Models of maar volcanoes,Lunar Crater (Nevada,USA)

Maar volcanoes are generally understood to be the result of highly energetic, explosive interaction between magma and water (groundwater or surface water). Two end-member conceptual models have been proposed to explain the dimensions (diameter, depth) of maar craters: (1) an incremental growth model, where a crater grows due to subsidence and ejection of debris over the course of many explosions, and the final size is an integrated result of multiple explosive events; (2) a model in which the dimensions of a maar crater are the result of the largest single explosion during the lifetime of the maar (major-explosion dominated model). In the latter case, the maar size can be used to estimate the energy and depth of the largest explosion, which in turn allows estimation of the magma mass involved. This paper describes Lunar Crater maar (Nevada, USA) and tests the two models as explanations for the characteristics of the volcano, in particular the major-explosion dominated model. This model implies magma mass and supply rates that are unrealistic, and the tephra at the maar do not contain key features observed in the ejecta at large single-explosion craters. The incremental growth model seems most suitable based upon geological evidence.     

Recent rapid salinity rise in three East Antarctic lakes

Research in East Antarctica has shown several recent environmental changes that may be linked to human impacts on climate. In order to detect the influence and context of these changes on coastal aquatic ecosystems we examined lake sediment cores from three lakes in the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica; Beall Lake, Holl Lake and ȁ8Lake Mȁ9. Cores were sectioned at␣2.5 mm intervals. Their diatom species composition was examined to detect changes in lake salinity using a diatom-salinity transfer function, and their algal pigment content was examined to detect photoautotrophic community responses to environmental change. Results showed that Holl Lake originated in a depression exposed by Holocene recession of the continental ice sheet and that Beall Lake and Lake M originated as isolated marine basins formed by changes in relative sea level. A general late Holocene trend of declining lake salinity was evident in all three lakes, interrupted by one short-term high salinity event in Beall Lake. This is consistent with a long-term positive moisture balance. This general decline in salinity has been followed by a remarkable recent rapid increase in salinity in all three lakes in the last few decades. We speculate that this rapid increase in salinity might be linked to changes taking place in the region including feedbacks resulting from decreasing sea ice extent as recorded in the nearby Law Dome ice core, and positive feedbacks in the catchments whereby reduced snow cover has led to decreased albedo, which in turn has caused increased evaporation and sublimation. Collectively these changes have shifted the lakes across a threshold from positive to negative moisture balance. A minor, but not rapid shift in the abundance of diatom pigments relative to pigments from green algae and cyanobacteria was also detected suggesting that some changes in photoautotrophic community composition have occurred. Measurements of modern nutrient levels are also higher than would be expected in Beall Lake and Holl Lake, given the extremely low sediment accumulation rates. This may be associated with a c. 300% increase in the population of Adélie penguins in the Windmill Islands recorded since the 1950s, or may a first signs of a rapid increase in catchment development and associated lake productivity as experienced in Antarctic and Arctic lakes subject to recent rapid regional warming. The most marked feature of the records is the rapid increase in salinity in all three lakes in␣the last few decades, which has occurred in lakes both with and without resident penguin populations.Dominic A. Hodgson and Donna Roberts contributed equally to this work     

Modelling soil erosion with a downscaled landscape evolution model

The measurement and prediction of soil erosion is important for understanding both natural and disturbed landscape systems. In particular numerical models of soil erosion are important tools for managing landscapes as well as understanding how they have evolved over time. Over the last 40 years a variety of methods have been used to determine rates of soil loss from a landscape and these can be loosely categorized into empirical and physically based models. Alternatively, physically based landscape evolution models (LEMs) have been developed that provide information on soil erosion rates at much longer decadal or centennial scales, over large spatial scales and examine how they may respond to environmental and climatic changes. Both soil erosion LEMs are interested in similar outcomes (landscape development and sediment delivery) yet have quite different methodologies and parameterizations. This paper applies a LEM (the CAESAR model) for the first time at time and space scales where soil erosion models have largely been used. It tests the ability of the LEM to predict soil erosion on a 30 m experimental plot on a trial rehabilitated landform in the Northern Territory, Australia. It then continues to discuss the synergies and differences between soil erosion and LEMs. The results demonstrate that once calibrated for the site hydrology, predicted suspended sediment and bedload yields from CAESAR show a close correspondence in both volume and timing of field measured data. The model also predicts, at decadal scales, sediment loads close to that of field measured data. Findings indicate that the small‐scale drainage network that forms within these erosion plots is an important control on the timing and magnitude of sediment delivery. Therefore, it is important to use models that can alter the DEM to reflect changing topography and drainage network as well as having a greater emphasis on channel processes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and Commonwealth of Australia     

Impact of GPS satellite and pseudolite geometry on structural deformation monitoring: analytical and empirical studies

Global positioning systems (GPS) have in recent years been increasingly used to monitor the deformations of large structures, particularly the deflections of long suspension bridges. When appropriately employed, and with the presence of a strong satellite geometry, GPS can supply timely and accurate structural deformation information. However, the three-dimensional (3-D) positioning accuracies in a local coordinate system are uneven. For instance, the vertical component of 3-D coordinates is less accurate than the horizontal component. In addition, GPS satellite availability tends to be a function of the latitude of the observation site and its surrounding obstructions. As a consequence, the accuracy of the north–south component is typically worse than that of the east–west component in mid-latitude areas (>45), and in some of the worst situations the horizontal positioning accuracy could even degrade to the same level as that of the vertical component. With such measurements it might not be possible to correctly interpret the real structural deformations. Furthermore, an insufficient number of satellites, caused by signal obstruction, could make it impossible to use GPS alone for kinematic positioning, even when integrated with other sensors such as triaxial accelerometers. With the aim of improving 3-D positioning accuracies for the monitoring of structural deflections, especially in vertical and northern directions, the optimal location selection of an array of ground-based pseudolites to augment GPS satellite geometry using an analytical simulation technique proposed by the authors is considered. Achievable 3-D positioning accuracies are estimated by simulating a real bridge deformation scenario using augmented transmitter geometry and compared with actual positioning accuracies calculated from the measurements gathered from a bridge trial. The results show that with an augmented satellite geometry and multipath mitigation it is possible to achieve uniform 3-D positioning accuracies of a few millimetres.     

The Bioavailability of Effluent-derived Organic Nitrogen along an Estuarine Salinity Gradient

Total maximum daily loads for nitrogen (N) are currently being established for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. While we know inorganic N is bioavailable in the environment and therefore its input contributes to cultural eutrophication, the bioavailability of organic N is unclear. Using bioassay experiments, we examined the impact of effluent-derived organic nitrogen (EON) from wastewater treatment plants on natural water samples collected along an estuarine/salinity gradient within the lower Chesapeake Bay watershed. All of the inorganic N and between 31% and 96% of the EON was removed during biotic bioassays within the first 2 days. Further, there was substantial abiotic reactivity of effluent N when it was added to natural water samples. Results demonstrate that organic and inorganic N in effluent is removed to support the growth of microbial communities. These are the first results aimed at assessing the reactivity of EON in natural waters along an estuarine/salinity gradient.     

K‐Ar age determination,whole‐rock and oxygen isotope geochemistry of the post‐collisional Bizmişen and Çaltı plutons,SW Erzincan,eastern Central Anatolia,Turkey

Post‐collisional granitoid plutons intrude obducted Neo‐Tethyan ophiolitic rocks in central and eastern Central Anatolia. The Bizmişen and Çaltı plutons and the ophiolitic rocks that they intrude are overlain by fossiliferous and flyschoidal sedimentary rocks of the early Miocene Kemah Formation. These sedimentary rocks were deposited in basins that developed at the same time as tectonic unroofing of the plutons along E–W and NW–SE trending faults in Oligo‐Miocene time. Mineral separates from the Bizmişen and Çaltı plutons yield K‐Ar ages ranging from 42 to 46 Ma, and from 40 to 49 Ma, respectively. Major, trace, and rare‐earth element geochemistry as well as mineralogical and textural evidence reveals that the Bizmişen pluton crystallized first, followed at shallower depth by the Çaltı pluton from a medium‐K calcalkaline, I‐type hybrid magma which was generated by magma mixing of coeval mafic and felsic magmas. Delta ¹⁸O values of both plutons fall in the field of I‐type granitoids, although those of the Çaltı pluton are consistently higher than those of the Bizmişen pluton. This is in agreement with field observations, petrographic and whole‐rock geochemical data, which indicate that the Bizmişen pluton represents relatively uncontaminated mantle material, whereas the Çaltı pluton has a significant crustal component. Structural data indicating the middle Eocene emplacement age and intrusion into already obducted ophiolitic rocks, suggest a post‐collisional extensional origin. However, the pure geochemical discrimination diagrams indicate an arc origin which can be inherited either from the source material or from an upper mantle material modified by an early subduction process during the evolution of the Neo‐Tethyan ocean. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Model-Averaging Method for Assessing Groundwater Conceptual Model Uncertainty

This study evaluates alternative groundwater models with different recharge and geologic components at the northern Yucca Flat area of the Death Valley Regional Flow System (DVRFS), USA. Recharge over the DVRFS has been estimated using five methods, and five geological interpretations are available at the northern Yucca Flat area. Combining the recharge and geological components together with additional modeling components that represent other hydrogeological conditions yields a total of 25 groundwater flow models. As all the models are plausible given available data and information, evaluating model uncertainty becomes inevitable. On the other hand, hydraulic parameters (e.g., hydraulic conductivity) are uncertain in each model, giving rise to parametric uncertainty. Propagation of the uncertainty in the models and model parameters through groundwater modeling causes predictive uncertainty in model predictions (e.g., hydraulic head and flow). Parametric uncertainty within each model is assessed using Monte Carlo simulation, and model uncertainty is evaluated using the model averaging method. Two model-averaging techniques (on the basis of information criteria and GLUE) are discussed. This study shows that contribution of model uncertainty to predictive uncertainty is significantly larger than that of parametric uncertainty. For the recharge and geological components, uncertainty in the geological interpretations has more significant effect on model predictions than uncertainty in the recharge estimates. In addition, weighted residuals vary more for the different geological models than for different recharge models. Most of the calibrated observations are not important for discriminating between the alternative models, because their weighted residuals vary only slightly from one model to another.     

Late Middle Pleistocene deposits at Norton Farm on the West Sussex coastal plain,southern England

The coastal plain of West Sussex, southern England, is internationally important because of the sequence of discrete high‐sea‐level events preserved at various elevations across it. New evidence is presented from a site at Norton Farm, near Chichester, on the Lower Coastal Plain, where Pleistocene marine sands, fining upwards into silts, occur between 5.3 m and 9.1 m OD. The sequence reflects a regressive tendency at the transition from an interglacial to a cold stage. The marine sands have yielded foraminifera, ostracods and molluscs that indicate a declining marine influence through the sequence, culminating in a tidal mudflat, strongly weathered in places. Cool‐climate foraminifera (including Elphidium clavatum, Cassidulina reniformis and Elphidium albiumbilicatum) and ostracods have been recovered from the marine sands. Some species with an apparent preference for warmer water conditions, however, are also present. Freshwater taxa washed into the terminal marine sediments include some cold climate indicators, such as Pisidium stewarti and P. obtusale lapponicum. Additional evidence for cool climatic conditions during the deposition of the upper part of the marine sequence is provided by the lack of tree taxa in the pollen record and by features of the micromorphology. The marine sediments probably began accumulating during OIS 7, a conclusion based on their elevation, on amino acid ratios from shells, but especially on vertebrate evidence, particularly the presence of a small form of horse, together with a large, distinctive, form of northern vole (Microtus oeconomus). The occurrence of cool climate indicators in these marine sediments may demonstrate a lag between the climatic deterioration and the expected glacio‐eustatic fall in relative sea‐level. This evidence appears to support the conclusions drawn from the study of coral terraces in Barbados. Such a scenario would provide the conditions necessary for the emplacement of the large erratic boulders reported from the Lower Coastal Plain of West Sussex. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Detoxification of chlorinated sewage effluent by dechlorination in estuarine waters

Secondary treated sewage was chlorinated to a residual level of 2–10 mg/l in a continuous flow system in the laboratory and diluted to various levels with estuarine water. A portion of the chlorinated sewage effluent was dechlorinated with sodium thiosulfate and the dechlorinated waste was diluted with estuarine water in the same proportions as the chlorinated waste.Menidia menidia, Palaemonetes pugio andCrassostrea virginica were exposed to chlorinated and dechlorinated treatments. High concentrations of chlorinated effluent caused mortalities inM. menidia andP. pugio, whereas similar concentrations of dechlorinated wastes did not cause mortalities. Mortalities in the chlorinated waste are correlated with chlorine residuals. Similarly, the chlorinated wastes depressed the shell deposition rate ofC. virginica below 50% of controls at all doses. Dechlorinated waste allowed shell deposition greater than 50% of controls. However, the occurrence of some growth inhibition inC. virginica exposed to dechlorinated waste suggests the presence of toxic material in the waste other than chlorine.     

A late diagenetic (syn-folding) magnetization carried by pyrrhotite: implications for paleomagnetic studies from magnetic iron sulphide-bearing sediments

Paleomagnetic, rock magnetic, and sedimentary micro-textural data from an early Miocene mudstone sequence exposed in Okhta River, Sakhalin, Russia, indicate the presence of pyrrhotite and magnetite at different stratigraphic levels. Sites that contain only magnetite have a reversed polarity characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) with a low-coercivity overprint, which coincides with the present-day geomagnetic field direction. Pyrrhotite-bearing sites have stable normal polarity ChRMs that are significantly different from the present-day field direction. After correction for bedding tilt, the ChRM data fail a reversals test. However, the normal polarity pyrrhotite ChRM directions become antipodal to the tilt-corrected magnetite ChRM directions and are consistent with the expected geocentric axial dipole field direction at the site latitude after 40% partial unfolding. These data suggest that the pyrrhotite magnetization was acquired during folding and after lock-in of the magnetite remanences. Electron microscope observations of polished sections indicate that fluid-associated halos surround iron sulphide nodules. Pyrrhotite is present in randomly oriented laths in and around the nodules, and the nodules do not appear to have been deformed by sediment compaction. This observation is consistent with a late diagenetic origin of pyrrhotite. Documentation of a late diagenetic magnetization in pyrrhotite-bearing sediments here, and in recent studies of greigite-bearing sediments, suggests that care should be taken to preclude a late origin of magnetic iron sulphides before using such sediments for geomagnetic studies where it is usually crucial to establish a syn-depositional magnetization.