The 1972 Eruption of Kartala volcano,grande comore

A summit eruption of Kartala commenced on September 8th, 1972 and finished on October 5th, 1972. In the course of this eruption, approximately 5×10⁶ m³ of alkali olivine basalt was erupted from a N-S fissure system within and adjacent to the caldera. Aa flows were partly ponded within the caldera, almost filling the 1918 Choungou Chagnoumeni crater pit, and partly spilled NW down the flanks of the volcano. The lavas are of uniform composition, almost identical to those erupted in 1965 and closely resembling the majority of flows erupted during the last 115 years. One-atmosphere melting experiments support petrographic and chemical evidence that the lavas are coctetic, with coprecipitation of olivine, augite and plagioclase. The lavas were crupted at, or close to, their liquidus temperature, determined at approximately 1170°C. Whereas eruptions of Kartala in the nineteenth century were distributed widely along a fissure system approximately 45 km long by 7 km wide, the eruptions since 1918 have been confined to the vicinity of the summit caldera.     

From Shiny Shoes to Muddy Reality: Understanding How Meso-State Actors Negotiate the Implementation Gap in Participatory Forest Management

Recent research on participatory forest management (PFM) in the global south has highlighted the existence of a widespread “implementation gap” between the ambitious intent enshrined in legislation and the often partial, disappointing rollout of devolved forest governance on the ground. Here, through an ethnographic case study of forest officers (FOs) in Kenya, we draw on a framework of critical institutionalism to examine how key meso-level actors, or “interface bureaucrats,” negotiate and challenge this implementation gap in everyday forest governance. We go beyond consideration of institutional bricolage in isolation or as an aggregate category, to analyze how bricolage as aggregation, alteration, and/or articulation is variously driven, shaped, and constrained by FOs’ multiple accountabilities and agency. Our analysis highlights the locally specific, contingent, and mutually reinforcing nature of accountability, agency and bricolage, and their explanatory power in relation to the performance and nature of “actually existing” PFM.     

Microwave links: The future for urban rainfall measurement?

Microwave links are ideally suited to the urban environment, since there are many suitable vandal-free locations to which the receiver and transmitter can be attached. A signal sent along a link is received with reduced power as a consequence of scattering and absorption by intervening water droplets. Thus a measurement of the power loss can be transformed into a measure of total path rainfall. This paper discusses the requirements for the estimation process to be accurate. The paper presents results using a single frequency, together with the improved results from a dual-frequency link. Potential future applications of microwave links are presented.     

Overlap between Atlantic bluefin tuna spawning grounds and observed Deepwater Horizon surface oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacted the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) during the spring spawning season of Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT). Overlap between BFT spawning habitat and surface oil in the northern GOM was examined using satellite-derived estimates of oil coverage, and spawning habitat models. Results suggested that although eggs and larvae were likely impacted by oil-contaminated waters in the eastern GOM, high abundances of larvae were located elsewhere, especially in the western GOM. Overall, less than 10% of BFT spawning habitat was predicted to have been covered by surface oil, and less than 12% of larval BFT were predicted to have been located within contaminated waters in the northern GOM, on a weekly basis. Our results provide preliminary but important initial estimates of the effects of the spill on larval BFT mortality, as concern continues over the appropriate management responses to impacts of the spill.     

Using microwave links to adjust the radar rainfall field

The final stage in processing radar data so as to arrive at an estimated rain field typically involves a comparison of the preliminary radar-derived estimates of hourly rainfall with those observed by ground-based gauges. Often a mean field bias adjustment will then be applied using an age-weighted average of the individual gauge–radar comparisons. In this paper, a mean field bias adjustment is presented that uses the path-integrated rainfall estimates provided by microwave links together with information from gauges. It is shown to be at least as efficient as the current gauge-based procedure used by the UK Met Office to improve the accuracy of radar-based estimates of rainfall at the ground.     

Seasonal controls on sediment transport and deposition in Lake Ohau,South Island,New Zealand: Implications for a high‐resolution Holocene palaeoclimate reconstruction

Laminated sediments in Lake Ohau, Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand, offer a potential high‐resolution climate record for the past 17 kyr. Such records are particularly important due to the relative paucity of detailed palaeoclimate data from the Southern Hemisphere mid‐latitudes. This paper presents outcomes of a study of the sedimentation processes of this temperate lake setting. Hydrometeorological, limnological and sedimentological data were collected over a 14 month period between 2011 and 2013. These data indicate that seasonality in the hydrometeorological system in combination with internal lake dynamics drives a distinct seasonal pattern of sediment dispersal and deposition on a basin‐wide scale. Sedimentary layers that accumulate proximal to the lake inflow at the northern end of the lake form in response to discrete inflow events throughout the year and display an event stratigraphy. In contrast, seasonal change in the lake system controls accumulation of light (winter) and dark (summer) laminations at the distal end of the lake, resulting in the preservation of varves. This study documents the key processes influencing sediment deposition throughout Lake Ohau and provides fundamental data for generating a high‐resolution palaeoclimate record from this temperate lake.     

Crust-mantle interaction in the evolution of the Ilímaussaq Complex, South Greenland: Nd isotopic studies

Sm-Nd isotopic compositions were determined for the peralkaline Ilímaussaq Complex of the Gardar Province of southern Greenland. The majority of the samples in the agpaitic and augite syenitic units have near chondritic initial _Nd(≈ 0), whereas a few samples trend towards _Nd values as low as − 6 at the time of intrusion (1143 Ma). This latter value, from a sample taken from the margin of the complex, lying on the evolutionary trend for Ketilidian country-rock granitoids, suggests that large-scale contamination took place only at the margins of the complex. The similarity of the Nd isotopic compositions of the augite syenite and agpaitic units suggests that their parental magmas were derived from the same reservoir. A comparison of the Nd with existing Sr and Hf isotopic data for the complex suggests an origin by combined assimilation fractionation processes. Assimilation-fractional crystallization modeling of the isotopic compositions indicates that the Ilímaussaq magmas could have formed through fractional crystallization of a basaltic melt while assimilating granitic crust. The model requires initially higher assimilation rates from basalt to augite syenite composition with subsequent decreasing assimilation rates from augite syenite to agpaitic compositions. Alkali granites, which formed after the intrusion of the augite syenites, have isotopic compositions intermediate between those of the augite syenites and the surrounding Ketilidian basement. This implies even greater amounts of assimilation and is interpreted as evidence for an origin through fractionation of a basaltic or augite syenite magma with concurrent assimilation of Ketilidian crust.     

Living off the land: Nature and nomadism in Mongolia

The demise of the Soviet Union precipitated profound changes in formerly collectivised rural spaces across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. However, it is only recently that attention to the post-Soviet ‘land question’ has begun to move beyond predominant, practical concerns with land restitution and fragmentation and towards engagement with diverse discourses of rurality, nature and modernity. In particular, longitudinal accounts of the narratives and practices of Soviet modernisation and post-Soviet “development” in specific rural places and societies are lacking. This paper is concerned with the complex linkages between environmental policies, practice and concepts of nature in such spaces and over recent history. Through examination of the management and representation of nature amongst pastoralist communities in Mongolia and in the collective and post-collective eras this paper seeks to understand local-level enactments, reworking and assimilation of externally-derived discursive and policy formulations. In doing so it acts as a corrective to state-centred and homogenising visions of Soviet and post-Soviet rurality. It highlights how local herders’ ‘room for manoeuvre’ in expression and enactment of diverse ideas of nature and its management resides primarily in informal spaces, facilitated by recent trends of devolution in natural resource management. Finally, the paper demonstrates how nomadism has been constructed and reconstructed as a component of, rather than inimical to, modernity, albeit with as yet unproven implications for livelihoods and for nature in rural Mongolia.     

Petrology and geochemistry of Rodrigues Island,Indian Ocean

Rodrigues Island is composed of a differentiated series of transitional-mildly alkaline olivine basalts. The lavas contain phenocrysts of olivine (Fo_88–68)±plagioclase (An_73–50), together with a megacryst suite involving olivine, plagioclase, kaersutite, clinopyroxene, apatite, magnetite and hercynite-rich spinels. Troctolitic-anorthositic gabbro xenoliths are widely dispersed throughout the lavas and are probably derived from the upper parts of an underlying layered complex: the megacrysts may originate from coarse, easily disaggregated differentiates near the top of this body.Modelling of major and trace element data suggests that the majority of chemical variation in the lavas results from up to 45% fractionation of olivine, clinopyroxene, plagioclase and magnetite at low pressures, in the ratio 2035396. The clinopyroxene-rich nature of this extract assemblage is significantly different to that of the xenoliths, and suggests that clinopyroxene-rich gabbros and/or ultrabasic rocks may lie at greater depth.Sr and Nd isotopic data (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr 0.70357–070406,¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd 0.51283–0.51289) indicate a mantle source with relative LREE depletion, and emphasise an unusual degree of uniformity in Indian Ocean island sources. A small group of lavas with strong HREE enrichment suggest a garnet-poor source for these, while high overall Al₂O₃/ CaO ratios imply high clinopyroxene/garnet ratios in refractory residua.