Early burial mud diapirism and its impact on stratigraphic architecture in the Carboniferous of the Shannon Basin,County Clare,Ireland

Delta fronts are often characterized by high rates of sediment supply that result in unstable slopes and a wide variety of soft‐sediment deformation, including the formation of overpressured and mobile muds that may flow plastically during early burial, potentially forming mud diapirs. The coastal cliffs of County Clare, western Ireland, expose Pennsylvanian (Namurian) delta‐front deposits of the Shannon Basin at large scale and in three dimensions. These deposits include decametre‐scale, internally chaotic mudstone masses that clearly impact the surrounding sedimentary strata. Evidence indicates that these were true mud (unlithified sediment) diapirs that pierced overlying strata. This study documents a well‐exposed ca 20 m tall mud diapir and its impact on the surrounding mouth‐bar deposits of the Tullig Cyclothem. A synsedimentary fault and associated rollover dome, evident from stratal thicknesses and the dip of the beds, define one edge of the diapir. These features are interpreted as recording the reactive rise of the mud diapir in response to extensional faulting along its margin. Above the diapir, heterolithic sandstones and siltstones contain evidence for the creation of localized accommodation, suggesting synsedimentary filling, tilting and erosion of a shallow sag basin accommodated by the progressive collapse of the diapir. Two other diapirs are investigated using three‐dimensional models built from ‘structure from motion’ drone imagery. Both diapirs are interpreted to have grown predominantly through passive rise (downbuilding). Stratal relationships for all three diapirs indicate that they were uncompacted and fluid‐rich mud beds that became mobilized through soft‐sediment deformation during early burial (i.e. <50 m, likely <10 m depth). Each diapir locally controlled the stratigraphic architecture in the shallow subsurface and potentially influenced local palaeocurrents on the delta. The mud diapirs studied herein are distinct from deeper ‘shale diapirs’ that have been inferred from seismic sections worldwide, now largely disputed.     

Estimating sublimation of intercepted and sub‐canopy snow using eddy covariance systems

Direct measurements of winter water loss due to sublimation were made in a sub‐alpine forest in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Above‐and below‐canopy eddy covariance systems indicated substantial losses of winter‐season snow accumulation in the form of snowpack (0·41 mm d^?1) and intercepted snow (0·71 mm d^?1) sublimation. The partitioning between these over and under story components of water loss was highly dependent on atmospheric conditions and near‐surface conditions at and below the snow/atmosphere interface. High above‐canopy sensible heat fluxes lead to strong temperature gradients between vegetation and the snow‐surface, driving substantial specific humidity gradients at the snow surface and high sublimation rates. Intercepted snowfall resulted in rapid response of above‐canopy latent heat fluxes, high within‐canopy sublimation rates (maximum = 3·7 mm d^?1), and diminished sub‐canopy snowpack sublimation. These results indicate that sublimation losses from the sub‐canopy snowpack are strongly dependent on the partitioning of sensible and latent heat fluxes in the canopy. This compels comprehensive studies of snow sublimation in forested regions that integrate sub‐canopy and over‐story processes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Atmospheric Stability Effects on Wind Fields and Scalar Mixing Within and Just Above a Subalpine Forest in Sloping Terrain

Air temperature T _a , specific humidity q, CO₂ mole fraction χ _c , and three-dimensional winds were measured in mountainous terrain from five tall towers within a 1 km region encompassing a wide range of canopy densities. The measurements were sorted by a bulk Richardson number Ri _b . For stable conditions, we found vertical scalar differences developed over a “transition” region between 0.05 < Ri _b < 0.5. For strongly stable conditions (Ri _b > 1), the vertical scalar differences reached a maximum and remained fairly constant with increasing stability. The relationships q and χ _c have with Ri _b are explained by considering their sources and sinks. For winds, the strong momentum absorption in the upper canopy allows the canopy sublayer to be influenced by pressure gradient forces and terrain effects that lead to complex subcanopy flow patterns. At the dense-canopy sites, soil respiration coupled with wind-sheltering resulted in CO₂ near the ground being 5–7 μmol mol⁻¹ larger than aloft, even with strong above-canopy winds (near-neutral conditions). We found Ri _b -binning to be a useful tool for evaluating vertical scalar mixing; however, additional information (e.g., pressure gradients, detailed vegetation/topography, etc.) is needed to fully explain the subcanopy wind patterns. Implications of our results for CO₂ advection over heterogenous, complex terrain are discussed.     

The Late Ordovician (Sandbian) Glasford structure: A marine‐target impact crater with a possible connection to the Ordovician meteorite event

The Glasford structure in Illinois (USA) was recognized as a buried impact crater in the early 1960s but has never been reassessed in light of recent advances in planetary science. Here, we document shatter cones and previously unknown quartz microdeformation features that support an impact origin for the Glasford structure. We identify the 4 km wide structure as a complex buried impact crater and describe syn‐ and postimpact deposits from its annular trough. We have informally designated these deposits as the Kingston Mines unit (KM). The fossils and sedimentology of the KM indicate a marine depositional setting. The various intervals within the KM constitute a succession of breccia, carbonate, sandstone, and shale similar to marine sedimentary successions preserved in other craters. Graptolite specimens retrieved from the KM place the time of deposition at approximately 455 ± 2 Ma (Late Ordovician, Sandbian). This age determination suggests a possible link between the Glasford impact and the Ordovician meteorite shower, an increase in the rate of terrestrial meteorite impacts attributed to the breakup of the L‐chondrite parent body in the main asteroid belt.     

Petrography and origin of deposits at the Bentheim bitumen mine, north western Germany

The fracture-bound deposit at the Sieringhoek (Bentheim) bitumen mine in NW Germany has yielded a substantial quantity of bitumen ore. Emplacement of the bitumen into the fracture system occurred under high pressure, causing brecciation and impregnation of the host Gildehaus Sandstone. Subsequently the bitumen was brecciated and cemented by calcite and calcite-entrained sand. Bitumen injection followed fracturing into a hydro-carbon reservoir at depth, generated from a Jurassic/Cretaceous source rock. Diagenesis of the host rock was largely completed by the time of bitumen injection, reflecting the long time gap during which source rock maturation occurred. Impurities in the bitumen include large quantities of rock fragments, abraded during injection, and crystals of metal oxides and sulphides.     

WIND observations of coherent electrostatic waves in the solar wind

The time domain sampler (TDS) experiment on WIND measures electric and magnetic wave forms with a sampling rate which reaches 120 000 points per second. We analyse here observations made in the solar wind near the Lagrange point L1. In the range of frequencies above the proton plasma frequency f_pi and smaller than or of the order of the electron plasma frequency f_pe, TDS observed three kinds of electrostatic (e.s.) waves: coherent wave packets of Langmuir waves with frequencies f ≃ f_pe, coherent wave packets with frequencies in the ion acoustic range f_pi ≥ f ≥ f_pe, and more or less isolated non-sinusoidal spikes lasting less than 1 ms. We confirm that the observed frequency of the low frequency (LF) ion acoustic wave packets is dominated by the Doppler effect: the wavelengths are short, 10 to 50 electron Debye lengths λ_D. The electric field in the isolated electrostatic structures (IES) and in the LF wave packets is more or less aligned with the solar wind magnetic field. Across the IES, which have a spatial width of the order of ≃25_D, there is a small but finite electric potential drop, implying an average electric field generally directed away from the Sun. The IES wave forms, which have not been previously reported in the solar wind, are similar, although with a smaller amplitude, to the weak double layers observed in the auroral regions, and to the electrostatic solitary waves observed in other regions in the magnetosphere. We have also studied the solar wind conditions which favour the occurrence of the three kinds of waves: all these e.s. waves are observed more or less continuously in the whole solar wind (except in the densest regions where a parasite prevents the TDS observations). The type (wave packet or IES) of the observed LF waves is mainly determined by the proton temperature and by the direction of the magnetic field, which themselves depend on the latitude of WIND with respect to the heliospheric current sheet.     

Influence of Static Habitat Attributes on Local and Regional Rocky Intertidal Community Structure

Rocky intertidal communities are structured by local environmental drivers, which can be dynamic, fluctuating on various temporal scales, or static and not greatly varying across years. We examined the role of six static drivers (distance to freshwater, tidewater glacial presence, wave exposure, fetch, beach slope, and substrate composition) on intertidal community structure across the northern Gulf of Alaska. We hypothesized that community structure is less similar at the local scale compared with the regional scale, coinciding with static drivers being less similar on smaller than larger scales. We also hypothesized that static attributes mainly drive local biological community structure. For this, we surveyed five to six sites in each of the six regions in the mid and low intertidal strata. Across regions, static attributes were not consistently different and only small clusters of sites had similar attributes. Additionally, intertidal communities were less similar on the site compared with the region level. These results suggest that these biological communities are not strongly influenced by the local static attributes measured in this study. An alternative explanation is that static attributes among our regions are not different enough to influence the biological communities. This lack of evidence for a strong static driver may be a result of our site selection, which targeted rocky sheltered communities. This suggests that this habitat may be ideal to examine the influence of dynamic drivers. We recommend that future analyses of dynamic attributes may best be performed after analyses have demonstrated that sites do not differ in static attributes.