Sedimentology of a marine intermontane Pleistocene Gilbert-type fan-delta complex in the Crati Basin, Calabria, southern Italy

The Crati Basin is a Pliocene-Holocene extensional basin filled by the progradation of different types of marine fan-delta systems. Coarse-grained Gilbert-type fan-deltas developed during the Pleistocene. They represent the sedimentary response to a strong differential uplift involving the basin margins and the basin itself. The differential uplift was responsible for the fragmentation of the basin into several sub-basins, into which these fan-deltas prograded. The protection and lateral confinement by structural highs, steep coastlines and the absence of strong tidal action in the adjacent Ionian Sea, allowed the regular progradation of these fan-deltas in the restricted gulfs and narrow embayments of the Crati Basin. For the classical Gilbert-type (fan) deltas in lacustrine settings, homopycnal inflow favours a rapid mixing of water masses and deposition of sediment close to the river mouth. In the case of the example described here, the density contrast between the sea water and the inflowing river water caused the separation of the muddy fraction from the coarse sandy and conglomeratic part of the sediment. This allowed the development of steep mud-poor coarse-grained delta foresets. Slope instability features (slump scars, conglomeratic flow slides) are fairly scarce in the proximal parts of the San Lorenzo del Vallo system. Towards the north, where protection from the Ionian Sea was less, they increase in importance.     

Nonlinear convection in an imposed horizontal magnetic field

Abstract

Nonlinear two-dimensional magnetoconvection, with a Boussinesq fluid driven across the field-lines, is taken as a model for giant-cell convection in the sun and late-type stars. A series of numerical experiments shows the sensitivity of the horizontal scale of convection to the applied field and to the Rayleigh number R. Overstable oscillations occur in cells as broad as they are deep, but increasing R leads to steady motions of much greater wavelength. Purely geometrical effects can cause oscillation: this work implies that strong horizontal field will in general lead to time-dependent convection.     

Structure of an active foreland fold and thrust belt,Papua New Guinea

Geological structure of the active foreland fold and thrust belt of Papua New Guinea has been interpreted using high-quality seismic-reflection data. Three en échelon anticlines, the Strickland, Cecilia and Wai Asi, are located along the frontal margin of the Papuan Fold Belt. All three are foreland-vergent and cut by hinterland-dipping thrust faults that sole into a common detachment beneath the Oligocene to Miocene Darai Limestone. Two of the anticlines are linked by a right-lateral transfer zone. Folding occurs primarily in the upper 2000 m of strata, which consist of Darai Limestone overlain by Miocene to Quaternary siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. Beneath the Darai Limestone lies the less-competent shaly Ieru Formation, which exhibits disharmonic folding and variable bed thickness. Seismic-reflection data clearly show that the Plio-Pleistocene upper Era Beds are deformed to the same extent as the underlying Darai Limestone, demonstrating that most of the observed deformation has occurred during the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene.     

Evolution of non-linear α 2-dynamos and taylor's constraint

A key non-linear mechanism in a strong-field geodynamo is that a finite amplitude magnetic field drives a flow through the Lorentz force in the momentum equation and this flow feeds back on the field-generation process in the magnetic induction equation, equilibrating the field. We make use of a simpler non-linear?α?²-dynamo to investigate this mechanism in a rapidly rotating fluid spherical shell. Neglecting inertia, we use a pseudo-spectral time-stepping procedure to solve the induction equation and the momentum equation with no-slip velocity boundary conditions for a finitely conducting inner core and an insulating mantle. We present calculations for Ekman numbers (E) in the range 2.5× 10^?3 to 5.0× 10^?5, for?α?=α ₀cos?θ?sin?π?(r?r_i ) (which vanishes on both inner and outer boundaries). Solutions are steady except at lower E and higher values of?α?₀. Then they are periodic with a reversing field and a characteristic rapid increase then equally rapid decrease in magnetic energy. We have investigated the mechanism for this and shown the influence of Taylor's constraint. We comment on the application of our findings to numerical hydrodynamic dynamos.     

Logical data modelling for geographical applications

Abstract.

A formal, yet practical, GeoRelational Data Model (GRDM) is presented for the logical database design phase of the development of spatial information systems. Geographic applications are viewed in the context of information systems development. The generic needs of modelling spatial data are analyzed; it is concluded that they are not served satisfactorily by existing data models, so specifications of modelling tools for spatial application design are given. GRDM provides a set of representational constructs (relations and layers for the logical schema; virtual layers, object classes and spatial constraints for the user views) on top of well-established models. It constitutes part of a full, easily automated application design methodology. Extensive examples demonstrate the relevance, and ease-of-use of the platform-independent GRDM.     

Estevâo Cabral's pioneering contribution to open channel hydrometry

Résumé

Le portugais Estevão Cabral (1734–1811) a construit, en 1786, un moulinet lui permettant de mesurer la vitesse de l'eau à différentes profondeurs et de calculer ainsi le débit des rivières. Cabrai a été le premier chercheur qui ait utilisé un moulinet pour mesurer la vitesse de l'eau au-dessous de la surface libre, les moulinets à roue à ailettes planes utilisés auparavant ne pouvant que mesurer la vitesse à la surface. Il a aussi été le premier chercheur à soutenir que la vitesse dans les écoulements a surface libre croît depuis la surface jusqu'à un maximum à partir duquel elle décroît vers le fond.     

Evolution of a small intraplate basaltic lava field: Jerrabattgulla Creek,upper Shoalhaven River catchment,southeast New South Wales

The Jerrabattgulla Creek basalts are in the upper catchment of the Shoalhaven River of southeastern New South Wales. The basalts erupted into a narrow, north-draining valley and modified the local drainage system, re-routing the paleo-Jerrabattgulla Creek, preserving a series of sub-basaltic quartzose gravels with silcretes in the paleovalley. The paleovalley indicates that a north-flowing drainage existed in this place in the Miocene. The high-relief, narrow valley has preserved a volcanic stratigraphy allowing the magmatic evolution of this small lava field to be determined. The lavas have a large compositional range from olivine nephelinite through to quartz tholeiite, which is unusual in such a small lava field. They represent three distinct magma batches, most likely from an amphibole–apatite metasomatised sub-continental lithospheric mantle, and underwent fractional crystallisation of olivine, clinopyroxene and plagioclase and assimilated upper crust. The lava field underwent temporal change from dominantly alkaline, to mixed alkaline and subalkaline, to dominantly alkaline magmatism over the course of its evolution.