Evolution of neotectonic activity of East Anatolian Fault System (EAFS) in Bingöl pull-apart basin,based on fractal dimension and morphometric indices

This study is an attempt of a semi-automatic geomorphological GIS analysis based on morphometric indices. In the study, 10-m-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are used to assess the neotectonic signals regarding the recent topographic developments and to attach additional significance to active tectonics in the Bingöl basin area. The methodology incorporates the determination of the structural similarities of the faults in the basins using fractal concepts and the application of four morphometric indices (Stream Power Index (SP), Multi-resolution Index of Valley Bottom Flatness (MRVBF), Terrain Ruggedness Index (TRI) and Valley Width-to-Height Ratio (Vf)). In order to detect the deviation from spatial randomness of the applied indices, the weighted correlation coefficient Moran’s I is used and the results are interpreted at a confidence interval of 99%. The spatial distribution of integrated index values is evaluated with the tectonically active fault zones in order to determine the probable activity and the structural deformation in the basin.The applied methodology reveals that the fractal analysis of the fault lines and the spatial analysis of the morphometric indices proved to be effective tools in analyzing the tectonic influence of the fault system on the basin area. Within the basin area, a relatively lesser degree of tectonic activity is observed, in contrast with the high tectonic activity outside the basin.     

Jump conditions and dynamic surface tension at permeable interfaces such as the inner core boundary

We consider a fluid crossing a zone of rapid density change, so thin that it can be considered as a density jump interface. In this case, the normal velocity undergoes a jump. For a Newtonian viscous fluid with low Reynolds number (creeping flow) that keeps its rheological properties within the interface, we show that this implies that the traction cannot be continuous across the density jump because the tangential stress is singular. The appropriate jump conditions are established by using the calculus of distributions, taking into account the curvature of the interface as well as the density and viscosity changes. Independently of any intrinsic surface tension, a dynamic surface tension appears and turns out to be proportional to the mass transfer across the interface and to a coefficient related to the variations of density and viscosity within the interface. Explicit solutions are exhibited to illustrate the importance of these new jump conditions. The example of the Earth's inner core crystallisation is questioned.     

大兴安岭西坡银都赋矿岩体LA-ICP-MS锆石U-Pb定年及其成因意义

银都矿床位于内蒙古大兴安岭西坡,为受断裂控制的银多金属矿床。该矿床的岩体主要为石英闪长岩。该岩体中的锆石分为岩浆锆石和热液锆石两类:岩浆锆石无色透明,自形长柱状,具有典型的振荡环带特征;而热液锆石呈浅褐色,半透明—不透明,等轴状,其暗色增生边明显切过了核部岩浆锆石结构。热液锆石相对岩浆锆石具有低Th/U和LREE,高Hf和HREE的特征。银都岩体岩浆锆石的206Pb/238 U加权平均年龄为(451.8±7.8)Ma,属加里东期,为岩体的结晶年龄;热液锆石的206 Pb/238 U加权平均年龄为(337.0±7.7)Ma,属中石炭世,代表了热液作用的年龄。热液锆石年龄表明,该区在337Ma左右经历了一次强烈的热液作用,该期热液作用可能与该区造山峰期的变质作用有关。本区的地质特征和流体包裹体特征表明,本区银矿的形成很可能与这期热液活动密切相关。     

Improvement of groundwater resources potential by artificial recharge technique: A case study of Charf El Akab aquifer in the Tangier region,Morocco

In arid and semi-arid zones, water is the most vulnerable resource to climate change. In fact, various techniques such as artificial recharge are adopted to restore aquifers and to ensure aquifer sustainability in relation to the accelerated pace of exploitation. Morocco is a Mediterranean country highly vulnerable to climate change, many of its main aquifers are subjected to excessive drawdowns. This technique is practiced to increase potentiality of these aquifers. In the Northwestern area of Morocco, the significant development experienced by Tangier City in the industrial, tourism, and commercial sectors will lead to increased water requirements-up to 5 067 L/s (159.8 mm3) by 2030. However, the Charf El Akab aquifer system, subject to artificial recharge, is the only groundwater resource of Tangier region; hence, a rational management context is needed to ensure aquifer sustainability, and optimized exploitation under the background of differing constraints, such as increased water requirements, and climate change impacts. This work aims to respond, for the first time, to the Charf El Akab aquifer overexploitation problem, and to evaluate the future scenarios of its exploitation in the event of failure of one of the superficial resources. This work also presents a synthesized hydrodynamic modeling based on the results of the numerical simulations carried out using Feflow software for 2004 (date of cessation of injections) and 2011 (date of resumption of these facilities), making it possible to evaluate the impact of the artificial recharge on the piezometric level of the aquifer on a spatiotemporal scale. Finally, the exploitation scenarios have shown that the aquifer of Charf El Akab will not adequatly provide for the region's water requirements on the future horizon, entailing an optimal management of water resources in the region and an intentionally increased recharge rate.     

The new politics of pastoralism: Identity,justice and global activism

Concerns with the politics and practices of resource rights and access are integral to contemporary debates over environmental justice. Struggles over identity politics, especially the strategic articulation and deployment of particular identities at diverse geographical scales, have recently emerged as important mediators of justice claims in respect of resources rights, but also of recognition and procedural justice. To date, critical, multi-scalar analyses of identity-based claims for environmental justice have focused largely on the indigenous peoples’ movement. In doing so, they have failed to embrace an emergent dimension of identity-based, trans-scalar justice, namely the fledgling global pastoralists’ movement, the empirical focus for this paper. In the early years of the 21st century mobile pastoralists have begun to carve out new global spaces, through which diverse groups have attempted to negotiate common ground and forge common identities in their struggles for justice. In particular, mobile pastoralists have become increasingly visible in conservation politics and contests over land rights as they lay claim to both discursive and material ground as ‘custodians of the commons’ in an era of global climatic change. This paper draws on empirical work amongst pastoralists, NGOs and activists from Kenya, Mongolia and Spain to explore these identities, their implications for resource rights and access and the multi-scalar chains of accountability and legitimacy between global activists and their local constituents.     

The impact of anoxia on pelagic macrofauna during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (Early Jurassic)

Extreme environmental change during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event had widespread impacts on marine biota. This study provides new evidence, from the Yorkshire coast sections, UK, that the event was associated with periods of elevated fish and ammonite mortality. Using a synthesis of pelagic macrofaunal changes, benthic macrofaunal data and geochemical proxies we show that there are stratigraphical correlations between: (1) pelagic macrofaunal ranges and abundance, (2) benthic macrofaunal abundance, and (3) geochemical proxies that indicate deoxygenation. We identify eight stratigraphical intervals of differing character. Results suggest two major phases of relatively persistent deoxygenation with photic zone euxinia. The cyclostratigraphic timescale indicates that each phase lasted at least tens of thousands of years. Belemnite migration during the event probably resulted from increased seawater temperatures and low food supply similar to that observed for many marine taxa, including squid, within the present-day oceans.     

New evidence of warm early-Holocene summers in subarctic Finland based on an enhanced regional chironomid-based temperature calibration model

Paleoclimate reconstructions based on biological proxies present methodological challenges, especially during non-analog conditions, such as the early Holocene. Here, two chironomid-based training sets from Finland were amalgamated to create a more accurate transfer function of summer air temperature. The aim was to reconstruct Holocene paleoclimate in northernmost Lapland, in an area that has been either too warm or too cold for reliable reconstructions using the original calibration models. The results showed that the combined calibration model had improved performance statistics. The temperature trends inferred from the downcore chironomid record using the original and combined models were very similar. However, there were major changes in their absolute values with the combined model showing greatly improved accuracy. The chironomid-based temperature reconstruction showed significant correlation with the previous pollen-based reconstructions from northwestern Finnish Lapland. However, differences were observed in the temperature trends of the early Holocene, when the chironomid-inferred temperatures rapidly increased, but the pollen-based reconstructions lagged behind suggesting that a cool climate continued for much longer. However, similar to the chironomid record, new plant macrofossil evidence from northwestern Finland also showed warmer-than-present early Holocene temperatures. Therefore, we conclude that the early Holocene was probably warm in northern Lapland.     

A 7000-year record of environmental change,including early farming impact,based on lake-sediment geochemistry and pollen data from County Sligo,western Ireland

Detailed, chronologically tightly constrained, lake-sediment-based geochemical and pollen records have enabled local changes in soil erosion, woodland cover and composition, and prehistoric farming impact to be reconstructed in considerable detail. The profile opens shortly after 7800 BC when tall canopy trees were well-established and presumably in equilibrium with their environment. A distinct perturbation that involved an increase in pine and birch, a decrease in oak and a minor opening-up of the woodland is regarded as the local expression of the 8.2 ka climate anomaly. Lack of response in the geochemical erosional indicators is interpreted as evidence for drier conditions. A short-lived, over-compensation in climate recovery followed the 8.2 ka event. Neolithic farming impact is clearly expressed in both the pollen and geochemical data. Both datasets indicate that Neolithic impact was concentrated in the early Neolithic (3715–3440 BC). In the interval 3000–2700 BC there appears to have been a break in farming activity. The pollen data suggest substantially increased farming impact (both arable and pastoral) in the Bronze Age, with maximum farming and woodland clearances taking place in the late Bronze Age (1155–935 BC). These developments are poorly expressed in the geochemical record, possibly due to within-lake changes.     

A new methodology for building local climate change scenarios: A case study of monthly temperature projections for Mexico City

This paper proposes a new methodology for generating climate change scenarios at the local scale based on multivariate time series models and restricted forecasting techniques. This methodology offers considerable advantages over the current statistical downscaling techniques such as: (i) it provides a better representation of climate at the local scale; (ii) it avoids the occurrence of spurious relationships between the large and local scale variables; (iii) it offers a more appropriate representation of variability in the downscaled scenarios; and (iv) it allows for compatibility assessment and combination of the information contained in both observed and simulated climate variables. Furthermore, this methodology is useful for integrating scenarios of local scale factors that affect local climate. As such, the convenience of different public policies regarding, for example, land use change or atmospheric pollution control can be evaluated in terms of their effects for amplifying or reducing climate change impacts.     

近40年来气候变化对青海盐湖及其矿产资源开发的影响——以小柴旦湖为例

青海是中国盐湖主要分布区之一,蕴藏着丰富的矿产资源。文章以RS和GIS技术为基础,从20世纪70年代、90年代、2000年前后、2008~2009年和2013~2014年五期Landsat遥感影像中提取了青海面积大于10 km2的所有盐湖(不包括干盐湖),分析了其近40年来的变化趋势:总体上,盐湖总面积除在2000年前后有所减少外,基本上呈现增加的趋势;具体而言,2000年前后,萎缩的盐湖主要分布在柴达木盆地;其他时期均呈现全面扩张的趋势。在全球气候变暖的大背景下,通过分析青海地区11个气象台站的年平均气温、年降雨量和蒸发量数据,可知青海地区气候呈现了向暖湿方向转型的趋势,且2002年之后更为明显。最后,以青海省小柴旦湖为例,分析了湖泊淡化、矿产资源贫化对盐湖资源开发的影响,具体为:1资源开发成本升高、难度加大,甚至使一些处于工业开发临界品位的盐湖失去开发价值;2盐湖淡化条件下,锂等矿产资源有效提取技术亟待研发;3政府制定矿产资源开发政策时,需要对气候及盐湖的动态变化过程综合考虑。以上说明,青海地区的暖湿气候使盐湖大幅度淡化,给盐湖矿产资源开发带来了新的挑战。