The influence of the Evros River on the recent sedimentation of the inner shelf of the NE Aegean Sea

The transboundary Evros River discharges into the Alexandroupolis Gulf, located in the inner shelf of the northeastern Aegean Sea, where it has formed an extended delta. Grain-size and mineralogical analyses of five sediment cores, collected in the subaqueous delta, provide the following information about recent sedimentation processes in the northeastern part of the Aegean shelf: (a) river mouth deposits, consisting of coarse-grained sediments, are mainly deposited in front of the active mouth, whilst some sandy material is expected to be transported alongshore by nearshore currents; (b) delta front deposits are characterised by fine-grained sediments that include evidence of human activities which have taken place, in a more intense way, since the 1950s; and (c) prodelta deposits are represented by almost uniform riverine mud that cover the pre-existed relict sands of the shelf, indicating also the limit (some 15 km to the SW) of the influence of riverine sedimentation on the seabed of the inner shelf of the Alexandroupolis Gulf.     

Life Histories and Breeding Patterns of Three Intertidal Sand Beach Isopods

Abstract. Three-weekly transects were done over a 14-month period at Sundays River Beach, a high energy beach in Algoa Bay, South Africa, to determine the life histories, breeding patterns, and fecundities of three intertidal cirolanid isopods. Eurydice longicornis. Pontogeloides latipes , and Excirolana naialensis. E. longicornis exhibits an annual, multivoltine life history with a more extended breeding period than the other two species. P. latipes and E. natalensis both have biennial. univoltine life histories with lower fecundities than E. longicornis.     

A method for establishing ship design wave bending moment and its comparison with classification societies' rules

A procedure has been developed for the long-term distribution of the short-term extreme values of ship wave bending moments. The procedure has been applied in a systematic manner to investigate the effect of the principal ship characteristics on the design wave bending monent. The results have been compared to Classification Societies' Rules and demonstrate a rational way to improve them. The same procedure can also be applied to other ship responses or the responses of any structure excited by seaways.     

Effects of rupture complexity and stress regime on scaling relations of induced microseismic events

Source parameter scaling relations are examined for microseismic events (–2.4M–0.3) occurring within higyly and moderately stressed and fractured rock masses at Strathcona mine, Sudbury, Canada. Insight into scaling is provided by waveform complexities, calculated rupture velocities, and maximum shear stresses based onin situ and numerical modelling data. The importance of normal stress on the failure process is also considered. Our results show that a strong dependence exists between stress release and seismic moment. An observed positive scaling in excess stress release (/2– _a ) is consistent with the concept of overshoot. Rupture velocities ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 and waveform complexities less than 1.5 suggested that overshoot was related to healing behind a slowly advancing rupture front. Scaling in seismic efficiency paralleled that in apparent stress, implying that seismic stress release estimates are quasi-independent of the maximum shear stress. High levels of normal stress further supported the importance of high resisting stress in the observed overshoot behaviour and its role in the failure process.     

Studies of a contaminated brackish marsh in the Hackensack Meadowlands of northeastern New Jersey: an assessment of natural recovery

Eight-Day Swamp is known to be contaminated with heavy metals, especially mercury. Sediment cores were collected to approximately 32 cm at 17 sites on four transects and analyzed at 1 or 2 cm intervals for seven metals and organic matter. Very high metal levels were found throughout the site. Long and Morgan's "effects range-median" (ER-M) was exceeded in more than 50% of slices for all elements except As. Hg had the highest concentration relative to ER-M; median Hg concentration was 72 times its ER-M. On the marsh plain, all metals showed enrichment at 14-20 cm depth of 10-40X over surficial sediments. 137Cs analysis showed sedimentation rates ranging from 0.33 to 0.50 cm yr(-1) over the last approximately 40 yr. These rates indicate that metal contamination peaks occurred in sediments deposited in the early 1960s. Thus, newer, less contaminated sediments are burying older, more contaminated layers and peak levels of contaminants are becoming less available to benthos.     

Stratigraphy of the mid-Holocene black bands in Lakes Michigan and Huron: Evidence for possible basin-wide anoxia

The post-glacial history of the Great Lakes has involved several changes in lake levels throughout the latest Pleistocene and Holocene, resulting from the changing position of the retreating Laurentide ice sheet, outlet incision and isostatic rebound. The final lowering of lake levels occurred at approximately 7600 ¹⁴C yr BP, after which lake levels began to rise again to the Nipissing highstand at approximately 4700 ¹⁴C yr BP. During this time of rising lake levels, black bands of iron sulfide were being formed in the sediments of all five of the Great Lakes. These bands signify suboxic to anoxic conditions, at least within the sediments and possibly at the sediment-water interface, during the middle Holocene warm interval. During this interval, the climate was warmer and drier than present, possibly resulting in the occasional absence of seasonal turnover in the lakes. We examined a series of piston cores from northern Lakes Michigan and Huron and found that the black bands are correlatable among cores taken from within the same basin. The observation that the banding can be correlated suggests a basin-wide cause, near-bottom or sub-bottom anoxia in the northern Michigan and northern Huron sediments during the mid-Holocene warm period. The sedimentary and geochemical processes in the Great Lakes during the middle Holocene warm interval are good indicators of possible future scenarios for the lakes as a result of global warming, as 21^st-century temperatures are predicted to reach similar levels due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases.     

The chemical, physical and structural properties of estuarine ice in Great Bay, New Hampshire

The purpose of this study was to provide general information on the chemical, physical and structural properties of estuarine ice and show how it compares with sea ice found at higher latitudes in order to determine whether the ice in Great Bay can be used as an analog in the study of arctic sea ice.Ice cores and water samples were collected during the 1983–1984 winter season at Adams Point in Great Bay, New Hampshire. Concentrations of chloride, nitrogen (as nitrate and nitrite), bromide, phosphate, sulfate and silicate were determined for samples chosen on the basis of identifiable stratigraphic layers (i.e. bubble size and shape, sediment layers, etc.).Similarities between ice formation in Great Bay and those in the arctic regions include the nature of the freezing process and the ice types produced. In addition, the distribution and concentration of chemical constituents were found to be similar to those observed in arctic sea ice. Factors affecting the chemistry of the ice in Great Bay include rainfall during the freezing season, the presence of sediment layers in the ice cores, the nature of incorporation of brine into the crystal structure of the ice and the drainage of brine.     

Support vector regression to predict asphalt mix performance

Material properties are essential in the design and evaluation of pavements. In this paper, the potential of support vector regression (SVR) algorithm is explored to predict the resilient modulus (M_R), which is an essential property in designing and evaluating pavement materials, particularly hot mix asphalt typically used in Oklahoma. SVR is a statistical learning algorithm that is applied to regression problems; in our study, SVR was shown to be superior to the least squares (LS). Compared with the widely used LS method, the results of this study show that SVR significantly reduces the mean‐squared error and improves the correlation coefficient. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

IMAGES OF MAPS: A ROTATION EXPERIMENT*

Theories which explain mental imagery are discussed and are related to cognitive maps. An experiment was conducted to illustrate that people can code information about maps as visual images and use map images for a map-reading task. Subjects were shown maps which were rotated at various angles from north-at-the-top. The time needed to decide if a map was a correct or mirror representation was recorded. The results support the notion that people did this task by forming and rotating map images.     

Power function decay of hydraulic conductivity for a TOPMODEL‐based infiltration routine

TOPMODEL rainfall‐runoff hydrologic concepts are based on soil saturation processes, where soil controls on hydrograph recession have been represented by linear, exponential, and power function decay with soil depth. Although these decay formulations have been incorporated into baseflow decay and topographic index computations, only the linear and exponential forms have been incorporated into infiltration subroutines. This study develops a power function formulation of the Green and Ampt infiltration equation for the case where the power n = 1 and 2. This new function was created to represent field measurements in the New York City, USA, Ward Pound Ridge drinking water supply area, and provide support for similar sites reported by other researchers. Derivation of the power‐function‐based Green and Ampt model begins with the Green and Ampt formulation used by Beven in deriving an exponential decay model. Differences between the linear, exponential, and power function infiltration scenarios are sensitive to the relative difference between rainfall rates and hydraulic conductivity. Using a low‐frequency 30 min design storm with 4·8 cm h^?1 rain, the n = 2 power function formulation allows for a faster decay of infiltration and more rapid generation of runoff. Infiltration excess runoff is rare in most forested watersheds, and advantages of the power function infiltration routine may primarily include replication of field‐observed processes in urbanized areas and numerical consistency with power function decay of baseflow and topographic index distributions. Equation development is presented within a TOPMODEL‐based Ward Pound Ridge rainfall‐runoff simulation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.