Transient electromagnetic responses in seafloor with triaxial anisotropy

Electrical anisotropy of young oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges is detectable by observation of the rate and geometry of the diffusion of electromagnetic fields. The anisotropy in electrical properties arises from the presence of conductive seawater in an interconnected network of mostly ridge-parallel cracks. In this paper, we first justify the choice of a triaxial model to represent young oceanic crust, with three distinct electrical conductivities in the vertical, strike and spreading directions. We then present an algorithm to calculate the transient electromagnetic responses generated by an electric dipole source over such a triaxially anisotropic seafloor. We show that if the transient passages are measured with three distinct electric dipole-dipole configurations, it is possible to discern all three unknown conductivities independently of each other.     

New palaeogeographic and lake-level reconstructions of Lake Tanganyika: implications for tectonic, climatic and biological evolution in a rift lake

Palaeogeographic and lake-level reconstructions provide powerful tools for evaluating competing scenarios of biotic, climatic and geological evolution within a lake basin. Here we present new reconstructions for the northern Lake Tanganyika subbasins, based on reflection seismic, core and outcrop data. Reflection seismic radiocarbon method (RSRM) age estimates provide a chronological model for these reconstructions, against which yet to be obtained age dates based on core samples can be compared. A complex history of hydrological connections and changes in shoreline configuration in northern Lake Tanganyika has resulted from a combination of volcanic doming, border fault evolution and climatically induced lake-level fluctuations. The stratigraphic expression of lake-level highstands and lowstands in Lake Tanganyika is predictable and cyclic (referred to here as Capart Cycles), but in a pattern that differs profoundly from the classic Van Houten cycles of some Newark Supergroup rift basins. This difference results from the extraordinary topographic relief of the Western Rift lakes, coupled with the rapidity of large-scale lake-level fluctuations. Major unconformity surfaces associated with Lake Tanganyika lowstands may have corresponded with high-latitude glacial maxima throughout much of the mid- to late Pleistocene.
Rocky shorelines along the eastern side of the present-day Ubwari Peninsula (Zaire) appear to have had a much more continuous existence as littoral rock habitats than similar areas along the north-western coastline of the lake (adjacent to the Uvira Border Fault System), which in turn are older than the rocky shorelines of the north-east coast of Burundi. This model of palaeogeographic history will be of great help to biologists trying to clarify the evolution of endemic invertebrates and fish in the northern basin of Lake Tanganyika.
     

Seismic anisotropy within the uppermost mantle of southern Germany

This paper presents an updated interpretation of seismic anisotropy within the uppermost mantle of southern Germany. The dense network of reversed and crossing refraction profiles in this area made it possible to observe almost 900 traveltimes of the P_n phase that could be effectively used in a time-term analysis to determine horizontal velocity distribution immediately below the Moho. For 12 crossing profiles, amplitude ratios of the P_n phase compared to the dominant crustal phase were utilized to resolve azimuthally dependent velocity gradients with depth. A P -wave anisotropy of 3–4 per cent in a horizontal plane immediately below the Moho at a depth of 30 km, increasing to 11 per cent at a depth of 40 km, was determined. For the axis of the highest velocity of about 8.03 km s⁻¹ at a depth of 30 km a direction of N31°F was obtained. The azimuthal dependence of the observed P_n amplitude is explained by an azimuth-dependent sub-Moho velocity gradient decreasing from 0.06 s⁻¹ in the fast direction to 0 s⁻¹ in the slow direction of horizontal P -wave velocity. From the seismic results in this study a petrological model suggesting a change of modal composition and percentage of oriented olivine with depth was derived.     

Responses of interrill runoff and erosion rates to vegetation change in southern Arizona

Vegetation change, fi-om grassland to shrubland, has occurred over much of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts during the past century. The effect of this vegetation change on interrill runoff and erosion was examined by conducting rainfall-simulation experiments on large runoff plots on contemporary grassland and shrubland hillslopes. These experiments show that, compared to the grassland, the interrill portions of shrubland hillslopes (1) have higher runoff rates, (2) experience equilibrium runoff conditions much more frequently, (3) exhibit higher overland flow velocities, and (4) are subject to greater rates of erosion. The environmental change that has led to the vegetation change has been relatively minor, but its geomorphic impact has been substantial.