Periglacial climate at the 2.5 Ma onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation inferred from the Whippoorwill Formation, northern Missouri, USA

The Whippoorwill Formation is a gleyed diamicton that is present locally within bedrock depressions beneath the oldest glacial till in northern Missouri, USA. Stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, and cosmogenic-nuclide burial ages show that it was deposited between the Matuyama-Gauss magnetostratigraphic boundary at 2.58 Ma and the first advance of the Laurentide ice sheet into Missouri at 2.47 ± 0.19 Ma. High cosmogenic-nuclide concentrations also show that the constituents of the Whippoorwill Formation experienced long exposure at a stable landscape surface with erosion rates of 1-2 m/Ma. However, cosmogenic-nuclide concentrations are invariant with depth below the Whippoorwill Formation surface, indicating active mixing of the soil profile shortly before burial by till. The Whippoorwill Formation retains numerous features indicative of cryoturbation. Therefore, we interpret it as a buried Gelisol, a soil formed under periglacial conditions in the presence of permafrost. At the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation, climate cooling established permafrost conditions and accelerated erosion by inducing landscape instability. Thus, weathered regolith materials were mobilized and redeposited by gelifluction shortly before the ice sheet overrode the landscape.     

Stability study on the northern batter of MBC Open Pit using Plaxis 3D

Cracks appeared on the northern batter at Maddingley Brown Coal Open Pit Mine, Victoria, Australia, on 8 November 2013 and a 2-day rainfall event happened 5 days later. This study models the stability of the northern batter considering the effect of the rainfall event and an emergency buttress using finite element method (FEM) encoded in Plaxis 3D. It is found that the batter tended to lead to block sliding after overburden removal. The observed vertical crack would be a combined action of the overburden removal and groundwater flow. The simulated location of cracks agrees well with the actual location, and the simulated heave of the coal seam is in good agreement with the experience in Victoria brown coal open pit mining. The rainfall accelerated the development of the cracks. With the construction of the emergency buttress, the batter became stable that is in good agreement with the monitored data.     

Tracer anomaly evolution in the flow field of an isolated eddy

We explore the horizontal stirring of a passive tracer field in the vicinity of an isolated, finite amplitude, quasigeostrophic, β-plane eddy. We consider stirring in the presence of a uniform background gradient of tracer concentration as well as cases in which the tracer anomaly is initially contained within the eddy.This paper reports a survey of phenomenology based upon numerical experiments. We explore the sensitivity of results to physical parameters and to various aspects of the numerical simulation.Under the joint effects of β and of non-linearity, the eddy center migrates. Time dependent effects in a radiated wake provide important stirring mechanisms for the background tracer field. An unexpected, persistent result is a tendency to propel a tendril of tracer westward from near the launch latitude of the eddy. In some cases, the westward penetration of the tendril is even further than the migration of the eddy center.Tracer properties characteristics of the launch site of the eddy tend to be captured and carried with the eddy. However, tracer leaks from the eddy, due to both explicit diffusion-like effects and eddy interaction with background flow features, can result in drawing off of secondary tracer patches.We also calculate trajectories of Lagrangian particles launched in and around the eddy.     

A merine seismic refraction study of the Santa Barbara Channel,California

Seismic data from a 186 km-long refraction profile in the Santa Barbara Channel have been interpreted using several velocity inversion techniques. Data were obtained during two cruises in 1978 and 1979. Seismic arrivals from fifty explosions of between 1 and 300 lbs. of TNT were recorded by two ocean bottom seismometers, four permanent ocean bottom stations (University of Southern California), and much of the United States Geological Survey/California Institute of Technology southern California seismic network. Travel-time inversion gives a V _p of 6.3 km sec^-1 at 7.2 km depth above 7.2 km sec^-1 at 14.4 km depth at the western end of the channel. At the eastern end, solutions suggest three sediment refractors overlying V _p of 6.4 km sec^-1 at 7.3 km depth, above 7.0 km sec^-1 at 11.6 km depth, above mantle arrivals with V _p of 8.3 km sec^-1 at 21.8 km depth. The velocity structure determined by these methods suggests that the channel has a sedimentary fill of from 4 to 7 km and a layer of mafic plus ultramafic rock 14 to 17 km thick. The greatest thicknesses of sediments are restricted to east of Point Conception. The velocity data also suggest that the Franciscan formation may not be present beneath the channel. Rather, the crust here may represent a thickened portion of the Coast Range ophiolite.     

Beyond the boundaries: social place in a protected space

Tourism is increasingly promoted worldwide by public and private agencies as a means of achieving sustainable community development. Rare are the economic windfalls that come without social costs, however, and marketing rural communities as tourist 'products' inevitably forces upon their residents a social transfiguration. Yet, concerns about local places have largely been marginalized in the regionalization and commodification of tourist spaces. As a result, important questions remain unanswered. In response, this study uses the cognitive images of visitors and residents of the twin Alaska 'ghost' towns of Kennicott and McCarthy to describe the evolving landscape of tourism in a protected wilderness community. Specifically, it poses two questions. First, how might disparate perceptions of the tourism landscape serve to define the boundaries of 'place' experience for those who live in or visit Kennicott-McCarthy? Second, can this geographic perspective encourage a proactive planning process more cognizant of the effects on – and responsive to the concerns of – the destination community? A preliminary analysis of the results is presented with a focus on tourism as both agent and process in the structure, identity, and meaning of local places, embedded within larger regions and economies.     

Tectonic wedging along the rear of the offshore Taiwan accretionary prism

The structural geometry, kinematics and density structure along the rear of the offshore Taiwan accretionary prism were studied using seismic reflection profiling and gravity modeling. Deformation between the offshore prism and forearc basin at the point of incipient collision, and southward into the region of subduction, has been interpreted as a tectonic wedge, similar to those observed along the front of mountain ranges. This tectonic wedge is bounded by an east-dipping roof thrust and a blind, west-dipping floor thrust. An east-dipping sequence of forearc-basin strata in the hanging wall of the roof thrust reaches a thickness in excess of 4 km near the tip of the interpreted tectonic wedge. Section restoration of the roof sequence yields an estimate of 4 km of shortening, which is small compared with that inferred in the collision area to the north, based on the variation in distance between the apex of the prism and the island arc.Previous studies propose that either high-angle normal faulting or backfolding has exhumed the metamorphic rocks along the eastern flank of the Central Range in the collision zone on land. To better constrain the initial crustal configuration, we tested 350 crustal models to fit the free-air gravity anomaly data in the offshore region to study the density structure along the rear of the accretionary prism in the subduction and initial collision zones before the structures become more complex in the collision zone on land. The gravity anomaly, observed in the region of subduction (20.2°N), can be modeled with the arc basement forming a trenchward-dipping backstop that is overlain by materials with densities in the range of sedimentary rocks. Near the point of incipient collision (20.9°N), however, the free-air gravity anomaly over the rear of the prism is approximately 40 mgal higher, compared with the region of subduction, and requires a significant component of high density crustal rocks within the tectonic wedge. These results suggest that the forearc basement may be deformed along the rear of the prism, associated with the onset of collision, but not in the subduction region further to the south.     

Relative model score: a scoring rule for evaluating ensemble simulations with application to microbial soil respiration modeling

This paper defines a new scoring rule, namely relative model score (RMS), for evaluating ensemble simulations of environmental models. RMS implicitly incorporates the measures of ensemble mean accuracy, prediction interval precision, and prediction interval reliability for evaluating the overall model predictive performance. RMS is numerically evaluated from the probability density functions of ensemble simulations given by individual models or several models via model averaging. We demonstrate the advantages of using RMS through an example of soil respiration modeling. The example considers two alternative models with different fidelity, and for each model Bayesian inverse modeling is conducted using two different likelihood functions. This gives four single-model ensembles of model simulations. For each likelihood function, Bayesian model averaging is applied to the ensemble simulations of the two models, resulting in two multi-model prediction ensembles. Predictive performance for these ensembles is evaluated using various scoring rules. Results show that RMS outperforms the commonly used scoring rules of log-score, pseudo Bayes factor based on Bayesian model evidence (BME), and continuous ranked probability score (CRPS). RMS avoids the problem of rounding error specific to log-score. Being applicable to any likelihood functions, RMS has broader applicability than BME that is only applicable to the same likelihood function of multiple models. By directly considering the relative score of candidate models at each cross-validation datum, RMS results in more plausible model ranking than CRPS. Therefore, RMS is considered as a robust scoring rule for evaluating predictive performance of single-model and multi-model prediction ensembles.     

Origin of epithermal Ag–Au–Cu–Pb–Zn mineralization in Guanajuato, Mexico

The Guanajuato epithermal district is one of the largest silver producers in Mexico. Mineralization occurs along three main vein systems trending dominantly northwest–southeast: the central Veta Madre, the La Luz system to the northwest, and the Sierra system to the east. Mineralization consists dominantly of silver sulfides and sulfosalts, base metal sulfides (mostly chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, and pyrite), and electrum. There is a broad zonation of metal distribution, with up to 10 % Cu+Pb+Zn in the deeper mines along the northern and central portions of the Veta Madre. Ore occurs in banded veins and breccias and as stockworks, with gangue composed dominantly of quartz and calcite. Host rocks are Mesozoic sedimentary and intrusive igneous rocks and Tertiary volcanic rocks. Most fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures are between 200 and 300 °C, with salinities below 4 wt.% NaCl equivalent. Fluid temperature and salinity decreased with time, from 290 to 240 °C and from 2.5 to 1.1 wt.% NaCl equivalent. Relatively constant fluid inclusion liquid-to-vapor ratios and a trend of decreasing salinity with decreasing temperature and with increasing time suggest dilution of the hydrothermal solutions. However, evidence of boiling (such as quartz and calcite textures and the presence of adularia) is noted along the Veta Madre, particularly at higher elevations. Fluid inclusion and mineralogical evidence for boiling of metal-bearing solutions is found in gold-rich portions of the eastern Sierra system; this part of the system is interpreted as the least eroded part of the district. Oxygen, carbon, and sulfur isotope analysis of host rocks, ore, and gangue minerals and fluid inclusion contents indicate a hydrothermal fluid, with an initial magmatic component that mixed over time with infiltrating meteoric water and underwent exchange with host rocks. Mineral deposition was a result of decreasing activities of sulfur and oxygen, decreasing temperature, increasing pH, and, in places, boiling.