Fluid flow and sediment entrainment in the Garonne River bore and tidal bore collision

A detailed field study was carried out on a tidal bore to document the turbulent processes and sediment entrainment which occurred. The measured bore, within the Arcins Channel of the Garonne River (France), was undular in nature and was followed by well‐defined secondary wave motion. Due to the local river geometry a collision between the Arcins channel tidal bore and the bore which formed within the main Garonne River channel was observed about 800 m upstream of the sampling site. This bore collision generated a transient standing wave with a black water mixing zone. Following this collision the bore from the main Garonne River channel propagated ‘backward’ to the downstream end of the Arcins channel. Velocity measurements with a fine temporal resolution were complemented by measurements of the sediment concentration and river level. The instantaneous velocity data indicated large and rapid fluctuations of all velocity components during the tidal bore. Large Reynolds shear stresses were observed during and after the tidal bore passage, including during the 'backward' bore propagation. Large suspended sediment concentration estimates were recorded and the suspended sediment flux data showed some substantial sediment motion, consistent with the murky appearance of the flood tide waters. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Process oriented use of geostatistics to analyse creeping para‐glacial features

Complex para‐glacial systems may show signs of destabilization leading to frequent and potentially hazardous debris‐flows. Understanding creeping permafrost displacement over a period of time is therefore crucial for hazard management and risks assessment. This paper presents our methodology for estimating creeping permafrost displacement based upon data derived from various survey methods and demonstrates its relevance on the Glacier Bonnard system in southern Switzerland. Geostatistical processing allowed estimation of the displacement intensity over the area of interest, as well as assessment of the interpolation quality. Although the local measurement network needs to be refined, the results largely improve the understanding of the Bonnard para‐glacial system, though highlighting the need to locally refine the measurement network. In the present case, the destabilized front advances at ~1 m/a and the upstream creeping part at ~0.4 m/a. Variance analysis also provide objective thresholds that could be used to distinguish underlying physical processes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identifying sources of organic matter in sediments of shallow lakes using multiple geochemical variables

We analyzed ²¹⁰Pb-dated sediment cores from four relatively shallow lakes (z_max < 10 m) in the Upper Ocklawaha River Basin, Florida, USA to compare primary producer community structure before and after anthropogenic impacts. We measured physical and chemical sediment variables including density, organic matter (OM), water-soluble phosphorus, polyphosphate (Poly-P), total P (TP), total carbon to total nitrogen mass ratios of OM (TC:TN), biogenic silica (diatoms, sponge spicules), total amorphous silica, and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of bulk OM. Principal component analysis showed that diatom biogenic silica, TC:TN, Poly-P and TP displayed discernible stratigraphic changes associated with the shift in the primary producer community. We applied k-means cluster analysis to these variables to identify macrophyte-derived, transitional, and phytoplankton-derived sediments. Our approach provides an objective method for identifying sediment sources that may be applied to shallow lakes in other regions. The four study lakes shifted from a macrophyte-dominated state to a transitional state before major anthropogenic disturbances, and became phytoplankton-dominated after ~1950.     

Intramolecular carbon isotopic analysis of acetic acid by direct injection of aqueous solution

We report an improved method for determining the intramolecular carbon isotopic composition of acetate using direct injection of aqueous samples. The system builds upon prior work that established pyrolytic conditions for online analysis and represents a significant advance in that it requires minimal preparation for samples containing as little as 1 mM sodium acetate in aqueous solution. The technique is applicable for analysis of oilfield brines, culture samples, biological samples and natural porewaters. We demonstrate its accuracy by use of a stable isotope dilution series. We also show that addition of a base and cryogenic preconcentration may induce an isotopic effect on the carboxyl carbon. This isotopic fractionation does not appear to extend to the measured methyl carbon isotope value although it can significantly alter the measured isotopic composition of the whole molecule. Our preconcentration experiments demonstrate that the method is suitable for carbon isotopic measurements of acetate methyl carbon in natural samples at concentrations as low as 90 μM, considerably broadening potential applications.     

Early-Type Stars

Away from the young disk, several classes of early type stars are found. They include (i) the old, metal-poor blue horizontal branch stars of the halo and the metal-poor tail of the thick disk; (ii) metal-rich young A stars in a rapidly rotating subsystem but with a much higher velocity dispersion than the A stars of the young disk, and (iii) a newly discovered class of metal-poor young main sequence A stars in a subsystem of intermediate galactic rotation (V_rot ≈ 120 km s⁻¹). The existence and kinematics of these various classes of early type stars provide insight into the formation of the metal-poor stellar halo of the Galaxy and into the continuing accretion events suffered by our Galaxy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The surface chemistry of multi-oxide silicates

The surface chemistry of natural wollastonite, diopside, enstatite, forsterite, and albite in aqueous solutions was characterized using both electrokinetic techniques and surface titrations performed for 20 min in batch reactors. Titrations performed in such reactors allow determination of both proton consumption and metal release from the mineral surface as a function of pH. The compositions, based on aqueous solution analysis, of all investigated surfaces vary dramatically with solution pH. Ca and Mg are preferentially released from the surfaces of all investigated divalent metal silicates at pH less than ∼8.5-10 but preferentially retained relative to silica at higher pH. As such, the surfaces of these minerals are Si-rich and divalent metal poor except in strongly alkaline solutions. The preferential removal of divalent cations from these surfaces is coupled to proton consumption. The number of protons consumed by the preferential removal of each divalent cation is pH independent but depends on the identity of the mineral; ∼1.5 protons are consumed by the preferential removal of each Ca atom from wollastonite, ∼3 protons are consumed by the preferential removal of each Mg or Ca atom from diopside or enstatite, and ∼4 protons are consumed by the preferential removal of each Mg from forsterite. These observations are interpreted to stem from the creation of additional ‘internal’ adsorption sites by the preferential removal of divalent metal cations which can be coupled to the condensation of partially detached Si. Similarly, Na and Al are preferentially removed from the albite surface at 2 > pH > 11; mass balance calculations suggest that three protons are consumed by the preferential removal of each Al atom from this surface over this entire pH range. Electrokinetic measurements on fresh mineral powders yield an isoelectric point (pH_IEP) 2.6, 4.4, 3.0, 4.5, and <1, for wollastonite, diopside, enstatite, forsterite, and albite, respectively, consistent with the predominance of SiO₂ in the surface layer of all of these multi-oxide silicates at acidic pH. Taken together, these observations suggest fundamental differences between the surface chemistry of simple versus multi-oxide minerals including (1) a dependency of the number and identity of multi-oxide silicate surface sites on the aqueous solution composition, and (2) the dominant role of metal-proton exchange reactions on the reactivity of multi-oxide mineral surfaces including their dissolution rate variation with aqueous solution composition.     

Autoregressive estimation of complex eigenfrequencies in low frequency seismic spectra

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The fact that a seismogram can be represented as an autoregressive (AR) time series and the use of Prony's method enable us to obtain the complex frequencies from the poles of the corresponding AR process. A frequency-domain formulation which employs a time-domain tapering technique is devised so that spectral peaks can be analysed individually, or in small groups. Statistical analysis of the estimators and several examples from two recent earthquakes illustrate the method.     

A photoautotrophic source for lycopane in marine water columns

Suspended particulate matter and recent sediments from diverse oceanic sites have been investigated for their contents of lycopane. Lycopane was present in all samples, including both oxic and anoxic water column and sediments. The highest concentrations in the water column were found in surface waters of the central Pacific gyre (1.5 ng/L) and in the anoxic waters of the Cariaco Trench (1.1 ng/L) and the Black Sea (0.3 ng/L). Vertical concentration profiles suggest that lycopane is probably algal in origin. Moreover, biogeochemical conditions in anoxic zones apparently result in a secondary production of lycopane from an as yet unidentified precursor. Compound-specific carbon isotopic analyses have been carried out on lycopane from water column and sediment samples. Isotopic compositions of lycopane range between -23.6% and -32.9% and are consistent with a photoautotrophic origin. We postulate that some lycopane is produced in surface waters of the ocean, while additional lycopane is produced in anoxic zones by anaerobic microbial action on an algal precursor.