Building and Testing an <Emphasis Type="Italic">a priori</Emphasis> Geophysical Model for Western Eurasia and North Africa

We construct and evaluate a new three-dimensional model of crust and upper mantle structure in Western Eurasia and North Africa (WENA) extending to 700 km depth and having 1° parameterization. The model is compiled in an a priori fashion entirely from existing geophysical literature, specifically, combining two regionalized crustal models with a high-resolution global sediment model and a global upper mantle model. The resulting WENA1.0 model consists of 24 layers: water, three sediment layers, upper, middle, and lower crust, uppermost mantle, and 16 additional upper mantle layers. Each of the layers is specified by its depth, compressional and shear velocity, density, and attenuation (quality factors, Q _P and Q _S ). The model is tested by comparing the model predictions with geophysical observations including: crustal thickness, surface wave group and phase velocities, upper mantle _n velocities, receiver functions, P-wave travel times, waveform characteristics, regional 1-D velocities, and Bouguer gravity. We find generally good agreement between WENA1.0 model predictions and empirical observations for a wide variety of independent data sets. We believe this model is representative of our current knowledge of crust and upper mantle structure in the WENA region and can successfully be used to model the propagation characteristics of regional seismic waveform data. The WENA1.0 model will continue to evolve as new data are incorporated into future validations and any new deficiencies in the model are identified. Eventually this a priori model will serve as the initial starting model for a multiple data set tomographic inversion for structure of the Eurasian continent.     

On the gradient line of the moon's zonal gravitational potential field

The analytical expression of the gradient line, i.e. the perpendicular to the Moon's zonal equipotential surfaces is derived. Being a sensitive indicator of the geometric structure of the gravitational field, the shape of the trajectory, its direction field and curvature, the points of inflection, etc., are computed at elevations 0 km, 250 km, 1000 km and 10000 km above the Moon's surface. The numerical results were derived from the coefficients of Liu and Laing (1971) and are compared- whenever suitable - with the results obtained from the coefficients of Michaelet al. (1969).     

Collaborative Governance and Conflict Management: Lessons Learned and Good Practices from a Case Study in the Amazon Basin

Abstract

Given the linkages between natural resources and social conflicts, evidence increasingly shows that successful natural resource management requires conflict mitigation and prevention. However, there may be a gap in practice between knowing what processes and tools need to be used to manage conservation conflicts and how to actually implement them. We present learning from a practice-based case study of conflict management in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon that aimed to develop natural resource governance institutions and build stakeholder capacity, including of indigenous groups, to navigate existing conflict resolution mechanisms. Through applying good practices in conservation conflict management and collaborative governance, we generated important lessons on the practical considerations involved in collaborative conservation. These lessons, while specific to our case, could be applied to a variety of protected areas facing complex social-ecological systems dynamics and wicked problems.     

Geodetic applications of eclipses and occultations

If in imagination we viewed a solar eclipse or the occultation of a star from a point outside the earth, we would see the shadow of the moon advancing across the face of the earth, the earth meanwhile turning on its axis beneath the shadow. When some point on the advancing edge of the shadow overtook a given point on the surface of the earth, an observer at that point would note the beginning of the eclipse or occultation. When the trailing edge of the shadow uncovered that point again, the observer there would note the end of the eclipse or occultation. The universal time (as distinguished from the local time) of the beginning or ending would depend on the position of the observer with reference to the body of the earth, that is, on his ideal geodetic coordinates. These universal times would not depend in the least on the direction of the observer’s vertical. This fact is the key to the usefulness of eclipses and occultations for geodetic purposes. Suppose that the prediction for the times of beginning or ending had been made on the basis of the astronomical latitude and longitude of the observer. Since there would be in general deflections of the vertical in latitude and longitude, Δπ and Δλ, these would bring about, even in the absence of any other source of discrepancy, diffe- This article is at once a condensation and an expansion. It is a condensation of a series of lectures delivered in the winter and spring of 1947 to members of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and of the Army Map Service. It is an expansion of a very informal lecture given before Section III of the International Association of Geodesy, meeting in General Assembly at Oslo in August, 1948.