpine temperature proxy series is developed back to AD 951 using 1,527 ring-width measurements from living trees and relict wood. The reconstruction is composed of larch data from four Alpine valleys in Switzerland and pine data from the western Austrian Alps. These regions are situated in high elevation Alpine environments where a spatially homogenous summer temperature signal exists. In an attempt to capture the full frequency range of summer temperatures over the past millennium, from inter-annual to multi-centennial scales, the regional curve standardization technique is applied to the ring width measurements. Correlations of 0.65 and 0.86 after decadal smoothing, with high elevation meteorological stations since 1864 indicate an optimal response of the RCS chronology to June–August mean temperatures. The proxy record reveals warm conditions from before AD 1000 into the thirteenth century, followed by a prolonged cool period, reaching minimum values in the 1820s, and a warming trend into the twentieth century. This latter trend and the higher frequency variations compare well with the actual high elevation temperature record. The new central Alpine proxy suggests that summer temperatures during the last decade are unprecedented over the past millennium. It also reveals significant similarities at inter-decadal to multi-centennial frequencies with large-scale temperature reconstructions, however, deviating during certain periods from H.H. Lamb‘s European/North Atlantic temperature history.     

Subsurface Temperature Changes Due to the Crustal Magmatic Activity – Numerical Simulation

Geothermal aspects of the hypothesis, relating the earthquake swarms in the West Bohemia/Vogtland seismoactive region to magmatic activity, are addressed. A simple 1-D geothermal model of the crust was used to assess the upper limit of the subsurface heating caused by magma intrusion at the assumed focal depth of 9 km. We simulated the process by solving the transient heat conduction equation numerically, considering the heat of magma crystallization to be gradually released in the temperature interval 1100°C to 900°C. The temperature field prior to the intrusion was in steady-state with a surface temperature of 10°C and heat flow of 80 mWm ^–2 , the temperature at the 9 km depth was 270°C. The results suggest that the temperature and heat flow in the uppermost 1 km of the crust begin to grow 100 ka after the intrusion emplacement only, and that the amplitudes of the changes for the realistic lateral extent (a few kilometres) of the intrusion are very small. It was also found that the rate of magma solidification depends strongly on the thickness of the intrusion. It takes about 100 years for a 50 m thick sill to cool down from 1100°C to 600°C, which value represents the lower limit of the solidus temperature. The same cooling takes only 60 days if the sill is 2 m thick. If the nature of the strongly reflected boundaries, interpreted from the January 1997 Nový Kostel seismograms, is connected with the fresh emplacement of magma, the calculated cooling rates have a predictive potential for the temporal changes of the waveforms.     

Flow behaviour of the submarine glacigenic debris flows on the Bear Island Trough Mouth Fan, western Barents Sea

Using 3·5 kHz high-resolution seismic data, gravity cores and side-scan sonar imagery, the flow behaviour of submarine, glacigenic debris flows on the Bear Island Trough Mouth Fan, western Barents Sea was studied. During their downslope movement, the sediments within the uppermost part of the debris flows (<3 m) are inferred to have been deformed as a result of the shear stress at the debris–water interface. Thus, the uppermost part of the flow did not move downslope as a rigid plug. If present, a rigid part of the flow was located at least some metres below the surface. At c . 1000 to at least 1600 m water depth, the debris flows eroded and probably incorporated substrate debris. Further downslope, the debris flows moved passively over substrate sediments. The hypothesis of hydroplaning of the debris flow front may explain why the debris flows moved across the lower fan without affecting the underlying sediments. Detailed morphological information from the surface of one of the debris flow deposits reveals arcuate ridges. These features were probably formed by flow surge. Hydroplaning of the debris flow front may also explain the formation of flow surge. The long runout distance of some of the large debris flows could be due to accretion of material to the base of the debris flow, thereby increasing in volume during flow, and/or to hydroplaning suppressing deceleration of the flow.     

中国南方岩溶区土地石漠化的成因与过程

中国南方岩溶区是石漠化广为发展的脆弱生态区域。南方岩溶区土地石漠化的起因既有自然因素,也有人为因素。在地质历史时期其自身环境孕育和存在着自然石漠化过程,在历史时期—现代自然石漠化过程又叠加了人为石漠化过程,人为活动加速、加剧了石漠化的发展。清朝初、中期是人为活动影响石漠化的重要转折时期,此后人为因素作用比重逐渐超过自然因素的作用比重。岩溶区土地石漠化过程是由植被退化丧失过程、土壤侵蚀过程、地表水流失过程、基岩溶蚀侵蚀过程、土地生物生产力退化过程合成的地表生态过程,其实质是形成石质荒漠的土地退化过程。     

Early Variscan magmatism in the Western Carpathians: U–Pb zircon data from granitoids and orthogneisses of the Tatra Mountains (Slovakia)

This study presents the first U–Pb zircon data on granitoid basement rocks of the Tatra Mountains, part of the Western Carpathians (Slovakia). The Western Carpathians belong to the Alpine Carpathian belt and constitute the eastern continuation of the Variscides. The new age data thus provide important time constraints for the regional geology of the Carpathians as well as for their linkage to the Variscides. U–Pb single zircon analyses with vapour digestion and cathodoluminescence controlled dating (CLC-method) were obtained from two distinct granitoid suites of the Western Tatra Mountains. The resulting data indicate a Proterozoic crustal source for both rock suites. The igneous precursors of the orthogneisses (older granites) intruded in Lower Devonian (405 Ma) and were generated by partial melting of reworked crustal material during subduction realated processes. In the Upper Devonian (365 Ma), at the beginning of continent–continent collision, the older granites were affected by high-grade metamorphism including partial melting, which caused recrystallisation and new zircon growth. A continental collision was also responsible for the generation of the younger granites (350–360 Ma). The presented data suggest multi-stage granitoid magmatism in the Western Carpathians, related to a complex subduction and collision scenario during the Devonian and Carboniferous. Received: 19 February 1999 / Accepted: 3 December 1999