The impact of different cooling strategies on urban air temperatures: the cases of Campinas,Brazil and Mendoza,Argentina

This paper describes different ways of reducing urban air temperature and their results in two cities: Campinas, Brazil—a warm temperate climate with a dry winter and hot summer (Cwa), and Mendoza, Argentina—a desert climate with cold steppe (BWk). A high-resolution microclimate modeling system—ENVI-met 3.1—was used to evaluate the thermal performance of an urban canyon in each city. A total of 18 scenarios were simulated including changes in the surface albedo, vegetation percentage, and the H/W aspect ratio of the urban canyons. These results revealed the same trend in behavior for each of the combinations of strategies evaluated in both cities. Nevertheless, these strategies produce a greater temperature reduction in the warm temperate climate (Cwa). Increasing the vegetation percentage reduces air temperatures and mean radiant temperatures in all scenarios. In addition, there is a greater decrease of urban temperature with the vegetation increase when the H/W aspect ratio is lower. Also, applying low albedo on vertical surfaces and high albedo on horizontal surfaces is successful in reducing air temperatures without raising the mean radiant temperature. The best combination of strategies—60 % of vegetation, low albedos on walls and high albedos on pavements and roofs, and 1.5 H/W—could reduce air temperatures up to 6.4 °C in Campinas and 3.5 °C in Mendoza.     

Metals in tidal flats colonized by microbial mats within a South-American estuary (Argentina)

In this study, we measured the concentrations of metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cr, Zn, Hg, Mn, and Fe) and assessed the characteristics of tidal flats (grain size and organic matter content) in sediments and their overlying microbial mats fractions to evaluate the anthropogenic impact within the Bahía Blanca Estuary (BBE). Puerto Rosales (PR) and Almirante Brown (AB), located in the middle and inner zone of the estuary, respectively, were used as sampling sites. Sediments were composed mainly of silt–clay in AB, whereas first fine-grained particles were coarser in depth in PR. Regarding the concentration of metals in both fractions, we found differences between sites: There were higher concentrations of overall metals in AB relative to PR. In addition, higher concentrations of Cu were recorded in the first centimeters of AB tidal flats, whereas higher concentration of Cd were recorded in microbial mats of PR. Considering that the grain size was similar between sites, these results are consistent with the high concentration of organic matter found in AB, probably because this site is close to a former municipal dump and sewage discharges. Also, the higher Cd content found in PR site would highlight both the influence of untreated urban discharges and port anthropogenic activities. In conclusion, this study allowed identifying high values of some metals in the presence of microbial mats in the BBE, thus suggesting a possible interaction between both, at least for metals like Cu or Cd.     

The Monagas Fold-Thrust belt of Eastern Venezuela. Part II: Structural and palaeo-geographic controls on the turbidite reservoir potential of the middle Miocene foreland sequence

This paper presents a new structural-stratigraphic approach to constrain the reservoir potential of the middle Miocene turbidite systems within the Monagas Fold-Thrust Belt (MFTB) and Maturín Sub-Basin (MSB) of eastern Venezuela. In the frontal anticline structures of the MFTB (Amarilis Area) light hydrocarbons have been produced from these turbidite systems which were deposited in a foreland basin with a complex tectonostratigraphic evolution.In order to predict the location of other analogous reservoirs we used the structural model presented in Part I (Parra et al., 2010) to developed a palaeo-topographic reconstruction at early-middle Miocene. We have then used this reconstruction to constrain the palaeogeography of the middle Miocene foredeep where the turbidites were deposited. The area considered has 5000 km².By middle Miocene four regions are identified: 1) The southern basin margin dipped 1.5-2.5° north; 2) The foredeep axis had a southwest-northeast orientation. Within the foredeep the proto-structures of the MFTB created submerged highs that control the distribution of sediments; 3) The northern basin margin dipped 3-4° south; the coastline was controlled by the Pirital thrust sheet; 4) The main source of sediments was located towards the northwest on the Pirital thrust sheet and Serranía del Interior.Variations in shortening across the strike of the Pirital thrust were accommodated by a lateral ramp which controlled the location of a valley that acted as the main sediment pathway for the sediments that fed the turbidite system. This relationship between the thrust belt geomorphology and the location of turbidite sediment within the foredeep must be considered in order to assess the distribution of the Miocene turbidite reservoirs.     

Nutrient Input and the Summer Nanoplankton Bloom in the Northern Adriatic Sea

Abstract. A four-year oceanographic data set from the Northern Adriatic Sea identified the factors favoring development of the nanoplankton or microplankton components of the phytoplankton crop. Latitudinally atypical summer nanoplankton blooms, perhaps of recent origin, develop under vertically stratified conditions in the presence of high nutrient concentrations (including silicates). Including the summer blooms, the nanoplankton were responsible for more than half the total phytoplankton production about 90% of the time. No single mechanism governed phytoplankton cell size or size succession, but rather a number of mechanisms which were not mutually exclusive.     

Tidal signature recorded in burrow fill

The arrangement of sediment couplets preserved in Thalassinoides shafts suggests that tides regulated the passive filling of these trace fossils and, thus, represent tubular tidalites. The thickness variation in individual layers and couplets implies a mixed diurnal, semi‐diurnal tidal signature where packages of either thick‐layered or thin‐layered couplets alternate. Calcarenitic sediment accumulated when tidal current velocity was too high to allow deposition of mud, whereas a marly mud layer is interpreted to have formed during more tranquil times of a tidal cycle (in particular, low‐tide slack water). The tidal record within the burrows covers a few weeks and the corresponding spring–neap cycles. The fill of the Thalassinoides shafts is the only known record to decipher the tidal signature from otherwise totally bioturbated sediments. These deposits accumulated in a lower‐shoreface to upper‐offshore setting during the late Miocene on a shallow shelf extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the west into northern Patagonia. The fill of all investigated burrows started around spring tide and, thus, the behaviour of the burrow producers – probably crustaceans – is speculated to have been affected by tides or the high water level because all studied burrows became abandoned around the same period of a tidal cycle.     

Petrogenesis of Quebrada de la Mina and Altar North porphyries (Cordillera of San Juan,Argentina): Crustal assimilation and metallogenic implications

We investigate the geology of Altar North (Cu–Au) and Quebrada de la Mina (Au) porphyry deposits located in San Juan Province (Argentina), close to the large Altar porphyry copper deposit (995 Mt, 0.35% Cu, 0.083 g/t Au), to present constraints on the magmatic processes that occurred in the parental magma chambers of these magmatic-hydrothermal systems. Altar North deposit comprises a plagioclase-amphibole-phyric dacite intrusion (Altar North barren porphyry) and a plagioclase-amphibole-biotite-phyric dacite stock (Altar North mineralized porphyry, 11.98 ± 0.19 Ma). In Quebrada de la Mina, a plagioclase-amphibole-biotite-quartz-phyric dacite stock (QDM porphyry, 11.91 ± 0.33 Ma) crops out. High Sr/Y ratios (92–142) and amphibole compositions of Altar North barren and QDM porphyries reflect high magmatic oxidation states (fO₂ = NNO +1.1 to +1.6) and high fH₂O conditions in their magmas. Zones and rims enriched in anorthite (An_37–48), SrO (0.22–0.33 wt.%) and FeO (0.21–0.37 wt.%) in plagioclase phenocrysts are evidences of magmatic recharge processes in the magma chambers. Altar North and Quebrada de la Mina intrusions have relatively homogeneous isotopic compositions (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_(t) = 0.70450–0.70466, ε_Nd(t) = +0.2 to +1.2) consistent with mixed mantle and crust contributions in their magmas. Higher Pb isotopes ratios (²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 15.6276–15.6294) of these intrusions compared to other porphyries of the district, reflect an increase in the assimilation of high radiogenic Pb components in the magmas. Ages of zircon xenocrysts (297, 210, 204, 69 Ma) revealed that the magmas have experienced assimilation of Miocene, Cretaceous, Triassic and Carboniferous crustal rocks.Fluids that precipitated sulfides in the Altar deposit may have remobilized Pb from the host rocks, as indicated by the ore minerals being more radiogenic (²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 15.6243–15.6269) than their host intrusions. Au/Cu ratio in Altar porphyries (average Au/Cu ratio of 0.14 × 10^?4 by weight in Altar Central) is higher than in the giant Miocene porphyry deposits located to the south: Los Pelambres, Río Blanco and Los Bronces (Chile) and Pachón (Argentina). We suggest that the increase in Au content in the porphyries of this region could be linked to the assimilation of high radiogenic Pb components in the magmas within these long-lived maturation systems.