Progress in isotope paleohydrology using lake sediment cellulose

Recent advances in sample preparation techniques and mass spectrometry have fostered more routine oxygen isotope analysis of aquatic cellulose in lake sediment cores, a proxy for lake water oxygen isotope history. These methodological developments have significantly increased the feasibility of incorporating this approach into high-resolution, multi-site, and multi-proxy studies, which are frequently necessary to answer complex hydrological, hydroecological and hydroclimatic questions requiring a paleoenvironmental perspective. Direct translation of lake sediment aquatic cellulose oxygen isotope composition into lake water oxygen isotope composition offers appreciable opportunity for quantitative paleohydrological reconstructions, as evidenced by studies conducted over the past 15 years that span Holocene and pre-historical timescales.     

Determining magma flow in sills,dykes and laccoliths and their implications for sill emplacement mechanisms

Three-dimensional seismic data from the Faeroe-Shetland Basin provides detailed information on the relationships between sills, dykes, laccoliths and contemporaneous volcanic activity. The data shows that sills are predominantly concave upwards, being complete or partial versions of radially or bilaterally symmetrical forms that possess flat inner saucers connected to a flat outer rim by a steeply inclined sheet. Such morphologies are only partially modified by pre-existing faults. Sills can be sourced from dykes or the steep climbing portions of deeper sills. Both sills and dykes can provide magma to overlying volcanic fissures and sills can be shown to feed shallow laccoliths. Magma flow patterns, as revealed by opacity rendering, suggest that sills propagate upwards and outwards away from the magma feeder. As an individual sill can consist of several leaves emplaced at different stratigraphic levels, and as a sill or dyke can provide magma to volcanic fissures, other sills and laccoliths, the data suggests that neutral buoyancy concepts may not provide a complete explanation for the mechanism and level of sill emplacement. Instead, the data suggests that the presence of lithological contrasts, particularly ductile horizons such as overpressured shales may permit sill formation at any level below the neutrally buoyant level. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Ken Thomson–deceased, April 2007     

Logic-tree Approach for Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis and its Applications to the Japanese Coasts

For Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis (PTHA), we propose a logic-tree approach to construct tsunami hazard curves (relationship between tsunami height and probability of exceedance) and present some examples for Japan for the purpose of quantitative assessments of tsunami risk for important coastal facilities. A hazard curve is obtained by integration over the aleatory uncertainties, and numerous hazard curves are obtained for different branches of logic-tree representing epistemic uncertainty. A PTHA consists of a tsunami source model and coastal tsunami height estimation. We developed the logic-tree models for local tsunami sources around Japan and for distant tsunami sources along the South American subduction zones. Logic-trees were made for tsunami source zones, size and frequency of tsunamigenic earthquakes, fault models, and standard error of estimated tsunami heights. Numerical simulation rather than empirical relation was used for estimating the median tsunami heights. Weights of discrete branches that represent alternative hypotheses and interpretations were determined by the questionnaire survey for tsunami and earthquake experts, whereas those representing the error of estimated value were determined on the basis of historical data. Examples of tsunami hazard curves were illustrated for the coastal sites, and uncertainty in the tsunami hazard was displayed by 5-, 16-, 50-, 84- and 95-percentile and mean hazard curves.     

ACTIVE system for monitoring volcanic activity: A case study of the Izu-Oshima Volcano,Central Japan

A system is proposed for the monitoring of changes in the underground structure of an active volcano over time by applying a transient electromagnetic method. The monitoring system is named ACTIVE, which stands for Array of Controlled Transient-electromagnetics for Imaging Volcano Edifice. The system consists of a transmitter dipole used to generate a controlled transient electromagnetic (EM) field and an array of receivers used to measure the vertical component of the transient magnetic field at various distances, with automatic operation of both units. In order to verify the performance of the proposed system, numerical and field experiments were carried out by application of the system to the Izu-Oshima volcano, where a remarkable change in the apparent DC resistivity over time had been detected in association with the eruption in 1986.     

Water status in winter wheat grown under salt stress

1 IntroductionSalinization is one of the major problems in arid and semi-arid regions in relation to land use and in particular to agricultural production[1]. Excessive salinity leads to toxicity in crops and reduction of the availability of water to crops, by reducing the osmotic potential of the soil solution[2]. Movement of soil water induces solute transport, and solutes are transferred towards the ground surface by the upward soil-water movement caused by evaporation, resulting in an accu…     

块状硫化物矿石中硫化物的压溶和增生及成矿意义——以加拿大西部矿床为例

加拿大西部块状硫化物矿石普遍地发生过硫化物的压溶和增生。增生作用根据增生体的成分可以分为同质增生和异质增生，根据动力环境可以分为静态增生和动态增生。三晶嵌接结构可以是静态增生的产物。压溶和增生是块状硫化物矿床成岩和变质过程中的重要作用。脉石矿物的压溶可使原生矿石就地加富，硫化物的压溶可使成矿物质发生再活化。增生可促进矿质沉淀。富含硫化物的地层之所以能成为地球化学障而有利于后期热液叠加和层控矿床的形成，硫化物晶芽的增生是一种重要机制。     

Observation and research on ULF and VLF seismo－electromagnetic radiation

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Multispectral thermal infrared mapping of the 1 October 1988 Kupaianaha flow field,Kilauea volcano,Hawaii

Multispectral thermal infrared radiance measurements of the Kupaianaha flow field were acquired with the NASA airborne Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) on the morning of 1 October 1988. The TIMS data were used to map both the temperature and emissivity of the surface of the flow field. The temperature map depicted the underground storage and transport of lava. The presence of molten lava in a tube or tumulus resulted in surface temperatures that were at least 10° C above ambient. The temperature map also clearly defined the boundaries of hydrothermal plumes which resulted from the entry of lava into the ocean. The emissivity map revealed the boundaries between individual flow units within the Kupaianaha field. In general, the emissivity of the flows varied systematically with age but the relationship between age and emissivity was not unique. Distinct spectral anomalies, indicative of silica-rich surface materials, were mapped near fumaroles and ocean entry sites. This apparent enrichment in silica may have resulted from an acid-induced leaching of cations from the surfaces of glassy flows. Such incipient alteration may have been the cause for virtually all of the emissivity variations observed on the flow field, the spectral anomalies representing areas where the acid attack was most intense.     

2.8-Ma ash-flow caldera at Chegem River in the northern Caucasus Mountains (Russia), contemporaneous granites, and associated ore deposits

Diverse latest Pliocene volcanic and plutonic rocks in the north-central Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia are newly interpreted as components of a large caldera system that erupted a compositionally zoned rhyolite-dacite ash-flow sheet at 2.83 ± 0.02 Ma (sanidine and biotite ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar). Despite its location within a cratonic collision zone, the Chegem system is structurally and petrologically similar to typical calderas of continental-margin volcanic arcs. Erosional remnants of the outflow Chegem Tuff sheet extend at least 50 km north from the source caldera in the upper Chegem River. These outflow remnants were previously interpreted by others as erupted from several local vents, but petrologic similarities indicate a common origin and correlation with thick intracaldera Chegem Tuff. The 11 × 15 km caldera and associated intrusions are superbly exposed over a vertical range of 2,300 m in deep canyons above treeline (elev. to 3,800 m). Densely welded intracaldera Chegem Tuff, previously described by others as a rhyolite lava plateau, forms a single cooling unit, is > 2 km thick, and contains large slide blocks from the caldera walls. Caldera subsidence was accommodated along several concentric ring fractures. No prevolcanic floor is exposed within the central core of the caldera. The caldera-filling tuff is overlain by andesitic lavas and cut by a 2.84 ± 0.03-Ma porphyritic granodiorite intrusion that has a cooling age analytically indistinguishable from that of the tuffs. The Eldjurta Granite, a pluton exposed low in the next large canyon (Baksan River) 10 km to the northwest of the caldera, yields variable K-feldspar and biotite ages (2.8 to 1.0 Ma) through a 5-km vertical range in surface and drill-hole samples. These variable dates appear to record a prolonged complex cooling history within upper parts of another caldera-related pluton. Major W-Mo ore deposits at the Tirniauz mine are hosted in skarns and hornfels along the roof of the Eldjurta Granite, and associated aplitic phases have textural features of Climax-type molybdenite porphyries in the western USA. Similar ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages, mineral chemistry, and bulk-rock compositions indicate that the Chegem Tuff, intracaldera intrusion, and Eldjurta Granite are all parts of a large magmatic system that broadly resembles the middle Tertiary Questa caldera system and associated Mo deposits in northern New Mexico, USA. Because of their young age and superb three-dimensional exposures, rocks of the Chegem-Tirniauz region offer exceptional opportunities for detailed study of caldera structures, compositional gradients in volcanic rocks relative to cogenetic granites, and the thermal and fluid-flow history of a large young upper-crustal magmatic system.     

Complexing capacity of the nutrient medium and its relation to inhibition of algal photosynthesis by copper

The toxic effect of copper on phytoplankton production is investigated in waters having different complexing capacities. It is demonstrated that a water’s complexing capacity does not guarantee that an equivalent amount of copper could be tolerated without adversely affecting algal production. Possible explanations for these findings are offered and discussed. It is deduced that ionic copper probably is already toxic to planktonic algae at concentrations of about 10^?10 mole/l.