Flat-pebble conglomerate: its multiple origins and relationship to metre-scale depositional cycles

Carbonate flat‐pebble conglomerate is an important component of Precambrian to lower Palaeozoic strata, but its origins remain enigmatic. The Upper Cambrian to Lower Ordovician strata of the Snowy Range Formation in northern Wyoming and southern Montana contain abundant flat‐pebble conglomerate beds in shallow‐water cyclic and non‐cyclic strata. Several origins of flat‐pebble conglomerate are inferred for these strata. In one case, all stages of development of flat‐pebble conglomerate are captured within storm‐dominated shoreface deposits of hummocky cross‐stratified (HCS) fine carbonate grainstone. A variety of synsedimentary deformation structures records the transition from mildly deformed in situ stratification to buckled beds of partially disarticulated bedding to fully developed flat‐pebble conglomerate. These features resulted from failure of a shoreface and subsequent brittle and ductile deformation of compacted to early cemented deposits. Failure was induced by either storm or seismic waves, and many beds failed along discrete slide scar surfaces. Centimetre‐scale laminae within thick amalgamated HCS beds were planes of weakness that led to the development of platy clasts within partly disarticulated and rotated bedding of the buckled beds. In some cases, buckled masses accelerated downslope until they exceeded their internal friction, completely disarticulated into clasts and transformed into a mass flow of individual cm‐ to dm‐scale clasts. This transition was accompanied by the addition of sand‐sized echinoderm‐rich debris from local sources, which slightly lowered friction by reducing clast–clast interactions. The resulting dominantly horizontal clast orientations suggest transport by dense, viscous flow dominated by laminar shear. These flows generally came to rest on the lower shoreface, although in some cases they continued a limited distance beyond fairweather wave base and were interbedded with shale and grainstone beds. The clasts in these beds show no evidence of extensive reworking (i.e. not well rounded) or condensation (i.e. no rinds or coatings). A second type of flat‐pebble conglomerate bed occurs at the top of upward‐coarsening, metre‐scale cycles. The flat‐pebble conglomerate beds cap these shoaling cycles and represent either lowstand deposits or, in some cases, may represent transgressive lags. The clasts are well rounded, display borings and have iron‐rich coatings. The matrix to these beds locally includes glauconite. These beds were considerably reworked and represent condensed deposits. Thrombolites occur above the flat‐pebble beds and record microbial growth before initial transgression at the cycle boundaries. A third type of flat‐pebble conglomerate bed occurs within unusual metre‐scale, shale‐dominated, asymmetric, subaqueous cycles in Shoshone Canyon, Wyoming. Flat‐pebble beds in these cycles consist solely of clasts of carbonate nodules identical to those that are in situ within underlying shale beds. These deeper water cycles can be interpreted as either upward‐shoaling or ‐deepening cycles. The flat‐pebble conglomerate beds record winnowing and reworking of shale and carbonate nodules to lags, during either lowstand or the first stages of transgression.     

Identification of GIS Attribute Error Using Exploratory Data Analysis*

Exploratory data analysis (EDA), a data-centered, inductive approach to statistical analysis, provides effective tools for assessing the quality and integrity of GIS attribute data. This research presents selected examples demonstrating EDA distribution analyses, correlational statistics, and proximity analysis. An integrated modular software prototype to operationalize these techniques combines the mapping and display capabilities of ArcView with the statistical functionality of STATA in a MS-Windows multi-tasking, multiple-windowed environment.     

Sustained Ability of a Natural Microbial Community to Remove Nitrate from Groundwater

Microbial-mediated nitrate removal from groundwater is widely recognized as the predominant mechanism for nitrate attenuation in contaminated aquifers and is largely dependent on the presence of a carbon-bearing electron donor. The repeated exposure of a natural microbial community to an electron donor can result in the sustained ability of the community to remove nitrate; this phenomenon has been clearly demonstrated at the laboratory scale. However, in situ demonstrations of this ability are lacking. For this study, ethanol (electron donor) was repeatedly injected into a groundwater well (treatment) for six consecutive weeks to establish the sustained ability of a microbial community to remove nitrate. A second well (control) located upgradient was not injected with ethanol during this time. The treatment well demonstrated strong evidence of sustained ability as evident by ethanol, nitrate, and subsequent sulfate removal up to 21, 64, and 68%, respectively, as compared to the conservative tracer (bromide) upon consecutive exposures. Both wells were then monitored for six additional weeks under natural (no injection) conditions. During the final week, ethanol was injected into both treatment and control wells. The treatment well demonstrated sustained ability as evident by ethanol and nitrate removal up to 20 and 21%, respectively, as compared to bromide, whereas the control did not show strong evidence of nitrate removal (5% removal). Surprisingly, the treatment well did not indicate a sustained and selective enrichment of a microbial community. These results suggested that the predominant mechanism(s) of sustained ability likely exist at the enzymatic- and/or genetic-levels. The results of this study demonstrated the in situ ability of a microbial community to remove nitrate can be sustained in the prolonged absence of an electron donor.     

Conduit properties and karstification in the unconfined Floridan aquifer

Exchange of water between conduits and matrix is an important control on regional chemical compositions, karstification, and quality of ground water resources in karst aquifers. A sinking stream (Santa Fe River Sink) and its resurgence (River Rise) in the unconfined portion of the Floridan Aquifer provide the opportunity to monitor conduit inflow and outflow. The use of temperature as a tracer allows determination of residence times and velocities through the conduit system. Based on temperature records from two high water events, flow is reasonably represented as pipe flow with a cross-sectional area of 380 m2, although this model may be complicated by losses of water from the conduit system at higher discharge rates. Over the course of the study year, the River Rise discharged a total of 1.9 x 10(7) m3 more water than entered the River Sink, reflecting net contribution of ground water from the matrix into the conduit system. However, as River Sink discharge rates peaked following three rainfall events during the study period, the conduit system lost water, presumably into the matrix. Surface water in high flow events is typically undersaturated with respect to calcite and thus may lead to dissolution, depending on its residence time in the matrix. A calculation of local denudation is larger than other regional estimates, perhaps reflecting return of water to conduits before calcite equilibrium is reached. The exchange of matrix and conduit water is an important variable in karst hydrology that should be considered in management of these water resources.     

Shifts in the thermal niche of almond under climate change

Delineating geographic shifts in crop cultivation under future climate conditions provides information for land use and water management planning, and insights to meeting future demand. A suitability modeling approach was used to map the thermal niche of almond cultivation and phenological development across the Western United States (US) through the mid-21st century. The Central Valley of California remains thermally suitable for almond cultivation through the mid-21st century, and opportunities for expansion appear in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon, which is currently limited by insufficient heat accumulation. Modeled almond phenology shows a compression in reproductive development under future climate. By the mid-21st century, almond phenology in the Central Valley showed ~?2-week delay in chill accumulation and ~?1- and ~?2.5-week advance in the timing of bloom and harvest, respectively. Although other climatic and non-climatic restrictions to almond cultivation may exist, these results highlight opportunities for shifts in the geography of high-value cropping systems, which may influence growers’ long-term land use decisions, and shape regional water and agricultural industry discussions regarding climate change adaptation options.     

Stochastic calibration of an orographic precipitation model

In this study a stochastic approach to calibration of an orographic precipitation model (Rhea, 1978) was applied in the Gunnison River Basin of south-western Colorado. The stochastic approach to model calibration was used to determine: (1) the model parameter uncertainty and sensitivity; (2) the grid-cell resolution to run the model (10 or 5 km grids); (3) the model grid rotation increment; and (4) the basin subdivision by elevation band for parameter definition. Results from the stochastic calibration are location and data dependent. Uncertainty, sensitivity and range in the final parameter sets were found to vary by grid-cell resolution and elevation. Ten km grids were found to be a more robust model configuration than 5 km grids. Grid rotation increment, tested using only 10 km grids, indicated increments of less than 10 degrees to be superior. Basin subdivision into two elevation bands was found to produce ‘optimal’ results for both 10 and 5 km grids. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrated Hydrologic Modeling to Untangle the Impacts of Water Management During Drought

Over the past century, groundwater levels in California's San Joaquin Valley have dropped by more than 30 m in some areas mostly due to excessive groundwater extraction used to irrigate agricultural lands and sustain a growing population. Between 2012 and 2015, California experienced the worst drought in its recorded history, depleting surface water supplies and further exacerbating groundwater depletion in the region. Due to a lack of groundwater regulation, exact quantities of extracted groundwater in California are unknown and hard to quantify. Recent adoption of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act has intensified efforts to identify sustainable groundwater use. However, understanding sustainable use in a highly productive agricultural system with an extremely complex surface water allocation system, variable groundwater use, and spatially extensive and diverse irrigation practices is no easy task. Using an integrated hydrologic model coupled with a land surface model, we evaluated how water management activities, specifically a suite of irrigation and groundwater pumping scenarios, impact surface water–groundwater fluxes and storage components and how those activities and the relationships between them change during drought. Results showed that groundwater pumping volume had the most significant impact on long-term water storage changes. A comparison with total water storage anomaly (TWSA) estimates from NASA's Gravity Recover and Climate Experiment (GRACE) provided some insight regarding which combinations of pumping and irrigation matched the GRACE TWSA estimates, lending credibility to these scenarios. In addition, the majority of long-term water storage changes during the recent drought occurred in groundwater storage in the deeper subsurface.