Sheet-flow deposits of graded beds and mudstones on an alluvial sandflat-playa system: Upper Triassic Blomidon redbeds, St Mary's Bay, Nova Scotia

The 400 m of Blomidon redbeds accumulated in a semi-arid rift valley in the subtropics. At St Mary's Bay, these redbeds are 64% sandy mudstone (playa mudflats), 25% graded beds (sandflats at the toes of alluvial fans), 10% fissile claystone (playa lakes), and 1% channel sandstone (stream channels). Flash floods in mountains south of the valley flowed down alluvial fans to spread out to the north-east as sheet flows on sandflats and playa mudflats. Deceleration of the sheet flows deposited graded beds 2–83 cm in thickness on the sandflats and thin layers of mud on the playas. Nine sequences, consisting of arrangements of six lithologies, compose 90% of the graded beds. In order of decreasing abundance, these are: ripple cross-laminated siltstone → horizontally laminated mudstone; fining-upward, ripple cross-laminated siltstone; ripple cross-laminated sandstone → horizontally laminated mudstone; cross-bedded sandstone horizontally laminated mudstone; ripple cross-laminated sandstone → ripple cross-laminated siltstone; rippledrift cross-laminated siltstone horizontally laminated mudstone; fining-upward, ripple-drift cross-laminated siltstone; cross-bedded sandstone → ripple cross-laminated siltstone; and cross-bedded sandstone → ripple cross-laminated siltstone → horizontally laminated mudstone. The sheet flows, perhaps up to 1 m in depth, had a high concentration of suspended load. Deposition was dominantly during lower flow regime conditions and moderate to rapid flow deceleration. There are 32 thinning and fining-up cycles where a sandflat package of graded beds is transitionally followed by a playa package of sandy mudstone. The cycles range in thickness from 1·3 to 13·3 m, averaging 4·6 m. Each cycle is initiated by avulsion to a new active channel network on a fan. Gradual abandonment of the channel network produces the thinning and fining-up cycle. The cycles are grouped in three 60–70 m fining-up megacycles. Upwards within each megacycle, the packages of sandy mudstone compose a progressively larger proportion of the cycles. Each megacycle evidently was initiated by a brief period of tectonic movement on the border faults that produced greater relief of the highlands relative to the valley floor. Subsequent erosion gradually lowered the relief to yield a fining-up megacycle.     

Using TOPMODEL towards identifying and modelling the hydrological patterns within a headwater,humid, tropical catchment

Increasing pressure on the tropical environment requires a more thorough understanding of hydrological processes as part of reconciling the conflicting demands of economic development vis-à-vis sustainable land management. Using TOPMODEL, a physically based semi-distributed topohydrological model, we test its validity in modelling the stream flow dynamics (hydrograph) in a 1 ha tropical rainforest catchment in French Guiana. Another objective is through field validation of TOPMODEL to ascertain possible runoff generation mechanisms. The field validation of the temporal and spatial hydrodynamics across a rainfall–runoff event reveals that TOPMODEL may be suited for applications to this particular tropical rainforest environment; in fact, this is possibly the first successful application of such a model within the humid tropics. The main reasons why the model was successful are the presumed low hydraulic conductivities of the subsoil, coupled with the absence of an additional deep groundwater body, the contribution from which has caused difficulties in application of topographically, ‘physically’ based runoff models elsewhere in the humid tropics. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An effective scale-dependent dispersivity deduced from a purely convective flow field

Abstract

In the case of straight flow but with hydraulic conductivity varying in a transverse direction, the distribution of hydraulic conductivity has been determined for which the breakthrough curve due to convection only will have the same analytical form as the onedimensional convection/dispersion equation solution at the outlet end of a porous medium. That distribution is found exactly and it is very similar to the lognormal distribution. This result is significant since field evidence indicates that the logarithm of hydraulic conductivity is normally distributed. For the case considered, a simple relation between dispersivity and the coefficient of variation of hydraulic conductivity is found. One can thus determine very simply dispersivity in terms of the parameters of the distribution of hydraulic conductivity. This is particularly useful to estimate dispersivity in various cells of finite difference or finite element models when the distribution of hydraulic conductivity is not stationary, i.e. varies in space.     

3. Hydrometry

Abstract

The derived model achieves the rainfall/discharge conversion by means of two individual equations, namely, a production function and a modulation function.     

Modelling the evolution of vein microstructure with phase-field techniques – a first look

Vein microstructures in the Earth's crust contain a wealth of information on the physical conditions of crystal growth, but correct interpretation requires an improved understanding of the processes involved. In this paper the processes involved in the formation of veins are briefly reviewed, and the possibilities of modelling these processes using the phase-field method are discussed. This technique, which is established in the computational materials science community to investigate crystallization processes, is shown to be a powerful tool to describe processes during vein formation and other geological processes involving crystal growth.     

Le coefficient de compacité de Gravelius: analyse critique d'un indice de forme des bassins versants

Résumé

Les classiques de l'hydrologie proposent, pour caractériser la géométrie d'un bassin versant, différents indices de forme destinés à comparer les bassins voire à estimer certaines de leurs caractéristiques hydrologiques. L'indice auquel il est le plus communément fait référence est l'indice de compacité, dit de Gravelius. Il est défini comme le rapport du périmètre du bassin étudié à celui d'un cercle de même surface. L'approche par la géométrie fractale amène à s'interroger sur la validité de cet indice. En effet, dans la définition précédente, seule la surface du bassin est une grandeur bien définie. Sa mesure est bien sûr entachée d'une incertitude mais il est possible d'en déterminer par exemple un minorant et un majorant. Le périmètre est par contre totalement dépendant de sa jauge de mesure et n'a donc aucun caractère objectif, ce qui retire toute signification à l'indice ainsi construit.     

Rainfall estimation in the Sahel: the EPSAT-NIGER experiment

Abstract

EPSAT-NIGER (Estimation of Precipitation by SATellite—NIGER experiment) has been designed to improve the understanding of the precipitation systems of Sudano-Sahelian Africa and to develop operational rainfall estimation algorithms for this region. It is based on the combined use of a very dense raingauge network (93 gauges over a study area of 16 000 km₂) and a C-band weather radar system. The experiment is scheduled to last three years, 1990–1992. The network pattern, a regular grid with nodes spaced at 12.5 km and a 16 gauge target area where the distance between stations is decreased to 1 km, has allowed for some preliminary studies on the rainfall distribution at various space and time scales. Whereas the long term average rainfall gradient is uniform, rainfall increasing north to south, a single rainy season can be markedly different. The local variability may be extremely large. That variability is enhanced at smaller sampling time steps and the computation of reference areal rainfall for satellite imagery validation is extremely sensitive to the design of the ground-based validation system. The joint processing of gauge and radar data has led to the identification of a few typical features of the drop size distribution of the African squall lines, which could lead to deriving specific algorithms for radar calibration in this region. The data provided by EPSAT-NIGER will be used in various international projects for the assessment of water input from the atmosphere to the continent over the Sahel.