Teaching about relict, no-analog landscapes

Only a few very young landforms are the result of currently operating geomorphic processes. Because the time scale for landscape evolution is much longer than the time scale for late Cenozoic climate changes, almost all landscapes are palimpsests, written over repeatedly by various combinations of climate-determined processes. Relict glacial and periglacial landforms are widely identified in mid-latitude regions that have been traditionally described as having been shaped by the “normal” processes of fluvial erosion. Less confidently, deeply weathered regolith and associated relict landforms in the middle and high latitudes are attributed to early Tertiary warmth. However, assemblages of geomorphic processes specific to certain climatic regions, like faunal and floral assemblages, cannot be translated across latitude, so in spite of the many books about the geomorphology of specific modern climate regions, there are few sources that discuss former warm high-latitude, or cold low-latitude, low-altitude geomorphic processes that have no modern analogs. Students and teachers alike who attempt to interpret landforms by extrapolating modern climatic conditions to other latitudinal zones will find their outlook broadened, and they become better prepared to consider the geomorphic impacts of global climate change.     

Modeling Lake Ladoga Zoobenthos and Studying Its Role in Phosphorus Exchange at the Water–Bed Interface

A zoobenthos submodel is included in an ecosystem model. The new model is used to assess the role of zoobenthos in the phosphorus exchange at the water–bed interface, in particular, the phosphorus cycle in the water body ecosystem is described more accurately. The calculated zoobenthos distribution over the bed of a lake can be used in modeling the lake ichthyocenoses.     

Mineralized Microbiota: A Possible Indicator of Hydrocarbon Flows in the Rift Zone of Iceland

Relationships of mineralized microbiota with the content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in hydrothermal systems are considered. It has been established that the mineralized microbiota can serve as an indicator of hydrothermal hydrocarbon flows in present-day and ancient deposits.     

Transient electromagnetic responses in seafloor with triaxial anisotropy

Electrical anisotropy of young oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges is detectable by observation of the rate and geometry of the diffusion of electromagnetic fields. The anisotropy in electrical properties arises from the presence of conductive seawater in an interconnected network of mostly ridge-parallel cracks. In this paper, we first justify the choice of a triaxial model to represent young oceanic crust, with three distinct electrical conductivities in the vertical, strike and spreading directions. We then present an algorithm to calculate the transient electromagnetic responses generated by an electric dipole source over such a triaxially anisotropic seafloor. We show that if the transient passages are measured with three distinct electric dipole-dipole configurations, it is possible to discern all three unknown conductivities independently of each other.     

New palaeogeographic and lake-level reconstructions of Lake Tanganyika: implications for tectonic, climatic and biological evolution in a rift lake

Palaeogeographic and lake-level reconstructions provide powerful tools for evaluating competing scenarios of biotic, climatic and geological evolution within a lake basin. Here we present new reconstructions for the northern Lake Tanganyika subbasins, based on reflection seismic, core and outcrop data. Reflection seismic radiocarbon method (RSRM) age estimates provide a chronological model for these reconstructions, against which yet to be obtained age dates based on core samples can be compared. A complex history of hydrological connections and changes in shoreline configuration in northern Lake Tanganyika has resulted from a combination of volcanic doming, border fault evolution and climatically induced lake-level fluctuations. The stratigraphic expression of lake-level highstands and lowstands in Lake Tanganyika is predictable and cyclic (referred to here as Capart Cycles), but in a pattern that differs profoundly from the classic Van Houten cycles of some Newark Supergroup rift basins. This difference results from the extraordinary topographic relief of the Western Rift lakes, coupled with the rapidity of large-scale lake-level fluctuations. Major unconformity surfaces associated with Lake Tanganyika lowstands may have corresponded with high-latitude glacial maxima throughout much of the mid- to late Pleistocene.
Rocky shorelines along the eastern side of the present-day Ubwari Peninsula (Zaire) appear to have had a much more continuous existence as littoral rock habitats than similar areas along the north-western coastline of the lake (adjacent to the Uvira Border Fault System), which in turn are older than the rocky shorelines of the north-east coast of Burundi. This model of palaeogeographic history will be of great help to biologists trying to clarify the evolution of endemic invertebrates and fish in the northern basin of Lake Tanganyika.
     

Trends In U.S. Hazardous Materials Transportation Spills

This paper examines historical and spatial trends in hazardous materials transportation spills from 1971 to 1991. While the number of spills Inc.reased steadily during the 1970s, peaking in 1978–1979, there has been a decline in frequency sInc.e then largely due to modifications in reporting. Monetary damages have the opposite temporal pattern, with major Inc.reases recorded from 1982 onward. Death and injury statistics are more variable. Spatially, accidents are more prevalent in the Rust Belt extending from the Northeast corridor westward to the Great Lakes states, as well as in the Southeast. The greatest potential risk to the public is found in smaller, more densely populated industrial states such as New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. The spatial distribution, however, has not changed. Potential risk sources (e.g., chemical industry, number of hazardous waste facilities, number of railroad miles) are the best predictors of hazmat Inc.ident frequency. Mitigation efforts (statewide regulatory and/or management policies) also help explain the variability in hazmat Inc.idents.     

Palaeosecular variation over the past 5 Myr based on a new generalized database

A generalized database of global palaeomagnetic data from 3719 lava flows and thin dykes of age 0–5 Ma has been constructed for use with a relational database management system. The database includes all data whose virtual geomagnetic poles (VGP) lie within 45 of the spin axis and can be used for studies of palaeosecular variation and for geomagnetic field modelling. Because many of these data were collected and processed more than 15–20 years ago, each result has been characterized according to the demagnetization procedures carried out. Analysis of these data in terms of the latitude variation of the angular dispersion of VGPs (palaeosecular variation from lavas) strongly suggests that careful data selection is required and that many of the older studies may need to be redone using more modern methods. Differences between the angular dispersions for separate normal- and reverse-polarity data sets confirm that many older studies have not been adequately cleaned magnetically. Therefore, the use of the database for geomagnetic field modelling should be carried out with some caution. Using a VGP cut-off angle that varies with latitude, the best data set consists of 2636 results that show a smooth increase of VGP angular dispersion with latitude. Model G for palaeosecular variation, which is based on modelling of the antisymmetric (dipole) and symmetric (quadrupole) dynamo families, provides a good fit to these results.