Néotectonique affectant les dépôts marins tyrrhéniens du littoral sud-est tunisien : implications pour les variations du niveau marin

Pleistocene marine deposits of so-called Tyrrhenian age in southeastern Tunisia include two lithostratigraphic units of Last Interglacial (marine isotopic substage 5e). The lower unit culminates at about +3 m above the sea level; the upper unit with Strombus bubonius culminates at +5 m. Brittle deformations affected the upper unit. The analysis of fault-slip data sets reveals a post-Tyrrhenian N020°E trending compression, consistent with joint patterns. This event induced limited vertical movements, showing that at the northeastern edge of the Saharan Platform, the coastal area of the southern Tunisia remained relatively stable since at least the Last Interglacial.     

The Environmental benefits and costs of conservation tillage

 Every production practice, including conservation tillage, has positive or negative environmental consequences that may involve air, land, water, and/or the health and ecological status of wildlife. The negative impacts associated with agricultural production, and the use of conventional tillage systems in particular, include soil erosion, energy use, leaching and runoff of agricultural chemicals, and carbon emissions. Several of these impacts are quantified. The conclusions suggest that the use of conservation tillage does result in less of an adverse impact on the environment from agricultural production than does conventional tillage by reducing surface water runoff and wind erosion. Additionally, wildlife habitat will be enhanced to some extent with the adoption of conservation tillage and the benefits to be gained from carbon sequestration will depend on the soil remaining undisturbed. Finally, further expansion of conservation tillage on highly erodible land will unquestionably result in an increase in social benefits, but the expected gains will be modest.     

Aquifer Treatment of Sea Water to Remove Natural Organic Matter Before Desalination

An investigation of a sea water reverse osmosis desalination facility located in western Saudi Arabia has shown that aquifer treatment of the raw sea water provides a high degree of removal of natural organic matter (NOM) that causes membrane biofouling. The aquifer is a carbonate system that has a good hydraulic connection to the sea and 14 wells are used to induce sea water movement 400 to 450 m from the sea to the wells. During aquifer transport virtually all of the algae, over 90% of the bacteria, over 90% of the biopolymer fraction of NOM, and high percentages of the humic substance, building blocks, and some of the low molecular weight fractions of NOM are removed. Between 44 and over 90% of the transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) are removed with a corresponding significant reduction in concentration of the colloidal fraction of TEP. The removal rate for TEP appears to be greater in carbonate aquifers compared to siliciclastic systems. Although the production wells range in age from 4 months to 14 years, no significant difference in the degree of water treatment provided by the aquifer was found.     

Observational aspects of outbursting black hole sources: Evolution of spectro-temporal features and X-ray variability

We report on our attempt to understand the outbursting profile of Galactic Black Hole sources, keeping in mind the evolution of temporal and spectral features during the outburst. We present results of evolution of quasi-periodic oscillations, spectral states and possible connection with jet ejections during the outburst phase. Further, we attempt to connect the observed X-ray variabilities (i.e., ‘class’/‘structured’ variabilities, similar to GRS 1915+105) with spectral states of black hole sources. Towards these studies, we consider three black hole sources that have undergone single (XTE J1859+226), a few (IGR J17091-3624) and many (GX 339-4) outbursts since the start of RXTE era. Finally, we model the broadband energy spectra (3–150 keV) of different spectral states using RXTE and NuSTAR observations. Results are discussed in the context of two-component advective flow model, while constraining the mass of the three black hole sources.     

The Northern end of the Dead Sea Basin: Geometry from reflection seismic evidence

Recently released reflection seismic lines from the Eastern side of the Jordan River north of the Dead Sea were interpreted by using borehole data and incorporated with the previously published seismic lines of the eastern side of the Jordan River. For the first time, the lines from the eastern side of the Jordan River were combined with the published reflection seismic lines from the western side of the Jordan River. In the complete cross sections, the inner deep basin is strongly asymmetric toward the Jericho Fault supporting the interpretation of this segment of the fault as the long-lived and presently active part of the Dead Sea Transform. There is no indication for a shift of the depocenter toward a hypothetical eastern major fault with time, as recently suggested. Rather, the north-eastern margin of the deep basin takes the form of a large flexure, modestly faulted. In the N–S-section along its depocenter, the floor of the basin at its northern end appears to deepen continuously by roughly 0.5 km over 10 km distance, without evidence of a transverse fault. The asymmetric and gently-dipping shape of the basin can be explained by models in which the basin is located outside the area of overlap between en-echelon strike-slip faults.     

Quantifying annual groundwater recharge and storage in the central Sierra Nevada using naturally occurring 35S

Identifying aquifer vulnerability to climate change is of vital importance in the Sierra Nevada and other snow‐dominated basins where groundwater systems are essential to water supply and ecosystem health. Quantifying the component of new (current year's) snowmelt in groundwater and surface water is useful in evaluating aquifer vulnerability because significant annual recharge may indicate that streamflow will respond rapidly to annual variability in precipitation, followed by more gradual decreases in recharge as recharge declines over decades. Hydrologic models and field‐based studies have indicated that young (<1 year) water is an important component of streamflow. The goal of this study was to utilize the short‐lived, naturally occurring cosmogenic isotope sulfur‐35 (³⁵S) to quantify new snowmelt contribution to groundwater and surface waters in Sagehen Creek Basin (SCB) and Martis Valley Groundwater Basin (MVGB) located within the Tertiary volcanics of the central Sierra Nevada, CA. Activities of ³⁵S were measured in dissolved sulfate (³⁵SO₄^2?) in SCB and MVGB snowpack, groundwater, springs, and streamflow. The percent of new snowmelt (PNS) in SCB streamflow ranged from 0.2 ± 6.6% during baseflow conditions to 14.0 ± 3.4% during high‐flow periods of snowmelt. Similar to SCB, the PNS in MVGB groundwater and streamflow was typically <30% with the largest fractions occurring in late spring or early summer following peak streamflow. The consistently low PNS suggests that a significant fraction of annual snowmelt in SCB and MVGB recharges groundwater, and groundwater contributions to streamflow in these systems have the potential to mitigate climate change impacts on runoff.     

Factors affecting channel infiltration of floodwaters in Nahal Zin basin,Negev desert,Israel

Although floods in arid environments have been documented, considerable uncertainties still exist as to the floodwater and in‐channel infiltration relationships. In desert alluvial channels, the prime cause of flood discharge attenuation is water loss by infiltration into the alluvium. The present study documents flows in Nahal Zin, Israel, their infiltration into the channel bed, and the resultant change in the alluvium moisture content. The study uses a systematic combination of two experimental scales, the cross‐section scale and the reach scale. Direct measurements of moisture distribution in the active channel during floods were made using time domain reflectometry. Twelve flow events were recorded. Flow patterns and their respective alluvium moisture content were analysed. A trench was dug in the alluvium for the study of alluvium properties and time domain reflectometry sensor installation. The alluvium was characterized in terms of size distribution and sediment stratigraphy, structure, and composition. Two main alluvial structures (closed and open) affected the advance of the wetting front and water losses. Alluvial units with an open structure (clast‐supported) reached their maximum moisture content faster than closed structure units (matrix‐supported). Small‐sized particles and matrix‐supported layers reduced infiltration rate. The measured velocities of the wetting front were 0.33 and 2.88 m h^?1 for small and large floods respectively. The wetting front moved downward. Lateral movement was negligible. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of Eurasian snow on Indian summer monsoon in NCEP CFSv2 freerun

The latest version of the state-of-the-art global land–atmosphere–ocean coupled climate forecast system of NCEP has shown considerable improvement in various aspects of the Indian summer monsoon. However, climatological mean dry bias over the Indian sub-continent is further increased as compared to the previous version. Here we have attempted to link this dry bias with climatological mean bias in the Eurasian winter/spring snow, which is one of the important predictors of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR). Simulation of interannual variability of the Eurasian snow and its teleconnection with the ISMR are quite reasonable in the model. Using composite analysis it is shown that a positive snow anomaly, which is comparable to the systematic bias in the model, results into significant decrease in the summer monsoon rainfall over the central India and part of the Equatorial Indian Ocean. Decrease in the summer monsoon rainfall is also found to be linked with weaker northward propagation of intraseasonal oscillation (ISO). A barotropic stationary wave triggered by positive snow anomaly over west Eurasia weakens the upper level monsoon circulation, which in turn reduces the zonal wind shear and hence, weakens the northward propagation of summer monsoon ISOs. A sensitivity experiment by reducing snow fall over Eurasian region causes decrease in winter and spring snow depth, which in turn leads to decrease in Indian summer monsoon rainfall. Results from the sensitivity experiment corroborate with those of composite analysis based on long free run. This study suggests that further improvements in the snow parametrization schemes as well as Arctic sea ice are needed to reduce the Eurasian snow bias during winter/spring, which may reduce the dry bias over Indian sub-continent and hence predictability aspect of the model.