Holocene alpine glaciation inferred from lacustrine sediments on northeastern Baffin Island,Arctic Canada

With accelerated melting of alpine glaciers, understanding the future state of the cryosphere is critical. Because the observational record of glacier response to climate change is short, palaeo‐records of glacier change are needed. Using proglacial lake sediments, which contain continuous and datable records of past glacier activity, we investigate Holocene glacier fluctuations on northeastern Baffin Island. Basal radiocarbon ages from three lakes constrain Laurentide Ice Sheet retreat by ca. 10.5 ka. High sedimentation rates (0.03 cm a^?1) and continuous minerogenic sedimentation throughout the Holocene in proglacial lakes, in contrast to organic‐rich sediments and low sedimentation rates (0.005 cm a^?1) in neighbouring non‐glacial lakes, suggest that glaciers may have persisted in proglacial lake catchments since regional deglaciation. The presence of varves and relatively high magnetic susceptibility from 10 to 6 ka and since 2 ka in one proglacial lake suggest minimum Holocene glacier extent ca. 6–2 ka. Moraine evidence and proglacial and threshold lake sediments indicate that the maximum Holocene glacier extent occurred during the Little Ice Age. The finding that glaciers likely persisted through the Holocene is surprising, given that regional proxy records reveal summer temperatures several degrees warmer than today, and may be due to shorter ablation seasons and greater accumulation‐season precipitation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of the Ti-in-quartz thermobarometer to rutile-free systems. Reply to: a comment on: ‘TitaniQ under pressure: the effect of pressure and temperature on the solubility of Ti in quartz’ by Thomas et al.

The premise of the Wilson et al. comment is that the Ti-in-quartz solubility calibration (Thomas et al. in Contrib Mineral Petrol 160:743–759, 2010) is fundamentally flawed. They reach this conclusion because P–T estimates using the Ti-in-quartz calibration differ from their previous interpretations for crystallization conditions of the Bishop and Oruanui rhyolites. If correct, this assertion has far-reaching implications, so a careful assessment of the Wilson et al. reasoning is warranted. Application of the Ti-in-quartz calibration as a thermobarometer in rutile-free rocks requires an estimation of TiO₂ activity in the liquid ( (liquid–rutile); referenced to rutile saturation) and an independent constraint on either P or T to obtain the crystallization temperature or pressure, respectively. The foundation of Wilson et al.’s argument is that temperature estimates obtained from Fe–Ti oxide thermometry accurately reflect crystallization conditions of quartz in the two rhyolites discussed. We maintain that our experimental approach is sound, the thermodynamic basis of the Ti-in-quartz calibration is fundamentally correct, and our experimental results are robust and reproducible. We suggest that the reason Wilson et al. obtain implausible pressure estimates is because estimates for T and they used as input values for the Ti-in-quartz calibration are demonstrably too high. Numerous studies show that Fe–Ti oxide temperature estimates of some rhyolites are substantially higher than those predicted by well-constrained phase equilibria. In this reply, we show that when reasonable input values for T and (liquid–rutile) are used, pressure estimates obtained from the Ti-in-quartz calibration are well aligned with phase equilibria and essentially identical to melt inclusion volatile saturation pressures.     

Response of hydrological cycle to recent climate changes in the Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) surfaces have been experiencing an overall rapid warming and wetting while wind speed and solar radiation have been declining in the last three decades. This study investigated how climate changes influenced the hydrological cycle on the TP during 1984??2006. To facilitate the analysis, a land surface model was used to simulate surface water budget at all CMA (China Meteorological Administration) stations on the TP. The simulated results were first validated against observed ground temperature and observation-derived heat flux on the western TP and observed discharge trends on the eastern TP. The response of evaporation and runoff to the climate changes was then analyzed. Major finding are as follows. (1) Surface water balance has been changed in recent decades. Observed precipitation shows insignificant increasing trends in central TP and decreasing trends along the TP periphery while evaporation shows overall increasing trends, leading to decreased discharge at major TP water resource areas (semi-humid and humid zones in the eastern and southern TP). (2) At the annual scale, evaporation is water-limited in dry areas and energy-limited (radiation and air temperature) in wet areas; these constraints can be interpreted by the Budyko-curve. Evaporation in autumns and winters was strongly controlled by soil water storage in summers, weakening the dependence of evaporation on precipitation at seasonal scales. (3) There is a complementary effect between the simulated actual evaporation and potential evaporation, but this complementary relationship may deviate from Bouchet??s hypothesis when vapor pressure deficit (or air temperature) is too low, which suppresses the power of vapor transfer.     

Response of a tunnel deeply embedded in a viscoelastic medium

This paper presents a three‐dimensional energy‐based solution for the time‐dependent response of a deeply embedded and unsupported semi‐infinite tunnel of circular cross‐section. The tunnel is taken to be excavated quasi‐instantaneously from an infinite rock body that initially exhibits an isotropic stress state and that is made up of a homogeneous, isotropic and viscoelastic material. The viscoelastic behaviour is modelled by means of Burger's model, and the rock is taken to behave volumetrically linear elastic and to exhibit exclusively deviatoric creep. This viscoelastic problem is transformed into the Laplace domain, where it represents a quasi‐elastic problem. The displacement fields in the new solution are taken to be the products of independent functions that vary in the radial and longitudinal directions. The differential equations governing the displacements of the system and appropriate boundary conditions are obtained using the principle of minimum potential energy. The solutions for these governing equations in the Laplace domain are then obtained analytically and numerically using a one‐dimensional finite difference technique. The results are then transformed back into the time domain using an efficient numerical scheme. The accuracy of the new solution is comparable with that of a finite element analysis but requires much less computation effort. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of terrace geology on ground‐water movement and on the interaction of ground water and surface water on a mountainside near Mirror Lake,New Hampshire,USA

The west watershed of Mirror Lake in the White Mountains of New Hampshire contains several terraces that are at different altitudes and have different geologic compositions. The lowest terrace (FSE) has 5 m of sand overlying 9 m of till. The two next successively higher terraces (FS2 and FS1) consist entirely of sand and have maximum thicknesses of about 7 m. A fourth, and highest, terrace (FS3) lies in the north‐west watershed directly adjacent to the west watershed. This highest terrace has 2 m of sand overlying 8 m of till. All terraces overlie fractured crystalline bedrock. Numerical models of hypothetical settings simulating ground‐water flow in a mountainside indicated that the presence of a terrace can cause local ground‐water flow cells to develop, and that the flow patterns differ based on the geologic composition of the terrace. For example, more ground water moves from the bedrock to the glacial deposits beneath terraces consisting completely of sand than beneath terraces that have sand underlain by till. Field data from Mirror Lake watersheds corroborate the numerical experiments. The geology of the terraces also affects how the stream draining the west watershed interacts with ground water. The stream turns part way down the mountainside and passes between the two sand terraces, essentially transecting the movement of ground water down the valley side. Transects of water‐table wells were installed across the stream's riparian zone above, between, and below the sand terraces. Head data from these wells indicated that the stream gains ground water on both sides above and below the sand terraces. However, where it flows between the sand terraces the stream gains ground water on its uphill side and loses water on its downhill side. Biogeochemical processes in the riparian zone of the flow‐through reach have resulted in anoxic ground water beneath the lower sand terrace. Results of this study indicate that it is useful to understand patterns of ground‐water flow in order to fully understand the flow and chemical characteristics of both ground water and surface water in mountainous terrain. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.