Experimental determination of wavelengths in the presence of a mean current

This paper describes a simple method for determining the wavelength of small amplitude waves under laboratory conditions where reflected wave components are present both with and without a mean current flow superimposed. It assumes a locally horizontal bed but requires no a priori assumption concerning the form of the dispersion relation with a coexisting current. Synchronous measurements of the water surface recorded along any straight line are analysed to yield Fourier coefficients at each location. It is then shown that for all practical conditions excluding a perfect standing wave, the average rate of change of wave phase in the chosen direction can be related directly to the component of incident wave number in that direction, irrespective of reflection coefficient or relative current strength. The technique has been applied to regular and bichromatic waves in a flume with an absorbing wave generator, and can also be applied in 3-D wave basins where waves and currents intersect at arbitrary angles. In combined wave–current experiments, by assuming the linear dispersion relation, it is also possible to estimate the effective current velocity.     

Localization of gravity and topography: constraints on the tectonics and mantle dynamics of Venus

We develop a method for spatio-spectral localization of harmonic data on a sphere and use it to interpret recent high-resolution global estimates of the gravity and topography of Venus in the context of geodynamical models. Our approach applies equally to the simple spatial windowing of harmonic data and to variable-length-scale analyses, which are analogous to a wavelet transform in the Cartesian domain. Using the variable-length-scale approach, we calculate the localized RMS amplitudes of gravity and topography, as well as the spectral admittance between the two fields, as functions of position and wavelength. The observed admittances over 10 per cent of the surface of Venus (highland plateaus and tessera regions) are consistent with isostatic compensation of topography by variations in crustal thickness, while admittances over the remaining 90 per cent of the surface (rises, plains and lowlands) indicate that long-wavelength topography is dominantly the result of vertical convective tractions at the base of the lithosphere. The global average crustal thickness is less than 30 km, but can reach values as large as 40 km beneath tesserae and highland plateaus. We also note that an Earth-like radial viscosity structure cannot be rejected by the gravity and topography data and that, without a mechanical model of the lithosphere, admittance values cannot constrain the thickness of the thermal boundary layer of Venus. Modelling the lithosphere as a thin elastic plate indicates that at the time of formation of relief in highland plateaus and tesserae, the effective elastic plate thickness, T_e , was less than 20 km. Estimates of T_e at highland rises are consistently less than 30 km. Our inability to find regions with T_e > 30 km is inconsistent with predictions made by a class of catastrophic resurfacing models.     

Book reviews

A WORLD IN CRISIS? Geographical Perspectives (second edition) edited by R. J. Johnston and P. J. Taylor. 15 x 23 cm, x and 371 pages. Basil Blackwell: Oxford 1989 (ISBN 0 631 16271 2) $A34.95 (soft).

INTEGRATED RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA: External Aid and Provincial Planning (IASER Monograph No 28) by R. Crittenden and D. A. M. Lea, 17 x 24 cm, xv and 132 pages. Papua New Guinea Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research and Department of Geography and Planning, University of New England: Armidale 1989 (ISBN 9980 75 018 9).

ACCOMMODATING INEQUALITY: Gender and Housing by Sophie Watson. 14 x 21 cm, x and 157 pages. Allen & Unwin: Sydney 1988 (ISBN 0 04 320209 2) $A 14.95 (soft).

A SHORT HISTORY OF GEOMORPHOLOGY by K. J. Tinkler. 14 x 22 cm, xviii and 317 pages, Croom Helm: London 1985 (ISBN 0 7099 2441 0) $A49.95 (hard).

PATHWAYS IN GEOLOGY: Essays in Honour of

Edwin Sherbon Hills edited by R. W. Le Mai‐

tre. 25 x 19 cm, viii and 463 pages. Basil

Blackwell: Melbourne 1989 (ISBN

0731682416) $A110.00 (hard).

CHANGING THE FACE OF THE EARTH: Culture, Environment, History by I. G. Simmons. 17 x 24 cm, xiii and 487 pages. Basil Blackwell: Oxford 1989 (ISBN 0 631 16351 4) $A49.95 (soft).

PLANNED TO DEATH: The Annihilation of a Place Called Howdendyke by J. D. Porteous. 16 x 24 cm, xiii and 254 pages. Manchester University Press: Manchester 1989 (ISBN 0 7190 2831 0) £35.00 (hard).

A SOCIAL ATLAS OF DARWIN: 1986. Census of Population and Housing by J. Taylor and D.

Jaensch. 21 x 29 cm, and 66 pages. Australian Bureau of Statistics and North Australia Research Unit: Darwin 1989 (ISBN 0 642 143322 6).

ATLAS OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE IN THE SOUTH EAST REGION OF NEW SOUTH WALES 1861–1991 by Terry G. Birtles and Jane E. Gordon. 21 x 29 cm, v and 141 pages. Canberra College of Advanced Education: Belconnen 1989 (ISBN 0 85889 355 5 $A40.00 (soft).

LABOUR ADJUSTMENT IN METROPOLITAN REGIONS by P. S. Morrison 15 x 21 cm, ix and 254 pages. Victoria University Press: Wellington 1989 (ISBN 0 86473 190 6) SA25.00 (soft).

AUSTRALIAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS: Readings in Regional Experiences, Policies and Prospects (Australian Regional Developments No. 10) edited by B. Higgins and K. Zagorski. 17 x 25 cm. xi and 260 pages. AGPS Press: Canberra 1989 (ISBN 0 644 0935).

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURING IN TRANSITION edited by T. J. Mules. 15 x 21 cm, vii and 188 pages. Wakefield Press (for Centre of South Australian Economic Studies): Adelaide 1989 (ISBN 909591 74 1) $A24.95 (soft).

COUNTERURBANIZATION: The Changing Pace’ and Nature of Population Deconcentration edited by A. G. Champion. 16 x 24 cm, xxii and 266 pages. Edward Arnold: London 1989 (ISBN 0 7131 6614 2) £27.00 (hard).

THE HUMANE CITY: Cities as if People Matter by J. R. Short. 15 x 22 cm, 167 pages. Basil Blackwell: Oxford 1989 (ISBN 0 631 15824 3) $A27.95 (soft).

THE TORRES STRAIT: People and History (revised edition) by J. Singe. 13 x 19 cm, xviii and 261 pages. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia 1989 (first published in 1979) (ISBN 0 7022 2232 1) $A19.95 (soft).

HAWKE'S LAW: The Politics of Mining and Aboriginal Land Rights in Australia by R. T. Libby. xxvii and 175 pages. University of Western Australia Press: Nedlands 1989 (ISBN 085564 301 1) $A25.00.

THE THIRD WORLD: States of Mind and Being edited by J. Norwine and A. Gonzales. 15 x 23 cm, xi and 275 pages. Unwin Hyman: Boston 1989 (ISBN 0 04 910121 8) $A39.95 (soft).

IRELAND: A Contemporary Geographical Perspective edited by R. W. G. Carter and A. J. Parker. 14 x 22 cm, xiv and 486 pages. Routledge: London 1989 (ISBN 0 415 00486 3) $A 120.00 (hard).     

Subspace inversion of electromagnetic data: application to mid-ocean-ridge exploration

Controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) surveys have the ability to provide tomo-graphic images of electrical conductivity within the Earth. the interpretation of such data sets has long been hampered by inadequate modelling and inversion techniques. In this paper, a subspace inversion technique is described that allows electric dipole-dipole data to be inverted for a 2-D electrical conductivity model more efficiently than with existing techniques. the subspace technique is validated by comparison with conventional inversion methods and by inverting data collected over the East Pacific Rise in 1989. A model study indicates that, with adequate data, a variety of possible mid-ocean-ridge conductivity models could be distinguished on the basis of a CSEM survey.     

Rehabilitation of Rangelands in Paulshoek, Namaqualand: Understanding vegetation change using biophysical manipulations

In Namaqualand, heavy grazing of low-lying areas has resulted in the reduction of palatable perennial shrubs and the dominance of the unpalatable shrub, Galenia africana. This study investigates the process of rehabilitation and how it can be used to gain an understanding of the ecological factors that may be sustaining altered vegetation states. We intervened to change the biophysical environment through the construction of microcatchments and brushpacks to act as traps for water, seed and organic material combined with the introduction of seeds and seedlings were implemented. Two years after implementation brushpacked microhabitats improved natural recruitment of herbaceous species compared to bare areas at two out of three sites. Microhabitats did not influence natural recruitment of perennial seedlings. Emergence of palatable perennial seed was not influenced by microhabitat manipulation. Seedlings transplanted under adult G. africana shrubs showed higher survival rates at two out of three sites compared to seedlings in unmodified areas.     

Geological and palaeomagnetic significance of the Kulgera Dyke Swarm, Musgrave Block, NT, Australia

b
The Kulgera Dyke Swarm consists of olivine tholeiites which have intruded late Proterozoic transitional-granulite gneisses and granites of the eastern Musgrave Block, in central Australia. Preliminary Rb/Sr results suggest that the dolerites were emplaced at 1054 ± 14 Ma. In addition, a Rb/Sr age of 1060 ± 10 Ma on a biotite from a pegmatite indicates thermal resetting of the country rock minerals during dyke emplacement. Palaeomagnetic investigations of the dykes yield a primary thermoremanent magnetization direction corresponding to a palaeomagnetic pole at 17S, 266E ( A ₉₅= 12). In addition to this primary magnetization, an overprint component was present in many of the samples, providing a palaeomagnetic pole at 30S, 138E ( A ₉₅= 24), which is similar to previous results from other central Australian rocks affected by the Alice Springs Orogeny. The results extend the area of influence of the Carboniferous Alice Springs Orogeny southward into the Musgrave Block. Further, the results provide no evidence for an earlier, Late Proterozoic, Petermann Orogeny affecting the Musgrave Block in the Kulgera region. However, the possibility that a Petermann Orogeny thermal overprint has been erased by the Alice Springs Orogeny cannot be dismissed.     

The Science and Policy of the Verified Carbon Standard Methodology for Tidal Wetland and Seagrass Restoration

The restoration of tidal wetland and seagrass systems has the potential for significant greenhouse gas benefits, but project-level accounting procedures have not been available at an international scale. In this paper, we describe the Verified Carbon Standard Methodology for Tidal Wetland and Seagrass Restoration, which provides greenhouse gas accounting procedures for marsh, mangrove, tidal forested wetland, and seagrasses systems across a diversity of geomorphic conditions and restoration techniques. We discuss and critique the essential science and policy elements of the methodology and underlying knowledge gaps. We developed a method for estimating mineral-protected (recalcitrant) allochthonous carbon in tidal wetland systems using field-collected soils data and literature-derived default values of the recalcitrant carbon that accompanies mineral deposition. We provided default values for methane emissions from polyhaline soils but did not provide default values for freshwater, oligohaline, and mesohaline soils due to high variability of emissions in these systems. Additional topics covered are soil carbon sequestration default values, soil carbon fate following erosion, avoided losses in organic and mineral soils, nitrous oxide emissions, soil profile sampling methods, sample size, prescribed fire, additionality, and leakage. Knowledge gaps that limit the application of the methodology include the estimation of CH₄ emissions from fresh and brackish tidal wetlands, lack of validation of our approach for the estimation of recalcitrant allochthonous carbon, understanding of carbon oxidation rates following drainage of mineral tidal wetland soils, estimation of the effects of prescribed fire on soil carbon stocks, and the analysis of additionality for projects outside of the USA.     

Possible mechanism for limiting grain sizes

It is suggested that grains are driven out of interstellar clouds by galactic radiation pressure and it is shown that the corresponding sizes which they can achieve within the cloud due to condensation is in reasonable agreement with observations.