The hourly gale record from Valentia Observatory,SW Ireland 1874–2008 and some observations on extreme wave heights in the NE Atlantic

The sustained hourly gale record from Valentia Observatory, SW Ireland over the time period from 1874–2006 shows very significant variations including high values in the 1920s, 1940s, 1960s and 1980s but a decline since then down to the lowest recorded levels at present. Most gales occur in winter and in particular in December and January. An analysis of the wind duration and speed data shows that there has been increased variability in the duration of gales over the last 20 years and despite an overall decline in mean wind speed there is no indication that gale strengths have changed in any systematic way. This gale data is strongly in contrast to the outputs and predictions from the various scenarios in the ECHAM4 models which predict at worst no changes in cyclonicity of depressions below 1,000 hPa but significant increases in cyclonicity of severe depressions below 940 hPa. At present the actual data is running contrary to the model outcomes at Valentia and elsewhere in Ireland. The sustained gales have given rise to wave heights in excess of 30 m and this documentary evidence is verified by more recent satellite and marine buoy data.     

Seismic activity in the snowy mountains region and its relationship to geological structures

Forty‐four tremors which occurred in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales during the years 1958–1962 have been accurately located, using a network of seismic stations operating in that area. The largest of these were a tremor of magnitude 5 north of Berridale in May, 1959, and one of magnitude 4 near Rock Flat in September, 1958. Fault plane analysis suggests that the former was caused by a high‐angle thrust movement along the plane of the Crackenback Fault, while the latter may be associated with the Murrumbidgee Fault. These conclusions are supported by macroseismic data.

Twenty‐one minor shocks occurred in the vicinity of the Berridale tremor, and their strain release pattern is that of an after‐shock sequence. It is believed that they were produced as a result of secondary strains imposed by the original motion along an edge of the faulted block. The first motion data for these shocks is consistent with the hypothesis that the associated movements were transcurrent.

With the decrease of activity in the Berridale region, tremors became more or less random in the Snowy Mountains. The strain release curve obtained for these movements suggests a gradual rebuilding of the stress field following the Berridale shock.     

Advancing Global Marine Biogeography Research with Open‐source GIS Software and Cloud Computing

Across many scientific domains, the ability to aggregate disparate datasets enables more meaningful global analyses. Within marine biology, the Census of Marine Life served as the catalyst for such a global data aggregation effort. Under the Census framework, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System was established to coordinate an unprecedented aggregation of global marine biogeography data. The OBIS data system now contains 31.3 million observations, freely accessible through a geospatial portal. The challenges of storing, querying, disseminating, and mapping a global data collection of this complexity and magnitude are significant. In the face of declining performance and expanding feature requests, a redevelopment of the OBIS data system was undertaken. Following an Open Source philosophy, the OBIS technology stack was rebuilt using PostgreSQL, PostGIS, GeoServer and OpenLayers. This approach has markedly improved the performance and online user experience while maintaining a standards‐compliant and interoperable framework. Due to the distributed nature of the project and increasing needs for storage, scalability and deployment flexibility, the entire hardware and software stack was built on a Cloud Computing environment. The flexibility of the platform, combined with the power of the application stack, enabled rapid re‐development of the OBIS infrastructure, and ensured complete standards‐compliance.     

Scattered PKKP: Further evidence for scattering at a rough core-mantle boundary

PKKP signals from Novaya Zemlya recorded at LASA at distances around 60° show consistent anomalies in both slowness and azimuth. The observed anomaly suggests that the signal is a BC branch arrival, although the arrival time corresponds to the DF branch. The BC branch, however, does not extend back to this distance. The azimuth of approach is in the range 229–245°, instead of the expected 186°. These anomalies are associated only with PKKP; analysis of the core phases PKiKP and P′P′ (BC) from the same events show that they arrived at LASA with the appropriate slownesses and azimuths.The PKKP signals can be interpreted as “scattered” PKKP; the scattering occurs on underside reflection at the core-mantle boundary and is probably caused by topographic irregularities on the boundary itself. The calculated scattering region has a surface projection at about 60°S, 134°E, which is outside the diametral plane through source and receiver, and about 21° from the expected PKKP reflection point at 76°S, 95°E.Both the “direct” and “scattered” arms of the PKKP signal have a PK path close to that of the “C” end of the BC branch. The unexpectedly large amplitude of the arrival suggests that there may be a focusing of energy at C, which would indicate a change in velocity gradient just above the inner core boundary. The observations nevertheless require, on the scattering interpretation, lateral variations in the topography of the core-mantle boundary and a region of relatively large topography responsible for the anomalous PKKP observations.     

Upper mantle modelling using long-period SH body-wave trains

The resolution of fine shear-velocity structure in the upper mantle is difficult because of the low signal-to-noise conditions in most recordings of short-period S waves, and the poor resolving power of long-period S data. The resolution obtainable from the latter could be improved if a greater proportion of the SH body-wave train at distances less than about 40°, presumably comprised of arrivals from a variety of multiple paths through the upper mantle, could be separated into its component signals. Attempts at deconvolving these wave trains by standard techniques, however, usually result in “noisy” spike sequences which are extremely difficult to interpret.The authors have devised an empirical method of decomposing an SH body-wave train into its component arrivals, based on sequential removal of the response wavelets from the train. Although the method is approximate in that it assumes the absence of phase distortion, it provides clear spike sequences which can be used to derive a starting model for the application of refinement techniques. Application of the method to SH wave trains recorded at NORSAR from Mediterranean earthquakes has enabled the construction of an SH-velocity model for the upper mantle beneath eastern Europe in which the discontinuity profile is strikingly similar to those of recent detailed P-velocity models for the upper mantle beneath central Australia.     

Evidence for scattering of seismic PKP waves near the mantle-core boundary

The hypothesis of scattering of PKP waves near the mantle-core boundary provides a comprehensive interpretation of the observed precursors to PKIKP, certain features of which have not been adequately accounted for by any alternative interpretation. These features include the variation with distance of the times and slownesses of precursor onsets, and the variations in amplitude, azimuth and slowness observed in precursor wavetrains.The observed times and slownesses of the earliest precursor onsets are in close agreement with the theoretical least time curve for singly scattered waves.Amplitudes and slownesses of scattered waves have been calculated for earth models which are spherically symmetrical except for random variations in density and elastic parameters in a layer 200 km thick at the base of the mantle. The calculations show that observed precursor amplitudes and slownesses can be accounted for by random variations of about one percent having a correlation distance of about 30 km in this layer. In particular, it is shown that scattering structures up to 900 km above the mantle-core boundary inferred by Doornbos and Vlaar (1973) are not required by their data. There is a suggestion that the main scattering may actually occur inside a layer much less than 200 km thick at the base of the mantle.     

Tectonic assembly of the Brevard-Chauga belt, South Carolina: Fluid inclusion evidence from Appalachian Deep Core Site Investigation Hole 2 (ADCOH-2)

Appalachian Deep Core Hole 2 (ADCOH-2) penetrated part of one of the most persistent and important tectonostratigraphic belts in the southern Appalachians—the Brevard-Chauga belt in South Carolina. The Brevard-Chauga belt is a subdivision of the Inner Piedmont and it includes the Brevard fault zone. The 307 m core contains four imbricated slices of Early Ordovician Henderson Gneiss and metasedimentary rocks of the Chauga River Formation. Aqueous (NaCl–CaCl₂) inclusions and CO₂–CH₄-rich inclusions present in syntectonic quartz veins in the metasedimentary units, together with garnet-biotite geothermometry, provide information on the P-T conditions during uplift. Garnet-biotite geothermometry in the Brevard metasiltstone indicates a crystallization temperature of 466±52 °C, which together with published ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar hornblende data from the Chauga belt, are interpreted as a Neoacadian (late Devonian) garnet crystallization age. High-density CO₂-rich fluid inclusion isochores indicate a pressure of 4.5 kbar at 466±52 °C at this time. A Rb–Sr muscovite model age of 302 Ma in retrograde mylonitic Henderson Gneiss is interpreted as an Alleghanian recrystallization age. Fluid inclusions record a 2.5 kbar decompression event at this time, consistent with thrust assembly of the tectonostratigraphic units in the core.     

DEVISE AND RULE: COLONIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE BORNEO DAYAK c.1860–1920

This paper considers some of the ways in which travellers, administrators and academics in the colonial period sought to categorise the indigenous groups of Borneo. It focuses on Sarawak and North Borneo between about 1850 and 1920, and examines the use of stereotypical images of exoticism, fear and loathing in constructing different categories of peoples in the region. The paper argues that such categorisations were important in structuring the relationships between ruler and ruled, and in the development of particular regional and local identities.