Annual dissolved fluxes from Central Nepal rivers: budget of chemical erosion in the Himalayas

Annual dissolved element fluxes of Himalayan rivers from Central Nepal are calculated using published river discharge and a new set chemical data of rivers, including monsoon sampling. These are used to study the control on chemical erosion of carbonate and silicate over the whole basin. Chemical erosion of carbonate is mainly controlled by the river runoff but it can be limited by the availability of carbonate in limestone-free basin. Chemical erosion of silicate is well correlated to the runoff. However differences between High Himalayan and Lesser Himalayan basins suggest that physical erosion may also play an important control on silicate weathering. To cite this article: C. France-Lanord et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).     

Probabilistic impedance of foundation: Impact of the seismic design on uncertain soils

In the linear seismic design of buildings, the (deterministic) substructure method is a customary and efficient approach. However, the existence of spatial variability in the parameters of the mechanical model of the soil, as well as parametric errors, calls for the use of probabilistic approaches in order to provide a reliable design of the structure. The construction of probabilistic models of the soil impedance matrix provides a natural path to such approaches within the context of the substructure method. Two main techniques are described in this paper: a parametric one, typically using the stochastic finite element method, and a nonparametric one, which was introduced more recently. The latter is explored more specifically, and the possibilities it offers in terms of seismic design are presented. In particular, it is shown that it allows for the estimation of quantiles of the quantities of interest, rather than confidence intervals, which lead to highly conservative design. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A sediment budget for a grazed semi-arid catchment in the Burdekin basin, Australia

In catchments adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area in Queensland, Australia, there is a growing concern that sediments and nutrients being exported from the land are having a detrimental effect on coral reef communities. There is a need to determine the processes and rates of erosion from the major land use types, so that management intervention can be initiated to reduce sediment yields where required. This paper presents a sediment budget for Weany Creek, a 13.5 km² grazed semi-arid sub-catchment of the Burdekin River catchment, Australia. A range of field methods was used to measure erosion from hillslopes, gullies and stream banks, as well as identify the amount of sediment being deposited and remobilised on the bed of gullies and the stream network. The data suggests that at least during drought conditions, the primary erosion source in this catchment is gully erosion. However, the largest source of sediment in the budget is actually associated with the remobilisation of in-channel sediment stores. Overall, the sediment budget is comprised of  81% coarse material and 19% fine sediment and an agreement between the fine sediment yield estimated in the sediment budget and the yield measured at the catchment outlet is within 10%. The total sediment yield estimated for this catchment is  4205 t yr^− 1 and is much lower than expected for a catchment of this size. This may reflect the drought conditions during the measurement period; however, there is also the possibility that the primary erosion sources have been exhausted, and the rates of sediment loss may be much lower now than they may have been in the past. Nonetheless, the results show that stored sediment, which may have been deposited in the channel many decades ago, is an important contributor to end of catchment sediment yields and warrants further investigation.     

Galaxies in Interaction

Posters: Because of the large number of contributions, some oral presentations had to be transferred into Posters. The reader is referred to the final programme for the actual allocation of Posters. A01 Chemical Enrichment of the Intracluster Medium A02 Structural analysis of high‐velocity clouds – Evidence for an interaction between the Milky Way and the Magellanic System A03 Multi‐Phase Chemo‐Dynamical SPH code for galaxy evolution A04 The proper motion of M33 A05 Wavelet analysis of Intra–group Light in Hickson Compact Groups A06 Evidence for an evolutionary connection between early and late type dwarf galaxies A07 Dwarf Galaxies in the NGC 5846 Group A08 X‐ray spectroscopy of serendipitous clusters of galaxies in XMM‐Newton observations A09 Evolution of smale scale systems of galaxies: X‐ray detected E+S galaxy pairs A10 Modelling Star Formation in Interacting Galaxies A11 NGC 1427A – the beginning of the end: a lonely dwarf irregular entering the dense core of the Fornax cluster A12 Dwarf galaxies in galaxy groups: Photo‐evaporation, orbits and gas stripping A13 High resolution stellar kinematics for the central component of the Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 4650A A14 The Influence of Environment on the Morphological Evolution of Disk‐Dominated Galaxies A15 Interactions and star formation in galaxies A16 Dust Condensations and Molecular Clouds in Interacting Spirals A17 Star formation rates and kinematics of modelled interacting galaxies A18 Evolution of Galaxies and the Tully–Fisher Relation A19 Evolution and Collision of Galaxies on the GRID A20 Multiwavelength observations of two S+E merger candidates: the Medusa and NGC 4441 A21 Interacting Galaxies in Small Galaxy Groups A22 Virial and total masses of galaxy triplets in the Local Supercluster A23 Simulations of Interaction Processes of Galaxies with the Intra‐Cluster Medium A24 Chemical evolution of the thick and thin disks of our Galaxy A25 Dust properties of UV‐bright galaxies at z ∼ 2 A26 Simulation of the Gravitational Collapse and Fragmentation of Rotating Molecular Clouds A27 NGC 5719/13: interacting spirals forming a counter‐rotating stellar disc A28 Starbursts in very metal‐poor dwarfs due to interactions and mergers: link to the processes in the high‐redshift young galaxies A29 Testing galaxy evolution in the field: morphology and properties of the diffuse X‐ray emission in shell galaxies A30 Effects of galactic winds on dIrrs with particular emphasis on NGC 1569 and the refill of superbubble cavities A31 Galaxy formation through merging at z ≈ 2 A32 3D simulations of the ISM‐ICM interaction of disk galaxies in clusters A33 Gas replenishment in ram pressure stripped disk galaxies A34 New Results on the Kinematics of the Outer Cluster System of NGC 1399 A35 Chemical gradient evolution in massive galaxy disk due to its minor merger with dwarf galaxy A36 The complex kinematics of galaxies in Hickson 62 A37 Dust in the outer regions of interacting galaxies A38 Dynamical interaction of M31 and M32 A39 A comparative study of galaxy properties in low‐ and high density environment A40 Compact Groups in Dense Environment: The Case of IC1370 A41 The Star Formation History of CG J1720‐67.8 A42 Galaxy populations in the infall regions of intermediate redshift clusters A43 The study of gravitational fragmentation in two‐clumps collisions A44 Star Formation Activity in Galaxy Clusters Near and Far A45 An Exploration of the Merging History of the Local Starburst Galaxy, NGC 3310 A46 The high‐velocity clouds of M31: tracers of galactic evolution A47 The Properties of Fossil Groups     

Gas-Phase Formation of Water-Soluble Organic Compounds in the Atmosphere: A Retrosynthetic Analysis

Atmospheric particles contain a myriad of organiccompounds, including many multifunctional,water-soluble organic compounds. Many of thesecompounds are postulated to be secondary of origin. This work investigates the possible precursors ofseveral classes of multifunctional, water-solublesecondary organic compounds by analyzing the pathwaysleading to their formation, based on known gas-phasereactions. The analysis is termed `retrosynthetic'due to the backward direction of the analysis, fromproducts to precursors. Pathways for multi-functionalcompounds were generated combinatorially, consideringthe formation of one functional group at a time.Many multifunctional organic compounds with carboxylicacid, carbonyl, and hydroxy functional groups werefound to be first- or second-generation products ofcommon anthropogenic and biogenic volatile organiccompounds such as alkanes, alkenes, aromatics, andcyclic alkenes. The estimated yields of water-solubleorganic compounds from primary precursors ranged fromless than 1% to over 10%, based on stoichiometricconsiderations. The SOA formation index, whichcombines the concepts of yields and rates, was used tocompare the feasibility of the retrosyntheticpathways. Many of the candidate pathways involve theisomerization reaction of alkoxy radicals andoxygenated intermediate products such asmonocarboxylic acids and hydroxyaldehydes.     

Ck-Reconstruction of Surfaces from Partial Data

In this paper, we study the problem of constructing a smooth approximant of a surface defined by the equation z = f(x ₁, x ₂), the data being a finite set of patches on this surface. This problem occurs, for example, after geophysical processing such as migration of time-maps or depth-maps. The usual algorithms to solve this problem are picking points on the patches to get Lagrange's data or trying to get local junctions on patches. But the first method does not use the continuous aspect of the data and the second one does not perform well to get a global regular approximant (C ¹ or more). As an approximant of f, a discrete smoothing spline belonging to a suitable piecewise polynomial space is proposed. The originality of the method consists in the fidelity criterion used to fit the data, which takes into account their particular aspect (surface's patches): the idea is to define a function that minimizes the volume located between the data patches and the function, and which is globally C ^k. We first demonstrate the new method on a theoretical aspect and numerical results on real data are given.     

Improving modelling and inversion in refraction seismics with a first-order Eikonal solver

A first-order Eikonal solver is applied to modelling and inversion in refraction seismics. The method calculates the traveltime of the fastest wave at any point of a regular grid, including head waves as used in refraction. The efficiency, robustness and flexibility of the method give a very powerful modelling tool to find both traveltimes and raypaths. Comparisons with finite-difference data show the validity of the results. Any arbitrarily complex model can be studied, including the exact topography of the surface, thus avoiding static corrections. Later arrivals are also obtained by applying high-slowness masks over the high-velocity zones. Such an efficient modelling tool may be used interactively to invert for the model, but a better method is to apply the refractor-imaging principle of Hagedoorn to obtain the refractors from the picked traveltime curves. The application of this principle has already been tried successfully by previous authors, but they used a less well-adapted Eikonal solver. Some of their traveltimes were not correct in the presence of strong velocity variations, and the refractor-imaging principle was restricted to receiver lines along a plane surface. With the first-order Eikonal solver chosen, any topography of the receiving surface can be considered and there is no restriction on the velocity contrast. Based on synthetic examples, the Hagedoorn principle appears to be robust even in the case of first arrivals associated with waves diving under the refractor. The velocities below the refractor can also be easily estimated, parallel to the imaging process. In this way, the model can be built up successively layer by layer, the refractor-imaging and velocity-mapping processes being performed for each identified refractor at a time. The inverted model could then be used in tomographic inversions because the calculated traveltimes are very close to the observed traveltimes and the raypaths are available.     

Radio galaxies with a 'double-double' morphology – II. The evolution of double-double radio galaxies and implications for the alignment effect in FRII sources

A double-double radio galaxy (DDRG) is defined as consisting of a pair of double radio sources with a common centre. In this paper we present an analytical model in which the peculiar radio structure of DDRGs is caused by an interruption of the jet flow in the central AGN. The new jets emerging from the restarted AGN give rise to an inner source structure within the region of the old, outer cocoon. Standard models of the evolution of FRII sources predict gas densities within the region of the old cocoon that are insufficient to explain the observed properties of the inner source structure. Therefore additional material must have passed from the environment of the source through the bow shock surrounding the outer source structure into the cocoon. We propose that this material is warm clouds (∼10⁴ K) of gas embedded in the hot IGM which are eventually dispersed over the cocoon volume by surface instabilities induced by the passage of cocoon material. The derived lower limits for the volume filling factors of these clouds are in good agreement with results obtained from optical observations. The long time-scales for the dispersion of the clouds (∼10⁷ yr) are consistent with the apparently exclusive occurrence of the DDRG phenomenon in large (≳700 kpc) radio sources, and with the observed correlation of the strength of the optical/UV alignment effect in z ∼1 FRII sources with their linear size.     

An Overview of Dissolved and Suspended Matter Fluxes in the Loire River Basin: Natural and Anthropogenic Inputs

The spatial and temporal distributions of major elements were investigated in the surface waters and in associated suspended matter at two sites of the upper Loire basin (Orleans and Brehemont) between 1995 and 1998.According to geochemical and isotopic patterns, the dissolved load appears to result from a process of mixing rainwater inputs, weathering processes of carbonate and silicate bedrock, and agricultural and urban inputs. Natural inputs influence 60% of water chemical composition at both sites. Annual dissolved fluxes were estimated to be 1300 10³ t/y at Orleans and 1620 10³ t/y at Brehemont. Major elements are transported mainly in the dissolved fraction. After correcting for atmospheric and anthropogenic inputs, the silicate specific export rate was calculated to be 11 t/y/km² throughout the basin and the carbonate specific export rate to be from 47 t/y/km² at Orleans to 23 t/y/km² at Brehemont.The suspended load appears to result from at least two particle reservoirs: a silicate reservoir and a carbonate reservoir. The silicate reservoir has a detrital origin, mainly during periods of high flow, while the carbonate reservoir has a detrital origin during periods of high flow and an authigenic origin during periods of low flow. Of the total annual flow of suspended matter, this authigenic material represents 16% at Orleans, 25% at Brehemont and 37% in the fluvial part of the estuary. After correcting authigenic inputs, the specific export rate due to mechanical weathering was estimated to be 8 t/y/km² throughout the Loire basin.