Treatment of Hydrodynamic Loading for Random Sea State

- In order to employ cost effective frequency domain analysis for off-shore structures treatment of hydrodynamic loading is essential. Drag and inertia dominated, resonating and antiresonating cases under random sea states are analyzed to highlight the implications and relative merits of four salient linearization techniques.     

A note on the seafloor coupling characteristics of the new ONR ocean-bottom seismometer

A series of transient tests were conducted to determine the seafloor coupling characteristics of a new ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) developed for the United States Office of Naval Research (ONR). The OBS comprises a large recording package and a separate sensor package that is deployed from the recording package. In addition to the coupling characteristics of both the sensor and the recording packages, the seismic energy radiated from the main recording package as a result of motion of the recording package was measured. The observed vertical coupling resonances of both the recording package and the sensor package are in good agreement with those predicted by a simple model of soil-structure interaction. The most important result of this study is that significant energy is radiated from the recording package in response to horizontal motions of the recording package. When the sensor package is 1 m from the recording package, the amplitude of the recorded signal is similar to that recorded in the recording package. In the field, this effect will result in distortion of seismic signals and increased background noise recorded by the sensor package if the recording package is disturbed by seafloor currents or biological activity. The amplitude of this signal attenuates by approximately a factor of two as sensor/recorder separation is increased from 1 to 6 m, suggesting that an improved response can be achieved by increasing the separation between the recording package and the sensors. This effect is much less severe for vertical disturbances of the recording package.     

A technique for conducting seismic refraction experiments on the ocean bed using bottom shots

A technique has been devised for firing arrays of bottom shots on the ocean bed in depths upto 4000 m or more. Ten kilogram explosive charges are dropped from the surface while the shooting ship is navigated acoustically. They are detonated at preset times by an electronic timer which initiates an electrical detonator, detonating cord and cast PETN/TNT explosive. Ranges to ocean bottom seismographs, and the shot instants, can be calculated from the arrival-time differences of the direct and surface-reflected water waves. The accuracy, which is dependent on water-depth and range, was better than 22 m in range and 14 msec in shot instant for our experiments.     

In situ and satellite observations of the eastward migration of the Western Alboran Sea Gyre

During October 2003 an intensive oceanographic survey (BIOMEGA) was carried out in the Alboran Sea, coinciding with a migration event of the Western Alboran Sea Gyre (WAG). The observations gathered during that cruise constitute the first field evidence of a migrated stage of the WAG. In this work we present the main differences between the 3D hydrodynamic fields observed during BIOMEGA and those corresponding to a WAG located at its usual position. The migration of the gyre was followed by satellite (altimetry and sea surface temperature) imagery. The causes of the gyre migration are explored in terms of the quasi-geostrophic tendency equation, in particular of the dynamics governing scales larger than the Rossby radius of deformation. It is shown that the steady state gyre must be almost equivalent barotropic and that the key process to break down the stationarity would be a density advection at gyre scale. The mechanisms to explain the migration of the WAG proposed by previous authors are discussed in light of the explanation proposed in this work.     

δO of carbonate, quartz and phosphate from belemnite guards: implications for the isotopic record of old fossils and the isotopic composition of ancient seawater

Belemnite guards of Cretaceous and Jurassic age were found to contain varying amounts of quartz deposited both on the external surface and inside the rostrum. The oxygen isotopic composition of coexisting carbonate, quartz and phosphate from the same rostrum was measured according to well-established techniques. None of these compounds showed isotopic values in equilibrium with one another. Assuming δ¹⁸O values of the diagenetic water within the range of meteoric waters, the δ¹⁸O(SiO₂) yield temperatures in agreement with the apparent secondary origin of this phase. The δ¹⁸O(CO₃²⁻) range, with a certain continuity, between −10.8 and +0.97 PDB-1 with most of the intermediate values being within the range of the carbonate isotopic values of Mesozoic fossils. The most positive isotopic results obtained from phosphate are close to +23/+24‰ (V-SMOW). They can hardly be related to a secondary origin of the phosphate, or to the presence of diagenetic effects, since these results are among the most positive ever measured on phosphate. As far as we know there is no widespread diagenetic process determining an ¹⁸O enrichment of phosphate. The very low concentration of phosphate did not allow the determination of its mineralogical composition. All the available δ¹⁸O(PO₄³⁻) values from belemnite and non-belemnite fossils of marine origin of Tertiary and Mesozoic age are reported along with the newly measured belemnites. The following conclusions may be drawn from the data reported: (1) the pristine oxygen isotope composition of fossil marine organisms (either carbonate or phosphate) may easily undergo fairly large changes because of oxygen isotope exchange processes with diagenetic water; this process is apparent even in the case of geologically recent fossils; (2) the δ¹⁸O(PO₄³⁻) of belemnite rostra seems to be, at least in the case of the most positive results, in isotopic equilibrium with environmental water because of the similarity between the results from Cretaceous belemnites and the results from Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary pelecypods and fish teeth; 3) if so, the only feasible interpretation that can be suggested for the ¹⁸O enriched data is the possibility of a relatively large variation of the oxygen isotopic composition of ocean paleowater from Jurassic to recent time.     

Early Ordovician Sea Level Changes in South China and Their Worldwide Correlation

INTRODUCTIONTheoaf~ansed~arewidelydistributedinSouthetna,fromtheYanalCratondPborminnorthtocontinentalmarginofsoutheastern~insouth.ThePreSentpaperdiscussesmainlytheEarlyOrdovidan(thehoeofHirmtodontussimplex~tothebaseofNemopagngraciliszone,Wangatal.,1992)sealeVelchangeSandtheirworldwidecorrelationbasedonasyntheticalstudyofseqUenCe,bioshatiglaphyandaretratigl'aphy.Thisapproachwillfillinthe~instudyoftheOrdovidanofChina,andimprovethesu~ionandCO~ionofbio--,litho--andcbronostheigraphy.Mea…