Climatic changes in areas adjacent to the North Atlantic during the last glacial-interglacial transition (14-9 ka BP): A contribution to IGCP-253

This paper presents a summary of the evidence for climatic changes during the last glacial-interglacial transition (14-9 ka BP) in land areas adjacent to the North Atlantic. It is a synthesis of the results of the 12 regional summaries compiled by contributors to the North Atlantic Seaboard Programme of IGCP-253 that are published separately in this issue of Journal of Quaternary Science. Eighteen palaeotemperature curves are compared and arranged in three transects, one from southern Europe to Spitsbergen, a second from Ireland to Poland, and the third from southern New England to the Labrador-Baffin Shelf area. Ten maps are presented that summarise the synoptic climatic conditions of the region in 500-year time periods. The purpose of the exercise is to examine the extent to which any emerging patterns support the Ruddiman and Mclntyre model of large-scale shifts in the position of the oceanice Polar Front during the last glacial-interglacial transition. Some broad agreement emerges, although the influence of oceanic changes is diminished in areas that lay in close proximity to the Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets. Attention is drawn to limitations in the compilations and to the potential for improved models in the future.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: The Mexican Colonial Copper Industry. Elinore M. Barrett . The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society . James R. Beniger . Land Degradation and Society . Piers M. Blaikie And Harold C. Brookfield , Eds . La carte, mode d'emploi. Roger Brunet . France: les dynamiques du territoire . Roger Brunet AND Jacques Sallois , EDS. At the Crossroads—The Mineral Problems of the United States . Eugene N. Cameron . A Census of One Billion People , Papers for International Seminar on China's 1982 Population Census. Li Chengrui , ED. Les Milieux “Naturels” du Globe . Jean Demangeot . The Geophysiology of Amazonia: Vegetation and Climate Interactions : Robert E. Dickinson , ED. Tenn-Tom Country . James F. Doster And David C. Weaver . Family Farming in Europe and America . Boguslaw Galeski And Eugene Wilkening , EDS. The Geography of Urban Transportation . Susan Hanson , Ed. Combating Desertification in Developing Countries . J. K. Jain , ED. Cartography in France—1660–1848. Science, Engineering and Statecraft . Josef W. Konvitz . Distribution of Distances in Pregeographical Space . Hans Kuiper . Physical Geography Lab Manual: A New Experimental Approach . Neal G. Lineback And John M. Harlin . Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation , 2nd ed. Tom L. Mc Knight . The Desert Is No Lady: Southwestern Landscapes in Women's Writing and Art . Vera Norwood And Janice Monk , EDS. France: A Geographical, Social, and Economic Survey . Philippe Pinchemel , translated, by D. Elkins and T. H. Elkins. Gene Banks and the World's Food . Donald L. Plucknett , Nigel J. H. Smith , J. T. Williams , And N. Murthi Anishetty . Latin American Development: Geographical Perspectives . David Preston , Ed. Making Sense of Development: An Introduction to Classical and Contemporary Theories of Development and Their Application to Southeast Asia . P. W. Preston . The History of the Countryside. Oliver Rackham . The Third World in Perspective . H. A. Reitsma AND J. M. G. Kleinpenning . The Industrial Geography of Australia . David C. Rich . The Recruiting Game , 2nd Ed., revised. John F. Rooney , JR. A Cultural Geography of North American Indians . Thomas E. Ross AND Tyrel G. Moore , EDS. Eastern Europe . Dean S. Rugg . Human Territoriality: Its Theory and History . Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography: 7. Robert David Sack . Experimental Fluvial Geomorphology . Stanley A. Schumm , M. Paul Mosley , AND William E. Weaver . The New Urban Landscape . David Schuyler . Atlas of American Women . Barbara Gimla Shortridge . Impacts of Hazardous Technology: The Psycho-Social Effects of Restarting TMI-1 . John Sorensen , Jon Soderstrom , Emily Copenhaver , Sam Carnes AND Robert Bolin . Modern Physical Geography , 3rd Ed., (Third Edition). Arthur N. Strahler AND Alan H. Strahler . India: Economic Resource Base and Contemporary Political Patterns . B. L. Sukhwal .     

Comparing historical and contemporary maps - a methodological framework for a cartographic map comparison applied to Swiss maps

Topographic maps are powerful tools for the purpose of identifying land use and cover change (LUCC) as they are among the most reliable representations of past landscapes for the time prior to the existence of aerial photography. In light of the increased availability of historical maps, we argue that there is a need for a standardized process to assess map comparability in a systematic way in order to avoid, or at least minimize, the detection of spurious landscape changes due to incompatible map series. A full understanding of map quality, background and error distributions is fundamental to attain reliable LUCC results. The conceptual framework presented in this study considers the context, distortion and cartographic generalization of topographic maps. Furthermore, it includes an approach to homogenize the level of generalization of landscape elements (e.g. forests) from maps with different scales. To demonstrate its application, we assessed the comparability of seven topographic maps from Canton Zurich covering a time span of 336 years (1664–2000). Overall, for the maps of Canton Zurich, a wall-to-wall comparison of forest cover based on the topographic maps presented here can be problematic for the oldest map from 1664. Based on the results, a wall-to-wall comparison with the later maps is not recommended, due to its substantial distortion. Yet, after re-generalization of natural landscape elements, such as forests, a comparison based on landscape indices is possible, even for the oldest map. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that maps from the mid-19^th century onward possess an acceptable level of accuracy. This framework can be applied to a wide range of maps at regional, national, or global levels, providing the opportunity to look at land cover history over multiple centuries.     

Force-directed layout of origin-destination flow maps

This paper introduces a force-directed layout method for creating origin-destination flow maps. Design principles derived from manual cartography and automated graph drawing to increase readability of flow maps and graph layouts are taken into account. The origin-destination flow maps produced with our algorithm show flows with quadratic Bézier curves that reduce flow-on-flow and flow-on-node overlaps, and avoid sharp or irregular bends in flow lines. A survey of expert cartographers found that flow maps created with our automated method are similar in quality to manually produced flow maps.     

Spatial Sampling Strategies for Mapping a Volcanic Ground Water Plume in Sierra Valey,California

Accurately mapping a region’s ground water quality depends upon the spatial sampling strategies employed, including where and how often field data are collected. This study compares the relative values of three field sampling strategies for mapping a known migrating plume of volcanic ground water in Sierra Valley, California. The first strategy sampled wells once each year during 1957, 1972, and 1980 (n=63, 45, and 57, respectively) and portrayed spatial–temporal changes in ground water quality more clearly on maps than did two alternative sampling strategies. One of these alternatives, Strategy 2, sampled one well per township per year during 1957, 1972, and 1980 (n=11) and did not detect the migrating plume, despite being a recommended strategy. The other alternative, Strategy 3, frequently sampled in time a small, fixed group of indicator wells (n=13) every four years for the same period, again producing maps with little correlation to the original pattern detected by Strategy 1.     

武汉地区断裂构造研究

本文运用数字图象处理技术,统计分析方法、构造地质、地震地质等多种定量、定性分析方法对武汉地区断裂构造特征及其与地震活动性的关系进行了深入研究。文中编制了断裂构造系列等密度图,指出了断裂构造的网络特征,进而对隐伏断裂进行了讨论,首次提出了汉阳——梁子湖北西向隐伏断裂的概念,最后对断裂构造与地震活动的关系进行了探讨。     

Magsat studies over the Indian region

Data collected by Magsat have been extensively used by Indian scientists in studies of the crust beneath India. Results obtained by various workers have been summarized and the reasons for differences in findings have been discussed. It is concluded that methods that work well for higher latitudes do not give the best estimates of crustal field and magnetization in equatorial regions. A better estimate of the crustal component is obtained when the external current contribution is estimated using the symmetry properties of associatedX and Z-fields. Inversion technique that provides stable crustal magnetization in midlatitudes, becomes unstable near the equator. Why such an instability arises and how it can be circumvented are discussed. That the Peninsular shield, the Ganga basin and the Himalayas are three different geotectonic blocks is clearly reflected in the magnetization distribution. A thick magnetic crust under Aravalli, Singhbum and Dharwar suggest these areas to be comparatively stable. In general, seismic, gravity and heat flow data agree characteristically well with the magnetization estimates.     

Seismic hazard maps for the U.K.

Past studies of seismic hazard in the U.K. that have used modern probabilistic methods of hazard assessment have been site-specific studies, mostly in connection with nuclear installations. There has been a need for general-purpose maps of seismic hazard to show relative variation of exposure within the U.K. and to give some guidance on absolute values. Such maps have now been produced, incorporating, for the first time, the wealth of new information on historical earthquakes in Britain that has been gathered over the last 15 years. The hazard calculations were undertaken using a new computer code based on the USGS program SEISRISK III, but incorporating a logic tree approach to model variation in the input parameters (e.g. focal depth) or uncertainty in the formulation of the model (e.g. attenuation parameters). An innovative approach was taken to the formulation of seismic source zones, in which two overlapping models were employed. The first of these uses relatively broad source zones based loosely on an interpretation of seismicity and tectonics, while the second uses numerous small zones that reflect the locations of past significant earthquakes. This double approach (using the logic tree methodology) has the merit of both considering the general trend of earthquake activity as well as focusing in on known danger spots. The results show that the areas of highest hazard are western Scotland, north-western England and Wales, where the intensity with 90% probability of non-exceedance in 50 years is 6 EMS.