Gas segregation in dykes and sills

Many basaltic volcanoes emit a substantial amount of gas over long periods of time while erupting relatively little degassed lava, implying that gas segregation must have occurred in the magmatic system. The geometry and degree of connectivity of the plumbing system of a volcano control the movement of magma in that system and could therefore provide an important control on gas segregation in basaltic magmas. We investigate gas segregation by means of analogue experiments and analytical modelling in a simple geometry consisting of a vertical conduit connected to a horizontal intrusion. In the experiments, degassing is simulated by electrolysis, producing micrometric bubbles in viscous mixtures of water and golden syrup. The presence of exsolved bubbles induces a buoyancy-driven exchange flow between the conduit and the intrusion that leads to gas segregation. Bubbles segregate from the fluid by rising and accumulating as foam at the top of the intrusion, coupled with the accumulation of denser degassed fluid at the base of the intrusion. Steady-state influx of bubbly fluid from the conduit into the intrusion is balanced by outward flux of lighter foam and denser degassed fluid. The length and time scales of this gas segregation are controlled by the rise of bubbles in the horizontal intrusion. Comparison of the gas segregation time scale with that of the cooling and solidification of the intrusion suggests that gas segregation is more efficient in sills (intrusions in a horizontal plane with typical width:length aspect ratio 1:100) than in horizontally-propagating dykes (intrusions in a vertical plane with typical aspect ratio 1:1000), and that this process could be efficient in intermediate as well as basaltic magmas. Our investigation shows that non-vertical elements of the plumbing systems act as strong gas segregators. Gas segregation has also implications for the generation of gas-rich and gas-poor magmas at persistently active basaltic volcanoes. For low magma supply rates, very efficient gas segregation is expected, which induces episodic degassing activity that erupts relatively gas-poor magmas. For higher magma supply rates, gas segregation is expected to be less effective, which leads to stronger explosions that erupt gas-rich as well as gas-poor magmas. These general physical principles can be applied to Stromboli volcano and are shown to be consistent with independent field data. Gas segregation at Stromboli is thought likely to occur in a shallow reservoir of sill-like geometry at 3.5 km depth with exsolved gas bubbles 0.1–1 mm in diameter. Transition between eruptions of gas-poor, high crystallinity magmas and violent explosions that erupt gas-rich, low crystallinity magmas are calculated to occur at a critical magma supply rate of 0.1–1 m³ s^− 1.     

Solar EUV/FUV irradiance variations: analysis and observational strategy

The knowledge of solar extreme and far ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance variations is essential for the characterization of the Earth’s upper atmosphere. For a long time, this knowledge has been based on empirical models, which are themselves based on proxies of the solar activity. However, the accurate modeling and prediction of the Earth’s upper atmosphere necessitate to improve the precision on the irradiance and its variations below about 200 nm. Here, we present a review of recent works made by the authors that aim at quantifying the irradiance variability at these wavelengths, and that lead to new way of monitoring the solar EUV/FUV irradiance spectrum. In more details, it is shown that the quantification of the high level of redundancy in the solar spectrum variability allows to envisage measuring only a small portion of the spectrum without losing essential knowledge. Finally, we discuss what should and could be measured in order to retrieve the solar extreme and far ultraviolet spectrum.     

大河流域综合发展的比较研究:以长江和罗讷河为例

1 Research background The globalization in process challenges our traditional way of looking at territories. New regional entities are emerging at sub-continental level as it is the case in Western and Central Europe through the growing assertion of Europ…     

A report card and quality indicators for the Seine estuary: from scientific approach to operational tool

The scientific teams from the interdisciplinary Seine-Aval (SA) research program and the SA's operational pole, GIPSA (Groupement d'Intérêt Public Seine-Aval) have worked together to create a report card designed to help the Estuary Council (Conseil de l'Estuaire) revitalize its original functions: maintaining functional links between the various estuarine ecosystems, comprehending and managing the estuary's natural habitats and biological populations, and monitoring and improving the physical-chemical quality of the estuarine waters. The report card will be able to synthesize the information obtained from several system performance variables and available operational indicators. This approach, intended to guide the estuary managers, is the oeuvre of several scientific teams; it is particularly important in the context of the Water Framework Directive because it facilitates the elaboration of a group of relevant indicators, which can then be used as operational tools. A report card will provide decision-makers (e.g., political authorities; national, regional and local institutions and industries) with the key indicators for evaluating the system and predicting changes in terms of selected objectives, such as the preservation and restoration of the estuary's environmental functionalities. The final objective of the research is to choose among the available indicators to approximate potential ecological risks. Integrating the socio-economical data will perhaps lead to setting risk acceptability thresholds for the different uses of the Seine estuary. In the end, collaboration between the scientists, the managers, and the GIPSA operational pole will be essential to produce a viable report card about the environmental status of the Seine estuary. To illustrate the research now under way, this article presents the results for three actions undertaken, concerning: (i) physical indicators (i.e., an inventory of the estuary first as a whole, and then section by section); (ii) benthic indicators (i.e., seven indices which show a moderate EcoQ for the lower part of the estuary); and (iii) a eutrophication indicator (i.e., an indicator for coastal eutrophication potential (ICEP), which helps to limit the nutrient fluxes (N or P) that exceed the silica flux delivered by the Seine network, based on the Redfield ratios for algal propagation).     

Towards large-scale stochastic refraction tomography: a comparison of three evolutionary algorithms

The main goal of this study is to assess the potential of evolutionary algorithms to solve highly non-linear and multi-modal tomography problems (such as first arrival traveltime tomography) and their abilities to estimate reliable uncertainties. Classical tomography methods apply derivative-based optimization algorithms that require the user to determine the value of several parameters (such as regularization level and initial model) prior to the inversion as they strongly affect the final inverted model. In addition, derivative-based methods only perform a local search dependent on the chosen starting model. Global optimization methods based on Markov chain Monte Carlo that thoroughly sample the model parameter space are theoretically insensitive to the initial model but turn out to be computationally expensive. Evolutionary algorithms are population-based global optimization methods and are thus intrinsically parallel, allowing these algorithms to fully handle available computer resources. We apply three evolutionary algorithms to solve a refraction traveltime tomography problem, namely the differential evolution, the competitive particle swarm optimization and the covariance matrix adaptation–evolution strategy. We apply these methodologies on a smoothed version of the Marmousi velocity model and compare their performances in terms of optimization and estimates of uncertainty. By performing scalability and statistical analysis over the results obtained with several runs, we assess the benefits and shortcomings of each algorithm.     

Dimensionality reduction for efficient Bayesian estimation of groundwater flow in strongly heterogeneous aquifers

We focus on the Bayesian estimation of strongly heterogeneous transmissivity fields conditional on data sampled at a set of locations in an aquifer. Log-transmissivity, Y, is modeled as a stochastic Gaussian process, parameterized through a truncated Karhunen–Loève (KL) expansion. We consider Y fields characterized by a short correlation scale as compared to the size of the observed domain. These systems are associated with a KL decomposition which still requires a high number of parameters, thus hampering the efficiency of the Bayesian estimation of the underlying stochastic field. The distinctive aim of this work is to present an efficient approach for the stochastic inverse modeling of fully saturated groundwater flow in these types of strongly heterogeneous domains. The methodology is grounded on the construction of an optimal sparse KL decomposition which is achieved by retaining only a limited set of modes in the expansion. Mode selection is driven by model selection criteria and is conditional on available data of hydraulic heads and (optionally) Y. Bayesian inversion of the optimal sparse KLE is then inferred using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) samplers. As a test bed, we illustrate our approach by way of a suite of computational examples where noisy head and Y values are sampled from a given randomly generated system. Our findings suggest that the proposed methodology yields a globally satisfactory inversion of the stochastic head and Y fields. Comparison of reference values against the corresponding MCMC predictive distributions suggests that observed values are well reproduced in a probabilistic sense. In a few cases, reference values at some unsampled locations (typically far from measurements) are not captured by the posterior probability distributions. In these cases, the quality of the estimation could be improved, e.g., by increasing the number of measurements and/or the threshold for the selection of KL modes.     

A two‐phase automatic static correction method

Statics are an effective approach to correct for complex velocity variations in the near surface, but so far, to a large extent, a general and robust automatic static correction method is still lacking. In this paper, we propose a novel two‐phase automatic static correction method, which is capable of handling both primary wave statics (PP statics) and converted‐wave statics (S‐wave statics). Our method is purely data driven, and it aims at maximizing stacking power in the target zone of the stack image. Low‐frequency components of the data are analysed first using an advanced genetic algorithm to estimate seed statics and the time structure for an event of interest, and then the original full‐band data are further aligned via the back‐and‐forth coordinate descent method using the seed statics as initial values and the time structure for event alignment guidance. We apply our new method to two field datasets, i.e., one for 2D PP static correction and the other for 3D S‐wave static correction.     

An elastic–viscous–plastic sea ice model formulated on Arakawa B and C grids

The elastic–viscous–plastic (EVP) sea ice rheology has been introduced in the large-scale Louvain-la-Neuve sea-Ice Model, version 2 (LIM2), and its performance has been evaluated. Centred difference versions of the rheology have been implemented on both an Arakawa B grid and a C grid, and their performance have been intercompared in coupled simulations with the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) model. Integrations with both implementations lead to fairly similar results which compare well with observations and with previous LIM simulations. The C grid version, however, offers a number of advantages: (a) easier ice coupling with NEMO, which is itself defined on a C grid; (b) possibility of representing ice transport across one-cell-wide straits and passages; (c) better representation of inertial-plastic compressive waves. For these reasons, we recommend the use of the C grid EVP formulation of the ice dynamics in future LIM applications.