Age and paleoclimatic significance of the Stansbury shoreline of Lake Bonneville, Northeastern Great Basin

The Stansbury shoreline, one of the conspicuous late Pleistocene shorelines of Lake Bonneville, consists of tufa-cemented gravel and barrier beaches within a vertical zone of about 45 m, the lower limit of which is 70 m above the modern average level of Great Salt Lake. Stratigraphic evidence at a number of localities, including new evidence from Crater Island on the west side of the Great Salt Lake Desert, shows that the Stansbury shoreline formed during the transgressive phase of late Pleistocene Lake bonneville (sometime between about 22,000 and 20,000 yr B.P.). Tufa-cemented gravel and barrier beaches were deposited in the Stansbury shorezone during one or more fluctuations in water level with a maximum total amplitude of 45 m. We refer to the fluctuations as the Stansbury oscillation. The Stansbury oscillation cannot have been caused by basin-hypsometric factors, such as stabilization of lake level at an external overflow threshold or by expansion into an interior subbasin, or by changes in drainage basin size. Therefore, changes in climate must have caused the lake level to reverse its general rise, to drop about 45 m in altitude (reducing its surface area by about 18%, 5000 km²), and later to resume its rise. If the sizes of Great Basin lakes are controlled by the mean position of storm tracks and the jetstream, which as recently postulated may be controlled by the size of the continental ice sheets, the Stansbury oscillation may have been caused by a shift in the jetstream during a major interstade of the Laurentide ice sheet.     

Modeling basin-scale hydrology in support of physical climate and global biogeochemical studies: An example using the Zambezi River

Human activity is an important agent defining the contemporary hydrologic cycle. We have documented the potential impacts of impoundment, land use change and climate change on the Zambezi River system in southern Africa and found that they can be substantial. A full analysis requires construction and parameterization of a simulation for the entire catchment. This paper develops a strategy for implementing catchment-scale models of the major hydrologic processes operating within the basin. A coherent data set for calibrating the models has also been assembled. The algorithms consist of a Water Balance (WBM) and a Water Transport (WTM) operating at 1/2^o spatial scale and at monthly timesteps. These models transform complex patterns of regional climatology into estimates of soil water, evapotranspiration, runoff, and discharge through rivers of various size. The models are dependent on the characteristics of the terrestrial surface, principally soil texture and land cover. A simulated river network is also required. Additional tabular data sets are essential for model testing and calibration. These include subcatchment areas; observed river discharge at selected points; flooding, storage and loss characteristics of major wetlands; floodwave translation; and, volume, surface area, withdrawal and evaporative losses from impoundments. An important design consideration for the numerous impoundments in the Zambezi requires an understanding of the seasonal variation in discharge, in particular how it might respond to climate and land use change. The research strategy offered here lays a framework for addressing such issues. Although the primary focus of this work is hydrologic, we discuss how the model can be extended to consider constituent transport and biogeochemical cycling issues at the continental scale.     

Crystal field stabilization energies of almandine-pyrope and almandine-spessartine garnets determined by FTIR near infrared measurements

The band positions of three partially overlapping Fe²⁺ spin-allowed transitions located between 4000 and 9000 cm^–1 in almandine-pyrope and almandinespessartine garnets solid solutions were measured using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The crystal field stabilization energies (CFSE) along both binaries were calculated assuming a splitting of 1100 cm^–1 for the lower orbitals. The CFSE show a slight increase along the almandine-spessartine binary from 3730 to 3810 cm^–1 and a larger increase from 3730 to 3970 cm^–1 for the almandine-pyrope binary. Dodecahedral Fe²⁺-site distortion increases with an increase in spessartine component and decreases with increasing pyrope component, in agreement with average dodecahedral site distortions determined from diffraction experiments. The excess CFSE's along both joins are negative. For the almandinespessartine binary they are small, but are about 3.5 times larger in magnitude along the join almandine-pyrope, where an interaction parameter of W= -2.9 KJ/mole has been derived from a symmetric mixing model. The excess CFSE are relatively small compared to the magnitudes of the excess enthalpies of mixing that have been assigned to garnet solid solutions. Moreover, they give no indication which could support the positive and asymmetric excess enthalpies of mixing that have been proposed for almandine-pyrope solid solutions.     

Lower Tropospheric Warm Air Advection Patterns Associated with Heavy Rainfall over the Appalachian Region*

A synoptic climatology of warm season heavy rainfall is developed from patterns of 850 mb thermal advection over the Appalachian region. Heavy rain events are categorized according to the position and orientation of a warm air advection (WAA) ridge, a feature found in nearly two-thirds of the events. Numerous study events occur within the conditionally unstable region of the WAA ridge. In fact, numerous occurrences of heavy rainfall are tied to a superpositioning of a WAA and air mass instability ridge in the vicinity or upstream of the heavy rain area.     

Thermodynamic stability of CoOOH and its coprecipitation with manganese

A precipitate of cobalt oxyhydroxides formed by bubbling oxygen through a dilute solution of Co(NO₃)₂ held at pH 9.0 and 25°C was aged for 23 months in contact with the original solution, with access to atmospheric oxygen. Co₃O₄ and CoOOH were identified in the precipitate by X-ray diffraction. Chemical equilibria involving these solids were evaluated by measurements of solution pH and Co²⁺ activities and by redox potential measurements and gave a $\text{ΔG}{}_{\mathrm{coOOH}}{}^0$ of $\text{?92.3 ± 0.5 kcal/mole}$. This value and other thermodynamic data show relative feasibility of hypothetical reaction steps and changes in reaction paths during automated coprecipitation titrations and subsequent aging of a precipitate that finally contained βMnOOH, MnO₂ (birnessite) and CoOOH.     

Correlation of foreshocks and aftershocks and asperities

A close correlation in spatial distribution of local seismic activity and energy release patterns before and after the 1979 Petatlan, Mexico earthquake suggests heterogeneity within the fault plane of this major low-angle thrust event associated with subduction along the Middle America Trench. A simple two-asperity model is proposed to account for the complexity. Foreshocks and aftershocks of the neighboring 1981 Playa Azul earthquake showed a similar pattern. As both events occurred at the junction of the Orozco Fracture Zone and the Middle America Trench, we speculate that the observed complex fault plane is caused by subduction of the rugged ocean floor of the Orozco Fracture Zone. Short-term precursory seismicity prior to the Petatlan earthquake can be explained by using the asperity model and migration of a slip front from the south-east to the north-west across the main shock source region.     

Characteristics and origins of lee-side stratification sequences in late pleistocene drumlins,northern Ireland

Spindle- and parabolic-shaped drumlins examined at fifty-five localities in northern Ireland possess stratification sequences on their lee-side flanks. These forms lack the distinctive steep stoss- and tapering lee-ends of classical drumlins and tend to occur in linear zones transverse to late Pleistocene ice-flow. In most cases (90 per cent) the stratified deposits infill embayments excavated in the lee-side of barkhanoid forms and, in the remainder (10 per cent), they are superimposed on the lee-side of whaleback forms. The stratification sequences developed as a result of sedimentation in interconnected subglacial water-filled cavities and are unlike remanie proglacial sediments moulded by ice into drumlin form. Stratigraphic evidence indicates that the lee-side sequences developed during drumlin streamlining, which supports the view that subglacial hydraulic processes played an important role in drumlin formation.     

Parameterization of meridional energy flux in a one-dimensional climate model

Summary The zonally averaged meridional energy transport is parameterized in terms of the zonally averaged temperature gradient and its radiative equilibrium value. Two climate regimes are identified: radiative equilibrium and isothermal climates. The transport and temperature gradient are intermediate between corresponding quantities of these two climates. The parameterization assumes a linear increase of transport as temperature gradient departs from its radiative equilibrium value. The parameterization is formulated using a one-dimensional climate model. Ice-albedo feedback provides the mechanism for climate changes. The parameterization works well for climates associated with seasonal changes.

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Parameterisierung des meridionalen Energiestromes in einem eindimensionalen Klimamodell

Zusammenfassung Der zonal gemittelte, meridionale Energietransport wird in Abhängigkeit vom zonal gemittelten Temperaturgradienten und seinem Strahlungsgleichgewicht parameterisiert. Zwei Klimaregime können identifiziert werden: Strahlungsgleichgewicht und isothermes Klima. Der Transport und der Temperaturgradient befinden sich zwischen den korrespondierenden Werten dieser zwei Klimate. Die Parameterisierung nimmt eine lineare Zunahme des Transportes mit der Abweichung des Temperaturgradienten vom seinem Strahlungsgleichgewichtswert an. Die Parameterisierung wird unter Verwendung eines eindimensionalen Klimamodelles formuliert. Die Eis-Albedo-Rückkopplung liefert den Mechanismus für Klimadnderungen. Die Parameterisierung funktioniert gut fur Klimate, welche jahreszeitliche Anderungen beinhalten.

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With 4 Figures