An analysis of storm-induced landslides in colluvial soils overlying mudrock sequences, southeastern Ohio, USA

In late-June, 1998, a series of thunderstorms dropped 16.5 cm (6.5 in.) of rain in a 72-h period over southeastern Ohio, causing extensive flooding, six deaths, and 179 million dollars in property damage. The storms also triggered more than 60 shallow landslides along a 64 km (40-mi) stretch of Interstate 77 between Buffalo and Marietta, Ohio. Almost all of the landslides were translational, occurring along the contact between colluvial soils and the underlying bedrock (shales, claystones, mudstones). Six sites were selected in the affected area for a detailed study of the shallow landslides. At each site, a record was made of the stratigraphy, slope geometry, number of landslides, landslide dimensions, hydrologic conditions, and influence of vegetation on landslide distribution. Both colluvial soils and underlying bedrock were sampled for laboratory investigations, which included determination of natural water content, grain size distribution, Atterberg limits, permeability, slake durability, and shear-strength parameters. Data from laboratory tests were used to perform sensitivity and stability analyses with respect to varying slope angles, strength parameters, and thicknesses of saturated colluvial soil. The results of the study indicate that the shallow landslides along Interstate 77 occurred when the colluvial soils reached 90% to 100% saturation, depending upon the slope angles.     

Southern Westerlies during the last glacial maximum

Vegetation and climate over approximately the past 13,000 yr are reconstructed from fossil pollen in a 9.4-m mire section at Caleta Róbalo on Beagle Channel, Isla Navarino (54°56′S, 67°38′W), southern Tierra del Fuego. Fifty surface samples reflecting modern pollen dispersal serve to interpret the record. Chronologically controlled by nine radiocarbon dates, fossil pollen assemblages are: Empetrum-Gramineae-Gunnera-Tubuliflorae (zone 3b, 13,000–11,850 yr B.P.), Gramineae-Empetrum-assorted minor taxa (zone 3a, 11,850-10,000 yr B.P.), Nothofagus-Gramineae-Tubuliflorae-Polypodiaceae (zone 2, 10,000–5000 yr B.P.), Nothofagus-Empetrum (zone 1b, 5000-3000 yr B.P.), and Empetrum-Nothofagus (zone 1a, 3000-0 yr B.P.). Assemblages show tundra under a cold, dry climate (zone 3), followed by open woodland (zone 2), as conditions became warmer and less dry, and later, with greater humidity and lower temperatures, by closed forest and the spread of mires (zone 1). Comparisons drawn with records from Antarctica, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the subantarctic islands demonstrate broadly uniform conditions in the circumpolar Southern Hemisphere. The influences of continental and maritime antarctic air masses were apparently considerable in Tierra del Fuego during cold late-glacial time, whereas Holocene climate was largely regulated by interplay between maritime polar and maritime tropical air.     

Accretionary rims on inclusions in the Allende meteorite

Many inclusions in Allende, particularly those with irregular shapes, are surrounded by a sequence of thin layers which differ from one another in texture, mineralogy and mineral-chemistry. The layer underlying all others contains either: IA, pyroxene needles + olivine + clumps of hedenbergite and andradite; IB, olivine doughnuts; or IC, rectangular olivine crystals. The next layer outward, II, contains tiny (<5 μm) olivine plates and Layer III large (5–10 μm) olivine laths. The final layer, IV, occurs as clumps of andradite + hedenbergite surrounded by magnesium-rich pyroxene needles. It separates Layer III from the Allende matrix which is more poorly sorted and more sulfide-rich than Layer III. Nepheline and iron sulfide are common constituents of most layers, the latter being particularly fine-grained and abundant in Layer II. Although not every layer is present on every inclusion, the sequence of layers is constant. Evidence that the rims are accretionary aggregates includes the presence of highly disequilibrium mineral assemblages and the fact that they are highly porous masses consisting of many euhedral crystals with few intergrowths. In addition, the layers are thickest in topographic hollows on the surfaces of inclusions and the inner layers are absent or discontinuous beyond such irregularities, suggesting that the probability of accretion of crystals was low initially, except in pockets, and became greater later, after a soft cushion of accreted condensate crystals had already formed. Separation of assemblages of different mineralogy, mineral-chemistry and texture into different rim layers seems best explained by nebular models in which long, slow cooling histories allow differentiation during condensation by grain/gas separation processes.     

Bioconcentration factors for petroleum hydrocarbons, PAHs, LABs and biogenic hydrocarbons in the blue mussel

Bioconcentration factors (K_bc) for petroleum hydrocarbons, PAHs, LABs and biogenic hydrocarbons in Mytilus edulis were measured in field experiments using time-integrating water samplers. Seven deployments at five sites gave lipid weight K_bcs for total hydrocarbons ranging from 0.99 × 10⁶ to 3.1 × 10⁶ (mean 1.6 × 10⁶)—a narrower range than has been obtained previously. Bioconcentration factors for the PAHs were similar to those for total hydrocarbons where the major hydrocarbon source was oil. However, at other sites the factors for PAHs were an order of magnitude lower than those for petroleum and for hydrocarbons originating from algae. Compositional profiles for the linear alkyl benzenes (LABs) suggested that these compounds were assimilated primarily from the dissolved phase, despite their greater abundance on particles.     

Effect of spatial resolution on regionalization of hydrological model parameters

Lack of availability of historical data series is one of the major hindrances in hydrological modelling. Regionalization of hydrological model parameters is one of the solutions to obtain the parameters for ungauged basins. Recently, lots of methodologies have been developed. They can be categorized as model calibration then fitting regression between model parameters and catchments characteristics, using some kind of transfer function. The aim of this study was to compare different regionalization methods as well as to look how the spatial resolution affects regionalization. In this study, a modified Lipschitz and monotony condition was used for regionalization. To identify the effect of the model resolution, the parameters of a distributed and semi‐distributed version of the Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) model were regionalized. The study was conducted at the upper Neckar catchment of southwest Germany. It has been found that the combination of Lipschitz and monotony condition has performed reasonably. It has been seen that the distributed model structure has outperformed the semi‐distributed model structure. It shows under present data conditions that higher model resolution can describe processes of ungauged basins reasonably. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ON THE BREMMER SERIES DECOMPOSITION: EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES*

A Bremmer Series decomposition of the solution y(t) to the lossless wave equation in layered media is where the y_j(t) are physically meaningful constituents (i.e., y₁(t) are primaries, y₂(t) are secondaries, etc.). This paper reviews Mendel's state space models for generating the constituents; reviews Bremmer's integral equation models for generating the constituents; and demonstrates how Mendel's state space models can be obtained by a careful decomposition of Bremmer's integral equation models. It shows that Mendel's equations can be viewed as approximate numerical solutions of Bremmer's integral equations. In a lossless homogeneous medium, the approximations become exact.     

Forecasting weather radar propagation conditions

Summary The increasing use of weather radar quantitative precipitation estimates, particularly in automatic applications such as operational hydrometeorological modelling or assimilation in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, has promoted the development of quality control procedures on radar data. Anomalous propagation (AP) of the radar beam due to deviation from the standard refractivity vertical profile, is one of the factors that may affect seriously the quality of radar observations because of the increase in quantity and intensity of non-precipitating clutter echoes and consequent contamination of the estimated rainfall field. Another undesired effect of AP is the change in the expected radar echo height, which may be relevant when correcting for beam blockage in radar rainfall estimation in complex terrain. The aim of this paper is to study the use of NWP mesoscale forecasts to predict and monitor AP events. A nested 15-km grid resolution version of the MASS model has been used to retrieve refractivity profiles in the coastal area of Barcelona, near a weather radar and a radiosonde station. Using the refractivity profiles two different magnitudes were computed: the vertical refractivity profile of the lowest 1000 m layer and a ducting index which describes the existence and intensity of the most super-refractive layer contained in the lowest 3-km layer. A comparison between model forecasts and radiosonde diagnostics during a six-month period showed that the model tended to underestimate the degree of super-refraction, with a bias of 4 km⁻¹ and RMSE of 11 km⁻¹ in the 1-km vertical refractivity gradient. Further analysis of the data showed that a combination of previous observations and forecasts allowed to produce modified forecasts improving the original direct model output, decreasing substantially the bias, reducing the RMSE by 20% and improving the skill by 40%, beating also radiosonde observations persistence.     

Analysis of reservoir water quality using fuzzy synthetic evaluation

A general methodology for fuzzy synthetic evaluation is developed and illustrated with a case study of trophic status assessment for Fei-Tsui Reservoir in Taiwan. The historical data base was collected from the management agency of Fei-Tsui Reservoir from 1987 to 1996. In fuzzy synthetic evaluation, the classification is determined by a matrix operation of the weighted vector with the fuzzy evaluation matrix. After all individual membership functions of evaluated factors have been determined, the fuzzy evaluation matrix can be established. The weighted vector is determined by the analytic hierarchy process method (AHP). The results of this investigation show that the long-term change of water quality and the overturn phenomena cannot be observed with the Carlson index from 1987 to 1992 but is expressed by fuzzy synthetic evaluation. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation is better suited than the Carlson index to rating the trophic status of self-sustaining lakes. Interpretation of the results can provide valuable information to decision makers and aid reservoir management.     

Predicting suitable habitat for the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa (Scleractinia)

Ecological-niche factor analysis (ENFA) was applied to the reef framework-forming cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa. The environmental tolerances of this species were assessed using readily available oceanographic data, including physical, chemical, and biological variables. L. pertusa was found at mean depths of 468 and 480 m on the regional and global scales and occupied a niche that included higher than average current speed and productivity, supporting the theory that their limited food supply is locally enhanced by currents. Most records occurred in areas with a salinity of 35, mean temperatures of 6.2–6.7  °C and dissolved oxygen levels of 6.0–6.2 ml l⁻¹. The majority of records were found in areas that were saturated with aragonite but had low concentration of nutrients (silicate, phosphate, and nitrate). Suitable habitat for L. pertusa was predicted using ENFA on a global and a regional scale that incorporated the north-east Atlantic Ocean. Regional prediction was reliable due to numerous presence points throughout the area, whereas global prediction was less reliable due to the paucity of presence data outside of the north-east Atlantic. However, the species niche was supported at each spatial scale. Predicted maps at the global scale reinforced the general consensus that the North Atlantic Ocean is a key region in the worldwide distribution of L. pertusa. Predictive modelling is an approach that can be applied to cold-water coral species to locate areas of suitable habitat for further study. It may also prove a useful tool to assist spatial planning of offshore marine protected areas. However, issues with eco-geographical datasets, including their coarse resolution and limited geographical coverage, currently restrict the scope of this approach.