Simulation of the effect of wind speedup in the formation of transverse dune fields

A computer simulation model for transverse‐dune‐field dynamics, corresponding to a uni‐directional wind regime, is developed. In a previous formulation, two distinct problems were found regarding the cross‐sectional dune shape, namely the erosion in the lee of dunes and the steepness of the windward slopes. The first problem is solved by introducing no erosion in shadow zones. The second issue is overcome by introducing a wind speedup (shear velocity increase) factor, which can be accounted for by adding a term to the original transport length, which is proportional to the surface height. By incorporating these features we are able to model dunes whose individual shape and collective patterns are similar to those observed in nature. Moreover we show how the introduction of a non‐linear shear‐velocity‐increase term leads to the reduction of dune height, and this may result in an equilibrium dune field configuration. This is thought to be because the non‐linear increase of the transport length makes the sand trapping efficiency lower than unity, even for higher dunes, so that the incoming and the outgoing sand flux are in balance. To fully describe the inter‐dune morphology more precise dynamics in the lee of the dune must be incorporated. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatially distributed tracer‐aided modelling to explore water and isotope transport,storage and mixing in a pristine,humid tropical catchment

Rapidly transforming headwater catchments in the humid tropics provide important resources for drinking water, irrigation, hydropower, and ecosystem connectivity. However, such resources for downstream use remain unstudied. To improve understanding of the behaviour and influence of pristine rainforests on water and tracer fluxes, we adapted the relatively parsimonious, spatially distributed tracer‐aided rainfall–runoff (STARR) model using event‐based stable isotope data for the 3.2‐km² San Lorencito catchment in Costa Rica. STARR was used to simulate rainforest interception of water and stable isotopes, which showed a significant isotopic enrichment in throughfall compared with gross rainfall. Acceptable concurrent simulations of discharge (Kling–Gupta efficiency [KGE] ~0.8) and stable isotopes in stream water (KGE ~0.6) at high spatial (10 m) and temporal (hourly) resolution indicated a rapidly responding system. Around 90% of average annual streamflow (2,099 mm) was composed of quick, near‐surface runoff components, whereas only ~10% originated from groundwater in deeper layers. Simulated actual evapotranspiration (ET) from interception and soil storage were low (~420 mm/year) due to high relative humidity (average 96%) and cloud cover limiting radiation inputs. Modelling suggested a highly variable groundwater storage (~10 to 500 mm) in this steep, fractured volcanic catchment that sustains dry season baseflows. This groundwater is concentrated in riparian areas as an alluvial–colluvial aquifer connected to the stream. This was supported by rainfall–runoff isotope simulations, showing a “flashy” stream response to rainfall with only a moderate damping effect and a constant isotope signature from deeper groundwater (~400‐mm additional mixing volume) during baseflow. The work serves as a first attempt to apply a spatially distributed tracer‐aided model to a tropical rainforest environment exploring the hydrological functioning of a steep, fractured‐volcanic catchment. We also highlight limitations and propose a roadmap for future data collection and spatially distributed tracer‐aided model development in tropical headwater catchments.     

Scales and causes of heterogeneity in bars in a large multi‐channel river: Río Paraná, Argentina

To date, published studies of alluvial bar architecture in large rivers have been restricted mostly to case studies of individual bars and single locations. Relatively little is known about how the depositional processes and sedimentary architecture of kilometre‐scale bars vary within a multi‐kilometre reach or over several hundreds of kilometres downstream. This study presents Ground Penetrating Radar and core data from 11, kilometre‐scale bars from the Río Paraná, Argentina. The investigated bars are located between 30 km upstream and 540 km downstream of the Río Paraná – Río Paraguay confluence, where a significant volume of fine‐grained suspended sediment is introduced into the network. Bar‐scale cross‐stratified sets, with lengths and widths up to 600 m and thicknesses up to 12 m, enable the distinction of large river deposits from stacked deposits of smaller rivers, but are only present in half the surface area of the bars. Up to 90% of bar‐scale sets are found on top of finer‐grained ripple‐laminated bar‐trough deposits. Bar‐scale sets make up as much as 58% of the volume of the deposits in small, incipient mid‐channel bars, but this proportion decreases significantly with increasing age and size of the bars. Contrary to what might be expected, a significant proportion of the sedimentary structures found in the Río Paraná is similar in scale to those found in much smaller rivers. In other words, large river deposits are not always characterized by big structures that allow a simple interpretation of river scale. However, the large scale of the depositional units in big rivers causes small‐scale structures, such as ripple sets, to be grouped into thicker cosets, which indicate river scale even when no obvious large‐scale sets are present. The results also show that the composition of bars differs between the studied reaches upstream and downstream of the confluence with the Río Paraguay. Relative to other controls on downstream fining, the tributary input of fine‐grained suspended material from the Río Paraguay causes a marked change in the composition of the bar deposits. Compared to the upstream reaches, the sedimentary architecture of the downstream reaches in the top ca 5 m of mid‐channel bars shows: (i) an increase in the abundance and thickness (up to metre‐scale) of laterally extensive (hundreds of metres) fine‐grained layers; (ii) an increase in the percentage of deposits comprised of ripple sets (to >40% in the upper bar deposits); and (iii) an increase in bar‐trough deposits and a corresponding decrease in bar‐scale cross‐strata (<10%). The thalweg deposits of the Río Paraná are composed of dune sets, even directly downstream from the Río Paraguay where the upper channel deposits are dominantly fine‐grained. Thus, the change in sedimentary facies due to a tributary point‐source of fine‐grained sediment is primarily expressed in the composition of the upper bar deposits.     

Singularity and Nonnormality in the Classification of Compositional Data

Geologists may want to classify compositional data and express the classification as a map. Regionalized classification is a tool that can be used for this purpose, but it incorporates discriminant analysis, which requires the computation and inversion of a covariance matrix. Covariance matrices of compositional data always will be singular (noninvertible) because of the unit-sum constraint. Fortunately, discriminant analyses can be calculated using a pseudo-inverse of the singular covariance matrix; this is done automatically by some statistical packages such as SAS. Granulometric data from the Darss Sill region of the Baltic Sea is used to explore how the pseudo-inversion procedure influences discriminant analysis results, comparing the algorithm used by SAS to the more conventional Moore–Penrose algorithm. Logratio transforms have been recommended to overcome problems associated with analysis of compositional data, including singularity. A regionalized classification of the Darss Sill data after logratio transformation is different only slightly from one based on raw granulometric data, suggesting that closure problems do not influence severely regionalized classification of compositional data.     

Distinguishing the Regional Atmospheric Controls on Precipitation Isotopic Variability in the Central-Southeast Portion of Brazil

Precipitation isotope ratios (O and H) record the history of water phase transitions and fractionation processes during moisture transport and rainfall formation. Here, we evaluated the isotopic composition of precipitation over the central-southeastern region of Brazil at different timescales. Monthly isotopic compositions were associated with classical effects (rainfall amount, seasonality, and continentality), demonstrating the importance of vapor recirculation processes and different regional atmospheric systems (South American Convergence Zone-SACZ and Cold Fronts-CF). While moisture recycling and regional atmospheric processes may also be observed on a daily timescale, classical effects such as the amount effect were not strongly correlated (δ¹⁸O-precipitation rate r ≤ –0.37). Daily variability revealed specific climatic features, such as δ¹⁸O depleted values (~ –6‰ to –8‰) during the wet season were associated with strong convective activity and large moisture availability. Daily isotopic analysis revealed the role of different moisture sources and transport effects. Isotope ratios combined with d-excess explain how atmospheric recirculation processes interact with convective activity during rainfall formation processes. Our findings provide a new understanding of rainfall sampling timescales and highlight the importance of water isotopes to decipher key hydrometeorological processes in a complex spatial and temporal context in central-southeastern Brazil.     

Study of Metal Distribution in Raw and Screened Swine Manure

The growth of industrial swine production over the last few years has led to a growth in concern over effluents generated by the activity. Several elements, mainly toxic metals, can be present in swine wastewater and can have a serious environmental impact. It is important, therefore, to know the metal concentration before the discharge of wastewater. In this work the temporal metal distribution in swine manure and its potential reduction using coarse (2 mm) and fine (<0.45 μm) liquid‐solid separation techniques were investigated. In order to do this, different swine manure sample preparation methods for Al, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr and Zn determination by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES) were tested. The acid mixtures used to digest the manure sample significantly affected the metal recovery. Good analyte recoveries were observed with nitric acid/hydrogen peroxide mixtures or nitric acid/perchloric acid mixtures. Sulfuric acid/hydrogen peroxide mixtures produced inconsistent results and poor recoveries, mainly for Ba and Pb. It was observed that metal concentrations in swine manure varied greatly with time, up to one order of magnitude, due to changes in swine production such as feed and animal numbers. Metals concentrations observed in the raw wastewater exceeded Brazilian limits for discharge into water bodies and recommendations for agricultural use. Results obtained from the liquid‐solid separation study showed that metals in the raw swine manure were not removed with coarse screening. However, the major fraction of metals were removed by filtration (0.45 μm), with the exception of Na, K and Sr. Thus, the use of liquid‐solid separation techniques that capture the fine solid fractions (and associated metals) from raw manure can have a favorable impact on the environment and contribute to swine production wastewater treatment.     

Multiparametric Traveltime Inversion

In conventional seismic processing, the classical algorithm of Hubral and Krey is routinely applied to extract an initial macrovelocity model that consists of a stack of homogeneous layers bounded by curved interfaces. Input for the algorithm are identified primary reflections together with normal moveout (NMO) velocities, as derived from a previous velocity analysis conducted on common midpoint (CMP) data. This work presents a modified version of the Hubral and Krey algorithm that is designed to extend the original version in two ways, namely (a) it makes an advantageous use of previously obtained common-reflection-surface (CRS) attributes as its input and (b) it also allows for gradient layer velocities in depth. A new strategy to recover interfaces as optimized cubic splines is also proposed. Some synthetic examples are provided to illustrate and explain the implementation of the method.     

Tectonic implications of the earthquake swarm of 1997 in the Michoacan Triangle, Mexico

An earthquake swarm occurred during February and March 1997 in the vicinity of the Tancitaro Volcano, in the southern part of the tectonically complex Michoacan Triangle. A study of these events provides an opportunity to map the active faults in the area and to learn if the orientation and the sense of motion on these faults are consistent with the mapped faults and the alignment of cinder cones in the region. The foci of 230 earthquakes, which could be located, are distributed between 10 and 18 km depth, and show an alignment in, roughly, a NE direction. The focal mechanisms and seismic moments of the 27 best-recorded events were determined by waveform modeling of P and S waves. These mechanisms show two distinct patterns. More than 50% of the solutions are left-lateral strike–slip mechanisms with a normal component. The preferred fault plane strikes NE. Another group of events, probably caused by triggered seismicity on the Chapala–Oaxaca fault zone, shows left-lateral strike–slip mechanisms with a large-thrust component on NW-trending faults. S wave splitting shows 1–2.5% crustal-anisotropy. The direction of the anisotropy coincides with the NE alignment of events, and the preferred nodal plane. This is also the alignment of cinder cones, suggesting that preexisting fractures and cracks are responsible for the seismicity and anisotropic behavior of the crust. The resulting stress orientation, NE compression, is the one expected for the fore-arc region. We conclude that although Michoacan Triangle lies in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, it does not form part of this stress province where the stress orientation is NS extension.     

Wake Response to an Ocean-Feedback Mechanism: Madeira Island Case Study

We focus on an island wake episode that occurred in the Madeira Archipelago region of the north-east Atlantic at $32.5^{\circ }\mathrm{N}, 17^{\circ }\mathrm{W}$ . The Weather Research and Forecasting numerical model was used in a (one-way) downscaling mode, considering initial and boundary conditions from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts system. The current literature emphasizes adiabatic effects on the dynamical aspects of atmospheric wakes. Changes in mountain height and consequently its relation to the atmospheric inversion layer should explain the shift in wake regimes, from a ‘strong-wake’ to ‘weak-wake’ scenario. Nevertheless, changes in sea-surface temperature variability in the lee of an island can induce similar regime shifts because of exposure to stronger solar radiation. Increase in evaporation contributes to the enhancement of convection and thus to the uplift of the stratified atmospheric layer above the critical height, with subsequent internal gravity wave activity.