Linking hydrological variations at local scales to regional climate teleconnection patterns

Climate patterns over preceding years affect seasonal water and moisture conditions. The linkage between regional climate and local hydrology is challenging due to scale differences, both spatially and temporally. In this study, variance, correlation, and singular spectrum analyses were conducted to identify multiple hydroclimatic phases during which climate teleconnection patterns were related to hydrology of a small headwater basin in Idaho, USA. Combined field observations and simulations from a physically based hydrological model were used for this purpose. Results showed statistically significant relations between climate teleconnection patterns and hydrological fluxes in the basin, and climate indices explained up to 58% of hydrological variations. Antarctic Oscillation (AAO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and Pacific North America (PNA) patterns affected mountain hydrology, in that order, by decreasing annual runoff and rain on snow (ROS) runoff by 43% and 26% during a positive phase of NAO and 25% and 9% during a positive phase of PNA. AAO showed a significant association with the rainfall-to-precipitation ratio and explained 49% of its interannual variation. The runoff response was affected by the phase of climate variability indices and the legacy of past atmospheric conditions. Specifically, a switch in the phase of the teleconnection patterns of NAO and PNA caused a transition from wet to dry conditions in the basin. Positive AAO showed no relation with peak snow water equivalent and ROS runoff in the same year, but AAO in the preceding year explained 24 and 25% (p < 0.05) of their variations, suggesting that the past atmospheric patterns are equally important as the present conditions in affecting local hydrology. Areas sheltered from the wind and acted as a source for snow transport showed the lowest (40% below normal) ROS runoff generation, which was associated with positive NAO that explained 33% (p < 0.01) of its variation. The findings of this research highlighted the importance of hydroclimatic phases and multiple year variations that must be considered in hydrological forecasts, climate projections, and water resources planning.     

Palaeoproterozoic subduction‐related and passive margin basalts in the Halls Creek Orogen,northwest Australia

Palaeoproterozoic basaltic rocks in the Halls Creek Orogen form part of two stratigraphic sequences on either side of a major structure, the Angelo‐Halls Creek‐Osmond Fault System. The two sequences have contrasting geological histories and probably formed in different tectonostratigraphic terranes. To the east, basalts of the Biscay Formation, which are part of the Halls Creek Group, were erupted at ca 1880 Ma and deformed and metamorphosed first at low grade between ca 1845 and ca 1820 Ma. To the west, basalts of the Tickalara Metamorphics were deposited after 1865 Ma, and were metamorphosed at medium to high grade and intruded by tonalite and leucogranite sheets at 1850 to 1845 Ma. Two groups of metabasalts are identified in the Biscay Formation. Group 1 samples have compositions similar to enriched (E‐)MORB. Group 2 samples have lower TiO₂, P₂O₅, Cr, Y, Nb and Zr contents, and trace‐element ratios (e.g. Ti/V and Zr/Nb), similar to low‐TiO₂ continental flood basalts. Metabasalts from the Tickalara Metamorphics consist of depleted and enriched types. The depleted samples have high field strength element (HFSE) and rare‐earth element (REE) abundances similar to oceanic island arc/backarc basin tholeiites. The enriched samples have compositions similar to E‐MORB, and are similarto group 1 samples from the Biscay Formation. Basalts of the Biscay Formation were erupted on a passive continental margin, whereas those of the Tickalara Metamorphics formed in an oceanic island arc/backarc basin or ensialic marginal basin, the two terranes being brought together by ca 1820 Ma. This is consistent with the evolution of the Halls Creek Orogen during the Palaeoproterozoic by plate‐tectonic processes similar to those operating in the Phanerozoic.     

A Tidal Flow Model for the Gulf of Kachchh,India

A vertically integrated model has been used to study the tidal circulation and currents in the Gulf of Kachchh along the west coast of India. The model is fully nonlinear and uses a semiexplicit finite difference scheme to solve the basic hydrodynamic equations on a staggered grid. The model is forced by prescribing the tides along the open boundary of the model domain. The flow is simulated both with and without the presence of the proposed tidal barrage across the Hansthal Creek in the Gulf of Kachchh. The results show a considerable change in the behavior of the tidal flow in the presence of the barrage.     

Reconstructing the Wolfe Creek meteorite impact: deep structure of the crater and effects on target rock

The Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater is an impact structure 880 m in diameter, located in the Tanami Desert near Halls Creek, Western Australia. The crater formed?<?300 000 years ago, and is the second largest crater from which fragments of the impacting meteorite (a medium octahedrite) have been recovered. We present the results of new ground-based geophysical (magnetics and gravity) surveys conducted over the structure in July?–?August 2003. The results highlight the simple structure of the crater under the infilling sediments, and forward modelling is consistent with the true crater floor being 120 m beneath the present surface. The variations in the dip of the foliations around the crater rim confirm that the meteorite approached from the east-northeast, as is also deduced from the ejecta distribution. Crater scaling arguments suggest a projectile diameter of?>?12.0 m, a crater formation time of 3.34 s, and an energy of impact of ～0.235 Mt of TNT. We also use the distribution of shocked quartz in the target rock (Devonian sandstones) to reconstruct the shock loading conditions of the impact. The estimated maximum pressures at the crater rim were between 5.59 and 5.81 GPa. We also use a Simplified Arbitrary Langrangian–Eulerian hydrocode (SALE 2) to simulate the propagation of shock waves through a material described by a Tillotson equation of state. Using the deformational and PT constraints of the Wolfe Creek crater, we estimate the maximum pressures, and the shock-wave attenuation, of this medium-sized impact.     

Evolution of a small intraplate basaltic lava field: Jerrabattgulla Creek,upper Shoalhaven River catchment,southeast New South Wales

The Jerrabattgulla Creek basalts are in the upper catchment of the Shoalhaven River of southeastern New South Wales. The basalts erupted into a narrow, north-draining valley and modified the local drainage system, re-routing the paleo-Jerrabattgulla Creek, preserving a series of sub-basaltic quartzose gravels with silcretes in the paleovalley. The paleovalley indicates that a north-flowing drainage existed in this place in the Miocene. The high-relief, narrow valley has preserved a volcanic stratigraphy allowing the magmatic evolution of this small lava field to be determined. The lavas have a large compositional range from olivine nephelinite through to quartz tholeiite, which is unusual in such a small lava field. They represent three distinct magma batches, most likely from an amphibole–apatite metasomatised sub-continental lithospheric mantle, and underwent fractional crystallisation of olivine, clinopyroxene and plagioclase and assimilated upper crust. The lava field underwent temporal change from dominantly alkaline, to mixed alkaline and subalkaline, to dominantly alkaline magmatism over the course of its evolution.     

Magmatic history of the Eastern Creek Volcanics,Mt Isa,Australia: insights from trace-element and platinum-group-element geochemistry

The Paleoproterozoic basalts of the Eastern Creek Volcanics are a series of continental flood basalts that form a significant part of the Western Fold Belt of the Mt Isa Inlier, Queensland. New trace-element geochemical data, including the platinum-group elements (PGE), have allowed the delineation of the magmatic history of these volcanic rocks. The two members of the Eastern Creek Volcanics, the Cromwell and Pickwick Metabasalt Members, are formed from the same parental magma. The initial magma was contaminated by continental crust and erupted to form the lower Cromwell Metabasalt Member. The staging chamber was continuously replenished by parental material resulting in the gradual return of the magma composition to more primitive trends in the upper Cromwell Metabasalt Member, and finally the Pickwick Metabasalt Member formed from magma dominated by the parental melt. The Pickwick Metabasalt Member of the Eastern Creek Volcanics has elevated PGE concentrations (including up to 18 ppb Pd and 12 ppb Pt) with palladium behaving incompatibly during magmatic fractionation. This trend is the result of fractionation under sulfide-undersaturated conditions. Conversely, in the basal Cromwell Metabasalt Member the PGE display compatible behaviour during magmatic fractionation, which is interpreted to be the result of fractionation of a sulfide-saturated magma. However, Cu remains incompatible during fractionation, building up to high concentrations in the magma, which is found to be the result of the very small volume of magmatic sulfide formation (0.025%). Geochemical trends in the upper Cromwell Metabasalt Member represent mixing between the contaminated Cromwell Metabasalt magmas and the PGE-undepleted parental melt. Trace-element geochemical trends in both members of the Eastern Creek Volcanics can be explained by the partial melting of a subduction-modified mantle source. The generation of PGE- and copper-rich magmas is attributed to melting of a source in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle below the Mt Isa Inlier which had undergone previous melt extraction during an older subduction event. The previous melt extraction resulted in a sulfur-poor, metal-rich metasomatised mantle source which was subsequently remelted in the Eastern Creek Volcanic continental rift event. The proposed model accounts for the extreme copper enrichment in the Eastern Creek Volcanics, from which the copper has been mobilised by hydrothermal fluids to form the Mt Isa copper deposit. There is also the potential for a small volume of PGE-enriched magmatic sulfide in the plumbing system to the volcanic sequence.     

Effectiveness of grade-control structures in reducing erosion along incised river channels: the case of Hotophia Creek, Mississippi

Herein, we undertake a geomorphological analysis in which spatial and temporal trends of bed and bank erosion along an 18-km length of Hotophia Creek, Mississippi, are estimated for the period between 1961 and 2050. The evaluation was undertaken for two scenarios of channel response to channelization during 1961–1963. One scenario represents the ‘actual’ response of the channel and includes the effects of installing a series of grade-control structures (GCS) between 1980 and 1996, while the other represents a hypothetical scenario in which the channel is left to adjust naturally. This allows the effectiveness of GCS in reducing in-channel erosion to be assessed. The analysis relies on the availability of channel survey data to develop empirical bed and bank response models for each adjustment scenario, supplemented by bank stability modelling to predict future rates of bank erosion. Results indicate that channel erosion rates decline nonlinearly with respect to time since 1961, for both adjustment scenarios. However, by the year 2050, the “with” GCS adjustment scenario results in the cumulative removal of some 663,000 (9%) extra tonnes of sediment relative to the “without” GCS scenario. Most (63%) of this excess is derived from enhanced bed erosion during 1976–1985 and 1985–1992, with the remainder derived from increased bank erosion during 1985–1992. Detailed analysis of the patterns of erosion and deposition, and their association with the GCS, provides evidence to support the view that GCS installed along Hotophia Creek have, for the most part, been ineffective in reducing channel erosion rates. This is because the GCS were installed too late to prevent bed degradation, caused by the 1961–1963 channelization, migrating upstream. In addition, some structures have disrupted the downstream transmission of bed material from eroded reaches upstream, exacerbating bed degradation and bank erosion in incised reaches downstream.     

Oxygen and hydrogen isotope study of minerals from metapelitic rocks, staurolite to sillimanite zones, Mica Creek, British Columbia

Abstract Oxygen and hydrogen isotope analyses have been made of coexisting quartz, ilmenite, muscovite, and biotite from Late Precambrian metapelitic rocks, staurolite-kyanite to K-feldspar-muscovite-sillimanite zones, from Mica Creek, British Columbia. The δ¹⁸O and †D values of these minerals are generally uniform and do not decrease significantly with increasing metamorphic grade. This implies that there has not been significant infiltration of deep crustal, possibly magmatic, fluids into the metapelites that has been suggested for other high-grade metamorphic terranes. The uniformity of oxygen isotope compositions of the Mica Creek metapelite rocks may reflect isotopic uniformity in the sedimentary protolith rather than widespread exchange with an isotopically homogeneous metamorphic pore fluid.
Temperature estimates based upon ¹⁸O exchange thermometry for samples below the sillimanite zone are in reasonable agreement with the results of garnet-biotite Fe–Mg exchange thermometry. In the higher grade rocks, the oxygen isotope and garnet-biotite thermometry yield results which disagree by about 100°C. The highest temperatures recorded by oxygen isotope thermometry, 595°C, are at least 60°C below the minimum temperatures required by phase equilibria. These discrepancies appear to result from pervasive equilibrium retrograde exchange of oxygen isotopes between coexisting minerals. In addition, there are problems with calibration of garnet-biotite thermometry at higher temperatures. Retrograde oxygen isotope exchange may be a general characteristic of high-grade metamorphic rocks and oxygen isotope thermometry may not usually record peak metamorphic temperatures if they significantly exceed 600°C.