A comparative study of the thermal behaviour of length-fast chalcedony, length-slow chalcedony (quartzine) and moganite

The thermal behaviour of silica rocks upon heat treatment is dependent on the constituent minerals and petrographic texture types. These constituents can be shown to be mainly quartz in the form of two types of chalcedony (Length-fast (LF) chalcedony and Length-slow (LS) chalcedony, the latter also being termed quartzine) and moganite. Even though the thermal behaviour of LF-chalcedony is well understood, major uncertainties persist concerning the high-temperature behaviour of LS-chalcedony and moganite. We present here a comparative study of these three constituents of common silica rocks. Our results show that the chemical reaction is the same in all three, Si–OH + HO–Si → Si–O–Si + H₂O, but that the reaction kinetics and activation temperatures are very different. LS-chalcedony begins to react from 200 °C upwards, that is at temperatures 50 °C below the ones observed in LF-chalcedony, and shows the fastest reaction kinetics of this ‘water’ loss. Chemically bound water (SiOH) in moganite is more stable at high temperatures and no specific activation temperature is necessary for triggering the temperature-induced ‘water’ loss. Moganite is also found to act as a stabilizer in silica rocks preventing them from temperature-induced fracturing. These findings have implications for the study of potential heat treatment temperatures of silica rocks (in industry and heritage studies), but they also shed light on the different structures of SiO₂ minerals and the role of OH impurities therein.     

基于对流解析模拟的南美洲西北部降雨对微物理和边界层参数化方案的敏感性研究

对流解析模拟(CPM)能帮助人们理解特定地区降雨的影响机制。在数值天气预报(NWP)模式中,微物理(MP)和行星边界层(PBL)物理参数化方案仍然是重要的不确定性来源,影响降雨的强度、发生、持续时间和传播。本文利用WRF模式,在对流解析分辨率(4 km)尺度,研究南美洲西北部(NWSA)的降雨对三种MP (WSM6, Thompson, Morrison)和两种PBL (YSU, MYNN)参数化方案的敏感性,并结合探空资料、雨量计观测和卫星资料对模拟结果进行评估,同时考虑了NWSA不同深对流易发区的降水时空变化特征。结果表明,计算成本较低的WSM6 MP和YSU PBL方案模拟降水的效果较好。与雨量计观测和卫星降水估算相比,Morrison MP高估了降雨量,特别是安第斯山脉以西的降雨量,而MYNN PBL低估了亚马逊热带大草原平原地区的降雨量。我们发现,模式预测降雨的不确定性高度依赖于区域：MP对哥伦比亚太平洋区域影响较大,PBL对亚马逊热带大草原平原的影响较大。对降水相关过程分析发现,MP和PBL参数化的选择对模拟的对流层低层水汽通量和水汽辐合有较大影响。PBL方案对短波向下辐射有显著影响,MYNN模拟的低空云较多,降低了辐射收入;而YSU潜热通量较大,有利于湿对流和降雨。MP方案对垂直速度有显著影响;具体来说,Morrison表现出更强的对流和更高的降水率,这与固态水凝物形成的更大潜热释放有关。本研究为NWP模式的物理参数化评估提供了参考,并提出了NWSA降雨模拟的关键过程。

     

Net primary production of terrestrial ecosystems from 2000 to 2009

The CASA (Carnegie-Ames-Stanford) ecosystem model has been used to estimate monthly carbon fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems from 2000 to 2009, with global data inputs from NASA??s Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation cover mapping. Net primary production (NPP) flux for atmospheric carbon dioxide has varied slightly from year-to-year, but was predicted to have increased over short multi-year periods in the regions of the high-latitude Northern Hemisphere, South Asia, Central Africa, and the western Amazon since the year 2000. These CASA results for global NPP were found to be in contrast to other recently published modeling trends for terrestrial NPP with high sensitivity to regional drying patterns. Nonetheless, periodic declines in regional NPP were predicted by CASA for the southern and western Untied States, the southern Amazon, and southern and eastern Africa. NPP in tropical forest zones was examined in greater detail to discover lower annual production values than previously reported in many global models across the tropical rainforest zones, likely due to the enhanced detection of lower production ecosystems replacing primary rainforest.     

Double-difference Relocation of the Aftershocks of the Tecom��n, Colima, Mexico Earthquake of 22 January 2003

On 22 January 2003, the M _w?=?7.6 Tecomán earthquake struck offshore of the state of Colima, Mexico, near the diffuse triple junction between the Cocos, Rivera, and North American plates. Three-hundred and fifty aftershocks of the Tecomán earthquake with magnitudes between 2.6 and 5.8, each recorded by at least 7 stations, are relocated using the double difference method. Initial locations are determined using P and S readings from the Red Sismológica Telemétrica del Estado de Colima (RESCO) and a 1-D velocity model. Because only eight RESCO stations were operating immediately following the Tecomán earthquake, uncertainties in the initial locations and depths are fairly large, with average uncertainties of 8.0?km in depth and 1.4?km in the north?Csouth and east?Cwest directions. Events occurring between 24 January and 31 January were located using not only RESCO phase readings but also additional P and S readings from 11 temporary stations. Average uncertainties decrease to 0.8?km in depth, 0.3?km in the east?Cwest direction, and 0.7?km in the north?Csouth direction for events occurring while the temporary stations were deployed. While some preliminary studies of the early aftershocks suggested that they were dominated by shallow events above the plate interface, our results place the majority of aftershocks along the plate interface, for a slab dipping between approximately 20° and 30°. This is consistent with the slab positions inferred from geodetic studies. We do see some upper plate aftershocks that may correspond to forearc fault zones, and faults inland in the upper plate, particularly among events occurring more than 3?months after the mainshock.     

Characterisation and sediment–source linkages of intertidal sediment of the UK’s north Sefton Coast using magnetic and textural properties: findings and limitations

Sediment pathways and links to offshore processes are considered in the textural and magnetic characteristics of sediments of the intertidal flats and salt marshes of the north Sefton Coast, UK. In addition, sediment from a range of intertidal, marine and fluvial locations within the northwest region has similarly been characterised. Subsequently, the characteristics of these regional sediments, using a multivariate statistical approach of R- and Q-mode factor analyses, have been used to investigate the sediment transport pathways of the north Sefton Coast sediment. The benefits of fractionating sediment samples have been observed, and by using combinations of textural and isothermal remanent magnetic measurements, specific environments within the research have been successfully differentiated and characterised. Linkages between potential sediment source areas have also been established on a particle size-related basis.     

Calibrating a Salt Water Intrusion Model with Time‐Domain Electromagnetic Data

Salt water intrusion models are commonly used to support groundwater resource management in coastal aquifers. Concentration data used for model calibration are often sparse and limited in spatial extent. With airborne and ground‐based electromagnetic surveys, electrical resistivity models can be obtained to provide high‐resolution three‐dimensional models of subsurface resistivity variations that can be related to geology and salt concentrations on a regional scale. Several previous studies have calibrated salt water intrusion models with geophysical data, but are typically limited to the use of the inverted electrical resistivity models without considering the measured geophysical data directly. This induces a number of errors related to inconsistent scales between the geophysical and hydrologic models and the applied regularization constraints in the geophysical inversion. To overcome these errors, we perform a coupled hydrogeophysical inversion (CHI) in which we use a salt water intrusion model to interpret the geophysical data and guide the geophysical inversion. We refer to this methodology as a Coupled Hydrogeophysical Inversion‐State (CHI‐S), in which simulated salt concentrations are transformed to an electrical resistivity model, after which a geophysical forward response is calculated and compared with the measured geophysical data. This approach was applied for a field site in Santa Cruz County, California, where a time‐domain electromagnetic (TDEM) dataset was collected. For this location, a simple two‐dimensional cross‐sectional salt water intrusion model was developed, for which we estimated five uniform aquifer properties, incorporating the porosity that was also part of the employed petrophysical relationship. In addition, one geophysical parameter was estimated. The six parameters could be resolved well by fitting more than 300 apparent resistivities that were comprised by the TDEM dataset. Except for three sounding locations, all the TDEM data could be fitted close to a root‐mean‐square error of 1. Possible explanations for the poor fit of these soundings are the assumption of spatial uniformity, fixed boundary conditions and the neglecting of 3D effects in the groundwater model and the TDEM forward responses.