The World Karst Aquifer Mapping project: concept,mapping procedure and map of Europe

Karst aquifers contribute substantially to freshwater supplies in many regions of the world, but are vulnerable to contamination and difficult to manage because of their unique hydrogeological characteristics. Many karst systems are hydraulically connected over wide areas and require transboundary exploration, protection and management. In order to obtain a better global overview of karst aquifers, to create a basis for sustainable international water-resources management, and to increase the awareness in the public and among decision makers, the World Karst Aquifer Mapping (WOKAM) project was established. The goal is to create a world map and database of karst aquifers, as a further development of earlier maps. This paper presents the basic concepts and the detailed mapping procedure, using France as an example to illustrate the step-by-step workflow, which includes generalization, differentiation of continuous and discontinuous carbonate and evaporite rock areas, and the identification of non-exposed karst aquifers. The map also shows selected caves and karst springs, which are collected in an associated global database. The draft karst aquifer map of Europe shows that 21.6% of the European land surface is characterized by the presence of (continuous or discontinuous) carbonate rocks; about 13.8% of the land surface is carbonate rock outcrop.

     

River tributaries as sediment sinks: Processes operating where the Tapajós and Xingu rivers meet the Amazon tidal river

The Amazon River is the largest fluvial source of fresh water and sediment to the global ocean and has the longest tidally influenced reach in the world. Two major rivers, the Tapajós and Xingu, enter the Amazon along its tidal reach. However, unlike most fluvial confluences, these are not one‐way conduits through which water and sediment flow downstream towards the sea. The drowned‐river valleys (rias) at the confluences of the Tapajós and Xingu with the Amazon River experience water‐level fluctuations associated not only with the seasonal rise and fall of the river network, but also with semidiurnal tides that propagate as far as 800 km up the Amazon River. Superimposed seasonal and tidal forcing, distinct sediment and temperature signatures of Amazon and tributary waters, and antecedent geomorphology combine to create mainstem–tributary confluences that act as sediment traps rather than sources of sediment. Hydrodynamic measurements are combined with data from sediment cores to determine the distribution of tributary‐derived and Amazon‐derived sediment within the ria basins, characterize the sediment‐transport mechanisms within the confluence areas and estimate rates of sediment accumulation within both rias. The Tapajós and Xingu ria basins trap the majority of the sediment carried by the tributaries themselves in addition to ca 20 Mt year^?1 of sediment sourced from the Amazon River. These findings have implications for the interpretation of stratigraphy associated with incised‐valley systems, such as those that dominated the transfer of sediment to the oceans during lowstands in sea level.     

A fully convex reformulation of the original Matsuoka–Nakai failure criterion and its implicit numerically efficient integration algorithm

This paper presents a reformulation of the original Matsuoka–Nakai criterion for overcoming the limitations which make its use in a stress point algorithm problematic. In fact, its graphical representation in the principal stress space is not convex as it comprises more branches, plotting also in negative octants, and it does not increase monotonically as the distance of the stress point from the failure surface rises. The proposed mathematical reformulation plots as a single, convex surface, which entirely lies in the positive octant of the stress space and evaluates to a quantity which monotonically increases as the stress point moves away from the failure surface. It is an exact reproduction, and not an approximated one, of the only significant branch of the original criterion. It is also suitable for shaping in the deviatoric plane the yield and plastic potential surfaces of complex constitutive models. A very efficient numerical algorithm for the implicit integration of the proposed formulation is presented, which enables the evaluation of the stress at the end of each increment by solving a single scalar equation, both for associated and non‐associated plasticity. The algorithm can be easily adapted for other smooth surfaces with linear meridian section. Finally, a close expression of the consistent Jacobian matrix is given for achieving quadratic convergence in the external structural newton loop. It is shown that all this results in extremely fast solutions of boundary value problems. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling seasonal variations of natural radioactivity in soils: A case study in southern Italy

The activity of natural radionuclides in soil has become an environmental concern for local public and national authorities because of the harmful effects of radiation exposure on human health. In this context, modelling and mapping the activity of natural radionuclides in soil is an important research topic. The study was aimed to model, in a spatial sense, the soil radioactivity in an urban and peri-urban soils area in southern Italy to analyse the seasonal influence on soil radioactivity. Measures of gamma radiation naturally emitted through the decay of radioactive isotopes (potassium, uranium and thorium) were analysed using a geostatistical approach to map the spatial distribution of soil radioactivity. The activity of three radionuclides was measured at 181 locations using a high-resolution ?-ray spectrometry. To take into account the influence of season, the measurements were carried out in summer and in winter. Activity data were analysed by using a geostatistical approach and zones of relatively high or low radioactivity were delineated. Among the main processes which influence natural radioactivity such as geology, geochemical, pedological, and ecological processes, results of this study showed a prominent control of radio-emission measurements by seasonal changes. Low natural radioactivity levels were measured in December associated with winter weather and moist soil conditions (due to high rainfall and low temperature), and higher activity values in July, when the soil was dry and no precipitations occurred.     

Tectonic and liquefaction structures in the Loreto basin,Baja California (Mexico) : synsedimentary deformation along a fossil fault plane

Abstract

Complex fault assemblages associated to liquefaction structures have been analyzed in a Pliocene basin located along the Gulf of California. The studied outcrop shows a fossil fault plane formed ill soft flat lying sediments. The liquefaction and fluidification structures have been recognized in voleaniclastic layers deposited ill a lagoonal environment and are potentially related to seismic wave shaking and to successive dewatering along fractures. This strati-graphic record is explained by the progressive development of a seismic fault zone, related to the transtensional regime still active in the Gulf. The present analysis can he considered as an useful case study for the reconnaissance of the different types of structures formed during synsedimentary deformation in hydroplastic conditions.     

Solubility of Fe-ettringite (Ca6[Fe(OH)6]2(SO4)3 · 26H2O)

The solubility of Fe-ettringite (Ca₆[Fe(OH)₆]₂(SO₄)₃ · 26H₂O) was measured in a series of precipitation and dissolution experiments at 20 °C and at pH-values between 11.0 and 14.0 using synthesised material. A time-series study showed that equilibrium was reached within 180 days of ageing. After equilibrating, the solid phases were analysed by XRD and TGA while the aqueous solutions were analysed by ICP-OES (calcium, sulphur) and ICP-MS (iron). Fe-ettringite was found to be stable up to pH 13.0. At higher pH-values Fe-monosulphate (Ca₄[Fe(OH)₆]₂(SO₄) · 6H₂O) and Fe-monocarbonate (Ca₄[Fe(OH)₆]₂(CO₃) · 6H₂O) are formed. The solubilities of these hydrates at 25 °C are:      

Testing Nano-Powder and Fused-Glass Mineral Reference Materials for In Situ Rb-Sr Dating of Glauconite,Phlogopite, Biotite and Feldspar via LA-ICP-MS/MS

Reference materials (RMs) with well-characterised composition are necessary for reliable quantification and quality control of isotopic analyses of geological samples. For in situ Rb-Sr analysis of silicate minerals via laser ablation inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS/MS) with a collision/reaction cell, there is a general lack of mineral-specific and matrix-matched RMs, which limits wider application of this new laser-based dating technique to certain minerals. In this work, pressed nano-powder pellets (NP) of four RMs, GL-O (glauconite), Mica-Mg (phlogopite), Mica-Fe (biotite) and FK-N (K-feldspar), were analysed and tested for in situ Rb-Sr dating, complemented by isotope dilution (ID) MC-ICP-MS Rb-Sr analyses of GL-O and Mica-Mg. In addition, we attempted to develop alternative flux-free and fused ‘mineral glasses’ from the above RMs for in situ Rb-Sr dating applications. Overall, the results of this study showed that among the above RMs only two NP (Mica-Mg-NP and GL-O-NP) were suitable and robust for in situ dating applications. These two nano-powder reference materials, Mica-Mg-NP and GL-O-NP, were thus used as primary RMs to normalise and determine Rb-Sr ages for three natural minerals: MDC phlogopite and GL-O glauconite grains, and also Mica-Fe-NP (biotite). Our in situ analyses of the above RMs yielded Rb-Sr ages that are in good agreement (within 8%) of published ages, which suggests that both Mica-Mg-NP and GL-O-NP are suitable RMs for in situ Rb-Sr dating of phlogopite, glauconite and biotite. However, using secondary RMs is recommended to monitor the quality of the obtained ages.     

The potential added value of Regional Climate Models in South America using a multiresolution approach

This paper aims to identify those regions within the South American continent where the Regional Climate Models (RCMs) have the potential to add value (PAV) compared to their coarser-resolution global forcing. For this, we used a spatial-scale filtering method based on the wavelet theory to distinguish the regional climatic signal present in atmospheric surface fields from observed data (CPC and TRMM) and 6 RCM simulations belonging to the CORDEX Project. The wavelet used for filtering was Haar wavelet, but a comparative analysis with Daubechies 4 wavelet indicated that meteorological fields or regional indices were not very sensitive to the wavelet selected. Once the longer wavelengths were filtered, we focused on analyzing the spatial variability of extreme rainfall and the spatiotemporal variability of maximum and minimum surface air temperature on a daily basis. The results obtained suggest essential differences in the spatial distribution of the small-scale signal of extreme precipitation between TRMM and regional models, together with a large dispersion between models. While TRMM and CPC register a large signal throughout the continent, the RCMs place it over the Andes Cordillera and some over tropical South America. PAV signal for surface air temperature was found over the Andes Cordillera and the Brazilian Highlands, which are regions characterized by complex topography, and also on the coasts of the continent. The signal came specially from the small-scale stationary component. The transient part is much smaller than the stationary one, except over la Plata Basin where they are of the same order of magnitude. Also, the RCMs and CPC showed a large spread between them in representing this transient variability. The results confirm that RCMs have the potential to add value in the representation of extreme precipitation and the mean surface temperature in South America. However, this condition is not applicable throughout the whole continent but is particularly relevant in those terrestrial regions where the surface forcing is strong, such as the Andes Cordillera or the coasts of the continent.