Pyroclast/snow interactions and thermally driven slurry formation. Part 1: Theory for monodisperse grain beds

Received: 15 March 1999 / Accepted: 9 December 1999     

Ground water contaminant transport by nondivergence-free, unsteady and nonstationary velocity fields

Pore flow velocity is assumed to be a nondivergence-free, unsteady, and nonstationary random function of space and time for ground water contaminant transport in a heterogeneous medium. The laboratory-scale stochastic contaminant transport equation is up scaled to field scale by taking the ensemble average of the equation by using the cumulant expansion method. A new velocity correction, which is a function of mean pore flow velocity divergence, is obtained due to strict second order cumulant expansion (without omitting any term after the expansion). The field scale transport equations under the divergence-free pore flow velocity field assumption are also derived by simplifying the nondivergence-free field scale equation. The significance of the new velocity correction term is investigated on a two dimensional transport problem driven by a density dependent flow.     

Pahoehoe flows from the central Paraná Continental Flood Basalts

Inflated and compound pahoehoe flows have been identified within the central Paraná Continental Flood Basalts based upon their morphology, surface features, and internal zonation. Pahoehoe flow features have been studied at five localities in the western portion of Paraná State, Brazil: Ponte Queimada, Toledo, Rio Quitéria, Matelandia and Cascavel. We have interpreted the newly recognized flow features using concepts of Hawaiian pahoehoe formation and emplacement that have been previously applied to the Columbia River Basalt and Deccan Plateau. Surface features and/or internal structure typical from pahoehoe lavas are observed in all studied areas and features like inflation clefts, squeeze-ups, breakouts, and P-type lobes with two levels of pipe vesicles are indicative of inflation in these flows. The thinner, compound pahoehoe flows are predominantly composed of P-type lobes and probably emerged at the end of large inflated flows on shallow slopes. The presence of vesicular cores in the majority of compound lobes and the common occurrence of segregation structures suggests high water content in the pahoehoe lavas from the central PCFB. More volcanological studies are necessary to determinate the rheology of lavas and refine emplacement models.Editorial responsibility: C. Kilburn     

Geophysical flows under location uncertainty,Part I Random transport and general models

A stochastic flow representation is considered with the Eulerian velocity decomposed between a smooth large scale component and a rough small-scale turbulent component. The latter is specified as a random field uncorrelated in time. Subsequently, the material derivative is modified and leads to a stochastic version of the material derivative to include a drift correction, an inhomogeneous and anisotropic diffusion, and a multiplicative noise. As derived, this stochastic transport exhibits a remarkable energy conservation property for any realizations. As demonstrated, this pivotal operator further provides elegant means to derive stochastic formulations of classical representations of geophysical flow dynamics.     

Sheathfolds in rheomorphic ignimbrites

Structural reappraisal of several classic rheomorphic ignimbrites in Colorado, Idaho, the Canary Islands and Italy has, for the first time, revealed abundant oblique folds, curvilinear folds and sheathfolds which formed during emplacement. Like their equivalents in tectonic shear-zones, the sheathfold axes lie sub-parallel to a pervasive elongation lineation, and appear as eye structures on rock surfaces normal to the transport direction. With the recognition of sheathfolds, ignimbrites previously inferred to have undergone complex rheomorphic deformation histories are re-interpreted as recording a single, progressive deformation event. In some examples, the trends of sheathfolds and related lineations change with height through a single ignimbrite suggesting that rheomorphism did not affect the entire thickness of ignimbrite synchronously. Instead, we infer that in these ignimbrites a thin ductile shear-zone rose gradually through the aggrading agglutinating mass whilst the flow direction varied with time. This suggests that, in some cases, both welding and rheomorphism can be extremely rapid, with ductile strain rates significantly exceeding rates of ignimbrite aggradation.Editorial responsibility: T. Druitt     

Effects of a sill on selective withdrawal through a point sink in a linearly stratified fluid

Reservoir topography has significant effects on mechanism of selective withdrawal. We study selective withdrawal of a linearly stratified fluid through a point sink in a long rectangular reservoir with a sill at the bed experimentally and analytically. Experiments were conducted for various flow rates and sill heights to evaluate their effects on withdrawal layer in the inertial-buoyancy regime. Transition to the steady state is discussed in terms of dynamics of shear waves over the sill. The results show that in presence of a sill the withdrawal layer is thicker and higher in elevation. For flows controlled at the sill crest, the withdrawal layer thickness in the point-sink flow is almost equal to that in the similar line-sink flow. We propose an analytical relation for the withdrawal layer thickness in presence of a sill and confirm it by experiments.     

Nearshore bar migration and sediment-induced buoyancy effects

A 1-D General Ocean Turbulence Model that includes the effects of sediment-induced stratification is shown to simulate the observed onshore and offshore migration of a nearshore sandbar. The only two free parameters of the model, the bed reference concentration and the sediment diffusivity, are taken from the literature, rather than tuned to the data used here. The model results suggest that predictions of onshore bar migration, in which wave-induced sediment transport confined to within a few centimeters of the bottom dominates, are not greatly affected by accounting for buoyancy effects. The model results also suggest that both mean flows and waves transport sediment during offshore bar migration, with different components of transport dominating at different cross-shore locations across the bar-trough bathymetry. Neglecting the effects of sediment-induced stratification results in higher model skill during the largest waves, likely because the excess turbulence production simulated by the non-stratified model is counterbalanced by neglected breaking-wave-generated turbulence. Considering both onshore and offshore migration, the model that includes sediment-induced stratification has higher skill than the model without stratification.     

The contrasted evolution of high and low flows and precipitation indices in the Duero basin (Spain)

Abstract

Trends in high and low flows are valuable indicators of hydrological change because they highlight changes in various parts of the frequency distribution of streamflow series. This enables improved assessment of water availability in regions with high seasonal and inter-annual variability. There has been a substantial reduction in water resources in the Duero basin (Iberian Peninsula, Spain) and other areas of the Mediterranean region during the last 50 years, and this is likely to continue because of climate change. In this study, we investigated the evolution and trends in high and low flows in the Spanish part of the Duero basin, and in equivalent or closely-related precipitation indices for the period 1961–2005. The results showed a general trend of decrease in the frequency and magnitude of high flows throughout most of the basin. Moreover, the number of days with low flows significantly increased over this period. No clear relationship was evident between the evolution of high/low flows and changes in the distribution frequencies of the precipitation series. In contrast to what was expected, the number of days with heavy precipitation and the mean annual precipitation did not show significant trends across the basin, and the number of days without rainfall decreased slightly. The divergence between precipitation and runoff evolution was more accentuated in spring and summer. In the absence of trends in precipitation, it is possible that reforestation processes in the region, and increasing temperatures in recent decades, could be related to the decreasing frequency of high flows and the increasing frequency of low flows.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor S. Grimaldi

Citation Morán-Tejeda, E., López-Moreno, J.I., Vicente-Serrano, S.M., Lorenzo-Lacruz, J. and Ceballos-Barbancho, A., 2012. The contrasted evolution of high and low flows and precipitation indices in the Duero basin (Spain). Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57 (4), 591–611.     

Comparison of direct statistical and indirect statistical-deterministic frameworks in downscaling river low-flow indices

ABSTRACT

This work explores the ability of two methodologies in downscaling hydrological indices characterizing the low flow regime of three salmon rivers in Eastern Canada: Moisie, Romaine and Ouelle. The selected indices describe four aspects of the low flow regime of these rivers: amplitude, frequency, variability and timing. The first methodology (direct downscaling) ascertains a direct link between large-scale atmospheric variables (the predictors) and low flow indices (the predictands). The second (indirect downscaling) involves downscaling precipitation and air temperature (local climate variables) that are introduced into a hydrological model to simulate flows. Synthetic flow time series are subsequently used to calculate the low flow indices. The statistical models used for downscaling low flow hydrological indices and local climate variables are: Sparse Bayesian Learning and Multiple Linear Regression. The results showed that direct downscaling using Sparse Bayesian Learning surpassed the other approaches with respect to goodness of fit and generalization ability.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor K. Hamed