Aspect control of water movement on hillslopes near the rain–snow transition of the Colorado Front Range

In the Colorado Front Range, forested catchments near the rain–snow transition are likely to experience changes in snowmelt delivery and subsurface water transport with climate warming and associated shifts in precipitation patterns. Snowpack dynamics are strongly affected by aspect: Lodgepole pine forested north‐facing slopes develop a seasonal snowpack, whereas Ponderosa pine‐dotted south‐facing slopes experience intermittent snow accumulation throughout winter and spring. We tested the degree to which these contrasting water input patterns cause different near‐surface hydrologic response on north‐facing and south‐facing hillslopes during the snowmelt period. During spring snowmelt, we applied lithium bromide (LiBr) tracer to instrumented plots along a north–south catchment transect. Bromide broke through immediately at 10‐ and 30‐cm depths on the north‐facing slope and was transported out of soil waters within 40 days. On the south‐facing slope, Br^? was transported to significant depths only during spring storms and remained above the detection limit throughout the study. Modelling of unsaturated zone hydrologic response using Hydrus‐1D corroborated these aspect‐driven differences in subsurface transport. Our multiple lines of evidence suggest that north‐facing slopes are dominated by connected flow through the soil matrix, whereas south‐facing slope soils experience brief periods of rapid vertical transport following snowmelt events and are drier overall than north‐facing slopes. These differences in hydrologic response were largely a function of energy‐driven differences in water supply, emphasizing the importance of aspect and climate forcing when considering contributions of water and solutes to streamflow in catchments near the snow line. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Three‐dimensional to two‐dimensional cross‐strata transition in the lower Pleistocene Catanzaro tidal strait transgressive succession (southern Italy)

Sandstone tidal cross‐strata are the predominant sedimentary feature of strait‐fill stratigraphic successions. However, although widely described in numerous studies, tidal strait‐fill two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional cross‐strata have rarely been reported to occur in discrete intervals which are laterally adjacent or vertically stacked, and the meaning of this stratigraphic architecture has not yet been fully investigated. Understanding of the processes responsible for changes in the internal features of modern and ancient tidal bedforms is essential in order to predict lateral and vertical heterogeneities in analogous reservoir strata. This facies‐based study aims to interpret the three‐dimensional to two‐dimensional cross‐strata transition observed in the lower Pleistocene mixed siliciclastic/bioclastic sandstone filling the Catanzaro Strait, in southern Italy, during a continuous phase of tectonically driven marine transgression. Tidal cross‐strata disappear in the uppermost interval of the studied succession, where mudstone strata prevail. This stratigraphic trend is interpreted as the evidence of an important change in the tidal strait hydrodynamics due to a phase of relative sea‐level rise. At the beginning of the transgression, three‐dimensional tidal dunes migrated throughout the ca 3 to 4 km wide and ca 30 km long, WNW–ESE‐oriented Catanzaro Strait, due to strong tidal currents amplified through the seaway and flowing in semi‐diurnal phase opposition. As the intermediate phase of transgression enlarged the seaway width, the tidal current strength decreased as tidal water exchange occurred over a larger cross‐sectional area. The progressive reduction of the bed shear stress modified three‐dimensional tidal dunes into an extensive two‐dimensional bedform field. At the end of the transgression, the further widening of the Catanzaro Strait into a ca 10 to 12 km wide marine passageway changed the tidally dominated strait into a non‐tidal open shelf. The results of this research suggest the presence of a ‘critical cross‐sectional area’ in the narrowest strait‐centre zone which controls the activation and deactivation of tidal current amplification along a marine seaway.     

Seismic stability analysis of a layered rock slope

In general, the determination of the factor of safety and the location of the critical slip surface are two major challenges in seismic slope stability analysis. In this paper, a new approach for determining the factor of safety and the corresponding critical slip surface of a layered rock slope subjected to seismic excitations is presented, through a case study based on the combination of the shear strength reduction technique and distinct element method. According to this proposed method, the seismic factor of safety and the critical slip surface of the slope are estimated and compared with those obtained by the pseudo-static approach, combined with the limit equilibrium method. It is found that the factor of safety obtained from the proposed method is slightly greater than that computed by the pseudo-static analysis, with a difference of 4.2%, and that the critical slip surface obtained from the two methods is identical, which confirms the reasonability and feasibility of the proposed method.     

Numerical simulation of cone penetration testing using a new critical state constitutive model for sand

A new perspective on the numerical simulation of cone penetration in sand is presented, based on an enhanced critical state model implemented in an explicit-integration finite element code. Its main advantage, compared to similar studies employing simpler soil models, is that sand compressibility can be described with a single set of model parameters, irrespective of the stress level and the sand relative density. Calibration is based on back-analysis of published centrifuge experiments, while results of the methodology are also compared against independent tests. Additional analyses are performed to investigate sand state effects on cone penetration resistance, in comparison with empirical expressions from the literature.     

Research on changes of hydrodynamics and ion-exchange adsorption in Brackish-Water Interface

In light of multiple field experiments in typical tidal areas with active sea-land interaction, corresponding analysis through hydrodynamic simulation and of ion composition evolution all insist on following conclusions. Due to the tide, the groundwater level is basically in line with its level but with a slight lag. Moreover, smaller amplitude of such changes were always accompanied by greater distance from shores. In this paper, two salt-freshwater interfaces were identified, namely, a large wedge-shaped interface and an inverted U-shaped one located at K5 (monitoring point). The critical hydraulic gradient of saltwater intrusion was between 0.0345 and 0.0377. Apart from that, mathematical and physical models were adopted to measure the influence of tides, showing a inverse proportion to the hydraulic gradient. In addition, characteristics of ionic components can prove that K+ was adsorbed and Ca2+ was displaced during saline intrusion, while a reverse process was witnessed during desalting. In summary, cation exchange adsorption plus other complex physical chemical effects would take place during saltwater intrusion.     

Critical Periodic Orbits in the Restricted Three–Body Problem With Oblateness

In a recent paper in this journal series of horizontally critical symmetric periodic orbits of the six basic families of the photogravitational restricted three–body problem were computed (Perdios, 2003). In this paper, such series are determined in the framework of the restricted three–body problem when the more massive primary is an oblate spheroid. The vertical stability of the horizontally critical orbits is also computed.     

Improving the scientific assessment of carbon sinks

Abstract

The future role of carbon sinks with reference to the Kyoto Protocol depends significantly on developing an international consensus on carbon-sink assessment and carbon accounting. A clear and practical approach is needed that allows both the scientific community and policy-makers to construct a viable operational framework. This article proposes that a new strategy be developed for carbon-sink assessment based on full carbon accounting (FCA) alongside a separate political tool for carbon accounting. This approach is derived from the experience of the European critical loads (CL) concept, which seeks to quantify levels of pollutants (such as sulfur) that can be absorbed by the environment without causing ecological harm. Crucial to the implementation of such a strategy are robust institutional settings, such as an internationally coordinated monitoring system, open and fair access to the assessment processes, and international research cooperation programs for addressing associated problems of carbon-sink activities.     

A note on lower bounds for relative equilibria in the main problem of artificial satellite theory

In the analytical approach to the main problem in satellite theory, the consideration of the physical parameters imposes a lower bound for normalized Hamiltonian. We show that there is no elliptic frozen orbits, at critical inclination, when we consider small values of H, the third component of the angular momentum. The argument used suggests that it might be applied also to more realistic zonal and tesseral models. Moreover, for almost polar orbits, when H may be taken as another small parameter, a different approach that will simplify the ephemerides generators is proposed.     

饮水质量的临界致病因子分析

通过建立和求解一个地区饮水水溶液模型可获得标准致病水与非致病水的各种化学组份活度。使用以所有水溶组份活度为变量的多元逐步判别分析,确定出临界致病因子,能有效地进行水质判别。通过对某氟中毒地区饮水实例研究表明,临界致病因子分析法是成功的,并经对水中总氟浓度按照临界致病因子的分解,发现总氟浓度在一定区间内无法用来判别水质。这一区间的存在说明,为什么制定适宜的饮水总氟浓度标准是困难的。     

Determination Method of Focal Depth of Local Earthquake Using the Travel-time Difference between Pn and sPn

In this paper,we derived the relationships between the travel time difference of sPn and Pn and the local earthquake focal depth.In these equations,the travel time difference of sPn and Pn is not related to the epicentral distance,but depends only on the regional crustal mode and the focal depth.According to the equations,we provided a simple and accurate method to determine local earthquake focal depth by using the travel time difference between phase sPn and Pn.This method has been used to determine the f...