Dynamics of soil erosion rates and controlling factors in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands – towards a sediment budget

This paper analyses the factors that control rates and extent of soil erosion processes in the 199 ha May Zegzeg catchment near Hagere Selam in the Tigray Highlands (Northern Ethiopia). This catchment, characterized by high elevations (2100–2650 m a.s.l.) and a subhorizontal structural relief, is typical for the Northern Ethiopian Highlands. Soil loss rates due to various erosion processes, as well as sediment yield rates and rates of sediment deposition within the catchment (essentially induced by recent soil conservation activities), were measured using a range of geomorphological methods. The area‐weighted average rate of soil erosion by water in the catchment, measured over four years (1998–2001), is 14·8 t ha^?1 y^?1, which accounts for 98% of the change in potential energy of the landscape. Considering these soil loss rates by water, 28% is due to gully erosion. Other geomorphic processes, such as tillage erosion and rock fragment displacement by gravity and livestock trampling, are also important, either within certain land units, or for their impact on agricultural productivity. Estimated mean sediment deposition rate within the catchment equals 9·2 t ha^?1 y^?1. Calculated sediment yield (5·6 t ha^?1 y^?1) is similar to sediment yield measured in nearby catchments. Seventy‐four percent of total soil loss by sheet and rill erosion is trapped in exclosures and behind stone bunds. The anthropogenic factor is dominant in controlling present‐day erosion processes in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands. Human activities have led to an overall increase in erosion process intensities, but, through targeted interventions, rural society is now well on the way to control and reverse the degradation processes, as can be demonstrated through the sediment budget. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diurnal variations of winds over an upwelling region off Oregon

The diurnal variation of surface winds off the coast of Oregon is described and compared with a recent analysis of winds off the coast of Peru. The Oregon wind speeds have a distinct 24-h periodicity, while the Peru wind speeds were reported to have an irregular 12-h variation. The long-and trans-shore components of both winds exhibit 24-h periodicities; the ratio of the long-shore to trans-shore diurnal amplitudes off Oregon is 2.8, twice the ratio found off Peru. Although meteorological conditions off Oregon were quasi-stationary during the period investigated, there were considerable day-to-day variations in diurnal amplitudes and phases. Diurnal amplitudes were found to be correlated with the daily mean long-shore winds.     

A small-scale landslide susceptibility assessment for the territory of Western Carpathians

This study presented herein compares the bivariate and multivariate landslide susceptibility mapping methods and presents the landslide susceptibility map of the territory of Western Carpathians in small scale. This study also describes pioneer work for the territory of Western Carpathians, overreaching state borders, using verified sophisticated statistical methods. In the susceptibility mapping, digital elevation model was first constructed using a GIS software, and parameter maps affecting the slope stability such as geology, seismicity, precipitation, topographical elevation, slope angle, slope aspect and land cover were considered. In the last stage of the analyses, landslide susceptibility maps were produced using bivariate and multivariate analyses, and they were then compared by means of their validations. The validation of the bivariate analysis data was performed using the results of bivariate analysis for landslide areas of Slovakia containing five classes of susceptibility in scale 1:500,000. The validation area is the area of Western Carpathians within Slovakia. Eighty-two per cent of area does not differ in more than one class. The validation of the multivariate analysis data was performed using the results from the Kysuce region in the northern part of Slovakia in scale 1:10,000. The raster calculator was used to express the difference between each pair of pixels within these two layers. Seventy-seven per cent of the pixels do not differ in more than 25 %, 94 % of the pixels do not differ in more than 50 %. The maximal possible difference is 100 % (one pixel with value 0 and other with value 1, or vice versa). Receiver operating characteristic analysis was also performed, the area under curve value for bivariate model was calculated to be 0.735, while it was 0.823 for multivariate. The results of the validation can be considered as satisfactory.     

How soil conservation affects the catchment sediment budget – a comprehensive study in the north Ethiopian highlands

An overall approach to assess the effectiveness of soil conservation measures at catchment scale is the comparison of sediment budgets before and after implementation of a catchment management programme. In the May Zeg‐zeg catchment (187 ha) in Tigray, north Ethiopia, integrated catchment management has been implemented since 2004: stone bunds were built in the whole catchment, vegetation was allowed to re‐grow on steep slopes and other marginal land, stubble grazing abandoned, and check dams built in gullies. Land use and management were mapped and analysed for 2000 and 2006, whereby particular attention was given to the quantification of changes in soil loss due to the abandonment of stubble grazing. Sediment yield was also measured at the catchment's outlet. A combination of decreased soil loss (from 14·3 t ha^–1 y^–1 in 2000 to 9·0 t ha^–1 y^–1 in 2006) and increased sediment deposition (from 5·8 to 7·1 t ha^–1 y^–1) has led to strongly decreased sediment yield (from 8·5 to 1·9 t ha^–1 y^–1) and sediment delivery ratio (from 0·6 to 0·21). This diachronic comparison of sediment budgets revealed that integrated catchment management is most effective and efficient and is the advisable and desirable way to combat land degradation in Tigray and other tropical mountains. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reactions of Cl Atoms with Selected VOCs: Kinetics, Products and Mechanisms

The reactions of isoprene, MBO (2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol) and toluene with chlorine atoms have been studied at 298 ± 5 K and 740 ± 5 Torr with the use of FTIR spectroscopy. Major products of the isoprene-Cl reaction and of the MBO-Cl reaction have been identified and quantified, and reaction mechanisms have been tentatively proposed in order to explain the products formed. The reaction between isoprene and Cl atoms yields mainly HCl, formyl chloride, formic acid, methylglyoxal (pyruvic aldehyde), CO and CO2, while the MBO-Cl reaction forms acetone, HCl, formyl chloride, formic acid, CO, CO2. As products from the reaction between toluene and Cl we identified and quantified HCl and benzaldehyde. The rate constants for the reactions of isoprene and toluene with Cl atoms have also been determined using a relative rate method. The measured values are: kisoprene = (5.5 ± 1.0) × 10–10 cm3 molecule–1 s–1 and ktoluene = (5.6 ± 1.3) × 10–11 cm3 molecule–1 s–1. Atmospheric lifetimes have been estimated from these values.     

Immiscible separation of metalliferous Fe/ Ti-oxide melts from fractionating alkali basalt: P-T-f O2 conditions and two-liquid elemental partitioning

Globules of iron-dominated (59–69 wt% FeO_tot) and titanium-dominated (43.5 wt% TiO₂) oxide melts have been detected in igneous xenoliths from Pliocene-to-Pleistocene alkali basalts of the Western Carpathians. Fluid inclusion and mineral composition data indicate immiscible separation of the high-iron-oxide melt (HIM) at magmatic temperatures. The HIM separation occurred during clinopyroxene (augite) accumulation in an alkali trachybasalt and continued during crystallization of amphibole (kaersutite) and K-feldspar (anorthoclase), the latter coexisting with trachyte and alkalic rhyolite residual melts. Some HIM was also expelled from sub-alkalic rhyolite (70–77% SiO₂), coexisting with An_27–45 plagioclase and quartz in granitic (tonalite-trondhjemite) xenoliths. Oxygen fugacities during HIM separation range from −1.4 to +0.6 log units around the QFM buffer. A close genetic relationship between HIM-hosted xenoliths and mantle-derived basaltic magma is documented by mineral ¹⁸O values ranging from 4.9 to 5.9‰ V-SMOW. δD values of gabbroic kaersutite between −61 and −86‰ V-SMOW are in agreement with a presumed primary magmatic water source. Most trace elements, except Li, Rb and Cs, have preferentially partitioned into the HIM. The HIM/Si-melt partition coefficients for transition elements (Sc, V, Cr, Co, Ni) and base metals (Zn, Cu, Mo) are between 2–160, resulting in extreme enrichment in the HIM. La and Ce also concentrate in the silicic melt, whereas Tb-Tm in the HIM. Hence, the immiscible separation causes REE fractionation and produces residual silicic melt enriched in LREE and depleted in HREE. The weak fractionation among Tb-Tm and Yb, Lu can be attributed to recurrent extraction of the HIM from the magmatic system, while flat HREE chondrite-normalized patterns are interpreted to indicate no or little loss of the HIM. Received: 30 September 1997 / Accepted: 23 March 1998     

Efficient Methods to Simulate Planar Free Surface in the 3D 4th-Order Staggered-Grid Finite-Difference Schemes

We numerically tested accuracy of two formulations of Levander's (1988) stress-imaging technique for simulating a planar free surface in the 4^th-order staggered-grid finite-difference schemes. We have found that both formulations (one with normal stress-tensor components at the surface, the other with shear stress-tensor components at the surface) require at least 10 grid spacings per minimum wavelength ( _min÷h = 10) if Rayleigh waves are to be propagated without significant grid dispersion in the range of epicentral distances up to 15 _dom ^S.Because interior 4^th-order staggered-grid schemes usually do not require more than 6 grid spacings per minimum wavelength, in the considered range of epicentral distances, it was desirable to find alternative techniques to simulate a planar free surface, which would not require denser spatial sampling than _min÷h = 6. Therefore, we have developed and tested new techniques: 1. Combination of the stress imaging (with the shear stress-tensor components at the surface) with Rodrigues' (1993) vertically refined grid near the free surface. 2. Application of the adjusted finite-difference approximations to the z-derivatives at the grid points at and below the surface that uses no virtual values above the surface and no stress imaging. The normal stress-tensor components are at the surface in one formulation, while the shear stress-tensor components are at the surface in the other formulation.The three developed formulations give for the spatial sampling _min÷h = 6 results very close to those obtained by the discrete-wavenumber method. Because, however, the technique with the vertically refined grid near the free surface requires 3 times smaller time step (due to the refined grid), the technique with adjusted finite-difference approximations is the most accurate and efficient technique from the examined formulations in the homogeneous halfspace.     

The Košice meteorite fall: Recovery and strewn field

We provide the circumstances and details of the fireball observation, search expeditions, recovery, strewn field, and physical characteristics of the Ko?ice meteorite that fell in Slovakia on February 28, 2010. The meteorite was only the 15th case of an observed bolide with a recovered mass and subsequent orbit determination. Despite multiple eyewitness reports of the bolide, only three videos from security cameras in Hungary were used for the strewn field determination and orbit computation. Multiple expeditions of professionals and individual searchers found 218 fragments with total weight of 11.3 kg. The strewn field with the size of 5 × 3 km is characterized with respect to the space distribution of the fragments, their mass and size‐frequency distribution. This work describes a catalog of 78 fragments, mass, size, volume, fusion crust, names of discoverers, geographic location, and time of discovery, which represents the most complex study of a fresh meteorite fall. From the analytical results, we classified the Ko?ice meteorite as an ordinary H5 chondrite.     

Runoff curve numbers for steep hillslopes with natural vegetation in semi‐arid tropical highlands,northern Ethiopia

Daily runoff from 27 plots (5 m × 2 m) recorded during two rainy seasons in the Tigray highlands (Ethiopia) were analysed together with daily rainfall to calculate runoff curve numbers for hillslopes covered by semi‐natural vegetation in varying stages of vegetation restoration. Curve number model parameters were derived using a least squares fitting procedure on the collected rainfall–runoff datasets. Curve numbers varied from 29 to 97. Land use type was an important explanatory factor for the variation in curve numbers, whereas hydrologic soil group was not. Curve numbers were negatively correlated with vegetation cover. Taking into account antecedent soil moisture conditions did not improve runoff prediction using the curve number method. As runoff prediction was less accurate in areas with low curve numbers, two separate regression functions relating curve numbers with vegetation cover were proposed for different land use types. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.