A statistical analysis of the H/L ratio of ordinary chondrite finds and falls: A comparison of Oman finds with other populations

Hot and cold deserts have been thoroughly searched for meteorites in the past decades, which has led to a large inventory of classified meteorites. H‐ and L‐chondrites are the most abundant meteorites in all collections, and many authors used the H/L ratio as a characteristic parameter in comparing meteorite populations. H/L ratios (after pairing) vary from 0.90 in observed falls up to 1.74 in El Médano (Atacama Desert). In this study, we investigate the H/L ratio of 965 unpaired H‐ and L‐chondrites collected in Oman and compare this population with observed falls and other hot desert collections. We find a mass dependence of the H/L ratio among hot desert finds and identify mechanisms such as fragmentation during weathering and fall that have an impact on the H/L ratio. We employ the Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Mann–Whitney U statistical tests to compare the mass distributions of H‐ and L‐chondrites and to test the relationship between the similarity of mass distributions and the H/L ratio. We conclude that the variations of the H/L ratios observed in various populations are a sampling artifact resulting from secondary effects and observational bias, expressed in differences of the H and L mass distributions which are not observed in falls, and not due to variations in H/L of the meteorite flux. The H/L ratio of 0.90 observed among recent falls is considered as most representative for the overall meteorite flux, at least since the Late Pleistocene.     

Tracer methods used to verify the hypothesis of Cvijić about the underground connection between Prespa and Ohrid Lake

Prespa Lake and Ohrid Lake constitute a hydraulic system shared between Albania, FYR of Macedonia and Greece. Karst rocks separate both lakes. The elevation of Prespa Lake is about 150 m higher than that of Ohrid Lake. Considering these facts, Cvijić formulated in 1906 the hypothesis that Prespa Lake recharges the St. Naum and Tushemisht springs at Ohrid lakeside. Environmental isotopes demonstrated that Prespa Lake recharges about 37–42 and 52–54% of water emerging in St. Naum, and Tushemisht springs, respectively. An artificial tracer experiment carried out in 2002 physically demonstrated the underground connection between both lakes. This experiment confirmed the supposed underground connection and brought important information about the groundwater velocity, transit time, and karst water conduits development.     

Development and validation of a novel-based combination operational air quality forecasting system in Greece

In the present work, a model combination is developed in order to provide the public, in north-western Greece, with the next day air quality forecast. Generally, the development and deployment of a real-time numerical air quality prediction system is technically challenging while even more in complex terrain. The Air Pollution Model (TAPM) (http://www.cmar.csiro.au/research/tapm) is a hydrostatic prognostic mesoscale model. It has been calibrated for the area in recent studies and used in air quality assessments. In 2007, TAPM has started operating in a real-time operational mode for the prediction of next day’s weather forecast, particulate matter (PM₁₀ with an aerodynamic diameter <10 μm) daily average concentration and Air Pollution Indexes. The model setup is a link up between TAPM and SKIRON modeling system (http://forecast.uoa.gr).     

Numerical modelling of the effects of foundation scour on the response of a bridge pier

Foundation scour can have a detrimental effect on the performance of bridge piers, inducing a significant reduction of the lateral capacity of the footing and accumulation of permanent settlement and rotation. Although the hydraulic processes responsible for foundation scour are nowadays well known, predicting their mechanical consequences is still challenging. Indeed, its impact on the failure mechanisms developing around the foundation has not been fully investigated. In this paper, numerical simulations are performed to study the vertical and lateral response of a scoured bridge pier founded on a cylindrical caisson foundation embedded in a layer of dense sand. The sand stress–strain behaviour is reproduced by employing the Severn-Trent model. The constitutive model is firstly calibrated on a set of soil element tests, including drained and undrained monotonic triaxial tests and resonant column tests. The calibration procedure is implemented considering the stress and strain nonuniformities within the samples, by simulating the laboratory tests as boundary value problems. The numerical model is then validated against the results of centrifuge tests. The results of the simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results in terms of foundation capacity and settlement accumulation. Moreover, the model can predict the effects of local and general scour. The numerical analyses also highlight the impact of scouring on the failure mechanisms, revealing that the soil resistance depends on the hydraulic scenario.

     

Spatial and Temporal Patterns in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Thalassia testudinum</Emphasis> Leaf Tissue Nutrients at the Chandeleur Islands,Louisiana, USA

Seagrasses are submerged marine plants that are anchored to the substrate and are therefore limited to assimilating nutrients from the surrounding water column or sediment, or by translocating nutrients from adjacent shoots through the belowground rhizome. As a result, seagrasses have been used as reliable ecosystem indicators of surrounding nutrient conditions. The Chandeleur Islands are a chain of barrier islands in the northern Gulf of Mexico that support the only marine seagrass beds in Louisiana, USA, and are the sole location of the seagrass Thalassia testudinum across nearly 1000 km of the coastline from west Florida to central Texas. Over the past 150 years, the land area of the Chandeleur Islands has decreased by over half, resulting in a decline of seagrass cover. The goals of this study were to characterize the status of a climax seagrass species at the Chandeleur Islands, T. testudinum, in terms of leaf nutrient (nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P]) changes over time, from 1998 to 2015, and to assess potential drivers of leaf nutrient content. Thalassia testudinum leaf nutrients displayed considerable interannual variability in N and P content and molar ratios, which broadly mimicked patterns in annual average dissolved nutrient concentrations in the lower Mississippi River. Hydrological modeling demonstrated the potential for multiple scenarios that would deliver Mississippi River water, and thus nutrients, to T. testudinum at the Chandeleur Islands. Although coastal eutrophication is generally accepted as the proximate cause for seagrass loss globally, there is little evidence that nutrient input from the Mississippi River has driven the dramatic declines observed in seagrasses at the Chandeleur Islands. Rather, seagrass cover along the Chandeleur Islands appears to be strongly influenced by island geomorphological processes. Although variable over time, the often elevated nutrient levels of the climax seagrass species, T. testudinum, which are potentially driven by river-derived nutrient inputs, raises an important consideration of the potential loss of the ecosystem functions and services associated with these declining seagrass meadows.     

Were Greek temples oriented towards aurorae?

Ioannis Liritzis and Helen Vassiliou assess the evidence that the Ancient Greeks saw the aurora borealis, and that it was a rare and special event, strongly enough associated with particular gods to build temples of unusual orientation.     

Behaviour of deep immersed tunnel under combined normal fault rupture deformation and subsequent seismic shaking

Immersed tunnels are particularly sensitive to tensile and compressive deformations such as those imposed by a normal seismogenic fault rupturing underneath, and those generated by the dynamic response due to seismic waves. The paper investigates the response of a future 70 m deep immersed tunnel to the consecutive action of a major normal fault rupturing in an earthquake occurring in the basement rock underneath the tunnel, and a subsequent strong excitation from a different large-magnitude seismic event that may occur years later. Non-linear finite elements model the quasi-static fault rupture propagation through the thick soil deposit overlying the bedrock and the ensuing interaction of the rupture with the immersed tunnel. It is shown that despite imposed bedrock offset of 2 m, net tension or excessive compression between tunnel segments could be avoided with a suitable design of the joint gaskets. Then, the already deformed (“injured”) structure is subjected to strong asynchronous seismic shaking. The thick-walled tunnel is modelled as a 3-D massive flexural beam connected to the soil through properly-calibrated nonlinear interaction springs and dashpots, the supports of which are subjected to the free-field acceleration time histories. The latter, obtained with 1-D wave propagation analysis, are then modified to account for wave passage effects. The joints between tunnel segments are modeled with special non-linear hyper-elastic elements, properly accounting for their 7-bar longitudinal hydrostatic pre-stressing. Sliding is captured with special gap elements. The effect of segment length and joint properties is explored parametrically. A fascinating conclusion emerges in all analysed cases for the joints between segments that were differentially deformed after the quasi-static fault rupture: upon subsequent very strong seismic shaking, overstressed joints de-compress and understressed joints re-compress—a “healing” process that leads to a more uniform deformation profile along the tunnel. This is particularly beneficial for the precariously de-compressed joint gaskets. Hence, the safety of the immersed tunnel improves with “subsequent” strong seismic shaking!     

Where Am I? Investigating Map Matching During Self‐Localization With Mobile Eye Tracking in an Urban Environment

Self‐localization is the process of identifying one's current position on a map, and it is a crucial part of any wayfinding process. During self‐localization the wayfinder matches visually perceptible features of the environment, such as landmarks, with map symbols to constrain potential locations on the map. The success of this visual matching process constitutes an important factor for the success of self‐localization. In this research we aim at observing the visual matching process between environment and map during self‐localization with real‐world mobile eye tracking. We report on one orientation and one self‐localization experiment, both in an outdoor urban environment. The gaze data collected during the experiments show that successful participants put significantly more visual attention to those symbols on the map that were helpful in the given situation than unsuccessful participants. A sequence analysis revealed that they also had significantly more switches of visual attention between map symbols and their corresponding landmarks in the environment, which suggests they were following a more effective self‐localization strategy.     

Pile foundation analysis and design using experimental data and 3-D numerical analysis

Capacity based design of pile foundations limits the soil-structure interaction mechanism to group bearing capacity estimation, neglecting, in most cases, the contribution of the raft. On the other hand, a straightforward, nonlinear, 3-D analysis, accounting for soil and structural nonlinearities and the effects arising from pile–soil–pile interaction, would be extremely high CPU-time demanding and will necessitate the use of exceptionally powerful numerical tools. With the aim of investigating the most efficient, precise, and economical design for a bridge foundation, a hybrid method, compatible with the notion of sub-structuring is proposed. It is based on both experimental data and nonlinear 3-D analysis. The first step to achieve these targets is a back-analysis of a static pile load test, fitting values for soil shear strength, deformation modulus, and shear strength mobilization at the soil–pile interface. Subsequently, the response of 2 × 2 and 3 × 3 pile group configurations is numerically established and the distribution of the applied load to the raft and the characteristic piles is discussed. Finally, a design strategy for an optimized design of pile raft foundations subjected to non-uniform vertical loading is proposed.     

Magnitude of latent heat in thermally loaded clays

Temperature changes are known to induce specific couplings in clay, in particular, an anomalously high thermal pressurization in undrained conditions or a thermal compaction in drained conditions, both of which are potential threats for the mechanical stability and sealing capacity of the geomaterials. Thermodynamical analysis of those peculiar thermomechanical couplings points to a potentially important latent energy, which in turn could limit the temperature change upon heating or cooling. The direct measurement of latent energy developed during a laboratory geomechanical test is challenging. Instead, proper identification of thermal hardening in conventional experiments with temperature changes provides an alternative route to estimate latent energy. In this work, existing laboratory thermomechanical tests of clays are analyzed with a rigorous thermodynamic framework to quantify the magnitude of latent energy in thermomechanically loaded clays. A thermodynamically consistent constitutive model for fully saturated clays that combines two key features, (a) the temperature dependence of the blocked energy and (b) the framework of bounding plasticity, is proposed. The performance of the model is validated by reproducing results obtained in laboratory tests for Boom and Opalinus clays. The thermomechanical loads considered to validate the model performance were then used to estimate the percentage of work that remains latent in the clayey material during plastic yielding. We find that the magnitude of latent energy is quite significant, typically a few tens of percent of the total dissipated energy, and increases significantly with temperature. Accordingly, it is expected to play an important role in the thermomechanical response of clays.