A direct comparison of C and Th ages at Searles Lake, California

Thorium-230 dating on saline of the Lower Salt unit in pluvial Searles Lake, California, shows that this unit was formed between 24,500 and 32,000 years ago. The initial apparent ¹⁴C age of the lake is estimated to be about 900 years. After correcting for nonradiogenic ²³⁰Th and for the initial ¹⁴C age, excellent agreement between ²³⁰Th and ¹⁴C ages is obtained. The reliability of ²³⁰Th dating on salt deposit opens a new way for continuation of absolute chronology below the Lower Salt in Searles Lake.     

The southern cape conductive belt (South Africa): Its composition, origin and tectonic significance

Magnetometer array studies have led to the discovery and mapping of the Southern Cape Conductive Belt (SCCB) crossing the southern tip of Africa from west to southeast coasts. The SCCB lies just south of the Namaqua-Natal Belt of cratonic rocks remobilized about 1000 m.y. B.P. It is shown that it coincides with a zone of weakness which has been exploited by three major geosynclinal accumulations over some 600 m.y. Relationships between the SCCB and the basement geochronology, geology and tectonics are considered in detail. These relationships support the view that the conductive belt was formed by an accumulation of marine sediments and oceanic lithosphere at the top of a Proterozoic subduction which stopped about 1000 to 800 m.y. B.P. Associated with this subduction we propose a Proterozoic range of Andean mountains, whose roots are now exposed in the Namaqua-Natal Belt. Later subduction further south, near the present south coast, is proposed to account for the intrusion, between the south coast and the SCCB, of the Cape Granites in the time interval 600-500 m.y. B.P. There is some evidence for a third, yet more distant, subduction episode off Permian Gondwanaland. After outlining this tectonic history, the paper turns to a closer examination of the hypothesis that the Southern Cape Conductive Belt consists of partly serpentinized basalt accumulated at the top of a Proterozoic subduction. A large static magnetic anomaly, which correlates with the SCCB over most of its length, is well fitted by a model which strongly supports this hypothesis. Bouguer gravity anomalies along western and central profiles likewise support the hypothesis. A discussion follows of the process of formation of the proposed block of serpentinized marine rocks, beginning with serpentinization of the crust near oceanic ridges by reaction of warm, porous, newly-extruded basalt with seawater convecting through it. The serpentinized basalt is stable at crustal temperatures and pressures and so is transported in the seafloor until it reaches a subduction, where it accumulates because of its low density. Examples of such accumulations are cited. Finally, it is shown that any iron in the olivine and pyroxene in the original basalt precipitates, when these silicates are hydrated to serpentine, as magnetite which is the dominant mineral conferring high electrical conductivity and high magnetic susceptibility on serpentinites. In particular the Beattie static magnetic anomaly requires, in our model calculation, a very high susceptibility readily attainable in basalt at 15–20% serpentinization. The authors know of no other rock able to provide this high susceptibility. A similar percentage of serpentinization provides the density required to model the gravity anomalies.     

Evaporation of perennial semi‐arid woodland in southeastern Australia is adapted for irregular but common dry periods

Measurements of water vapour flux from semi‐arid perennial woodland (mallee) were made for 3 years using eddy covariance instrumentation. There have been no previous long‐term, detailed measures of water use in this ecosystem. Latent energy flux (LE) on a half hourly basis was the measure of the combined soil and plant evaporation, ‘evapotranspiration’ (E_LE) of the site. Aggregation over 3 years of the site measured rain (1136 mm) and the estimated evaporation (794 mm) suggests that 342 mm or 30% of rain had moved into or past the root zone of the vegetation. Above average rainfall during 2011 and the first quarter of 2012 (633 mm, 15 months) would likely have been the period during which significant groundwater recharge occurred. At times immediately after rainfall, E_LE rates were the same or exceeded estimates of potential E calculated from a suitably parameterized Penman–Monteith (E_PMo) equation. Apparent free water E from plant interception and soil evaporation was about 2.3 mm and lasted for 1.3 days following rainfall in summer, while in autumn, E was 5.1 mm that lasted over 5.4 days. The leaf area index (LAI) needed to adjust a wind function calibrated Penman equation (E_PMe) to match the E_LE values could be back calculated to generate seasonal change in LAI from 0.12 to 0.46 and compared well with normalized difference vegetation index; r = 0.38 and p = 0.0213* and LAI calculated from digital cover photography. The apparently conservative response of perennial vegetation evaporation to available water in these semi‐arid environments reinforces the conclusion that these ecosystems use this mechanism to survive the reasonably common dry periods. Plant response to soil water availability is primarily through gradual changes in leaf area. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experience of using a dynamic stochastic approach for solving the problem of very short-range forecasting of state parameters of the atmospheric boundary layer

Discussed are the results of applying a dynamic stochastic method based on the use of the two-dimensional model and the Kalman filtering algorithm for solving the problem of the very short-range (from 0.5 to 6 hours) fore cast of air temperature and orthogonal components of the wind speed in the atmospheric boundary layer realized using the data of radio metric, sodar, and in creased-frequency radiosonde measurements. It is demonstrated that the pro posed technique and the appropriate algorithm give a rather high ac cu racy of very short-range fore casting of temperature and wind within the lead time range under consideration.     

Performance assessment of three convective parameterization schemes in WRF for downscaling summer rainfall over South Africa

Austral summer rainfall over the period 1991/1992 to 2010/2011 was dynamically downscaled by the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model at 9 km resolution for South Africa. Lateral boundary conditions for WRF were provided from the European Centre for medium-range weather (ECMWF) reanalysis (ERA) interim data. The model biases for the rainfall were evaluated over the South Africa as a whole and its nine provinces separately by employing three different convective parameterization schemes, namely the (1) Kain–Fritsch (KF), (2) Betts–Miller–Janjic (BMJ) and (3) Grell–Devenyi ensemble (GDE) schemes. All three schemes have generated positive rainfall biases over South Africa, with the KF scheme producing the largest biases and mean absolute errors. Only the BMJ scheme could reproduce the intensity of rainfall anomalies, and also exhibited the highest correlation with observed interannual summer rainfall variability. In the KF scheme, a significantly high amount of moisture was transported from the tropics into South Africa. The vertical thermodynamic profiles show that the KF scheme has caused low level moisture convergence, due to the highly unstable atmosphere, and hence contributed to the widespread positive biases of rainfall. The negative bias in moisture, along with a stable atmosphere and negative biases of vertical velocity simulated by the GDE scheme resulted in negative rainfall biases, especially over the Limpopo Province. In terms of rain rate, the KF scheme generated the lowest number of low rain rates and the maximum number of moderate to high rain rates associated with more convective unstable environment. KF and GDE schemes overestimated the convective rain and underestimated the stratiform rain. However, the simulated convective and stratiform rain with BMJ scheme is in more agreement with the observations. This study also documents the performance of regional model in downscaling the large scale climate mode such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and subtropical dipole modes. The correlations between the simulated area averaged rainfalls over South Africa and Nino3.4 index were ?0.66, ?0.69 and ?0.49 with KF, BMJ and GDE scheme respectively as compared to the observed correlation of ?0.57. The model could reproduce the observed ENSO-South Africa rainfall relationship and could successfully simulate three wet (dry) years that are associated with La Niña (El Niño) and the BMJ scheme is closest to the observed variability. Also, the model showed good skill in simulating the excess rainfall over South Africa that is associated with positive subtropical Indian Ocean Dipole for the DJF season 2005/2006.     

Facies analysis of the Trypali carbonate unit (Upper Triassic) in central-western Crete (Greece): an evaporite formation transformed into solution-collapse breccias

The Trypali carbonate unit (Upper Triassic), which crops out mainly in central‐western Crete, occurs between the parautochthonous series (Plattenkalk or Talea Ori‐Ida series, e.g. metamorphic Ionian series) and the Tripolis nappe (comprising the Tripolis carbonate series and including a basal Phyllite–Quartzite unit). It consists of interbedded dolomitic layers, represented principally by algally laminated peloidal mudstones, foraminiferal, peloidal and ooidal grainstones, as well as by fine‐grained detrital carbonate layers, in which coarse baroque dolomite crystals and dolomite nodules are dispersed. Baroque dolomite is present as pseudomorphs after evaporite crystals (nodules and rosettes), which grew penecontemporaneously by displacement and/or replacement of the host sediments (sabkha diagenesis). However, portions of the evaporites show evidence of resedimentation. Pre‐existing evaporites predominantly consisted of skeletal halite crystals that formed from fragmentation of pyramidal‐shaped hoppers, as well as of anhydrite nodules and rosettes (salt crusts). All microfacies are characteristic of peritidal depositional environments, such as sabkhas, tidal flats, shallow hypersaline lagoons, tidal bars and/or tidal channels. Along most horizons, the Trypali unit is strongly brecciated. These breccias are of solution‐collapse origin, forming after the removal of evaporite beds. Evaporite‐related diagenetic fabrics show that there was extensive dissolution and replacement of pre‐existing evaporites, which resulted in solution‐collapse of the carbonate beds. Evaporite replacement fabrics, including calcitized and silicified evaporite crystals, are present in cements in the carbonate breccias. Brecciation was a multistage process; it started in the Triassic, but was most active in the Tertiary, in association with uplift and ground‐water flow (telogenetic alteration). During late diagenesis, in zones of intense evaporite leaching and brecciation, solution‐collapse breccias were transformed to rauhwackes. The Trypali carbonate breccias (Trypali unit) are lithologically and texturally similar to the Triassic solution‐collapse breccias of the Ionian zone (continental Greece). The evaporites probably represent a major diapiric injection along the base of the parautochthonous series (metamorphic Ionian series) and also along the overthrust surface separating the parautochthonous series from the Tripolis nappe (Phyllite–Quartzite and Tripolis series). The injected evaporites were subsequently transformed into solution‐collapse breccias.     

Diurnal variability of upper ocean temperature and heat budget in the southern Bay of Bengal during October–November, 1998 (BOBMEX-Pilot)

Time-series data on upper-ocean temperature, Vessel-Mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (VM-ADCP) measured currents and surface meteorological parameters have been obtained for the first time in the southern Bay of Bengal at 7‡N, 10‡N, and 13‡N locations along 87‡E during October–November, 1998 under BOBMEX-Pilot programme. These data have been analysed to examine the diurnal variability of upper oceanic heat budget and to estimate the eddy diffusivity coefficient of heat in the upper layer. Diurnal variation of near-surface temperature is typical at northern location (13‡N) with a range of 0.5‡C while the diurnal range of temperature is enhanced to 0.8‡C at the central location (10‡N) due to intense solar radiation (1050 W/m²), clear skies and low wind speeds. At the southern location (7‡N), the diurnal variation of temperature is atypical with the minimum temperature occurring at 2000 hrs instead of at early morning hours. In general, the diurnal curve of temperature penetrated up to 15 to 20 m with decreasing diurnal range with depth. The VM-ADCP measured horizontal currents in the upper ocean were predominantly easterly/northeasterly at southern location, north/northerly at central location and northwesterly at northern location, thus describing a large-scale cyclonic gyre with the northward meridional flow along 87‡E. The magnitudes of heat loss at the surface due to air-sea heat exchanges and in the upper 50 m layer due to vertical diffusion of heat are highest at the southern location where intense convective activity followed by overcast skies and synoptic disturbance prevailed in the lower atmosphere. This and the estimated higher value (0.0235 m²/s) of eddy diffusivity coefficient of heat in the upper ocean (0–50 m depth) suggest that 1-D processes controlled the upper layer heat budget at the southern location. On the other hand, during the fair weather conditions, at the central and northern locations, the upper layer gained heat energy, while the sea surface lost (gained) heat energy at northern (central) location. This and lower values of eddy diffusivity coefficient of heat (0.0045 and 0.0150 m²/s) and the northward intensification of horizontal currents at these locations suggest the greater role of horizontal heat advection over the 1-D processes in the upper ocean heat budget at these two locations.     

The effect of weathering on the distribution of strontium isotopes in weathering profiles

The strontium isotope ratio in sea water has varied through geologic time owing to the input of strontium from rock weathering. To evaluate the possibility that $\text{Sr}{}^{87}\text{Sr}{}^{86}$ ratios might be altered during weathering, seven weathering profiles developed on Mesozoic arkoses located along the length of New Zealand were investigated. The rubidium-strontium-strontium isotope relations in these profiles give ‘isochron’ ages less than the ages of deposition of the arkoses. These ages appear to result from the weathering of a homogeneous source rock. The age calculated from the rubidium-strontium system (t′) is related to the original age (t) by the equation t′/t = (n ? 1)/n, where n is the ratio of the amounts of common and radiogenic strontium leached from the rock. Shales formed by the accumulation of these residual solids may inherit misleading isochron relationships which may not be erased during deposition or early diagenesis. The strontium which goes into solution and is transported to the sea is slightly less radiogenic than the strontium in the unweathered rock, while the residual clays may be much more radiogenic.     

Late Quaternary sea‐level change and evolution of Belfast Lough,Northern Ireland: new offshore evidence and implications for sea‐level reconstruction

The interplay of eustatic and isostatic factors causes complex relative sea‐level (RSL) histories, particularly in paraglacial settings. In this context the past record of RSL is important in understanding ice‐sheet history, earth rheology and resulting glacio‐isostatic adjustment. Field data to develop sea‐level reconstructions are often limited to shallow depths and uncertainty exists as to the veracity of modelled sea‐level curves. We use seismic stratigraphy, 39 vibrocores and 26 radiocarbon dates to investigate the deglacial history of Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland, and reconstruct past RSL. A typical sequence of till, glacimarine and Holocene sediments is preserved. Two sea‐level lowstands (both max. ?40 m) are recorded at c. 13.5 and 11.5k cal a bp . Each is followed by a rapid transgression and subsequent periods of RSL stability. The first transgression coincides temporally with a late stage of Meltwater Pulse 1a and the RSL stability occurred between c. 13.0 and c. 12.2k cal a bp (Younger Dryas). The second still/slowstand occurred between c. 10.3 and c. 11.5k cal a bp . Our data provide constraints on the direction and timing of RSL change during deglaciation. Application of the Depth of Closure concept adds an error term to sea‐level reconstructions based on seismic stratigraphic reconstructions.