Are Global Tide Gauge Data Stationary in Variance?

Tide gauges distributed all over the world provide valuable information for monitoring mean sea level changes. The statistical models used in estimating sea level change from the tide gauge data assume implicitly that the random model components are stationary in variance. We show that for a large number of global tide gauge data this is not the case for the seasonal part using a variate-differencing algorithm. This finding is important for assessing the reliability of the present estimates of mean sea level changes because nonstationarity of the data may have marked impact on the sea level rate estimates, especially, for the data from short records.     

Tidally incised valleys on tropical carbonate shelves: An example from the northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia

The formation of incised valleys on continental shelves is generally attributed to fluvial erosion under low sea level conditions. However, there are exceptions. A multibeam sonar survey at the northern end of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, adjacent to the southern edge of the Gulf of Papua, mapped a shelf valley system up to 220 m deep that extends for more than 90 km across the continental shelf. This is the deepest shelf valley yet found in the Great Barrier Reef and is well below the maximum depth of fluvial incision that could have occurred under a − 120 m, eustatic sea level low-stand, as what occurred on this margin during the last ice age. These valleys appear to have formed by a combination of reef growth and tidal current scour, probably in relation to a sea level at around 30–50 m below its present position.

Tidally incised depressions in the valley floor exhibit closed bathymetric contours at both ends. Valley floor sediments are mainly calcareous muddy, gravelly sand on the middle shelf, giving way to well-sorted, gravely sand containing a large relict fraction on the outer shelf. The valley extends between broad platform reefs and framework coral growth, which accumulated through the late Quaternary, coincides with tidal current scour to produce steep-sided (locally vertical) valley walls. The deepest segments of the valley were probably the sites of lakes during the last ice age, when Torres Strait formed an emergent land-bridge between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Numerical modeling predicts that the strongest tidal currents occur over the deepest, outer-shelf segment of the valley when sea level is about 40–50 m below its present position. These results are consistent with a Pleistocene age and relict origin of the valley.

Based on these observations, we propose a new conceptual model for the formation of tidally incised shelf valleys. Tidal erosion on meso- to macro-tidal, rimmed carbonate shelves is enhanced during sea level rise and fall when a tidal, hydraulic pressure gradient is established between the shelf-lagoon and the adjacent ocean basin. Tidal flows attain a maximum, and channel incision is greatest, when a large hydraulic pressure gradient coincides with small channel cross sections. Our tidal-incision model may explain the observation of other workers, that sediment is exported from the Great Barrier Reef shelf to the adjacent ocean basins during intermediate (rather than last glacial maximum) low-stand, sea level positions. The model may apply to other rimmed shelves, both modern and ancient.     

利用平均海面推定青岛水准原点地区的地壳垂直运动

通常利用平均海面所求某点地壳垂直运动是一种视运动,如若干年平均海面实际升降变化为V,陆地实际垂直运动为U,则视垂直运动为(U-V).在推定地区地壳垂直运动,使用平均海面数据时应注意其区域性和周期性的变化.文中以有代表性的平均海面变化结果为依据,求出青岛国家水准原点地区地壳垂直运动速率λn=(+2.2±0.5)mm/a.     

连云港核电站厂址海域1939年风暴潮水位的确定

在新建滨海工程时往往遇到历史上的最高潮位资料不详,不满足设计计算的需求,这就需要通过现场调查找到当年大潮的蛛丝马迹来反算当年的潮高,而这一方法又往往由于高潮发生的年代久远,证据混乱,互相矛盾而造成结论不可信。用数学手段对工程海域历史上的大潮过程进行模拟,从而确认调查结论的可信程度是解决上述问题的一个有效的手段。本文是一个成功运用上述方法确定历史最高水位实例。     

青岛地区的台风暴潮与潮灾

本文分析了青岛沿海地区的台风暴潮灾害状况，给出了潮位与海浪的联合作用对灾的影响关系式，提出了今后风暴潮预报的思路。     

Holocene reef growth in Torres Strait

The platform and fringing reefs of Torres Strait are morphologically similar to reefs of the northern Great Barrier Reef to the south, except that several are elongated in the direction of the strong tidal currents between the Coral Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Surface and subsurface investigations and radiocarbon dating on Yam, Warraber and Hammond Islands reveal that the initiation and mode of Holocene reef growth reflect antecedent topography and sea-level history. On the granitic Yam Island, fringing reefs have established in some places over a Pleistocene limestone at about 6 m depth around 7000 years BP. Emergent Holocene microatolls of Porites sp. indicate that the reefs have prograded seawards while sea level has fallen gradually from at least 0.8 m above present about 5800 years BP. On the Warraber Island reef platform drilling near the centre indicated a Pleistocene limestone foundation at a depth of about 6 m over which reefs established around 6700 years BP. Reef growth lagged behind that on Yam Island. Microatolls on the mature reef flat indicate that the reef reached sea level around 5300 years BP when the sea was around 0.8–1.0 m above present. On the reef flat on the western side of Hammond Island bedrock was encountered at 7–8 m depth, overlain by terrigenous mud. A progradational reef sequence of only 1–2 m thickness has built seaward over these muds, as sea level has fallen over the past 5800 years. Reef-flat progradation on these reefs is interpreted to have occurred by a series of stepwise buildouts marked by lines of microatolls parallel to the reef crest, marking individual coalescing coral heads. Detrital infill has occurred between these. This pattern of reef progradation is consistent with the radiocarbon dating results from these reefs, and with seismic investigations on the Torres Reefs.     

A New Methodology for Incorporating Tide Gauge Data in Sea Surface Topography Models

As part of the Vertical Offshore Reference Frames (VORF) project sponsored by the U. K. Hydrographic Office, a new model for Sea Surface Topography (SST) around the British Isles has been developed. For offshore areas (greater than 30 km from the coast), this model is largely derived from satellite altimetry. However, its accuracy and level of detail have been enhanced in coastal areas by the inclusion of not only the 60 PSMSL tide gauges with long-term records around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland but also some 385 gauges established at different epochs and for different observation spans by the U. K. Admiralty. All tide gauge data were brought into a common reference frame by a combination of datum models and direct GPS observations, but a more significant challenge was to bring all short-term sea level observations to an unbiased value at a common epoch. This was achieved through developing a spatial-temporal correlation model for the variations in mean sea level around the British Isles, which in turn meant that gauges with long-term observation spans could be used as control points to improve the accuracy of Admiralty gauges. It is demonstrated that the latter can contribute point observations of mean sea level (MSL) with a precision of 0.078 m. A combination of least squares collocation and interpolation was developed to merge the coastal point and offshore gridded data sets, with particular algorithms having to be developed for different configurations of coastal topology. The resulting model of sea surface topography is shown to present a smooth transition from inshore coastal areas to offshore zones. Further benefits of the techniques developed include an enhanced methodology for detecting datum discontinuities at permanent tide gauges.     

A new insight on the decreasing sea level trend over the Ionian basin in the last decades

Altimetry measurements over the Ionian region and tide gauge records along the southern Italian coasts have been combined to analyse the negative sea level trend over the Ionian basin in the last decades. The apparent decreasing trend should be better understood as an abrupt sea level drop in 1998 probably linked to changes in the surface circulation in the Ionian basin induced by the Eastern Mediterranean Transient, which changed from anticyclonic to cyclonic about March 1998. From then onwards, a rising rate of 7.9 ± 0.9 mm/year is observed over the basin.     

丹麦日德兰半岛西海岸典型岸段地貌概况及研究现状

通过实地调查和资料搜集,对丹麦日德兰半岛西海岸典型岸段的地貌类型和研究现状进行了总结。丹麦日德兰半岛西海岸岸线长度约为470 km,海岸类型可以分为无障壁海岸和有障壁海岸2大类。无障壁海岸以沙丘为主,并有海蚀崖,主要分布在斯卡恩(Skagen)到布劳万角(Blåøvands Huk);有障壁海岸地貌类型以障壁岛—潟湖、盐沼为主,主要分布在布劳万角到勒姆岛(Rømø),并向南进入德国。丹麦西海岸北部属于冰后期地壳回弹上升区,向南地壳回弹幅度逐渐减弱,至Ringkøbing峡湾地区变为地壳稳定区,再向南地壳变为下降区,因此,全新世地层中分别记录了不同的相对海面变化信息。距今7 150 a以来,北部的Skagen岬角地区的相对海面下降了16~25 m;Skallingen地区过去5 000 a间海面在现代海面附近波动,其后侧Ho Bugt盐沼地区4 000 a以来相对海面上升了4 m;过去8 000 a间,Rømø障壁岛的相对海面上升了15 m。欧洲学者在丹麦西海岸地区取得的典型成果包括:海面变化重建(包括海面变化标志点、泥炭层压实校正、定年等)、全新世地质环境演化、开放潮坪现代沉积定量研究等,为海岸带研究提供了有益参考。     

Lacustrine basin unconventional resource plays: Key differences

There has been a revival in hydrocarbon source rock characterization and development associated with growing interest in unconventional resources, where these fine-grained organic-rich rocks act as both source and reservoir. To-date, the exploration focus on shale reservoirs has been largely on marine systems. Lacustrine source rocks for conventional resources are geographically important, dominating regions such as China, Indonesia, and Brazil's resource-base. However, they have been generally untested for unconventional resources.There are a number of key differences in the nature of these hydrocarbon systems that should be considered when assessing whether lacustrine systems may represent future unconventional opportunities in areas where the conventional resource-base is dominated by lacustrine-sourced oil. Among the key differences between these depositional systems is the greater sensitivity to high frequency climatic variability within lacustrine systems. Lacustrine systems are highly sensitive to changes in the balance between precipitation and evaporation, which may lead to rapid changes in lake level, potentially exceeding 600 m. These changes in depositional conditions are geologically rapid and may occur over periods of thousands of years. Such changes can reduce the areal extent of potentially thick source rock intervals to only those portions of a basin where a permanent deep lake was present. Thus the core unconventional target area may be geographically limited compared with their marine counterpart. Although potentially areally limited, a review of many lacustrine source rocks suggests that their thicknesses are often significantly greater than marine source rocks. An examination of the more distal portions of lacustrine systems, where better source rock potential is present reveals that there is generally limited connectivity between source and conventional reservoir. In these settings, such as the Wind River basin (Waltman Shale), the hydrocarbons remain trapped within the shales, potentially leading to over-pressured hydrocarbon charged systems. Such conditions suggest that although areally limited, viable unconventional targets may exist, if suitable reservoir conditions are present. Finally, the character of the oils produced is different in these settings, with lacustrine oils being waxy and displaying different hydrocarbon generation and cracking kinetics. High wax oils display distinct flow characteristics, being more viscous, and may offer different production challenges than their non-waxy marine equivalents. Additionally, differences in their cracking kinetics may indicate that the timing of gas generation for shale gas plays may differ significantly from marine systems.