Gravity studies of Aphrodite Terra on Venus

Aphrodite Terra is the largest highland area on Venus of the size of Africa. It is traversed by the Aphrodite-Beta belt of troughs with a length of 21 000 km. There are two other large belts of troughs on Venus: Themis-Atla, 14 000 km long, and Beta-Phoebe, 8000 km long. In this paper, four gravity profiles across Aphrodite Terra are studied and compared with the morphology.Western Aphrodite and Niobe Planitia to the north seem to be in isostatic equilibrium under the assumption of Airy compensation with a mean crustal thickness of T = 50 km. The graben area in the middle part of Aphrodite Terra shows negative isostatic gravity anomalies indicating deficit masses. The adjacent Atla Regio to the east is regionally Airy compensated with T = 50 km, and the mountains Nokomis, Maat and Ozza Montes are locally undercompensated, i.e. they are associated with surplus masses in the depth. Ulfrun Regio, a hilly terrain just east of Atla Regio is Airy compensated with T = 30 km. These results give a mean crustal thickness around 50 km for Aphrodite Terra. The isostatic disturbed zones in the middle of Aphrodite (grabens) and Atla Regio as well as the undercompensated Beta Regio have been associated with recent volcanism from the observation of the concentrations of electrical discharges in these areas. Atla and Beta Regiones are both located at intersections of the systems of troughs described above.Contribution No. 308, Institut für Geophysik der Universität Kiel, F.R.G.     

Micromechanical analysis of non-coaxiality between stress and strain increment in granular materials

Acta Geotechnica - It is known that non-coaxiality between the directions of the principal stresses and the principal plastic strain increments in granular material is physically resulted from the...     

Comment on the Guzmán-Bianchi type-VII h solutions

It is shown that the recently presented Brans-Dicke-Bianchi type-VII _h perfect fluid solutions by Guzmán (1989) are nothing but the solutions given already by us in our previous paper (Lorenz-Petzold, 1984).     

Field experiments yield new insights into gas exchange and excess air formation in natural porous media

Gas exchange between seepage water and soil air within the unsaturated and quasi-saturated zones is fundamentally different from gas exchange between water and gas across a free boundary layer, e.g., in lakes or rivers. In addition to the atmospheric equilibrium fraction, most groundwater samples contain an excess of dissolved atmospheric gases which is called “excess air”. Excess air in groundwater is not only of crucial importance for the interpretation of gaseous environmental tracer data, but also for other aspects of groundwater hydrology, e.g., for oxygen availability in bio-remediation and in connection with changes in transport dynamics caused by the presence of entrapped air bubbles. Whereas atmospheric solubility equilibrium is controlled mainly by local soil temperature, the excess air component is characterized by the (hydrostatic) pressure acting on entrapped air bubbles within the quasi-saturated zone. Here we present the results of preliminary field experiments in which we investigated gas exchange and excess air formation in natural porous media. The experimental data suggest that the formation of excess air depends significantly on soil properties and on infiltration mechanisms. Excess air was produced by the partial dissolution of entrapped air bubbles during a sprinkling experiment in fine-grained sediments, whereas similar experiments conducted in coarse sand and gravel did not lead to the formation of excess air in the infiltrating water. Furthermore, the experiments revealed that the noble gas temperatures determined from noble gases dissolved in seepage water at different depths are identical to the corresponding in situ soil temperatures. This finding is important for all applications of noble gases as a paleotemperature indicator in groundwater since these applications are always based on the assumption that the noble gas temperature is identical to the (past) soil temperature.     

Potential future changes in water limitations of the terrestrial biosphere

This study explores the effects of atmospheric CO₂ enrichment and climate change on soil moisture (W _r ) and biome-level water limitation (L _TA), using a dynamic global vegetation and water balance model forced by five different scenarios of change in temperature, precipitation, radiation, and atmospheric CO₂ concentration, all based on the same IS92a emission scenario. L _TA is defined as an index that quantifies the degree to which transpiration and photosynthesis are co-limited by soil water shortage (high values indicate low water limitation). Soil moisture decreases in many regions by 2071–2100 compared to 1961–1990, though the regional pattern of change differs substantially among the scenarios due primarily to differences in GCM-specific precipitation changes. In terms of L _TA, ecosystems in northern temperate latitudes are at greatest risk of increasing water limitation, while in most other latitudes L _TA tends to increase (but again varies the regional pattern of change among the scenarios). The frequently opposite direction of change in W _r and L _TA suggests that decreases in W _r are not necessarily felt by actual vegetation, which is attributable mainly to the physiological vegetation response to elevated CO₂. Without this beneficial effect, the sign of change in L _TA would be reversed from predominantly positive to predominantly negative.     

The abundances of the heavy elements

Abundance regularities for heavy nuclei (A>58) are investigated and formulated as abundance rules. Abundance values of carbonaceous chondrites of type 1 and 2 as well as most probable values for primordial abundances are listed. The abundance rules definitely require minor connections of the empirical values. A measurement of the (n, ) cross-section of Pd¹⁰⁴ would make possible to decide whether type-1 or type-2 carbonaceous chondrites have a more primitive elemental composition.Paper dedicated to Prof. Harold C. Urey on the occasion of his 80th birthday on 29 April, 1973.     

Detection of the first X-ray selected large AGN group

We have examined the spatial distribution of 856 AGN detected by the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) using a direct search for structures with the minimal spanning tree. The AGNs were compiled from an area of ∼7000 deg², in which optical identifications of RASS sources were made with the help of the digitized objective prism plates of the Hamburg Quasar Survey (HQS). Redshifts were taken from the literature or from own follow-up observations. The sample probes the spatial distribution at low redshifts, because the redshift distribution peaks at z ∼0.1. The application of the minimal spanning tree led to a 1.8 σ discovery of an AGN group with seven members in a volume V ∼140×75×75  h ⁻³ Mpc³ in the Pisces constellation. With a mean redshift z =0.27 this group is only the third discovered group at redshifts z <0.5. The RASS offers excellent possibilities to study large-scale structure with AGNs at low redshifts, once these redshifts are determined.     

Up to 400‐year‐old Rhododendron shrubs on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau: prospects for shrub‐based dendrochronology

In harsh and treeless environments, shrubs constitute the dominant growth form of woody plants, thus offering the opportunity to extend dendrochronological networks beyond the uppermost and northernmost distribution limits of trees. However, shrub‐based dendrochronology has so far resulted in only a few long and climate‐responsive ring‐width chronologies at such stressful sites, particularly above the alpine tree line. A previous study on an alpine Rhododendron shrub species resulted in <80‐year‐long ring‐width chronologies. Here, we collected Rhododendron aganniphum var. schizopeplum stems from elevations between 4000 and 4500 m a.s.l. on the SE Tibetan Plateau and built six tree‐ring width chronologies. One of them is 401 years long and well replicated from AD 1670 to 2011 (EPS>0.85), thus representing the longest shrub chronology available to date. A principal component analysis (PCA) converted the total variability of all six site chronologies into PCs. Then, the six site chronologies and the PC1, accounting for 65.9% of the total variance of the tree‐ring width, were correlated with time series of monthly climate data. Based on this, the year‐to‐year variability of the ring‐width indices was positively correlated with July temperature, which thus turned out to be the dominant factor controlling growth. Accordingly, such long shrub‐ring chronologies may act as climatic and ecological proxies in treeless environments of the Tibetan Plateau.     

Validation of international reference ionosphere models using in situ measurements from GRACE K-band ranging system and CHAMP planar Langmuir probe

The in situ measurements of electron contents from GRACE K-band (dual-frequency) ranging system and CHAMP planar Langmuir probe were used to validate the international reference ionosphere (IRI) models. The comparison using measurements from year 2003 to 2007 shows a general agreement between data and the model outputs. The improvement in the newer IRI model (IRI-2007) is evident with the measurements from the GRACE satellites orbiting at the higher altitude. We present the comparison between the models and data comprehensively for various cases in solar activity, local time, season, and latitude. The IRI models do not well predict the electron density in the years 2006 and later, when the solar activity is extremely low. The IRI models generally overestimate the electron density during local winter while they underestimate during local summer. In the equatorial region, the large difference at local sunrise lasts for all years and all seasons. The IRI models do not perform well in predicting the anomaly in the polar region such as the Weddell Sea Anomaly. These discrepancies are likely due to smoothed (12-month averaged) solar activity indices used in the IRI models and due to insufficient spherical harmonic representation not able to capture small spatial scales. In near future, further improvement on the IRI models is expected by assimilating those in situ satellite data by implementing higher resolution (spatial and temporal) parameterizations.