The use of reference models from a priori data to guide 2D inversion of electrical resistivity tomography data

Clay-rich till plains cover much of the UK. Such sites are attractive locations for landfills, since clay aquitards lower the risk of landfill leachate entering groundwater. However, such tills often contain sand and gravel bodies that can act as leachate flow routes. Such bodies may not be detected by conventional site investigation techniques such as drilling boreholes and trial pitting. A method of guided inversion, where a priori data are used to construct structural reference models for use in inverting electrical resistivity tomography data, was proposed as a tool to improve the detection of sand and gravel bodies within clay-rich till sequences.
Following a successful 2D guided inversion synthetic modelling study, a field study was undertaken. Wenner 2D electrical resistivity tomography lines, resistivity cone penetrometry bores and electromagnetic induction ground resistivity data were collected over a site on the East Yorkshire coast, England, where sand and gravel lenses were known to exist from cliff exposures. A number of equally valid geoelectrical models were constructed using the electromagnetic and resistivity cone data. These were used as structural reference models in the inversion of the resistivity tomography data. Blind inversion using an homogenous reference model was also carried out for comparison.
It was shown for the first time that the best solution model produced by 2D inversion of one data set with a range of structural reference models could be determined by using the l ₂ model misfit between the solution models and associated reference models (reference misfit) as a proxy for the l ₂ misfit between the solution models and the synthetic model or 'best-guess' geoelectrical model (true misfit). The 2D methodology developed here is applicable in clay-rich till plains containing sand and gravel bodies throughout the UK.     

Regional climate changes drive increased scaled-chrysophyte abundance in lakes downwind of Athabasca Oil Sands nitrogen emissions

Several limnological and paleolimnological investigations have linked enhanced atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition to nutrient enrichment and increased primary production. The Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) in northeast Alberta, Canada is a significant source of N emissions, particularly since development intensified during the 1990s, and recent paleolimnological investigations provide evidence of increased lake production in adjacent areas subject to enhanced N deposition. The AOSR, however, has also experienced atmospheric warming since ca. AD 1900, and therefore the relative effects of nutrient deposition and climate changes on lake production remain unclear. We undertook a factorial-design paleolimnological assessment of 16 lakes in northwest Saskatchewan to quantify changes in abundance and species composition of scaled chrysophytes over the past 100 years. Study sites included both N-limited and P-limited lakes within control regions, as well as lakes that receive enhanced N deposition from the AOSR. We hypothesized that a change in algal communities within N-limited AOSR-impacted lakes, without concurrent changes in the other lake groups, would suggest AOSR-derived N as a driver of enhanced primary production. Instead, marked increases in concentrations of scaled chrysophytes, mainly Mallomonas crassisquama, occurred in the recent sediments in cores from all four lake groups (N-limited vs. P-limited, impacted vs. control), suggesting that regional climate change rather than N deposition was the paramount process enhancing chrysophyte production. Because chrysophyte abundances tended to be higher in deep, lower-pH lakes, and chrysophyte time series were fit best by lake-specific generalized additive models, we infer that climate effects may have been mediated by additional catchment and/or lake-specific processes.     

Characterization of a multilayer aquifer using open well dilution tests

An approach to characterization of multilayer aquifer systems using open well borehole dilution is described. The approach involves measuring observation well flow velocities while a nearby extraction well is pumped by introducing a saline tracer into observation wells and collecting dilution vs. depth profiles. Inspection of tracer profile evolution allows discrete permeable layers within the aquifer to be identified. Dilution profiles for well sections between permeable layers are then converted into vertical borehole flow velocities and their evolution, using an analytic solution to the advection-dispersion equation applied to borehole flow. The dilution approach is potentially able to measure much smaller flow velocities that would be detectable using flowmeters. Vertical flow velocity data from the observation wells are then matched to those generated using a hydraulic model of the aquifer system, "shorted" by the observation wells, to yield the hydraulic properties of the constituent layers. Observation well flow monitoring of pumping tests represents a cost-effective alternative or preliminary approach to pump testing each layer of a multilayer aquifer system separately using straddle packers or screened wells and requires no prior knowledge of permeable layer depths and thicknesses. The modification described here, of using tracer dilution rather than flowmeter logging to obtain well flow velocities, allows the approach to be extended to greater well separations, thus characterizing a larger volume of the aquifer. An example of the application of this approach to a multilayer Chalk Aquifer in Yorkshire, Northeast England, is presented.     

Chemical reactions accompanying fluid flow through granite held in a temperature gradient

Distilled water was passed at a low rate down a temperature gradient through cylinders of Barre and Westerly Granite. Temperatures ranged from 80–100°C at the outer edges of the cylinders to 250–300°C in central, drilled holes which housed the heating coils. The measured permeabilities of the granite cylinders decreased by as much as two orders of magnitude in experiments of 1–3 weeks' duration. The amount of permeability decrease varied directly with temperature and inversely with the rate of fluid flow. The compositions of the fluids discharged from the granites were functions of temperature and flow rate as well as mineral composition, with dissolved silica concentrations showing trends different from those of the other analyzed species. Fluids from experiments run at higher temperatures but at much lower initial rates of fluid flow had higher concentrations of most ions but substantially lower dissolved silica contents. In contrast, an increase in temperature at similar rates of fluid flow resulted in higher silica concentrations. In the experiments, the distilled water acquired enough dissolved materials at high temperatures to become supersaturated with respect to several minerals at the low-temperature edges of the cylinders. Some of this material, particularly silica, was deposited along grain boundaries and microfractures, causing the observed permeability decreases. The very low rates of fluid flow in some high-temperature experiments significantly increased the rates of SiO₂ precipitation and reduced dissolved silica concentrations relative to other species in the discharged fluids.     

Formation of subantarctic mode water in the southeastern Indian Ocean

Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW) is the name given to the relatively deep surface mixed layers found directly north of the Subantarctic Front in the Southern Ocean, and their extension into the thermocline as weakly stratified or low potential vorticity water masses. The objective of this study is to begin an investigation into the mechanisms controlling SAMW formation, through a heat budget calculation. ARGO profiling floats provide estimates of temperature and salinity typically in the upper 2,000 m and the horizontal velocity at various parking depths. These data are used to estimate terms in the mode water heat budget; in addition, mode water circulation is determined with ARGO data and earlier ALACE float data, and climatological hydrography. We find a rapid transition to thicker layers in the central South Indian Ocean, at about 70°S, associated with a reversal of the horizontal eddy heat diffusion in the surface layer and the meridional expansion of the ACC as it rounds the Kerguelen Plateau. These effects are ultimately related to the bathymetry of the region, leading to the seat of formation in the region southwest of Australia. Upstream of this region, the dominant terms in the heat budget are the air–sea flux, eddy diffusion, and Ekman heat transport, all having approximately equal importance. Within the formation area, the Ekman contribution dominates and leads to a downstream evolution of mode water properties.     

Rocket observation of atomic oxygen and night airglow: Measurement of concentration with an improved resonance fluorescence technique

An improved resonant fluorescence instrument for measuring atomic oxygen concentration was developed to avoid the Doppler effect and the aerodynamic shock effect due to the supersonic motion of a rocket. The shock effect is reduced by adopting a sharp wedge-shaped housing and by scanning of the detector field of view to change the distance between the scattering volume and the surface of the housing. The scanning enables us to determine absolute values of atomic oxygen concentration from relative variation of the scattered light signal due to the self-absorption. The instrument was calibrated in the laboratory, and the numerical simulation reproduced the calibration result. Using the instrument, the altitude profile of atomic oxygen concentration was observed by a rocket experiment at Uchinoura (31°N) on 28 January 1992. The data obtained from the rocket experiment were not perfectly free from the shock effect, but errors due to the effect were reduced by the data analysis procedure. The observed maximum concentration was 3.8× 10¹¹ cm⁻³ at altitudes around 94 km. The systematic error is estimated to be less than ±0.7×10¹¹ cm⁻³ and the relative random error is less than±0.07× 10¹¹ cm⁻³at the same altitudes. The altitude profile of the OI 557.7-nm airglow was also observed in the same rocket experiment. The maximum volume emission rate was found to be 150 photons cm⁻³ s⁻¹ at 94 km. The observed altitude profiles are compared with the MSIS model and other in situ observations.     

Weathering of Oil in a Surficial Aquifer

The composition of crude oil in a surficial aquifer was determined in two locations at the Bemidji, MN, spill site. The abundances of 71 individual hydrocarbons varied within 16 locations sampled. Little depletion of these hydrocarbons (relative to the pipeline oil) occurred in the first 10 years after the spill, whereas losses of 25% to 85% of the total measured hydrocarbons occurred after 30 years. The C_6‐30 n‐alkanes, toluene, and o‐xylene were the most depleted hydrocarbons. Some hydrocarbons, such as the n‐C_10–24 cyclohexanes, tri‐ and tetra‐ methylbenzenes, acyclic isoprenoids, and naphthalenes were the least depleted. Benzene was detected at every sampling location 30 years after the spill. Degradation of the oil led to increases in the percent organic carbon and in the δ ¹³C of the oil. Another method of determining hydrocarbon loss was by normalizing the total measured hydrocarbon concentrations to that of the most conservative analytes. This method indicated that the total measured hydrocarbons were depleted by 47% to 77% and loss of the oil mass over 30 years was 18% to 31%. Differences in hydrocarbon depletion were related to the depth of the oil in the aquifer, local topography, amount of recharge reaching the oil, availability of electron acceptors, and the presence of less permeable soils above the oil. The results from this study indicate that once crude oil has been in the subsurface for a number of years there is no longer a “starting oil concentration” that can be used to understand processes that affect its fate and the transport of hydrocarbons in groundwater.     

Using a dynamical advection to reconstruct a part of the SSH evolution in the context of SWOT,application to the Mediterranean Sea

The main oceanographic objective of the future SWOT mission is to better characterize the ocean mesoscale and sub-mesoscale circulation, by observing a finer range of ocean topography dynamics down to 20 km wavelength. Despite the very high spatial resolution of the future satellite, it will not capture the time evolution of the shorter mesoscale signals, such as the formation and evolution of small eddies. SWOT will have an exact repeat cycle of 21 days, with near repeats around 5–10 days, depending on the latitude. Here, we investigate a technique to reconstruct the missing 2D SSH signal in the time between two satellite revisits. We use the dynamical interpolation (DI) technique developed by Ubelmann et al. (2015). Based on potential vorticity (hereafter PV) conservation using a one and a half layer quasi-geostrophic model, it features an active advection of the SSH field. This model has been tested in energetic open ocean regions such as the Gulf Stream and the Californian Current, and has given promising results. Here, we test this model in the Western Mediterranean Sea, a lower energy region with complex small scale physics, and compare the SSH reconstruction with the high-resolution Symphonie model. We investigate an extension of the simple dynamical model including a separated mean circulation. We find that the DI gives a 16–18% improvement in the reconstruction of the surface height and eddy kinetic energy fields, compared with a simple linear interpolation, and a 37% improvement in the Northern Current subregion. Reconstruction errors are higher during winter and autumn but statistically, the improvement from the DI is also better for these seasons.     

Petrology,geochronology,and geophysical characterization of Mesoproterozoic rocks in central Illinois,USA

The Precambrian basement rocks of the Eastern Granite-Rhyolite Province(EGRP)in central Illinois(midcontinent region of North America)exhibit a complex history of early volcanism,granite emplacement,and intrusion of mafic rocks.A comprehensive suite of dedicated petrographic analyses,geophysical logs,and drill core from four basement-penetrating wells,two-dimensional and three-dimensional seismic reflection data,and U-Pb age data from the Illinois Basin–Decatur Project(IBDP)and Illinois Carbon Capture Storage(ICCS)Project site provide new constraints for interpreting the Precambrian basement of the Illinois Basin.These new data reveal the basement to be compositionally and structurally complex,having typical EGRP felsic volcanic rocks intruded by the first reported gabbro in the Precambrian basement in Illinois.Zircons(n?29)from rhyolite give a U-Pb weighted mean average age of 14679 Ma.Zircons(n?3)from a gabbro dike that intrudes the rhyolite yield a concordia age of 107312 Ma,which corresponds to Grenville-age extension and represents the first Grenville-age rock in Illinois and in the EGRP.A high-resolution three-dimensional seismic reflection volume,coincident with the four wells,provides a context for interpreting the petrological data and implies a high degree of heterogeneity for basement rocks at the IBDP–ICCS site,as also shown by the drill cores.The occurrence of Grenville-age gabbro is related to a prominent bowl-like structure observed on local two-dimensional seismic reflection profiles and the three-dimensional volume that is interpreted as a deep-seated mafic sill complex.Furthermore,heterogeneities such as the brecciated EGRP rhyolite and later gabbro intrusion observed in the basement lithology at the IBDP–ICCS may reflect previously unknown distal elements of the 1.1 Ga Midcontinent Rift in the EGRP and more likely Grenville-age extension.