A multi‐method approach to dating the burial and skeleton of Kiacatoo Man,New South Wales,Australia

Kiacatoo Man, a large, rugged Aboriginal adult buried in the Lachlan riverine plains of southeastern Australia, was discovered in 2011. Laser‐ablation uranium series analysis on bone yielded a minimum age for the burial of 27.4 ± 0.4 ka (2σ). Single‐grain, optically stimulated luminescence ages on quartz sediment in which the grave had been dug gave a weighted mean age of 26.4 ± 1.5 ka (1σ). Luminescence samples from the grave infill and from sediment beneath the grave exhibit overdispersed dose distributions consistent with bioturbation or other disturbance, which has obscured the burial signal. The overlap between the minimum (U‐series) and maximum (luminescence) ages places the burial between 27.0 and 29.4 ka (2σ). Luminescence ages obtained from the channel belt of between 28 ± 2 and 25 ± 3 ka indicate that fluvial sedimentation was occurring before the Last Glacial Maximum, which is consistent with the broader geomorphic setting. Together, these results are internally and regionally consistent, and indicate that Kiacatoo Man was one of the more ancient individuals so far identified in Australia. His remains are important to our understanding of patterns of biological variation and other processes that have shaped people in the Murray‐Darling Basin through time. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling the poroelastoplastic behaviour of soils subjected to internal erosion by suffusion

Granular soils subjected to seepage flow may suffer suffusion, ie, a selective internal erosion. Extending the classical approach of poromechanics, we deduce a new form of the Clausius-Duhem inequality accounting for dissipation due to suffusion, and we deduce restrictions on the constitutive laws of the soil. We suggest (a) a possible coupling between the seepage forces and the suffusion kinetics and (b) an extension of an existing elastoplastic model for the skeleton mechanical behaviour. Numerical integrations of the elastoplastic model are carried out under drained axisymmetric triaxial and oedometric conditions. As a result, we prove that the extended model is able to qualitatively reproduce the suffusion induced strains and the strength reduction experimentally observed. Predictions on the oedometric behaviour of suffusive soils are also provided.     

Planetary Nebulae

This review summarizes spectroscopic and imaging results obtained on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) on well-known planetary nebulae: the young nebula NGC 7027, and two fully evolved nearby nebulae, the Dumbbell and the Helix. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A practical approach to grain shape quantification

Grain shape is a key factor affecting the mechanical properties of granular materials. However, grain shape quantification techniques to distinguish one granular material from another have not reached a stage of development for inclusion in modeling the behavior of granular materials. Part of the problem is the equipment of choice for grain shape measurement is the scanning electron microscopes. This is a relatively expensive and complex device. In this paper, we investigate a practical approach using light microscopy to quantify grain shape and to identify the key shape parameters that can distinguish grains. A light microscope was found to produce grain images with sufficient quality for the purpose of observing the grain shape profile. Several grain shape parameters were determined for eight different sands. We found Circularity, Roundness, Compactness, Sphericity, Aspect Ratio and ModRatio to be the key shape parameters that differentiate these sand grains.     

The Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front: physical and biological coupling at South Georgia

The coupling of physics and biology was examined along a 160 km long transect running out from the north coast of South Georgia Island and crossing the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front (SACCF) during late December 2000. Surface and near surface potential TS properties indicated the presence of three water types: a near-shore group of stations characterised by water which became progressively warmer and fresher closer to South Georgia, an offshore grouping in which sea surface temperatures and those at the winter water level were relatively warm (1.8°C and 0.5°C, respectively), and a third in which surface and winter water temperatures were cooler and reflected the presence of the SACCF. The transect bisected the SACCF twice, revealing that it was flowing in opposite directions, north-westward closest to South Georgia and south-eastwards at its furthest point from the island. The innermost limb was a narrow intense feature located just off the shelf break in 2000–3500 m of water and in which rapid surface baroclinic velocities (up to 35 cm s⁻¹) were encountered. Offshore in the outermost limb, shown subsequently to be a mesoscale eddy that had meandered south from the retroflected limb of the SACCF, flow was broader and slower with peak velocities around 20 cm s⁻¹. Chlorophyll a biomass was generally low (<1 mg m⁻³) over much of the transect but increased dramatically in the region of the innermost limb of the SACCF, where a deepening of the surface mixed layer was coincident with a subsurface chlorophyll maximum (7.4 mg m⁻³) and elevated concentrations down to 100 m. The bloom was coincident with depleted nutrient concentrations, particularly silicate, nitrate and phosphate, and although ammonium concentrations were locally depleted the bloom lay within an elevated band (up to 1.5 mmol m⁻³) associated with the frontal jet. Increased zooplankton abundance, higher copepod body carbon mass and egg production rates all showed a strong spatial integrity with the front. The population structure of the copepods Calanoides acutus and Rhincalanus gigas at stations within the front suggested that rather than simply resulting from entrainment and concentration within the jet, increased copepod abundance was the result of development in situ. Estimates of bloom duration, based on silicate and carbon budget calculations, set the likely duration between 82 and 122 d, a figure supported by the development schedule of the two copepod species. Given this timescale, model outputs from FRAM and OCCAM indicated that particles that occurred on the north side of South Georgia in December would have been in the central-southern Scotia Sea 2–3 months earlier, probably in sea ice affected regions.     

The role of overwash in the evolution of mixing zone morphology within barrier islands

Overwash is a major controlling factor in the morphology of the mixing zone of coastal aquifers. Conceptual models of the mixing zone describe an interface controlled by tidal oscillations, wave run-up, and other factors; however, few describe the influence of large storm events. In August 1993, Hatteras Island, North Carolina, USA, experienced a 3-m storm surge due to Hurricane Emily. Sound-side flooding infiltrated a wellfield, causing a dramatic increase in TDS levels that persisted for more than 3 years. Two-dimensional simulations with SUTRA, the USGS finite-element model, are calibrated to the TDS breakthrough data of this storm to infer model dispersivity values. Simulations using the calibrated dispersivity values, predicted flooding levels, and 54 years of hurricane records to determine the influence of the overwash events suggest that it is rare for the mixing zone to approximate the conceptual morphology. Even during quiescent periods such as between 1965 and 1975, TDS levels do not return to theoretical levels before being elevated by a subsequent storm event. Thus, while tidal oscillations and other factors are important to mixing zone development, basic wind events and more severe storm events may have more influence and lasting effect on the morphology of the mixing zone.     

Quantification of the effects of secondary matrix on the analysis of sandstone composition, and a petrographic-chemical technique for retrieving original framework grain modes of altered sandstones

Most studies of sandstone provenance involve modal analysis of framework grains using techniques that exclude the fine-grained breakdown products of labile mineral grains and rock fragments, usually termed secondary matrix or pseudomatrix. However, the data presented here demonstrate that, when the proportion of pseudomatrix in a sandstone exceeds 10%, standard petrographic analysis can lead to incorrect provenance interpretation. Petrographic schemes for provenance analysis such as QFL and QFR should not therefore be applied to sandstones containing more than 10% secondary matrix. Pseudomatrix is commonly abundant in sandstones, and this is therefore a problem for provenance analysis. The difficulty can be alleviated by the use of whole-rock chemistry in addition to petrographic analysis. Combination of chemical and point-count data permits the construction of normative compositions that approximate original framework grain compositions. Provenance analysis is also complicated in many cases by fundamental compositional alteration during weathering and transport. Many sandstones, particularly shallow marine deposits, have undergone vigorous reworking, which may destroy unstable mineral grains and rock fragments. In such cases it may not be possible to retrieve provenance information by either petrographic or chemical means. Because of this, pseudomatrix-rich sandstones should be routinely included in chemical-petrological provenance analysis. Because of the many factors, both pre- and post-depositional, that operate to increase the compositional maturity of sandstones, petrologic studies must include a complete inventory of matrix proportions, grain size and sorting parameters, and an assessment of depositional setting.     

Numerical simulation of the final stages of terrestrial planet formation

Three representative numerical simulations of the growth of the terrestrial planets by accretion of large protoplanets are presented. The mass and relative-velocity distributions of the bodies in these simulations are free to evolve simultaneously in response to close gravitational encounters and occasional collisions between bodies. The collisions between bodies, therefore, arise in a natural way and the assumption of expressions for the relative velocity distribution and the gravitational collision cross section is unnecessary. These simulations indicate that the growth of bodies with final masses approaching those of Venus and the Earth is possible, at least for the case of a two-dimensional system. Simulations assuming an initial uniform distribution of orbital eccentricities on the interval from 0 to e_max are found to produce final states containing too many bodies with masses which are too small when e_max < 0.10, while simulations with e_max > 0.20 result in too many catastrophic collisions between bodies thus preventing rapid accretion of planetary-size bodies. The e_max = 0.15 simulation ends with a state surprisingly similar to that of the present terrestrial planets and, therefore, provides a rough estimate of the range of radial sampling to be expected for the terrestrial planets.