Water level fluctuations due to earthquakes in Koyna-Warna region,India

Earthquakes cause a variety of hydrological phenomena, including changes in the ground water levels in bore wells. The Koyna region in the peninsular shield of India, hitherto considered stable in terms of seismic activity, has been active since 1967. More recently, the earthquakes have been localized to the newly impounded Warna reservoir, which is located south of Koyna, where a burst of seismicity occurred in 1993. The region continues to remain seismically active even after four decades. Twenty-one bore wells were drilled around the seismic source volume in the region to observe water level changes resulting from earthquake phenomena. Our studies have shown coseismic anomalous water level changes to be associated with the moderate earthquakes of April 25, 1997 and February 11, 1998. Our results show that changes in the ground water level in bore wells are correlated with micro-earthquake activity, both preceding and following moderately sized earthquakes. The results have implications in enhancing our understanding of earthquake mechanisms.     

Lacustrine transgressions in the late Cenozoic Ussuri-Khanka depression (Primor’e)

In the Ussuri-Khanka depression of Primorye, the Quaternary alluvial-lacustrine and lacustrine sedimentogenesis progressed under conditions of transgressive accumulation in response to the depression tectonic subsidence and recurrent climatic fluctuations. The alluvial dams and irregular accumulation are proved to have been the leading factors of lakes’ formation within the depression. As is shown, fluctuations of the water level in limnic reservoirs depended on the climatic changes. New data considered in this work confirm the lacustrine genesis of a greater part of the Middle Pleistocene-Holocene sedimentary succession in the Khanka depression. Two transgressive phases, when the water level in the lakes rose by 1.5–2.0 m above the present one, are established for the Subboreal. The general conclusion is that the mesorhythmic structure of the sedimentary succession in the Ussuri-Khanka depression reflects the influence of climatic fluctuations in the Late Cenozoic.     

A 1500-year record of temperature and glacial response inferred from varved Iceberg Lake, southcentral Alaska

We present a varve thickness chronology from glacier-dammed Iceberg Lake in the southern Alaska icefields. Radiogenic evidence confirms that laminations are annual and record continuous sediment deposition from A.D. 442 to A.D. 1998. Varve thickness is positively correlated with Northern Hemisphere temperature trends, and more strongly with a local, ∼600 yr long tree ring width chronology. Varve thickness increases in warm summers because of higher melt, runoff, and sediment transport (as expected), but also because shrinkage of the glacier dam allows shoreline regression that concentrates sediment in the smaller lake. Varve thickness provides a sensitive record of relative changes in warm season temperatures. Relative to the entire record, temperatures implied by this chronology were lowest around A.D. 600, warm between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1300, cooler between A.D. 1500 and A.D. 1850, and have increased dramatically since then. Combined with stratigraphic evidence that contemporary jökulhlaups (which began in 1999) are unprecedented since at least A.D. 442, this record suggests that 20th century warming is more intense, and accompanied by more extensive glacier retreat, than the Medieval Warm Period or any other time in the last 1500 yr.     

Beach water table fluctuations due to spring–neap tides: moving boundary effects

Tidal water table fluctuations in a coastal aquifer are driven by tides on a moving boundary that varies with the beach slope. One-dimensional models based on the Boussinesq equation are often used to analyse tidal signals in coastal aquifers. The moving boundary condition hinders analytical solutions to even the linearised Boussinesq equation. This paper presents a new perturbation approach to the problem that maintains the simplicity of the linearised one-dimensional Boussinesq model. Our method involves transforming the Boussinesq equation to an ADE (advection–diffusion equation) with an oscillating velocity. The perturbation method is applied to the propagation of spring–neap tides (a bichromatic tidal system with the fundamental frequencies ω₁andω₂) in the aquifer. The results demonstrate analytically, for the first time, that the moving boundary induces interactions between the two primary tidal oscillations, generating a slowly damped water table fluctuation of frequency ω₁−ω₂, i.e., the spring–neap tidal water table fluctuation. The analytical predictions are found to be consistent with recently published field observations.     

螺旋度在一次夏季强沙尘暴中的分析应用

在分析2005年7月16—17日甘肃省河西走廊区域性强沙尘暴发生的气候背景及环流特征的基础上,将Tudurf等1997年给出的相对地面螺旋度以及Davies Jonces等1990年给出的相对风暴螺旋度应用到对强沙尘暴的诊断分析当中。结果显示,利用温度平流与相对地面螺旋度之间的关系比较容易得出天气系统经过的区域螺旋度的值,但相对地面螺旋度的计算结果依赖于对天气系统的准确分析,尤其是水平温度梯度的判断;相对风暴螺旋度的强中心与发生沙尘暴的强中心有很好的对应关系。     

The Little Ice Age in the Canadian Rockies

This paper reviews the evidence and history of glacier fluctuations during the Little Ice Age (LIA) in the Canadian Rockies. Episodes of synchronous glacier advance occurred in the 12th–13th, early 18th and throughout the 19th centuries. Regional ice cover was probably greatest in the mid-19th century, although in places the early 18th century advance was more extensive. Glaciers have lost over 25% of their area in the 20th century. Selective preservation of the glacier record furnishes an incomplete chronology of events through the 14th–17th centuries. In contrast, varve sequences provide continuous, annually resolved records of sediments for at least the last millennium in some highly glacierized catchments. Such records have been used to infer glacier fluctuations. Evaluation of recent proxy climate reconstructions derived from tree-rings provides independent evidence of climate fluctuations over the last millennium. Most regional glacier advances follow periods of reduced summer temperatures, reconstructed from tree rings particularly ca. 1190–1250, 1280–1340, 1690s and the 1800s. Reconstructed periods of higher precipitation at Banff, Alberta since 1500 are 1515–1550, 1585–1610, 1660–1680 and the 1880s. Glacier advances in the early 1700s, the late 1800s and, in places, the 1950–1970s reflect both increased precipitation and reduced summer temperatures. Negative glacier mass balances from 1976 to 1995 were caused by decreased winter balances. The glacier fluctuation record does not contain a simple climate signal: it is a complex response to several interacting factors that operate at different timescales. Evaluation of climate proxies over the last millennium indicates continuous variability at several superimposed timescales, dominated by decade–century patterns. Only the 19th century shows a long interval of sustained cold summers. This suggests that simplistic concepts of climate over this period should be abandoned and replaced with more realistic records based on continuous proxy data series. The use of the term LIA should be restricted to describing a period of extended glacier cover rather than being used to define a period with specific climate conditions.     

青海湖末次冰消期以来的湖面变化

青海湖是我国最大的内陆封闭湖泊,处在东亚季风、印度季风和西风带的交汇处,对环境变化敏感,是研究该区域及青藏高原环境变化的理想地点。前人基于其连续的湖相沉积物的多项环境指标与其四周湖成阶地、古岸堤以及表层所覆盖的风成沉积物的年代学研究,探讨了青海湖晚第四纪以来的湖面变化情况,取得了显著成果。然而由于测年材料和测年方法的不同,对于高湖面出现的年代问题依然存在着诸多争议。根据近年来已发表的测年数据、前人对青海湖湖面升降变化的研究结果和青海湖QH-2000孔介形类壳体δ18O的记录进行综合集成,构建了自14 ka以来的青海湖湖面变化曲线。在约14～12 ka,湖面在海拔约3 206 m,比现代湖面高12.3 m(以2010年3月湖面海拔3 193.4 m为基准);在约12～10 ka,湖面急剧下降到海拔约3 165 m,比现代低28.4 m;在10～9ka,湖面急剧上升到海拔约3 173 m;在9～6 ka,湖面相对稳定在海拔3 213 m;在6～4 ka,发生过一次干旱事件,湖面下降到低于现代湖面;在4～1 ka,湖面相对稳定在海拔3 193.7 m;在1 ka至今,湖面呈持续下降趋势。     

Lateglacial and early Holocene palaeoclimatic reconstruction based on glacier fluctuations and equilibrium‐line altitudes at northern Folgefonna,Hardanger, western Norway

Northern Folgefonna (c. 23 km²), is a nearly circular maritime ice cap located on the Folgefonna Peninsula in Hardanger, western Norway. By combining the position of marginal moraines with AMS radiocarbon dated glacier‐meltwater induced sediments in proglacial lakes draining northern Folgefonna, a continuous high‐resolution record of variations in glacier size and equilibrium‐line altitudes (ELAs) during the Lateglacial and early Holocene has been obtained. After the termination of the Younger Dryas (c. 11 500 cal. yr BP), a short‐lived (100–150 years) climatically induced glacier readvance termed the ‘Jondal Event 1’ occurred within the ‘Preboreal Oscillation’ (PBO) c. 11 100 cal. yr BP. Bracketed to 10 550–10 450 cal. yr BP, a second glacier readvance is named the ‘Jondal Event 2’. A third readvance occurred about 10 000 cal. yr BP and corresponds with the ‘Erdalen Event 1’ recorded at Jostedalsbreen. An exponential relationship between mean solid winter precipitation and ablation‐season temperature at the ELA of Norwegian glaciers is used to reconstruct former variations in winter precipitation based on the corresponding ELA and an independent proxy for summer temperature. Compared to the present, the Younger Dryas was much colder and drier, the ‘Jondal Event 1’/PBO was colder and somewhat drier, and the ‘Jondal Event 2’ was much wetter. The ‘Erdalen Event 1’ started as rather dry and terminated as somewhat wetter. Variations in glacier magnitude/ELAs and corresponding palaeoclimatic reconstructions at northern Folgefonna suggest that low‐altitude cirque glaciers (lowest altitude of marginal moraines 290 m) in the area existed for the last time during the Younger Dryas. These low‐altitude cirque glaciers of suggested Younger Dryas age do not fit into the previous reconstructions of the Younger Dryas ice sheet in Hardanger. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fluctuations of the South Patagonian Ice-field during the last glaciation and the Holocene

Mapping along a transect from the southeastern margin of the South Patagonian Ice-field in Torres del Paine National Park (Chile) to the limits of fresh moraines of the last glacial cycle indentified eight glacier advances. The four younger ones have been dated by dendrochronology, tephrochronology and radiocarbon dating. Although the bases of 10 m deep bogs were sampled, close limiting radiocarbon dates were not obtained because bog formation in this rain-shadow area appears not to have commenced until ca.12000 yr ago. The outermost Little Ice Age moraine formed during the seventeenth century and three inner ones were deposited around ad 1805, 1845 and after 1890. Densely vegetated older moraines contiguous with Little Ice Age deposits are possibly of late Holocene age. Tephra from the eruption of Reclus volcano at ca. 11 880 yr BP was incorporated by a readvance that deposited large multiple moraines 10–16 km from the modern ice-front; the oldest basal peat found inside the moraine has been dated to ca. 9200 yr BP. These bracketing dates indicate that some eastern outlet glaciers of the ice-field advanced at a time when some western tidewater outlet glaciers terminated inside their modern limits. This questions the view of J. H. Mercer and other that Patagonian glaciers did not readvance during the late-glacial interval. A stadial event also occurred when the glaciers were some 18–20 km from their modern positions and is closely dated to ca. 11880 yr BP because Reclus pumice flushed down-glacier forms thick upper beds in outwash deltas deposited in proglacial lakes. The four older moraines pre-date the late-glacial eruption of Reclus but are not dated closely. Comparison of their spatial extent with well-dated moraines in the Chilean Lakes Region suggests that they may mark advances culminating at ca. 14000 yr BP, ca. 20000 yr BP and earlier.