Meltwater discharge during the Holocene from the Wilkes subglacial basin revealed by beryllium isotope analysis of marine sediments

Understanding Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics related to global climate change is of scientific and societal interest as the future behaviour of the ice sheet under the currently changing climate is unknown. We present beryllium‐10 (¹⁰Be) analysis of a high‐resolution marine sediment core from the Adélie Basin near the eastern Wilkes Land margin, which is susceptible to marine ice sheet instability due to the low‐lying nature and down‐sloping trough of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin. Combined with a newly constructed age model using compound specific radiocarbon dates, the data reveal three events associated with high meteoric ¹⁰Be at ca. ~10 ka, ca. ~6.5 ka and from ca. ~4 ka. We interpret these high meteoric ¹⁰Be events to be derived from the deposition of ¹⁰Be released from the ice sheet during meltwater discharge. In particular, the shift to higher meteoric ¹⁰Be concentration at~4 ka may correspond to changes in climate patterns at this time. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

海上风电升压站平台高程确定标准的合理性研究

为保证海上风电升压电站建设的经济合理与安全可靠,合理确定海上风电升压电站平台高程十分必要。文中从波浪与潮位的遭遇组合、最大波高取值与现行相关标准的比较、最大波峰高度计算的合理性等方面,全面分析了确定海上风电升压站平台高程各组成项取值标准的合理性,研究认为现行标准明显偏高。建议海上升压站平台底部高程按"100年一遇极端高水位+重现期50年波列累积频率1%的最大波峰高度+安全超高"确定。结合工程实例计算分析,按本文建议可使海上升压站平台高程明显降低,从而节省工程造价,还可减轻升压站工程对周边风机的遮蔽影响,以达到多发电量的效果。     

A multiscale work-analysis approach for geotechnical structures

This paper presents a second-order work analysis in application to geotechnical problems by using a novel effective multiscale approach. To abandon complicated equations involved in conventional phenomenological models, this multiscale approach employs a micromechanically-based formulation, in which only four parameters are involved. The multiscale approach makes it possible a coupling of the finite element method (FEM) and the micromechanically-based model. The FEM is used to solve the boundary value problem (BVP) while the micromechanically-based model is utilized at the Gauss point of the FEM. Then, the multiscale approach is used to simulate a three-dimensional triaxial test and a plain-strain footing. On the basis of the simulations, material instabilities are analyzed at both mesoscale and global scale. The second-order work criterion is then used to analyze the numerical results. It opens a road to interpret and understand the micromechanisms hiding behind the occurrence of failure in geotechnical issues.     

Pattern,style and timing of British–Irish Ice Sheet advance and retreat over the last 45 000 years: evidence from NW Scotland and the adjacent continental shelf

Predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate warming and rising global sea level is important but difficult. This is especially so when fast-flowing glaciers or ice streams, buffered by ice shelves, are grounded on beds below sea level. What happens when these ice shelves are removed? And how do the ice stream and the surrounding ice sheet respond to the abruptly altered boundary conditions? To address these questions and others we present new geological, geomorphological, geophysical and geochronological data from the ice-stream-dominated NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The study area covers around 45 000 km² of NW Scotland and the surrounding continental shelf. Alongside seabed geomorphological mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a suite of over 100 new absolute ages (including cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages, optically stimulated luminescence ages and radiocarbon dates) collected from onshore and offshore, to build a sector-wide ice-sheet reconstruction combining all available evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. Using this information we present a detailed assessment of ice-sheet advance/retreat history, and the glaciological connections between different areas of the NW BIIS sector, at different times during the last glacial cycle. The results show a highly dynamic, partly marine, partly terrestrial, ice-sheet sector undergoing large size variations in response to sub-millennial-scale climatic (Dansgaard–Oeschger) cycles over the last 45 000 years. Superimposed on these trends we identify internally driven instabilities, operating at higher frequency, conditioned by local topographic factors, tidewater dynamics and glaciological feedbacks during deglaciation. Specifically, our new evidence indicates extensive marine-terminating ice-sheet glaciation of the NW BIIS sector during Greenland Stadials 12 to 9 – prior to the main ‘Late Weichselian’ ice-sheet glaciation. After a period of restricted glaciation, in Greenland Interstadials 8 to 6, we find good evidence for rapid renewed ice-sheet build-up in NW Scotland, with the Minch ice-stream terminus reaching the continental shelf edge in Greenland Stadial 5, perhaps only briefly. Deglaciation of the NW sector took place in numerous stages. Several grounding-zone wedges and moraines on the mid- and inner continental shelf attest to significant stabilizations of the ice-sheet grounding line, or ice margin, during overall retreat in Greenland Stadials 3 and 2, and to the development of ice shelves. NW Lewis was the first substantial present-day land area to deglaciate, in the first half of Greenland Stadial 3 at a time of globally reduced sea-level c. 26 kabp , followed by Cape Wrath at c. 24 kabp. The topographic confinement of the Minch straits probably promoted ice-shelf development in early Greenland Stadial 2, providing the ice stream with additional support and buffering it somewhat from external drivers. However, c. 20–19 kabp , as the grounding-line migrated into shoreward deepening water, coinciding with a marked change in marine geology and bed strength, the ice stream became unstable. We find that, once underway, grounding-line retreat proceeded in an uninterrupted fashion with the rapid loss of fronting ice shelves – first in the west, then the east troughs – before eventual glacier stabilization at fjord mouths in NW Scotland by ~17 kabp. Around the same time, ~19–17 kabp , ice-sheet lobes readvanced into the East Minch – possibly a glaciological response to the marine-instability-triggered loss of adjacent ice stream (and/or ice shelf) support in the Minch trough. An independent ice cap on Lewis also experienced margin oscillations during mid-Greenland Stadial 2, with an ice-accumulation centre in West Lewis existing into the latter part of Heinrich Stadial 1. Final ice-sheet deglaciation of NW mainland Scotland was punctuated by at least one other coherent readvance at c. 15.5 kabp , before significant ice-mass losses thereafter. At the glacial termination, c. 14.5 kabp , glaciers fed outwash sediment to now-abandoned coastal deltas in NW mainland Scotland around the time of global Meltwater Pulse 1A. Overall, this work on the BIIS NW sector reconstructs a highly dynamic ice-sheet oscillating in extent and volume for much of the last 45 000 years. Periods of expansive ice-sheet glaciation dominated by ice-streaming were interspersed with periods of much more restricted ice-cap or tidewater/fjordic glaciation. Finally, this work indicates that the role of ice streams in ice-sheet evolution is complex but mechanistically important throughout the lifetime of an ice sheet – with ice streams contributing to the regulation of ice-sheet health but also to the acceleration of ice-sheet demise via marine ice-sheet instabilities.     

微生物-CMC无固相钻井液固壁作用与机理初探

松散破碎性地层孔壁失稳一直是困扰钻探工程界的难题之一,增强该类地层的胶结性,提高其力学性能是有效解决孔壁失稳的技术关键。本文将微生物诱导碳酸钙沉积（MICP）技术与CMC无固相钻井液相结合,构建微生物-CMC无固相钻井液体系。通过岩心浸泡实验、X射线衍射实验（XRD）以及扫描电镜分析两种微观分析手段对微生物-CMC无固相钻井液的固壁作用与机理进行了初探。结果表明：微生物-CMC无固相钻井液对松散破碎性地层具有较明显的加固作用,且作用时间越长,初始菌种浓度越高,钙源浓度越大,固壁效果越好。在固壁过程中,微生物随钻井液渗透进入试样内部,在松散颗粒之间诱导生成碳酸钙晶体,填充孔隙空间,将松散颗粒胶结成整体,并具有一定的力学强度,从而达到加固孔壁的目的。本研究结果为解决松散破碎性地层孔壁失稳提供了新的钻井液技术方案。     

CONDITIONAL NONLINEAR OPTIMAL PERTURBATIONS: APPLICATION IN TROPICAL CYCLONE FORECASTS

Considering the feature of tropical cyclones (TCs) that strong positive vorticity exists in the lower layers of troposphere, this study proposed to use vorticity at 850 hPa as cost function to find the conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation (CNOP), which was largely different from those previous studies using total energy of perturbed forecast variables. The CNOP was obtained by an ensemble-based approach. All of the sensitive areas determined by CNOP with vorticity at 850 hPa as cost function for the three cases were located over the TC core region and its vicinity. The impact of the CNOP-based adaptive observations on TC forecasts was evaluated with three cases via observational system simulation experiments (OSSEs). Results showed obvious improvements in TC intensity or track forecasts due to the CNOP-based adaptive observations, which were related to the main error source of the verification area, i.e., intensity error or location error.     

俯冲带地震诱发机制:研究进展综述

俯冲带作为地球循环体系的关键部位,具有构造活跃、地震多发以及地质条件复杂等特征。基于震源位置,俯冲带地震既可划分为板间和板内地震,也可分为浅源、中源和深源地震。俯冲带内的浅源地震包括板间地震和浅源板内地震,而中源和深源地震皆属于板内地震。在地球浅部,温度与压力低,浅源地震是由岩石发生脆性破裂或沿着先存断层发生不稳定摩擦滑移造成的。随着深度增加,温度和压力的增加使得流行于浅部的脆性和摩擦行为在无水条件下被强烈抑制,岩石从而表现为可抑制地震的韧性行为,使得中-深源地震的诱发机制有别于常规的脆性行为。随着研究的逐渐深入,人们了解到中源地震的诱发机制主要是脱水或与流体相关的致脆以及塑性剪切失稳,而深源地震的成因主要是相变致裂。然而,中-深源地震很可能是两种或两种以上机制共同作用的结果。例如,在中源深度既可能是流体相关的致脆导致脱水源区的脆性围岩产生地震,亦可能是脱水的蛇纹岩本身可能在流体孔隙压的作用下作粘滑滑移,而前者比后者更为重要。孕震带宽度大于"反裂隙模型"预测的亚稳态橄榄石冷核宽度的深源地震可能是由第一阶段的相变致裂和第二阶段的塑性剪切失稳诱发,而孕震带的实际宽度与预测宽度相当的深源地震则可能仅由相变致裂引起。只要过渡带内名义无水矿物中的结构水能释放出来,脱水致脆同样可能触发一些深源地震;而塑性剪切失稳不仅能在中-深源地震触发后的扩展阶段起着主导作用,而且还能单独触发一些中-深源地震,因此能够解释大多数反复发生的中-深源地震活动。     

A numerical study on the role of wind forcing,bottom topography,and nonhydrostacy in coastal upwelling

The responses of coastal upwelling to different magnitudes of wind stress over a narrow and a wide shelf are studied using a 3-D primitive equation numerical model. The results show that the position of the upwelling front depends on both the strength and the duration of the wind forcing. The comparison between different shelf widths shows that wide shelf will limit the cold water intrusion, so that the corresponding decrease in sea surface temperature is less compared to narrow shelves. Besides, the difference between hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic model results shows that nonhydrostatic effects will enhance the growth of surface meandering, and can be more pronounced near steep fronts. Although difference does exist, our results show that the nonhydrostatic effects are very small at least in this idealized study case.     

Nonlinearity and finite-time instability in a T21L3 quasigeostrophic model

In this paper, a nonlinear optimization method is used to explore the finite-time instability of the atmospheric circulation with a three-level quasigeostrophic model under the framework of the conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation (CNOP). As a natural generalization of linear singular vector (SV), CNOP is defined as an initial perturbation that makes the cost function the maximum at a prescribed forecast time under certain physical constraint conditions. Special attentions are paid to the different structures and energy evolutions of the optimal perturbations.     

Analytic Study on Potential Instability and Spiral Structure of Rain Clusters

This paper presents a study on potential instability and spiral structure of unstable rain clusters.First,we develop a linearized non-axisymmetrical mathematic model for rain clusters in circular cylindrical coordinates and acquire its analytic solution.Second,we discuss the potential instability of non-axisymmetrical rain clusters.Finally,we conclude that spiral structures can exist in rain clusters.Our analysis indicates that potential instability occurs when humid stratification coefficient is less than zero.Unstable growth rate increases with the increase of the absolute value for humid stratification coefficient.The simpler the vertical structure of perturbation,the thicker the inversion layer;additionally,the smaller the radius of the rain clusters,the larger the unstable growth rate.Simulation results agree well with those from observation and forecast.The spiral structure simulated by our model is similar to a radar echo,suggesting that rain clusters with spiral structures can occur in the atmosphere.In addition,they are generally close to the model solution in this work.