Naturgeografin i högskolan och samhället i Sverige

Mattsson, Jan O.: Naturgeografin i högskolan och samhället i Sverige. Geografisk Tidsskrift 83: 4–6. Copenhagen, June 1, 1983.

Geography as a national science in Sweden: Research and University training as well as the aplication of geography in the community. 1982.     

Prediction uncertainty of conceptual rainfall-runoff models caused by problems in identifying model parameters and structure

Abstract

The uncertainties arising from the problem of identifying a representative model structure and model parameters in a conceptual rainfall-runoff model were investigated. A conceptual model, the HBV model, was applied to the mountainous Brugga basin (39.9 km”) in the Black Forest, southwestern Germany. In a first step, a Monte Carlo procedure with randomly generated parameter sets was used for calibration. For a ten-year calibration period, different parameter sets resulted in an equally good correspondence between observed and simulated runoff. A few parameters were well defined (i.e. best parameter values were within small ranges), but for most parameters good simulations were found with values varying over wide ranges. In a second step, model variants with different numbers of elevation and landuse zones and various runoff generation conceptualizations were tested. In some cases, representation of more spatial variability gave better simulations in terms of discharge. However, good results could be obtained with different and even unrealistic concepts. The computation of design floods and low flow predictions illustrated that the parameter uncertainty and the uncertainty of identifying a unique best model variant have implications for model predictions. The flow predictions varied considerably. The peak discharge of a flood with a probability of 0.01 year^?1, for instance, varied from 40 to almost 60 mm day^?1. It was concluded that model predictions, particularly in applied studies, should be given as ranges rather than as single values.     

DEPOSITS FROM LANDSLIDES AND AVALANCHES TRIGGERED BY SEISMIC ACTIVITY IN SWEDISH LAPLAND

In the mountain area of Swedish Lapland, landforms with semicircular or horse‐shoe ridges encircling hummocky ground occur. They are interpreted as landslide or avalanche deposits directly upon, from or adjacent to down‐wasting ice. Since they are restricted to the vicinity of fault scarps in the Pärvie fault system the releasing factor is suggested to be displacement of bedrock blocks or related seismic activity.     

Comparison of Sea Surface Heights Derived from Satellite Altimetry and from Ocean Bottom Pressure Gauges: The SW Pacific MOTEVAS Project

A bottom pressure gauge (BPG) was installed in proximity (3.7 km at closest approach) of Jason-1 and formerly TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) ground track No. 238 at the Wusi site, located ～ 10 km offshore off the west coast of Santo Island, Vanuatu, Southwest (SW) Pacific. Sea level variations are inferred from the bottom pressure, seawater temperature, and salinity, corrected for the measured surface atmospheric pressure. The expansion of the water column (steric increase in sea surface height, SSH) due to temperature and salinity changes is approximated by the equation of state. We compare time series of SSH derived from T/P Side B altimeter Geophysical Data Records (GDR) and Jason-1 Interim Geophysical Data Records (IGDR), with the gauge-inferred sea level variations. Since altimeter SSH is a geocentric measurement, whereas the gauge-inferred observation is a relative sea level measurement, SSH comparison is conducted with the means of both series removed in this study. In addition, high-rate (1-Hz) bottom pressure implied wave heights (H _1/3 ) are compared with the significant wave height (SWH) measured by Jason-1. Noticeable discrepancy is found in this comparison for high waves, however the differences do not contribute significantly to the difference in sea level variations observed between the altimeter and the pressure gauge. In situ atmospheric pressure measurements are also used to verify the inverse barometer (IB) and the dry troposphere corrections (DTC) used in the Jason IGDR. We observe a bias between the IGDR corrections and those derived from the local sensors. Standard deviations of the sea level differences between T/P and BPG is 52 mm and is 48 mm between Jason and BPG, indicating that both altimeters have similar performance at the Wusi site and that it is feasible to conduct long-term monitoring of altimetry at such a site.     

Facies effects on the behaviour of Nd and Sr isotope systems in turbidite mudrocks during diagenesis

A detailed Sm/Nd, epsilon Nd and Rb/Sr profile through a 30-cm thick section of Silurian (Llandovery) interbedded turbiditic and hemipelagic mudrocks from the central Wales Basin shows well-marked chemical and isotopic trends. The variations reflect an interplay of depositional mode and diagenetic fractionation. Sm and Nd values are substantially higher and Sm/Nd ratios tend to be lower in the organic-rich hemipelagite layers due to diagenetic concentration in the hemipelagites. There is a corresponding depletion in the turbidite mudstones. Epsilon Nd values range from −0·8 to −7·1 and this is attributed to diagenetic modification of Sm/Nd ratios causing scatter in back-calculated epsilon values. Rubidium–strontium ratios in this succession fall within a narrow range, due to homogenization during diagenesis. By contrast, data from a hemipelagite-dominated (condensed) succession near the northern margin of the Welsh Basin show a lower range of epsilon Nd values and a higher scatter of Rb/Sr values, consistent with less fluid throughput during burial compaction and hence less diagenetic redistribution in these rocks. These patterns demonstrate the sensitivity of mudrock trace element and isotope compositions to both small-scale sedimentary structure and large-scale basin architecture.     

Experimental insights into laser diffraction particle sizing of fine‐grained sediments for use in palaeoceanography

Grain‐size measurements of fine‐grained sediments based on laser diffraction may contain spurious information due to the over‐estimation of the size and proportion of platy particles. Consequently, some regard the use of laser diffraction particle sizing in palaeoceanography inappropriate. Here, it is shown experimentally that such concerns are not warranted. Laser diffraction particle sizing is known to be fast, precise and allows for detailed particle sizing over a broad size range; it is therefore potentially a very powerful technique if the complications associated with it can be overcome. As most sediments are mixtures of different components transported by different mechanisms, inferences of past environmental parameters require decomposition of the grain‐size record in question. Useful decomposition can only be performed if changes in the contribution of the components are registered predictably by the measuring device. This study reports on mixing experiments which show that the Fritsch A22 laser diffraction particle sizer does indeed register small changes in the contribution of the mixing components in a predictable way. Mixing proportions estimated from the measurements do, however, differ from the initial mixing proportions, but these can be converted with only small errors. Application of the conversion equations to a North Atlantic grain‐size record that showed consistent slowdown of deep‐ocean circulation in response to millennial scale ice‐rafting events during the last glacial does not quantitatively affect the original inferences. Laser diffraction particle sizing of fine‐grained sediments therefore yields reproducible and useful data for palaeoceanographic reconstructions.     

Geological-geomorphological analysis and 14C dating of submoraine organogenic deposits within the Renardbreen outer margin, Wedel Jarlsberg Land, Spitsbergen

Amazing organogenic deposits were encountered within the terminal moraine zone of Renardbreen, north-western part of Wedel Jarlsberg Land. Pollen analyses and ^,14C dating locate the deposits at the Middle Late Subatlantic transition. The position of these deposits indicates possible glacial advances 3,500-2,000 years BP and during the Little Ice Age, respectively. Remnants of human activity at least as old as the 9th century were also found within organogenic deposits.     

A Middle Weichselain ice-free period in Western Norway: the Ålesund Interstadial

Seven localities with fossil-bearing tills were found in the Ålesund area. Fifteen radiocarbon dates of marine shells in the tills all gave ages between 28,000 and 38,000 years B.P. In spite of a general scepticism to shell dates giving high finite ages, these ages may be accepted mainly because of the quality of the shells, the geological situation in which they were found, and identical results for different fractions. The ice-free period is named the Ålesund Interstadial. and its Middle Weichselian age is also suggested by amino acid D/L ratios in shells, compared with Late Weichselian and Eemian ratios. Shell and foraminifera faunas suggest arctic conditions with the Atlantic water present during the optimal period. The tills are non-sorted, compacted and interpreted to be basal tills. Their age is bracketed between c. 28,000 and 12,800 years B.P.     

The 1984 symposium on clay-varve chronology in Stockholm

In 1984 the centenary of Gerard De Geer's invention of the clay-varve dating method was celebrated with a Nordic conference in Stockholm. This paper presents the history of the method as an introduction to the following pages summarizing some of the papers presented at that meeting.     

PRESTACK INVERSION OF GROUP-FILTERED SEISMIC DATA1

Three methods for least-squares inversion of receiver array-filtered seismic data are investigated: (1) point receiver inversion where array effects are neglected; (2) preprocessing of the data with an inverse array filter, followed by point receiver inversion; (3) array inversion, where the array effects are included in the forward modelling. The methods are tested on synthetic data generated using the acoustic wave equation and a horizontally stratified earth model. It is assumed that the group length and the group interval are identical. For arrays that are shorter than the minimum wavelength of the emitted wavefield, and when the data are appropriately muted, point receiver inversion (first method) gives satisfactory results. For longer arrays, array inversion (third method) should be used. The failure of the inverse array filter (second method) is due to aliasing problems in the data.