Implications of a 24,000-Yr Palynological Record for a Younger Dryas Cooling and for Boreal Forest Development in Northeastern Siberia

A sediment core from Smorodinovoye Lake (SML), northeastern Siberia (area to the east of the Verkhoyansk Range) spanning the last 24,000 ¹⁴C yr indicates that vegetational and climatic changes in the upper Indigirka basin resemble those in eastern Siberia (Lena basin and westward). For example, maximum postglacial summer temperatures at SML probably occurred 6000–4000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., an age more in accordance with eastern than northeastern records. Larix arrived near the lake by 9600 ¹⁴C yr B.P., approximately when forests expanded in the east but ca. 1500 ¹⁴C yr later than forests were established in the neighboring upper Kolyma basin. Paleobotanical data further suggest that Larix possibly migrated southward from populations in the arctic lowlands of eastern Siberia and did not originate from interior refugia of the upper Kolyma basin. Although a Younger Dryas cooling has been noted in eastern Siberia, SML provides the first evidence from the northeast for a similar climatic reversal. Climatic variations seemingly have persisted between the Indigirka and Kolyma basins over at least the last 11,000 ¹⁴C yr, despite the proximity of the two drainages and the occurrence of major changes in boundary conditions (e.g., seasonal insolation, sea levels) that have influenced other regional climatic patterns.     

Late cretaceous to early paleogene paleomagnetic results from Sikhote Alin, far eastern Russia: implications for deformation of East Asia

Welded tuffs in the Bogopol and Sijanov groups were sampled at 27 sites from 12 caldera formations in the Sikhote Alin mountain range around Kavalerovo (44.3°N, 135.0°E) for chronological and paleomagnetic studies. KAr age dates show that the welded tuffs erupted between 66 Ma and 46 Ma. All sites yield reliable paleomagnetic directions, with unblocking temperatures higher than 560°C. The high-temperature component at 12 sites and the medium-temperature component at 3 sites in the Bogopol Group show reversed polarity (D = 193.7°, I = −57.6°,₉₅ = 8.1°). The high-temperature component at 11 sites in the Sijanov Group showed both reversed and normal polarities and its mean direction reveals no detectable deflection from north (D = −2.9°, I = 59.6°,₉₅ = 11.2°). The combined paleomagnetic direction of the two groups yields a paleomagnetic pole of 250.5°E, 84.1°N (A₉₅ = 8.8°), which falls near Cretaceous paleomagnetic poles from Outer Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, the North China Block and the South China Block. The Sikhote Alin area appears not to have been subjected to detectable motion with respect to East Asia since about 50 Ma. This implies that the Sikhote Alin area behaved as an integral part of East Asia during the opening of the Japan Sea at about 15 Ma. However, significant separation between the paleomagnetic poles of East Asia and Europe during the Jurassic-Paleogene implies a major relative movement between these two blocks since the Paleogene.     

Biostratigraphy of the Late Middle Pleistocene (Middle Neopleistocene) of the Southern Urals region

A summary of published and unpublished materials on the stratigraphy of the Late Middle Pleistocene (Middle Neopleistocene according to the Russian stratigraphic scheme) of the Southern Urals region is given. Deposits of different origin in the regional stratigraphic units are characterized. The results of mammalian investigations provide the basis for the stratigraphical subdivision. Mollusca and palynology are used for the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironments. The stratigraphical positions of the main Middle Neopleistocene localities and precise definitions of the stratigraphical scheme of the Southern Urals region are discussed. The Southern Urals subdivisions are correlated with the Western European stratigraphical schemes (Holsteinian–Saalian interval).     

On the effects of resolution in dissipationless cosmological simulations

We present a study of numerical effects in dissipationless cosmological simulations. The numerical effects are evaluated and studied by comparing the results of a series of 64³-particle simulations of varying force resolution and number of time-steps, performed using three of the N -body techniques currently used for cosmological simulations: the Particle–Mesh (PM), the Adaptive Particle–Particle–Particle–Mesh (AP³M) and the newer Adaptive Refinement Tree (ART) codes. This study can therefore be interesting both as an analysis of numerical effects and as a systematic comparison of different codes.
We find that the AP³M and the ART codes produce similar results given that convergence is reached within the code type. We also find that numerical effects may affect the high-resolution simulations in ways that have not been discussed before. In particular, our study revealed the presence of two-body scattering, the effects of which can be greatly amplified by inaccuracies in time integration. This process appears to affect the correlation function of matter, the mass function, the inner density of dark matter haloes and other statistics at scales much larger than the force resolution, although different statistics may be affected in a different fashion. We discuss the conditions for which strong two-body scattering is possible and discuss the choice of the force resolution and integration time-step. Furthermore, we discuss recent claims that simulations with force softening smaller than the mean interparticle separation are not trustworthy and argue that this claim is incorrect in general, and applies only to the phase-sensitive statistics. Our conclusion is that, depending on the choice of mass and force resolution and the integration time-step, a force resolution as small as 0.01 of the mean interparticle separation can be justified.     

Characterization of seasonal local recharge using electrical resistivity tomography and magnetic resonance sounding

A groundwater recharge process of heterogeneous hard rock aquifer in the Moole Hole experimental watershed, south India, is being studied to understand the groundwater flow behaviour. Significant seasonal variations in groundwater level are observed in boreholes located at the outlet area indicating that the recharge process is probably taking place below intermittent streams. In order to localize groundwater recharge zones and to optimize implementation of boreholes, a geophysical survey was carried out during and after the 2004 monsoon across the outlet zone. Magnetic resonance soundings (MRS) have been performed to characterize the aquifer and measure groundwater level depletion. The results of MRS are consistent with the observation in boreholes, but it suffers from degraded lateral resolution. A better resolution of the regolith/bedrock interface is achieved using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). ERT results are confirmed by resistivity logging in the boreholes. ERT surveys have been carried out twice—before and during the monsoon—across the stream area. The major feature of recharge is revealed below the stream with a decrease by 80% of the calculated resistivity. The time‐lapse ERT also shows unexpected variations at a depth of 20 m below the slopes that could have been interpreted as a consequence of a deep seasonal water flow. However, in this area time‐lapse ERT does not match with borehole data. Numerical modelling shows that in the presence of a shallow water infiltration, an inversion artefact may take place thus limiting the reliability of time‐lapse ERT. A combination of ERT with MRS provides valuable information on structure and aquifer properties respectively, giving a clue for a conceptual model of the recharge process: infiltration takes place in the conductive fractured‐fissured part of the bedrock underlying the stream and clayey material present on both sides slows down its lateral dissipation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The evolution of eccentricity in the eclipsing binary system AS Camelopardalis

In 2002,2004 and 2017 we conducted high precision CCD photometry observations of the eclipsing binary system AS Cam.By analysis of the light curves from 1967 to 2017(our data + data from the literature) we obtained photometric elements of the system and found a change in the system's orbital eccentricity of ?e = 0.03 ± 0.01.This change can indicate that there is a third companion in the system in a highly inclined orbit with respect to the orbital plane of the central binary,and its gravitational influence may cause the discrepancy between observed and theoretical apsidal motion rates of AS Cam.     

Kamenetsk—A new impact structure in the Ukrainian Shield

The Kamenetsk impact structure is a deeply eroded simple crater that formed in crystalline rocks of the Ukrainian Shield. This study presents structural, lithologic, and shock metamorphic evidence for an impact origin of the Kamenetsk structure, which was previously described as a paleovolcano. The Kamenetsk structure is an oval depression that is 1.0–1.2 km in diameter and 130 m deep. The structure is deeply eroded, and only the lower part of the sequence of lithic breccia has been preserved in the deepest part of the crater to recent time, while the predominant part of impact rocks and postimpact sediments was eroded. Manifestations of shock metamorphism of minerals, especially planar deformation features in quartz and feldspars, were determined by petrographic investigations of lithic breccia that allowed us to determine the impact origin of the Kamenetsk structure. The erosion of the crater and surrounding target to a minimal depth of 220 m preceded the deposition of the postimpact sediments. The time of the formation of the Kamenetsk structure is bracketed within a wide interval from 2.0 to 2.1 Ga, the age of the crystalline target rocks, to the Late Miocene age of the sediments overlaying the crater. The deep erosion of the structure suggests it is probably Paleozoic in age.     

Isotopic composition of gas hydrates in subsurface sediments from offshore Sakhalin Island, Sea of Okhotsk

Hydrate-bearing sediment cores were retrieved from recently discovered seepage sites located offshore Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk. We obtained samples of natural gas hydrates and dissolved gas in pore water using a headspace gas method for determining their molecular and isotopic compositions. Molecular composition ratios C₁/_C2+ from all the seepage sites were in the range of 1,500–50,000, while δ¹³C and δD values of methane ranged from ?66.0 to ?63.2‰ VPDB and ?204.6 to ?196.7‰ VSMOW, respectively. These results indicate that the methane was produced by microbial reduction of CO₂. δ¹³C values of ethane and propane (i.e., ?40.8 to ?27.4‰ VPDB and ?41.3 to ?30.6‰ VPDB, respectively) showed that small amounts of thermogenic gas were mixed with microbial methane. We also analyzed the isotopic difference between hydrate-bound and dissolved gases, and discovered that the magnitude by which the δD hydrate gas was smaller than that of dissolved gas was in the range 4.3–16.6‰, while there were no differences in δ¹³C values. Based on isotopic fractionation of guest gas during the formation of gas hydrate, we conclude that the current gas in the pore water is the source of the gas hydrate at the VNIIOkeangeologia and Giselle Flare sites, but not the source of the gas hydrate at the Hieroglyph and KOPRI sites.     

Determining Effects of Area Burned and Fire Severity on Carbon Cycling and Emissions in Siberia

The Russian boreal forest contains about 25% of the global terrestrial biomass, and even a higher percentage of the carbon stored in litter and soils. Fire burns large areas annually, much of it in low-severity surface fires – but data on fire area and impacts or extent of varying fire severity are poor. Changes in land use, cover, and disturbance patterns such as those predicted by global climate change models, have the potential to greatly alter current fire regimes in boreal forests and to significantly impact global carbon budgets. The extent and global importance of fires in the boreal zone have often been greatly underestimated. For the 1998 fire season we estimate from remote sensing data that about 13.3 million ha burned in Siberia. This is about 5 times higher than estimates from the Russian Aerial Forest Protection Service (Avialesookhrana) for the same period. We estimate that fires in the Russian boreal forest in 1998 constituted some 14–20% of average annual global carbon emissions from forest fires. Average annual emissions from boreal zone forests may be equivalent to 23–39% of regional fossil fuel emissions in Canada and Russia, respectively. But the lack of accurate data and models introduces large potential errors into these estimates. Improved monitoring and understanding of the landscape extent and severity of fires and effects of fire on carbon storage, air chemistry, vegetation dynamics and structure, and forest health and productivity are essential to provide inputs into global and regional models of carbon cycling and atmospheric chemistry.