Caldera formation by magma withdrawal from a reservoir beneath a volcanic edifice

Caldera formation has been explained by magma withdrawal from a crustal reservoir, but little is known about the conditions that lead to the critical reservoir pressure for collapse. During an eruption, the reservoir pressure is constrained to lie within a finite range: it cannot exceed the threshold value for eruption, and cannot decrease below another threshold value such that feeder dykes get shut by the confining pressure, which stops the eruption. For caldera collapse to occur, the critical reservoir pressure for roof failure must therefore be within this operating range. We use an analytical elastic model to evaluate the changes of reservoir pressure that are required for failure of roof rocks above the reservoir with and without a volcanic edifice at Earth's surface. With no edifice at Earth's surface, faulting in the roof region can only occur in the initial phase of reservoir inflation and affects a very small part of the focal area. Such conditions do not allow caldera collapse. With a volcanic edifice, large tensile stresses develop in the roof region, whose magnitude increase as the reservoir deflates during an eruption. The edifice size must exceed a threshold value for failure of the roof region before the end of eruption. The largest tensile stresses are reached at Earth's surface, indicating that faulting starts there. Failure affects an area whose horizontal dimensions depend on edifice and chamber dimensions. For small and deep reservoirs, failure conditions cannot be achieved even if the edifice is very large. Quantitative predictions are consistent with observations on a number of volcanoes.     

南半球对流层气候年代际变化及其与太阳活动的联系

通过南半球对流层温度场谱分析和逐次滤波分析发现，南半球对流层大气温度场半个多世纪以来呈现明显的持续升温趋势，升温幅度由低层到高层逐步增加，其中地面层1 000 hPa年升温率为0.013℃/a，对流层中部500 hPa年升温率为0.019℃/ a，对流层上部300 hPa年升温率为0.036℃/ a；滤除南半球大气温度场的趋势变化，发现南半球大气温度场从地面层直至对流层顶广泛盛行着十分显著的与太阳磁场磁性22年周期变化相一致的变化周期。太阳磁场磁性周期变化趋势略有超前，分析认为，这是南半球对流层大气气候系统对太阳磁场周期性变化的响应。进一步分析还发现，南半球从地面层1 000 hPa到对流层顶，再到平流层中部10 hPa各层次大气温度变化22年周期分量振荡位相基本一致，周期振幅由低层到高层迅速增大，说明太阳磁场变化对对流层高层比低层影响大，对平流层影响更大。其中地面层1 000 hPa温度场的22年变化周期是在滤除趋势变化和11年周期之后才显现出来的，所以太阳磁场磁性周期变化对地面层气候的影响较小并且经常处于被掩盖状态；南半球地面层1 000 hPa温度场滤除趋势变化之后显示出十分显著的与太阳活动11年周期相一致的变化周期，分析认为，这是南半球对流层大气气候系统对太阳活动11周期性变化的响应。对流层上层300 hPa温度场滤除趋势变化和22年周期之后也显示出11年变化周期，而对流层中部500 hPa则无此周期反应，说明太阳活动11年周期对地面层1 000 hPa大气气候影响最明显，对流层中上层影响较弱。     

Direct Current Plasma Emission Spectrometric Determination of Major, Minor and Trace Elements in Microwave Oven Acid Leachates of Powdered Whole Coal Samples

Major concentrations of Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, MgO, CaO, Na₂O and K₂O, minor levels of TiO₂, P₂O₅ and thirty petrologically, geochemically and environmentally significant trace elements have been determined in microwave oven acid leachates of whole powdered coal samples by direct current plasma‐atomic emission spectrometry (DCP‐AES). A single sample preparation procedure was suitable for all the determinations with no additional dilution step for major elements solution. Dried samples (0.5 g) were treated in low‐pressure PFA digestion vessels with HF/HCl/HNO₃/HClO₄ acids to quantitatively extract the analytes from the bulk material, while leaving the major part of organic matrix as a residue. The major constituents of geological samples, in particular the easily ionised elements (EIEs) such as alkali and alkaline earths, may complicate the instrumental determinations in DCP‐AES because of differential enhancements of elemental emission intensities and stray light interferences. Taking account of these factors, the coal matrix is considered to have very low major oxide totals as compared to many other common geo‐environmental and related materials (rocks, sediments, soil, ashes etc.). The sample size employed here, while yielding a relatively concentrated solution to cover a wide range of elemental determinations, provided a sample matrix that significantly diminished interferences for DCP measurements. The need for closely matching the unknowns and calibrators was eliminated except for overall acidity and an excess quantity of caesium for EIE buffering. Calibration of the spectrometer was accomplished by simple aqueous single element solutions as high concentration calibrators in addition to a reagent blank as a low concentration calibrator. Two point working curves were established to allow for the maximum concentrations of each element expected in the unknowns. The precision of determinations under routine conditions as well as the reproducibility of the leaching and precision of instrumental measurements have been evaluated. Relative standard deviations (RSD) were of 1–2% for those elements whose concentrations in solid samples were well above the limits of quantification. Method detection limits in the buffered solutions were also evaluated. To evaluate the accuracy of the microwave oven‐DCP method a suite of eight certified coal reference materials of differing rank, were analysed with good agreement with the certified and/or available published data. Results are presented for the uncertified major oxides in the AR series reference materials.     

Conditional Simulation of Random Fields with Bivariate Gamma Isofactorial Distributions

This work focuses on a random function model with gamma marginal and bivariate isofactorial distributions, which has been applied in mining geostatistics for estimating recoverable reserves by disjunctive kriging. The objective is to widen its use to conditional simulation and further its application to the modeling of continuous attributes in geosciences. First, the main properties of the bivariate gamma isofactorial distributions are analyzed, with emphasis in the destructuring of the extreme values, the presence of a proportional effect (higher variability in high-valued areas), and the asymmetry in the spatial correlation of the indicator variables with respect to the median threshold. Then, we provide examples of stationary random functions with such bivariate distributions, for which the shape parameter of the marginal distribution is half an integer. These are defined as the sum of squared independent Gaussian random fields. An iterative algorithm based on the Gibbs sampler is proposed to perform the simulation conditional to a set of existing data. Such ‘multivariate chi-square’ model generalizes the well-known multigaussian model and is more flexible, since it allows defining a shape parameter which controls the asymmetry of the marginal and bivariate distributions.     

Development of a rain‐on‐snow detection algorithm using passive microwave radiometry

Currently observed climate warming in the Arctic has numerous consequences. Of particular relevance, the precipitation regime is modified where mixed and liquid precipitation can occur during the winter season leading to rain‐on‐snow (ROS) events. This phenomenon is responsible for ice crust formation, which has a significant impact on ecosystems (such as biological, hydrological, ecological and physical processes). The spatially and temporally sporadic nature of ROS events makes the phenomenon difficult to monitor using meteorological observations. This paper focuses on the detection of ROS events using passive microwave (PMW) data from a modified brightness temperature (T_B) gradient approach at 19 and 37 GHz. The approach presented here was developed empirically for observed ROS events with coincident ground‐based PMW measurements in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. It was then tested in Nunavik, Quebec, with the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR‐E). We obtained a detection accuracy of 57, 71 and 89% for ROS detection for three AMSR‐E grid cells with a maximum error of 7% when considering all omissions and commissions with regard to the total number of AMSR‐E passes throughout the winter period. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of gravity on the stability of a line-tied coronal magnetohydrostatic equilibrium

Abstract

The magnetohydrodynamic stability of a class of magnetohydrostatic equilibria is investigated. The effect of gravity is included as well as the stabilising influence of the dense photospheric line-tying.

Although the two-dimensional equilibria exhibit a catastrophe point, when the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure exceeds a critical value, arcade structures, with both footpoints connected to the photosphere, become unstable to three-dimensional disturbances before the catastrophe point is reached.

Numerical results for field lines that are open into the solar corona suggest that they are completely stable. Although there is no definite proof of stability, this would allow the point of non-equilibrium to be reached.     

Impact of sub-pixel heterogeneity on modelled brightness temperature for an agricultural region

Knowledge of sub-pixel heterogeneity, particularly at the passive microwave scale, can improve the brightness temperature (and ultimately the soil moisture) estimation. However, the impact of surface heterogeneity (in terms of soil moisture, soil temperature and vegetation water content) on brightness temperature in an agricultural setting is relatively unknown. The Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2012 (SMAPVEX12) provided an opportunity to evaluate sub-pixel heterogeneity at the scale of a Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) or the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radiometer footprint using field measured data. The first objective of this study was to determine if accounting for surface heterogeneity reduced the error between estimated brightness temperature (T_b) and T_b measured by SMOS. It was found that when accounting for variation in surface soil moisture, temperature and vegetation water content within the pixel footprint, the error between the modelled T_b and the measured T_b was less than if a homogeneous pixel were modelled. The correlation between the surface parameters and the error associated with not accounting for surface heterogeneity were investigated. It was found that there was low to moderate correlation between the error and the coefficient of variance associated with the measured soil moisture, soil temperature and vegetation volumetric water content during the field campaign. However, it was found that the correlations changed depending on the stage of vegetation growth and the amount of time following a precipitation event. At the start of the field campaign (following a precipitation event), there was strong correlation between the error and all three surface parameters (r ≥ 0.75). Following a precipitation event close to the middle of the field campaign (during which there was rapid growth in vegetation), there was strong correlation between the error and the variability in vegetation water content (r = 0.89), moderate correlation with soil moisture (r = 0.61) and low correlation with soil temperature (r = 0.26).     

钟姑地区典型矿床的重磁找矿模式

钟姑地区位于宁芜中生代火山岩盆地南段,已发现有白象山铁矿等多个大型铁矿,是长江中下游成矿带以玢岩型铁矿为主的矿集区。本文以钟姑地区实测岩石物性参数为桥梁,以实测重磁数据为基础,分析了该区白象山铁矿、钟九铁矿和云楼铁矿的重磁场分布特征,并根据典型矿区已知地质条件,运用成熟的2.5D重磁联合反演技术进行计算,从定量角度认识铁矿体深部发育形态、位置与重磁异常之间对应关系,建立钟姑地区白象山铁矿等典型矿床的重磁找矿模式,为该区进一步找矿突破提供地球物理场信息。     

库车坳陷新生代构造应力场恢复

库车坳陷的构造变形及演化与南天山造山带的发育密切相关。库车坳陷新近纪以来的喜马拉雅晚期构造运动最为强烈,形成了天山山前大型冲断带,并造就了现今的构造格局。通过对库车坳陷北部构造样式的识别及各种应力场指示标志的测量、统计和构造解析,对野外获得的应力场指示标志划分了期次,认为喜马拉雅晚期应力场标志为近南北向挤压。结合库车坳陷区域构造要素,如地质体几何形态、边界条件、岩石力学参数等,运用弹性力学有限元数值模拟的方法获得了喜马拉雅晚期库车坳陷的区域应力场。模拟结果表明,库车坳陷喜马拉雅晚期最大主压应力方向为近南北向,与古应力场标志拟合较高,可以为库车坳陷裂缝预测和评价提供依据,对勘探开发有应用价值。     

Twenty-five years of spectral UV-B measurements over Canada,Europe and Japan: Trends and effects from changes in ozone,aerosols, clouds,and surface reflectivity

Spectral UV records of solar irradiance at stations over Europe, Canada, and Japan were used to study long-term trends at 307.5 nm for a 25-year period, from 1992 to 2016. Ground-based measurements of total ozone, as well as satellite measurements of the Aerosol Index, the Total Cloud Cover and the surface reflectivity were also used in order to attribute the estimated changes of the UV to the corresponding changes of these factors. The present study shows that over the Northern Hemisphere, the long-term changes in UV-B radiation reaching the Earth's surface vary significantly over different locations, and that the main drivers of these variations are changes in aerosols and total ozone. At high latitudes, part of the observed changes may also be attributed to changes in the surface reflectivity. Over Japan, the UV-B irradiance at 307.5 nm has increased significantly by ∼3%/decade during the past 25 years, possibly due to the corresponding significant decrease of its absorption by aerosols. It was found that the greatest part of this increase took place before the mid-2000s. The only European station, over which UV radiation increases significantly, is that of Thessaloniki, Greece. Analysis of the clear-sky irradiance for the particular station shows increasing irradiance at 307.5 nm by ∼3.5%/decade during the entire period of study, with an increasing rate of change during the last decade, possibly again due to the decreasing absorption by aerosols.