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.     

A Unified Model for Black Hole X-Ray Binary Jets?

We have recently put forward a ‘unified’ semi-empirical model for the coupling between accretion and jet production in galactic black hole X-ray binaries. In this paper, we summarise this model and briefly discuss relevant considerations that have arisen since its publication.     

Circularly polarised radio emission from GRS 1915+105 and other X-ray binaries

I report the detection of circular polarisation, associated with relativistic ejections, from the `microquasar' GRS 1915+105. I further compare detections and limits of circular polarisation and circular-to-linear polarisation ratios in other X-ray binaries. Since in at least two cases the dominance of linear over circular polarisation or vice versa is a function of frequency, this seems to indicate that this is a strong function of depolarisation in the source. Furthermore, I note that circular polarisation has only been detected from sources whose jets lie close to the plane of the sky, where as we have quite stringent limits on the circular polarisation of jets which lie close to the line of sight.     

Implementing low-cost landslide risk reduction: a pilot study in unplanned housing areas of the Caribbean

Landslides pose a serious physical and environmental threat to vulnerable communities living in areas of unplanned housing on steep slopes in the Caribbean. Some of these communities have, in the past, had to be relocated, at costs of millions of dollars, because of major slides triggered by tropical storm rainfall. Even so, evidence shows that: (1) risk reduction is a marginal activity; (2) there has been minimal uptake of hazard maps and vulnerability assessments and (3) there is little on-the-ground delivery of construction for risk reduction. This article directly addresses these issues by developing a low-cost approach to the identification of the potential pore pressure changes that trigger such slides we seek to address these three commentaries directly. A complex 45–60° slope site in St Lucia, West Indies was selected as a pilot for a modelling approach that uses numerical models (FLAC and CHASM) to verify the need for surface water management to effectively reduce landslide risk. Following the model confirmation, a series of drains were designed and constructed at the site. Post-construction evidence indicates the methodology to be sound, in that the site was stable in subsequent 1-in-1 to 1-in-4 year rainfall events. A critical feature of the approach is that it is community-based from data acquisition through to community members participating in construction.     

Distribution of trace and major elements in sediment and pore waters of the Lena Delta and Laptev Sea

Sediment cores collected during the SPASIBA expedition in 1991 were analysed for their trace- and major element concentrations. Leachable (0.1 N HCl) as well as residual concentrations were determined. Fe and Mn were measured in the interstitial waters to characterize redox conditions. Lateral distribution patterns of solid phase Cu, Cd, Ni, Pb and Zn show a small increase in concentration from the Lena Delta in seaward direction. In general concentrations of these metals are very low and similar to natural background values. With some exceptions, solid phase profiles with depth of all investigated elements do not show strong variations. No enrichment of Pb and Zn in surface layers was found. Remobilization processes and transport of particles enriched in Mn are responsible for Mn accumulation in a particular area. Pore-water concentrations of dissolved Mn in the latter sediments are very high (> 700 μM) and suggest strong Mn reduction directly below the sediment-water interface. In contrast to Mn, the depth profiles of Cd show a surface layer with lower concentrations and an increase deeper down the sediment. The C/N ratio in the sediment decreases from 13 in the Lena mouth to 9 in the more marine part of the Laptev Sea. Surface sediments in the Laptev Sea are very uniform and homogeneous and show only small concentration gradients.     

Long-Term Changes in Water Quality and Productivity in the Patuxent River Estuary: 1985 to 2003

We conducted a quantitative assessment of estuarine ecosystem responses to reduced phosphorus and nitrogen loading from sewage treatment facilities and to variability in freshwater flow and nonpoint nutrient inputs to the Patuxent River estuary. We analyzed a 19-year dataset of water quality conditions, nutrient loading, and climatic forcing for three estuarine regions and also computed monthly rates of net production of dissolved O₂ and physical transport of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and phosphorus (DIP) using a salt- and water-balance model. Point-source loading of DIN and DIP to the estuary declined by 40–60% following upgrades to sewage treatment plants and correlated with parallel decreases in DIN and DIP concentrations throughout the Patuxent. Reduced point-source nutrient loading and concentration resulted in declines in phytoplankton chlorophyll-a (chl-a) and light-saturated carbon fixation, as well as in bottom-layer O₂ consumption for upper regions of the estuary. Despite significant reductions in seaward N transport from the middle to lower estuary, chl-a, turbidity, and surface-layer net O₂ production increased in the lower estuary, especially during summer. This degradation of water quality in the lower estuary appears to be linked to a trend of increasing net inputs of DIN into the estuary from Chesapeake Bay and to above-average river flow during the mid-1990s. In addition, increased abundance of Mnemiopsis leidyi significantly reduced copepod abundance during summer from 1990 to 2002, which favored increases in chl-a and allowed a shift in total N partitioning from DIN to particulate organic nitrogen. These analyses illustrate (1) the value of long-term monitoring data, (2) the need for regional scale nutrient management that includes integrated estuarine systems, and (3) the potential water quality impacts of altered coastal food webs.     

Subsidence in the super-deep Pattani and Malay basins of Southeast Asia: a coupled model incorporating lower-crustal flow in response to post-rift sediment loading

Two Early Cenozoic rifts in Southeast Asia (beneath the Pattani and Malay basins) experienced only limited upper-crustal extension (β≤1.5); yet very thick post-rift sequences are present, with 6–12 km of Late Cenozoic terrestrial and shallow-marine sediment derived from adjacent sources. Conventional post-rift backstripping requires depth-dependent lithospheric thinning by β=2–4 to explain these tremendous thicknesses. We assess an alternative explanation for this post-rift subsidence, involving lower-crustal flow from beneath these basins in response to lateral pressure-gradients induced by the sediment loads and the negative loads arising from the erosion of their sediment sources. We calculate that increased rates of erosion in western Thailand in the Early Miocene placed the crust in a non-steady thermal state, such that the depth (and thus, the pressure) at the base of the brittle upper crust subsequently varied over time. Following such a perturbation, thermal and mass-flux steady-state conditions took millions of years to re-establish. In the meantime, the lateral pressure-gradient caused net outflow of lower crust, thinning the crust beneath the depocentre by several kilometres (mimicking the isostatic effect of greater crustal extension having occurred beforehand) and thickening it beneath the sediment source region. The local combination of hot crust and high rates of surface processes, causing lower-crustal flow to be particularly vigorous and thus making its effects more readily identifiable, means that the Pattani and Malay basins represent a set of conditions different from basins in many other regions. However, lower-crustal flow induced by surface processes will also occur to some extent, but less recognisably, in many other continental crustal provinces, but its effects may be mistaken for those of other processes, such as larger-magnitude stretching and/or depth-dependent stretching.