Modelling hydrological conditions in the maritime forest region of south‐western Nova Scotia

Hydrological processes and conditions were quantified for the Mersey River Basin (two basins: one exiting below Mill Falls, and one exiting below George Lake), the Roger's Brook Basin, Moosepit Brook, and for other selected locations at and near Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia, Canada, from 1967 to 1990. Addressed variables included precipitation (rain, snow, fog), air temperature, stream discharge, snowpack accumulations, throughfall, soil and subsoil moisture, soil temperature and soil frost, at a monthly resolution. It was found that monthly per hectare stream discharge was essentially independent of catchment area from <20 km² to more than 1000 km². The forest hydrology model ForHyM2 was used to simulate monthly rates of stream discharge, throughfall and snowpack water equivalents for mature forest conditions. These simulations were in good agreement with the historical records once the contributions of fog and mist to the area‐wide water budget were taken into account, each on a monthly basis. The resulting simulations establish a hydrologically consistent, continuous, comprehensive and partially verified record for basin‐wide outcomes for all major hydrological processes and conditions, be these related to stream discharge, soil moisture, soil temperature, snowpack accumulations, soil frost, throughfall, interception and soil percolation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial delineation of riparian groundwater within alluvium deposit of mountainous region using Laplace equation

The interaction between surface and groundwater plays a key role in a riparian ecosystem while the size of riparian groundwater has not been typically incorporated into hydrological modelling systems. An extensive geophysical survey composed of 25 individual DC electrical resistivity profiles was conducted at the Blair–Wallis site in Wyoming. The observed resistivity images show a near‐surface aquifer interpreted as the saturated alluvium deposit along the channel, rather than the geological bedrock. Based on the electrical resistivity images, it can be inferred that only the near‐surface portion of the groundwater actively interacts with the stream flow in the mountainous and hilly watershed. This study attempted the spatial extrapolation of the measured riparian aquifer depths by means of fitting functions based on the surface topography. The analysis indicated that the boundary of the riparian aquifer well corresponds to the topographical inflexion point of the hill slope profile. It was also demonstrated that the extent of alluvium deposit, where the area of riparian aquifer is indicated, can be delineated using the slope and curvature maps in the geographic information system. Then, the parabolic and biharmonic functions were tested for the groundwater depth estimation using the developed alluvium deposit map. The proposed methodology was effective if geological diffusion processes by wind and water dominated the topography. The spatial map of the active aquifer will be useful in hydrological drought analysis because it is considered to be a main source of baseflow during dry seasons.     

Deformation related to Miocene westward translation in the core of the Betic zone Implications on the tectonic interpretation of the Betic orogen (Spain)

Abstract

The Cenozoic westward motion of the Betic-Rif internal zone (“Alboran block”) between Iberia and Africa is constrained by paleogeographic considerations and by wrench faulting which affects both sides of the external zones. However, in the Alboran domain itself there was so far no evidence of significant internal deformation related to this westward displacement which was consequently consider as an en bloc” motion. Our work, in Eastern Andalucia, demonstrates that the main tectonic units building up the Betic zone should be regarded as large-scale tectonic sheets with a typical duplex style. The direction of the tectonic transport is to the West. At meso-scale, the major structures exhibit a combination of hindward and foreward dipping imbricates on the respective east and west sides of antiformal stacks or “rigid cores”. On a broader scale, the same geometric framework appears on both east and west sides of the Sierra Nevada window which we interpret as a tectonic culmination on the hangingwall of a Subbetic décollement zone. The development of this tectonics, in retrogressive metamorphic conditions, postdates the ductile deformation of the internal complexes. The morpho-tectonic relationships between the culmination of the metamorphic cores and the Neogene basins give a way to date the westward motion of the “Alboran System of Nappes” of the middle and upper Miocene.     

The occurrence of lead in Antarctic recent snow,firn deposited over the last two centuries and prehistoric ice

Concentrations of lead have been measured by ultraclean Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry in snow cores covering the last two centuries collected at an inland site in East Antarctica using an ultra clean all plastic hand operated auger and in a prehistoric blue ice block collected at an Antarctic coastal site. Lead contamination of 16 to 200 pg Pb/g existed on the outside of the snow cores, but the measured concentrations decreased more or less abruptly along a radius from the outside to the centers of the snow cores, establishing interior values in the 1 to 5 pg Pb/g range. Some of these interior values are however possibly still slightly affected by lead contamination which could have intruded to the center of the cores because of slight melting of some of the snow cores before laboratory analysis. The interior of the blue ice block appears not to have been significantly contaminated, and contains about 1.7 pg Pb/g.These new data show that most previously published data on lead in Antarctic snow and ice were in high positive error because of contamination during field sampling, laboratory analysis or both. They show that lead concentrations could not have increased in Antarctic snows or ice from prehistoric times to present more than 2 to 3 fold, confirming that the remote polar areas of the Southern Hemisphere are still little affected by industrial lead pollution. Prehistoric Antarctic ice is shown to contain about 1 pg Pb/g natural excess lead above silicate dust lead; this excess cannot be entirely accounted for by volcanoes or sea spray, which suggests the possible existence of some other unknown natural source of prehistoric excess lead. Present day mean eolian fallout flux of lead in Antarctica is estimated to be about 0.07 ng Pb cm^?2 yr^?1, which stands in about the same proportion to that in the South Pacific Westerlies (about 1:30) as the flux in Greenland is observed to stand to those in the North Pacific and North Atlantic Westerlies.     

Natural concentrations of lead in ancient Arctic and Antarctic ice

Concentrations of Pb and K were determined in a series of veneer layers chiseled in sequence from the outside toward the center of each of the five 1500–5500yr old ice core sections that had been drilled in Greenland and Antarctic ice. They were analogs of very old ice samples analyzed earlier by Herronet al. (1977) and Craginet al. (1975), who reported high concentrations of Pb in them. Lead contamination, existing at exterior concentrations of about 10⁶ ng/kg ice, had intruded to the centers of the cores, establishing interior values of at least 1.4 ng/kg ice in three electromechanically drilled Camp Century core sections taken from fluid filled drill holes. Corresponding Pb concentration changes were 3 × 10⁴ ng/kg ice to 1.2 ng/kg ice in two thermally drilled New Byrd Station core sections taken from non-fluid filled drill holes. Contamination made the lowest center concentrations serve only as upper limits to the original concentrations of Pb in the ice.Potassium concentrations decreased from exterior values of about 5 × 10⁵ ng/kg ice to an interior value of 2 × 10³ ng/kg ice in the Camp Century core sections and from 8 × 10⁴ ng/kg ice to 9 × 10² ng/kg ice in New Byrd Station core sections. Potassium contamination effects were not large within the central portions of the cores.These data verify earlier findings by Murozumiet al. (1969) and extend to a broader geographical significance the general validity of their observation of a ~ 300-fold increase of Pb concentrations in the Greenland ice sheet during the past 3000 yr. Our findings refute claims by Herronet al. (1977) and Craguinet al. (1975) that 100-fold excesses of natural Pb exist in 800 yr old Greenland ice above levels contributed by silicate dusts. Our new data also show that average Pb concentrations of 26 ng Pb/kg ice, claimed by Boutron and Lorius (1979) to be natural and present for 60 yr in snow strata in Antarctica, did not exist in old Antarctic ice, and that Pb concentrations have increased at least 10-fold in that ice during the past century.Virtually all of the present day ~300-fold excess of Pb above natural levels in Greenland ice can be shown to be caused by industrial Pb emissions to the atmosphere on the basis of the following factors: (1) the historic increase of Pb in snow strata coincides with the historic increase of industrial Pb production and atmospheric emissions (2) mass inventories of industrial emissions can account for the excess Pb in polar snow (3) new quantitative measurements of Pb emissions from volcanic plumes by Buat-Menard and Arnold (1978), Pattersonet al. (1981), and Buat-Menardet al. (1981), and from sea spray by Ng and Patterson (1981) and Settle and Patterson (1981). show that these natural sources cannot account for 99% of the excess Pb above contributions by silicate dusts observed today in the atmosphere; and (4) the historic increase of Pb in snow strata is paralleled by analogous increases of excess Pb shown by isotopic tracers to be industrial in water-laid sediments in a remote continental region (Shirahataet al., 1980). It is now known, however, that snows display about a 10-fold greater excess of industrial Pb above crustal silicate concentrations than exists in the air above the snows.     

Towards a Multi-Criteria Methodology for Assessment of Geological Carbon Storage Options

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) could achieve drastic cuts in the CO₂ emissions associated with fossil fuels in the near to medium term and has been promoted as a significant climate change mitigation option. As the profile of this family of technologies grows rapidly, there remain many uncertainties relating to its viability, effectiveness and desirability. In this paper we begin to map out some of the key issues associated with CCS, using a multi-criteria approach to explore how an (admittedly small) selection of stakeholders perceive alternative storage options and energy scenarios. We present five long-term scenarios describing alternative ways in which the UK energy system could develop and which deploy different levels of carbon storage. The key storage options considered are oil and gas fields (both disused and with enhanced oil recovery), traps in saline aquifers, saline aquifers outside traps and on-shore sites. The relative performance of the scenarios and the storage reservoirs included within them have been assessed against a set of socio-economic, technical and environmental criteria by a small selection of stakeholders to the carbon storage debate. Whilst we cannot make strong conclusions regarding precise stakeholder opinions at this stage due to the small size of the sample, the broad delineation of the arguments for and against CCS are evident. Multi-criteria assessment (MCA) appears to hold much potential as a useful tool for characterising and better understanding differences in stakeholder assessments of CCS and its implications, and for identifying options around which greater consensus on the desirability (or otherwise) of CCS as a mitigation strategy might emerge.