Material characteristics and building technique for the rammed earth wall of the 13th Korean fortress in Ganghwa

This study identifies the technique applied for building the rammed earth wall of the 13th Korean fortress, Ganghwa Jungseong, by analyzing its physical, mineralogical, granulometric, and geochemical characteristics. Furthermore, mutual homogeneities between the rammed earth wall and host rock, top soil, and sub-surface soil collected around the fortress were interpreted. The ground of the rammed earth wall was not created artificially but made via soil preparations containing loamy soils from weathered bedrock. The foundation part was built using various layers of soils having different colors, magnetic susceptibilities, particle sizes, and organic components. In particular, a layer of loamy saprolite was generated to enhance the stability of the foundation and improve ventilation and draining throughout the structure. The body of the wall is composed of silty loam at the bottom and silty loam to loam from the middle to the top. Techniques that alternately harden soils using different particle sizes enable external shock absorption and prevent crack formation owing to temperature changes during winter and summer. The rammed earth wall and the soils around the fortress contained related rock-forming materials had similar magnetic susceptibilities and geochemical characteristics, which indicated that they have a genetically common source. Moreover, the rammed earth wall was built using the soil weathered from the banded gneiss because it was correlated to the banded gneiss constituting the bedrock around the fortress.     

Particle Retention in a Submerged Meadow and Its Variation Near the Leading Edge

The retention of particles within meadows of submerged aquatic vegetation impacts the fate of organic matter, pollen, and larvae. Because flow conditions near the leading edge differ from those over the bulk of the canopy, particle retention is likely to differ as well. In particular, near the leading edge of a wide meadow, flow deceleration generates a vertical updraft, which impacts particle fate. In the fully developed region of the meadow, shear layer vortices at the top of the meadow may also influence particle fate. In this study, the retention of particles was measured along the length of a 10-m model meadow (height h?=?0.1 m) and was connected to the evolving flow field. Two particle sizes, with settling velocity w _s50?=?0.00075?,?0.018 m s^?1, were released at two heights within the model meadow \( \left(\frac{Z_{rel}}{h}=0.31,0.81\right). \) The retention of particles was measured using microscope slides distributed along the flume bed. Retention increased with distance from the leading edge, associated with the decrease in vertical updraft. Retention was also greater for the particles with higher settling velocity. In the fully developed region of the meadow, particle retention was lower for particles influenced by the shear layer vortices at the top of the meadow (\( \frac{Z_{rel}}{h}=0.81 \)).     

Scientists' warning on extreme wildfire risks to water supply

2020 is the year of wildfire records. California experienced its three largest fires early in its fire season. The Pantanal, the largest wetland on the planet, burned over 20% of its surface. More than 18 million hectares of forest and bushland burned during the 2019–2020 fire season in Australia, killing 33 people, destroying nearly 2500 homes, and endangering many endemic species. The direct cost of damages is being counted in dozens of billion dollars, but the indirect costs on water-related ecosystem services and benefits could be equally expensive, with impacts lasting for decades. In Australia, the extreme precipitation (“200 mm day −1 in several location”) that interrupted the catastrophic wildfire season triggered a series of watershed effects from headwaters to areas downstream. The increased runoff and erosion from burned areas disrupted water supplies in several locations. These post-fire watershed hazards via source water contamination, flash floods, and mudslides can represent substantial, systemic long-term risks to drinking water production, aquatic life, and socio-economic activity. Scenarios similar to the recent event in Australia are now predicted to unfold in the Western USA. This is a new reality that societies will have to live with as uncharted fire activity, water crises, and widespread human footprint collide all-around of the world. Therefore, we advocate for a more proactive approach to wildfire-watershed risk governance in an effort to advance and protect water security. We also argue that there is no easy solution to reducing this risk and that investments in both green (i.e., natural) and grey (i.e., built) infrastructure will be necessary. Further, we propose strategies to combine modern data analytics with existing tools for use by water and land managers worldwide to leverage several decades worth of data and knowledge on post-fire hydrology.     

Geochemical evidence for melting of carbonated peridotite on Santa Maria Island, Azores

The islands of the Azores archipelago emerge from an oceanic plateau built on lithosphere increasing in age with distance from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge from 10 to 45 Ma. Here, we present the first comprehensive major and trace element and Sr–Nd–Pb isotope data from Santa Maria, the easternmost island of the archipelago, along with published data from the other Azores islands situated much closer to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge axis. We can show that the distinctively more variable and more enriched trace element ratios at Santa Maria combined with a relatively small range in Sr–Nd–Pb isotope ratios are the result of low degrees of partial melting of a common Azores mantle plume source underneath thicker lithosphere. This implies that melt extraction processes and melting dynamics may be able to better preserve the trace element mantle source variability underneath thicker lithosphere. These conclusions may apply widely for oceanic melts erupted on relatively thick lithosphere. In addition, lower Ti/Sm and K/La ratios and SiO₂ contents of Santa Maria lavas imply melting of a carbonated peridotite source. Mixing of variable portions of deep small-degree carbonated peridotite melts and shallow volatile-free garnet peridotite could explain the geochemical variability underneath Santa Maria in agreement with the volatile-rich nature of the Azores mantle source. However, Santa Maria is the Azores island where the CO₂-rich nature of the mantle source is more evident, reflecting a combination of a smaller extent of partial melting and the positioning at the edge of the tilted Azores mantle plume.     

Discussion on the article ‘Coastal and inland karst morphologies driven by sea level stands: a GIS based method for their evaluation' by Canora F,Fidelibus D and Spilotro G

Comments are presented on the article by Canora et al. (2012) dealing with karst morphologies driven by sea level stands in the Murge plateau of Apulia, southern Italy. Our comments start from cave levels, that are considered in the cited article as a proof of sea level stands. We argue that the presence of sub‐horizontal passages in cave systems is not a sufficient condition for correlating them with hypothetical past sea level stands. Such a correlation must be based upon identification of speleogenetic features within the karst systems, and/or geological field data. The problems encountered when using cave surveys for scientific research, and their low reliability (especially in the case of old surveys) are then treated, since they represent a crucial point in the paper object of this discussion. Eventually, we present some final consideration on cave levels and terraces, and on the specific case study, pointing out once again to the need in including geological field data to correctly find a correspondance between flat landforms and sea level fluctuations. Our main conclusion is that field data and information on speleogenesis of the underground karst landforms cannot be disregarded in a study that claims to deal with the influence of sea‐level changes on caves. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Speleogenesis of an exhumed hydrothermal sulphuric acid karst in Cambrian carbonates (Mount San Giovanni,Sardinia)

In the past few years the systematic study of caves intercepted by mine workings in southwest Sardinia has permitted us to observe morphologies due to rare speleogenetic and minerogenetic processes related to ancient hydrothermal activity. These relic morphologies are slowly being overprinted by recent speleogenetic processes that tend to obscure the hypogene origin of these caves. A combined geomorphological and mineralogical investigation has permitted a fairly detailed reconstruction of the various phases of evolution of these caves. Cave formation had already started in Cambrian times, but culminated in the Carboniferous, when most of the large voids still accessible today were formed. A key role in carbonate dissolution was played by sulphuric acid formed by the oxidation of the polymetallic ores present in the rocks since the Cambrian. During the Quaternary a variety of minerals formed inside the caves: calcite and aragonite, that yielded sequences of palaeo‐environmental interest, and also barite, phosgenite, hydrozincite, hemimorphite and many others. These minerals are in part due to a phreatic thermal hypogenic cave forming phase, and in part to later epigene overprinting in an oxidizing environment rich in polymetallic ores. Massive gypsum deposits, elsewhere typical of this kind of caves, are entirely absent due to dissolution during both the phreatic cave formation and the later epigenic stage. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Probabilities of future VEI ≥ 2 eruptions at the Central American Volcanic Arc: a statistical perspective based on the past centuries’ eruption record

A probabilistic eruption forecast is provided for seven historically active volcanoes along the Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA), as a pivotal empirical contribution to multi-disciplinary volcanic hazards assessment. The eruption probabilities are determined with a Kaplan–Meier estimator of survival functions, and parametric time series models are applied to describe the historical eruption records. Aside from the volcanoes that are currently in a state of eruptive activity (Santa María, Fuego, and Arenal), the highest probabilities for eruptions of VEI ≥ 2 occur at Concepción and Cerro Negro in Nicaragua, which are likely to erupt to 70–85 % within the next 10 years. Poás and Irazú in Costa Rica show a medium to high eruption probability, followed by San Miguel (El Salvador), Rincón de la Vieja (Costa Rica), and Izalco (El Salvador; 24 % within the next 10 years).