Wildfire impacts on education and healthcare: Paradise,California, after the Camp Fire

Natural Hazards - The 2018 Camp Fire caused significant damages to the education and healthcare systems in the town of Paradise, CA. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative case study...     

Grampian migmatites in the Buchan Block,NE Scotland

Rocks exposed along the Scottish coast between Fraserburgh and Inzie Head contain information critical to understanding the evolution of the Buchan Block, the type locality for low‐P, high‐T regional metamorphism, and its relationship with the rest of the Grampian terrane, one of the major tectonostratigraphic components of the Scottish Caledonides. The ~8 km long section traverses a regional network of shear zones and, at the highest grades around Inzie Head, passes into the core of the Buchan Anticline, a large‐scale open fold that is commonly regarded as a late structure, post‐dating metamorphism. The metasedimentary rocks increase in grade from upper amphibolite to granulite facies and preserve unequivocal evidence for partial melting. The diatexite migmatites around Inzie Head, along with other gneissose units within the Buchan Block, have been regarded as allochthonous Precambrian basement rocks that were thrust into their current position during the Grampian orogenesis. However, field observations show that the onset of in situ partial melting in metapelitic rocks, which was associated with the formation of garnet‐bearing aplites and associated pegmatites, occurred around Fraserburgh, where shear fabrics are absent. Thus, the rocks preserve a continuous metamorphic field gradient that straddles the shear zone network. This observation supports an alternative interpretation that anatexis was the result of mid‐Ordovician (Grampian) metamorphism, rather than an older tectonothermal event, and that the Inzie Head gneisses are autochthonous. Using an average mid‐Dalradian pelite as a plausible representative protolith, phase equilibria modelling satisfactorily reproduces the observed appearance and disappearance of key minerals providing that peritectic garnet produced with the first formed melts (represented by the garnet‐bearing aplites) depleted the source rocks in Mn. The modelled metamorphic field gradient records a temperature increase of at least 150 °C (from ~650 °C near Fraserburgh to in excess of 800 °C at Inzie Head) but is isobaric at pressures of 2.7–2.8 kbar, suggesting the Buchan Anticline developed synchronous with partial melting. The Buchan Anticline is likely an expression of crustal thinning and asthenospheric upwelling, which produced voluminous gabbroic intrusions that supplied the heat for Buchan metamorphism.     

Calcite Dissolution Kinetics

We compare the canonical treatment of calcite’s dissolution rate from the literature in a closed system, particle batch reactor, with the alternative approach suggested by Truesdale (Aquat Geochem, 2015). We show that the decay of rate over time can be understood in terms of the evolution and distribution of reactive sites on the surface of these particles. We also emphasize that interpretation of observed rates must not exclude the fundamental role of crystal defects, whose importance is already implicitly reflected in the common form of rate laws in geochemistry. The empirical behavior of overall rate in closed systems, such as those described by Truesdale, may thus reflect relationships between defect centers and the generation of steps over the calcite surface (previously documented for silicates), such that below a critical free energy limit, there is insufficient driving force to open hollow cores and thus a loss of reaction mechanism. Dissolution in this very-near-equilibrium regime will be dependent on the distribution of extant steps and the energetics of new kink site nucleation. However, these sensitivities are complicated in the case of particle systems by grain boundaries, edges, corners, and other terminations. Such discontinuities constitute a defect class whose overall kinetic importance will be strongly tied to particle diameter and which can act independently of the internal strain field imposed by screw and edge dislocations.     

Climate change and mental health: an exploratory case study from Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Canada

As the impacts from anthropogenic climate change are increasing globally, people are experiencing dramatic shifts in weather, temperature, wildlife and vegetation patterns, and water and food quality and availability. These changes impact human health and well-being, and resultantly, climate change has been identified as the biggest global health threat of the 21st Century. Recently, research is beginning to indicate that changes in climate, and the subsequent disruption to the social, economic, and environmental determinants of health, may cause increased incidences and prevalence of mental health issues, emotional responses, and large-scale sociopsychological changes. Through a multi-year, community-led, exploratory case study conducted in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Labrador, Canada, this research qualitatively explores the impacts of climate change on mental health and well-being in an Inuit context. Drawing from 67 in-depth interviews conducted between January 2010 and October 2010 with community members and local and regional health professionals, participants reported that changes in weather, snow and ice stability and extent, and wildlife and vegetation patterns attributed to climate change were negatively impacting mental health and well-being due to disruptions in land-based activities and a loss of place-based solace and cultural identity. Participants reported that changes in climate and environment increased family stress, enhanced the possibility of increased drug and alcohol usage, amplified previous traumas and mental health stressors, and were implicated in increased potential for suicide ideation. While a preliminary case study, these exploratory findings indicate that climate change is becoming an additional mental health stressor for resource-dependent communities and provide a baseline for further research.     

The UNFCCC as a negotiation forum: towards common but more differentiated responsibilities

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDRC) captures the idea that it is the common responsibility of states to protect and restore the environment but that the levels and forms of states’ individual responsibilities may be differentiated according to their own national circumstances. This principle has shaped the evolution of the climate regime and has played an important role in promoting compromise and agreement. It is argued that some twenty years after the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the principle of CBDRC remains as relevant as ever. The practice of Parties under the regime and, most recently, the concerted efforts to shape and flesh out the meaning of the principle, underscore the central role that it plays. At the same time, the binary understanding of CBDRC in the Kyoto Protocol is being replaced with a more nuanced, multifaceted understanding. The evolving interpretation of CBDRC is considered, and its continued relevance as the nucleus of a global burden-sharing regime for addressing climate change is demonstrated.

Policy relevance

The development of a common understanding of the principle of CBDRC is essential for the burden sharing and responsibilities under a future climate agreement. The CBDRC principle captures the idea that it is the common responsibility of states to protect and restore the environment, but that the levels and forms of states’ individual responsibilities may be differentiated according to their own national circumstances. This article informs the international climate change negotiations by considering the development of the principle of CBDRC under the UNFCCC over time. It is concluded that, although there has been a significant shift in how the principle is understood, it remains crucial to the integrity and stability of the climate regime.     

Lithoprobe east: results from reflection profiling of the continental margin: Grand Banks Region.

Summary. The 1985 Lithoprobe East profiles resolve deep crustal structure of the Grand Banks off eastern Canada. Basins are 7 to 20 km deep, and bounded by major faults traceable to Mono depth. The lower crust is reflective along much of the survey, and the top of this reflective layer has a variable depth. Prominent and often surprisingly flat Mono reflections are observed. Puzzling rotated fault blocks are imaged at the continent-ocean transition.     

Theoretical density distribution of plasma streaming around a cylinder

The distribution of plasma density around a metallic cylinder in a collisionfree plasma is determined by the system of Vlassov equations and the Poisson equation. The plasma may have a streaming velocity perpendicular to the cylinder axis producing a wake behind the cylinder. In the region outside a thin double layer at the cylinder surface the problem allows some simplification. Then numerical solutions become possible-even if the streaming velocity is low. Some numerical solutions are presented. A magnetic field produces an asymmetric shape of the wake, if the gyration radius of the ion becomes comparable to the cylinder radius.     

Is there a black hole among the black-hole candidates?

None of the tentative black-hole identifications has remained without serious difficulties. As a class, the black-hole candidates differ in no obvious property from neutron-star binaries other than in their estimated high mass. We favour an interpretation of the black-hole candidates as binary neutron stars surrounded by a more or less massive accretion disc