Avalanche risk assessment for mountain roads: a case study from Iceland

This paper presents an assessment of the avalanche hazard potential and the resulting risks on mountain roads for a 38.7-km-long section of road no 76 (Siglufjarearvegur) in northern Iceland following a regional scale approach developed in the Alps. The assessment of the individual avalanche death risk proved applicable to distinguish areas of avalanche hazard with a risk above the accepted level, which should be given priority in following detailed investigations and the planning of possible protective measures, from road sections where the avalanche death risk is low and accepted according to international practice. The cumulative individual and collective avalanche death risks in the investigated road section provide a comparable measure for assessing the avalanche hazard both within the Icelandic public road network and on an international scale. The case study on road no 76 in northern Iceland shows that a standardised regional scale risk-based approach is practical to determine, analyse and assess the avalanche hazard situation on mountain roads in Iceland and guarantees comprehensible, reproducible and comparable results as a basis for a sustainable planning of measures.     

60Fe–60Ni systematics in the eucrite parent body: A case study of Bouvante and Juvinas

Eucrites are basaltic meteorites that cooled rapidly but are in many instances thermally metamorphosed and impact brecciated. The exact timing of these events remains unclear. In this study, Ni isotopic compositions and Fe/Ni elemental ratios are presented for two non-cumulate eucrites, Bouvante and Juvinas, including mineral separates from the latter. The samples are characterized by variable, well-resolved ⁶⁰Ni-excesses consistent with the former presence of live ⁶⁰Fe (t_1/2 = 2.62 Ma) at the time of eucrite crystallization. A significant fraction of Ni with a terrestrial-like composition appears to be surface correlated. This Ni may be the product of terrestrial contamination or was introduced by a chondritic impactor during brecciation. Altogether, the data provide evidence for a complex and probably multi-stage history of Fe and/or Ni redistribution, which impedes the interpretation of the chronological data.     

Conservation planning, boundary-making and border terrains: The desire for forest and order in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela

Conflicts surrounding protected area management often emerge from contested processes of boundary-making. Such productions of bounded conservation spaces are contingent in part on processes of identity formation, where some social groups are legitimized as belonging to conservation units, while others are constructed as out-of-place. This article draws on the literature in postmodern geopolitics and the political ecology of fire to interrogate processes of boundary-making and identity formation in the savanna landscape of Canaima National Park, Venezuela. The institutional culture of the environmental management agency EDELCA is in part premised on narratives of history and indigeneity coupled with a desire for an imagined, forested landscape. Because of the social constructions shaping this institutional culture, the agency maintains an approach to fire management that emphasizes fire suppression. However, an ecological field study suggests that fire suppression is leading to increased fuel loads, especially in ecologically significant boundaries between grasslands and forest. Although these boundary zones are the focus of indigenous practices of prescribed burning, they fall in-between the state management categories of forest and ecotone. As a result, these interstitial spaces become theaters for performances of domination and resistance, leading to contradictory and inconsistent approaches to fire management that place gallery forests at risk.     

Experimental study of the carbonation of partially serpentinized and weathered peridotites

Carbonation of partially serpentinized and weathered peridotites was studied experimentally under hydrothermal conditions (T: 200 °C, P_CO2: 130-180 bars). Experiments were performed in a closed system using whole rock drill core samples (height: 1 cm, diameter: 1 cm) as starting material. The initial samples were composed mainly of meshwork serpentine, relicts of primary olivine and an olivine weathering product (deweylite assemblage). Two types of solutions, each with a total salt content corresponding to that of average seawater (35 g/L dissolved salts), were used: (1) a Na-Ca-Cl solution (12.5 g/L CaCl₂ + 22.5 g/L NaCl) and (2) a NaCl solution (35 g/L NaCl). After 15-25 days of experimental treatment, the samples were partly covered with carbonates. In addition, noticeable carbonation reactions had occurred below the sample surfaces within zones with thicknesses up to 250 μm. In the Na-Ca-Cl solution, both the olivine relicts and the deweylite assemblage were partly replaced by calcite along the surrounding serpentine veins. However, the extent of calcitization was found to be considerably larger for the deweylite assemblage than for the olivine. Bulk fluid analyses show an increase in the Mg and Si concentrations with reaction time. In the NaCl solution, the deweylite assemblage was partly dissolved resulting in large voids within the reaction zone. In contrast, the olivine was replaced by magnesite. Under the conditions of our experiments, the meshwork serpentine was not reactive, but aided fluid infiltration into the rock samples. The experimentally produced microtextures closely resemble those found in natural examples. Our study elucidates the mechanisms by which carbonates form in ultramafic rocks under relatively high P_CO2-T conditions and particularly in the presence of Ca-bearing aqueous solutions. The existence of a serpentine meshtexture and the presence of weathering products formed from primary Mg-silicates may have significant beneficial effects on in situ CO₂ mineral sequestration in ultramafic rocks.     

Nuclear and incommensurate magnetic structure of NaFeGe2O6 between 5?K and 298?K and new data on multiferroic NaFeSi2O6

The compound NaFeGe₂O₆ was grown synthetically as polycrystalline powder and as large single crystals suitable for X-ray and neutron-diffraction experiments to clarify the low temperature evolution of secondary structural parameters and to determine the low temperature magnetic spins structure. NaFeGe₂O₆ is isotypic to the clinopyroxene-type compound aegirine and adopts the typical HT-C2/c clinopyroxene structure down to 2.5?K. The Na-bearing M2 polyhedra were identified to show the largest volume expansion between 2.5?K and room temperature, while the GeO₄ tetrahedra behave as stiff units. Magnetic susceptibility measurements show a broad maximum around 33?K, which marks the onset of low-dimensional magnetic ordering. Below 12?K NaFeGe₂O₆ transforms to an incommensurately modulated magnetic spin state, with k?=?[0.323, 1.0, 0.080] and a helical order of spins within the M1-chains of FeO₆ octahedra. This is determined by neutron-diffraction experiments on a single crystal. Comparison of NaFeGe₂O₆ with NaFeSi₂O₆ is given and it is shown that the magnetic ordering in the latter compound, aegirine, also is complex and is best described by two different spin states, a commensurate one with C2??/c?? symmetry and an incommensurate one, best being described by a spin density wave, oriented within the (1 0 1) plane.     

The structural vulnerability in the framework of natural hazard risk analyses and the exemplary application for storm loss modelling in Tyrol (Austria)

In the context of natural hazard-related risk analyses, different concepts and comprehensions of the term risk exist. These differences are mostly subjected to the perceptions and historical backgrounds of the different scientific disciplines and results in a multitude of methodological concepts to analyse risk. The target-oriented selection and application of these concepts depend on the specific research object which is generally closely connected to the stakeholders’ interests. An obvious characteristic of the different conceptualizations is the immanent various comprehensions of vulnerability. As risk analyses from a natural scientific-technical background aim at estimating potential expositions and consequences of natural hazard events, the results can provide an appropriate decision basis for risk management strategies. Thereby, beside the preferably addressed gravitative and hydrological hazards, seismo-tectonical and especially meteorological hazard processes have been rarely considered within multi-risk analyses in an Alpine context. Hence, their comparative grading in an overall context of natural hazard risks is not quantitatively possible. The present paper focuses on both (1) the different concepts of the natural hazard risk and especially their specific expressions in the context of vulnerability and (2) the exemplary application of the natural scientific-technical risk concepts to analyse potential extreme storm losses in the Austrian Province of Tyrol. Following the corresponding general risk concept, the case study first defines the hazard potential, second estimates the exposures and damage potentials on the basis of an existing database of the stock of elements and values, and third analyses the so-called Extreme Scenario Losses (ESL) considering the structural vulnerability of the potentially affected elements at risk. Thereby, it can be shown that extreme storm events can induce losses solely to buildings and inventory in the range of EUR 100–150 million in Tyrol. However, in an overall context of potential extreme natural hazard events, the storm risk can be classified with a moderate risk potential in this province.     

Filter-based differential hygroscopicity analyzer of aerosol particles

We describe a new differential analyzer implementing a technique for studying the hygroscopic properties of filter-precipitated aerosol particles based on a katharometric measurement of the amount of water vapor absorbed by an aerosol sample. The instrument has been tested on particles of sodium chloride and ammonium sulphate. A comparison of our data with the results of analogous measurements described in literature shows that the suggested technique has several important advantages, i.e., (1) higher sensitivity, which allows the measurement of particles of no more than 0.1 mg in mass; (2) a wide range of relative humidity variations (up to 99% at an accuracy of 0.06% RH at the upper-range value); (3) the absence of intermediate measurement steps connected with the need to account for water absorption by elements of a measurement system; and (4) the absence of restrictions to the size and shape of particles studied. In addition, the measurement technique rules out the possibility of errors caused by the kinetic effects of mass transport in the aerosol-water vapor system.     

Sex-specific biochemical and histological differences in gonads of sea urchins (Psammechinus miliaris) and their response to phenanthrene exposure

Female and male individuals of the same species often differ with respect to their susceptibility to toxicant stress. In the present study, sea urchins (Psammechinus miliaris) of both sexes were exposed to high (150 μg L?1) and environmentally relevant (5 μg L?1) concentrations of phenanthrene over 10 days. While food intake was significantly decreased following exposure to 150 μg L?1 phenanthrene, histological indices (lipofuscin accumulation, fibrosis, oocyte atresia), energetic status (energy charge, sum adenylates, AMP/ATP ratio) as well as ascorbate levels in the gonads showed either little or no effect upon phenanthrene exposure. However, most parameters (vitamin C, energy charge, sum adenylates, AMP/ATP ratio, ATP and ADP concentrations, lipofuscin content, fibrosis) significantly differed between male and female animals. This study illustrates the difficulties to identify toxic injury in reproductive tissue as it may be superimposed by gametogenesis and spawning of gametes.     

Zircon ages of late Palaeoproterozoic (ca. 1.72–1.70 Ga) extension-related granitoids in NE Rajasthan,India: Regional and tectonic significance

The Khetri region forms a late Palaeoproterozoic igneous–metamorphic complex in NE Rajasthan, India. Seven granitoid plutons of the Khetri complex have been studied for zircon U–Pb and Pb–Pb dating along with whole-rock and Nd–Sr isotope geochemistry to provide new constraints on the Palaeoproterozoic magmatic activity in the Aravalli orogen of northwestern India. Most intrusives show evidence of moderate to extreme albitisation forming microcline–albite granite and albite granite, respectively. The rocks are metaluminous to weakly peraluminous, largely ferroan and intraplate A-type granites. The U–Pb zircon ages for four plutons cover a time span of 1732–1682 Ma, whereas Pb–Pb zircon evaporation data for three intrusives indicate minimum emplacement ages between 1671 and 1537 Ma. The Nd–Sr isotopic systematics suggest the involvement of Neoarchaean to Palaeoproterozoic crustal components in the petrogenesis of these granitoids. A regional survey of late Palaeoproterozoic ages in the Aravalli orogen provides evidence for a geographically widespread extension-related event in the northwestern Indian shield about 1720–1700 Ma ago. The record of comparable ages and the magmatic history reported in parts of North America and the North China Craton may indicate the significance of this event for the rift tectonics of the hypothetical supercontinent Columbia.     

Magmato-sedimentary Carboniferous to Jurassic evolution of the western Tauern window,Eastern Alps (constraints from U-Pb zircon dating and geochemistry)

New geochronological U-Pb (LA-ICP-MS) zircon data and geochemical analyses from the Variscan orthogneisses and metavolcanic rocks in the western Tauern window are presented and used to reconstruct the pre-Alpine evolution of this area. The late- and post-Variscan stage in the Tauern window was characterised by distinct magmatic pulses accompanied by the formation of volcano-sedimentary basins. The magmatic activity started in the Visean (335.4 ± 1.5 Ma) with the intrusion of a K-rich, durbachitic biotite-granite (protolith of the Ahorn gneiss). Following a period of exhumation and erosion, Westfalian–Stefanian volcanics were deposited (Grierkar meta-rhyodacite: 309.8 ± 1.5 Ma; Venntal meta-rhyolite: 304.0 ± 3.0 Ma). A renewed magmatic pulse occurred in the Early Permian, producing large volumes of tonalites and granodiorites (Tux meta-granodiorite: 292.1 ± 1.9 Ma). The youngest magmatism is characterised by pyroclastic and tuffitic deposits (Pfitsch meta-rhyolite: 280.5 ± 2.6 Ma; Schönach valley meta-andesite: 279.0 ± 4.8 Ma). This volcanism was probably related to crustal extensional faulting within an intra-continental graben and horst setting, asthenospheric upwelling and heat flow increase due to the onset of the Permian rifting. The Permo-Triassic peneplanation and subsidence is documented by shallow marine and evaporitic deposits. Probably in the Middle Jurassic times, the area was flooded and in the Late Jurassic the whole area was covered by limestones, representing post-rift sediments on the southern European continental margin.