Evidence from the Northeastern Atlantic basin for variability in the rate of the meridional overturning circulation through the last deglaciation

A first study from the subtropical western Atlantic, using ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th ratios as a kinematic proxy for deep water circulation, provided compelling evidence for a strong link between climate and the rate of Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) over the last deglaciation. However, these results warrant confirmation from additional locations and water depths because the interpretation of the sedimentary ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th ratio in terms of circulation vigor can be biased by variations in particle flux and composition. We have measured ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th in a core from the Iberian margin, in the Northeastern Atlantic basin, and have compared these new results to the data from the western Atlantic basin. We find that the reduction in the circulation during H1 and YD and the subsequent increases first recognized in the sediment deposited on Bermuda Rise are also evident in the eastern basin, in a totally different sedimentary regime, confirming that sedimentary ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th ratios record basin-wide changes in deep water circulation. However, some differences between the eastern and western records are also recognized, providing preliminary evidence to differentiate between renewal rates in the two North Atlantic basins and between shallower and deeper overturning. Our results suggest the possible existence of two sources of Glacial North Atlantic Intermediate Deep Water (GNAIW), one in the south Labrador Sea and another west of Rockall Plateau. Both sources contributed to the meridional overturning but the two had different sensitivity to meltwater from the Laurentide and the Fennoscandian ice sheets during the deglaciation. These results indicate that additional information on the geometry and strength of the ventilation of the deep Atlantic can be obtained by contrasting the evolution of sediment ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th in different sections of the Atlantic Ocean.     

Early Proterozoic,basaltic andesite tuff-breaccia: downslope,subaqueous mass transport of phreatomagmatically-generated tephra

At Bear Lake, in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt of Manitoba, 400⁺ m of thick-to very thick-bedded, generally ungraded, basaltic andesite tuff-breccia, breccia, and lapilli-tuff are intercalated with pillowed lava flows in the upper part of an early Proterozoic submarine basaltic andesite shield volcano. The fragmental rocks comprise angular, amygdaloidal blocks and lapilli, many with partial chilled selvages, in a matrix of blocky, non-amygdaloidal to highly amygdaloidal vitric basaltic andesite ash and small lapilli. Minor thin-to medium-bedded, commonly normally graded tuff occurs in the upper part of the sequence. Clasts in fragmental beds consistently have higher amygdule contents than intercalated lava flows. Although similar to pillow-fragment breccias, the Bear Lake fragmental rocks were produced by extended surtseyan-type, phreatomagmatic eruptions, with associated fire fountain activity, at a progressively subsiding, shallow water vent. Periodic tephra slumping generated debris flows that transported particles down the uppe, gentle slope of the volcano to a depositional site at a water depth of less than 1 km. Turbidity currents probably carried much fine tephra to deeper water; tuff was deposited in the preserved section only after explosive volcanism ceased.     

Creating a global warming implementation regime

This paper proposes a global warming implementation regime which addresses the issues of equity, flexibility, cost minimization, and population growth. Previously proposed international policy instruments, such as country by country targets, carbon taxes, and tradable permits, face major difficulties as stand alone proposals. The key element of the regime proposed here is to combine annual tradable permits which are allocated based on population in a fixed year with a small carbon tax ($5–10/tonne) on emissions in excess of permits. Both permits and carbon taxes are applied to national level governments, which in turn would use whatever mix of policies desired to reduce national emissions. It is suggested that the initial number of permits correspond to total global emissions in the base year; over time, the number of permits could be reduced and the tax rate increased if improved scientific knowledge so dictates. By allocating permits based on population the equity concerns of developing countries are addressed, while taxing emissions in excess of permit holdings removes the rigidity of a quota system and limits resource transfers by effectively capping the permit trading price, which is a major concern of industrialized countries. To accommodate the difficulties of countries which have not yet achieved the demographic transition, the permit allocation scheme could be subject to a one-time adjustment after 10–15 years based on some weighting of the initial and then-current populations. The proposed scheme is based on the premise that there is a large potential for reducing emissions in developed countries or limiting emission increases in developing countries, and the intention is to create competition between national level governments in implementing cost-effective emission reduction.     

Age of the Laschamp paleomagnetic excursion revisited

The reverse paleomagnetism of the lava flows of Laschamp and Olby, already discovered by Bonhommet and Babkine, is confirmed. The ages of these flows, measured by¹⁴C, thermoluminescence and K-Ar dating are respectively36,000 ± 4000 and42,000 ± 5000years. VGP's comparison of the “Laschamp event” with those of the 30,000-year Lake Mungo excursion does not show evidence of coincidence between these two events.     

Diet and gill morphology of the East Coast redeye round herring Etrumeus wongratanai off KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

Stomach content analyses and measurements of gillraker morphology were used to assess the diet and feeding ecology of the East Coast redeye round herring Etrumeus wongratanai and provide data for comparisons with other small pelagic fishes off South Africa. Samples were collected by jigging from a kayak off Scottburgh, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), over the period July 2013–May 2014. In total, 66 stomachs (containing 4 407 prey items) and 66 gill arches were examined. Stomach content analyses indicated that East Coast redeye round herring, at the time of sampling, fed on large (1 500–2 500?µm) particles, with ～2 500?µm particles making the greatest contribution to dietary carbon. The species feeds on larger particles than do anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus and sardine Sardinops sagax, but on particles of a similar size to those consumed by West Coast redeye round herring Etrumeus whiteheadi. There were significant differences in mean gillraker gaps between East Coast redeye round herring and both sardine and anchovy, but not between East Coast and West Coast redeye round herring. The differences in gillraker gaps between East Coast redeye round herring, sardine and anchovy are indicative of resource partitioning through differential feeding, based on zooplankton size. The data suggest that there is no resource partitioning between East and West coast redeye round herring, indicating that competition is likely to occur between them. However, such competition is minimised by limited spatial overlap between these two species.     

Climate records and changes in deep outflow from the Norwegian Sea ∼150–55 ka

In order to contribute to our understanding of the linkage between climate and ocean circulation we have studied benthic foraminifera from near the northern end of the Faeroe–Shetland Channel covering isotope stages 6 to lower stage 3 (∼150–55 ka). Our records demonstrate shifts between recurring assemblages, which on millennial timescales monitor the outflow history of Norwegian Sea Deep Water. The records show that the outflow is closely linked to the climate of the region as documented in the Greenland ice cores. Outflow was relatively strong during all major warmer interstadials whereas there was no outflow during the colder stadials. During isotope substage 5e outflow was stable for ∼10–12 kyr with significant changes at the beginning and end only.     

Luciola hypertelescope space observatory: versatile, upgradable high-resolution imaging, from stars to deep-field cosmology

Luciola is a large (1 km) “multi-aperture densified-pupil imaging interferometer”, or “hypertelescope” employing many small apertures, rather than a few large ones, for obtaining direct snapshot images with a high information content. A diluted collector mirror, deployed in space as a flotilla of small mirrors, focuses a sky image which is exploited by several beam-combiner spaceships. Each contains a “pupil densifier” micro-lens array to avoid the diffractive spread and image attenuation caused by the small sub-apertures. The elucidation of hypertelescope imaging properties during the last decade has shown that many small apertures tend to be far more efficient, regarding the science yield, than a few large ones providing a comparable collecting area. For similar underlying physical reasons, radio-astronomy has also evolved in the direction of many-antenna systems such as the proposed Low Frequency Array having “hundreds of thousands of individual receivers”. With its high limiting magnitude, reaching the m _v?=?30 limit of HST when 100 collectors of 25 cm will match its collecting area, high-resolution direct imaging in multiple channels, broad spectral coverage from the 1,200 Å ultra-violet to the 20 μm infra-red, apodization, coronagraphic and spectroscopic capabilities, the proposed hypertelescope observatory addresses very broad and innovative science covering different areas of ESA’s Cosmic Vision program. In the initial phase, a focal spacecraft covering the UV to near IR spectral range of EMCCD photon-counting cameras (currently 200 to 1,000 nm), will image details on the surface of many stars, as well as their environment, including multiple stars and clusters. Spectra will be obtained for each resel. It will also image neutron star, black-hole and micro-quasar candidates, as well as active galactic nuclei, quasars, gravitational lenses, and other Cosmic Vision targets observable with the initial modest crowding limit. With subsequent upgrade missions, the spectral coverage can be extended from 120 nm to 20 μm, using four detectors carried by two to four focal spacecraft. The number of collector mirrors in the flotilla can also be increased from 12 to 100 and possibly 1,000. The imaging and spectroscopy of habitable exoplanets in the mid infra-red then becomes feasible once the collecting area reaches 6 m², using a specialized mid infra-red focal spacecraft. Calculations (Boccaletti et al., Icarus 145, 628–636, 2000) have shown that hypertelescope coronagraphy has unequalled sensitivity for detecting, at mid infra-red wavelengths, faint exoplanets within the exo-zodiacal glare. Later upgrades will enable the more difficult imaging and spectroscopy of these faint objects at visible wavelengths, using refined techniques of adaptive coronagraphy (Labeyrie and Le Coroller 2004). Together, the infra-red and visible spectral data carry rich information on the possible presence of life. The close environment of the central black-hole in the Milky Way will be imageable with unprecedented detail in the near infra-red. Cosmological imaging of remote galaxies at the limit of the known universe is also expected, from the ultra-violet to the near infra-red, following the first upgrade, and with greatly increasing sensitivity through successive upgrades. These areas will indeed greatly benefit from the upgrades, in terms of dynamic range, limiting complexity of the objects to be imaged, size of the elementary “Direct Imaging Field”, and limiting magnitude, approaching that of an 8-m space telescope when 1,000 apertures of 25 cm are installed. Similar gains will occur for addressing fundamental problems in physics and cosmology, particularly when observing neutron stars and black holes, single or binary, including the giant black holes, with accretion disks and jets, in active galactic nuclei beyond the Milky Way. Gravitational lensing and micro-lensing patterns, including time-variable patterns and perhaps millisecond lensing flashes which may be beamed by diffraction from sub-stellar masses at sub-parsec distances (Labeyrie, Astron Astrophys 284, 689, 1994), will also be observable initially in the favourable cases, and upgrades will greatly improve the number of observable objects. The observability of gravitational waves emitted by binary lensing masses, in the form of modulated lensing patterns, is a debated issue (Ragazzoni et al., MNRAS 345, 100–110, 2003) but will also become addressable observationally. The technology readiness of Luciola approaches levels where low-orbit testing and stepwise implementation will become feasible in the 2015–2025 time frame. For the following decades beyond 2020, once accurate formation flying techniques will be mastered, much larger hypertelescopes such as the proposed 100 km Exo-Earth Imager and the 100,000 km Neutron Star Imager should also become feasible. Luciola is therefore also seen as a precursor toward such very powerful instruments.     

Mass physical properties, sliding and erodibility of experimentally deposited and differently consolidated clayey muds (Approach, equipment, and first results)

On experimentally deposited kaolinite, illite, and Ca-bentonite consolidated under their own load or by additional vertical pressure, the progress of compaction in relation to excess pore water pressure, mass physical properties, gravitational mass movements in a tilted tank, and erodibility under running water in a flume were studied. The very low consolidated sediments near the mud/water interface do not obey the generally used theory in soil mechanics. They show a different, non-linear relationship between void ratio or water content and depth below the sedimentary surface on the one hand, or effective overburden pressure and shear strength on the other. The same is true of other physical properties such as permeability, which changes considerably with depth and time of consolidation. High sedimentation rates on slopes induce shallow sediment flow, whereas at low rates and critical slope angles different types of slope failures including the breaking up of water-rich sediment into sharp boundered blocks are observed. Flume studies on soft clay muds show three different types of erosion: continuously suspending, discontinuous erosion of crumbs or shreds, and wavy deformation of the clay surface with disintegration of particles from the crests. The critical tractive stress depends not only on clay type, void ratio, and shear strength, but significantly also on the ‘geologic history’of the clay (i.e. deposition from thin suspension or dense slurry, fabric, consolidation and swelling generating minute inhomogeneities etc.). The experiments may lead to a better understanding of all mechanical processe's including pore-water flow taking place near or not far below the sediment/ water interface.     

Mid-latitude Southern Indian Ocean response to Northern Hemisphere Heinrich events

The lack of temporal resolution and accurate chronology of Southern Ocean marine cores has hampered comparison of glacial millennial-scale oscillations between the Southern Ocean, Antarctic ice and other records from both hemispheres. In this study, glacial climate variability is investigated over the last 50 ka using a multi-proxy approach. A precise chrono-stratigraphy was developed on the high-sedimentation rate core MD94-103 (Indian Southern Ocean, 45°35′S 86°31′E, 3560 m water depth) by geomagnetic synchronization between the later core and NAPIS75, and ¹⁴C dates. High-resolution time-series of δ¹⁸O in planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides and Neogloboquadrina pachyderma, and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) estimated from the alkenone U^K′₃₇ index and foraminifera assemblages have been generated. Temporal evolution of the two temperature proxy records is notably different during the last glacial period. While foraminifera data indicate a consistent cooling towards the last glacial maximum, anomalous warm glacial alkenone temperatures suggest a strong advection of warm “detrital” alkenones by surface waters of the Agulhas current. Superimposed to this general trend, during Heinrich events, foraminiferal SSTs point to warmer surface waters, while concurrent alkenone SSTs exhibit apparent coolings probably caused by enhanced local alkenone production. By analogy to modern observations, possible influence of ENSO-like conditions on the subantarctic Southern Ocean SSTs is discussed.