The almost constant-speed two-body problem with resistance

The almost constant-speed motion of a mass acted upon by a Newtonian attraction and a resisting force is treated. The equation of orbit is derived for a specific type of resistance which covers the familiar case of Danby's drag(=r ^–2) whilst the vector invariants are obtained by direct operation on the vector form of the equation of motion.     

Enhancement of radon signals in geophysical studies with the track technique

The existence of a suspected geological fault has been confirmed using Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors (SSNTDs) by measuring radon concentration variations in the upper soil above its inferred position. The results obtained prompted us to increase the natural radon signal in the soil, using an additional radon source; this enhancement technique, has been experimentally checked with SSNTD detectors.On leave from Faculté des Sciences, Laboratoire des D.S.T.N. Université de Dakar, Dakar-Fann, Sénégal     

Periodicities in natural remanent magnetization and palaeoclimatic records detected by walsh spectra

The time series consisting of nonsinusoidal Natural Remanent Magnetization (NRM) and palaeoclimatic variations for the past two million years have been spectrally examined by using a new Walsh transform technique. The results show statistically significant periodicities (at 95% confidence level) of approximately 92,000 years; 43,000 years and 21,000 years in the ensemble spectra of the NRM intensity (mineralogic) variations. These NRM periodicities are remarkably close to the well-known Milankovitch cycles. The ensemble spectra of palaeoclimatic records reveal only 41,000 years statistically significant (95%) periodicity corresponding to the obliquity cycle. The study suggests that NRM variations in deep sea sediments probably are more sensitive recorders of palaeoclimatic memory than the oxygen isotope variations.     

Magnetostratigraphic evidence from the Cold Creek bar for onset of ice-age cataclysmic floods in eastern Washington during the Early Pleistocene

This study provides a detailed magnetostratigraphy of sediments composing the Cold Creek cataclysmic flood bar in the Pasco Basin, Washington. Our interpretation suggests onset of Missoula floods or similar events prior to 1.1 myr, later than previously suggested by Bjornstad et al. [Bjornstad, B.N., Fecht, K.R., Pluhar, C.J., 2001. Long history of pre-Wisconsin, Ice Age cataclysmic floods: evidence from southeastern Washington State. Journal of Geology 109 (6), 695-713]. Nonetheless these data suggest that Channeled Scabland features formed over a much longer timespan than commonly cited, that continental ice sheets of the early Pleistocene reached as far south as those of the late Pleistocene, and that similar physiography existed in eastern Washington and perhaps Montana to both generate and route Missoula-flood-like events. This study adds paleomagnetic polarity results from 213 new samples of silts and sands derived from nine new drill cores penetrating the Cold Creek cataclysmic flood bar to our previous database of 53 samples from four boreholes, resulting in a much more robust and detailed magnetostratigraphy. Rock magnetic studies on these sediments show pure magnetite to be the predominant remanence-carrying magnetic mineral, ruling out widespread remagnetization by secondary mineralization. The magnetostratigraphy at eastern Cold Creek bar is characterized by a normal polarity interval bracketed by reversed polarities. Equating the normal zone with the Jaramillo subchron (0.99-1.07 myr) affords the simplest correlation to the magnetic polarity timescale. Western Cold Creek bar was likely deposited during the Brunhes chron (0-0.78 myr) since it exhibits mainly normal polarities with only two thin reversed-polarity horizons that we interpret as magnetic excursions during the Brunhes.     

Tectonic relation between northeastern China and the Korean peninsula revealed by interpretation of GRACE satellite gravity data

The major continental blocks in northeastern Asia are the North China block and the South China block, which have collided starting from the Korean peninsula. Geologic and geophysical interpretations reveal a well defined suture zone in northeastern China from Qinling through Dabie to Jiaodong. The discovery of high-pressure metamorphic rocks in the Hongseong area of the Korean peninsula, prominent evidence for the collision zone, indicates extension of the collision zone in northeastern China into the Korean peninsula. Interpretation of the GRACE satellite gravity dataset shows two prominent structural boundaries in the Yellow Sea. One extends from the Jiaodong Belt in eastern China to the Imjingang Belt in the Korean peninsula. The other extends from near Nanjing, eastern China, to Hongseong. Tectonic movement in or near the suture zone may be responsible for seismic activity in the western Korean peninsula and the development of the Yellow Sea sedimentary basin.     

Permanent Scatterers for landslide investigations: outcomes from the ESA-SLAM project

Within the SLAM project (Service for Landslide Monitoring), launched in 2003 by the European Space Agency (ESA) the Permanent Scatterers (PS) technique, a multi-image interferometric approach, coupled with the interpretation of aerial-photos and optical satellite images, was carried out for landslide investigations. The PS analysis was applied at a regional scale as support for landslide inventory mapping and at local scale for the monitoring of single well-known slope movements. For the integration of the PS measurements within a landslide inventory the Arno river basin (Italy) was chosen as test site for the presence of a high number of mass movements (to date about 300 areas at high landslide risk and more than 27,000 individual landslides mapped by the institutional authorities). About 350 SAR images have been interferometrically processed by means of the PS technique, with the detection of about 600,000 PS. The use of optical images contributed spatial meaning to the point-wise information provided by the PS, making it easier to identify terrain features related to slope instability and the landslide boundaries. Here we describe the employed methodology and its impact in the updating of a preexisting landslide inventory. 6.8% of the total number of landslides were characterized by ground displacement measurements from the PS: 6.1% of already mapped landslides and 0.8% of new unstable areas detected through the PS analysis. Moreover, most of the PS are located in urban areas, showing that the proposed methodology is suitable for landslide mapping in areas with a quite high density of urbanization, but that over vegetated areas it still suffers from the limitations induced by the current space-borne SAR missions (e.g. temporal de-correlation). On the other hand, the use of InSAR for the monitoring of single slow landslides threatening built-up areas has provided satisfactory results, allowing the measurement of superficial deformations with high accuracy on the landslide sectors characterized by a good radar reflectivity and coherence.     

Precambrian fluvial deposits: Enigmatic palaeohydrological data from the c. 2–1.9 Ga Waterberg Group, South Africa

Precambrian fluvial systems, lacking the influence of rooted vegetation, probably were characterised by flashy surface runoff, low bank stability, broad channels with abundant bedload, and faster rates of channel migration; consequently, a braided fluvial style is generally accepted. Pre-vegetational braided river systems, active under highly variable palaeoclimatic conditions, may have been more widespread than are modern, ephemeral dry-land braided systems. Aeolian deflation of fine fluvial detritus does not appear to have been prevalent. With the onset of large cratons by the Neoarchaean–Palaeoproterozoic, very large, perennial braided river systems became typical. The c. 2.06–1.88 Ga Waterberg Group, preserved within a Main and a smaller Middelburg basin on the Kaapvaal craton, was deposited largely by alluvial/braided-fluvial and subordinate palaeo-desert environments, within fault-bounded, possibly pull-apart type depositories.

Palaeohydrological data obtained from earlier work in the Middelburg basin (Wilgerivier Formation) are compared to such data derived from the correlated Blouberg Formation, situated along the NE margin of the Main basin. Within the preserved Blouberg depository, palaeohydrological parameters estimated from clast size and cross-bed set thickness data, exhibit rational changes in their values, either in a down-palaeocurrent direction, or from inferred basin margin to palaeo-basin centre. In both the Wilgerivier and Blouberg Formations, calculated palaeoslope values (derived from two separate formulae) plot within the gap separating typical alluvial fan gradients from those which characterise rivers (cf. [Blair, T.C., McPherson, J.G., 1994. Alluvial fans and their natural distinction from rivers based on morphology, hydraulic processes, sedimentary processes, and facies assemblages. J. Sediment. Res. A64, 450–489.]). Although it may be argued that such data support possibly unique fluvial styles within the Precambrian, perhaps related to a combination of major global-scale tectono-thermal and atmospheric–palaeoclimatic events, a simpler explanation of these apparently enigmatic palaeoslope values may be pertinent. Of the two possible palaeohydrological formulae for calculating palaeoslope, one provides results close to typical fluvial gradients; the other formula relies on preserved channel-width data. We suggest that the latter will not be reliable due to problematic preservation of original channel-widths within an active braided fluvial system. We thus find no unequivocal support for a unique fluvial style for the Precambrian, beyond that generally accepted for that period and discussed briefly in the first paragraph.