A hybrid framework for improving recharge and discharge estimation for a three-dimensional groundwater flow model

We employed the ArcGIS plug-in package PRO-GRADE (Lin et al. 2009), developed for zonation of recharge/discharge (R/D) for modeling two-dimensional aquifer systems, to develop alternative R/D zonations for an existing three-dimensional groundwater flow model of a complex hydrogeologic setting. Our process began by intersecting PRO-GRADE output with the existing model's 4-zone R/D representation to develop a model having 12 R/D zones (R12) and then calibrating the resulting model using PEST. We then revised the R12 zonation using supplementary GIS data to develop a 51-zone R/D zonation (R51). From R51, we developed a series of daughter models having 40, 30, 28, and 18 R/D zones by removing zones from R51 if calibration resulted in little change in the zone's starting R/D rate and/or if the model was insensitive to the zone's R/D rate. For these models (R40N, R30N, R28N, and R18N), we used the ArcGIS Nibble tool to rapidly and consistently reassign model cells within eliminated zones of R51 to the zone of the nearest model cell in a retained zone having the same starting value. R12, R51, R40N, R30N, R28N, and R18N are all more accurate than the original model (R4), although improvements relative to stream discharge targets exceeded improvements relative to head targets. The models also executed with better numerical stability and less mass balance discrepancy than R4. These improvements demonstrate that R/D estimation in a complex shallow three-dimensional steady-state model can be improved with PRO-GRADE estimates of R/D when guided by calibration statistics and supplemental geographic data.     

Fluoride Biomonitoring around a Large Aluminium Smelter Using Foliage from Different Tree Species

In order to study the pollution gradient in the vicinity of a large aluminium production facility in Patagonia (Argentina), a passive biomonitoring was performed employing foliage from three tree species. Primary scope was to identify pollution gradients and to select suitable tree species which can be used as biomonitor plants in the study area. Therefore, leaves of Eucalyptus rostrata, Populus hybridus and different needle ages of Pinus radiata were collected at different distances from the industry and the fluoride concentration was analysed in washed and unwashed samples in order to determine the amount of external fluoride. Washing reduced the F‐concentrations by 24, 39 and 51% on average in E. rostrata, P. hybridus and P. radiata, respectively, indicating that species‐specific characteristics determine the accumulation and wash‐off of dust‐associated fluorine. F‐concentrations varied from 6 to 3652 ppm F in unwashed samples indicating a steep pollution gradient in the study area. The influence of F‐emissions was discernible in all samples up to a distance of 3500 m from the smelter. E. rostrata accumulated more fluorine than the other species at equal distance from the emission source. The present study confirms that aluminium smelting results in high F deposition in the study area. Establishing a biomonitor network around large emitters is suitable and feasible to evaluate the efficiency of air control measures.     

Review of water and soil contamination in and around Salihli geothermal field (Manisa,Turkey)

The town of Salihli is situated in Gediz Graben in the western Anatolia. This region is important in terms of industry, mining, geothermal energy, water sources, and agricultural production. Geothermal flow and anthropogenic activities in Salihli threaten the surrounding environment due to the contamination of cold groundwater, surface water, and soil. The goal of the present study is to determine the environmental effects of the geothermal and anthropogenic activities in Salihli on soil, stream sediments, and water. Stream sediments and farm soil have been contaminated by substances derived from geothermal and industrial effluents. To this end, the quality review of the water was completed and the heavy metal levels in stream sediment samples were measured to determine the extent of contamination. The elements As, B, Br, Fe, and Ni are the major contaminants present in surface water and groundwater in the study area. The concentrations of these elements excess tolerance limits of international water standards. Gibbsite, K-mica, kaolinite, sepiolite, halite, sulfur, willemite, and Pb(OH)₂ might be precipitated as scales at low temperatures on the soil; this could be interpreted as a resultant from soil contamination. The concentrations of 17 elements (As, Ba, B, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Li, Mo, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, Sr, and Zn) were measured in samples from stream sediments and surface soils. In the study area, especially geothermal and anthropogenic activities give rise to environmental pollution.     

The Alcamayo and Cedrobamba catastrophic debris flow (January, March and April 2004) in Machupicchu area—Peru

A debris flow originating from the Alcamayo River on 10th April 2004 destroyed a part of the town of Aguas Calientes, resulting in 11 victims, and with serious affects to the tourist flow to the Machupicchu inka citadel. On the same day, as well as in January and March 2004, other similar phenomena occurred on the Cedrobamba and Leonchayoq Rivers, affecting the railway and an electrical tower, and disrupting the train service.     

Zur Entwicklung der luftelektrischen Grundanschauungen

Zusammenfassung Die luftelektrischen Grundanschauungen haben im Laufe der Entwicklung mehrfach erhebliche Wandlungen durchgemacht. Auf die Entwicklungsperiode, in der man die auffallenden Parallelen im Verhalten luftelektrischer und meteorologischer Größen aufzuklären sich bestrebte — sie findet etwa mitF. Exner ihr Ende—, folgt eine Phase bewußter Emanzipation der luftelektrischen Forschung, während der man in den meteorologischen Einflüssen nur Störungen sieht. Etwa in den zwanziger Jahren beginnt dann eine Reaktion gegen dieses Isolationsbestreben und mit der früher lange vergeblich versuchten Aufklärung des luftelektrischen Grund- und Existenzproblems leitet sich eine neue Entwicklungsphase ein, die man sinngemäß als korrelative Phase bezeichnen möchte. Nach einer eingehenden und nach den inneren gründen dieser mehrmaligen Schwenkung suchenden Darstellung wird im zweiten Teil der vorliegenden Arbeit das Problem der luftelektrischen Tagesgänge behandelt und als Beweis für die komplexe elektro-meteorologische Arbeits- und Betrachtungsweise in seinen neuesten Entwicklungen kurz dargestellt. Die enge Verbindung zwischen dem luftelektrischen Geschehen und dem vertikalen atmosphärischen Massenaustausch legt die Benutzung luftelektrischer Untersuchungen in der Austausch-und Luftkörperforschung nahe.

---

Summary In the course of the development the fundamental notions about atmospheric electricity have experienced considerable changes. In a first period expiring about withF. Exner, one tried to explain the striking parallels of electrical and meteorological phenomena; then follows a period with a distinct emancipation of atmospheric electricity, where meteorological influences were admitted but as perturbations. In the twenties begins a reaction to this isolationist views and a new evolution starts which might be called correlative phase. The author analyses and explains these repeated changes, and in a second part he discusses the problem of the diurnal variation of atmospheric electricity and shows the complexity of electro-meteorological relations. The close connexion between the phenomena of atmospheric electricity and the turbulent vertical exchange urges to employ investigations of atmospheric electricity for investigations in exchange and air-mass research.

---

Résumé En matière d'électricité atmosphérique les points de vue ont souvent varié considérablement. Dans une première période allant jusqu'àF. Exner environ, on a essayé d'expliquer le parallélisme évident entre les phénomènes électriques et météorologiques; puis on a envisagé les premiers pour eux-mêmes, indépendamment des influences météorologiques considérées alors comme des «perturbations». Autour des années 1920, une réaction se dessine contre cette discrimination, et une nouvelle phase commence que l'on pourrait appeler corrélative. Après une analyse approfondie de ces fluctuations de la théorie, l'auteur aborde dans la deuxième partie de son étude le problème des variations diurnes des phénomènes électriques et montre la complexité des relations les unissant à ceux de l'atmosphère ellemême. La liaison étroite entre les phénomènes de l'électricité atmosphérique et les échanges turbulents de masse dans la verticale prouve l'utilité des recherches électriques pour l'étude de cet échange et pour celle des masses d'air de l'atmosphère.

---

---

Mit 14 Textabbildungen.

---

Herrn Prof. Dr.H. Benndorf zum 80. Geburtstag gewidmet.     

Neotectonics of the Pontides: implications for ‘incompatible’ structures along the North Anatolian fault

Data for the post-Serravallian, ‘neotectonic’ evolution of the Pontides in northern Turkey indicate predominant ENE-WSW shortening with complementary NNW-SSE extension. We present a new fault plane solution for the Bartin earthquake (3 September 1968) and compare its mechanism with the movement picture of other neotectonic faults in the Pontides and northern Greece together with that of the Thessaloniki earthquake (20 May 1978). The general strain pattern exhibited by these structures agrees remarkably well with that inferred from early Tortonian-early Pleistocene structures reported from within the North Anatolian fault zone, which have been interpreted as indicating a possible reversal of the sense of movement along the North Anatolian transform fault. Here, we argue that such ‘incompatible’ structures may be related to the overall E-W shortening of Anatolia and the southern parts of the Black Sea resulting from the sideways continental escape from around the African and the Arabian promontories, rather than to hypothetical reversal of motion along the North Anatolian fault, for which there is no evidence other than the above-mentioned ‘incompatible’ structures. This new model also has important implications for seismicity and earthquake risk in regions contained within the southern part of the Black Sea plate.     

Tveitite,a new calcium yttrium fluoride

Tveitite is a new mineral with formula of the type $\text{Ca}{}_{\mathrm{1?x}}\text{(}\text{Y, RE}\text{)}{}_{\mathrm{x}}\text{F}{}_{\mathrm{2+x}}\text{where}\text{x}$ is approximately 0.3. It is found in a cleavelandite pegmatite at Høydalen in Tørdal, Telemark, S. Norway. The sub-cell is thought to be monoclinic, $\text{a}\text{′=3.924,}\text{b}\text{′=3.893,}\text{c}\text{′=5.525, ß=90°26′,}\text{Z}\text{=2}$. The structure is very similar to that of fluorite and can be described in terms of a pseudo-cubic cell $\text{[1}\text{1}\text{0]}{}_0\text{= 5.527, [110]}{}_0\text{= 5.527,}\text{c}\text{= 5.525, α = 90°18′, γ = 89°37′}$ which contains approximately 1[YCa₃F₉]. The mineral shows twinning in at lest three different directions giving a grating structure probably due to high-low inversion. DTA studies show an inversion point at about 670°C. Material heated above this temperature gives X-ray diffraction patterns corresponding to yttrofluorite (a₀ 5.528). The effect of trivalent ions on the stability of fluorite is discussed.     

Life in the sublittoral zone of long-lived Lake Pannon: paleontological analysis of the Upper Miocene Szák Formation,Hungary

Life and depositional environments in the sublittoral zone of Lake Pannon, a large, brackish Paratethyan lake from the Late Miocene, were reconstructed from fossils and facies of the Szák Formation. This formation is exposed in several, roughly coeval (9.4–8.9 Ma) outcrops, located along strike of the paleo-shelf-break in northwestern Hungary. The silty argillaceous marl of the formation was deposited below storm wave base, at 20–30 to 80–90 m water depth. The abundance of benthic organisms indicates that the bottom water was usually well oxygenated. Interstitial dysoxia, however, may have occurred immediately below the sediment–water interface, as evidenced by occasional preservation of trace fossils such as Diplocraterion. The fauna comprised endemic mollusks, including brackish cockles of the subfamily Lymnocardiinae, dreissenid mussels (Congeria), and highly adapted, uniquely large-sized deep-water pulmonate snails (planorbids and lymnaeids). Ostracods were dominated by endemic species and, in some cases, endemic genera of candonids, leptocytherids, cypridids, and loxoconchids. Fish remnants include a sciaenid otolith and the oldest skeletal occurrence of Perca in Europe. The phytoplankton comprised exclusively endemic coccolithophorids, mostly endemic dinoflagellates (prevailingly Spiniferites), and cosmopolitan green algae. The Late Miocene fauna and flora of Lake Pannon were in many ways similar to the modern Caspian biota, and in particular cases can be regarded as its precursor.