Depositional and post‐depositional history of warm stage deposits at Knocknacran,Co. Monaghan,Ireland: implications for preservation of Irish last interglacial deposits

Organic‐rich deposits, uncovered during overburden removal from mantled gypsum karst at Knocknacran opencast gypsum mine, Co. Monaghan, are the best candidate to date for a last interglacial record in Ireland. The two till and organic‐rich deposits (preserved at different quarry elevations) were emplaced on to a Tertiary dolerite surface during high‐energy flood events and subsequently folded and faulted by movement towards sinkholes in underlying gypsum. Uranium–thorium disequilibrium dating suggests that the organic‐rich deposits in the upper section were hydrologically isolated at ca. 41 ka and those in the lower section at ca. 86 ka. Interpretation of the pollen content, although tentative because of the depositional and post‐depositional history of the material, suggests that the organic material originated in a warm stage possibly warmer than the post‐Eemian interstadials. The unusual setting of preservation may indicate that in situ, last interglacial deposits have generally been removed by erosion in Ireland. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is the Kolmogoroff model applicable to large-scale turbulence?

We discuss the difficulties encountered when the Heisenberg-Kolmogoroff model for turbulence is applied to the large-scale turbulence in: (A) molecular clouds (specifically the velocity vs size relationship) and (B) stars (specifically, the estimate of convective fluxes).A new model for large-scale turbulence is, therefore, needed.     

Unsteady hydromagnetic boundary-layer flow on a semi-infinite wall

Unsteady two-dimensional flow of a viscous, incompressible and electrically conducting fluid which is confined on one side of a semi-infinite wall, in presence of a transverse magnetic field is investigated. The wall is initially at rest and then it is suddenly accelerated in its own plane with a velocity which is an arbitrary function of the time. Solution of the problem is obtained, for two particular cases, i.e., corresponding to two free-stream velocities, with the help of the finite difference approximation technique using the explicit method for uniformly accelerated motion of the wall.     

Gravitational collapse of a dust ball — The external observer's point of view

The problem of collapse of a dust ball has been studied in detail from the point of view of an external observer (O). It is seen that although there is no material pressure from the point of view of the comoving observer, there is a non-vanishing material pressure in the ball from the point of view of O. In the early stages of collapse (w.r.t. O), this pressure is positive everywhere inside the ball, while during the later stages, if one goes outwards from the centre towards the surface of the ball, this pressure is negative up to a certain value of the radial coordinate, and then changes its sign thereafter. On the basis of this pressure, one can understand the physics of the whole scenario of collapse w.r.t. O; in particular, the important feature is that in the ultimate stages an event horizon is formed asymptotically and there is no collapse to a point (as takes place from the point of view of the comoving observer).     

On the R z -sunspot relative number variations

The Zürich sunspot relative number R _z series has been analysed by the cyclogram method. The amplitude and the frequency variations of the Fourier 11 yr component between 1700–1983 A.D., were determined in a continuous way.Four distinct time intervals with significantly different characteristics of the periodicities are observed and discussed.Their second harmonics are also considered. The periodicity changes are contemporary to those of the 11 yr cycles.Around the year 1903 it seems that an important event has happened in the Sun. In fact the 11.4 yr cycle periodicity, that was very stable since at least 1825 started to change gradually to smaller values and similarly it happened to the second harmonic which also stopped and abruptly changed of phase of 90°.     

Factors affecting the distribution and abundance of Macrobrachium petersi (Hilgendorf) in the Keiskamma River and estuary,South Africa

A dry (1979–1980) and a wet (1980–1981) season had a marked effect on the freshwater inflow into the Keiskamma estuary. Under low inflow conditions, which results in elevated salinities in the upper reaches, an upstream migration of adult Macrobrachium petersi (Hilgendorf) to freshwater takes place. During periods of increased river inflow adult M. petersi move downstream to the more saline reaches of the estuary. These two migratory responses have been interpreted as (a) a breeding migration under high inflow conditions which ensures that larvae are in close proximity to salinities that favour growth and development, and (b) an adult upstream migration back to freshwater to escape elevated estuarine salinities as a result of the low freshwater inflow.     

A perturbation theory for Love waves in anelastic media

Summary. We give a systematic formulation and a rigorous justification of a perturbation technique for the computation of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of Love waves (and toroidal oscillations by an appropriate change for variables) in an anelastic medium with a constitutive law modelling geophysical media of current interest such as the Kelvin—Voigt Solid, the Maxwell Solid, the Standard Linear Solid, and the Standard Linear Solid with a continuous spectrum of relaxation times. We develop expressions relating the eigenvalues of eigenfunctions for Love waves in a continuously varying vertically stratified anelastic half-space to the corresponding elastic eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. Analytically, our correspondence principle has the form of a regular perturbation expansion in terms of a parameter for both the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. The identification of ɛ is motivated by the dissipativity principle of viscoelasticity theory. Moreover, we show that our correspondence principle applies respectively only in the high and low frequency range for the Maxwell and Kelvin—Voigt Solids. Outside of the applicable range of frequencies, our correspondence principle yields no useful information. For the family of Standard Linear Solids it is uniformly applicable for all non-zero frequencies.
We also derive an explicit formula to estimate the radius of convergence of our perturbation expansions. This estimate of the radius of convergence for each eigenvalue and eigenfunction is functionally defined by the constitutive model for the anelastic medium. The estimate is frequency dependent and depends on the separation distance between the eigenvalue and the remainder of the spectrum of the corresponding elastic problem.     

Volcanic style in the Strand Fiord Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago

The Strand Fiord Formation is a volcanic unit of early Late Cretaceous age which outcrops on west-central and northwestern Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The formation is part of the thick Sverdrup Basin succession and immediately precedes the final basin foundering event. The Strand Fiord volcanics are encased in marine strata and thin southward from a maximum thickness of 789+ m on northwestern Axel Heiberg to a zero edge near the southern shore of the island. Tholeiitic icelandite flows are the main constituent of the formation with volcaniclastic conglomerates, sandstones, mudrocks and rare coal seams also being present. The lava flows range in thickness from 6 to 60 m and subaerial flows predominate. Both pahoehoe and aa lava types are common and the volcanic pile accumulated mostly by the quiet effusion of lavas. The volcaniclastic lithologies become more common near the southern and eastern edges of the formation and represent lahars and beach to shallow marine reworked deposits. The Strand Fiord volcanics are interpreted to represent the cratonward extension of the Alpha Ridge, a volcanic ridge that was active during the formation of the Amerasian Basin.     

The klein–nishina Effects in Blazar Jets

Blazars are the only (with one or two exceptions) extragalactic objects which were detected and identified at gamma-ray energies so far. It is suspected that most of the unidentified gamma-ray sources may be the blazars as well. Because the entire electromagnetic spectrum of these objects is dominated by non-thermal radiation from relativistically moving jets, the effects such as the Klein–Nishina regime in the Compton scattering may play a major role in shaping some parts of the blazar spectrum. Within the framework of external radiation Compton model, we present how these effect influence the spectra of blazars for which the production of gamma rays is dominated by Comptonization of external radiation.