WorldWideScience

Sample records for linear glacial features

  1. Glacial Features (Point) - Quad 168 (EPPING, NH)

    Data.gov (United States)

    University of New Hampshire — The Glacial Features (Point) layer describes point features associated with surficial geology. These glacial features include, but are not limited to, delta forsets,...

  2. Glacial cycles

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaufmann, R. K.; Juselius, Katarina

    We use a statistical model, the cointegrated vector autoregressive model, to assess the degree to which variations in Earth's orbit and endogenous climate dynamics can be used to simulate glacial cycles during the late Quaternary (390 kyr-present). To do so, we estimate models of varying complexity...... and compare the accuracy of their in-sample simulations. Results indicate that strong statistical associations between endogenous climate variables are not enough for statistical models to reproduce glacial cycles. Rather, changes in solar insolation associated with changes in Earth's orbit are needed...... to simulate glacial cycles accurately. Also, results suggest that non-linear 10 dynamics, threshold effects, and/or free oscillations may not play an overriding role in glacial cycles....

  3. Evidence of a low-latitude glacial buzzsaw: Progressive hypsometry reveals height-limiting glacial erosion in tropical mountain belts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunningham, M.; Stark, C. P.; Kaplan, M. R.; Schaefer, J. M.; Winckler, G.

    2017-12-01

    It has been widely demonstrated that glacial erosion limits the height of mid-latitude mountain ranges—a phenomenon commonly referred to as the "glacial buzzsaw." The strength of the buzzsaw is thought to diminish, or die out completely, at lower latitudes, where glacial landscapes occupy only a small part of mountain belts affected by Pleistocene glaciation. Here we argue that glacial erosion has actually truncated the rise of many tropical orogens. To elicit signs of height-limiting glacial erosion in the tropics, we employ a new take on an old tool: we identify transient geomorphic features by tracking the evolution of (sub)catchment hypsometry with increasing elevation above base level, a method we term "progressive hypsometry." In several tropical mountain belts, including the Central Range of Taiwan, the Talamanca of Costa Rica, the Finisterres of Papua New Guinea, and the Rwenzoris of East Africa, progressive hypsometry reveals transient landscapes perched at various elevations, but the highest of these transient features are consistently glacial landscapes near the lower limit of late-Pleistocene glacial equilibrium line altitude (ELA) fluctuation. We attribute this pattern to an efficient glacial buzzsaw. In many cases, these glacial landscapes are undergoing contemporary destruction by headward propagating, fluvially-driven escarpments. We deduce that a duel between glacial buzzcutting and fluvially-driven scarp propagation has been ongoing throughout the Pleistocene in these places, and that the preservation potential of tropical glacial landscapes is low. To this end, we have identified possible remnants of glacial landscapes in the final stages of scarp consumption, and use 3He surface exposure age dating of boulders and bedrock surfaces in two of these landscapes to constrain major geomorphic activity to before the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum. Our work points to a profound climatic influence on the evolution of these warm, tectonically active

  4. Glacial flour in lacustrine sediments: Records of alpine glaciation in the western U.S.A. during the last glacial interval

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenbaum, J. G.; Reynolds, R. L.

    2010-12-01

    Sediments in Bear Lake (UT/ID) and Upper Klamath Lake (OR) contain glacial flour derived during the last glacial interval from the Uinta Mountains and the southern Cascade Range, respectively. Magnetic properties provide measures of glacial-flour content and, in concert with elemental and grain-size analyses, yield high-resolution records of glacial growth and decay. Creation and preservation of such records requires that (1) properties of glacial flour contrast with those of other sedimentary components and (2) magnetic minerals are neither formed nor destroyed after deposition. In the Bear Lake watershed, glaciers were confined to a small headwater area of the Bear River underlain by hematite-rich rocks of the Uinta Mountain Group (UMG), which are not exposed elsewhere in the catchment. Because UMG detritus is abundant only in Bear Lake sediments of glacial age, hard isothermal remanent magnetization (a measure of hematite content) provides a proxy for glacial flour. In contrast, the entire Upper Klamath Lake catchment, which lies to the east of the Cascade Range in southern Oregon, is underlain largely by basalt and basaltic andesite. Magnetic properties of fresh titanomagnetite-rich rock flour from glaciers on a composite volcano contrast sharply with those of detritus from unglaciated areas in which weathering destroyed some of the titanomagnetite. Ideally, well-dated records of the flux of glacial flour can be compared to ages of glacial features (e.g., moraines). For Upper Klamath Lake, quantitative measures of rock-flour content (from magnetic properties) and excellent chronology allow accurate calculation of flux. However, ages of glacial features are lacking and mafic volcanic rocks, which weather rapidly in this environment, are not well suited for cosmogenic exposure dating. At Bear Lake, estimates of glacial-flour content are less quantitative and chronology within the glacial interval must be interpolated from radiocarbon ages above and below the

  5. Ice flow models and glacial erosion over multiple glacial–interglacial cycles

    OpenAIRE

    Headley, R. M.; Ehlers, T. A.

    2015-01-01

    Mountain topography is constructed through a variety of interacting processes. Over glaciological timescales, even simple representations of glacial-flow physics can reproduce many of the distinctive features formed through glacial erosion. However, detailed comparisons at orogen time and length scales hold potential for quantifying the influence of glacial physics in landscape evolution models. We present a comparison using two different numerical models for glacial flow ov...

  6. Glacial cycles: exogenous orbital changes vs. endogenous climate dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaufmann, R. K.; Juselius, K.

    2010-04-01

    We use a statistical model, the cointegrated vector autoregressive model, to assess the degree to which variations in Earth's orbit and endogenous climate dynamics can be used to simulate glacial cycles during the late Quaternary (390 kyr-present). To do so, we estimate models of varying complexity and compare the accuracy of their in-sample simulations. Results indicate that strong statistical associations between endogenous climate variables are not enough for statistical models to reproduce glacial cycles. Rather, changes in solar insolation associated with changes in Earth's orbit are needed to simulate glacial cycles accurately. Also, results suggest that non-linear dynamics, threshold effects, and/or free oscillations may not play an overriding role in glacial cycles.

  7. A national-scale model of linear features improves predictions of farmland biodiversity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, Martin J P; Pearce-Higgins, James W; Newson, Stuart E; Scholefield, Paul; Brereton, Tom; Oliver, Tom H

    2017-12-01

    Modelling species distribution and abundance is important for many conservation applications, but it is typically performed using relatively coarse-scale environmental variables such as the area of broad land-cover types. Fine-scale environmental data capturing the most biologically relevant variables have the potential to improve these models. For example, field studies have demonstrated the importance of linear features, such as hedgerows, for multiple taxa, but the absence of large-scale datasets of their extent prevents their inclusion in large-scale modelling studies.We assessed whether a novel spatial dataset mapping linear and woody-linear features across the UK improves the performance of abundance models of 18 bird and 24 butterfly species across 3723 and 1547 UK monitoring sites, respectively.Although improvements in explanatory power were small, the inclusion of linear features data significantly improved model predictive performance for many species. For some species, the importance of linear features depended on landscape context, with greater importance in agricultural areas. Synthesis and applications . This study demonstrates that a national-scale model of the extent and distribution of linear features improves predictions of farmland biodiversity. The ability to model spatial variability in the role of linear features such as hedgerows will be important in targeting agri-environment schemes to maximally deliver biodiversity benefits. Although this study focuses on farmland, data on the extent of different linear features are likely to improve species distribution and abundance models in a wide range of systems and also can potentially be used to assess habitat connectivity.

  8. Glacial Boundary Features Delineated Using Enhanced-resolution Passive-microwave Data to Determine Melt Season Variation of the Vatnajokull Ice Cap, Iceland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marzillier, D. M.; Ramage, J. M.

    2017-12-01

    Temperate glaciers such as those seen in Iceland experience high annual mass flux, thereby responding to small scale changes in Earth's climate. Decadal changes in the glacial margins of Iceland's ice caps are observable in the Landsat record, however twice daily AMSR-E Calibrated Enhanced-Resolution Passive Microwave Daily EASE-Grid 2.0 Brightness Temperature (CETB) Earth System Data Record (ESDR) allow for observation on a daily temporal scale and a 3.125 km spatial scale, which can in turn be connected to patterns seen over longer periods of time. Passive microwave data allow for careful observation of melt onset and duration in Iceland's glacial regions by recording changes in emissivity of the ice surface, known as brightness temperature (TB), which is sensitive to fluctuations in the liquid water content of snow and ice seen during melting in glaciated regions. Enhanced resolution of this data set allows for a determination of a threshold that defines the melting season. The XPGR snowmelt algorithm originally presented by Abdalati and Steffen (1995) is used as a comparison with the diurnal amplitude variation (DAV) values on Iceland's Vatnajokull ice cap located at 64.4N, -16.8W. Ground-based air temperature data in this region, digital elevation models (DEMs), and river discharge dominated by glacial runoff are used to confirm the glacial response to changes in global climate. Results show that Iceland glaciers have a bimodal distribution of brightness temperature delineating when the snow/ice is melting and refreezing. Ground based temperatures have increased on a decadal trend. Clear glacial boundaries are visible on the passive microwave delineating strong features, and we are working to understand their variability and contribution to glacier evolution. The passive microwave data set allows connections to be made between observations seen on a daily scale and the long term glacier changes observed by the Landsat satellite record that integrates the

  9. Geomorphic domains and linear features on Landsat images, Circle Quadrangle, Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simpson, S.L.

    1984-01-01

    A remote sensing study using Landsat images was undertaken as part of the Alaska Mineral Resource Assessment Program (AMRAP). Geomorphic domains A and B, identified on enhanced Landsat images, divide Circle quadrangle south of Tintina fault zone into two regional areas having major differences in surface characteristics. Domain A is a roughly rectangular, northeast-trending area of relatively low relief and simple, widely spaced drainages, except where igneous rocks are exposed. In contrast, domain B, which bounds two sides of domain A, is more intricately dissected showing abrupt changes in slope and relatively high relief. The northwestern part of geomorphic domain A includes a previously mapped tectonostratigraphic terrane. The southeastern boundary of domain A occurs entirely within the adjoining tectonostratigraphic terrane. The sharp geomorphic contrast along the southeastern boundary of domain A and the existence of known faults along this boundary suggest that the southeastern part of domain A may be a subdivision of the adjoining terrane. Detailed field studies would be necessary to determine the characteristics of the subdivision. Domain B appears to be divisible into large areas of different geomorphic terrains by east-northeast-trending curvilinear lines drawn on Landsat images. Segments of two of these lines correlate with parts of boundaries of mapped tectonostratigraphic terranes. On Landsat images prominent north-trending lineaments together with the curvilinear lines form a large-scale regional pattern that is transected by mapped north-northeast-trending high-angle faults. The lineaments indicate possible lithlogic variations and/or structural boundaries. A statistical strike-frequency analysis of the linear features data for Circle quadrangle shows that northeast-trending linear features predominate throughout, and that most northwest-trending linear features are found south of Tintina fault zone. A major trend interval of N.64-72E. in the linear

  10. Compensatory selection for roads over natural linear features by wolves in northern Ontario: Implications for caribou conservation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erica J Newton

    Full Text Available Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou in Ontario are a threatened species that have experienced a substantial retraction of their historic range. Part of their decline has been attributed to increasing densities of anthropogenic linear features such as trails, roads, railways, and hydro lines. These features have been shown to increase the search efficiency and kill rate of wolves. However, it is unclear whether selection for anthropogenic linear features is additive or compensatory to selection for natural (water linear features which may also be used for travel. We studied the selection of water and anthropogenic linear features by 52 resident wolves (Canis lupus x lycaon over four years across three study areas in northern Ontario that varied in degrees of forestry activity and human disturbance. We used Euclidean distance-based resource selection functions (mixed-effects logistic regression at the seasonal range scale with random coefficients for distance to water linear features, primary/secondary roads/railways, and hydro lines, and tertiary roads to estimate the strength of selection for each linear feature and for several habitat types, while accounting for availability of each feature. Next, we investigated the trade-off between selection for anthropogenic and water linear features. Wolves selected both anthropogenic and water linear features; selection for anthropogenic features was stronger than for water during the rendezvous season. Selection for anthropogenic linear features increased with increasing density of these features on the landscape, while selection for natural linear features declined, indicating compensatory selection of anthropogenic linear features. These results have implications for woodland caribou conservation. Prey encounter rates between wolves and caribou seem to be strongly influenced by increasing linear feature densities. This behavioral mechanism-a compensatory functional response to anthropogenic

  11. Linear feature detection algorithm for astronomical surveys - I. Algorithm description

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bektešević, Dino; Vinković, Dejan

    2017-11-01

    Computer vision algorithms are powerful tools in astronomical image analyses, especially when automation of object detection and extraction is required. Modern object detection algorithms in astronomy are oriented towards detection of stars and galaxies, ignoring completely the detection of existing linear features. With the emergence of wide-field sky surveys, linear features attract scientific interest as possible trails of fast flybys of near-Earth asteroids and meteors. In this work, we describe a new linear feature detection algorithm designed specifically for implementation in big data astronomy. The algorithm combines a series of algorithmic steps that first remove other objects (stars and galaxies) from the image and then enhance the line to enable more efficient line detection with the Hough algorithm. The rate of false positives is greatly reduced thanks to a step that replaces possible line segments with rectangles and then compares lines fitted to the rectangles with the lines obtained directly from the image. The speed of the algorithm and its applicability in astronomical surveys are also discussed.

  12. RANSAC approach for automated registration of terrestrial laser scans using linear features

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Al-Durgham

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The registration process of terrestrial laser scans (TLS targets the problem of how to combine several laser scans in order to attain better information about features than what could be obtained through single scan. The main goal of the registration process is to estimate the parameters which determine geometrical variation between the origins of datasets collected from different locations. Scale, shifts, and rotation parameters are usually used to describe such variation. This paper presents a framework for the registration of overlapping terrestrial laser scans by establishing an automatic matching strategy that uses 3D linear features. More specifically, invariant separation characteristics between 3D linear features extracted from laser scans will be used to establish hypothesized conjugate linear features between the laser scans. These candidate matches are then used to geo-reference scans relative to a common reference frame. The registration workflow simulates the well-known RANndom Sample Consensus method (RANSAC for determining the registration parameters, whereas the iterative closest projected point (ICPP is utilized to determine the most probable solution of the transformation parameters from several solutions. The experimental results prove that the proposed methodology can be used for the automatic registration of terrestrial laser scans using linear features.

  13. Multimodal Image Alignment via Linear Mapping between Feature Modalities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Yanyun; Zheng, Yuanjie; Hou, Sujuan; Chang, Yuchou; Gee, James

    2017-01-01

    We propose a novel landmark matching based method for aligning multimodal images, which is accomplished uniquely by resolving a linear mapping between different feature modalities. This linear mapping results in a new measurement on similarity of images captured from different modalities. In addition, our method simultaneously solves this linear mapping and the landmark correspondences by minimizing a convex quadratic function. Our method can estimate complex image relationship between different modalities and nonlinear nonrigid spatial transformations even in the presence of heavy noise, as shown in our experiments carried out by using a variety of image modalities.

  14. COLOR IMAGE RETRIEVAL BASED ON FEATURE FUSION THROUGH MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Seetharaman

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel technique based on feature fusion using multiple linear regression analysis, and the least-square estimation method is employed to estimate the parameters. The given input query image is segmented into various regions according to the structure of the image. The color and texture features are extracted on each region of the query image, and the features are fused together using the multiple linear regression model. The estimated parameters of the model, which is modeled based on the features, are formed as a vector called a feature vector. The Canberra distance measure is adopted to compare the feature vectors of the query and target images. The F-measure is applied to evaluate the performance of the proposed technique. The obtained results expose that the proposed technique is comparable to the other existing techniques.

  15. Linear Regression on Sparse Features for Single-Channel Speech Separation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schmidt, Mikkel N.; Olsson, Rasmus Kongsgaard

    2007-01-01

    In this work we address the problem of separating multiple speakers from a single microphone recording. We formulate a linear regression model for estimating each speaker based on features derived from the mixture. The employed feature representation is a sparse, non-negative encoding of the speech...... mixture in terms of pre-learned speaker-dependent dictionaries. Previous work has shown that this feature representation by itself provides some degree of separation. We show that the performance is significantly improved when regression analysis is performed on the sparse, non-negative features, both...

  16. Volcanic CO2 Emissions and Glacial Cycles: Coupled Oscillations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burley, J. M.; Huybers, P. J.; Katz, R. F.

    2016-12-01

    Following the mid-Pleistocene transition, the dominant period of glacial cycles changed from 40 ka to 100 ka. It is broadly accepted that the 40 ka glacial cycles were driven by cyclical changes in obliquity. However, this forcing does not explain the 100 ka glacial cycles. Mechanisms proposed for 100 ka cycles include isostatic bed depression and proglacial lakes destabilising the Laurentide ice sheet, non-linear responses to orbital eccentricity, and Antarctic ice sheets influencing deep-ocean stratification. None of these are universally accepted. Here we investigate the hypothesis that variations in volcanic CO2 emissions can cause 100 ka glacial cycles. Any proposed mechanism for 100 ka glacial cycles must give the Earth's climate system a memory of 10^4 - 10^5years. This timescale is difficult to achieve for surface processes, however it is possible for the solid Earth. Recent work suggests volcanic CO2 emissions change in response to glacial cycles [1] and that there could be a 50 ka delay in that response [2]. Such a lagged response could drive glacial cycles from 40 ka cycles to an integer multiple of the forcing period. Under what conditions could the climate system admit such a response? To address this, we use a simplified climate model modified from Huybers and Tziperman [3]. Our version comprises three component models for energy balance, ice sheet growth and atmospheric CO2 concentration. The model is driven by insolation alone with other components varying according to a system of coupled, differential equations. The model is run for 500 ka to produce several glacial cycles and the resulting changes in global ice volume and atmospheric CO2 concentration.We obtain a switch from 40 ka to 100 ka cycles as the volcanic CO2 response to glacial cycles is increased. These 100 ka cycles are phase-locked to obliquity, lasting 80 or 120 ka. Whilst the MOR response required (in this model) is larger than plausible estimates based on [2], it illustrates the

  17. Southern westerly winds: a pacemaker of Holocene glacial fluctuations in Patagonia?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sagredo, E. A.; Reynhout, S.; Kaplan, M. R.; Patricio, M. I.; Aravena, J. C.; Martini, M. A.; Schaefer, J. M.

    2017-12-01

    A well-resolved glacial chronology is crucial to compare sequences of glacial/climate events within and between regions, and thus, to unravel mechanisms underlying past climate changes. Important efforts have been made towards understanding the Holocene climate evolution of the Southern Andes; however, the timing, patterns and causes of glacial fluctuations during this period still remain elusive. Recent advances in terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating, together with the establishment of a Patagonian 10Be production rate, have opened new possibilities for establishing high-resolution glacial chronologies at centennial/decadal scale. Here we present a 10Be surface exposure chronology of fluctuations of a small, climate-sensitive mountain glacier at Mt. Fitz Roy area (49.3°S), spanning from the last glacial termination to the present. Thirty new 10Be ages show glacial advances and moraine building events at 17.1±0.9 ka, 13.5±0.5 ka, 10.2±0.7 ka or 9.9±0.5 ka, 6.9±0.2 ka, 6.1±0.3 ka, 4.5±0.2 ka and 0.5±0.1 ka. Similar to the pattern observed in New Zealand, this sequence features progressively less extensive glacial advances during the late-glacial and early Holocene, followed by advances of roughly similar extent during the mid- to late-Holocene. We suggest that while the magnitude of Holocene glacial fluctuations in Patagonia is modulated by SH summer insolation ("modulator"), the specific timing of these glacial events is influenced by centennial-scale shifts of the Southern Westerly Winds ("pacemaker").

  18. Individual Identification Using Linear Projection of Heartbeat Features

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yogendra Narain Singh

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a novel method to use the electrocardiogram (ECG signal as biometrics for individual identification. The ECG characterization is performed using an automated approach consisting of analytical and appearance methods. The analytical method extracts the fiducial features from heartbeats while the appearance method extracts the morphological features from the ECG trace. We linearly project the extracted features into a subspace of lower dimension using an orthogonal basis that represent the most significant features for distinguishing heartbeats among the subjects. Result demonstrates that the proposed characterization of the ECG signal and subsequently derived eigenbeat features are insensitive to signal variations and nonsignal artifacts. The proposed system utilizing ECG biometric method achieves the best identification rates of 85.7% for the subjects of MIT-BIH arrhythmia database and 92.49% for the healthy subjects of our IIT (BHU database. These results are significantly better than the classification accuracies of 79.55% and 84.9%, reported using support vector machine on the tested subjects of MIT-BIH arrhythmia database and our IIT (BHU database, respectively.

  19. Direct effect of ice sheets on terrestrial bicarbonate, sulphate and base cation fluxes during the last glacial cycle: minimal impact on atmospheric CO2 concentrations

    OpenAIRE

    Tranter, M.; Huybrechts, Philippe; Munhoven, G.; Sharp, M. J.; Brown, G. H.; Jones, I. W.; Hodson, A. J.; Hodgkins, R.; Wadham, J. L.

    2002-01-01

    Chemical erosion in glacial environments is normally a consequence of chemical weathering reactions dominated bysulphide oxidation linked to carbonate dissolution and the carbonation of carbonates and silicates. Solute fluxes from small valley glaciers are usually a linear function of discharge. Representative glacial solute concentrations can be derived from the linear association of solute flux with discharge. These representative glacial concentrations of the major ions are =25% of those i...

  20. Subpixel Mapping of Hyperspectral Image Based on Linear Subpixel Feature Detection and Object Optimization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhaoxin; Zhao, Liaoying; Li, Xiaorun; Chen, Shuhan

    2018-04-01

    Owing to the limitation of spatial resolution of the imaging sensor and the variability of ground surfaces, mixed pixels are widesperead in hyperspectral imagery. The traditional subpixel mapping algorithms treat all mixed pixels as boundary-mixed pixels while ignoring the existence of linear subpixels. To solve this question, this paper proposed a new subpixel mapping method based on linear subpixel feature detection and object optimization. Firstly, the fraction value of each class is obtained by spectral unmixing. Secondly, the linear subpixel features are pre-determined based on the hyperspectral characteristics and the linear subpixel feature; the remaining mixed pixels are detected based on maximum linearization index analysis. The classes of linear subpixels are determined by using template matching method. Finally, the whole subpixel mapping results are iteratively optimized by binary particle swarm optimization algorithm. The performance of the proposed subpixel mapping method is evaluated via experiments based on simulated and real hyperspectral data sets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can improve the accuracy of subpixel mapping.

  1. Late Pleistocene glacial fluctuations in Cordillera Oriental, subtropical Andes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martini, Mateo A.; Kaplan, Michael R.; Strelin, Jorge A.; Astini, Ricardo A.; Schaefer, Joerg M.; Caffee, Marc W.; Schwartz, Roseanne

    2017-09-01

    The behavior of subtropical glaciers during Middle to Late Pleistocene global glacial maxima and abrupt climate change events, specifically in Earth's most arid low-latitude regions, remains an outstanding problem in paleoclimatology. The present-day climate of Cordillera Oriental, in arid northwestern Argentina, is influenced by shifts in subtropical climate systems, including the South American Summer Monsoon. To understand better past glacier-subtropical climates during the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26.5-19 ka) and other time periods, we combined geomorphic features with forty-two precise 10Be ages on moraine boulders and reconstructed paleo-equilibrium line altitudes (ELA) at Nevado de Chañi (24°S) in the arid subtropical Andes. We found a major glacial expansion at ∼23 ± 1.6 ka, that is, during the global LGM. Additional glacial expansions are observed before the global LGM (at ∼52-39 ka), and after, at 15 ± 0.5 and 12 ± 0.6 ka. The ∼15 ka glacial event was found on both sides of Chañi and the ∼12 ka event is only recorded on the east side. Reconstructed ELAs of the former glaciers exhibit a rise from east to west that resembles the present subtropical climate trajectory from the Atlantic side of the continent; hence, we infer that this climate pattern must have been present in the past. Based on comparison with other low-latitude paleoclimate records, such as those from lakes and caves, we infer that both temperature and precipitation influenced past glacial occurrence in this sector of the arid Andes. Our findings also imply that abrupt deglacial climate events associated with the North Atlantic, specifically curtailed meridional overturning circulation and regional cooling, may have had attendant impacts on low subtropical Southern Hemisphere latitudes, including the climate systems that affect glacial activity around Nevado de Chañi.

  2. Modeled seasonality of glacial abrupt climate events

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Flueckiger, Jacqueline [Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Environmental Physics, Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zuerich, Zurich (Switzerland); Knutti, Reto [Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zuerich, Zurich (Switzerland); White, James W.C. [Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Renssen, Hans [Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

    2008-11-15

    Greenland ice cores, as well as many other paleo-archives from the northern hemisphere, recorded a series of 25 warm interstadial events, the so-called Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events, during the last glacial period. We use the three-dimensional coupled global ocean-atmosphere-sea ice model ECBILT-CLIO and force it with freshwater input into the North Atlantic to simulate abrupt glacial climate events, which we use as analogues for D-O events. We focus our analysis on the Northern Hemisphere. The simulated events show large differences in the regional and seasonal distribution of the temperature and precipitation changes. While the temperature changes in high northern latitudes and in the North Atlantic region are dominated by winter changes, the largest temperature increases in most other land regions are seen in spring. Smallest changes over land are found during the summer months. Our model simulations also demonstrate that the temperature and precipitation change patterns for different intensifications of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation are not linear. The extent of the transitions varies, and local non-linearities influence the amplitude of the annual mean response as well as the response in different seasons. Implications for the interpretation of paleo-records are discussed. (orig.)

  3. Results of geophysical surveys of glacial deposits near a former waste-disposal site, Nashua, New Hampshire

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ayotte, Joseph D.; Dorgan, Tracy H.

    1995-01-01

    Geophysical investigations were done near a former waste-disposal site in Nashua, New Hampshire to determine the thickness and infer hydraulic characteristics of the glacial sediments that underlie the area. Approximately 5 miles of ground- penetrating radar (GPR) data were collected in the study area by use of dual-80 Megahertz antennas. Three distinct radar-reflection signatures were evident from the data and are interpreted to represent (1) glacial lake-bottom sediments, (2) coarse sand and gravel and (or) sandy glacial till, and (3) bedrock. The GPR signal penetrated as much as 70 feet of sediment in coarse-grained areas, but penetration depth was generally less than 40 feet in extensive areas of fine-grained deposits. Geologic features were evident in many of the profiles. Glacial-lake-bottom sediments were the most common features identified. Other features include deltas deposited in glacial Lake Nashua and lobate fans of sediment deposited subaqueously at the distal end of deltaic sediments. Cross-bedded sands were often identifiable in the deltaic sediments. Seismic-refraction data were also collected at five of the GPR data sites. In most cases, depths to the water table and to the till and (or) bedrock surface indicated by the seismic-refraction data compared favorably with depths calculated from the GPR data. Test holes were drilled at three locations to determine the true depths to radar reflectors and to determine the types of geologic material represented by the various reflectors.

  4. Electronic nose with a new feature reduction method and a multi-linear classifier for Chinese liquor classification

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jing, Yaqi; Meng, Qinghao, E-mail: qh-meng@tju.edu.cn; Qi, Peifeng; Zeng, Ming; Li, Wei; Ma, Shugen [Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, Institute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China)

    2014-05-15

    An electronic nose (e-nose) was designed to classify Chinese liquors of the same aroma style. A new method of feature reduction which combined feature selection with feature extraction was proposed. Feature selection method used 8 feature-selection algorithms based on information theory and reduced the dimension of the feature space to 41. Kernel entropy component analysis was introduced into the e-nose system as a feature extraction method and the dimension of feature space was reduced to 12. Classification of Chinese liquors was performed by using back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN), linear discrimination analysis (LDA), and a multi-linear classifier. The classification rate of the multi-linear classifier was 97.22%, which was higher than LDA and BP-ANN. Finally the classification of Chinese liquors according to their raw materials and geographical origins was performed using the proposed multi-linear classifier and classification rate was 98.75% and 100%, respectively.

  5. Electronic nose with a new feature reduction method and a multi-linear classifier for Chinese liquor classification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jing, Yaqi; Meng, Qinghao; Qi, Peifeng; Zeng, Ming; Li, Wei; Ma, Shugen

    2014-01-01

    An electronic nose (e-nose) was designed to classify Chinese liquors of the same aroma style. A new method of feature reduction which combined feature selection with feature extraction was proposed. Feature selection method used 8 feature-selection algorithms based on information theory and reduced the dimension of the feature space to 41. Kernel entropy component analysis was introduced into the e-nose system as a feature extraction method and the dimension of feature space was reduced to 12. Classification of Chinese liquors was performed by using back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN), linear discrimination analysis (LDA), and a multi-linear classifier. The classification rate of the multi-linear classifier was 97.22%, which was higher than LDA and BP-ANN. Finally the classification of Chinese liquors according to their raw materials and geographical origins was performed using the proposed multi-linear classifier and classification rate was 98.75% and 100%, respectively

  6. The linear attenuation coefficients as features of multiple energy CT image classification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Homem, M.R.P.; Mascarenhas, N.D.A.; Cruvinel, P.E.

    2000-01-01

    We present in this paper an analysis of the linear attenuation coefficients as useful features of single and multiple energy CT images with the use of statistical pattern classification tools. We analyzed four CT images through two pointwise classifiers (the first classifier is based on the maximum-likelihood criterion and the second classifier is based on the k-means clustering algorithm) and one contextual Bayesian classifier (ICM algorithm - Iterated Conditional Modes) using an a priori Potts-Strauss model. A feature extraction procedure using the Jeffries-Matusita (J-M) distance and the Karhunen-Loeve transformation was also performed. Both the classification and the feature selection procedures were found to be in agreement with the predicted discrimination given by the separation of the linear attenuation coefficient curves for different materials

  7. In and out of glacial extremes by way of dust‑climate feedbacks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaffer, Gary; Lambert, Fabrice

    2018-03-01

    Mineral dust aerosols cool Earth directly by scattering incoming solar radiation and indirectly by affecting clouds and biogeochemical cycles. Recent Earth history has featured quasi-100,000-y, glacial‑interglacial climate cycles with lower/higher temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations during glacials/interglacials. Global average, glacial maxima dust levels were more than 3 times higher than during interglacials, thereby contributing to glacial cooling. However, the timing, strength, and overall role of dust‑climate feedbacks over these cycles remain unclear. Here we use dust deposition data and temperature reconstructions from ice sheet, ocean sediment, and land archives to construct dust‑climate relationships. Although absolute dust deposition rates vary greatly among these archives, they all exhibit striking, nonlinear increases toward coldest glacial conditions. From these relationships and reconstructed temperature time series, we diagnose glacial‑interglacial time series of dust radiative forcing and iron fertilization of ocean biota, and use these time series to force Earth system model simulations. The results of these simulations show that dust‑climate feedbacks, perhaps set off by orbital forcing, push the system in and out of extreme cold conditions such as glacial maxima. Without these dust effects, glacial temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentrations would have been much more stable at higher, intermediate glacial levels. The structure of residual anomalies over the glacial‑interglacial climate cycles after subtraction of dust effects provides constraints for the strength and timing of other processes governing these cycles.

  8. Feature-space-based FMRI analysis using the optimal linear transformation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Fengrong; Morris, Drew; Lee, Wayne; Taylor, Margot J; Mills, Travis; Babyn, Paul S

    2010-09-01

    The optimal linear transformation (OLT), an image analysis technique of feature space, was first presented in the field of MRI. This paper proposes a method of extending OLT from MRI to functional MRI (fMRI) to improve the activation-detection performance over conventional approaches of fMRI analysis. In this method, first, ideal hemodynamic response time series for different stimuli were generated by convolving the theoretical hemodynamic response model with the stimulus timing. Second, constructing hypothetical signature vectors for different activity patterns of interest by virtue of the ideal hemodynamic responses, OLT was used to extract features of fMRI data. The resultant feature space had particular geometric clustering properties. It was then classified into different groups, each pertaining to an activity pattern of interest; the applied signature vector for each group was obtained by averaging. Third, using the applied signature vectors, OLT was applied again to generate fMRI composite images with high SNRs for the desired activity patterns. Simulations and a blocked fMRI experiment were employed for the method to be verified and compared with the general linear model (GLM)-based analysis. The simulation studies and the experimental results indicated the superiority of the proposed method over the GLM-based analysis in detecting brain activities.

  9. Differences in Bacterial Diversity and Communities Between Glacial Snow and Glacial Soil on the Chongce Ice Cap, West Kunlun Mountains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Guang Li; Hou, Shu Gui; Le Baoge, Ri; Li, Zhi Guo; Xu, Hao; Liu, Ya Ping; Du, Wen Tao; Liu, Yong Qin

    2016-11-04

    A detailed understanding of microbial ecology in different supraglacial habitats is important due to the unprecedented speed of glacier retreat. Differences in bacterial diversity and community structure between glacial snow and glacial soil on the Chongce Ice Cap were assessed using 454 pyrosequencing. Based on rarefaction curves, Chao1, ACE, and Shannon indices, we found that bacterial diversity in glacial snow was lower than that in glacial soil. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and heatmap analysis indicated that there were major differences in bacterial communities between glacial snow and glacial soil. Most bacteria were different between the two habitats; however, there were some common bacteria shared between glacial snow and glacial soil. Some rare or functional bacterial resources were also present in the Chongce Ice Cap. These findings provide a preliminary understanding of the shifts in bacterial diversity and communities from glacial snow to glacial soil after the melting and inflow of glacial snow into glacial soil.

  10. Cosmogenic evidence for limited local LGM glacial expansion, Denton Hills, Antarctica

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joy, Kurt; Fink, David; Storey, Bryan; De Pascale, Gregory P.; Quigley, Mark; Fujioka, Toshiyuki

    2017-12-01

    The geomorphology of the Denton Hills provides insight into the timing and magnitude of glacial retreats in a region of Antarctica isolated from the influence of the East Antarctic ice sheet. We present 26 Beryllium-10 surface exposure ages from a variety of glacial and lacustrine features in the Garwood and Miers valleys to document the glacial history of the area from 10 to 286 ka. Our data show that the cold-based Miers, Joyce and Garwood glaciers retreated little since their maximum positions at 37.2 ± 6.9 (1σ n = 4), 35.1 ± 1.5 (1σ, n = 3) and 35.6 ± 10.1 (1σ, n = 6) ka respectively. The similar timing of advance of all three glaciers and the lack of a significant glacial expansion during the global LGM suggests a local LGM for the Denton Hills between ca. 26 and 51 ka, with a mean age of 36.0 ± 7.5 (1σ, n = 13) ka. A second cohort of exposure ages provides constraints to the behaviour of Glacial Lake Trowbridge that formerly occupied Miers Valley in the late Pleistocene. These data show active modification of the landscape from ∼20 ka until the withdrawal of ice from the valley mouths, and deposition of Ross Sea Drift, at 10-14 ka.

  11. Feature Genes Selection Using Supervised Locally Linear Embedding and Correlation Coefficient for Microarray Classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Jiucheng; Mu, Huiyu; Wang, Yun; Huang, Fangzhou

    2018-01-01

    The selection of feature genes with high recognition ability from the gene expression profiles has gained great significance in biology. However, most of the existing methods have a high time complexity and poor classification performance. Motivated by this, an effective feature selection method, called supervised locally linear embedding and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (SLLE-SC 2 ), is proposed which is based on the concept of locally linear embedding and correlation coefficient algorithms. Supervised locally linear embedding takes into account class label information and improves the classification performance. Furthermore, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient is used to remove the coexpression genes. The experiment results obtained on four public tumor microarray datasets illustrate that our method is valid and feasible.

  12. Ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern Eurasia: the case of Altai-Sayan refugium.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Věra Pavelková Řičánková

    Full Text Available Pleistocene mammalian communities display unique features which differ from present-day faunas. The paleocommunities were characterized by the extraordinarily large body size of herbivores and predators and by their unique structure consisting of species now inhabiting geographically and ecologically distinct natural zones. These features were probably the result of the unique environmental conditions of ice age ecosystems. To analyze the ecological structure of Last Glacial and Recent mammal communities we classified the species into biome and trophic-size categories, using Principal Component analysis. We found a marked similarity in ecological structure between Recent eastern Altai-Sayan mammalian assemblages and comparable Pleistocene faunas. The composition of Last Glacial and Recent eastern Altai-Sayan assemblages were characterized by the occurrence of large herbivore and predator species associated with steppe, desert and alpine biomes. These three modern biomes harbor most of the surviving Pleistocene mammals. None of the analyzed Palearctic Last Glacial faunas showed affinity to the temperate forest, taiga, or tundra biome. The Eastern part of the Altai-Sayan region could be considered a refugium of the Last Glacial-like mammalian assemblages. Glacial fauna seems to persist up to present in those areas where the forest belt does not separate alpine vegetation from the steppes and deserts.

  13. Glacial sequence stratigraphy reveal the Weichselian glacial history of the SE sector of the Eurasian Ice Sheet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Räsänen, Matti

    2016-04-01

    Reconstructions of the last Weichselian glacial cycle 117,000-11,700 years (kyr) ago propose that S Finland, adjacent Russia and the Baltic countries in the SE sector of the Eurasian Ice Sheet (EIS), were glaciated during the Middle Weichselian time [marine isotope stage (MIS) 4, 71-57 kyr ago] and that this glaciation was preceded in S Finland by an Early Weichselian interstadial (MIS 5c, 105-93 kyr ago) with pine forest. Here glacial sequence stratigraphy (Powell and Cooper 2002) is applied to isolated Late Pleistocene onshore outcrop sections in S Finland. The analysed sedimentary records have traditionally been investigated, interpreted and published separately by different authors without an attempt to a methodologically more systematic survey. By putting new field data and old observations into a regional sequence stratigraphic framework it is shown how previously unnoticed regularities can be found in the lithofacies and fossil successions. It is shown that the proposed Middle Weichselian glaciation or the pine dominated interstadial did not take place at all (Räsänen et al. 2015). The one Late Weichselian glaciation (MIS 2, 29-11 kyr ago) at the SE sector of EIS was preceded in S Finland by a nearly 90 kyr long still poorly known non-glacial period, featuring tundra with permafrost and probably birch forest. The new Middle Weichselian paleoenvironmental scenario revises the configuration and hydrology of the S part of EIS and gives new setting for the evolution of Scandinavian biota. References Powell, R. D., and Cooper, J. M., 2002, A glacial sequence stratigraphic model for temperate, glaciated continental shelves, in Dowdeswell, J. A., and Cofaig, C. Ó. eds., Glacier-Influenced Sedimentation on High-Latitude Continental Margins: The Geological Society of London, London, Geological Society London, Special Publication v. 203, p. 215-244. Räsänen, M.E., Huitti, J.V., Bhattarai, S. Harvey, J. and Huttunen, S. 2015, The SE sector of the Middle

  14. The linear trend of headache prevalence and some headache features in school children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ozge, Aynur; Buğdayci, Resul; Saşmaz, Tayyar; Kaleağasi, Hakan; Kurt, Oner; Karakelle, Ali; Siva, Aksel

    2007-04-01

    The objectives of this study were to determine the age and sex dependent linear trend of recurrent headache prevalence in schoolchildren in Mersin. A stratified sample composed of 5562 children; detailed characteristics were previously published. In this study the prevalence distribution of headache by age and sex showed a peak in the female population at the age of 11 (27.2%) with a plateau in the following years. The great stratified random sample results suggested that, in addition to socio-demographic features, detailed linear trend analysis showed headache features of children with headache have some specific characteristics dependent on age, gender and headache type. This study results can constitute a basis for the future epidemiological based studies.

  15. Cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al exposure ages of tors and erratics, Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland: Timescales for the development of a classic landscape of selective linear glacial erosion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, W.M.; Hall, A.M.; Mottram, R.; Fifield, L.K.; Sugden, D.E.

    2006-01-01

    The occurrence of tors within glaciated regions has been widely cited as evidence for the preservation of relic pre-Quaternary landscapes beneath protective covers of non-erosive dry-based ice. Here, we test for the preservation of pre-Quaternary landscapes with cosmogenic surface exposure dating of tors. Numerous granite tors are present on summit plateaus in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland where they were covered by local ice caps many times during the Pleistocene. Cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al data together with geomorphic relationships reveal that these landforms are more dynamic and younger than previously suspected. Many Cairngorm tors have been bulldozed and toppled along horizontal joints by ice motion, leaving event surfaces on tor remnants and erratics that can be dated with cosmogenic nuclides. As the surfaces have been subject to episodic burial by ice, an exposure model based upon ice and marine sediment core proxies for local glacial cover is necessary to interpret the cosmogenic nuclide data. Exposure ages and weathering characteristics of tors are closely correlated. Glacially modified tors and boulder erratics with slightly weathered surfaces have 10Be exposure ages of about 15 to 43 ka. Nuclide inheritance is present in many of these surfaces. Correction for inheritance indicates that the eastern Cairngorms were deglaciated at 15.6 ?? 0.9 ka. Glacially modified tors with moderate to advanced weathering features have 10Be exposure ages of 19 to 92 ka. These surfaces were only slightly modified during the last glacial cycle and gained much of their exposure during the interstadial of marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 5 or earlier. Tors lacking evidence of glacial modification and exhibiting advanced weathering have 10Be exposure ages between 52 and 297 ka. Nuclide concentrations in these surfaces are probably controlled by bedrock erosion rates instead of discrete glacial events. Maximum erosion rates estimated from 10Be range from 2.8 to 12.0 mm/ka, with

  16. Andean glacial lakes and climate variability since the last glacial maximum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    1995-01-01

    Full Text Available LES LACS GLACIAIRES ET LA VARIABILITÉ CLIMATIQUE DANS LES ANDES DEPUIS LE DERNIER MAXIMUM GLACIAIRE. Des carottages réalisés dans des lacs glaciaires des Andes tropicales et subtropicales ont fourni des registres paléoclimatiques continus couvrant le Dernier Maximum Glaciaire et l’Holocène. Des datations 14C sur sédiments lacustres et sur tourbes indiquent que le maximum de la dernière glaciation s’est produit antérieurement au Dernier Maximum Glaciaire Global (18 ka BP. La plupart des lacs ont un âge inférieur à 13 ka BP, ce qui signifie que l’avancée des glaciers correspondant au Pleistocène terminal aurait culminé aux alentours de 14 ka BP. Des avancées durant le Tardi-glaciaire sont enregistrées dans plusieurs sites lacustres. À partir de 10 ka BP, les glaciers ont reculé au-delà de leurs limites actuelles. La sécheresse de l’Holocène moyen est repérée dans la stratigraphie de nombre de lacs, y compris le lac Titicaca. Cette phase d’aridité est suivie par une remontée des niveaux lacustres et une réavancée des glaciers à la fin de l’Holocène. LAGOS GLACIARES ANDINOS Y VARIABILIDAD CLIMÁTICA DESDE EL ÚLTIMO MÁXIMO GLACIAL. Testigos de sedimentos de los lagos glaciares en los Andes tropicales/subtropicales proporcionan registros continuos de los paleoclimas del último glacial superior y del Holoceno. Dataciones del radiocarbón de los sedimentos profundos en los lagos y de las turberas indican que el máximo del último glacial fue antes del máximo glacial global con una fecha de 18 14C ka BP. La mayoría de los lagos tienen una antigüedad menor de 13 14C ka BP, lo que significa que hubo una fase de glaciación del Pleistoceno superior culminada alrededor de 14 14C ka BP. Los avances durante el glacial superior son indicados en varios testigos de sedimentos de los lagos y, después de 10 14C ka BP, los glaciares quedaron dentro de sus límites actuales. Una sequía durante el Holoceno medio est

  17. Linear microstructural features in R5(Si,Ge)4-type alloys: Difficulties in identification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chumbley, L.S.; Ugurlu, O.; McCallum, R.W.; Dennis, K.W.; Mudryk, Y.; Gschneidner, K.A.; Pecharsky, V.K.

    2008-01-01

    A brief review of the current literature concerning compounds based upon the R 5 (Si x Ge 1-x ) 4 structure reveals that essentially all examined alloys contain 'linear features' similar to those first observed by Szade et al. on the surface of Gd 5 Si 4 , Gd 5 Si 2 Ge 2 and Gd 5 Ge 4 samples. Attempts to characterize these features, using a variety of techniques, have proven to be a difficult task. Rather than becoming clearer and better understood, discrepancies in the reported data have resulted in much confusion. A series of comprehensive experiments involving optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, magnetization, and heat capacity measurements have been performed in an attempt to clarify the situation. These experiments, coupled with a critical examination of published data, allow certain misconceptions and apparent contradictions to be understood and explained. Of major importance is the discovery that the volume fraction of the linear feature present is far lower than what one may estimate on the basis of etched samples. The results of this study support previous data that show the linear features are a second phase of composition R 5 (Si x Ge 1-x ) 3 , and reveal the various difficulties associated with proper identification of this phase due to its small size scale and low volume percentage

  18. Relative timing of last glacial maximum and late-glacial events in the central tropical Andes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bromley, Gordon R. M.; Schaefer, Joerg M.; Winckler, Gisela; Hall, Brenda L.; Todd, Claire E.; Rademaker, Kurt M.

    2009-11-01

    Whether or not tropical climate fluctuated in synchrony with global events during the Late Pleistocene is a key problem in climate research. However, the timing of past climate changes in the tropics remains controversial, with a number of recent studies reporting that tropical ice age climate is out of phase with global events. Here, we present geomorphic evidence and an in-situ cosmogenic 3He surface-exposure chronology from Nevado Coropuna, southern Peru, showing that glaciers underwent at least two significant advances during the Late Pleistocene prior to Holocene warming. Comparison of our glacial-geomorphic map at Nevado Coropuna to mid-latitude reconstructions yields a striking similarity between Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and Late-Glacial sequences in tropical and temperate regions. Exposure ages constraining the maximum and end of the older advance at Nevado Coropuna range between 24.5 and 25.3 ka, and between 16.7 and 21.1 ka, respectively, depending on the cosmogenic production rate scaling model used. Similarly, the mean age of the younger event ranges from 10 to 13 ka. This implies that (1) the LGM and the onset of deglaciation in southern Peru occurred no earlier than at higher latitudes and (2) that a significant Late-Glacial event occurred, most likely prior to the Holocene, coherent with the glacial record from mid and high latitudes. The time elapsed between the end of the LGM and the Late-Glacial event at Nevado Coropuna is independent of scaling model and matches the period between the LGM termination and Late-Glacial reversal in classic mid-latitude records, suggesting that these events in both tropical and temperate regions were in phase.

  19. Arrhythmia recognition and classification using combined linear and nonlinear features of ECG signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elhaj, Fatin A; Salim, Naomie; Harris, Arief R; Swee, Tan Tian; Ahmed, Taqwa

    2016-04-01

    Arrhythmia is a cardiac condition caused by abnormal electrical activity of the heart, and an electrocardiogram (ECG) is the non-invasive method used to detect arrhythmias or heart abnormalities. Due to the presence of noise, the non-stationary nature of the ECG signal (i.e. the changing morphology of the ECG signal with respect to time) and the irregularity of the heartbeat, physicians face difficulties in the diagnosis of arrhythmias. The computer-aided analysis of ECG results assists physicians to detect cardiovascular diseases. The development of many existing arrhythmia systems has depended on the findings from linear experiments on ECG data which achieve high performance on noise-free data. However, nonlinear experiments characterize the ECG signal more effectively sense, extract hidden information in the ECG signal, and achieve good performance under noisy conditions. This paper investigates the representation ability of linear and nonlinear features and proposes a combination of such features in order to improve the classification of ECG data. In this study, five types of beat classes of arrhythmia as recommended by the Association for Advancement of Medical Instrumentation are analyzed: non-ectopic beats (N), supra-ventricular ectopic beats (S), ventricular ectopic beats (V), fusion beats (F) and unclassifiable and paced beats (U). The characterization ability of nonlinear features such as high order statistics and cumulants and nonlinear feature reduction methods such as independent component analysis are combined with linear features, namely, the principal component analysis of discrete wavelet transform coefficients. The features are tested for their ability to differentiate different classes of data using different classifiers, namely, the support vector machine and neural network methods with tenfold cross-validation. Our proposed method is able to classify the N, S, V, F and U arrhythmia classes with high accuracy (98.91%) using a combined support

  20. Alaska Harbor Seal Glacial Surveys

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Floating glacial ice serves as a haul-out substrate for a significant number (10-15%) of Alaskan harbor seals, and thus surveying tidewater glacial fjords is an...

  1. Results of PMIP2 coupled simulations of the Mid-Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum – Part 1: experiments and large-scale features

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Zhao

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available A set of coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations using state of the art climate models is now available for the Last Glacial Maximum and the Mid-Holocene through the second phase of the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP2. This study presents the large-scale features of the simulated climates and compares the new model results to those of the atmospheric models from the first phase of the PMIP, for which sea surface temperature was prescribed or computed using simple slab ocean formulations. We consider the large-scale features of the climate change, pointing out some of the major differences between the different sets of experiments. We show in particular that systematic differences between PMIP1 and PMIP2 simulations are due to the interactive ocean, such as the amplification of the African monsoon at the Mid-Holocene or the change in precipitation in mid-latitudes at the LGM. Also the PMIP2 simulations are in general in better agreement with data than PMIP1 simulations.

  2. The amount of glacial erosion of the bedrock

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paasse, Tore

    2004-11-01

    The purpose of this study is to estimate an upper bound for the average erosion of fresh bedrock that can reasonably be expected during a glacial period or a single glaciation. The study is based on the assumption that classic sediments, formed by Scandinavian ice erosion during the Quaternary period, still exist within the formerly glaciated area or its periphery. The volume of these sediments thus constitutes the maximum average glacial erosion of bedrock within this area. This volume is calculated by estimating the thickness of the minerogenic Quaternary from well data in Sweden and Denmark and from seismic measurements in adjacent sea areas. The average thickness of the Quaternary deposits and other reogolith in the investigated area was estimated to 16 m. Assuming that the whole volume is the result of glacial erosion of fresh bedrock this corresponds to 12 m depth. However, a great part of the sediments may consist of glacially redistributed Tertiary regolith. As the amount of Tertiary regolith is uncertain the estimated maximum average glacial erosion rate in fresh bedrock is uncertain, and assuming that the total sediment volume is the result of glacial erosion leads to an overestimation of the glacial erosion depth. Considering this, the average glacial erosion during a full glacial period has been estimated to between 0.2 m and 4 m. If the extremes in the made assumptions are excluded the glacial erosion during a glacial cycle can be estimated to about 1 m

  3. The amount of glacial erosion of the bedrock

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Paasse, Tore [Geological Survey of Sweden, Uppsala (Sweden)

    2004-11-01

    The purpose of this study is to estimate an upper bound for the average erosion of fresh bedrock that can reasonably be expected during a glacial period or a single glaciation. The study is based on the assumption that classic sediments, formed by Scandinavian ice erosion during the Quaternary period, still exist within the formerly glaciated area or its periphery. The volume of these sediments thus constitutes the maximum average glacial erosion of bedrock within this area. This volume is calculated by estimating the thickness of the minerogenic Quaternary from well data in Sweden and Denmark and from seismic measurements in adjacent sea areas. The average thickness of the Quaternary deposits and other reogolith in the investigated area was estimated to 16 m. Assuming that the whole volume is the result of glacial erosion of fresh bedrock this corresponds to 12 m depth. However, a great part of the sediments may consist of glacially redistributed Tertiary regolith. As the amount of Tertiary regolith is uncertain the estimated maximum average glacial erosion rate in fresh bedrock is uncertain, and assuming that the total sediment volume is the result of glacial erosion leads to an overestimation of the glacial erosion depth. Considering this, the average glacial erosion during a full glacial period has been estimated to between 0.2 m and 4 m. If the extremes in the made assumptions are excluded the glacial erosion during a glacial cycle can be estimated to about 1 m.

  4. Holocene glacial fluctuations in southern South America

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reynhout, S.; Sagredo, E. A.; Kaplan, M. R.; Aravena, J. C.; Martini, M. A.; Strelin, J. A.; Schaefer, J. M.

    2016-12-01

    Understanding the timing and magnitude of former glacier fluctuations is critical to decipher long-term climatic trends and to unravel both natural cycles and human impact on the current glacial behavior. Despite more than seven decades of research efforts, a unifying model of Holocene glacial fluctuations in Southern South America remains elusive. Here, we present the state-of-the-art regarding the timing of Holocene glacial fluctuation in southern Patagonia-Tierra del Fuego, with a focus on a new generation of high-resolution radiocarbon and 10Be surface exposure dating chronologies. Recently acquired evidence suggest that after receding from advanced Late Glacial positions, Patagonian glaciers were for the most part close to, or even behind, present ice margins during the Early Holocene. On the other hand, emerging chronologies indicate that in some areas there were extensive expansions (century scale?) that punctuated the warm interval. Subsequently, we have evidence of multiple millennial timescale glacial advances starting in the middle Holocene. Several glacial maxima are defined by moraines and other landforms from 7000 years ago to the 19th century, with a gap sometime between 4,500 and 2,500 years ago. The last set of advances began around 800-600 years ago. Although glacial activity is documented in Patagonia at the same time as the European Little Ice Age, the extent of these glacial events are less prominent than those of the mid-Holocene. The causes that may explain these glacial fluctuations remain elusive. Finally, we discuss ongoing efforts to better define the timing and extent of Holocene glaciations in southern South America, and to establish the basis to test competing hypothesis of regional Holocene climate variability.

  5. An improved active contour model for glacial lake extraction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, H.; Chen, F.; Zhang, M.

    2017-12-01

    Active contour model is a widely used method in visual tracking and image segmentation. Under the driven of objective function, the initial curve defined in active contour model will evolve to a stable condition - a desired result in given image. As a typical region-based active contour model, C-V model has a good effect on weak boundaries detection and anti noise ability which shows great potential in glacial lake extraction. Glacial lake is a sensitive indicator for reflecting global climate change, therefore accurate delineate glacial lake boundaries is essential to evaluate hydrologic environment and living environment. However, the current method in glacial lake extraction mainly contains water index method and recognition classification method are diffcult to directly applied in large scale glacial lake extraction due to the diversity of glacial lakes and masses impacted factors in the image, such as image noise, shadows, snow and ice, etc. Regarding the abovementioned advantanges of C-V model and diffcults in glacial lake extraction, we introduce the signed pressure force function to improve the C-V model for adapting to processing of glacial lake extraction. To inspect the effect of glacial lake extraction results, three typical glacial lake development sites were selected, include Altai mountains, Centre Himalayas, South-eastern Tibet, and Landsat8 OLI imagery was conducted as experiment data source, Google earth imagery as reference data for varifying the results. The experiment consequence suggests that improved active contour model we proposed can effectively discriminate the glacial lakes from complex backgound with a higher Kappa Coefficient - 0.895, especially in some small glacial lakes which belongs to weak information in the image. Our finding provide a new approach to improved accuracy under the condition of large proportion of small glacial lakes and the possibility for automated glacial lake mapping in large-scale area.

  6. Was millennial scale climate change during the Last Glacial triggered by explosive volcanism?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baldini, James U L; Brown, Richard J; McElwaine, Jim N

    2015-11-30

    The mechanisms responsible for millennial scale climate change within glacial time intervals are equivocal. Here we show that all eight known radiometrically-dated Tambora-sized or larger NH eruptions over the interval 30 to 80 ka BP are associated with abrupt Greenland cooling (>95% confidence). Additionally, previous research reported a strong statistical correlation between the timing of Southern Hemisphere volcanism and Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events (>99% confidence), but did not identify a causative mechanism. Volcanic aerosol-induced asymmetrical hemispheric cooling over the last few hundred years restructured atmospheric circulation in a similar fashion as that associated with Last Glacial millennial-scale shifts (albeit on a smaller scale). We hypothesise that following both recent and Last Glacial NH eruptions, volcanogenic sulphate injections into the stratosphere cooled the NH preferentially, inducing a hemispheric temperature asymmetry that shifted atmospheric circulation cells southward. This resulted in Greenland cooling, Antarctic warming, and a southward shifted ITCZ. However, during the Last Glacial, the initial eruption-induced climate response was prolonged by NH glacier and sea ice expansion, increased NH albedo, AMOC weakening, more NH cooling, and a consequent positive feedback. Conversely, preferential SH cooling following large SH eruptions shifted atmospheric circulation to the north, resulting in the characteristic features of DO events.

  7. Bifurcation structure and noise assisted transitions in the Pleistocene glacial cycles

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ditlevsen, Peter

    2009-01-01

    history. It indicates the dynamical origin of the mid-Pleistocene transition from the "41 ka world'' to the "100 ka world.'' The dominant forcing in the latter is still the 41 ka obliquity cycle, but the bifurcation structure of the climate system is changed. The model suggests that transitions between......The glacial cycles are attributed to the climatic response of the orbital changes in the irradiance to the Earth. These changes in the forcing are too small to explain the observed climate variations as simple linear responses. Nonlinear amplifications of the orbital forcing are necessary...... to account for the glacial cycles. Here an empirical model of the nonlinear response is presented. From the model it is possible to assess the role of stochastic noise in comparison to the deterministic orbital forcing of the ice ages. The model is based on the bifurcation structure derived from the climate...

  8. A Cross-Domain Collaborative Filtering Algorithm Based on Feature Construction and Locally Weighted Linear Regression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Xu; Lin, Jun-Yu; Jiang, Feng; Du, Jun-Wei; Han, Ji-Zhong

    2018-01-01

    Cross-domain collaborative filtering (CDCF) solves the sparsity problem by transferring rating knowledge from auxiliary domains. Obviously, different auxiliary domains have different importance to the target domain. However, previous works cannot evaluate effectively the significance of different auxiliary domains. To overcome this drawback, we propose a cross-domain collaborative filtering algorithm based on Feature Construction and Locally Weighted Linear Regression (FCLWLR). We first construct features in different domains and use these features to represent different auxiliary domains. Thus the weight computation across different domains can be converted as the weight computation across different features. Then we combine the features in the target domain and in the auxiliary domains together and convert the cross-domain recommendation problem into a regression problem. Finally, we employ a Locally Weighted Linear Regression (LWLR) model to solve the regression problem. As LWLR is a nonparametric regression method, it can effectively avoid underfitting or overfitting problem occurring in parametric regression methods. We conduct extensive experiments to show that the proposed FCLWLR algorithm is effective in addressing the data sparsity problem by transferring the useful knowledge from the auxiliary domains, as compared to many state-of-the-art single-domain or cross-domain CF methods.

  9. Changes in Glaciers and Glacial Lakes and the Identification of Dangerous Glacial Lakes in the Pumqu River Basin, Xizang (Tibet

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao Che

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Latest satellite images have been utilized to update the inventories of glaciers and glacial lakes in the Pumqu river basin, Xizang (Tibet, in the study. Compared to the inventories in 1970s, the areas of glaciers are reduced by 19.05% while the areas of glacial lakes are increased by 26.76%. The magnitudes of glacier retreat rate and glacial lake increase rate during the period of 2001–2013 are more significant than those for the period of the 1970s–2001. The accelerated changes in areas of the glaciers and glacial lakes, as well as the increasing temperature and rising variability of precipitation, have resulted in an increased risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs in the Pumqu river basin. Integrated criteria were established to identify potentially dangerous glacial lakes based on a bibliometric analysis method. It is found, in total, 19 glacial lakes were identified as dangerous. Such finding suggests that there is an immediate need to conduct field surveys not only to validate the findings, but also to acquire information for further use in order to assure the welfare of the humans.

  10. Linear and Nonlinear Gait Features in Older Adults Walking on Inclined Surfaces at Different Speeds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vieira, Marcus Fraga; Rodrigues, Fábio Barbosa; de Sá E Souza, Gustavo Souto; Magnani, Rina Márcia; Lehnen, Georgia Cristina; Andrade, Adriano O

    2017-06-01

    This study evaluated linear and nonlinear gait features in healthy older adults walking on inclined surfaces at different speeds. Thirty-seven active older adults (experimental group) and fifty young adults (control group) walked on a treadmill at 100% and ±20% of their preferred walking speed for 4 min under horizontal (0%), upward (UP) (+8%), and downward (DOWN) (-8%) conditions. Linear gait variability was assessed using the average standard deviation of trunk acceleration between strides (VAR). Gait stability was assessed using the margin of stability (MoS). Nonlinear gait features were assessed by using the maximum Lyapunov exponent, as a measure of local dynamic stability (LDS), and sample entropy (SEn), as a measure of regularity. VAR increased for all conditions, but the interaction effects between treadmill inclination and age, and speed and age were higher for young adults. DOWN conditions showed the lowest stability in the medial-lateral MoS, but not in LDS. LDS was smaller in UP conditions. However, there were no effects of age for either MoS or LDS. The values of SEn decreased almost linearly from the DOWN to the UP conditions, with significant interaction effects of age for anterior-posterior SEn. The overall results supported the hypothesis that inclined surfaces modulate nonlinear gait features and alter linear gait variability, particularly in UP conditions, but there were no significant effects of age for active older adults.

  11. Submarine glacial landforms and interactions with volcanism around Sub-Antarctic Heard and McDonald Islands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Picard, K.; Watson, S. J.; Fox, J. M.; Post, A.; Whittaker, J. M.; Lucieer, V.; Carey, R.; Coffin, M. F.; Hodgson, D.; Hogan, K.; Graham, A. G. C.

    2017-12-01

    Unravelling the glacial history of Sub-Antarctic islands can provide clues to past climate and Antarctic ice sheet stability. The glacial history of many sub-Antarctic islands is poorly understood, including the Heard and McDonald Islands (HIMI) located on the Kerguelen Plateau in the southern Indian Ocean. The geomorphologic development of HIMI has involved a combination of construction via hotspot volcanism and mechanical erosion caused by waves, weather, and glaciers. Today, the 2.5 km2 McDonald Islands are not glacierised; in contrast, the 368 km2 Heard Island has 12 major glaciers, some extending from the summit of 2813 m to sea level. Historical accounts from Heard Island suggest that the glaciers were more extensive in the 1850s to 1870s, and have retreated at least 12% (33.89 km2) since 1997. However, surrounding bathymetry suggests a much more extensive previous glaciation of the HIMI region that encompassed 9,585 km2, likely dating back at least to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ca. 26.5 -19 ka. We present analyses of multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data, acquired aboard RV Investigator in early 2016, that support the previous existence of an extensive icecap. These data reveal widespread ice-marginal and subglacial features including moraines, over-deepened troughs, drumlins and crag-and-tails. Glacial landforms suggest paleo-ice flow directions and a glacial extent that are consistent with previously documented broad scale morphological features. We identify >660 iceberg keel scours in water depths ranging from 150 - 530 m. The orientations of the iceberg keel scours reflect the predominantly east-flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current and westerly winds in the region. 40Ar/39Ar dating of volcanic rocks from submarine volcanoes around McDonald Islands suggests that volcanism and glaciation coincided. The flat-topped morphology of these volcanoes may result from lava-ice interaction or erosion by glaciers post eruption during a time of extensive ice

  12. Glacial heritage: knowledge, inventory and promotion in the Chablais area (France, Switzerland)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perret, A.; Reynard, E.; Delannoy, J.-J.

    2012-04-01

    This study is part of an Interreg IVA project (www.123chablais.com) dealing with the promotion of different types of natural and cultural heritage in the Chablais area (French and Swiss Prealps) and is linked to the candidature of the French Chablais territory for the European Geoparks Network. The objective of the study is to develop a strategy for the promotion of the glacial heritage (landforms, deposits) in an area where the geomorphological features are highly influenced by glacial history and where key concepts in the Quaternary sciences were developed (e.g. the theory of multiple glaciations by Morlot in 1859), but that is now nearly completely deglaciated. The challenge is to find solutions to explain why the glacial heritage is so important for the regional economy and how it influences the life of inhabitants (e.g. Evian and Thonon mineral water, extraction industry, landscape and tourism), even if glaciers are not so impressive than in other parts of the Alps. The research is divided in three parts. (1) The first one aims to enhance knowledge on glacial landforms and deposits. The study area, that is quite large, has been intensively studied for more than two centuries; nevertheless, some parts have been only poorly studied. Intensive field survey was carried out to fill in the gaps of knowledge and some landforms, such as erratic boulders, have been dated in order to establish a chronology of deglaciation. All of these different elements have been included in a Geographic Information System with the aim of establishing maps of glacial stages in the Chablais area. (2) From this, an inventory of glacial geosites has been carried out, using the assessment method developed by Reynard et al. (2007). A specific focus has been on the assessment of the potential of the selected sites for educational purposes and geotourist promotion. (3) The last part has been the preparation of adapted educational and promotional supports. In particular, an exhibition will be

  13. Glacial lakes of the Central and Patagonian Andes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Ryan; Glasser, Neil F.; Reynolds, John M.; Harrison, Stephan; Anacona, Pablo Iribarren; Schaefer, Marius; Shannon, Sarah

    2018-03-01

    The prevalence and increased frequency of high-magnitude Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in the Chilean and Argentinean Andes suggests this region will be prone to similar events in the future as glaciers continue to retreat and thin under a warming climate. Despite this situation, monitoring of glacial lake development in this region has been limited, with past investigations only covering relatively small regions of Patagonia. This study presents new glacial lake inventories for 1986, 2000 and 2016, covering the Central Andes, Northern Patagonia and Southern Patagonia. Our aim was to characterise the physical attributes, spatial distribution and temporal development of glacial lakes in these three sub-regions using Landsat satellite imagery and image datasets available in Google Earth and Bing Maps. Glacial lake water volume was also estimated using an empirical area-volume scaling approach. Results reveal that glacial lakes across the study area have increased in number (43%) and areal extent (7%) between 1986 and 2016. Such changes equate to a glacial lake water volume increase of 65 km3 during the 30-year observation period. However, glacial lake growth and emergence was shown to vary sub-regionally according to localised topography, meteorology, climate change, rate of glacier change and the availability of low gradient ice areas. These and other factors are likely to influence the occurrence of GLOFs in the future. This analysis represents the first large-scale census of glacial lakes in Chile and Argentina and will allow for a better understanding of lake development in this region, as well as, providing a basis for future GLOF risk assessments.

  14. Quantitative Morphometric Analysis of Terrestrial Glacial Valleys and the Application to Mars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allred, Kory

    Although the current climate on Mars is very cold and dry, it is generally accepted that the past environments on the planet were very different. Paleo-environments may have been warm and wet with oceans and rivers. And there is abundant evidence of water ice and glaciers on the surface as well. However, much of that comes from visual interpretation of imagery and other remote sensing data. For example, some of the characteristics that have been utilized to distinguish glacial forms are the presence of landscape features that appear similar to terrestrial glacial landforms, constraining surrounding topography, evidence of flow, orientation, elevation and valley shape. The main purpose of this dissertation is to develop a model that uses quantitative variables extracted from elevation data that can accurately categorize a valley basin as either glacial or non-glacial. The application of this model will limit the inherent subjectivity of image analysis by human interpretation. The model developed uses hypsometric attributes (elevation-area relationship), a newly defined variable similar to the equilibrium line altitude for an alpine glacier, and two neighborhood search functions intended to describe the valley cross-sectional curvature, all based on a digital elevation model (DEM) of a region. The classification model uses data-mining techniques trained on several terrestrial mountain ranges in varied geologic and geographic settings. It was applied to a select set of previously catalogued locations on Mars that resemble terrestrial glaciers. The results suggest that the landforms do have a glacial origin, thus supporting much of the previous research that has identified the glacial landforms. This implies that the paleo-environment of Mars was at least episodically cold and wet, probably during a period of increased planetary obliquity. Furthermore, the results of this research and the implications thereof add to the body of knowledge for the current and past

  15. A Cross-Domain Collaborative Filtering Algorithm Based on Feature Construction and Locally Weighted Linear Regression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xu Yu

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Cross-domain collaborative filtering (CDCF solves the sparsity problem by transferring rating knowledge from auxiliary domains. Obviously, different auxiliary domains have different importance to the target domain. However, previous works cannot evaluate effectively the significance of different auxiliary domains. To overcome this drawback, we propose a cross-domain collaborative filtering algorithm based on Feature Construction and Locally Weighted Linear Regression (FCLWLR. We first construct features in different domains and use these features to represent different auxiliary domains. Thus the weight computation across different domains can be converted as the weight computation across different features. Then we combine the features in the target domain and in the auxiliary domains together and convert the cross-domain recommendation problem into a regression problem. Finally, we employ a Locally Weighted Linear Regression (LWLR model to solve the regression problem. As LWLR is a nonparametric regression method, it can effectively avoid underfitting or overfitting problem occurring in parametric regression methods. We conduct extensive experiments to show that the proposed FCLWLR algorithm is effective in addressing the data sparsity problem by transferring the useful knowledge from the auxiliary domains, as compared to many state-of-the-art single-domain or cross-domain CF methods.

  16. Little Ice Age glacial geomorphology and sedimentology of Portage Glacier, South-Central Alaska

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Córdova

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available The study of glacial landforms and deposits is important, as it isdifficult to observe processes under modern glaciers and ice-sheets. Thus landscapes and sediments that are the product of present glaciation can give insight into processes that occurred during Pleistocene times. This study investigates the genesis of little ice age glacial landforms present in Portage Glacier, South-Central Alaska. The present day moraine morphology and sedimentology in Portage Glacier valley reveals the presence of two types of till and moraines. The clast-rich sandy diamicton present on the 1852 moraine is interpreted to be a basal till indicating this feature is a pushmoraine representing an advance or a standstill position of Portage Glacier in 1852. The moderately sorted gray sandy boulder gravel present on the 1900 and 1922 moraines is interpreted to be an ice-marginal deposit (ablation till with a mixture of supraglacial and glaciofluvial sediments deposited by slumping and stream sortingprocesses. All of these features are interpreted to be ablation moraines representing glacier retreat and moraine building in 1900 and1922.

  17. Aging linear viscoelasticity of matrix-inclusion composite materials featuring ellipsoidal inclusions

    OpenAIRE

    LAVERGNE, Francis; SAB, Karam; SANAHUJA, Julien; BORNERT, Michel; TOULEMONDE, Charles

    2016-01-01

    A multi-scale homogenization scheme is proposed to estimate the time-dependent strains of fiber-reinforced concrete. This material is modeled as an aging linear viscoelastic composite material featuring ellipsoidal inclusions embedded in a viscoelastic cementitious matrix characterized by a time-dependent Poisson's ratio. To this end, the homogenization scheme proposed in Lavergne et al. [1] is adapted to the case of a time-dependent Poisson's ratio and it is successfully validated on a non-a...

  18. Late Ordovician (Ashgillian) glacial deposits in southern Jordan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner, Brian R.; Makhlouf, Issa M.; Armstrong, Howard A.

    2005-11-01

    The Late Ordovician (Ashgillian) glacial deposits in southern Jordan, comprise a lower and upper glacially incised palaeovalley system, occupying reactivated basement and Pan-African fault-controlled depressions. The lower palaeovalley, incised into shoreface sandstones of the pre-glacial Tubeiliyat Formation, is filled with thin glaciofluvial sandstones at the base, overlain by up to 50 m of shoreface sandstone. A prominent glaciated surface near the top of this palaeovalley-fill contains intersecting glacial striations aligned E-W and NW-SE. The upper palaeovalley-fill comprises glaciofluvial and marine sandstones, incised into the lower palaeovalley or, where this is absent, into the Tubeiliyat Formation. Southern Jordan lay close to the margin of a Late Ordovician terrestrial ice sheet in Northwest Saudi Arabia, characterised by two major ice advances. These are correlated with the lower and upper palaeovalleys in southern Jordan, interrupted by two subsidiary glacial advances during late stage filling of the lower palaeovalley when ice advanced from the west and northwest. Thus, four ice advances are now recorded from the Late Ordovician glacial record of southern Jordan. Disturbed and deformed green sandstones beneath the upper palaeovalley-fill in the Jebel Ammar area, are confined to the margins of the Hutayya graben, and have been interpreted as structureless glacial loessite or glacial rock flour. Petrographic and textural analyses of the deformed sandstones, their mapped lateral transition into undeformed Tubeiliyat marine sandstones away from the fault zone, and the presence of similar sedimentary structures to those in the pre-glacial marine Tubeiliyat Formation suggest that they are a locally deformed facies equivalent of the Tubeiliyat, not part of the younger glacial deposits. Deformation is attributed to glacially induced crustal stresses and seismic reactivation of pre-existing faults, previously weakened by epeirogenesis, triggering sediment

  19. AN GEOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF GLACIAL ACCUMULATION AND EROSIONAL OCCURRENCES AT THE VELEBIT AND THE BIOKOVO MTS., CROATIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Josipa Velić

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Numerous accumulation and erosional forms originating from the activity of small valley glaciers or cirque glaciers occur in the highest mountains in Croatia: Velebit (1757 m and Biokovo (1762 m. They were produced during the Upper Pleistocene, in the Würm glacial stage of the Alpine classification. Accumulation forms comprise ground, terminal and recessional moraines, drumlins, eskers, glacial erratics and glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine sediments. Single ridge eskers are often associated with areas of kame and kettle topography. Among erosional occurrences roche moutonnée (sheepback rocks, U-shaped valleys ranging in size from meso-macro, arêtes, hanging valleys, meso-sized cirques, kettles, and striations were noted. In Croatian Dinarides such forms in most cases occur between 900 and 1400 meters altitude. During the early to middle Würm glacial maximum, the snow line was above 900 m, perhaps even above 1000 m altitude, and sea levels were 120 meters lower than at present day. Considering the features of the present relief, ice cover was probably 200 to 300 m thick. Features of drumlins, eskers and kettles point to warm-based glaciers. The drumlins are small – up to 100 meters long and 50 meters wide, with the most common long axis ranging orientation from 130o – 310o. The near total absence of platy clasts, as well as their stratigraphic affiliation, largely reflects features of source rocks.

  20. Uncovering the glacial history of the Irish continental shelf (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunlop, P.; Benetti, S.; OCofaigh, C.

    2013-12-01

    In 1999 the Irish Government initiated a €32 million survey of its territorial waters known as the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS). The INSS is amongst the largest marine mapping programmes ever undertaken anywhere in the world and provides high-resolution multibeam, backscatter and seismic data of the seabed around Ireland. These data have been used to provide the first clear evidence for extensive glaciation of the continental shelf west and northwest of Ireland. Streamlined drumlins on the mid to outer shelf record former offshore-directed ice flow towards the shelf edge and show that the ice sheet was grounded in a zone of confluence where ice flowing onto the shelf from northwest Ireland merged with ice flowing across the Malin Shelf from southwest Scotland. The major glacial features on the shelf are well developed nested arcuate moraine systems that mark the position of the ice sheet margin and confirm that the former British Irish Ice Sheet was grounded as far as the shelf edge around 100 km offshore of west Donegal at the last glacial maximum. Distal to the moraines, on the outermost shelf, prominent zones of iceberg plough marks give way to the Barra/Donegal fan and a well developed system of gullies and canyons which incise the continental slope. Since 2008 several scientific cruises have retrieved cores from the shelf and slope to help build a more detailed understanding of glacial events in this region. This presentation will provide an overview of the glacial history of the Irish shelf and will discuss ongoing research programmes that are building on the initial research findings to produce a better understanding of the nature and timing of ice sheet events in this region.

  1. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT surveys on glacial deposits in Romanian Carpathians

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrei ZAMOSTEANU

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The study presents preliminary results regarding the use of electrical resistivity surveys in the assessment of the internal structure of the glacial deposits from the Romanian Carpathians.ERT is a geophysical method used to quantify changes in electrical resistivity of the ground towards passing electric current across an array of electrodes and simultaneous measurement of the induced potential gradient. Using specific software the measurements are further processed and correlated with the topography in order to obtain bedrock resistivity features. Therefore, the method is useful to evaluate the characteristics of geological strata and is widely used for mapping shallow subsurface geological structures. In the mountain regions ERT studies have been applied in different glacial and periglacial geomorphological studies - for permafrost detection (in Romanian Carpathians - Urdea et. al., 2008; Vespremeanu-Stroe et al., 2012, slope deformation analysis, the assessment of slip surface depths, sediment thickness, groundwater levels etc. One of the most commonly 2-D array used is the Wenner electrode configuration, which is moderately sensitive to both horizontal and vertical ground structures.Due to their elevations and Pleistocene’s climatic conditions, the Romanian Carpathians have been partially affected by Quaternary glaciations. The glaciers descended to about 1050-1200 m a.s.l. (Urdea and Reurther, 2009 in the Transylvanian Alps and Rodna Mountains (Eastern Carpathians carving a large number of U-shaped valleys and glacial cirques (Mîndrescu, 2006 and forming accumulations of unconsolidated glacial debris (moraines. Our study areas are two sites located in the northern (Rodna Mts. and southern (Iezer Păpuşa Mts. part of the mountain range.

  2. Linear microstructural features in R{sub 5}(Si,Ge){sub 4}-type alloys: Difficulties in identification

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chumbley, L.S. [Iowa State University, 214 Wilhelm, Ames, IA 50011 (United States); Ames Laboratory, 126 Metals Development, Ames, IA 50011 (United States)], E-mail: chumbley@iastate.edu; Ugurlu, O. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mail stop G755, Los Alamos, NM 87544 (United States); McCallum, R.W.; Dennis, K.W.; Mudryk, Y. [Ames Laboratory, 126 Metals Development, Ames, IA 50011 (United States); Gschneidner, K.A.; Pecharsky, V.K. [Iowa State University, 214 Wilhelm, Ames, IA 50011 (United States); Ames Laboratory, 126 Metals Development, Ames, IA 50011 (United States)

    2008-02-15

    A brief review of the current literature concerning compounds based upon the R{sub 5}(Si{sub x}Ge{sub 1-x}){sub 4} structure reveals that essentially all examined alloys contain 'linear features' similar to those first observed by Szade et al. on the surface of Gd{sub 5}Si{sub 4}, Gd{sub 5}Si{sub 2}Ge{sub 2} and Gd{sub 5}Ge{sub 4} samples. Attempts to characterize these features, using a variety of techniques, have proven to be a difficult task. Rather than becoming clearer and better understood, discrepancies in the reported data have resulted in much confusion. A series of comprehensive experiments involving optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, magnetization, and heat capacity measurements have been performed in an attempt to clarify the situation. These experiments, coupled with a critical examination of published data, allow certain misconceptions and apparent contradictions to be understood and explained. Of major importance is the discovery that the volume fraction of the linear feature present is far lower than what one may estimate on the basis of etched samples. The results of this study support previous data that show the linear features are a second phase of composition R{sub 5}(Si{sub x}Ge{sub 1-x}){sub 3}, and reveal the various difficulties associated with proper identification of this phase due to its small size scale and low volume percentage.

  3. Glacial greenhouse-gas fluctuations controlled by ocean circulation changes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmittner, Andreas; Galbraith, Eric D

    2008-11-20

    Earth's climate and the concentrations of the atmospheric greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and nitrous oxide (N(2)O) varied strongly on millennial timescales during past glacial periods. Large and rapid warming events in Greenland and the North Atlantic were followed by more gradual cooling, and are highly correlated with fluctuations of N(2)O as recorded in ice cores. Antarctic temperature variations, on the other hand, were smaller and more gradual, showed warming during the Greenland cold phase and cooling while the North Atlantic was warm, and were highly correlated with fluctuations in CO(2). Abrupt changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) have often been invoked to explain the physical characteristics of these Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillations, but the mechanisms for the greenhouse-gas variations and their linkage to the AMOC have remained unclear. Here we present simulations with a coupled model of glacial climate and biogeochemical cycles, forced only with changes in the AMOC. The model simultaneously reproduces characteristic features of the Dansgaard-Oeschger temperature, as well as CO(2) and N(2)O fluctuations. Despite significant changes in the land carbon inventory, CO(2) variations on millennial timescales are dominated by slow changes in the deep ocean inventory of biologically sequestered carbon and are correlated with Antarctic temperature and Southern Ocean stratification. In contrast, N(2)O co-varies more rapidly with Greenland temperatures owing to fast adjustments of the thermocline oxygen budget. These results suggest that ocean circulation changes were the primary mechanism that drove glacial CO(2) and N(2)O fluctuations on millennial timescales.

  4. Glacial conditions in the Red Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rohling, Eelco J.

    1994-10-01

    In this paper, results from previous studies on planktonic foraminifera, δ18O, and global sea level are combined to discuss climatic conditions in the Red Sea during the last glacial maximum (18,000 B.P.). First, the influence of 120-m sea level lowering on the exchange transport through the strait of Bab-el-Mandab is considered. This strait is the only natural connection of the Red Sea to the open ocean. Next, glacial Red Sea outflow salinity is estimated (about 48 parts per thousand) from the foraminiferal record. Combined, these results yield an estimate of the glacial net water deficit, which appears to have been quite similar to the present (about 2 m yr-1). Finally, budget calculation of δ18O fluxes suggests that the glacial δ18O value of evaporation was about 50% of the present value. This is considered to have resulted from substantially increased mean wind speeds over the glacial Red Sea, which would have caused a rapid drop in the kinematic fractionation factor for 18O. The sensitivity of the calculated values for water deficit and isotopic fractionation to the various assumptions and estimates is evaluated in the discussion. Improvents are to be expected especially through research on the glacial salinity contrast between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It is argued, however, that such future improvement will likely result in a worsening of the isotopic discrepancy, thus increasing the need for an additional mechanism that influenced fractionation (such as mean wind speed). This study demonstrates the need for caution when calculating paleosalinities from δ18O records under the assumption that the modern S∶δ18O relation has remained constant through time. Previously overlooked factors, such as mean wind speed, may have significantly altered that relation in the past.

  5. Robust Segmentation of Planar and Linear Features of Terrestrial Laser Scanner Point Clouds Acquired from Construction Sites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maalek, Reza; Lichti, Derek D; Ruwanpura, Janaka Y

    2018-01-01

    Automated segmentation of planar and linear features of point clouds acquired from construction sites is essential for the automatic extraction of building construction elements such as columns, beams and slabs. However, many planar and linear segmentation methods use scene-dependent similarity thresholds that may not provide generalizable solutions for all environments. In addition, outliers exist in construction site point clouds due to data artefacts caused by moving objects, occlusions and dust. To address these concerns, a novel method for robust classification and segmentation of planar and linear features is proposed. First, coplanar and collinear points are classified through a robust principal components analysis procedure. The classified points are then grouped using a new robust clustering method, the robust complete linkage method. A robust method is also proposed to extract the points of flat-slab floors and/or ceilings independent of the aforementioned stages to improve computational efficiency. The applicability of the proposed method is evaluated in eight datasets acquired from a complex laboratory environment and two construction sites at the University of Calgary. The precision, recall, and accuracy of the segmentation at both construction sites were 96.8%, 97.7% and 95%, respectively. These results demonstrate the suitability of the proposed method for robust segmentation of planar and linear features of contaminated datasets, such as those collected from construction sites. PMID:29518062

  6. DECIPHERING THE FINEST IMPRINT OF GLACIAL EROSION: OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS OF STRIAE PATTERNS ON BEDROCK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piet Stroeven

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to compare the efficiency of different mathematical and statistical geometrical methods applied to characterise the orientation distribution of striae on bedrock for deciphering the finest imprint of glacial erosion. The involved methods include automatic image analysis techniques of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT, and the experimental investigations by means of Saltikov's directed secants analysis (rose of intersection densities, applied to digital and analogue images of the striae pattern, respectively. In addition, the experimental data were compared with the modelling results made on the basis of Underwood's concept of linear systems in a plane. The experimental and modelling approaches in the framework of stereology yield consistent results. These results reveal that stereological methods allow a reliable and efficient delineation of different families of glacial striae from a complex record imprinted in bedrock.

  7. The glacial record of New Zealand's Southern Alps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaefer, J. M.; Denton, G.; Lowell, T.; Anderson, B.; Rinterknecht, V.; Schlosser, P.; Ivy-Ochs, S.; Kubik, P.; Schluechter, C.; Chinn, T.; Barrell, D.; Lifton, N.; Jull, T.

    2004-12-01

    We present detailed mapping and surface exposure dating using in-situ Be-10 and C-14 of the moraine set of Lake Pukaki, New Zealand's Southern Alps, spanning from the penultimate glaciation, over several Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) moraines, the late glacial event to Holocene glacial advances. New Zealand, a mountain ridge in the middle of the Southern Ocean, has one of the best preserved moraine records world-wide, offering the opportunity to reconstruct amplitude and timing of climate changes from Southern mid-latitudes, an area where paleoclimate data is scarce. The extensive mapping effort by G. Denton and colleagues (http://wyvern.gns.cri.nz/website/csigg/) provides a unique background for sample selection for Surface Exposure Dating. Our extensive data set (>40 samples analyzed so far) indicate that (i) the LGM in New Zealand terminated clearly prior to the Boelling/Alleroed warming, (ii) the late glacial advance is within uncertainties consistent with the timing of the Younger Dryas cold reversal; (iii) there occurred an early Holocene glacial event of the same amplitude than the Little Ice Age. This latter event is the first Holocene glacial event from the Southern Hemisphere dated by in-situ Be-10 and C-14.

  8. Phylogeographic insights into cryptic glacial refugia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Provan, Jim; Bennett, K D

    2008-10-01

    The glacial episodes of the Quaternary (2.6 million years ago-present) were a major factor in shaping the present-day distributions of extant flora and fauna, with expansions and contractions of the ice sheets rendering large areas uninhabitable for most species. Fossil records suggest that many species survived glacial maxima by retreating to refugia, usually at lower latitudes. Recently, phylogeographic studies have given support to the existence of previously unknown, or cryptic, refugia. Here we summarise many of these insights into the glacial histories of species in cryptic refugia gained through phylogeographic approaches. Understanding such refugia might be important as the Earth heads into another period of climate change, in terms of predicting the effects on species distribution and survival.

  9. Application of sediment core modelling to interpreting the glacial-interglacial record of Southern Ocean silica cycling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Ridgwell

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Sediments from the Southern Ocean reveal a meridional divide in biogeochemical cycling response to the glacial-interglacial cycles of the late Neogene. South of the present-day position of the Antarctic Polar Front in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, biogenic opal is generally much more abundant in sediments during interglacials compared to glacials. To the north, an anti-phased relationship is observed, with maximum opal abundance instead occurring during glacials. This antagonistic response of sedimentary properties provides an important model validation target for testing hypotheses of glacial-interglacial change against, particularly for understanding the causes of the concurrent variability in atmospheric CO2. Here, I illustrate a time-dependent modelling approach to helping understand climates of the past by means of the mechanistic simulation of marine sediment core records. I find that a close match between model-predicted and observed down-core changes in sedimentary opal content can be achieved when changes in seasonal sea-ice extent are imposed, whereas the predicted sedimentary response to iron fertilization on its own is not consistent with sedimentary observations. The results of this sediment record model-data comparison supports previous inferences that the changing cryosphere is the primary driver of the striking features exhibited by the paleoceanographic record of this region.

  10. Glacial magnetite dissolution in abyssal NW Pacific sediments - evidence for carbon trapping?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korff, Lucia; von Dobeneck, Tilo; Frederichs, Thomas; Kasten, Sabine; Kuhn, Gerhard; Gersonde, Rainer; Diekmann, Bernhard

    2016-04-01

    The abyssal North Pacific Ocean's large volume, depth, and terminal position on the deep oceanic conveyor make it a candidate site for deep carbon trapping as postulated by climate theory to explain the massive glacial drawdown of atmospheric CO2. As the major basins of the North Pacific have depths of 5500-6500m, far below the modern and glacial Calcite Compensation Depths (CCD), these abyssal sediments are carbonate-free and therefore not suitable for carbonate-based paleoceanographic proxy reconstructions. Instead, paleo-, rock and environmental magnetic methods are generally well applicable to hololytic abyssal muds and clays. In 2009, the international paleoceanographic research cruise SO 202 INOPEX ('Innovative North Pacific Experiment') of the German RV SONNE collected two ocean-spanning EW sediment core transects of the North Pacific and Bering Sea recovering a total of 50 piston and gravity cores from 45 sites. Out of seven here considered abyssal Northwest Pacific piston cores collected at water depths of 5100 to 5700m with mostly coherent shipboard susceptibility logs, the 20.23m long SO202-39-3, retrieved from 5102 m water depth east of northern Shatsky Rise (38°00.70'N, 164°26.78'E), was rated as the stratigraphically most promising record of the entire core transect and selected for detailed paleo- and environmental magnetic, geochemical and sedimentological investigations. This core was dated by correlating its RPI and Ba/Ti records to well-dated reference records and obviously provides a continuous sequence of the past 940 kyrs. The most striking orck magnetic features are coherent magnetite-depleted zones corresponding to glacial periods. In the interglacial sections, detrital, volcanic and even submicron bacterial magnetite fractions are excellently preserved. These alternating magnetite preservation states seem to reflect dramatic oxygenation changes in the deep North Pacific Ocean and hint at large-scale benthic glacial carbon trapping

  11. Spin fluctuations and low temperature features of thermal coefficient of linear expansion of iron monosilicide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Volkov, A.G.; Kortov, S.V.; Povzner, A.A.

    1996-01-01

    The low temperature measurements of thermal coefficient of linear expansion of strong paramagnet FeSi are carried out. The results obtained are discussed with in the framework of spin-fluctuation theory. It is shown that electronic part of the thermal coefficient of linear expansion is negative in the range of temperatures lower that of the semiconductor-metal phase transition. In metal phase it becomes positive. This specific features of the thermal coefficient is explained by the spin-fluctuation renormalization of d-electronic states density

  12. Climate Stability: Pathway to understand abrupt glacial climate shifts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, X.; Knorr, G.; Barker, S.; Lohmann, G.

    2017-12-01

    Glacial climate is marked by abrupt, millennial-scale climate changes known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) cycles that have been linked to variations in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The most pronounced stadial coolings, Heinrich Stadials (HSs), are associated with massive iceberg discharges to the North Atlantic. This motivates scientists to consider that the North Atlantic freshwater perturbations is a common trigger of the associated abrupt transitions between weak and strong AMOC states. However, recent studies suggest that the Heinrich ice-surging events are triggered by ocean subsurface warming associated with an AMOC slow-down. Furthermore, the duration of ice-rafting events does not systematically coincide with the beginning and end of the pronounced cold conditions during HSs. In this context, we show that both, changes in atmospheric CO2 and ice sheet configuration can provide important control on the stability of the AMOC, using a coupled atmosphere-ocean model. Our simulations reveal that gradual changes in Northern Hemisphere ice sheet height and atmospheric CO2 can act as a trigger of abrupt glacial/deglacial climate changes. The simulated global climate responses—including abrupt warming in the North Atlantic, a northward shift of the tropical rain belts, and Southern Hemisphere cooling related to the bipolar seesaw—are generally consistent with empirical evidence. We further find that under a delicate configuration of atmospheric CO2 and ice sheet height the AMOC can be characterized by a self-oscillation (resonance) feature (Hopf Bifucation) with a 1000-year cycle that is comparable with observed small DO events during the MIS 3. This provides an alternative explanation for millennial-scale DO variability during glacial periods.

  13. A Glacial Perspective on the Impact of Heinrich Stadials on North Atlantic Climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bromley, G. R.; Putnam, A. E.; Rademaker, K. M.; Balter, A.; Hall, B. L.

    2017-12-01

    The British Isles contain a rich geologic record of Late Pleistocene ice sheet behaviour in the NE North Atlantic basin. We are using cosmogenic 10Be surface-exposure dating, in conjunction with detailed glacial-geomorphic mapping, to reconstruct the timing and nature of cryospheric change - and thus climate variability - in northern Scotland since the Last Glacial Maximum. Our specific focus is Heinrich Stadial 1 (18,300-14,700 years ago), arguably the most significant abrupt climate event of the last glacial cycle and a major feature in global palaeoclimate records. Such constraint is needed because of currently conflicting models of how these events impact terrestrial environments and a recent hypothesis attributing this disparity to enhanced seasonality in the North Atlantic basin. To date, we have measured 10Be in > 30 samples from glacial erratics located on moraines deposited by the British Ice Sheet as it retreated from the continental shelf to its highland source regions. Our preliminary results indicate that the stadial was characterised by widespread deglaciation driven by atmospheric warming, a pattern that is suggestive of pronounced seasonality. Additionally, we report new exposure ages from moraines deposited during a subsequent phase of alpine glaciation (known locally as the Loch Lomond Readvance) that has long been attributed to the Younger Dryas stadial. With the growing focus on the full expression of stadials, and the inherent vulnerability of Europe to shifts in North Atlantic climate, developing the extant record of terrestrial glaciation and comparing these data to marine records is a critical step towards understanding the drivers of abrupt climate change.

  14. Improved binary dragonfly optimization algorithm and wavelet packet based non-linear features for infant cry classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hariharan, M; Sindhu, R; Vijean, Vikneswaran; Yazid, Haniza; Nadarajaw, Thiyagar; Yaacob, Sazali; Polat, Kemal

    2018-03-01

    Infant cry signal carries several levels of information about the reason for crying (hunger, pain, sleepiness and discomfort) or the pathological status (asphyxia, deaf, jaundice, premature condition and autism, etc.) of an infant and therefore suited for early diagnosis. In this work, combination of wavelet packet based features and Improved Binary Dragonfly Optimization based feature selection method was proposed to classify the different types of infant cry signals. Cry signals from 2 different databases were utilized. First database contains 507 cry samples of normal (N), 340 cry samples of asphyxia (A), 879 cry samples of deaf (D), 350 cry samples of hungry (H) and 192 cry samples of pain (P). Second database contains 513 cry samples of jaundice (J), 531 samples of premature (Prem) and 45 samples of normal (N). Wavelet packet transform based energy and non-linear entropies (496 features), Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) based cepstral features (56 features), Mel-frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) were extracted (16 features). The combined feature set consists of 568 features. To overcome the curse of dimensionality issue, improved binary dragonfly optimization algorithm (IBDFO) was proposed to select the most salient attributes or features. Finally, Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) kernel classifier was used to classify the different types of infant cry signals using all the features and highly informative features as well. Several experiments of two-class and multi-class classification of cry signals were conducted. In binary or two-class experiments, maximum accuracy of 90.18% for H Vs P, 100% for A Vs N, 100% for D Vs N and 97.61% J Vs Prem was achieved using the features selected (only 204 features out of 568) by IBDFO. For the classification of multiple cry signals (multi-class problem), the selected features could differentiate between three classes (N, A & D) with the accuracy of 100% and seven classes with the accuracy of 97.62%. The experimental

  15. Linear sign in cystic brain lesions ≥5 mm: A suggestive feature of perivascular space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sung, Jinkyeong; Jang, Jinhee; Choi, Hyun Seok; Jung, So-Lyung; Ahn, Kook-Jin; Kim, Bum-Soo

    2017-11-01

    To determine the prevalence of a linear sign within enlarged perivascular space (EPVS) and chronic lacunar infarction (CLI) ≥ 5 mm on T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) and time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), and to evaluate the diagnostic value of the linear signs for EPVS over CLI. This study included 101 patients with cystic lesions ≥ 5 mm on brain MRI including TOF MRA. After classification of cystic lesions into EPVS or CLI, two readers assessed linear signs on T2WI and TOF MRA. We compared the prevalence and the diagnostic performance of linear signs. Among 46 EPVS and 51 CLI, 84 lesions (86.6%) were in basal ganglia. The prevalence of T2 and TOF linear signs was significantly higher in the EPVS than in the CLI (P linear signs showed high sensitivity (> 80%). TOF linear sign showed significantly higher specificity (100%) and accuracy (92.8% and 90.7%) than T2 linear sign (P linear signs were more frequently observed in EPVS than CLI. They showed high sensitivity in differentiation of them, especially for basal ganglia. TOF sign showed higher specificity and accuracy than T2 sign. • Linear sign is a suggestive feature of EPVS. • Time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography can reveal the lenticulostriate artery within perivascular spaces. • Linear sign helps differentiation of EPVS and CLI, especially in basal ganglia.

  16. Comparisons of Circular Transmit and Linear Receive Compact Polarimetric SAR Features for Oil Slicks Discrimination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Li

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Compact polarimetric (CP synthetic aperture radar (SAR has proven its potential in distinguishing oil slicks and look-alikes. Polarimetric information can be retrieved directly from scattering vector or from reconstructed pseudo-Quad-Pol covariance matrix of CP SAR data. In this paper, we analysed features from Circular Transmit and Linear Receive (CTLR CP SAR data that are derived by taking both of these two methods. K-means clustering followed by accuracy assessment was also implemented for performance evaluation. Through experiments that were conducted based on L-band UAVSAR fully polarimetric data, it was found that optimum extraction methods varied for different features. The histogram analysis and segmentation results also demonstrated the comparable performance of CP SAR features in distinguishing different damping properties within oil slicks. This study proposed a framework of statistically analyzing polarimetric SAR (Pol-SAR features and provided guidelines for determining optimum feature extraction methods from CP SAR data and for marine oil-spills detection and classification.

  17. The glacial cycles and cosmic rays

    CERN Document Server

    Kirkby, Jasper; Müller, R A

    2004-01-01

    The cause of the glacial cycles remains a mystery. The origin is widely accepted to be astronomical since paleoclimatic archives contain strong spectral components that match the frequencies of Earth's orbital modulation. Milankovitch insolation theory contains similar frequencies and has become established as the standard model of the glacial cycles. However, high precision paleoclimatic data have revealed serious discrepancies with the Milankovitch model that fundamentally challenge its validity and re-open the question of what causes the glacial cycles. We propose here that the ice ages are initially driven not by insolation cycles but by cosmic ray changes, probably through their effect on clouds. This conclusion is based on a wide range of evidence, including results presented here on speleothem growth in caves in Austria and Oman, and on a record of cosmic ray flux over the past 220 kyr obtained from the 10Be composition of deep-ocean sediments.

  18. Identification of glacier motion and potentially dangerous glacial lakes in the Mt. Everest region/Nepal using spaceborne imagery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. Bolch

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Failures of glacial lake dams can cause outburst floods and represents a serious hazard. The potential danger of outburst floods depends on various factors like the lake's area and volume, glacier change, morphometry of the glacier and its surrounding moraines and valley, and glacier velocity. Remote sensing offers an efficient tool for displacement calculations and risk assessment of the identification of potentially dangerous glacial lakes (PDGLs and is especially helpful for remote mountainous areas. Not all important parameters can, however, be obtained using spaceborne imagery. Additional interpretation by an expert is required. ASTER data has a suitable accuracy to calculate surface velocity. Ikonos data offers more detail but requires more effort for rectification. All investigated debris-covered glacier tongues show areas with no or very slow movement rates. From 1962 to 2003 the number and area of glacial lakes increased, dominated by the occurrence and almost linear areal expansion of the moraine-dammed lakes, like the Imja Lake. Although the Imja Lake will probably still grow in the near future, the risk of an outburst flood (GLOF is considered not higher than for other glacial lakes in the area. Potentially dangerous lakes and areas of lake development are identified. There is a high probability of further lake development at Khumbu Glacier, but a low one at Lhotse Glacier.

  19. A mechanism for overdeepenings of glacial valleys and fjords

    OpenAIRE

    Herman F.; Beaud F.; Champagnac J.-D.; Lemieux J.-M.; Sternai P.

    2011-01-01

    Most glacial erosion models assume that erosion rates are proportional to ice sliding velocity. While recent studies have shown that water plays a major role in modulating sliding velocities the impact it might have on erosion rates is still unclear. Here we incorporate subglacial hydrology into a glacial erosion model that is based on a sliding rule. Our results explicitly highlight that adding subglacial hydrology has profound impacts on the temporal and spatial patterns of glacial erosion....

  20. The Effect of Creative Tasks on Electrocardiogram: Using Linear and Nonlinear Features in Combination with Classification Approaches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sahar Zakeri

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Interest in the subject of creativity and its impacts on human life is growing extensively. However, only a few surveys pay attention to the relation between creativity and physiological changes. This paper presents a novel approach to distinguish between creativity states from electrocardiogram signals. Nineteen linear and nonlinear features of the cardiac signal were extracted to detect creativity states. Method: ECG signals of 52 participants were recorded while doing three tasks of Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT/ figural B. To remove artifacts, notch filter 50 Hz and Chebyshev II were applied. According to TTCT scores, participants were categorized into the high and low creativity groups: Participants with scores higher than 70 were assigned into the high creativity group and those with scores less than 30 were considered as low creativity group. Some linear and nonlinear features were extracted from the ECGs. Then, Support Vector Machine (SVM and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS were used to classify the groups.Results: Applying the Wilcoxon test, significant differences were observed between rest and each three tasks of creativity. However, better discrimination was performed between rest and the first task. In addition, there were no statistical differences between the second and third task of the test. The results indicated that the SVM effectively detects all the three tasks from the rest, particularly the task 1 and reached the maximum accuracy of 99.63% in the linear analysis. In addition, the high creative group was separated from the low creative group with the accuracy of 98.41%.Conclusion: the combination of SVM classifier with linear features can be useful to show the relation between creativity and physiological changes.

  1. The timing and cause of glacial activity during the last glacial in central Tibet based on 10Be surface exposure dating east of Mount Jaggang, the Xainza range

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Guocheng; Zhou, Weijian; Yi, Chaolu; Fu, Yunchong; Zhang, Li; Li, Ming

    2018-04-01

    Mountain glaciers are sensitive to climate change, and can provide valuable information for inferring former climates on the Tibetan Plateau (TP). The increasing glacial chronologies indicate that the timing of the local Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) recorded across the TP is asynchronous, implying different local influences of the mid-latitude westerlies and Asian Summer Monsoon in triggering glacier advances. However, the well-dated sites are still too few, especially in the transition zone between regions controlled by the two climate systems. Here we present detailed last glacial chronologies for the Mount Jaggang area, in the Xainza range, central Tibet, with forty-three apparent 10Be exposure-ages ranging from 12.4 ± 0.8 ka to 61.9 ± 3.8 ka. These exposure-ages indicate that at least seven glacial episodes occurred during the last glacial cycle east of Mount Jaggang. These include: a local LGM that occurred at ∼61.9 ± 3.8 ka, possibly corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage 4 (MIS 4); subsequent glacial advances at ∼43.2 ± 2.6 ka and ∼35.1 ± 2.1 ka during MIS 3; one glacial re-advance/standstill at MIS3/2 transition (∼29.8 ± 1.8 ka); and three glacial re-advances/standstills that occurred following MIS 3 at ∼27.9 ± 1.7 ka, ∼21.8 ± 1.3 ka, and ∼15.1 ± 0.9 ka. The timing of these glacial activities is roughly in agreement with North Atlantic millennial-scale climate oscillations (Heinrich events), suggesting the potential correlations between these abrupt climate changes and glacial fluctuations in the Mount Jaggang area. The successively reduced glacial extent might have resulted from an overall decrease in Asian Summer Monsoon intensity over this timeframe.

  2. Glacial modification of granite tors in the Cairngorms, Scotland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, A.M.; Phillips, W.M.

    2006-01-01

    A range of evidence indicates that many granite tors in the Cairngorms have been modified by the flow of glacier ice during the Pleistocene. Comparisons with SW England and the use of a space-time transformation across 38 tor groups in the Cairngorms allow a model to be developed for progressive glacial modification. Tors with deeply etched surfaces and no, or limited, block removal imply an absence of significant glacial modification. The removal of superstructure and blocks, locally forming boulder trains, and the progressive reduction of tors to stumps and basal slabs represent the more advanced stages of modification. Recognition of some slabs as tor stumps from which glacial erosion has removed all superstructure allows the original distribution of tors to be reconstructed for large areas of the Cairngorms. Unmodified tors require covers of non-erosive, cold-based ice during all of the cold stages of the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Deformation beneath cold-based glacier ice is capable of the removal of blocks but advanced glacial modification requires former wet-based glacier ice. The depth of glacial erosion at former tor sites remains limited largely to the partial or total elimination of the upstanding tor form. Cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages (Phillips et al., 2006) together with data from weathering pit depths (Hall and Phillips, 2006), from the surfaces of tors and large erratic blocks require that the glacial entrainment of blocks from tors occurred in Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 4-2, 6 and, probably, at least one earlier phase. The occurrence of glacially modified tors on or close to, the main summits of the Cairngorms requires full ice cover over the mountains during these Stages. Evidence from the Cairngorms indicates that tor morphology can be regarded as an important indicator of former ice cover in many formerly glaciated areas, particularly where other evidence of ice cover is sparse. Recognition of the glacial modification of tors is important

  3. Scottish landform examples : The Cairngorms - a pre-glacial upland granite landscape

    OpenAIRE

    Hall, A.M.; Gillespie, M.R.; Thomas, C.W.; Ebert, K.

    2013-01-01

    The Cairngorm massif in NE Scotland (Figure 1) is an excellent example of a preglacial upland landscape formed in granite. Glacial erosion in the mountains has been largely confined to valleys and corries (Rea, 1998) and so has acted to dissect a pre-existing upland (Figure 2). Intervening areas of the massif experienced negligible glacial erosion due to protective covers of cold-based ice (Sugden, 1968) and preserve a wide range of pre-glacial and non-glacial landforms and reg...

  4. Submarine glacial landforms on the Bay of Fundy–northern Gulf of Maine continental shelf

    Science.gov (United States)

    Todd, B.J.; Shaw, J.; Valentine, Page C.

    2016-01-01

    The Bay of Fundy–northern Gulf of Maine region surrounds the southern part of Nova Scotia, encompassing, from west to east, the Bay of Fundy, Grand Manan Basin, German Bank, Browns Bank, Northeast Channel and northeastern Georges Bank (Fig. 1a, b). During the last glacial maximum (c. 24–20 14C ka BP), the SE margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) occupied the study area, the rest of the Gulf of Maine and the continental Scotian Shelf off Atlantic Canada (see Dyke et al. 2002, fig. 1; Shaw et al. 2006, fig. 8; Hundert & Piper 2008, fig. 16). Early mapping of the glaciated region on the Scotian Shelf using side-scan sonar imagery and seismic-reflection profiles revealed topographic features interpreted to be recessional moraines indicative of retreat of the LIS (King et al. 1972; King 1996). Subsequently, multibeam sonar seafloor mapping of local-scale glacial landforms on the inner Scotian Shelf off Halifax, Nova Scotia (Fig. 1b) provided further information on the dynamics of the advance and retreat of the ice sheet (Loncarevic et al.1994). Interpretation of seismic-reflection profiles across Georges Bank revealed that the surficial sediment is a veneer of glacial debris transported to Georges Bank by the LIS during the late Pleistocene from continental areas to the north (Shepard et al. 1934; Knott & Hoskins 1968; Schlee 1973; Twichell et al. 1987; Fader et al. 1988). Recent high-resolution multibeam sonar surveys of German Bank and the Bay of Fundy mapped a complex of ice-advance and ice-retreat features attributed to the activity of the LIS (Todd et al. 2007; Todd & Shaw 2012).

  5. Phosphorus burial in the ocean over glacial-interglacial time scales

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Tamburini

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available The role of nutrients, such as phosphorus (P, and their impact on primary productivity and the fluctuations in atmospheric CO2 over glacial-interglacial periods are intensely debated. Suggestions as to the importance of P evolved from an earlier proposal that P actively participated in changing productivity rates and therefore climate change, to most recent ones that changes in the glacial ocean inventory of phosphorus were important but not influential if compared to other macronutrients, such as nitrate. Using new data coming from a selection of ODP sites, we analyzed the distribution of oceanic P sedimentary phases and calculate reactive P burial fluxes, and we show how P burial fluxes changed over the last glacial-interglacial period at these sites. Concentrations of reactive P are generally lower during glacial times, while mass accumulation rates (MAR of reactive P show higher variability. If we extrapolate for the analyzed sites, we may assume that in general glacial burial fluxes of reactive P are lower than those during interglacial periods by about 8%, because the lack of burial of reactive P on the glacial shelf reduced in size, was apparently not compensated by burial in other regions of the ocean. Using the calculated changes in P burial, we evaluate their possible impact on the phosphate inventory in the world oceans. Using a simple mathematical approach, we find that these changes alone could have increased the phosphate inventory of glacial ocean waters by 17–40% compared to interglacial stages. Variations in the distribution of sedimentary P phases at the investigated sites seem to indicate that at the onset of interglacial stages, shallower sites experienced an increase in reactive P concentrations, which seems to point to P-richer waters at glacial terminations. All these findings would support the Shelf-Nutrient Hypothesis, which assumes that during glacial low stands nutrients are transferred from shallow sites

  6. Abiotic landscape and vegetation patterns in the Netherlands during the Weichselian Late Glacial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoek, W.Z.

    2000-01-01

    The Late Glacial landscape of the Netherlands was a landscape with changing geomorphology and vegetation. Glacial, eolian and fluvial processes in the time before the Late Glacial initially had formed the main landscape types that still existed during the Late Glacial. In these landscape types,

  7. Enhancing rates of erosion and uplift through glacial perturbations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norton, Kevin; Schlunegger, Fritz; Abbühl, Luca

    2010-05-01

    Research over the past decade has shown that the pattern of modern rock uplift in the Swiss Alps correlates with both long-term (thermochronometers) and short-term (cosmogenic nuclide-derived denudation rates, sediment loads, lake fills) measures of erosion. This correlation has been attributed alternately to isostatic causes (compensation to erosion and/or glacial unloading) and tectonic forces (ongoing collision and partial delamination). Of these potential driving forces, only isostatic compensation to erosion fits all available structural, geodetic, and flexural models. We explore this uplift-erosion relationship by analyzing river channel steepness for Alpine rivers. Zones of oversteepening, and hence enhanced stream power, are associated with glacial erosion and deposition during LGM and earlier glaciations, resulting in the focusing of erosion into the inner gorges which connect hanging tributary valleys to the main glacial trunk valley. These inner gorges are transient zones in which fluvial and hillslope processes are in the process of re-adjusting this glacially perturbed landscape. Bedrock properties also play a major role in the response time of these adjustments. Glacially generated knickzones are located within 5 km of the trunk stream in the Rhone valley where resistant lithologies dominate (gneiss), whereas the knickzones have migrated as much as 10 km or further in the less resistant rocks (buendnerschists) of the Rhine valley. We suggest that the rock uplift pattern is controlled by surface denudation as set by the glacial-interglacial history of the Alps. Rapid, focused erosion results in rapid rock uplift rates in the Central Swiss Alps, where glaciers were most active. An interesting ramification of this reasoning is that in the absence of glacial perturbation, both rock uplift rates and denudation rates would be substantially lower in this isostatically compensated mountain belt.

  8. Dissolved organic matter export in glacial and non-glacial streams along the Gulf of Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hood, E. W.; Scott, D.; Jeffery, A.; Schreiber, S.; Heavner, M.; Edwards, R.; D'Amore, D. V.; Fellman, J.

    2009-12-01

    The Gulf of Alaska drainage basin contains more than 75,000 km2 of glaciers, many of which are rapidly thinning and receding. We are using a paired watershed approach to evaluate how changes in glacier ecosystems will impact the export dissolved organic matter (DOM) into the Gulf of Alaska. Our primary study watersheds, Lemon Creek and Montana Creek, are similar in size, bedrock lithology and elevation range and extend from near sea level to the margin or interior of the Juneau Icefield. Lemon Creek has a glacial coverage of ~60%, while Montana Creek is free of glacier ice. Our goal is to evaluate seasonal differences in the quantity, chemical character and reactivity of DOM being exported from these watersheds to downstream near-shore marine ecosystems. In addition, we are monitoring a variety of physical parameters that influence instream DOM metabolism in both watersheds. Our initial results from the 2009 runoff season indicate that concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) are substantially higher in the non-glacial watershed. However, fluorescence analyses indicate that DOM from the glacier watershed has a higher protein and lower humic material content compared to DOM from the non-glacial watershed. After the spring snowmelt season, physical parameters between the two watersheds diverged, with higher streamflow and turbidity as well as colder water temperatures in the glacial watershed. Although our previous yield calculations show significantly higher DOC fluxes from the forested watershed, our results here suggest that glacier watersheds may be an important source of labile carbon to the near shore marine ecosystem. The contrast in the physical habitat between the two rivers (e.g glacier stream = cold, low light penetration, unstable substrate) supports the hypothesis that that in-stream DOM processing is limited within glacier dominated rivers, therefore delivering a higher percentage of labile DOM downstream.

  9. Linear feature extraction from radar imagery: SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research), phase 2, option 2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milgram, David L.; Kahn, Philip; Conner, Gary D.; Lawton, Daryl T.

    1988-12-01

    The goal of this effort is to develop and demonstrate prototype processing capabilities for a knowledge-based system to automatically extract and analyze features from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. This effort constitutes Phase 2 funding through the Defense Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program. Previous work examined the feasibility of and technology issues involved in the development of an automated linear feature extraction system. This final report documents this examination and the technologies involved in automating this image understanding task. In particular, it reports on a major software delivery containing an image processing algorithmic base, a perceptual structures manipulation package, a preliminary hypothesis management framework and an enhanced user interface.

  10. Breakup of last glacial deep stratification in the South Pacific

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basak, Chandranath; Fröllje, Henning; Lamy, Frank; Gersonde, Rainer; Benz, Verena; Anderson, Robert F.; Molina-Kescher, Mario; Pahnke, Katharina

    2018-02-01

    Stratification of the deep Southern Ocean during the Last Glacial Maximum is thought to have facilitated carbon storage and subsequent release during the deglaciation as stratification broke down, contributing to atmospheric CO2 rise. Here, we present neodymium isotope evidence from deep to abyssal waters in the South Pacific that confirms stratification of the deepwater column during the Last Glacial Maximum. The results indicate a glacial northward expansion of Ross Sea Bottom Water and a Southern Hemisphere climate trigger for the deglacial breakup of deep stratification. It highlights the important role of abyssal waters in sustaining a deep glacial carbon reservoir and Southern Hemisphere climate change as a prerequisite for the destabilization of the water column and hence the deglacial release of sequestered CO2 through upwelling.

  11. Magnetic Signature of Glacial Flour in Sediments From Bear Lake, Utah/Idaho

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenbaum, J. G.; Dean, W. E.; Colman, S. M.; Reynolds, R. L.

    2002-12-01

    Variations in magnetic properties within an interval of Bear Lake sediments correlative with oxygen isotope stage 2 (OIS 2) and OIS 3 provide a record of glacial flour production for the Uinta Mountains. Like sediments of the same age from Upper Klamath Lake (OR), these Bear Lake sediments have high magnetic susceptibilities (MS) relative to non-glacial-age sediments and contain well-defined millennial-scale variations in magnetic properties. In contrast to glacial flour derived from volcanic rocks surrounding Upper Klamath Lake, glacial flour derived from the Uinta Mountains and deposited in Bear Lake by the Bear River has low magnetite content but high hematite content. The relatively low MS values of younger and older non-glacial-age sediments are due entirely to dilution by non-magnetic endogenic carbonate and to the effects of sulfidic alteration of detrital Fe-oxides. Analysis of samples from streams entering Bear Lake and from along the course of the Bear River demonstrates that, in comparison to other areas of the catchment, sediment derived from the Uinta Mountains is rich in hematite (high HIRM) and aluminum, and poor in magnetite (low MS) and titanium. Within the glacial-age lake sediments, there are strong positive correlations among HIRM, Al/Ti, and fine sediment grain size. MS varies inversely with theses three variables. These relations indicate that the observed millennial-scale variations in magnetic and chemical properties arise from varying proportions of two detrital components: (1) very fine-grained glacial flour derived from Proterozoic metasedimentary rocks in the Uinta Mountains and characterized by high HIRM and low MS, and (2) somewhat coarser material, characterized by higher MS and lower HIRM, derived from widespread sedimentary rocks along the course of the Bear River and around Bear Lake. Measurement of glacial flour incorporated in lake sediments can provide a continuous history of alpine glaciation, because the rate of accumulation

  12. On Feature Extraction from Large Scale Linear LiDAR Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acharjee, Partha Pratim

    Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can generate co-registered elevation and intensity map over large terrain. The co-registered 3D map and intensity information can be used efficiently for different feature extraction application. In this dissertation, we developed two algorithms for feature extraction, and usages of features for practical applications. One of the developed algorithms can map still and flowing waterbody features, and another one can extract building feature and estimate solar potential on rooftops and facades. Remote sensing capabilities, distinguishing characteristics of laser returns from water surface and specific data collection procedures provide LiDAR data an edge in this application domain. Furthermore, water surface mapping solutions must work on extremely large datasets, from a thousand square miles, to hundreds of thousands of square miles. National and state-wide map generation/upgradation and hydro-flattening of LiDAR data for many other applications are two leading needs of water surface mapping. These call for as much automation as possible. Researchers have developed many semi-automated algorithms using multiple semi-automated tools and human interventions. This reported work describes a consolidated algorithm and toolbox developed for large scale, automated water surface mapping. Geometric features such as flatness of water surface, higher elevation change in water-land interface and, optical properties such as dropouts caused by specular reflection, bimodal intensity distributions were some of the linear LiDAR features exploited for water surface mapping. Large-scale data handling capabilities are incorporated by automated and intelligent windowing, by resolving boundary issues and integrating all results to a single output. This whole algorithm is developed as an ArcGIS toolbox using Python libraries. Testing and validation are performed on a large datasets to determine the effectiveness of the toolbox and results are

  13. Linear feature extraction from radar imagery: SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) phase 2, option 1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conner, Gary D.; Milgram, David L.; Lawton, Daryl T.; McConnell, Christopher C.

    1988-04-01

    The goal of this effort is to develop and demonstrate prototype processing capabilities for a knowledge-based system to automatically extract and analyze linear features from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. This effort constitutes Phase 2 funding through the Defense Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program. Previous work examined the feasibility of the technology issues involved in the development of an automatedlinear feature extraction system. This Option 1 Final Report documents this examination and the technologies involved in automating this image understanding task. In particular, it reports on a major software delivery containing an image processing algorithmic base, a perceptual structures manipulation package, a preliminary hypothesis management framework and an enhanced user interface.

  14. Emerging Glacial Lakes in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru: A Case Study at Arteson Glacier

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chisolm, R. E.; Mckinney, D. C.; Gomez, J.; Voss, K.

    2012-12-01

    Tropical glaciers are an essential component of the water resources systems in the mountainous regions where they are located, and a warming climate has resulted in the accelerated retreat of Andean glaciers in recent decades. The shrinkage of Andean glaciers influences the flood risk for communities living downstream as new glacial lakes have begun to form at the termini of some glaciers. As these lakes continue to grow in area and volume, they pose an increasing risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Ice thickness measurements have been a key missing link in studying the tropical glaciers in Peru and how climate change is likely to impact glacial melt and the growth of glacial lakes. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has rarely been applied to glaciers in Peru to measure ice thickness, and these measurements can tell us a lot about how a warming climate will affect glacier mass balance. This study presents GPR data taken in July 2012 at the Arteson glacier in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. A new lake has begun to form at the terminus of the Arteson glacier, and this lake has key features, including overhanging ice and loose rock likely to create landslides, that could trigger a catastrophic GLOF if the lake continues to grow. This new lake is part of a series of three lakes that have formed below the Arteson glacier. The two lower lakes, Artesonraju and Paron, are much larger so that if there were an avalanche or landslide into the new lake below Arteson glacier, the impact could potentially be more catastrophic than a GLOF from one single lake. Estimates of how the lake mass balance is likely to evolve due to the retreating glacier are key to assessing the flood risk from this dynamic three-lake system. Because the glacier mass balance and lake mass balance are closely linked, the ice thickness measurements and measurements of the bed slope of the Arteson glacier and underlying bedrock give us a clue to how the lake is likely to evolve. GPR measurements of

  15. Glacial Meltwater Contirbutions to the Bow River, Alberta, Canada

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bash, E. A.; Marshall, S. J.; White, E. C.

    2009-12-01

    Assessment of glacial melt is critical for water resource management in areas which rely on glacier-fed rivers for agricultural and municipal uses. Changes in precipitation patterns coupled with current glacial retreat are altering the glacial contribution to river flow in areas such as the Andes of South America and the high ranges of Asia, as well as the Rockies of Western Canada. Alberta’s Bow River has its headwaters in the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies and contributes to the Nelson drainage system feeding into Hudson Bay. The Bow River basin contains several population centers, including the City of Calgary, and is heavily taxed for agricultural use. The combined effects of rapid glacial retreat in the Canadian Rockies, higher drought frequency, and increased demand are likely to heighten water stress in Southern Alberta. However, there has been little focus to date on the extent and importance of glacial meltwater in the Bow River. The Bow River contains 74.5 km2 of glacier ice, which amounts to only 0.29% of the basin. While this number is not high compared to some glacierized areas, Hopkinson and Young (1998) report that in dry years, glacier melt can provide up to 50% of late summer flows at a station in the upper reaches of the river system. We extend this work with an assessment of monthly and annual glacial contributions to the Bow River farther downstream in Calgary. Our analysis is based on mass balance, meteorological, and hydrological data that has been collected at the Haig Glacier since 2001. This data is used in conjunction with glacier coverage and hypsometric data for the remainder of the basin to estimate seasonal snow and glacial meltwater contributions to the Bow River from the glacierized fraction of the catchment. The results of this study show the percentage of total flow attributed to glacial melt to be highly variable. Glacier runoff contributes up to an order of magnitude more water to the Bow River per unit area of

  16. Glacial refugia and post-glacial colonization patterns in European bryophytes

    OpenAIRE

    Kyrkjeeide, Magni Olsen; Stenøien, Hans K.; Flatberg, Kjell Ivar; Hassel, Kristian

    2014-01-01

    Most species are assumed to have survived south or east of the ice sheet covering northern Europe during the last glacial maximum. Molecular and macrofossil evidence suggests, however, that some species may have survived in ice-free areas in Scandinavia. In plants, inbreeding and vegetative growth are associated with low genetic load and enhanced survival in small, isolated populations. These characteristics are often found in bryophytes, possibly allowing them to survive extreme conditions i...

  17. An attempt at determining Des of glacial sediments using different luminescence methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ou Xianjiao; Lai Zhongping; Zeng Lanhua

    2013-01-01

    Background: Absolute dating is the key technical issue of Quaternary glacial research. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) has been increasingly applied to Quaternary glacial dating in recent years. However, problems such as insufficient bleaching, low luminescence sensitivity, high thermal transfer effect, etc, still remain. Purpose: In order to investigate the applicability of equivalent dose (D e ) determination of glacial sediments by different OSL methods, six samples were collected from the Yingpu Valley of eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (two samples from modern glacial sediments, three from moraines and glacial terrace attributed to Neoglacial and one from a moraine attributed to the last glaciation). Methods: The D e s were determined by SAR combined SGC technique, using three methods: quartz large aliquot (6 mm) BSL, small aliquot (2/3 mm) BSL and polymineral IRSL. Results: D e s determined by SGC are consistent with D e s determined by SAR protocol. Comparison of three methods shows that IRSL D e >large aliquot BSL D e >small aliquot BSL D e . D e s of polymineral IRSL are obviously higher than quartz BSL. Conclusions: It is obviously that feldspar is more difficult to reset than quartz, thus is not suitable for dating glacial sediments in this region. Quartz large aliquot method is suitable for well bleached glacial samples. Due to the low luminescence sensitivity of quartz, small aliquot method showed poor luminescence characteristics. Moreover, this method cannot distinguish the poor bleached grains in this measurement. However, it is possible that quartz small aliquot, even single grain method could be used to date older or brighter glacial samples. More works are required to solve the problems we have encountered in dating low sensitivity glacial sediments. (authors)

  18. ESR Dating Research of Glacial Tills in Tibetan Plateau

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bi, W.; Yi, C.

    2016-12-01

    In recent years, Quaternary Glacial-chronology has been made remarkable progress in the Tibetan Platean(TP) with the development of several numeric dating techniques, such as cosmogenic nuclides(NC), optically stimulated luminescence(OSL) and 14C. In constrast, the dating of Quaternary glacial tills in 100,000 years even more than million-year has been a challenge, just because the techniques has defects themselves and the sediments were stransformed during the geological and geomorphology progress later. Electron Spin Resonance(ESR) has been becoming one of the key methods of Quaternary Glacial-chronology with wide range of dating, expecially for the sample older than 100,000 years up to million-year scale. The accurate measurement of equivalent dose significantly impacts on accuracy and reliability of ESR dating method. Therefore, the study of the mechanisms of resetting processes is fundamental for accurate and reliable ESR dating. To understand the mechanism and characteristics of quartz ESR signal resetting of different samples, a series of laboratory simulation and field observation studies were carried out, which made lots of important breakthrough. But the research in quartz ESR signal of moraines is less and the test of ESR dating method is still in the qualitative investigation. Therefor, we use ESR dating and study on the mechanism and characteristics of quartz ESR signals in tills in the Tibetan Platean. In the adjust method of Modern, the quartz ESR signals in Modern glacial tills represent residual values which can be adjusted signals in the older glacial tills. As a consequence, ESR dating of the quartz in moraines needs to be explored in deep with building models to adjust ages which are measured by ESR dating. Therefore, ESR dating will become the trusted one of the cross dating methods in Quaternary Glacial-chronology with the adjust mothod improving the accuracy of ESR dating ages.

  19. Glacial removal of late Cenozoic subglacially emplaced volcanic edifices by the West Antarctic ice sheet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Behrendt, John C.; Blankenship, D.D.; Damaske, D.; Cooper, A. K.

    1995-01-01

    Local maxima of the horizontal gradient of pseudogravity from closely spaced aeromagnetic surveys over the Ross Sea, northwestern Ross Ice Shelf, and the West Antarctic ice sheet, reveal a linear magnetic rift fabric and numerous subcircular, high-amplitude anomalies. Geophysical data indicate two or three youthful volcanic edifices at widely separated areas beneath the sea and ice cover in the West Antarctic rift system. In contrast, we suggest glacial removal of edifices of volcanic sources of many more anomalies. Magnetic models, controlled by marine seismic reflection and radar ice-sounding data, allow us to infer that glacial removal of the associated late Cenozoic volcanic edifices (probably debris, comprising pillow breccias, and hyaloclastites) has occurred essentially concomitantly with their subglacial eruption. "Removal' of unconsolidated volcanic debris erupted beneath the ice is probably a more appropriate term than "erosion', given its fragmented, ice-contact origin. The exposed volcanoes may have been protected from erosion by the surrounding ice sheet because of more competent rock or high elevation above the ice sheet. -from Authors

  20. Odor valence linearly modulates attractiveness, but not age assessment, of invariant facial features in a memory-based rating task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seubert, Janina; Gregory, Kristen M; Chamberland, Jessica; Dessirier, Jean-Marc; Lundström, Johan N

    2014-01-01

    Scented cosmetic products are used across cultures as a way to favorably influence one's appearance. While crossmodal effects of odor valence on perceived attractiveness of facial features have been demonstrated experimentally, it is unknown whether they represent a phenomenon specific to affective processing. In this experiment, we presented odors in the context of a face battery with systematic feature manipulations during a speeded response task. Modulatory effects of linear increases of odor valence were investigated by juxtaposing subsequent memory-based ratings tasks--one predominantly affective (attractiveness) and a second, cognitive (age). The linear modulation pattern observed for attractiveness was consistent with additive effects of face and odor appraisal. Effects of odor valence on age perception were not linearly modulated and may be the result of cognitive interference. Affective and cognitive processing of faces thus appear to differ in their susceptibility to modulation by odors, likely as a result of privileged access of olfactory stimuli to affective brain networks. These results are critically discussed with respect to potential biases introduced by the preceding speeded response task.

  1. A Feature-Free 30-Disease Pathological Brain Detection System by Linear Regression Classifier.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yi; Shao, Ying; Yan, Jie; Yuan, Ti-Fei; Qu, Yanwen; Lee, Elizabeth; Wang, Shuihua

    2017-01-01

    Alzheimer's disease patients are increasing rapidly every year. Scholars tend to use computer vision methods to develop automatic diagnosis system. (Background) In 2015, Gorji et al. proposed a novel method using pseudo Zernike moment. They tested four classifiers: learning vector quantization neural network, pattern recognition neural network trained by Levenberg-Marquardt, by resilient backpropagation, and by scaled conjugate gradient. This study presents an improved method by introducing a relatively new classifier-linear regression classification. Our method selects one axial slice from 3D brain image, and employed pseudo Zernike moment with maximum order of 15 to extract 256 features from each image. Finally, linear regression classification was harnessed as the classifier. The proposed approach obtains an accuracy of 97.51%, a sensitivity of 96.71%, and a specificity of 97.73%. Our method performs better than Gorji's approach and five other state-of-the-art approaches. Therefore, it can be used to detect Alzheimer's disease. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

  2. Spatial distribution of juvenile and adult female Tanner crabs (Chionoecetes bairdi) in a glacial fjord ecosystem: Implications for recruitment processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, J.K.; Taggart, S. James; Shirley, Thomas C.; Mondragon, Jennifer

    2007-01-01

    A systematic pot survey in Glacier Bay, Alaska, was conducted to characterize the spatial distribution of juvenile and adult female Tanner crabs, and their association with depth and temperature. The information was used to infer important recruitment processes for Tanner crabs in glaciated ecosystems. High-catch areas for juvenile and adult female Tanner crabs were identified using local autocorrelation statistics. Spatial segregation by size class corresponded to features in the glacial landscape: high-catch areas for juveniles were located at the distal ends of two narrow glacial fjords, and high-catch areas for adults were located in the open waters of the central Bay. Juvenile female Tanner crabs were found at nearly all sampled depths (15–439 m) and temperatures (4–8°C), but the biggest catches were at depths <150 m where adults were scarce. Because adults may prey on or compete with juveniles, the distribution of juveniles could be influenced by the distribution of adults. Areas where adults or predators are scarce, such as glacially influenced fjords, could serve as refuges for juvenile Tanner crabs.

  3. Bayesian quantile regression-based partially linear mixed-effects joint models for longitudinal data with multiple features.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hanze; Huang, Yangxin; Wang, Wei; Chen, Henian; Langland-Orban, Barbara

    2017-01-01

    In longitudinal AIDS studies, it is of interest to investigate the relationship between HIV viral load and CD4 cell counts, as well as the complicated time effect. Most of common models to analyze such complex longitudinal data are based on mean-regression, which fails to provide efficient estimates due to outliers and/or heavy tails. Quantile regression-based partially linear mixed-effects models, a special case of semiparametric models enjoying benefits of both parametric and nonparametric models, have the flexibility to monitor the viral dynamics nonparametrically and detect the varying CD4 effects parametrically at different quantiles of viral load. Meanwhile, it is critical to consider various data features of repeated measurements, including left-censoring due to a limit of detection, covariate measurement error, and asymmetric distribution. In this research, we first establish a Bayesian joint models that accounts for all these data features simultaneously in the framework of quantile regression-based partially linear mixed-effects models. The proposed models are applied to analyze the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) data. Simulation studies are also conducted to assess the performance of the proposed methods under different scenarios.

  4. Alpine glacial topography and the rate of rock column uplift

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Vivi Kathrine; Egholm, D.L.; Nielsen, S.B.

    2010-01-01

    The present study investigates the influence of alpine glacial erosion on the morphology and relief distribution of mountain regions associated with varying rock column uplift rates. We take a global approach and analyse the surface area distribution of all mountain regions affected by glacial er...

  5. Glacial ocean circulation and stratification explained by reduced atmospheric temperature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jansen, Malte F

    2017-01-03

    Earth's climate has undergone dramatic shifts between glacial and interglacial time periods, with high-latitude temperature changes on the order of 5-10 °C. These climatic shifts have been associated with major rearrangements in the deep ocean circulation and stratification, which have likely played an important role in the observed atmospheric carbon dioxide swings by affecting the partitioning of carbon between the atmosphere and the ocean. The mechanisms by which the deep ocean circulation changed, however, are still unclear and represent a major challenge to our understanding of glacial climates. This study shows that various inferred changes in the deep ocean circulation and stratification between glacial and interglacial climates can be interpreted as a direct consequence of atmospheric temperature differences. Colder atmospheric temperatures lead to increased sea ice cover and formation rate around Antarctica. The associated enhanced brine rejection leads to a strongly increased deep ocean stratification, consistent with high abyssal salinities inferred for the last glacial maximum. The increased stratification goes together with a weakening and shoaling of the interhemispheric overturning circulation, again consistent with proxy evidence for the last glacial. The shallower interhemispheric overturning circulation makes room for slowly moving water of Antarctic origin, which explains the observed middepth radiocarbon age maximum and may play an important role in ocean carbon storage.

  6. A glacial record of the last termination in the southern tropical Andes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bromley, G. R.; Schaefer, J. M.; Winckler, G.; Hall, B. L.; Todd, C. E.; Rademaker, K.

    2012-12-01

    The last glacial termination represents the highest-magnitude climate change of the last hundred thousand years. Accurate resolution of events during the termination is vital to our understanding of how - and why - the global climate system transitions from a full glacial to interglacial state, as well as the causes of abrupt climate change during the late-glacial period. Palaeoclimate data from low latitudes, though relatively sparse, are particularly valuable, since the tropical ocean and atmosphere likely play a crucial role in Quaternary climate variability on all timescales. We present a detailed glacier record from the Andes of southern Peru (15°S), resolved with 3He surface-exposure dating and spanning the last glacial maximum and termination. Our dataset reveals that glaciers in this part of the Southern Hemisphere maintained their Late Pleistocene maxima for several millennia and that the onset of the termination may have occurred relatively late. Deglaciation was punctuated by two major advances during the late-glacial period. Following the glacial-interglacial transition, our preliminary chronologic and morphologic data suggest that, in contrast to the Northern Hemisphere, glaciers in the southern tropical Andes have experienced overall shrinkage during the Holocene.

  7. Effects of glacial meltwater on corrosion of copper canisters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahonen, L.; Vieno, T.

    1994-08-01

    The composition of glacial meltwater and its reactions in the bedrock are examined. The evidences that there are or should be from past intrusions of glacial meltwater and oxygen deep in the bedrock are also considered. The study is concluded with an evaluation of the potential effects of oxygenated meltwater on the corrosion of copper canisters. (46 refs., 3 figs., 2 tabs.)

  8. 76 FR 50476 - Application To Export Electric Energy; Glacial Energy of Texas, Inc.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-08-15

    ... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-382] Application To Export Electric Energy; Glacial Energy... Application. SUMMARY: Glacial Energy of Texas, Inc. (Glacial) has applied for authority to transmit electric... for authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Mexico for five years as a power...

  9. The Glacial-Interglacial summer monsoon recorded in southwest Sulawesi speleothems: Evidence for sea level thresholds driving tropical monsoon strength

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kimbrough, A. K.; Gagan, M. K.; Dunbar, G. B.; Krause, C.; Di Nezio, P. N.; Hantoro, W. S.; Cheng, H.; Edwards, R. L.; Shen, C. C.; Sun, H.; Cai, B.; Rifai, H.

    2016-12-01

    Southwest Sulawesi lies within the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool (IPWP), at the center of atmospheric convection for two of the largest circulation cells on the planet, the meridional Hadley Cell and zonal Indo-Pacific Walker Circulation. Due to the geographic coincidence of these circulation cells, southwest Sulawesi serves as a hotspot for changes in tropical Pacific climate variability and Australian-Indonesian summer monsoon (AISM) strength over glacial-interglacial (G-I) timescales. The work presented here spans 386 - 127 ky BP, including glacial terminations IV ( 340 ky BP) and both phases of TIII (TIII 248 ky BP and TIIIa 217 ky BP). This record, along with previous work from southwest Sulawesi spanning the last 40 kyr, reveals coherent climatic features over three complete G-I cycles. The multi-stalagmite Sulawesi speleothem δ18O record demonstrates that on G-I timescales, the strength of the AISM is most sensitive to changes in sea level and its impact on the regional distribution of land and shallow ocean. Stalagmite δ18O and trace element (Mg/Ca) data indicate a rapid increase in rainfall at glacial terminations and wet interglacials. TIV, TIII, TIIIa, and TI are each characterized by an abrupt 3‰ decrease in δ18O that coincides with sea level rise and flooding of the Sunda and Sahul shelves. Strong evidence for a sea level (flooding/exposure) threshold is found throughout the southwest Sulawesi record. This is most clearly demonstrated over the period 230 - 212 ky BP (MIS 7d-7c), when a sea level fall to only -80 to -60 m for 10 kyr results in a weakened AISM and glacial conditions, followed by a full termination. Taken together, both glaciations and glacial terminations imply a sea level threshold driving the AISM between two primary levels of intensity (`interglacial' & `glacial'). These massive, sea-level driven shifts in AISM strength are superimposed on precession-scale variability associated with boreal fall insolation at the equator, indicating

  10. 20th-century glacial-marine sedimentation in Vitus Lake, Bering Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molnia, B.F.; Post, A.; Carlson, P.R.

    1996-01-01

    Vitus Lake, the ice-marginal basin at the southeastern edge of Bering Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A., is a site of modern, rapid, glacial-marine sedimentation. Rather than being a fresh-water lake, Vitus Lake is a tidally influenced, marine to brackish embayment connected to the Pacific Ocean by an inlet, the Seal River. Vitus Lake consists of five deep bedrock basins, separated by interbasinal highs. Glacial erosion has cut these basins as much as 250 m below sea level. High-resolution seismic reflection surveys conducted in 1991 and 1993 of four of Vitus Lake's basins reveal a complex, variable three-component acoustic stratigraphy. Although not fully sampled, the stratigraphy is inferred to be primarily glacial-marine units of (1) basal contorted and deformed glacial-marine and glacial sediments deposited by basal ice-contact processes and submarine mass-wasting; (2) acoustically well-stratified glacial-marine sediment, which unconformably overlies the basal unit and which grades upward into (3) acoustically transparent or nearly transparent glacial-marine sediment. Maximum thicknesses of conformable glacial-marine sediment exceed 100 m. All of the acoustically transparent and stratified deposits in Vitus Lake are modern in age, having accumulated between 1967 and 1993. The basins where these three-part sequences of "present-day" glacial-marine sediment are accumulating are themselves cut into older sequences of stratified glacial and glacial-marine deposits. These older units outcrop on the islands in Vitus Lake. In 1967, as the result of a major surge, glacier ice completely filled all five basins. Subsequent terminus retreat, which continued through August 1993, exposed these basins, providing new locations for glacial-marine sediment accumulation. A correlation of sediment thicknesses measured from seismic profiles at specific locations within the basins, with the year that each location became ice-free, shows that the sediment accumulation at some locations

  11. Glacial and Quaternary geology of the northern Yellowstone area, Montana and Wyoming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierce, Kenneth L.; Licciardi, Joseph M.; Krause, Teresa R.; Whitlock, Cathy

    2014-01-01

    This field guide focuses on the glacial geology and paleoecology beginning in the Paradise Valley and progressing southward into northern Yellowstone National Park. During the last (Pinedale) glaciation, the northern Yellowstone outlet glacier flowed out of Yellowstone Park and down the Yellowstone River Valley into the Paradise Valley. The field trip will traverse the following Pinedale glacial sequence: (1) deposition of the Eightmile terminal moraines and outwash 16.5 ± 1.4 10Be ka in the Paradise Valley; (2) glacial recession of ~8 km and deposition of the Chico moraines and outwash 16.1 ± 1.7 10Be ka; (3) glacial recession of 45 km to near the northern Yellowstone boundary and moraine deposition during the Deckard Flats readjustment 14.2 ± 1.2 10Be ka; and (4) glacial recession of ~37 km and deposition of the Junction Butte moraines 15.2 ± 1.3 10Be ka (this age is a little too old based on the stratigraphic sequence). Yellowstone's northern range of sagebrush-grasslands and bison, elk, wolf, and bear inhabitants is founded on glacial moraines, sub-glacial till, and outwash deposited during the last glaciation. Floods released from glacially dammed lakes and a landslide-dammed lake punctuate this record. The glacial geologic reconstruction was evaluated by calculation of basal shear stress, and yielded the following values for flow pattern in plan view: strongly converging—1.21 ± 0.12 bars (n = 15); nearly uniform—1.04 ± 0.16 bars (n = 11); and strongly diverging—0.84 ± 0.14 bars (n = 16). Reconstructed mass balance yielded accumulation and ablation each of ~3 km3/yr, with glacial movement near the equilibrium line altitude dominated by basal sliding. Pollen and charcoal records from three lakes in northern Yellowstone provide information on the postglacial vegetation and fire history. Following glacial retreat, sparsely vegetated landscapes were colonized first by spruce parkland and then by closed subalpine forests. Regional fire activity

  12. Optimal tuning of a GCM using modern and glacial constraints

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gregoire, Lauren J.; Valdes, Paul J.; Payne, Antony J.; Kahana, Ron [University of Bristol, School of Geographical Sciences, Bristol (United Kingdom)

    2011-08-15

    In climate models, many parameters used to resolve subgrid scale processes can be adjusted through a tuning exercise to fit the model's output to target climatologies. We present an objective tuning of a low resolution Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Model (GCM) called FAMOUS where ten model parameters are varied together using a Latin hypercube sampling method to create an ensemble of 100 models. The target of the tuning consists of a wide range of modern climate diagnostics and also includes glacial tropical sea surface temperature. The ensemble of models created is compared to the target using an Arcsin Mielke score. We investigate how the tuning method used and the addition of glacial constraints impact on the present day and glacial climates of the chosen models. Rather than selecting a single configuration which optimises the metric in all the diagnostics, we obtain a subset of nine 'good' models which display great differences in their climate but which, in some sense, are all better than the original configuration. In those simulations, the global temperature response to last glacial maximum forcings is enhanced compared to the control simulation and the glacial Atlantic Ocean circulation is more in agreement with observations. Our study demonstrates that selecting a single 'optimal' configuration, relying only on present day constraints may lead to misrepresenting climates different to that of today. (orig.)

  13. Earth's glacial record and its tectonic setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eyles, N.

    1993-09-01

    Glaciations have occurred episodically at different time intervals and for different durations in Earth's history. Ice covers have formed in a wide range of plate tectonic and structural settings but the bulk of Earth's glacial record can be shown to have been deposited and preserved in basins within extensional settings. In such basins, source area uplift and basin subsidence fulfill the tectonic preconditions for the initiation of glaciation and the accomodation and preservation of glaciclastic sediments. Tectonic setting, in particular subsidence rates, also dictates the type of glaciclastic facies and facies successions that are deposited. Many pre-Pleistocene glaciated basins commonly contain well-defined tectonostratigraphic successions recording the interplay of tectonics and sedimentation; traditional climatostratigraphic approaches involving interpretation in terms of either ice advance/retreat cycles or glacio-eustatic sea-level change require revision. The direct record of continental glaciation in Earth history, in the form of classically-recognised continental glacial landforms and "tillites", is meagre; it is probable that more than 95% of the volume of preserved "glacial" strata are glacially-influenced marine deposits that record delivery of large amounts of glaciclastic sediment to offshore basins. This flux has been partially or completely reworked by "normal" sedimentary processes such that the record of glaciation and climate change is recorded in marine successions and is difficult to decipher. The dominant "glacial" facies in the rock record are subaqueous debris flow diamictites and turbidites recording the selective preservation of poorly-sorted glaciclastic sediment deposited in deep water basins by sediment gravity flows. However, these facies are also typical of many non-glacial settings, especially volcanically-influenced environments; numerous Archean and Proterozoic diamictites, described in the older literature as tillites, have no

  14. Environmental conditions of interstadial (MIS 3 and features of the last glacial maximum on the King George island (West Antarctica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. R. Verkulich

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The interstadial marine deposits stratum was described in the Fildes Peninsula (King George Island due to field and laboratory investigations during 2008–2011. The stratum fragments occur in the west and north-west parts of peninsula in following forms: sections of soft sediments, containing fossil shells, marine algae, bones of marine animals and rich marine diatom complexes in situ (11 sites; fragments of shells and bones on the surface (25 sites. According to the results of radiocarbon dating, these deposits were accumulated within the period 19–50 ky BP. Geographical and altitude settings of the sites, age characteristics, taxonomy of fossil flora and fauna, and good safety of the soft deposits stratum allow to make following conclusions: during interstadial, sea water covered significant part of King George Island up to the present altitude of 40 m a.s.l., and the King George Island glaciation had smaller size then; environmental conditions for the interstadial deposit stratum accumulation were at least not colder than today; probably, the King George island territory was covered entirely by ice masses of Last glacial maximum not earlier than 19 ky BP; during Last glacial maximum, King George Island was covered by thin, «cold», not mobile glaciers, which contribute to conservation of the soft marine interstadial deposits filled with fossil flora and fauna.

  15. Glacial lakes in Austria - Distribution and formation since the Little Ice Age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buckel, J.; Otto, J. C.; Prasicek, G.; Keuschnig, M.

    2018-05-01

    Glacial lakes constitute a substantial part of the legacy of vanishing mountain glaciation and act as water storage, sediment traps and sources of both natural hazards and leisure activities. For these reasons, they receive growing attention by scientists and society. However, while the evolution of glacial lakes has been studied intensively over timescales tied to remote sensing-based approaches, the longer-term perspective has been omitted due a lack of suitable data sources. We mapped and analyzed the spatial distribution of glacial lakes in the Austrian Alps. We trace the development of number and area of glacial lakes in the Austrian Alps since the Little Ice Age (LIA) based on a unique combination of a lake inventory and an extensive record of glacier retreat. We find that bedrock-dammed lakes are the dominant lake type in the inventory. Bedrock- and moraine-dammed lakes populate the highest landscape domains located in cirques and hanging valleys. We observe lakes embedded in glacial deposits at lower locations on average below 2000 m a.s.l. In general, the distribution of glacial lakes over elevation reflects glacier erosional and depositional dynamics rather than the distribution of total area. The rate of formation of new glacial lakes (number, area) has continuously accelerated over time with present rates showing an eight-fold increase since LIA. At the same time the total glacier area decreased by two-thirds. This development coincides with a long-term trend of rising temperatures and a significant stepping up of this trend within the last 20 years in the Austrian Alps.

  16. Expanding Greenland’s Glacial Record

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjørk, Anders Anker

    . On order to expand the glacial history of Greenland, this thesis explores physical and geological archives for evidence of the glaciers’ past response to climatic variations. Using aerial photographs, the dynamic history of the Greenland Ice Sheet is extended back to 1900 C.E. Glacier changes covering...

  17. A transient fully coupled climate-ice-sheet simulation of the last glacial inception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lofverstrom, M.; Otto-Bliesner, B. L.; Lipscomb, W. H.; Fyke, J. G.; Marshall, S.; Sacks, B.; Brady, E. C.

    2017-12-01

    The last glacial inception occurred around 115 ka, following a relative minimum in the Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. It is believed that small and spatially separated ice caps initially formed in the high elevation regions of northern Canada, Scandinavia, and along the Siberian Arctic coast. These ice caps subsequently migrated down in the valleys where they coalesced and formed the initial seeds of the large coherent ice masses that covered the northern parts of the North American and Eurasian continents over most of the last glacial cycle. Sea level records show that the initial growth period lasted for about 10 kyrs, and the resulting ice sheets may have lowered the global sea level by as much as 30 to 50 meters. Here we examine the transient climate system evolution over the period between 118 and 110 ka, using the fully coupled Community Earth System Model, version 2 (CESM2). This model features a two-way coupled high-resolution (4x4 km) ice-sheet component (Community Ice Sheet model, version 2; CISM2) that simulates ice sheets as an interactive component of the climate system. We impose a transient forcing protocol where the greenhouse gas concentrations and the orbital parameters follow the nominal year in the simulation; the model topography is also dynamically evolving in order to reflect changes in ice elevation throughout the simulation. The analysis focuses on how the climate system evolves over this time interval, with a special focus on glacial inception in the high-latitude continents. Results will highlight how the evolving ice sheets compare to data and previous model based reconstructions.

  18. Reflections on the nature of non-linear responses of the climate to forcing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ditlevsen, Peter

    2017-04-01

    On centennial to multi-millennial time scales the paleoclimatic record shows that climate responds in a very non-linear way to the external forcing. Perhaps most puzzling is the change in glacial period duration at the Middle Pleistocene Transition. From a dynamical systems perspective, this could be a change in frequency locking between the orbital forcing and the climatic response or it could be a non-linear resonance phenomenon. In both cases the climate system shows a non-trivial oscillatory behaviour. From the records it seems that this behaviour can be described by an effective dynamics on a low-dimensional slow manifold. These different possible dynamical behaviours will be discussed. References: Arianna Marchionne, Peter Ditlevsen, and Sebastian Wieczorek, "Three types of nonlinear resonances", arXiv:1605.00858 Peter Ashwin and Peter Ditlevsen, "The middle Pleistocene transition as a generic bifurcation on a slow manifold", Climate Dynamics, 45, 2683, 2015. Peter D. Ditlevsen, "The bifurcation structure and noise assisted transitions in the Pleistocene glacial cycles", Paleoceanography, 24, PA3204, 2009

  19. Subdivision of Glacial Deposits in Southeastern Peru Based on Pedogenic Development and Radiometric Ages

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goodman, Adam Y.; Rodbell, Donald T.; Seltzer, Geoffrey O.; Mark, Bryan G.

    2001-07-01

    The Cordillera Vilcanota and Quelccaya Ice Cap region of southern Peru (13°30‧-14°00‧S; 70°40‧-71°25‧W) contains a detailed record of late Quaternary glaciation in the tropical Andes. Quantification of soil development on 19 moraine crests and radiocarbon ages are used to reconstruct the glacial history. Secondary iron and clay increase linearly in Quelccaya soils and clay accumulates at a linear rate in Vilcanota soils, which may reflect the semicontinuous addition of eolian dust enriched in secondary iron to all soils. In contrast, logarithmic rates of iron buildup in soils in the Cordillera Vilcanota reflect chemical weathering; high concentrations of secondary iron in Vilcanota tills may mask the role of eolian input to these soils. Soil-age estimates from extrapolation of field and laboratory data suggest that the most extensive late Quaternary glaciation occurred >70,000 yr B.P. This provides one of the first semiquantitative age estimates for maximum ice extent in southern Peru and is supported by a minimum-limiting age of ∼41,520 14C yr B.P. A late glacial readvance culminated ∼16,650 cal yr B.P. in the Cordillera Vilcanota. Following rapid deglaciation of unknown extent, an advance of the Quelccaya Ice Cap occurred between ∼13,090 and 12,800 cal yr B.P., which coincides approximately with the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling in the North Atlantic region. Moraines deposited <394 cal yr B.P. in the Cordillera Vilcanota and <300 cal yr B.P. on the west side of the Quelccaya Ice Cap correlate with Little Ice Age moraines of other regions.

  20. Sink detection on tilted terrain for automated identification of glacial cirques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prasicek, Günther; Robl, Jörg; Lang, Andreas

    2016-04-01

    Glacial cirques are morphologically distinct but complex landforms and represent a vital part of high mountain topography. Their distribution, elevation and relief are expected to hold information on (1) the extent of glacial occupation, (2) the mechanism of glacial cirque erosion, and (3) how glacial in concert with periglacial processes can limit peak altitude and mountain range height. While easily detectably for the expert's eye both in nature and on various representations of topography, their complicated nature makes them a nemesis for computer algorithms. Consequently, manual mapping of glacial cirques is commonplace in many mountain landscapes worldwide, but consistent datasets of cirque distribution and objectively mapped cirques and their morphometrical attributes are lacking. Among the biggest problems for algorithm development are the complexity in shape and the great variability of cirque size. For example, glacial cirques can be rather circular or longitudinal in extent, exist as individual and composite landforms, show prominent topographic depressions or can entirely be filled with water or sediment. For these reasons, attributes like circularity, size, drainage area and topology of landform elements (e.g. a flat floor surrounded by steep walls) have only a limited potential for automated cirque detection. Here we present a novel, geomorphometric method for automated identification of glacial cirques on digital elevation models that exploits their genetic bowl-like shape. First, we differentiate between glacial and fluvial terrain employing an algorithm based on a moving window approach and multi-scale curvature, which is also capable of fitting the analysis window to valley width. We then fit a plane to the valley stretch clipped by the analysis window and rotate the terrain around the center cell until the plane is level. Doing so, we produce sinks of considerable size if the clipped terrain represents a cirque, while no or only very small sinks

  1. Glacial isostatic stress shadowing by the Antarctic ice sheet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivins, E. R.; James, T. S.; Klemann, V.

    2005-01-01

    Numerous examples of fault slip that offset late Quaternary glacial deposits and bedrock polish support the idea that the glacial loading cycle causes earthquakes in the upper crust. A semianalytical scheme is presented for quantifying glacial and postglacial lithospheric fault reactivation using contemporary rock fracture prediction methods. It extends previous studies by considering differential Mogi-von Mises stresses, in addition to those resulting from a Coulomb analysis. The approach utilizes gravitational viscoelastodynamic theory and explores the relationships between ice mass history and regional seismicity and faulting in a segment of East Antarctica containing the great Antarctic Plate (Balleny Island) earthquake of 25 March 1998 (Mw 8.1). Predictions of the failure stress fields within the seismogenic crust are generated for differing assumptions about background stress orientation, mantle viscosity, lithospheric thickness, and possible late Holocene deglaciation for the D91 Antarctic ice sheet history. Similar stress fracture fields are predicted by Mogi-von Mises and Coulomb theory, thus validating previous rebound Coulomb analysis. A thick lithosphere, of the order of 150-240 km, augments stress shadowing by a late melting (middle-late Holocene) coastal East Antarctic ice complex and could cause present-day earthquakes many hundreds of kilometers seaward of the former Last Glacial Maximum grounding line.

  2. Photogeologic study of small-scale linear features near a potential nuclear-waste repository site at Yucca Mountain, southern Nye County, Nevada

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Throckmorton, C.K.

    1987-01-01

    Linear features were mapped from 1:2400-scale aerial photographs of the northern half of the potential underground nuclear-waste repository site at Yucca Mountain by means of a Kern PG 2 stereoplotter. These features were thought to be the expression of fractures at the ground surface (fracture traces), and were mapped in the caprock, upper lithophysal, undifferentiated lower lithophysal and hackly units of the Tiva Canyon Member of the Miocene Paintbrush Tuff. To determine if the linear features corresponded to fracture traces observed in the field, stations (areas) were selected on the map where the traces were both abundant and located solely within one unit. These areas were visited in the field, where fracture-trace bearings and fracture-trace lengths were recorded. Additional data on fracture-trace length and fracture abundance, obtained from ground-based studies of cleared pavements located within the study area were used to help evaluate data collected for this study. 16 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs

  3. Glacial Hazards in Chile: Processes, Assessment, Mitigation and Risk Management Strategies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glasser, N. F.; Wilson, R.; Casassa, G., Sr.; Reynolds, J.; Harrison, S.; Shannon, S. R.; Schaefer, M.; Iribarran, P.

    2017-12-01

    Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) are capable of travelling considerable distances from their source and they represent one of the most important glacial hazards. In line with observations in other parts of the world, the frequency of GLOF events in Chile has increased in recent decades highlighting the need to quantify the flood risk posed to downstream areas. This poster presents the work of the `Glacial Hazards in Chile' project which aims to (1) better understand the processes that govern the development of GLOFs in Chile, (2) estimate the socio-economic effects of GLOFs in Chile, and (3) provide a GLOF risk assessment framework that can be applied to Chile and other lower income countries globally. As an initial step towards the completion of these aims, we have recently compiled the first glacial lake inventory for the central and Patagonian Andes, which details the temporal development of glacial lakes in this region over the past three decades. This analysis was used to identify two lakes of interest that were visited during a fieldwork expedition in February 2017. The first of these, Lago Chileno in Patagonia, has recently produced a large GLOF causing significant damage to the downstream floodplain, whilst the second was identified as one of the fastest growing lakes in the central Andes. Both these lakes were surveyed using aerial imagery acquired with a drone and a custom-built bathymetry boat, data from which will help to improve our understanding of the physical processes associated with glacial lake development and failure within the Chilean Andes.

  4. Are glacials "dry" - and in what sense?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheff, J.; Seager, R.; Coats, S.; Liu, H.

    2016-12-01

    Glacial maxima during the Pleistocene are generally thought to be arid on land, with a few regional exceptions. Recent work on future climate change, however, has found that different wetness-related variables have opposite-signed responses over large portions of the continents, belying simple ideas of local "drying" or "wetting" with global temperature change in models. Here, we show that this behavior extends to simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum as well: the continents are modeled to have generally wetter topsoils and higher values of standard climate-wetness metrics in the LGM than in the preindustrial, as well as generally lower precipitation and ubiquitously lower photosynthesis (likely driven by the low CO2), with the streamflow response falling in between. Is this model-derived view of the LGM an accurate one? Using a large community pollen and plant-fossil compilation, we confirm that LGM grasslands and open woodlands grew at many sites of present potential forest, seasonal or dry forests at many sites of present potential rain- or seasonal forests, and so forth, while changes in the opposite sense were extremely few and spatially confined. We show that this strongly resembles the simulated photosynthesis changes, but not the simulated streamflow or soil moisture changes. Meanwhile, published LGM lake-level estimates resemble the simulated streamflow changes, but not the photosynthesis changes. Thus, the last glacial does not appear to be systematically "dry" outside the high latitudes, but merely carbon-starved. Similarly, local findings of reduced or more open vegetation at the LGM (e.g. from pollen, carbon isotopes, or dustiness) do not indicate local "aridity" unless corroborating hydrological proxies are also found. Finally, this work suggests that glacial-era evidence of open vegetation with high lake levels (as in the eastern Mediterranean) is not odd or paradoxical, but entirely consistent with climate model output.

  5. The Glacial BuzzSaw, Isostasy, and Global Crustal Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levander, A.; Oncken, O.; Niu, F.

    2015-12-01

    The glacial buzzsaw hypothesis predicts that maximum elevations in orogens at high latitudes are depressed relative to temperate latitudes, as maximum elevation and hypsography of glaciated orogens are functions of the glacial equilibrium line altitude (ELA) and the modern and last glacial maximum (LGM) snowlines. As a consequence crustal thickness, density, or both must change with increasing latitude to maintain isostatic balance. For Airy compensation crustal thickness should decrease toward polar latitudes, whereas for Pratt compensation crustal densities should increase. For similar convergence rates, higher latitude orogens should have higher grade, and presumably higher density rocks in the crustal column due to more efficient glacial erosion. We have examined a number of global and regional crustal models to see if these predictions appear in the models. Crustal thickness is straightforward to examine, crustal density less so. The different crustal models generally agree with one another, but do show some major differences. We used a standard tectonic classification scheme of the crust for data selection. The globally averaged orogens show crustal thicknesses that decrease toward high latitudes, almost reflecting topography, in both the individual crustal models and the models averaged together. The most convincing is the western hemisphere cordillera, where elevations and crustal thicknesses decrease toward the poles, and also toward lower latitudes (the equatorial minimum is at ~12oN). The elevation differences and Airy prediction of crustal thickness changes are in reasonable agreement in the North American Cordillera, but in South America the observed crustal thickness change is larger than the Airy prediction. The Alpine-Himalayan chain shows similar trends, however the strike of the chain makes interpretation ambiguous. We also examined cratons with ice sheets during the last glacial period to see if continental glaciation also thins the crust toward

  6. Modelling end-glacial earthquakes at Olkiluoto

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Faelth, B.; Hoekmark, H.

    2011-02-01

    The objective of this study is to obtain estimates of the possible effects that post-glacial seismic events in three verified deformation zones (BFZ100, BFZ021/099 and BFZ214) at the Olkiluoto site may have on nearby fractures in terms of induced fracture shear displacement. The study is carried out by use of large-scale models analysed dynamically with the three dimensional distinct element code 3DEC. Earthquakes are simulated in a schematic way; large planar discontinuities representing earthquake faults are surrounded by a number of smaller discontinuities which represent rock fractures in which shear displacements potentially could be induced by the effects of the slipping fault. Initial stresses, based on best estimates of the present-day in situ stresses and on state-of-the-art calculations of glacially-induced stresses, are applied. The fault rupture is then initiated at a pre-defined hypocentre and programmed to propagate outward along the fault plane with a specified rupture velocity until it is arrested at the boundary of the prescribed rupture area. Fault geometries, fracture orientations, in situ stress model and material property parameter values are based on data obtained from the Olkiluoto site investigations. Glacially-induced stresses are obtained from state-of-the-art ice-crust/mantle finite element analyses. The response of the surrounding smaller discontinuities, i.e. the induced fracture shear displacement, is the main output from the simulations

  7. Glacial dispersal and flow history, East Arm area of Great Slave Lake, NWT, Canada

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharpe, D. R.; Kjarsgaard, B. A.; Knight, R. D.; Russell, H. A. J.; Kerr, D. E.

    2017-06-01

    Little work has been completed on paleo-ice-sheet flow indicators of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, west of the Keewatin Ice Divide. Field mapping, sampling and analysis of glaciogenic sediment (∼500 sample sites) in a ∼33,000 km2 region near the East Arm of Great Slave Lake in northwestern Canada, provided a rare opportunity to improve understanding of sediment erosion and transport patterns. Glacially-eroded bedrock and sedimentary landforms record east to west flow with NW and SW divergence, mapped within a portion of the Great Slave Lake flow tract. Transported till reflects a similar divergent flow pattern based on dispersal geometries for multiple indicators (e.g., heavy minerals and lithic fragments), which are aligned with the dominant and latest ice flow direction. Glaciofluvial erosion (e.g., s-forms and till removal), transport, and deposition (mainly as esker sediment) are set within 0.3-3 km wide meltwater erosional corridors, spaced regularly at 10-15 km intervals. Transport paths and distances are comparable in till and esker sediment, however, distances appear to be greater (∼5-25 km) in some esker constituents and indicator minerals are typically more concentrated in esker sediment than in till. Corridors form a divergent array identical to the pattern of ice-flow features. The congruence of ice and meltwater flow features is interpreted to be a response to a similar ice sheet gradient, and close timing of events (late dominant glacial ice flow and meltwater flow). The similarity in glacial and glaciofluvial flow patterns has important ramifications for event reconstruction and for exploration geologists utilizing mineral and geochemical tracing methods in this region, and possibly other parts of northern Canada. The correspondence between East Arm dispersal patterns, landforms and flow indicators supports interpretation of a simple and predictable single flow divergence model. This is in contrast to previous, multi-flow models, in which fan

  8. Decadal-scale climate drivers for glacial dynamics in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pederson, Gregory T.; Fagre, Daniel B.; Gray, Stephen T.; Graumlich, Lisa J.

    2004-06-01

    Little Ice Age (14th-19th centuries A.D.) glacial maxima and 20th century retreat have been well documented in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. However, the influence of regional and Pacific Basin driven climate variability on these events is poorly understood. We use tree-ring reconstructions of North Pacific surface temperature anomalies and summer drought as proxies for winter glacial accumulation and summer ablation, respectively, over the past three centuries. These records show that the 1850's glacial maximum was likely produced by ~70 yrs of cool/wet summers coupled with high snowpack. Post 1850, glacial retreat coincides with an extended period (>50 yr) of summer drought and low snowpack culminating in the exceptional events of 1917 to 1941 when retreat rates for some glaciers exceeded 100 m/yr. This research highlights potential local and ocean-based drivers of glacial dynamics, and difficulties in separating the effects of global climate change from regional expressions of decadal-scale climate variability.

  9. To evaluate ERTS-1 data for usefulness as a geological sensor in the diverse geological terraines of New York State

    Science.gov (United States)

    Isachsen, Y. W. (Principal Investigator)

    1973-01-01

    The author has identified the following significant results. Linear anomalies dominate the new geological information derived from ERTS-1 imagery, total lengths now exceeding 6000 kms. Experimentation with a variety of viewing techniques suggests that conventional photogeologic analyses of band 7 results in the location of more than 97 percent of all linears found. Bedrock lithologic types are distinguishable only where they are topographically expressed or govern land use signatures. The maxima on rose diagrams for ERTS-1 anomalies correspond well with those for mapped faults and topographic lineaments, despite a difference in relative magnitudes of maxima thought due to solar illumination direction. A multiscale analysis of linears showed that single topographic linears at 1:2,500,000 became dashed jugate linears at 1:500,000, and shorter linears lacking any conspicuous zonal alignment at 1:250,000. Most circular features found were explained away by U-2 airphoto analysis but several remain as anomalies. Visible glacial features include individual drumlins, best seen in winter imagery, drumlinoids, eskers, ice-marginal drainage channels, glacial lake shorelines and sand plains, and end moraines.

  10. Groundwater flow modelling of periods with periglacial and glacial climate conditions - Laxemar

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vidstrand, Patrik (TerraSolve AB, Floda (Sweden)); Rhen, Ingvar (SWECO Environment AB, Falun (Sweden)); Zugec, Nada (Bergab, Goeteborg (Sweden))

    2010-12-15

    As a part of the license application for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel at Forsmark, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) has undertaken a series of groundwater flow modelling studies. These represent time periods with different hydraulic conditions and the simulations carried out contribute to the overall evaluation of the repository design and long-term radiological safety. This report is concerned with the modelling of a repository at the Laxemar-Simpevarp site during periglacial and glacial climate conditions as a comparison to corresponding modelling carried out for Forsmark /Vidstrand et al. 2010/. The groundwater flow modelling study reported here comprises a coupled thermal-hydraulic-chemical (T-H-C) analysis of periods with periglacial and glacial climate conditions. The objective of the report is to provide bounding hydrogeological estimates at different stages during glaciation and deglaciation of a glacial cycle at Laxemar. Three cases with different climate conditions are analysed here: (i) Temperate case, (ii) Glacial case without permafrost, and (iii) Glacial case with permafrost. The glacial periods are transient and encompass approximately 13,000 years. The simulation results comprise pressures, Darcy fluxes, and water salinities, as well as advective transport performance measures obtained by particle tracking such as flow path lengths, travel times and flow-related transport resistances. The modelling is accompanied by a sensitivity study that addresses the impact of the following matters: the direction of the ice sheet advance and the bedrock hydraulic and transport properties

  11. Influence of glacial meltwater on global seawater δ234U

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arendt, Carli A.; Aciego, Sarah M.; Sims, Kenneth W. W.; Das, Sarah B.; Sheik, Cody; Stevenson, Emily I.

    2018-03-01

    We present the first published uranium-series measurements from modern Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) runoff and proximal seawater, and investigate the influence of glacial melt on global seawater δ234U over glacial-interglacial (g-ig) timescales. Climate reconstructions based on closed-system uranium-thorium (U/Th) dating of fossil corals assume U chemistry of seawater has remained stable over time despite notable fluctuations in major elemental compositions, concentrations, and isotopic compositions of global seawater on g-ig timescales. Deglacial processes increase weathering, significantly increasing U-series concentrations and changing the δ234U of glacial meltwater. Analyses of glacial discharge from GrIS outlet glaciers indicate that meltwater runoff has elevated U concentrations and differing 222Rn concentrations and δ234U compositions, likely due to variations in subglacial residence time. Locations with high δ234U have the potential to increase proximal seawater δ234U. To better understand the impact of bulk glacial melt on global seawater δ234U over time, we use a simple box model to scale these processes to periods of extreme deglaciation. We account for U fluxes from the GrIS, Antarctica, and large Northern Hemisphere Continental Ice Sheets, and assess sensitivity by varying melt volumes, duration and U flux input rates based on modern subglacial water U concentrations and compositions. All scenarios support the hypothesis that global seawater δ234U has varied by more than 1‰ through time as a function of predictable perturbations in continental U fluxes during g-ig periods.

  12. Overdeepening development in a glacial landscape evolution model with quarrying

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ugelvig, Sofie Vej; Egholm, D.L.; Iverson, Neal R.

    In glacial landscape evolution models, subglacial erosion rates are often related to basal sliding or ice discharge by a power-law. This relation can be justified when considering bed abrasion, where rock debris transported in the basal ice drives erosion. However, the relation is not well...... supported when considering models for quarrying of rock blocks from the bed. Field observations indicate that the principal mechanism of glacial erosion is quarrying, which emphasize the importance of a better way of implementing erosion by quarrying in glacial landscape evolution models. Iverson (2012...... around the obstacles. The erosion rate is quantified by considering the likelihood of rock fracturing on topographic bumps. The model includes a statistical treatment of the bedrock weakness, which is neglected in previous quarrying models. Sliding rate, effective pressure, and average bedslope...

  13. Can glacial shearing of sediment reset the signal used for luminescence dating?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bateman, Mark D.; Swift, Darrel A.; Piotrowski, Jan A.; Rhodes, Edward J.; Damsgaard, Anders

    2018-04-01

    Understanding the geomorphology left by waxing and waning of former glaciers and ice sheets during the late Quaternary has been the focus of much research. This has been hampered by the difficulty in dating such features. Luminescence has the potential to be applied to glacial sediments but requires signal resetting prior to burial in order to provide accurate ages. This paper explores the possibility that, rather than relying on light to reset the luminescence signal, glacial processes underneath ice might cause resetting. Experiments were conducted on a ring-shear machine set up to replicate subglacial conditions and simulate the shearing that can occur within subglacial sediments. Luminescence measurement at the single grain level indicates that a number (albeit small) of zero-dosed grains were produced and that these increased in abundance with distance travelled within the shearing zone. Observed changes in grain shape characteristics with increasing shear distance indicate the presence of localised high pressure grain-to-grain stresses caused by grain bridges. This appears to explain why some grains became zeroed whilst others retained their palaeodose. Based on the observed experimental trend, it is thought that localised grain stress is a viable luminescence resetting mechanism. As such relatively short shearing distances might be sufficient to reset a small proportion of the luminescence signal within subglacial sediments. Dating of previously avoided subglacial sediments may therefore be possible.

  14. Last Glacial Maximum CO2 and d13C successfully reconciled

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bouttes, N.; Paillard, D.; Roche, D.M.V.A.P.; Brovkin, V.; Bopp, L.

    2011-01-01

    During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ∼21,000 years ago) the cold climate was strongly tied to low atmospheric CO2 concentration (∼190 ppm). Although it is generally assumed that this low CO2 was due to an expansion of the oceanic carbon reservoir, simulating the glacial level

  15. Potentially dangerous glacial lakes in Kyrgyzstan - Research overview of 2004-2015

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jansky, Bohumir; Yerokhin, Sergey; Sobr, Miroslav; Engel, Zbynek; Cerny, Michal; Falatkova, Kristyna; Kocum, Jan; Benes, Vojtech

    2016-04-01

    Global warming causes intensive melting and retreat of glaciers in most of high mountains all over the world. This process is also evident in the mountain regions of central Tien Shan. Glacier melt water affects changes in hydrological regime of water streams and causes overfilling of high mountain lake basins. The dams of many lakes are very unstable and can burst open. To determine the degree of such risk, it is necessary to analyse the genesis of lakes, to characterize the morphology of the lake basins and to know the particularities of their hydrological regime. According to the latest inventory within territory of Kyrgyzstan, a total of 1328 lakes have been identified as potentially dangerous, 12 lakes are considered as currently dangerous, other 25 feature high potential hazard. Since 1952 more than 70 disastrous cases of lake outburst have been registered. The hazardous alpine lakes are studied in Kyrgyzstan systematically since 1966. Since 2004, Czech-Kyrgyz research team has been operating in Kyrgyzstan in the field of dangerous glacial lakes. Projects were focused primarily on high-mountain glacial lakes risk assessment, propositions of risk mitigation measures, establishment of permanent research station near one of the studied glacier complexes, preparation of risk analysis for selected endangered valleys, evaluation of climatic and hydrological data and glacier development within observed regions. The most significant portion of data and information has been gathered during field work, complemented by satellite image analysis and surveillance flights over the monitored sites.

  16. Quantifying the sensitivity of post-glacial sea level change to laterally varying viscosity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crawford, Ophelia; Al-Attar, David; Tromp, Jeroen; Mitrovica, Jerry X.; Austermann, Jacqueline; Lau, Harriet C. P.

    2018-05-01

    We present a method for calculating the derivatives of measurements of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) with respect to the viscosity structure of the Earth and the ice sheet history. These derivatives, or kernels, quantify the linearised sensitivity of measurements to the underlying model parameters. The adjoint method is used to enable efficient calculation of theoretically exact sensitivity kernels within laterally heterogeneous earth models that can have a range of linear or non-linear viscoelastic rheologies. We first present a new approach to calculate GIA in the time domain, which, in contrast to the more usual formulation in the Laplace domain, is well suited to continuously varying earth models and to the use of the adjoint method. Benchmarking results show excellent agreement between our formulation and previous methods. We illustrate the potential applications of the kernels calculated in this way through a range of numerical calculations relative to a spherically symmetric background model. The complex spatial patterns of the sensitivities are not intuitive, and this is the first time that such effects are quantified in an efficient and accurate manner.

  17. Pollen record of the penultimate glacial period in Yuchi Basin, Central Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lai, Hsiao-Yin; Liew, Ping-Mei

    2010-05-01

    Pollen records of the penultimate glacial period are scare not only in Taiwan, but also in East Asia area. Hence, this study intends to provide a new pollen record from a site, Yuchi Basin, in central Taiwan, which may improve our knowledge of the penultimate glacial period. The sediment core, CTN6, was drilled in the northern part of Yuchi Basin. The core is 29.4 m in length and the sampling interval is 10 cm. In total, 86 samples are processed for pollen analysis. Three pollen zones (I,II and III) are determined according to the ratio of arboreal pollens (AP) and non-arboreal pollens (NAP). Because of the scarcity of dating data, pollen assemblages compared with previous pollen records at peripheral areas is utilized to estimate the ages of each pollen zone. AP dominate (60%) Zone I and III, which consist mainly of Cyclobalanopsis-Castanopsis. Thus, Zone I may mark the MIS 5 because of a Cyclobalanopsis-Castanopsis dominant condition. In Zone II, the increase in NAP and pollen of Taxodiaceae and decrease in pollens of Cyclobalanopsis-Castanopsis indicates the penultimate glacial period, i.e. MIS 6. In contrast to the evergreen broadleaved forest found there today, the herbs occupied the basin in Zone II, indicating a relatively dry climate condition than present. Furthermore, during the penultimate glacial period, the climate condition of early part is wetter, evidenced by a higher AP/NAP in Zone IIb. Finally, comparing with the last glacial period in Toushe, we suggest that the penultimate glacial period is drier due to the lower AP/NAP.

  18. Glacial wetland distribution and methane emissions estimated from PMIP2 climate simulations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Weber, S.L.; Drury, A.J.; Toonen, W.H.J.; Weele, M. van

    2010-01-01

    The interglacial–glacial decrease in atmospheric methane concentration is often attributed to a strong decline in the wetland source. This seems consistent with the extreme coldness and vastly expanded ice sheets. Here we analyse coupled model simulations for the last glacial maximum from the

  19. Sediment core and glacial environment reconstruction - a method review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bakke, Jostein; Paasche, Øyvind

    2010-05-01

    Alpine glaciers are often located in remote and high-altitude regions of the world, areas that only rarely are covered by instrumental records. Reconstructions of glaciers has therefore proven useful for understanding past climate dynamics on both shorter and longer time-scales. One major drawback with glacier reconstructions based solely on moraine chronologies - by far the most common -, is that due to selective preservation of moraine ridges such records do not exclude the possibility of multiple Holocene glacier advances. This problem is true regardless whether cosmogenic isotopes or lichenometry have been used to date the moraines, or also radiocarbon dating of mega-fossils buried in till or underneath the moraines themselves. To overcome this problem Karlén (1976) initially suggested that glacial erosion and the associated production of rock-flour deposited in downstream lakes could provide a continuous record of glacial fluctuations, hence overcoming the problem of incomplete reconstructions. We want to discuss the methods used to reconstruct past glacier activity based on sediments deposited in distal glacier-fed lakes. By quantifying physical properties of glacial and extra-glacial sediments deposited in catchments, and in downstream lakes and fjords, it is possible to isolate and identify past glacier activity - size and production rate - that subsequently can be used to reconstruct changing environmental shifts and trends. Changes in average sediment evacuation from alpine glaciers are mainly governed by glacier size and the mass turnover gradient, determining the deformation rate at any given time. The amount of solid precipitation (mainly winter accumulation) versus loss due to melting during the ablation-season (mainly summer temperature) determines the mass turnover gradient in either positive or negative direction. A prevailing positive net balance will lead to higher sedimentation rates and vice versa, which in turn can be recorded in downstream

  20. Glacial lakes in the Horgos river basin and their outbreak risk assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. P. Medeu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The river Khorgos (in Kazakhstan – Korgas is a boundary river between Kazakhstan and China. Its basin is located in the central part of southern slope of Dzhungarskiy (Zhetysu Alatau range. According to agreement between Kazakhstan and China at the boundary transition of Khorgos in the floodplain of the river Khorgos the large Center of Frontier Cooperation is erected. Estimation of safety of the mentioned object including connection with possible glacial lakes outbursts has the importance of political-economical value. Nowadays development of glacial lakes in the overhead part of Khorgos river basin has reached apogee. As a roof we can mention the maximum of total glacial lakes area (1,7 million m² in 41 lakes and emptied kettles of former glacial lakes. Six lakes reached highly dangerous outburst stage: the volume of lakes reached some million m³, maximum depth up to 30–40 m. Focal ground filtration of the water from lakes takes place. Development of glacial lakes in Khorgos river basin will continue, and these lakes give and will give real danger for the Center of Frontier Cooperation in case of outburst of naturally dammed lake Kazankol with the similar mechanism of Issyk lake outburst, occurred in 1963 in ZailijskiyAlatau (Ile Alatau.

  1. Glacial ocean circulation and stratification explained by reduced atmospheric temperature

    OpenAIRE

    Jansen, Malte F.

    2016-01-01

    To understand climatic swings between glacial and interglacial climates we need to explain the observed fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), which in turn are most likely driven by changes in the deep ocean circulation. This study presents a model for differences in the deep ocean circulation between glacial and interglacial climates consistent with both our physical understanding and various proxy observations. The results suggest that observed changes in ocean circulation and s...

  2. Glacial Cycles and ice-sheet modelling

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oerlemans, J.

    1982-01-01

    An attempt is made to simulate the Pleistocene glacial cycles with a numerical model of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. This model treats the vertically-integrated ice flow along a meridian, including computation of bedrock adjustment and temperature distribution in the ice. Basal melt water is

  3. Millennial climatic fluctuations are key to the structure of last glacial ecosystems.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brian Huntley

    Full Text Available Whereas fossil evidence indicates extensive treeless vegetation and diverse grazing megafauna in Europe and northern Asia during the last glacial, experiments combining vegetation models and climate models have to-date simulated widespread persistence of trees. Resolving this conflict is key to understanding both last glacial ecosystems and extinction of most of the mega-herbivores. Using a dynamic vegetation model (DVM we explored the implications of the differing climatic conditions generated by a general circulation model (GCM in "normal" and "hosing" experiments. Whilst the former approximate interstadial conditions, the latter, designed to mimic Heinrich Events, approximate stadial conditions. The "hosing" experiments gave simulated European vegetation much closer in composition to that inferred from fossil evidence than did the "normal" experiments. Given the short duration of interstadials, and the rate at which forest cover expanded during the late-glacial and early Holocene, our results demonstrate the importance of millennial variability in determining the character of last glacial ecosystems.

  4. Millennial climatic fluctuations are key to the structure of last glacial ecosystems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huntley, Brian; Allen, Judy R M; Collingham, Yvonne C; Hickler, Thomas; Lister, Adrian M; Singarayer, Joy; Stuart, Anthony J; Sykes, Martin T; Valdes, Paul J

    2013-01-01

    Whereas fossil evidence indicates extensive treeless vegetation and diverse grazing megafauna in Europe and northern Asia during the last glacial, experiments combining vegetation models and climate models have to-date simulated widespread persistence of trees. Resolving this conflict is key to understanding both last glacial ecosystems and extinction of most of the mega-herbivores. Using a dynamic vegetation model (DVM) we explored the implications of the differing climatic conditions generated by a general circulation model (GCM) in "normal" and "hosing" experiments. Whilst the former approximate interstadial conditions, the latter, designed to mimic Heinrich Events, approximate stadial conditions. The "hosing" experiments gave simulated European vegetation much closer in composition to that inferred from fossil evidence than did the "normal" experiments. Given the short duration of interstadials, and the rate at which forest cover expanded during the late-glacial and early Holocene, our results demonstrate the importance of millennial variability in determining the character of last glacial ecosystems.

  5. The seasonal sea-ice zone in the glacial Southern Ocean as a carbon sink.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abelmann, Andrea; Gersonde, Rainer; Knorr, Gregor; Zhang, Xu; Chapligin, Bernhard; Maier, Edith; Esper, Oliver; Friedrichsen, Hans; Lohmann, Gerrit; Meyer, Hanno; Tiedemann, Ralf

    2015-09-18

    Reduced surface-deep ocean exchange and enhanced nutrient consumption by phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean have been linked to lower glacial atmospheric CO2. However, identification of the biological and physical conditions involved and the related processes remains incomplete. Here we specify Southern Ocean surface-subsurface contrasts using a new tool, the combined oxygen and silicon isotope measurement of diatom and radiolarian opal, in combination with numerical simulations. Our data do not indicate a permanent glacial halocline related to melt water from icebergs. Corroborated by numerical simulations, we find that glacial surface stratification was variable and linked to seasonal sea-ice changes. During glacial spring-summer, the mixed layer was relatively shallow, while deeper mixing occurred during fall-winter, allowing for surface-ocean refueling with nutrients from the deep reservoir, which was potentially richer in nutrients than today. This generated specific carbon and opal export regimes turning the glacial seasonal sea-ice zone into a carbon sink.

  6. Numerical investigations of subglacial hydrology as a direct and indirect driver of glacial erosion

    OpenAIRE

    Beaud, Flavien

    2017-01-01

    Glaciers shape high altitude and latitude landscapes in numerous ways. Erosion associated with glacial processes can limit the average height of mountain ranges, while creating the greatest relief on Earth and shaping the highest mountain peaks, but glaciers can also shield pre-existing topography. Glacial erosion processes, though still enigmatic, are central to the evolution of landscapes, particularly since the onset of the Pleistocene. Glacial erosion comprises three fundamental processes...

  7. Linear Colliders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alcaraz, J.

    2001-01-01

    After several years of study e''+ e''- linear colliders in the TeV range have emerged as the major and optimal high-energy physics projects for the post-LHC era. These notes summarize the present status form the main accelerator and detector features to their physics potential. The LHC era. These notes summarize the present status, from the main accelerator and detector features to their physics potential. The LHC is expected to provide first discoveries in the new energy domain, whereas an e''+ e''- linear collider in the 500 GeV-1 TeV will be able to complement it to an unprecedented level of precision in any possible areas: Higgs, signals beyond the SM and electroweak measurements. It is evident that the Linear Collider program will constitute a major step in the understanding of the nature of the new physics beyond the Standard Model. (Author) 22 refs

  8. Glacial morphology and depositional sequences of the Antarctic Continental Shelf

    Science.gov (United States)

    ten Brink, Uri S.; Schneider, Christopher

    1995-01-01

    Proposes a simple model for the unusual depositional sequences and morphology of the Antarctic continental shelf. It considers the regional stratal geometry and the reversed morphology to be principally the results of time-integrated effects of glacial erosion and sedimentation related to the location of the ice grounding line. The model offers several guidelines for stratigraphic interpretation of the Antarctic shelf and a Northern Hemisphere shelf, both of which were subject to many glacial advances and retreats. -Authors

  9. Glacial History of Southernmost South America and Implications for Movement of the Westerlies and Antarctic Frontal Zone

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaplan, M. R.; Fogwill, C. J.; Hulton, N. R.; Sugden, D. E.; Peter, K. W.

    2004-12-01

    The ~1 Myr glacial geologic record in southern South American is one of the few available terrestrial paleoclimate proxies at orbital and suborbital time scales in the middle latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Presently, southernmost Patagonia lies about 3\\deg north of the Antarctic frontal zone and within the middle latitude westerlies and the climate is controlled by the surrounding maritime conditions. Thus, the long-term glacial record provides insight into the history of climatic boundaries over the middle and high latitude southern ocean, including the upwind SE Pacific Ocean, tectonic-glacial evolution of the Andes, and global climate. To date, cosmogenic nuclide and 14C dating have focused on glacial fluctuations between 51 and 53\\deg S (Torres del Paine to northern Tierra del Fuego) during the last glacial cycle, including the late glacial period. At least 4 advances occurred between ca. 25 and 17 ka, with the maximum expansion of ice ca. 25-24 ka. Major deglaciation commenced after ca. 17.5 ka, which was interrupted by a major glacial-climate event ca. 14-12 ka. Modelling experiments suggest that the ice mass needed to form the glacial maximum moraines required about a 6\\deg cooling and a slight drying relative to the present. Such a fundamental temperature reduction, despite high summer isolation, strongly suggests northward movement of the westerlies and the polar front on millennial timescales. The Patagonian record also indicates that on orbital timescales equatorward movement of climate boundaries and glacial growth was in phase with major Northern Hemisphere ice volume change, despite high local summer insolation. At suborbital timescales, the picture is more complex. While major facets of the last glacial maximum appear to be in phase between the hemispheres, at least some late glacial events may be in step with Antarctic climate change. Present and future research will further constrain the timing of glacial events over the last 1 Myr and

  10. Non linear system become linear system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petre Bucur

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The present paper refers to the theory and the practice of the systems regarding non-linear systems and their applications. We aimed the integration of these systems to elaborate their response as well as to highlight some outstanding features.

  11. Glacial loess or shoreface sands: a re-interpretation of the Upper Ordovician (Ashgillian) glacial Ammar Formation, Southern Jordan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner, B. R.; Makhlouf, I. M.; Armstrong, H. A.

    2003-04-01

    Upper Ordovician (Ashgillian) glacial deposits of the Ammar Formation, Southern Jordan, comprise locally deformed, structureless fine sandstone, incised by glacial channels filled by braided outwash plain sandstones and transgressive marine mudstones. The structureless sandstones, previously interpreted as a glacial rock flour or loessite derived from the underlying undisturbed sandstones, differ significantly from typical loessite and contain hitherto unrecognised sedimentary structures, including hummocky cross-stratification. The sandstones, which grade laterally and vertically into stratigraphically equivalent undeformed marginal marine sandstones, are interpreted as a deformed facies of the underlying sandstones, deposited in a similar high energy shoreface environment. Although deformation of the shoreface sandstones was post-depositional, the origin of the deformation, and its confinement to the Jebel Ammar area is unknown. Deformation due to the weight of the overlying ice is unlikely as the glaciofluvial channels are now thought to have been cut by tunnel valley activity not ice. A more likely mechanism is post-glacial crustal tectonics. Melting of ice caps is commonly associated with intraplate seismicity and the development of an extensional crustal stress regime around the perimeter of ice caps; the interior is largely aseismic because the weight of the ice supresses seismic activity and faulting. Since southern Jordan lay close to the ice cap in Saudi Arabia it may have been subjected to postglacial seismicity and crustal stress, which induced ground shaking, reduced overburden pressure, increased hydrostatic pressure and possibly reactivation of existing tectonic faults. This resulted in liquefaction and extensive deformation of the sediments, which show many characteristics of seismites, generated by earthquake shocks. Since the glaciation was a very short-lived event (0.2-1 Ma), deglaciation and associated tectonism triggering deformation, lasted

  12. Biodegradability of terrigenous dissolved organic matter in estuaries draining glacial and wetland-dominated watersheds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fellman, J. B.; Hood, E.; Spencer, R. G.; Edwards, R. T.; D'Amore, D. V.; Hernes, P. J.

    2008-12-01

    The processing of terrigenous dissolved organic matter (DOM) by estuarine food webs mediates its transfer from riverine to near-shore coastal environments. We used PARAFAC modeling of fluorescence excitation- emission matrices (EEMs) and biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC) incubations to investigate changes in the chemical quality and biodegradability of terrigenous DOM along a salinity gradient in three estuaries in coastal southeastern Alaska: 1) a watershed with high glacial coverage, 2) a forested watershed with low glacial coverage and 3) a watershed with high wetland coverage. Biodegradable DOC incubations were conducted for each site by inoculating filtered river water with whole water collected from four different salinities (0, 2, 10 and 25 ppt) and incubating the water samples for 2, 7, 14 and 28 days. The percent BDOC ranged from 33-54% for the 28-day incubations at the three sites and greater than half of the total BDOC was consumed during the first 2 days of the incubations. The percent BDOC was also greater in the estuary draining the highly glaciated watershed for all four salinities. Moreover, percent BDOC increased with increasing salinity in all three estuaries, suggesting greater bacterial utilization of terrigenous DOC under estuarine as compared to riverine conditions. There are several potential explanations for the observed patterns in BDOC: 1) there is a shift in bacterial community composition along the salinity gradient we sampled and 2) marine bacteria contain a more diverse set of hydrolytic isoenzymes than riverine bacteria, allowing them to more effectively metabolize terrigenous DOM. Application of a conservative mixing model combined with PARAFAC modeling of fluorescence EEMs showed that fluorescent DOM behaved conservatively in all three estuaries, as indicated by the near-linear decrease in the contribution of humic-like fluorescence with increasing salinity. PARAFAC modeling further showed that the relative contribution

  13. Late-Glacial radiocarbon- and palynostratigraphy in the Swiss Plateau

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ammann, B.; Lotter, A.F.

    1989-01-01

    A detailed Late-Glacial radiocarbon stratigraphy for the Swiss Plateau has been established on the basis of over 90 accelerator 14 C dates on terrestrial plant macrofossils. A comparison of the radiocarbon ages derived from terrestrial, telmatic and limnic material at different sites on the Swiss Plateau yields a proposal for modifying the zonation system of Welten for the Late-Glacial. By retaining the limits of chronozones and by refining the palynostratigraphic criteria for the limits of biozones, a separation between chrono- and biozonation at the beginning of the Boelling and the Younger Dryas becomes obvious. 54 refs

  14. Thermal study on the impurity effect on thermodynamic stability of the glacial phase in triphenyl phosphite-triphenyl phosphate system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tanabe, Ikue; Takeda, Kiyoshi; Murata, Katsuo

    2005-01-01

    To investigate the impurity effect on thermodynamic stability of the glacial phase, an apparently amorphous metastable phase observed in triphenyl phosphite (TPP), the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was carried out in the temperature range 120-350 K for binary mixtures between TPP and triphenyl phosphate (TPPO). Heating up from the glassy liquid, supercooled liquid phase transformed into glacial phase below the crystallization temperature for all the samples with x < 0.2, where x denotes the mole fraction of TPPO. Both transformation temperatures from liquid to glacial and from glacial to crystal increased and temperature range that glacial phase appears narrowed with the content of TPPO. The peak intensity of exothermic effect due to the transformation from liquid to glacial becomes larger whereas that from glacial to crystal reduced. The kinetic and thermodynamic stabilities were discussed for liquid and glacial phases based on the DSC results

  15. Thermal study on the impurity effect on thermodynamic stability of the glacial phase in triphenyl phosphite-triphenyl phosphate system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tanabe, Ikue [Department of Chemistry, Naruto University of Education, Naruto, Tokushima 772-8502 (Japan); Takeda, Kiyoshi [Department of Chemistry, Naruto University of Education, Naruto, Tokushima 772-8502 (Japan)]. E-mail: takeda@naruto-u.ac.jp; Murata, Katsuo [Department of Chemistry, Naruto University of Education, Naruto, Tokushima 772-8502 (Japan)

    2005-06-15

    To investigate the impurity effect on thermodynamic stability of the glacial phase, an apparently amorphous metastable phase observed in triphenyl phosphite (TPP), the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was carried out in the temperature range 120-350 K for binary mixtures between TPP and triphenyl phosphate (TPPO). Heating up from the glassy liquid, supercooled liquid phase transformed into glacial phase below the crystallization temperature for all the samples with x < 0.2, where x denotes the mole fraction of TPPO. Both transformation temperatures from liquid to glacial and from glacial to crystal increased and temperature range that glacial phase appears narrowed with the content of TPPO. The peak intensity of exothermic effect due to the transformation from liquid to glacial becomes larger whereas that from glacial to crystal reduced. The kinetic and thermodynamic stabilities were discussed for liquid and glacial phases based on the DSC results.

  16. Carbonate cementation in the late glacial outwash and beach deposits in northern Estonia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maris Rattas

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available The sedimentary environments, morphology and formation of carbonate cement in the late glacial glaciofluvial outwash and beach deposits in northern Estonia are discussed. Cementation is observed in well-drained, highly porous carbonaceous debris-rich gravel and sand-forming, resistant ledges in otherwise unconsolidated sediments. The cemented units occur as laterally continuous layers or as isolated lenticular patches with thicknesses from a few centimetres to 3 m. The cement is found in two main morphologies: (1 cement crusts or coatings around detrital grains and (2 massive cement almost entirely filling interparticle pores and intraparticle voids. It is exclusively composed of low-Mg calcite with angular equant to slightly elongated rhombohedral and scalenohedral or prismatic crystals, which indicate precipitation from meteoric or connate fresh surface (glacial lake water and/or near-surface groundwater under low to moderate supersaturation and flow conditions. The absence of organic structures within the cement suggests that cementation is essentially inorganic. The cement exhibits both meteoric vadose and phreatic features and most probably occurred close to the vadose–phreatic interface, where the conditions were transitional and/or fluctuating. Cementation has mainly taken place by CO2-degassing in response to fluctuations in groundwater level and flow conditions, controlled by the Baltic Ice Lake water level, and seasonal cold and/or dry climate conditions.

  17. Revealing metabolite biomarkers for acupuncture treatment by linear programming based feature selection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yong; Wu, Qiao-Feng; Chen, Chen; Wu, Ling-Yun; Yan, Xian-Zhong; Yu, Shu-Guang; Zhang, Xiang-Sun; Liang, Fan-Rong

    2012-01-01

    Acupuncture has been practiced in China for thousands of years as part of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and has gradually accepted in western countries as an alternative or complementary treatment. However, the underlying mechanism of acupuncture, especially whether there exists any difference between varies acupoints, remains largely unknown, which hinders its widespread use. In this study, we develop a novel Linear Programming based Feature Selection method (LPFS) to understand the mechanism of acupuncture effect, at molecular level, by revealing the metabolite biomarkers for acupuncture treatment. Specifically, we generate and investigate the high-throughput metabolic profiles of acupuncture treatment at several acupoints in human. To select the subsets of metabolites that best characterize the acupuncture effect for each meridian point, an optimization model is proposed to identify biomarkers from high-dimensional metabolic data from case and control samples. Importantly, we use nearest centroid as the prototype to simultaneously minimize the number of selected features and the leave-one-out cross validation error of classifier. We compared the performance of LPFS to several state-of-the-art methods, such as SVM recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) and sparse multinomial logistic regression approach (SMLR). We find that our LPFS method tends to reveal a small set of metabolites with small standard deviation and large shifts, which exactly serves our requirement for good biomarker. Biologically, several metabolite biomarkers for acupuncture treatment are revealed and serve as the candidates for further mechanism investigation. Also biomakers derived from five meridian points, Zusanli (ST36), Liangmen (ST21), Juliao (ST3), Yanglingquan (GB34), and Weizhong (BL40), are compared for their similarity and difference, which provide evidence for the specificity of acupoints. Our result demonstrates that metabolic profiling might be a promising method to

  18. A new global reconstruction of temperature changes at the Last Glacial Maximum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. D. Annan

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Some recent compilations of proxy data both on land and ocean (MARGO Project Members, 2009; Bartlein et al., 2011; Shakun et al., 2012, have provided a new opportunity for an improved assessment of the overall climatic state of the Last Glacial Maximum. In this paper, we combine these proxy data with the ensemble of structurally diverse state of the art climate models which participated in the PMIP2 project (Braconnot et al., 2007 to generate a spatially complete reconstruction of surface air (and sea surface temperatures. We test a variety of approaches, and show that multiple linear regression performs well for this application. Our reconstruction is significantly different to and more accurate than previous approaches and we obtain an estimated global mean cooling of 4.0 ± 0.8 °C (95% CI.

  19. A preliminary structural analysis of the pattern of post-glacial faults in Northern Sweden

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Talbot, C.

    1986-10-01

    The post-glacial kinematics inferred from the structures suggest horizontal NW or WNW compression with lateral relief to the NE at depth below surficial upward relief. These kinematics are sufficiently similar to the kinematics throughout Europe north of the Alps to suspect the neotectonic motion of the Eurasian lithospheric plate over the last 38 or even 58 (+/- 2)Ma as the causative force. Large displacements appear to have occurred within a hundred years or so of the last ice retreating from any particular part of northern Scandinavia. This suggests a sudden relief during glacial unloading (and melting of ground water) of plate tectonic forces accumulated during glacial loading. Recent earthquakes in the region display similar kinematics to the post-glacial fractures on a regional scale but indications of ground movement along the forested fault scarps in the lifetime of the trees is observed at only a few localities. Only geodetic strain measurements or small-earthquake monitoring will resolve whether current ductile or seismic motion is occuring along the most obvious post-glacial scarps. Such investigations are under way. (orig./DG)

  20. Linear Accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vretenar, M

    2014-01-01

    The main features of radio-frequency linear accelerators are introduced, reviewing the different types of accelerating structures and presenting the main characteristics aspects of linac beam dynamics

  1. The De Long Trough: a newly discovered glacial trough on the East Siberian continental margin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. O'Regan

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Ice sheets extending over parts of the East Siberian continental shelf have been proposed for the last glacial period and during the larger Pleistocene glaciations. The sparse data available over this sector of the Arctic Ocean have left the timing, extent and even existence of these ice sheets largely unresolved. Here we present new geophysical mapping and sediment coring data from the East Siberian shelf and slope collected during the 2014 SWERUS-C3 expedition (SWERUS-C3: Swedish – Russian – US Arctic Ocean Investigation of Climate-Cryosphere-Carbon Interactions. The multibeam bathymetry and chirp sub-bottom profiles reveal a set of glacial landforms that include grounding zone formations along the outer continental shelf, seaward of which lies a  >  65 m thick sequence of glacio-genic debris flows. The glacial landforms are interpreted to lie at the seaward end of a glacial trough – the first to be reported on the East Siberian margin, here referred to as the De Long Trough because of its location due north of the De Long Islands. Stratigraphy and dating of sediment cores show that a drape of acoustically laminated sediments covering the glacial deposits is older than ∼ 50 cal kyr BP. This provides direct evidence for extensive glacial activity on the Siberian shelf that predates the Last Glacial Maximum and most likely occurred during the Saalian (Marine Isotope Stage (MIS 6.

  2. The Distribution and Magnitude of Glacial Erosion on 103-year Timescales at Engabreen, Norway

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rand, C.; Goehring, B. M.

    2017-12-01

    We derive the magnitudes of glacial erosion integrated over 103-year timescales across a transect transverse to the direction of ice flow at Engabreen, Norway. Understanding the distribution of glacial erosion is important for several reasons, including sediment budgeting to fjord environments, development of robust landscape evolution models, and if a better understanding between erosion and ice-bed interface properties (e.g., sliding rate, basal water pressure) can be developed, we can use records of glacial erosion to infer glaciological properties that can ultimately benefit models of past and future glaciers. With few exceptions, measurements of glacial erosion are limited to the historical past and even then are rare owing to the difficulty of accessing the glacier bed. One method proven useful in estimating glacial erosion on 103-year timescales is to measure the remaining concentrations of cosmogenic nuclides that accumulate in exposed bedrock during periods of retracted glacier extent and are removed by glacial erosion and radioactive decay during ice cover. Here we will present measurements of 14C and 10Be measured in proglacial bedrock from Engabreen. Our transects are ca. 600 and 400 meters in front of the modern ice front, and based on historical imagery, was ice covered until the recent past. Initial 10Be results show an increase in concentrations of nearly an order of magnitude from the samples near the center of the glacial trough to those on the lateral margin, consistent with conceptual models of glacial erosion parameterized in terms of sliding velocity. Naïve exposure ages that assume no subglacial erosion range from 0.22 - 9.04 ka. More importantly, we can estimate erosion depths by assuming zero erosion of the highest concentration sample along the two transects and calculate the amount of material removed to yield the lower concentrations elsewhere along the two transects. Results indicate minimum erosion depths of 1-183 cm for most ice

  3. Late-glacial atmospheric CO{sub 2} reconstructions from western Norway using fossil leaves

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Birks, H H; Birks, H J.B. [Sheffield Univ. (United Kingdom). Dept. of Animal and Plant Sciences; Beerling, D J; Woodward, F I [Bergen Univ. (Norway). Botanical Inst.

    1996-12-31

    Analyses of air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice-cores have shown that atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentrations are 180-200 ppmv during glacial periods, and ca. 280 ppmv during interglacials, including the Holocene. The change from glacial to Holocene concentrations occurred steadily over ca. 5000 years, slightly lagging the temperature increase inferred from {delta}{sup 18}. Antarctic ice cores lack fine time resolution over the late-glacial/early Holocene period 12-9000 {sup 14}C yr BP, that includes the Younger Dryas cold oscillation. The stomatal density on leaves is inversely proportional to the concentration of atmospheric CO{sub 2}. A late glacial sequence at Kraakenes, western Norway, contains well-preserved Salix herbacea (dwarf willow) leaves, dated from 11700-9600 {sup 14}C yr BP. If the stomatal density is measured on the fossil leaves, a calibration derived from the relationship of stomatal density of modern material of the same species to known CO{sub 2} concentrations can be used to reconstruct CO{sub 2} concentrations of the past. Because of the decadal time-resolution available at Kraakenes through the late-glacial and early Holocene, a detailed record of CO{sub 2} concentrations can be reconstructed over this period, that will complement the ice core record. (author)

  4. Late-glacial atmospheric CO{sub 2} reconstructions from western Norway using fossil leaves

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Birks, H.H.; Birks, H.J.B. [Sheffield Univ. (United Kingdom). Dept. of Animal and Plant Sciences; Beerling, D.J.; Woodward, F.I. [Bergen Univ. (Norway). Botanical Inst.

    1995-12-31

    Analyses of air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice-cores have shown that atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentrations are 180-200 ppmv during glacial periods, and ca. 280 ppmv during interglacials, including the Holocene. The change from glacial to Holocene concentrations occurred steadily over ca. 5000 years, slightly lagging the temperature increase inferred from {delta}{sup 18}. Antarctic ice cores lack fine time resolution over the late-glacial/early Holocene period 12-9000 {sup 14}C yr BP, that includes the Younger Dryas cold oscillation. The stomatal density on leaves is inversely proportional to the concentration of atmospheric CO{sub 2}. A late glacial sequence at Kraakenes, western Norway, contains well-preserved Salix herbacea (dwarf willow) leaves, dated from 11700-9600 {sup 14}C yr BP. If the stomatal density is measured on the fossil leaves, a calibration derived from the relationship of stomatal density of modern material of the same species to known CO{sub 2} concentrations can be used to reconstruct CO{sub 2} concentrations of the past. Because of the decadal time-resolution available at Kraakenes through the late-glacial and early Holocene, a detailed record of CO{sub 2} concentrations can be reconstructed over this period, that will complement the ice core record. (author)

  5. A glacial model for TIME4 applicable to the Sellafield and Dounreay areas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boulton, G.S.; Broadgate, M.

    1992-12-01

    This report provides input data for TIME4 Version 2.0 which has been developed for use at Sellafield and Dounreay. This report presents a review of the available data on the disposition of tills and other glacial deposits and landforms in the regions around Sellafield and Dounreay. This information is supplemented by the use of satellite imagery which has allowed the delineation of glacial flowlines on a regional basis. The glacial data is used as a constraint for the modelling of ice sheet behaviour. The physical basis of the model used has been developed previously but is presented for reference in this report. Modifications, notably the use of a nested topographic grid to improve resolution around the site, are described. Output from the model includes ice-front position, relative sea-level, erosion and deposition and sub-glacial discharge as a function of time and position along a transect. Additional information relating to the surface slope of the ice sheet is also included. (Author)

  6. Linear and nonlinear resonance features of an erbium-doped fibre ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    2014-07-01

    Jul 1, 2014 ... Abstract. The continuous-wave output of a single-mode erbium-doped fibre ring laser when sub- jected to cavity-loss modulation is found to exhibit linear as well as nonlinear resonances. At sufficiently low driving amplitude, the system resembles a linear damped oscillator. At higher amplitudes, the ...

  7. The effect of sediment loading in Fennoscandia and the Barents Sea during the last glacial cycle on glacial isostatic adjustment observations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. van der Wal

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Models for glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA routinely include the effects of meltwater redistribution and changes in topography and coastlines. Since the sediment transport related to the dynamics of ice sheets may be comparable to that of sea level rise in terms of surface pressure, the loading effect of sediment deposition could cause measurable ongoing viscous readjustment. Here, we study the loading effect of glacially induced sediment redistribution (GISR related to the Weichselian ice sheet in Fennoscandia and the Barents Sea. The surface loading effect and its effect on the gravitational potential is modeled by including changes in sediment thickness in the sea level equation following the method of Dalca et al. (2013. Sediment displacement estimates are estimated in two different ways: (i from a compilation of studies on local features (trough mouth fans, large-scale failures, and basin flux and (ii from output of a coupled ice–sediment model. To account for uncertainty in Earth's rheology, three viscosity profiles are used. It is found that sediment transport can lead to changes in relative sea level of up to 2 m in the last 6000 years and larger effects occurring earlier in the deglaciation. This magnitude is below the error level of most of the relative sea level data because those data are sparse and errors increase with length of time before present. The effect on present-day uplift rates reaches a few tenths of millimeters per year in large parts of Norway and Sweden, which is around the measurement error of long-term GNSS (global navigation satellite system monitoring networks. The maximum effect on present-day gravity rates as measured by the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite mission is up to tenths of microgal per year, which is larger than the measurement error but below other error sources. Since GISR causes systematic uplift in most of mainland Scandinavia, including GISR in GIA models

  8. Repeated Storage of Respired Carbon in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Over the Last Three Glacial Cycles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobel, A. W.; McManus, J. F.; Anderson, R. F.; Winckler, G.

    2017-12-01

    As the largest reservoir of carbon actively exchanging with the atmosphere on glacial-interglacial timescales, the deep ocean has been implicated as the likely location of carbon dioxide sequestration during Pleistocene glaciations. Despite strong theoretical underpinnings for this expectation, it has been challenging to identify unequivocal evidence for respired carbon storage in the paleoceanographic record. Data on the rate of ocean ventilation derived from paired planktonic-benthic foraminifera radiocarbon ages conflict across the equatorial Pacific, and different proxy reconstructions contradict one another about the depth and origin of the watermass containing the respired carbon. Because any change in the storage of respiratory carbon must be accompanied by corresponding changes in dissolved oxygen concentrations, proxy data reflecting bottom water oxygenation are of value in addressing these apparent inconsistencies. We present new records of the redox sensitive metal uranium from the central equatorial Pacific to qualitatively identify intervals associated with respiratory carbon storage over the past 350 kyr. Our data reveal periods of deep ocean authigenic uranium deposition in association with each of the last three glacial maxima. Equatorial Pacific export productivity data show intervals with abundant authigenic uranium are not associated with local productivity increases, indicating episodic precipitation of authigenic uranium does not directly reflect increases in situ microbial respiration, but rather occurs in response to basin-wide decreases in deep water oxygen concentrations. We combine our new data with previously published results to propose a picture of glacial carbon storage and equatorial Pacific watermass structure that is internally consistent. We conclude that respired carbon storage in the Pacific was a persistent feature of Pleistocene glaciations.

  9. Gigantic landslides versus glacial deposits: on origin of large hummock deposits in Alai Valley, Northern Pamir

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reznichenko, Natalya

    2015-04-01

    As glaciers are sensitive to local climate, their moraines position and ages are used to infer past climates and glacier dynamics. These chronologies are only valid if all dated moraines are formed as the result of climatically driven advance and subsequent retreat. Hence, any accurate palaeoenvironmental reconstruction requires thorough identification of the landform genesis by complex approach including geomorphological, sedimentological and structural landform investigation. Here are presented the implication of such approach for the reconstruction of the mega-hummocky deposits formation both of glacial and landslide origin in the glaciated Alai Valley of the Northern Pamir with further discussion on these and similar deposits validity for palaeoclimatic reconstructions. The Tibetan Plateau valleys are the largest glaciated regions beyond the ice sheets with high potential to provide the best geological record of glacial chronologies and, however, with higher probabilities of the numerous rock avalanche deposits including those that were initially considered of glacial origin (Hewitt, 1999). The Alai Valley is the largest intermountain depression in the upper reaches of the Amudarja River basin that has captured numerous unidentified extensive hummocky deposits descending from the Zaalai Range of Northern Pamir, covering area in more than 800 km2. Such vast hummocky deposits are usually could be formed either: 1) glacially by rapid glacial retreat due to the climate signal or triggered a-climatically glacial changes, such as glacial surge or landslide impact, or 2) during the landslide emplacement. Combination of sediment tests on agglomerates forming only in rock avalanche material (Reznichenko et al., 2012) and detailed geomorphological and sedimentological descriptions of these deposits allowed reconstructing the glacial deposition in the Koman and Lenin glacial catchments with identification of two gigantic rock avalanches and their relation to this glacial

  10. Weak oceanic heat transport as a cause of the instability of glacial climates

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Colin de Verdière, A.; Raa, L. te

    2010-01-01

    The stability of the thermohaline circulation of modern and glacial climates is compared with the help of a two dimensional ocean-atmosphere-sea ice coupled model. It turns out to be more unstable as less freshwater forcing is required to induce a polar halocline catastrophy in glacial climates. The

  11. Post-glacial faulting in the Lansjaerv area, Northern Sweden. Comments from the expert group on a field visit at the Molberget post-glacial fault area, 1991

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stanfors, R.; Ericsson, L.O.

    1993-05-01

    Post-glacial faults have been recognized in the northern Baltic shield for several decades. It is important to evaluate whether such neotectonic movements can lead to new fracturing or decisively alter the geohydrological or geohydrochemical situation around a final repository for spent nuclear fuel. The post-glacial Lansjaerv fault was chosen for an interdisciplinary study because of its relative accessibility. The goals of the study were to assess the mechanisms that caused present day scraps, to clarify the extent of any recent fracturing and to clarify the extent of any ongoing movements. All these objectives were reasonably met through a series of studies, which have been performed by SKB during 1986-1992 in two phases. This report gives a summary of the first phase of the Lansjaerv study (1986-1989) and describes achievements that have been gained during the second phase of the study. As a final of the field-work in the Lansjaerv area a meeting combined with a field excursion was arranged by SKB in June 1991 for a group of international experts. Comments from the expert group on the excursion and the overall Lansjaerv project are presented. One of the major conclusions is that the Lansjaerv post-glacial fault reactivated pre-existing old structures and that the causes of the post-glacial movements is a combination of plate tectonics and deglaciation

  12. Glacial Fluctuation in the Source Region of the Yangtze River

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shengyi, Gao; Qingsong, Fan; Xi, Cao; Li, Ma

    2014-01-01

    Glaciers in the source region of the Yangtze River are not only water resources but also important energy and environmental resources. Glacial fluctuation is an important component of the study of changes in the natural environment, including climate change. We investigated the glaciers in the source region of the Yangtze River, and analyzed the fluctuations using multi-temporal remote sensing data. The trend in glacial fluctuation and the factors that influence it were determined. The results have implications for water resource management and environmental conservation in the Yangtze River region

  13. Early warming of tropical South America at the last glacial-interglacial transition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seltzer, G O; Rodbell, D T; Baker, P A; Fritz, S C; Tapia, P M; Rowe, H D; Dunbar, R B

    2002-05-31

    Glaciation in the humid tropical Andes is a sensitive indicator of mean annual temperature. Here, we present sedimentological data from lakes beyond the glacial limit in the tropical Andes indicating that deglaciation from the Last Glacial Maximum led substantial warming at high northern latitudes. Deglaciation from glacial maximum positions at Lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia (16 degrees S), and Lake Junin, Peru (11 degrees S), occurred 22,000 to 19,500 calendar years before the present, several thousand years before the Bølling-Allerød warming of the Northern Hemisphere and deglaciation of the Sierra Nevada, United States (36.5 degrees to 38 degrees N). The tropical Andes deglaciated while climatic conditions remained regionally wet, which reflects the dominant control of mean annual temperature on tropical glaciation.

  14. Effects of glaciological and hydro-meteorological conditions on the glacial danger in Zailiyskiy Alatau

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. R. Medeu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available A need to estimate a hazard of a mudflow stream appearance in the glacial-nival zone of the Northern slope of Zailiyskiy Alatau (Kasakhstan is now one of the really urgent problems. The objective of this study was to inves‑ tigate influence of glacial and hydrometeorological factors on the condition of snow-glacial zone of Zailiyskiy Alatau and find out a mudflow-forming role of the mudflow centers arising due to climate warming and degra‑ dation of glaciation: periglacial lakes, intramoraine channels and reservoirs, and also talik massifs of morainic deposits. We analyzed glacial processes in the Zailiysky Alatau over a long period using meteorological data of the Almaty weather station and its close correlations with data from weather stations in the mountains. The area of glaciations was found out to be reduced after the maximum of the Little Ice Age. A combined diagram of occurrence of the mudflow manifestations and factors causing them had been constructed on the basis of sta‑ tistical data on the landslide phenomena. Glacial mudflows were the most frequent in 1960–1990, and later on activity of them became weaker. We believe, that in the next 10–20 years, the glacial mudflow hazard in Zailiys‑ kiy Alatau can sharply decrease, but at the same time, a probability of occurrence of the rainfall mudflows can increase in the mountainous zone of the ridge due the increase of areas with melted moraine and slope deposits.

  15. Comparing Terrestrial Organic Carbon Cycle Dynamics in Interglacial and Glacial Climates in the South American Tropics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fornace, K. L.; Galy, V.; Hughen, K. A.

    2014-12-01

    The application of compound-specific radiocarbon dating to molecular biomarkers has allowed for tracking of specific organic carbon pools as they move through the environment, providing insight into complex processes within the global carbon cycle. Here we use this technique to investigate links between glacial-interglacial climate change and terrestrial organic carbon cycling in the catchments of Cariaco Basin and Lake Titicaca, two tropical South American sites with well-characterized climate histories since the last glacial period. By comparing radiocarbon ages of terrestrial biomarkers (leaf wax compounds) with deposition ages in late glacial and Holocene sediments, we are able to gauge the storage time of these compounds in the catchments in soils, floodplains, etc. before transport to marine or lacustrine sediments. We are also able to probe the effects of temperature and hydrologic change individually by taking advantage of opposite hydrologic trends at the two sites: while both were colder during the last glacial period, precipitation at Titicaca decreased from the last glacial period to the Holocene, but the late glacial was marked by drier conditions at Cariaco. Preliminary data from both sites show a wide range of apparent ages of long-chain n-fatty acids (within error of 0 to >10,000 years older than sediment), with the majority showing ages on the order of several millennia at time of deposition and age generally increasing with chain length. While late glacial leaf waxes appear to be older relative to sediment than those deposited in the Holocene at both sites, at Cariaco we find a ~2-3 times larger glacial-interglacial age difference than at Titicaca. We hypothesize that at Titicaca the competing influences of wetter and colder conditions during the last glacial period, which respectively tend to increase and decrease the rate of organic carbon turnover on land, served to minimize the contrast between glacial and interglacial leaf wax storage time

  16. Groundwater flow modelling of periods with periglacial and glacial climate conditions - Forsmark

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vidstrand, Patrik; Follin, Sven; Zugec, Nada

    2010-12-01

    As a part of the license application for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel at Forsmark, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) has undertaken a series of groundwater flow modelling studies. These represent time periods with different hydraulic conditions and the simulations carried out contribute to the overall evaluation of the repository design and long-term radiological safety. The groundwater flow modelling study reported here comprises a coupled thermal-hydraulic-chemical (T-H-C) analysis of periods with periglacial and glacial climate conditions. Hydraulic-mechanical (H-M) issues are also handled but no coupled flow modelling is done. The objective of the report is to provide bounding hydrogeological estimates at different stages during glaciation and deglaciation of a glacial cycle for subsequent use in safety assessment applications within SKB's project SR-Site. Three cases with different climate conditions are analysed here: (i) Temperate case, (ii) Glacial case without permafrost, and (iii) Glacial case with permafrost. The glacial periods are transient and encompass approximately 19,000 years. The simulation results comprise residual fluid pressures, Darcy fluxes, and water salinities, as well as advective transport performance measures obtained by particle tracking such as flow path lengths, travel times and flow-related transport resistances. The modelling is accompanied by a sensitivity study that addresses the impact of the following matters: the direction of the ice sheet advance, the speed of the ice sheet margin, the bedrock hydraulic and transport properties, the temperature at the ice-subsurface interface close to the ice sheet margin, and the initial hydrochemical conditions

  17. Groundwater flow modelling of periods with periglacial and glacial climate conditions - Forsmark

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vidstrand, Patrik (TerraSolve AB, Floda (Sweden)); Follin, Sven (SF GeoLogic AB, Taeby (Sweden)); Zugec, Nada (Bergab, Stockholm (Sweden))

    2010-12-15

    As a part of the license application for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel at Forsmark, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) has undertaken a series of groundwater flow modelling studies. These represent time periods with different hydraulic conditions and the simulations carried out contribute to the overall evaluation of the repository design and long-term radiological safety. The groundwater flow modelling study reported here comprises a coupled thermal-hydraulic-chemical (T-H-C) analysis of periods with periglacial and glacial climate conditions. Hydraulic-mechanical (H-M) issues are also handled but no coupled flow modelling is done. The objective of the report is to provide bounding hydrogeological estimates at different stages during glaciation and deglaciation of a glacial cycle for subsequent use in safety assessment applications within SKB's project SR-Site. Three cases with different climate conditions are analysed here: (i) Temperate case, (ii) Glacial case without permafrost, and (iii) Glacial case with permafrost. The glacial periods are transient and encompass approximately 19,000 years. The simulation results comprise residual fluid pressures, Darcy fluxes, and water salinities, as well as advective transport performance measures obtained by particle tracking such as flow path lengths, travel times and flow-related transport resistances. The modelling is accompanied by a sensitivity study that addresses the impact of the following matters: the direction of the ice sheet advance, the speed of the ice sheet margin, the bedrock hydraulic and transport properties, the temperature at the ice-subsurface interface close to the ice sheet margin, and the initial hydrochemical conditions.

  18. Modeled seasonality of glacial abrupt climate events

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Flueckiger, J.; Knutti, R.; White, J.W.C.; Renssen, H.

    2008-01-01

    Greenland ice cores, as well as many other paleo-archives from the northern hemisphere, recorded a series of 25 warm interstadial events, the so-called Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events, during the last glacial period. We use the three-dimensional coupled global ocean-atmosphere-sea ice model

  19. Contextual Multi-armed Bandits under Feature Uncertainty

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yun, Seyoung [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Nam, Jun Hyun [Korea Advanced Inst. Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Mo, Sangwoo [Korea Advanced Inst. Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Shin, Jinwoo [Korea Advanced Inst. Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2017-03-03

    We study contextual multi-armed bandit problems under linear realizability on rewards and uncertainty (or noise) on features. For the case of identical noise on features across actions, we propose an algorithm, coined NLinRel, having O(T⁷/₈(log(dT)+K√d)) regret bound for T rounds, K actions, and d-dimensional feature vectors. Next, for the case of non-identical noise, we observe that popular linear hypotheses including NLinRel are impossible to achieve such sub-linear regret. Instead, under assumption of Gaussian feature vectors, we prove that a greedy algorithm has O(T²/₃√log d)regret bound with respect to the optimal linear hypothesis. Utilizing our theoretical understanding on the Gaussian case, we also design a practical variant of NLinRel, coined Universal-NLinRel, for arbitrary feature distributions. It first runs NLinRel for finding the ‘true’ coefficient vector using feature uncertainties and then adjust it to minimize its regret using the statistical feature information. We justify the performance of Universal-NLinRel on both synthetic and real-world datasets.

  20. Wetland methane emissions during the Last Glacial Maximum estimated from PMIP2 simulations: climate, vegetation and geographic controls

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Weber, S.L.; Drury, A.J.; Toonen, W.H.J.; Weele, M. van

    2010-01-01

    It is an open question to what extent wetlands contributed to the interglacial‐glacial decrease in atmospheric methane concentration. Here we estimate methane emissions from glacial wetlands, using newly available PMIP2 simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate from coupled

  1. Linear Models

    CERN Document Server

    Searle, Shayle R

    2012-01-01

    This 1971 classic on linear models is once again available--as a Wiley Classics Library Edition. It features material that can be understood by any statistician who understands matrix algebra and basic statistical methods.

  2. Glacial-interglacial variability in ocean oxygen and phosphorus in a global biogeochemical model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V Palastanga

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Increased transfer of particulate matter from continental shelves to the open ocean during glacials may have had a major impact on the biogeochemistry of the ocean. Here, we assess the response of the coupled oceanic cycles of oxygen, carbon, phosphorus, and iron to the input of particulate organic carbon and reactive phosphorus from shelves. We use a biogeochemical ocean model and specifically focus on the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM. When compared to an interglacial reference run, our glacial scenario with shelf input shows major increases in ocean productivity and phosphorus burial, while mean deep-water oxygen concentrations decline. There is a downward expansion of the oxygen minimum zones (OMZs in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, while the extension of the OMZ in the Pacific is slightly reduced. Oxygen concentrations below 2000 m also decline but bottom waters do not become anoxic. The model simulations show when shelf input of particulate organic matter and particulate reactive P is considered, low oxygen areas in the glacial ocean expand, but concentrations are not low enough to generate wide scale changes in sediment biogeochemistry and sedimentary phosphorus recycling. Increased reactive phosphorus burial in the open ocean during the LGM in the model is related to dust input, notably over the southwest Atlantic and northwest Pacific, whereas input of material from shelves explains higher burial fluxes in continental slope and rise regions. Our model results are in qualitative agreement with available data and reproduce the strong spatial differences in the response of phosphorus burial to glacial-interglacial change. Our model results also highlight the need for additional sediment core records from all ocean basins to allow further insight into changes in phosphorus, carbon and oxygen dynamics in the ocean on glacial-interglacial timescales.

  3. Ice/Bedrock Feedbacks as a Principle Contributor to Glacial-Interglacial Oscillations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kimmel, J.; Lee, K.; Jackson, C. H.

    2014-12-01

    Since the mid-Pleistocene, the oscillation between glacial and interglacial climate states occurs with a period of approximately 100 kyr. Each cycle is comprised of a slow glaciation with a subsequent rapid deglaciation. While the solar forcing is clearly an important driver for these transitions, the power spectrum of the solar forcing is quite different from the subsequent climate response and, in general, does not have a noticeable correlation with global ice volume. Instead, previous studies have shown that internal climate processes and their interactions (e.g., CO2, water vapor, isostatic bed response) play a significant role in producing these global climate cycles. The rapid retreat of large ice sheets at the start of an interglacial is often attributed to the interaction between surface and atmospheric processes. While calving is thought to amplify this retreat, it is not typically considered a principle driver of the ice sheet response. Our study investigates the potential for ice/bedrock feedbacks to be a principle contributor in shaping the glacial-interglacial climate oscillation -- particularly the rapid deglaciation that precedes an interglacial. The ice sheet model we develop includes a piecewise linear ice/bedrock feedback while atmospheric and surface processes are taken to be as simple as possible. Due to the long timescale of the bedrock response and the rapid mass loss due to calving, the model ice sheet exhibits rapid deglaciation from a stable maximum when it retreats through an overdeepening. However, ice sheet advance is also shown to be as rapid unless a more complex bedrock response is considered. In particular, we show that a forebulge created by the displacement of the mantle adds a new stable branch to the volume/equilibrium line bifurcation diagram that results in slower growth of the ice sheet during glaciation.

  4. Origin of last-glacial loess in the western Yukon-Tanana Upland, central Alaska, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muhs, Daniel; Pigati, Jeffrey S.; Budahn, James R.; Skipp, Gary L.; Bettis, E. Arthur; Jensen, Britta

    2018-01-01

    Loess is widespread over Alaska, and its accumulation has traditionally been associated with glacial periods. Surprisingly, loess deposits securely dated to the last glacial period are rare in Alaska, and paleowind reconstructions for this time period are limited to inferences from dune orientations. We report a rare occurrence of loess deposits dating to the last glacial period, ~19 ka to ~12 ka, in the Yukon-Tanana Upland. Loess in this area is very coarse grained (abundant coarse silt), with decreases in particle size moving south of the Yukon River, implying that the drainage basin of this river was the main source. Geochemical data show, however, that the Tanana River valley to the south is also a likely distal source. The occurrence of last-glacial loess with sources to both the south and north is explained by both regional, synoptic-scale winds from the northeast and opposing katabatic winds that could have developed from expanded glaciers in both the Brooks Range to the north and the Alaska Range to the south. Based on a comparison with recent climate modeling for the last glacial period, seasonality of dust transport may also have played a role in bringing about contributions from both northern and southern sources.

  5. Extended Linear Models with Gaussian Priors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Quinonero, Joaquin

    2002-01-01

    In extended linear models the input space is projected onto a feature space by means of an arbitrary non-linear transformation. A linear model is then applied to the feature space to construct the model output. The dimension of the feature space can be very large, or even infinite, giving the model...... a very big flexibility. Support Vector Machines (SVM's) and Gaussian processes are two examples of such models. In this technical report I present a model in which the dimension of the feature space remains finite, and where a Bayesian approach is used to train the model with Gaussian priors...... on the parameters. The Relevance Vector Machine, introduced by Tipping, is a particular case of such a model. I give the detailed derivations of the expectation-maximisation (EM) algorithm used in the training. These derivations are not found in the literature, and might be helpful for newcomers....

  6. Simulated Impact of Glacial Runoff on CO2 Uptake in the Gulf of Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pilcher, Darren J.; Siedlecki, Samantha A.; Hermann, Albert J.; Coyle, Kenneth O.; Mathis, Jeremy T.; Evans, Wiley

    2018-01-01

    The Gulf of Alaska (GOA) receives substantial summer freshwater runoff from glacial meltwater. The alkalinity of this runoff is highly dependent on the glacial source and can modify the coastal carbon cycle. We use a regional ocean biogeochemical model to simulate CO2 uptake in the GOA under different alkalinity-loading scenarios. The GOA is identified as a current net sink of carbon, though low-alkalinity tidewater glacial runoff suppresses summer coastal carbon uptake. Our model shows that increasing the alkalinity generates an increase in annual CO2 uptake of 1.9-2.7 TgC/yr. This transition is comparable to a projected change in glacial runoff composition (i.e., from tidewater to land-terminating) due to continued climate warming. Our results demonstrate an important local carbon-climate feedback that can significantly increase coastal carbon uptake via enhanced air-sea exchange, with potential implications to the coastal ecosystems in glaciated areas around the world.

  7. Quantitative functional analysis of Late Glacial projectile points from northern Europe

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dev, Satya; Riede, Felix

    2012-01-01

    This paper discusses the function of Late Glacial arch-backed and tanged projectile points from northern Europe in general and southern Scandinavia in particular. Ballistic requirements place clear and fairly well understood constraints on the design of projectile points. We outline the argument...... surely fully serviceable, diverged considerably from the functional optimum predicated by ballistic theory. These observations relate directly to southern Scandinavian Late Glacial culture-history which is marked by a sequence of co-occurrence of arch-backed and large tanged points in the earlier part...

  8. Vegetation dynamics during the Last Interglacial-Glacial cycle in the Arno coastal plain (Tuscany, western Italy): location of a new tree refuge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucchi, M. Ricci

    2008-12-01

    Pollen analysis of the pre-Last Glacial Maximum succession of a 105 m-long continuous core from Tirrenia (Tuscany) provides evidence for the existence of an area of relatively high ecological stability where the effects of climate change were mitigated. The chronological framework of the vegetation record, spanning the Last Interglacial-Glacial cycle, was established by (i) AMS 14C dating, (ii) correlation with well-dated pollen sequences, and (iii) local stratigraphical constraints. A high lithological and sedimentological variability, with facies associations changing from fluvial to alluvial and coastal plain, enhances the palaeoenvironmental control on pollen distribution, thus helping to discriminate the impact of local factors on vegetation history. The most remarkable evidence, however, is represented by the continuous record of temperate trees throughout the whole glacial period, which provides useful indications on the location and nature of cold stage refugia. Most of the vegetation changes recorded in the core can be compared to the vegetation history of the Last Interglacial-Glacial cycle from southern Europe as a whole. In addition, local geographic and environmental features account for a more complex and varied floristic composition. Only the last phase of the Penultimate Glacial (MIS6), which was characterized by the diffusion of an arid steppe tundra, is recorded at the base of the core. The subsequent Last Interglacial (MIS5e) interval shows a poor and scattered pollen content due to the instability of the sedimentary environment. Nevertheless, it provides evidence of both global and local controls on vegetation dynamics, as indicated by the initial expansion of thermophilous forests and the remarkably late diffusion of conifers ( Pinus-Abies-Picea forests), respectively. Similarly, the transition to the Last Glacial (MIS5b and 5a in the core) is characterized by a reduced vegetation response to the typical stadial/interstadial climate variability

  9. Effects of glacial/post-glacial weathering compared with hydrothermal alteration - implications for matrix diffusion. Results from drillcore studies in porphyritic quartz monzodiorite from Aespoe SE Sweden

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Landstroem, Ove; Tullborg, Eva-Lena

    2001-08-01

    The effects of hydrothermal + subsequent low temperature alteration and glacial/post-glacial weathering have been studied in two cores of quartz monzodiorite. One core (YA 1192) was drilled into the hydrothermally altered wall rock of a water-conducting fracture exposed at 170 m depth in the access tunnel to the Aespoe Hard Rock Laboratory. The other one (Bas 1) was drilled from an outcrop with a glacially polished surface, 1 km north of the YA 1192 site. Both drill cores were sectioned into mm-thick slices perpendicular to the core axis. The fracture filling of the YA 1192 core, the weathered surface of the BAS 1 core and the different slices were analysed for major and trace elements and isotopes of U and Th. The altered zone of the YA 1192 core extends to approx. 2.5 cm from the fracture surface. The alteration (mainly plagioclase → albite + sericite + epidote) has resulted in a higher porosity and formation of sorbing secondary minerals (e.g. sericite), favouring matrix diffusion. Increased Br concentrations in the altered zone are indicative of saline water in pores and micro fractures i.e. the presence of a diffusion medium. 234U/238U activity ratios > 1 and increased Cs in the altered zone are then interpreted as diffusion of U and Cs from fracture groundwater and subsequent sorption. The U migration is geologically recent (< 1 Ma). The 2.5 cm altered zone (corresponding to the zone of active matrix diffusion) significantly exceeds the visible red staining zone (0.5 cm) caused by hematite/FeOOH micrograins, emphasizing the need of microscopy to identify zones of alteration. The conspicuous weathering at the BAS 1 site is confined to a narrow rim of the bedrock surface (approx. 0.2-0.5 cm thick). Mass balance calculations for this rim (based on immobility of K) indicate that mechanical erosion has dominated over chemical dissolution processes (is roughly 10 times greater). The chemical weathering has affected mainly plagioclase and chlorite resulting in

  10. A 230 ka record of glacial and interglacial events from Aurora Cave, Fiordland, New Zealand

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Williams, P.W.

    1996-01-01

    Caves overrun by glaciers are known to accumulate dateable evidence of past glacial and interglacial events. Results are reported from an investigation of Aurora Cave on the slopes above Lake Te Anau in Fiordland. The cave commenced to form before c. 230 ka B.P. Sequences of glaciofluvial sediments interbedded with speleothems are evidence of the number and timing of glacial advances and the status of intervals between them. Twenty-six uranium series dates on speleothems underpin a chronology of seven glacial advances in the last 230 ka, with the peak of the late Otira glaciation, Aurora 3 advance, at c. 19 ka B.P. With five advances in the Otiran, the last glaciation is more complex than previously recognised. Comparison of the record with that recorded offshore from DSDP Site 594 reveals little matching, but the correspondence of the Aurora sequence with that interpreted from other onshore deposits is more convincing. Glacial deposits on slopes above the cave for a further 660 m may be evidence of the 'missing' glacial events of the mid-early Pleistocene. (author). 44 refs., 12 figs., 5 tabs

  11. Glacial evolution of the Ampato Volcanic Complex (Peru)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alcalá, J.; Palacios, D.; Zamorano, J. J.; Vázquez, L.

    2009-04-01

    Ice masses on the Western range of the Central Andes are a main source of water resources and act as a geoindicator of variations in the climate of the tropics (Mark, 2008). The study of their evolution is of particular interest since they are situated in the transition zone between the tropical and mid-latitude circulation areas of the atmosphere (Zech et al., 2007). The function of this transition area is currently under debate, and understanding it is essential for the development of global climate models (Kull et al, 2008; Mark, 2008). However our understanding of the evolution of glaciers and their paleoclimatic factors for this sector of the Central Andes is still at a very basic level. This paper presents initial results of a study on the glacial evolution of the Ampato volcanic complex (15°24´- 15° 51´ S, 71° 51´ - 73° W; 6288 m a.s.l.) located in the Western Range of the Central Andes in Southern Peru, 70 km NW of the city of Arequipa. The main objectives are to identify the number of glacial phases the complex has undergone using geomorphological criteria to define a time frame for each phase, based on cosmogenic 36Cl dating of a sequence of moraine deposits; and to estimate the glacier Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) of each phase. The Ampato volcanic complex is formed by 3 great andesitic stratovolcanoes, the Nevados HualcaHualca-Sabancaya-Ampato, which started forming between the late Miocene and early Quaternary (Bulmer et al., 1999), aligned N-S and with summits covered with glaciers. The Sabancaya volcano is fully active, with its latest eruption occurring in 2001. Glacial landforms were identified and mapped using photointerpretation of vertical aerial photographs from 1955 (1:35,000 scale, National Geographic Institute of Peru), oblique photographs from 1943 (Aerophotographical Service of Peru), and a geo-referenced high-resolution Mrsid satellite image from 2000 (NASA). This cartography was corrected and improved through fieldwork. It was

  12. Corrosion resistance of aluminum-magnesium alloys in glacial acetic acid

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaitseva, L.V.; Romaniv, V.I.

    1984-01-01

    Vessels for the storage and conveyance of glacial acetic acid are produced from ADO and AD1 aluminum, which are distinguished by corrosion resistance, weldability and workability in the hot and cold conditions but have low tensile strength. Aluminum-magnesium alloys are stronger materials close in corrosion resistance to technical purity aluminum. An investigation was made of the basic alloying components on the corrosion resistance of these alloys in glacial acetic acid. Both the base metal and the weld joints were tested. With an increase in temperature the corrosion rate of all of the tested materials increases by tens of times. The metals with higher magnesium content show more pitting damage. The relationship of the corrosion resistance of the alloys to magnesium content is confirmed by the similar intensity of failure of the joint metal of all of the investigated alloys and by electrochemical investigations. The data shows that AMg3 alloy is close to technically pure ADO aluminum. However, the susceptibility of even this material to local corrosion eliminates the possibility of the use of aluminum-magnesium alloys as reliable constructional materials in glacial acetic acid

  13. Was the Sun especially active at the end of the late glacial epoch?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alekseeva, Liliya

    In their pioneering work, the geophysicists A. Brekke and A. Egeland (1983) collected beliefs of different peoples, associated with northern lights. Our analyses of this collection show that these beliefs are mainly related to the mythological idea of ``abnormal'' deads (dead, childless old maids in Finnish beliefs; killed people; spirits dangerous to children). We find similar motifs in Slavic fairy tales about the ``Thrice-Nine Land,'' regarded as the other world in folkloric studies (in the Land where mobile and agitated warlike girls live, whose Head Girl is characterized by the words ``white snow, pretty light, the prettiest in the World,'' but whose name ``Mariya Morevna'' refers to the word ``mort''; where a river flows with its banks covered by human bones; where the witch Baba-Yaga dwells, being extremely dangerous for children). Moreover, it can be noted that similar narrative fabulous myths deal with the concept of auroral oval northern lights, since some specific features of the natural auroral forms are mentioned there, with their particular spatial orientations (to the North or West). This resembles the manner in which Ancient Greek myths describe the real properties of the heavenly phenomena in a mythological language. It is interesting that myths on the high-latitude northern lights spread even to the South of Europe (and, might be, to India and Iran). This fact can be understood in view of the following. It has been established that, during the late glacial epoch, the environmental and cultural conditions were similar over the area from Pyrenean to the Ural Mountains; the pattern of hunters' settlements outlined the glacial sheet from the outside. Relics of the hunters' beliefs can now be found in Arctic, where the environment and lifestyle remain nearly unchanged. The ethnographer Yu.B. Simchenko (1976) has reconstructed the most archaic Arctic myths. According to them, the World of dead is associated with the world of ice governed by the ``Ice

  14. Geomorfologia glacial de la Ribera del Cardós (Lleida)

    OpenAIRE

    Verdaguer i Andreu, Alexandre

    1986-01-01

    La vall del Cardós és de tipus glacial i poden diferenciar-s'hi clarament dues glaciacions i algun vestigi d'una d'anterior. Dues conques confluents a l'altura de Tavascan donaren lloc a la gelera de la vall principal que arriba fins a Tirvia. La penúltima glaciació fou la que va comportar una mobilització més gran del gel i una forta erosió a la zona de la llengua glacial. La darrera glaciació excavà, fonamentalment, aigües amunt de la cota de 1.500 m i fou molt menys intensa que la...

  15. Vestiges of Glacial Action in Ostrava: Their Significance for and Application in Geotourism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duraj, Miloš; Niemiec, Dominik; Cheng, Xianfeng; Koleňák, Petr

    2017-12-01

    The territory of Northern Moravia and Silesia is outstanding from the geological point of view. The abundance of different mineral resources has largely contributed to the intense development of the territory, particularly in the 19th century. Mineral resources were discovered already in the pre-historic period, when pre-historic man found coal at the coal seam exposures in Ostrava-Landek. They also used some raw materials that had been transported there by glacial action of the last Saale glaciation. Flint fragments and other travelled material may be frequently found in many localities to date. Large pieces that are called glacial boulders have been removed and exhibited for more than a century in many towns of the region. These vestiges of glacial action represent one of the many stages the Earth has passed through its history. At present, such findings mainly have an aesthetic function. Particularly interesting specimens have been protected as national monuments. The geomorphology of Ostrava has been responsible for the findings of the largest glacial boulders within the Czech Republic. Many of the formations are fascinating specimens that enrich the list of numerous geomontane sights in the City of Ostrava.

  16. Post-Glacial and Paleo-Environmental History of the West Coast of Vancouver Island

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dallimore, A.; Enkin, R. J.

    2005-12-01

    Annually laminated sediments in anoxic fjords are potentially ideal paleoclimate recorders, particularly once proxy measurements for atmospheric, oceanographic and sedimentological conditions have been calibrated. On the west coast of Canada, these sediments also record the changing environment as glaciers retreated from this area about 12 ka y BP. In Effingham Inlet, a 40 m core taken from the French ship the Marion Dufresne as part of the international IMAGES/PAGES program, gives evidence of an isolation basin at maximum glacial isostatic rebound and lowest paleo-sea level followed by eustatic sea level rise about 10 ka y BP. The Late Pleistocene record also marks dramatic changes in glacial sedimentary source and transport. Excellent chronological control is provided by complementary yet independent dating methods including radiocarbon dates on both plants and shells, identification of the Mazama Ash, varve counting and paleomagnetic, paleosecular variation correlations in the lower, pro-glacial section of the core which does not contain organic material. Paleoenvironmental evidence from this core provides information on immediate post-glacial conditions along the coast and rapid climatic changes throughout the Holocene, with implications for the possibility of early human migration routes and refugia.

  17. Glacial rebound and crustal stress in Finland

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lambeck, K.; Purcell, A.

    2003-11-01

    The last ice age of Fennoscandinavia continues to have geological repercussions across Finland despite the last ice having retreated almost 10,000 years ago: land uplift, shoreline retreat, and the stress state of the crust continues to evolve. This report focusses on the glacial rebound signals for Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia and explores the consequences of the ongoing deformation. The rebound signals include the geological evidence as well as instrumental observations: the tide gauge and lake-level measurements of the past century, the changes in geodetic levels recorded in the repeat levelling surveys of the region and the direct measurement of crustal deformation (radial and horizontal) using high-precision space-geodesy measurements. These signals provide constraints on the Earth's rheology, its elasticity and viscosity, and the glacial history of the region. Once observationally constrained, the rebound models are used to predict both the ongoing evolution of shorelines and the changing state of stress within the crust. This report covers: (i) A review of glacial rebound modelling for Scandinavia (Sections 2 and 3). (ii) Review of observational evidence relating to sea-level change and crustal rebound (Section 4). (iii) New earth and ice-sheet model results from the inversion of the geological evidence for sea-level change, including models of shoreline evolution (Sections 5 and 6). (iv) Earth-model results from the inversion of the geodetic evidence for sea-level change (Section 7). (v) Development of crustal stress models for past and present stress states (Section 8). (vi) Conclusions and recommendations (Section 9). Specific conclusions reached pertain to: (i) Thickness of ice cover over Scandinavia since the Last Glacial Maximum, particularly for the Lateglacial period. (ii) Sea-level change and shoreline evolution for the Baltic area since the time the region became ice-free for the last time. (iii) The predicted rates of present-day crustal

  18. Classification of line features from remote sensing data

    OpenAIRE

    Kolankiewiczová, Soňa

    2009-01-01

    This work deals with object-based classification of high resolution data. The aim of the thesis (paper, work) is to develope an acceptable classification process of linear features (roads and railways) from high-resolution satellite images. The first part shows different approaches of the linear feature classification and compares theoretic differences between an object-oriented and a pixel-based classification. Linear feature classification was created in the second part. The high-resolution...

  19. An Ensemble Analysis of Antarctic Glacial Isostatic Adjustment and Sea Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lecavalier, B.; Tarasov, L.

    2016-12-01

    Inferences of past ice sheet evolution that lack any uncertainty assessment (implicit or explicit), have little value. A developing technique for explicit uncertainty quantification of glacial systems is Bayesian calibration of models against large observational data-sets (Tarasov et al., 2012). The foundation for a Bayesian calibration of a 3D glacial systems model (GSM) for Antarctica has recently been completed (Briggs et al., 2013; 2014; Briggs and Tarasov, 2013). Bayesian calibration thoroughly samples model uncertainties against fits to observational data to generate a probability distribution for the Antarctic Ice Sheet deglaciation with explicit and well-defined confidence intervals. To have validity as a complete inference of past ice sheet evolution, Bayesian calibration requires a model that "brackets reality".Past work has shown the GSM to have likely inadequate range of grounding line migration in certain sectors as well as persistent ice thickness biases in topographically complex regions (Briggs et al., 2014). To advance towards full calibration, these deficiencies are being addressed through a number of model developments. The grounding line scheme has been revised (Pollard and DeConto, 2012), the horizontal resolution is increased to 20 km, and boundary conditions are updated. The basal drag representation now includes the sub-grid treatment of the thermo-mechanical impacts of high basal roughness. Parametric uncertainties in basal drag for regions that are presently marine have been re-evaluated. The impact of past changes in ocean temperature on sub ice shelf melt is explicitly incorporated in the current ocean forcing parametric scheme. Uncertainties in earth rheology are also probed to robustly quantify uncertainties affiliated with glacial isostatic adjustment. The ensemble analysis of the Antarctic glacial system provides dynamical bounds on past and present Antarctica glacial isostatic adjustment and sea level contributions. This research

  20. Glacier Change, Supraglacial Debris Expansion and Glacial Lake Evolution in the Gyirong River Basin, Central Himalayas, between 1988 and 2015

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sheng Jiang

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available Himalayan glacier changes in the context of global climate change have attracted worldwide attention due to their profound cryo-hydrological ramifications. However, an integrated understanding of the debris-free and debris-covered glacier evolution and its interaction with glacial lake is still lacking. Using one case study in the Gyirong River Basin located in the central Himalayas, this paper applied archival Landsat imagery and an automated mapping method to understand how glaciers and glacial lakes interactively evolved between 1988 and 2015. Our analyses identified 467 glaciers in 1988, containing 435 debris-free and 32 debris-covered glaciers, with a total area of 614.09 ± 36.69 km2. These glaciers decreased by 16.45% in area from 1988 to 2015, with an accelerated retreat rate after 1994. Debris-free glaciers retreated faster than debris-covered glaciers. As a result of glacial downwasting, supraglacial debris coverage expanded upward by 17.79 km2 (24.44%. Concurrent with glacial retreat, glacial lakes increased in both number (+41 and area (+54.11%. Glacier-connected lakes likely accelerated the glacial retreat via thermal energy transmission and contributed to over 15% of the area loss in their connected glaciers. On the other hand, significant glacial retreats led to disconnections from their proglacial lakes, which appeared to stabilize the lake areas. Continuous expansions in the lakes connected with debris-covered glaciers, therefore, need additional attention due to their potential outbursts. In comparison with precipitation variation, temperature increase was the primary driver of such glacier and glacial lake changes. In addition, debris coverage, size, altitude, and connectivity with glacial lakes also affected the degree of glacial changes and resulted in the spatial heterogeneity of glacial wastage across the Gyirong River Basin.

  1. Climatic implications of correlated upper Pleistocene glacial and fluvial deposits on the Cinca and Gallego rivers, NE Spain

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lewis, Claudia J [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Mcdonald, Eric [NON LANL; Sancho, Carlos [NON LANL; Pena, Jose- Luis [NON LANL

    2008-01-01

    We correlate Upper Pleistocene glacial and fluvial deposits of the Cinca and Gallego River valleys (south central Pyrenees and Ebro basin, Spain) using geomorphic position, luminescence dates, and time-related trends in soil development. The ages obtained from glacial deposits indicate glacial periods at 85 {+-} 5 ka, 64 {+-} 11 ka, and 36 {+-} 3 ka (from glacial till) and 20 {+-} 3 ka (from loess). The fluvial drainage system, fed by glaciers in the headwaters, developed extensive terrace systems in the Cinca River valley at 178 {+-} 21 ka, 97 {+-} 16 ka, 61 {+-} 4 ka, 47 {+-} 4 ka, and 11 {+-} 1 ka, and in the Gallego River valley at 151 {+-} 11 ka, 68 {+-} 7 ka, and 45 {+-} 3 ka. The times of maximum geomorphic activity related to cold phases coincide with Late Pleistocene marine isotope stages and heinrich events. The maximum extent of glaciers during the last glacial occurred at 64 {+-} 11 ka, and the terraces correlated with this glacial phase are the most extensive in both the Cinca (61 {+-} 4 ka) and Gallego (68 {+-} 7 ka) valleys, indicating a strong increase in fluvial discharge and availability of sediments related to the transition to deglaciation. The global Last Glacial Maximum is scarcely represented in the south central Pyrenees owing to dominantly dry conditions at that time. Precipitation must be controlled by the position of the Iberian Peninsula with respect to the North Atlantic atmospheric circulation system. The glacial systems and the associated fluvial dynamic seem sensitive to (1) global climate changes controlled by insolation, (2) North Atlantic thermohaline circulation influenced by freshwater pulses into the North Atlantic, and (3) anomalies in atmospheric circulation in the North Atlantic controlling precipitation on the Iberian peninsula. The model of glacial and fluvial evolution during the Late Pleistocene in northern Spain could be extrapolated to other glaciated mountainous areas in southern Europe.

  2. An application of locally linear model tree algorithm with combination of feature selection in credit scoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siami, Mohammad; Gholamian, Mohammad Reza; Basiri, Javad

    2014-10-01

    Nowadays, credit scoring is one of the most important topics in the banking sector. Credit scoring models have been widely used to facilitate the process of credit assessing. In this paper, an application of the locally linear model tree algorithm (LOLIMOT) was experimented to evaluate the superiority of its performance to predict the customer's credit status. The algorithm is improved with an aim of adjustment by credit scoring domain by means of data fusion and feature selection techniques. Two real world credit data sets - Australian and German - from UCI machine learning database were selected to demonstrate the performance of our new classifier. The analytical results indicate that the improved LOLIMOT significantly increase the prediction accuracy.

  3. Temporal evolution of mechanisms controlling ocean carbon uptake during the last glacial cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kohfeld, Karen E.; Chase, Zanna

    2017-08-01

    Many mechanisms have been proposed to explain the ∼85-90 ppm decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) during the last glacial cycle, between 127,000 and 18,000 yrs ago. When taken together, these mechanisms can, in some models, account for the full glacial-interglacial CO2 drawdown. Most proxy-based evaluations focus on the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum, 24,000-18,000 yrs ago, and little has been done to determine the sequential timing of processes affecting CO2 during the last glacial cycle. Here we use a new compilation of sea-surface temperature records together with time-sequenced records of carbon and Nd isotopes, and other proxies to determine when the most commonly proposed mechanisms could have been important for CO2 drawdown. We find that the initial major drawdown of 35 ppm 115,000 yrs ago was most likely a result of Antarctic sea ice expansion. Importantly, changes in deep ocean circulation and mixing did not play a major role until at least 30,000 yrs after the first CO2 drawdown. The second phase of CO2 drawdown occurred ∼70,000 yrs ago and was also coincident with the first significant influences of enhanced ocean productivity due to dust. Finally, minimum concentrations of atmospheric CO2 during the Last Glacial Maximum resulted from the combination of physical and biological factors, including the barrier effect of expanded Southern Ocean sea ice, slower ventilation of the deep sea, and ocean biological feedbacks.

  4. The sensitivity of the Greenland Ice Sheet to glacial-interglacial oceanic forcing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tabone, Ilaria; Blasco, Javier; Robinson, Alexander; Alvarez-Solas, Jorge; Montoya, Marisa

    2018-04-01

    Observations suggest that during the last decades the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has experienced a gradually accelerating mass loss, in part due to the observed speed-up of several of Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers. Recent studies directly attribute this to warming North Atlantic temperatures, which have triggered melting of the outlet glaciers of the GrIS, grounding-line retreat and enhanced ice discharge into the ocean, contributing to an acceleration of sea-level rise. Reconstructions suggest that the influence of the ocean has been of primary importance in the past as well. This was the case not only in interglacial periods, when warmer climates led to a rapid retreat of the GrIS to land above sea level, but also in glacial periods, when the GrIS expanded as far as the continental shelf break and was thus more directly exposed to oceanic changes. However, the GrIS response to palaeo-oceanic variations has yet to be investigated in detail from a mechanistic modelling perspective. In this work, the evolution of the GrIS over the past two glacial cycles is studied using a three-dimensional hybrid ice-sheet-shelf model. We assess the effect of the variation of oceanic temperatures on the GrIS evolution on glacial-interglacial timescales through changes in submarine melting. The results show a very high sensitivity of the GrIS to changing oceanic conditions. Oceanic forcing is found to be a primary driver of GrIS expansion in glacial times and of retreat in interglacial periods. If switched off, palaeo-atmospheric variations alone are not able to yield a reliable glacial configuration of the GrIS. This work therefore suggests that considering the ocean as an active forcing should become standard practice in palaeo-ice-sheet modelling.

  5. Fault tolerant linear actuator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tesar, Delbert

    2004-09-14

    In varying embodiments, the fault tolerant linear actuator of the present invention is a new and improved linear actuator with fault tolerance and positional control that may incorporate velocity summing, force summing, or a combination of the two. In one embodiment, the invention offers a velocity summing arrangement with a differential gear between two prime movers driving a cage, which then drives a linear spindle screw transmission. Other embodiments feature two prime movers driving separate linear spindle screw transmissions, one internal and one external, in a totally concentric and compact integrated module.

  6. Constraining Glacial Runoff Contributions to Water Resources in the Cordillera Real, Bolivia using Environmental Tracers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guido, Z.; McIntosh, J. C.; Papuga, S. A.

    2013-12-01

    Warming temperatures in recent decades have contributed to substantial reductions in glaciers in many mountain regions around the globe, including the South American Andes. Melting of these glaciers taps water resources accumulated in past climates, and the diminishing ice marks a decrease in a nonrenewable water source that begs the question: how will future water supplies be impacted by climate change. Water resource management and climate adaptation efforts can be informed by knowledge of the extent to which glaciers contribute to seasonal streamflows, but remote locations and scant monitoring often limit this quantification. In Bolivia, more than two million people draw water from watersheds fed, in part, by glaciers. The amount to which these glaciers contribute to the water supply, however, is not well constrained. We apply elemental and isotopic tracers in an end-member mixing model to quantify glacial runoff contributions to local water supplies. We present oxygen and deuterium isotopes and major anion concentrations (sulfate and chloride) of shallow groundwater, streams, reservoirs, small arroyos, and glacial runoff. Isotopic and anion mixing models suggest between 45-67% of the water measured in high altitude streams originated from within the glacial footprint during the 2011 wet season, while glacial runoff contributed about 42-53% of the water in reservoirs in the 2012 dry season. Data also show that shallow groundwater is connected to glacial-fed streams. Any future decrease in glacial runoff may contribute to a reduction in surface water supplies and lower groundwater levels downstream, perhaps below the depth of hand-dug wells common in rural communities.

  7. Influence of glacial ice sheets on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation through surface wind change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sherriff-Tadano, Sam; Abe-Ouchi, Ayako; Yoshimori, Masakazu; Oka, Akira; Chan, Wing-Le

    2018-04-01

    Coupled modeling studies have recently shown that the existence of the glacial ice sheets intensifies the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). However, most models show a strong AMOC in their simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which is biased compared to reconstructions that indicate both a weaker and stronger AMOC during the LGM. Therefore, a detailed investigation of the mechanism behind this intensification of the AMOC is important for a better understanding of the glacial climate and the LGM AMOC. Here, various numerical simulations are conducted to focus on the effect of wind changes due to glacial ice sheets on the AMOC and the crucial region where the wind modifies the AMOC. First, from atmospheric general circulation model experiments, the effect of glacial ice sheets on the surface wind is evaluated. Second, from ocean general circulation model experiments, the influence of the wind stress change on the AMOC is evaluated by applying wind stress anomalies regionally or at different magnitudes as a boundary condition. These experiments demonstrate that glacial ice sheets intensify the AMOC through an increase in the wind stress at the North Atlantic mid-latitudes, which is induced by the North American ice sheet. This intensification of the AMOC is caused by the increased oceanic horizontal and vertical transport of salt, while the change in sea ice transport has an opposite, though minor, effect. Experiments further show that the Eurasian ice sheet intensifies the AMOC by directly affecting the deep-water formation in the Norwegian Sea.

  8. The glacially overdeepened trough of the Salzach Valley, Austria: Bedrock geometry and sedimentary fill of a major Alpine subglacial basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pomper, Johannes; Salcher, Bernhard C.; Eichkitz, Christoph; Prasicek, Günther; Lang, Andreas; Lindner, Martin; Götz, Joachim

    2017-10-01

    Overdeepened valleys are unambiguous features of glacially sculpted landscapes. They result from erosion at the bed of the glacier and their size and shape is determined by ice dynamics and the characteristics of the underlying bedrock. Major overdeepened valleys representing vertical bedrock erosion of several hundreds of meters are characteristic features of many trunk valleys in the formerly glaciated parts of the Alpine mountain belt. The thick sedimentary fill usually hinders attempts to unravel bedrock geometry, formation history and fill characteristics. Based on reflection seismic data and core-logs from multiple deep drillings we construct a detailed bedrock model of the Lower Salzach Valley trough, one of the largest overdeepened valleys in the European Alps. The analysed overdeepened structure characterized by a strongly undulating topography. Two reaches of enhanced erosion can be identified and are suggested to be related to variations in bedrock erodibility and a triple glacier confluence. The sedimentary fill shows clear characteristics of rapid infilling and subaqueous fan delta deposits indicate a strong influence of tributary streams. Associated surface lowering of the valley floor had a major impact on tributary stream incision but also on the available ice accumulation area at subsequent glaciations. The extent to which fills of earlier glaciations have been preserved from erosion during the last glacial maximum remains ambiguous and demands further exploration. To our knowledge the presented bedrock model is one of the best defined of any major overdeepened trunk valley.

  9. GLACIER DEGRADATION AND CATASTROPHIC MUDFLOWS ORIGIN FROM THE MODERN GLACIAL-MORAINE BODIES IN THE ELBRUS REGION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. A. Zolotarev

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Mechanism of formation of the catastrophic mudflows in different glacial valleys of Elbrus region at the present stage of glacial degradation is described. The important role of the buried ice in the formation of catastrophic mudflows that affected Tyrnyauz in the XX century was revealed as a result of remote monitoring of changes in glacial-moraine complex of Kayarta river. The dynamics of glacial lakes in the Adyl-Su valley in the Bashkara Glacier region was described and probability of their breakthrough was estimated. The quantitative indicators of the dynamics of the landslide in the Kubasanty valley were obtained as a result of remote monitoring, and its influence on the formation of catastrophic mudflows is discovered. Various possible methods of catastrophic mudflows prevention not requiring expensive protective constructions are discussed.

  10. Negative consequences of glacial turbidity for the survival of freshwater planktonic heterotrophic flagellates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sommaruga, Ruben; Kandolf, Georg

    2014-02-17

    Heterotrophic (phagotrophic) flagellates are key components of planktonic food webs in freshwater and marine ecosystems because they are the main consumers of bacteria. Although they are ubiquitous in aquatic ecosystems, they were numerically undetectable in turbid glacier-fed lakes. Here we show that glacial particles had negative effects on the survival and growth of heterotrophic flagellates. The effect of glacial particles was concentration-dependent and was caused by their interference with bacterial uptake rather than by physical damage. These results are the first to reveal why establishment of heterotrophic flagellates populations is hindered in very turbid glacial lakes. Because glaciers are vanishing around the world, recently formed turbid meltwater lakes represent an excellent opportunity to understand the environmental conditions that probably shaped the establishment of lake communities at the end of the last glaciation.

  11. Falsifying the Sikussak-Oasis Hypothesis for the Tillite Group, East Greenland: Implications for Trezona-like Carbon Isotope Excursions Beneath Neoproterozoic Glacials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffman, P. F.; Domack, E. W.; Maloof, A. C.; Halverson, G. P.

    2006-05-01

    In Neoproterozoic time, East Greenland and East Svalbard (EGES) occupied landward and seaward positions, respectively, on the southern subtropical margin of Laurentia. In both areas, thick clastic-to-carbonate successions are overlain by two discrete glacial and/or periglacial formations, separated by fine basinal clastics. In Svalbard, the younger glacial has a characteristic Marinoan (basal Ediacaran) cap dolostone, but the older glacial is underlain by a 10-permil negative carbon isotope excursion that is indistinguishable from excursions observed exclusively beneath Marinoan glacials in Australia, Namibia and western Laurentia. This led us to propose (Basin Research 16, 297-324, 2004) that the paired glacials in EGES represent the onset and climax of a single, long-lived, Marinoan glaciation. The intervening fine clastics, which contain ikaite pseudomorphs, presumptively accumulated beneath permanent shorefast sea ice (sikussak), analogous to East Greenland fjords during the Younger Dryas and Little Ice Age. In this model, the top of the older glacial signals the start of Snowball Earth. We conducted a preliminary field test of the sikussak hypothesis in Strindberg Land (SL), Andrée Land (AL) and Ella O (EO), East Greenland. We confirmed the correlation of the paired glacials and the Marinoan cap dolostone (missing on EO). In SL, the older glacial (Ulveso Fm) is a thin diamictite overlain by conglomerate lag and a set of megavarves composed of alternating siltstone and ice-rafted debris. In AL and EO, the Ulveso is a sub-glacial diamictite overlain by aeolian and/or marine sandstone. In Bastion Bugt on EO, it is a transgressive shoreface sandstone. This proves that glacial recession occurred under open-water conditions and did not result from permanent sea-ice formation, as stipulated in the sikussak model. There is no evidence that the fine clastic sequence between the glacials formed under an ice cover, or for a single glacial period. This brings us back to

  12. The INTIMATE event stratigraphy of the last glacial period

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olander Rasmussen, Sune; Svensson, Anders

    2015-04-01

    The North Atlantic INTIMATE (INtegration of Ice-core, MArine and TErrestrial records) group has previously recommended an Event Stratigraphy approach for the synchronisation of records of the Last Termination using the Greenland ice core records as the regional stratotypes. A key element of these protocols has been the formal definition of numbered Greenland Stadials (GS) and Greenland Interstadials (GI) within the past glacial period as the Greenland expressions of the characteristic Dansgaard-Oeschger events that represent cold and warm phases of the North Atlantic region, respectively. Using a recent synchronization of the NGRIP, GRIP, and GISP2 ice cores that allows the parallel analysis of all three records on a common time scale, we here present an extension of the GS/GI stratigraphic template to the entire glacial period. In addition to the well-known sequence of Dansgaard-Oeschger events that were first defined and numbered in the ice core records more than two decades ago, a number of short-lived climatic oscillations have been identified in the three synchronized records. Some of these events have been observed in other studies, but we here propose a consistent scheme for discriminating and naming all the significant climatic events of the last glacial period that are represented in the Greenland ice cores. In addition to presenting the updated event stratigraphy, we make a series of recommendations on how to refer to these periods in a way that promotes unambiguous comparison and correlation between different proxy records, providing a more secure basis for investigating the dynamics and fundamental causes of these climatic perturbations. The work presented is a part of a newly published paper in an INTIMATE special issue of Quaternary Science Reviews: Rasmussen et al., 'A stratigraphic framework for abrupt climatic changes during the Last Glacial period based on three synchronized Greenland ice-core records: refining and extending the INTIMATE event

  13. Glacial--interglacial stability of ocean pH inferred from foraminifer dissolution rates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, David M; Archer, David

    2002-03-07

    The pH of the ocean is controlled by the chemistry of calcium carbonate. This system in turn plays a large role in regulating the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere on timescales of thousands of years and longer. Reconstructions of ocean pH and carbonate-ion concentration are therefore needed to understand the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the pH of the whole ocean is thought to have been significantly more basic, as inferred from the isotopic composition of boron incorporated into calcium carbonate shells, which would partially explain the lower atmospheric CO2 concentration at that time. Here we reconstruct carbonate-ion concentration--and hence pH--of the glacial oceans, using the extent of calcium carbonate dissolution observed in foraminifer faunal assemblages as compiled in the extensive global CLIMAP data set. We observe decreased carbonate-ion concentrations in the glacial Atlantic Ocean, by roughly 20 micromolkg-1, while little change occurred in the Indian and Pacific oceans relative to today. In the Pacific Ocean, a small (5 micromolkg-1) increase occurred below 3,000m. This rearrangement of ocean pH may be due to changing ocean circulation from glacial to present times, but overall we see no evidence for a shift in the whole-ocean pH as previously inferred from boron isotopes.

  14. Penultimate Glacial-Interglacial Climate Variability in the Southern Great Plains of North America

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartow-Gillies, E.; Maupin, C. R.; Roark, E. B.; Chou, Y. C.; White, K.; Kampen-Lewis, S. V.; Shen, C. C.

    2017-12-01

    Projections of changes in rainfall under future warming scenarios vary in their sign and intensity over the Southern Great Plains (SGP). A scarcity of local paleoclimate information before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) limits our understanding of regional climate responses to changes in mean state and forcing. Here, we present absolutely U/Th-dated oxygen and carbon isotope records from a calcite stalagmite near Georgetown, Texas (30°N, 98°W), spanning 98 to 209 kyr before present (kyr BP). SGP moisture is primarily sourced from the Gulf of Mexico, and precipitation exhibits clear seasonality, with a biannual rainy season divided into late boreal spring and fall. We interpret the oxygen isotopic composition of the stalagmite to reflect changes in rainwater δ18O composition, as well as cave temperature, through time. There are no clear kinetic isotope effects observed within the stalagmite. More negative (positive) δ18O values are a reflection of warmer and wetter (cooler and drier) conditions based on modern observations of rainwater δ18O at the study site. Variations in stalagmite δ13C may be driven by shifts in overlying vegetation type and changes in the rates of karst flow and prior calcite precipitation. The stalagmite records include Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e, an interval where global temperatures may have been as much as 2°C warmer and sea level 4-6 m higher than present. Thus, our δ18O record provides context of unique importance for how SGP hydroclimate may respond to future warming. Prominent features in the δ18O record, including a warm and wet MIS 5e appear to be paced by precession, with the timing of δ18O minima (maxima) broadly consistent with that of maxima (minima) in monthly insolation at 30°N. The δ13C record exhibits a striking similarity to canonical, sawtooth records of glacial-interglacial variability, which suggests Great Plains vegetation communities may be sensitive to the status of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. Our SGP

  15. Glacial runoff strongly influences food webs in Gulf of Alaska fjords

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arimitsu, M.; Piatt, J. F.; Mueter, F. J.

    2015-12-01

    Melting glaciers contribute large volumes of freshwater to the Gulf of Alaska coast. Rates of glacier volume loss have increased markedly in recent decades, raising concern about the eventual loss of glaciers as a source of freshwater in coastal waters. To better understand the influence of glacier melt water on fjord ecosystems, we sampled oceanography, nutrients, zooplankton, forage fish, and seabirds within four fjords in the coastal Gulf of Alaska. We used generalized additive models and geostatistics to identify the range of influence of glacier runoff in fjords of varying estuarine and topographic complexity. We also modeled the responses of chlorophyll a concentration, copepod biomass, fish and seabird abundance to physical, nutrient and biotic predictor variables. Physical and nutrient signatures of glacial runoff extended 10-20 km into coastal fjords. Glacially modified physical gradients and among-fjord differences explained 66% of the variation in phytoplankton abundance, which drives ecosystem structure at higher trophic levels. Copepod, euphausiid, fish and seabird distribution and abundance were also related to environmental gradients that could be traced to glacial freshwater input. Seabird density was predicted by prey availability and silica concentrations, which may indicate upwelling areas where this nutrient is in excess. Similarities in ecosystem structure among fjords were due to influx of cold, fresh, sediment and nutrient laden water, while differences were due to fjord topography and the relative importance of estuarine vs. ocean influences. We anticipate continued changes in the volume and magnitude of glacial runoff will affect coastal marine food webs in the future.

  16. A reconstruction of atmospheric carbon dioxide and its stable carbon isotopic composition from the penultimate glacial maximum to the last glacial inception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Schneider

    2013-11-01

    δ13Catm level in the Penultimate (~ 140 000 yr BP and Last Glacial Maximum (~ 22 000 yr BP, which can be explained by either (i changes in the isotopic composition or (ii intensity of the carbon input fluxes to the combined ocean/atmosphere carbon reservoir or (iii by long-term peat buildup. Our isotopic data suggest that the carbon cycle evolution along Termination II and the subsequent interglacial was controlled by essentially the same processes as during the last 24 000 yr, but with different phasing and magnitudes. Furthermore, a 5000 yr lag in the CO2 decline relative to EDC temperatures is confirmed during the glacial inception at the end of MIS5.5 (120 000 yr BP. Based on our isotopic data this lag can be explained by terrestrial carbon release and carbonate compensation.

  17. Reconstruction of North American drainage basins and river discharge since the Last Glacial Maximum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. D. Wickert

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Over the last glacial cycle, ice sheets and the resultant glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA rearranged river systems. As these riverine threads that tied the ice sheets to the sea were stretched, severed, and restructured, they also shrank and swelled with the pulse of meltwater inputs and time-varying drainage basin areas, and sometimes delivered enough meltwater to the oceans in the right places to influence global climate. Here I present a general method to compute past river flow paths, drainage basin geometries, and river discharges, by combining models of past ice sheets, glacial isostatic adjustment, and climate. The result is a time series of synthetic paleohydrographs and drainage basin maps from the Last Glacial Maximum to present for nine major drainage basins – the Mississippi, Rio Grande, Colorado, Columbia, Mackenzie, Hudson Bay, Saint Lawrence, Hudson, and Susquehanna/Chesapeake Bay. These are based on five published reconstructions of the North American ice sheets. I compare these maps with drainage reconstructions and discharge histories based on a review of observational evidence, including river deposits and terraces, isotopic records, mineral provenance markers, glacial moraine histories, and evidence of ice stream and tunnel valley flow directions. The sharp boundaries of the reconstructed past drainage basins complement the flexurally smoothed GIA signal that is more often used to validate ice-sheet reconstructions, and provide a complementary framework to reduce nonuniqueness in model reconstructions of the North American ice-sheet complex.

  18. A stable-isotope tree-ring timescale of the Late Glacial/Holocene boundary

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Becker, Bernd; Kromer, Bernd; Trimborn, Peter

    1991-01-01

    Late Glacial and Holocene tree-ring chronologies, like deep-sea sediments or polar ice cores, contain information about past environments. Changes in tree-ring growth rates can be related to past climate anomalies and changes in the isotope composition of tree-ring cellulose reflect changes in the composition of the atmosphere and the hydrosphere. We have established a 9,928-year absolutely dated dendrochronological record of Holocene oak (Quercus robur, Quercus petraea)-and a 1,604-year floating Late Glacial and Early Holocene chronology of pine (Pinus sylvestris) from subfossil tree remnants deposited in alluvial terraces of south central European rivers. The pine sequence provides records of dendro-dated 14 C, 13 C and 2 H patterns for the late Younger Dryas and the entire Preboreal (10,100-9,000 yr BP). Through the use of dendrochronology, radiocarbon age calibration and stable isotope analysis, we suggest that the Late Glacial/Holocene transition may be identified and dated by 13 C and 2 H tree-ring chronologies. (author)

  19. Simulation of the last glacial cycle with a coupled climate ice-sheet model of intermediate complexity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Ganopolski

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available A new version of the Earth system model of intermediate complexity, CLIMBER-2, which includes the three-dimensional polythermal ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS, is used to simulate the last glacial cycle forced by variations of the Earth's orbital parameters and atmospheric concentration of major greenhouse gases. The climate and ice-sheet components of the model are coupled bi-directionally through a physically-based surface energy and mass balance interface. The model accounts for the time-dependent effect of aeolian dust on planetary and snow albedo. The model successfully simulates the temporal and spatial dynamics of the major Northern Hemisphere (NH ice sheets, including rapid glacial inception and strong asymmetry between the ice-sheet growth phase and glacial termination. Spatial extent and elevation of the ice sheets during the last glacial maximum agree reasonably well with palaeoclimate reconstructions. A suite of sensitivity experiments demonstrates that simulated ice-sheet evolution during the last glacial cycle is very sensitive to some parameters of the surface energy and mass-balance interface and dust module. The possibility of a considerable acceleration of the climate ice-sheet model is discussed.

  20. Transferring Pre-Trained Deep CNNs for Remote Scene Classification with General Features Learned from Linear PCA Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jie Wang

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs have been widely used to obtain high-level representation in various computer vision tasks. However, in the field of remote sensing, there are not sufficient images to train a useful deep CNN. Instead, we tend to transfer successful pre-trained deep CNNs to remote sensing tasks. In the transferring process, generalization power of features in pre-trained deep CNNs plays the key role. In this paper, we propose two promising architectures to extract general features from pre-trained deep CNNs for remote scene classification. These two architectures suggest two directions for improvement. First, before the pre-trained deep CNNs, we design a linear PCA network (LPCANet to synthesize spatial information of remote sensing images in each spectral channel. This design shortens the spatial “distance” of target and source datasets for pre-trained deep CNNs. Second, we introduce quaternion algebra to LPCANet, which further shortens the spectral “distance” between remote sensing images and images used to pre-train deep CNNs. With five well-known pre-trained deep CNNs, experimental results on three independent remote sensing datasets demonstrate that our proposed framework obtains state-of-the-art results without fine-tuning and feature fusing. This paper also provides baseline for transferring fresh pretrained deep CNNs to other remote sensing tasks.

  1. Deformed glacial deposits of Passamaquoddy Bay area, New Brunswick

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumarapeli, S.

    1990-03-01

    The New Brunswick-Maine border area, centred around Passamaquoddy Bay, is characterized by a distinctly higher level of seismic activity compared with the very low level background activity of the region. In this same general area, post-glacial deformation including faulting, has been observed in glaciofluvial and ice contact deposits and the possibility that these structures may in some way related to neotectonic movements in the area has been suggested. A study was undertaken to document these structures and to investigate their origin. The studies show that structures related to collapse of sediments due to melting of buried ice masses are the most prominent post-depositional structures in the glacial sediments. A second group of structures includes failure phenomena such as slumping. These require the action of a mechanism leading to reduction of sediment strength which could be achieved by seismic shaking. However, such failure phenomena could also be brought about by non-seismic processes, thus a unique interpretation of the origin of these structures is difficult, if not impossible. Since seismic shaking is the most effective, regionally extensive trigger of a broad group of failure phenomena in soft sediments, the related structures are usually spread over a large area, but are restricted to a very short time gap. Although the establishment of such space and time relationships may be feasible, for example in extensive lake deposits, it is difficult to do so in patchy laterally variable deposits such as the glacial deposits in Passamaquoddy Bay area

  2. Pyrite sulfur isotopes reveal glacial-interglacial environmental changes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasquier, Virgil; Sansjofre, Pierre; Rabineau, Marina; Revillon, Sidonie; Houghton, Jennifer; Fike, David A.

    2017-06-01

    The sulfur biogeochemical cycle plays a key role in regulating Earth’s surface redox through diverse abiotic and biological reactions that have distinctive stable isotopic fractionations. As such, variations in the sulfur isotopic composition (δ34S) of sedimentary sulfate and sulfide phases over Earth history can be used to infer substantive changes to the Earth’s surface environment, including the rise of atmospheric oxygen. Such inferences assume that individual δ34S records reflect temporal changes in the global sulfur cycle; this assumption may be well grounded for sulfate-bearing minerals but is less well established for pyrite-based records. Here, we investigate alternative controls on the sedimentary sulfur isotopic composition of marine pyrite by examining a 300-m drill core of Mediterranean sediments deposited over the past 500,000 y and spanning the last five glacial-interglacial periods. Because this interval is far shorter than the residence time of marine sulfate, any change in the sulfur isotopic record preserved in pyrite (δ34Spyr) necessarily corresponds to local environmental changes. The stratigraphic variations (>76‰) in the isotopic data reported here are among the largest ever observed in pyrite, and are in phase with glacial-interglacial sea level and temperature changes. In this case, the dominant control appears to be glacial-interglacial variations in sedimentation rates. These results suggest that there exist important but previously overlooked depositional controls on sedimentary sulfur isotope records, especially associated with intervals of substantial sea level change. This work provides an important perspective on the origin of variability in such records and suggests meaningful paleoenvironmental information can be derived from pyrite δ34S records.

  3. Glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO2 change: a possible

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. C. Skinner

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available So far, the exploration of possible mechanisms for glacial atmospheric CO2 drawdown and marine carbon sequestration has tended to focus on dynamic or kinetic processes (i.e. variable mixing-, equilibration- or export rates. Here an attempt is made to underline instead the possible importance of changes in the standing volumes of intra-oceanic carbon reservoirs (i.e. different water-masses in influencing the total marine carbon inventory. By way of illustration, a simple mechanism is proposed for enhancing the marine carbon inventory via an increase in the volume of relatively cold and carbon-enriched deep water, analogous to modern Lower Circumpolar Deep Water (LCDW, filling the ocean basins. A set of simple box-model experiments confirm the expectation that a deep sea dominated by an expanded LCDW-like watermass holds more CO2, without any pre-imposed changes in ocean overturning rate, biological export or ocean-atmosphere exchange. The magnitude of this "standing volume effect" (which operates by boosting the solubility- and biological pumps might be as large as the contributions that have previously been attributed to carbonate compensation, terrestrial biosphere reduction or ocean fertilisation for example. By providing a means of not only enhancing but also driving changes in the efficiency of the biological- and solubility pumps, this standing volume mechanism may help to reduce the amount of glacial-interglacial CO2 change that remains to be explained by other mechanisms that are difficult to assess in the geological archive, such as reduced mass transport or mixing rates in particular. This in turn could help narrow the search for forcing conditions capable of pushing the global carbon cycle between glacial and interglacial modes.

  4. Diurnal pH variations of a Glacial Stream: a starting point for Inquiry-driven student and teacher Investigations of a Glacial Ecosystem

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Brien, W. P.; Galbraith, J.; Fatland, D. R.; Heavner, M.

    2009-12-01

    Contemporary geoscience research often operates in a mode that generates huge repositories of data available on the internet to the scientific community and the general public. The SEAMONSTER (SM) online data browser of both archival and real-time data is an example of such a dynamic online ecosystem resource associated with the Juneau Icefield. Although newly developed database navigation tools and geobrowsers make it easy for non-experts to access data of interest, it nonetheless can be daunting to K-16 educators to fashion lesson plans that make effective use of these rich resources. In the following scenario, a student and associated teacher, operating outside the traditional didactic lecture/demo mode, explore and try to make sense of a tiny portion of SM data in a spirit of inquiry guided by curiosity, looking for features that catch their attention as they skim through interactive time-series graphs (96 samples/day) of data from Lemon Creek (which drains Lemon Glacier) for stream hydrological variables (temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, discharge) and associated meteorological variables (precipitation, humidity, temperature). Amidst all the complex fluctuations that follow no immediately apparent pattern, one regular and continuous feature does stand out: a seemingly sinusoidal diurnal variation in pH of about 0.1 that peaks daily at noon. This high-frequency signal is superimposed on a slower signal characterized by multiple-day trends and larger fluctuations in pH. The resulting composite signal with its easily identifiable patterns is an ideal candidate for investigating Fourier signal decomposition. They hypothesize that photosynthesis could be a contributing factor to the diurnal signal and then design and run an experiment modeling bioactive streamwater with a blended chloroplast-rich slurry of fresh spinach leaves (spinach soup). They put a recording pH meter in the spinach soup and expose it to high and low levels of light

  5. Interhemispheric correlation of late pleistocene glacial events.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowell, T V; Heusser, C J; Andersen, B G; Moreno, P I; Hauser, A; Heusser, L E; Schlüchter, C; Marchant, D R; Denton, G H

    1995-09-15

    A radiocarbon chronology shows that piedmont glacier lobes in the Chilean Andes achieved maxima during the last glaciation at 13,900 to 14,890, 21,000, 23,060, 26,940, 29,600, and >/=33,500 carbon-14 years before present ((14)C yr B.P.) in a cold and wet Subantarctic Parkland environment. The last glaciation ended with massive collapse of ice lobes close to 14,000(14)C yr B.P., accompanied by an influx of North Patagonian Rain Forest species. In the Southern Alps of New Zealand, additional glacial maxima are registered at 17,720(14)C yr B.P., and at the beginning of the Younger Dryas at 11,050 (14)C yr B. P. These glacial maxima in mid-latitude mountains rimming the South Pacific were coeval with ice-rafting pulses in the North Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, the last termination began suddenly and simultaneously in both polar hemispheres before the resumption of the modern mode of deep-water production in the Nordic Seas. Such interhemispheric coupling implies a global atmospheric signal rather than regional climatic changes caused by North Atlantic thermohaline switches or Laurentide ice surges.

  6. Geometric dependency of Tibetan lakes on glacial runoff

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Phan Hien, V.; Lindenbergh, R.C.; Menenti, M.

    2013-01-01

    The Tibetan Plateau is an essential source of water for Southeast Asia. The runoff from its ~34 000 glaciers, which occupy an area of ~50 000 km2, feeds Tibetan lakes and major Asian rivers like the Indus and Brahmaputra. Reported glacial shrinkage likely has an impact on the runoff. Unfortunately,

  7. Step-wise changes in glacier flow speed coincide with calving and glacial earthquakes at Helheim Glacier, Greenland

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nettles, M.; Larsen, T. B.; Elósegui, P.

    2008-01-01

    Geodetic observations show several large, sudden increases in flow speed at Helheim Glacier, one of Greenland's largest outlet glaciers, during summer, 2007. These step-like accelerations, detected along the length of the glacier, coincide with teleseismically detected glacial earthquakes and major...... iceberg calving events. No coseismic offset in the position of the glacier surface is observed; instead, modest tsunamis associated with the glacial earthquakes implicate glacier calving in the seismogenic process. Our results link changes in glacier velocity directly to calving-front behavior...... at Greenland's largest outlet glaciers, on timescales as short as minutes to hours, and clarify the mechanism by which glacial earthquakes occur. Citation: Nettles, M., et al. (2008), Step-wise changes in glacier flow speed coincide with calving and glacial earthquakes at Helheim Glacier, Greenland....

  8. Tracking Organic Carbon Transport From the Stordalen Mire to Glacial Lake Tornetrask, Abisko, Sweden

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beck, M. A.; Hamilton, B. T.; Spry, E.; Johnson, J. E.; Palace, M. W.; McCalley, C. K.; Varner, R. K.; Bothner, W. A.

    2016-12-01

    In subarctic regions, labile organic carbon from thawing permafrost and productivity of terrestrial and aquatic vegetation are sources of carbon to lake sediments. Methane is produced in lake sediments from the decomposition of organic carbon at rates affected by vegetation presence and type as well as sediment temperature. Recent research in the Stordalen Mire in northern Sweden has suggested that labile organic carbon sources in young, shallow lake sediments yield the highest in situ sediment methane concentrations. Ebullition (or bubbling) of this methane is predominantly controlled by seasonal warming. In this project we sampled stream, glacial and post-glacial lake sediments along a drainage transect through the Stordalen Mire into the large glacial Lake Torneträsk. Our results indicate that the highest methane and total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations were observed in lake and stream sediments in the upper 25 centimeters, consistent with previous studies. C/N ratios range from 8 to 32, and suggest that a mix of aquatic and terrestrial vegetation sources dominate the sedimentary record. Although water transport occurs throughout the mire, major depositional centers for sediments and organic carbon occur within the lakes and prohibit young, labile TOC from entering the larger glacial Lake Torneträsk. The lack of an observed sediment fan at the outlet of the Mire to the lake is consistent with this observation. Our results suggest that carbon produced in the mire stays in the mire, allowing methane production to be greater in the mire bound lakes and streams than in the larger adjacent glacial lake.

  9. Linear and Nonlinear Electrostatic Waves in Unmagnetized Dusty Plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mamun, A. A.; Shukla, P. K.

    2010-01-01

    A rigorous and systematic theoretical study has been made of linear and nonlinear electrostatic waves propagating in unmagnetized dusty plasmas. The basic features of linear and nonlinear electrostatic waves (particularly, dust-ion-acoustic and dust-acoustic waves) for different space and laboratory dusty plasma conditions are described. The experimental observations of such linear and nonlinear features of dust-ion-acoustic and dust-acoustic waves are briefly discussed.

  10. Basic linear algebra

    CERN Document Server

    Blyth, T S

    2002-01-01

    Basic Linear Algebra is a text for first year students leading from concrete examples to abstract theorems, via tutorial-type exercises. More exercises (of the kind a student may expect in examination papers) are grouped at the end of each section. The book covers the most important basics of any first course on linear algebra, explaining the algebra of matrices with applications to analytic geometry, systems of linear equations, difference equations and complex numbers. Linear equations are treated via Hermite normal forms which provides a successful and concrete explanation of the notion of linear independence. Another important highlight is the connection between linear mappings and matrices leading to the change of basis theorem which opens the door to the notion of similarity. This new and revised edition features additional exercises and coverage of Cramer's rule (omitted from the first edition). However, it is the new, extra chapter on computer assistance that will be of particular interest to readers:...

  11. Glacial Influences on Solar Radiation in a Subarctic Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Understanding macroscale processes controlling solar radia­tion in marine systems will be important in interpreting the potential effects of global change from increasing ultraviolet radiation (UV) and glacial retreat. This study provides the first quantitative assessment of UV i...

  12. Inland post-glacial dispersal in East Asia revealed by mitochondrial haplogroup M9a'b

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Wen-Zhi

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Archaeological studies have revealed a series of cultural changes around the Last Glacial Maximum in East Asia; whether these changes left any signatures in the gene pool of East Asians remains poorly indicated. To achieve deeper insights into the demographic history of modern humans in East Asia around the Last Glacial Maximum, we extensively analyzed mitochondrial DNA haplogroup M9a'b, a specific haplogroup that was suggested to have some potential for tracing the migration around the Last Glacial Maximum in East Eurasia. Results A total of 837 M9a'b mitochondrial DNAs (583 from the literature, while the remaining 254 were newly collected in this study pinpointed from over 28,000 subjects residing across East Eurasia were studied here. Fifty-nine representative samples were further selected for total mitochondrial DNA sequencing so we could better understand the phylogeny within M9a'b. Based on the updated phylogeny, an extensive phylogeographic analysis was carried out to reveal the differentiation of haplogroup M9a'b and to reconstruct the dispersal histories. Conclusions Our results indicated that southern China and/or Southeast Asia likely served as the source of some post-Last Glacial Maximum dispersal(s. The detailed dissection of haplogroup M9a'b revealed the existence of an inland dispersal in mainland East Asia during the post-glacial period. It was this dispersal that expanded not only to western China but also to northeast India and the south Himalaya region. A similar phylogeographic distribution pattern was also observed for haplogroup F1c, thus substantiating our proposition. This inland post-glacial dispersal was in agreement with the spread of the Mesolithic culture originating in South China and northern Vietnam.

  13. The Glacial and Relative Sea Level History of Southern Banks Island, NT, Canada

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaughan, Jessica Megan

    The mapping and dating of surficial glacial landforms and sediments across southern Banks Island document glaciation by the northwest Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during the last glacial maximum. Geomorphic landforms confirm the operation of an ice stream at least 1000 m thick in Amundsen Gulf that was coalescent with thin, cold-based ice crossing the island's interior, both advancing offshore onto the polar continental shelf. Raised marine shorelines across western and southern Banks Island are barren, recording early withdrawal of the Amundsen Gulf Ice Stream prior to the resubmergence of Bering Strait and the re-entry of Pacific molluscs ~13,750 cal yr BP. This withdrawal resulted in a loss of ~60,000 km2 of ice --triggering drawdown from the primary northwest LIS divide and instigating changes in subsequent ice flow. The Jesse moraine belt on eastern Banks Island records a lateglacial stillstand and/or readvance of Laurentide ice in Prince of Wales Strait (13,750 -- 12,750 cal yr BP). Fossiliferous raised marine sediments that onlap the Jesse moraine belt constrain final deglaciation to ~12,600 cal yr BP, a minimum age for the breakup of the Amundsen Gulf Ice Stream. The investigation of a 30 m thick and 6 km wide stratigraphic sequence at Worth Point, southwest Banks Island, identifies an advance of the ancestral LIS during the Mid-Pleistocene (sensu lato), substantially diversifying the glacial record on Banks Island. Glacial ice emplaced during this advance has persisted through at least two glacial-interglacial cycles, demonstrating the resilience of circumpolar permafrost. Pervasive deformation of the stratigraphic sequence also records a detailed history of glaciotectonism in proglacial and subglacial settings that can result from interactions between cold-based ice and permafrost terrain. This newly recognized history rejects the long-established paleoenvironmental model of Worth Point that assumed a simple 'layer-cake' stratigraphy.

  14. Interactions between mafic eruptions and glacial ice or snow: implications of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland, eruption for hazard assessments in the central Oregon Cascades

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKay, D.; Cashman, K. V.

    2010-12-01

    The 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland, demonstrated the importance of addressing hazards specific to mafic eruptions in regions where interactions with glacial ice or snow are likely. One such region is the central Oregon Cascades, where there are hundreds of mafic vents, many of which are Holocene in age. Here we present field observations and quantitative analyses of tephra deposits from recent eruptions at Sand Mountain, Yapoah Cone, and Collier Cone (all advance, which lasted from ~2 to 8 ka in the central Oregon Cascades (Marcott et al., 2009). During the Neoglacial, winter snowfall was likely ~23% greater and summer temperatures ~1.4°C cooler than present (Marcott, 2009). Although ice did not advance to the elevation of the Sand Mountain vents during this time, the eruption could have occurred through several meters of snow. We have also seen very fine-grained tephra at Yapoah Cone, which is located at a higher elevation and may have interacted with glacial ice. In addition to being characterized by unusually fine grainsize, the Yapoah tephra blanket is deposited directly on top of hyaloclastite in several locations. Tephra from Collier Cone is not characterized by unusually fine grainsize, but several sections of the deposit exhibit features that suggest deposition on top of, or interbedding with, snow that later melted away. Identification of features in mafic tephra that suggest interactions with glacial ice or snow has significant implications for regional volcanic hazard assessments. Specifically, the unique hazards posed by Eyjafjallajökull, especially hazards to air travel caused by unusually fine-grained tephra, could be repeated in the Cascades. Although glacial ice is presently limited to elevations above ~2300 m in the central Oregon Cascades, winter snowpack can exceed 5 m at elevations of ~1800 m and above. If a cinder cone eruption were to occur during winter months, interaction with snow could generate phreatomagmatic activity and

  15. Regional Analysis of the Hazard Level of Glacial Lakes in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chisolm, Rachel E.; Jhon Sanchez Leon, Walter; McKinney, Daene C.; Cochachin Rapre, Alejo

    2016-04-01

    The Cordillera Blanca mountain range is the highest in Peru and contains many of the world's tropical glaciers. This region is severely impacted by climate change causing accelerated glacier retreat. Secondary impacts of climate change on glacier retreat include stress on water resources and the risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) from the many lakes that are forming and growing at the base of glaciers. A number of GLOFs originating from lakes in the Cordillera Blanca have occurred over the last century, several of which have had catastrophic impacts on cities and communities downstream. Glaciologists and engineers in Peru have been studying the lakes of the Cordillera Blanca for many years and have identified several lakes that are considered dangerous. However, a systematic analysis of all the lakes in the Cordillera Blanca has never before been attempted. Some methodologies for this type of systematic analysis have been proposed (eg. Emmer and Vilimek 2014; Wang, et al. 2011), but as yet they have only been applied to a few select lakes in the Cordillera Blanca. This study uses remotely sensed data to study all of the lakes of the Glacial Lake Inventory published by the Glaciology and Water Resources Unit of Peru's National Water Authority (UGRH 2011). The objective of this study is to assign a level of potential hazard to each glacial lake in the Cordillera Blanca and to ascertain if any of the lakes beyond those that have already been studied might pose a danger to nearby populations. A number of parameters of analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, have been selected to assess the hazard level of each glacial lake in the Cordillera Blanca using digital elevation models, satellite imagery, and glacier outlines. These parameters are then combined to come up with a preliminary assessment of the hazard level of each lake; the equation weighting each parameter draws on previously published methodologies but is tailored to the regional characteristics

  16. Sea-level driven glacial-age refugia and post-glacial mixing on subtropical coasts, a palaeohabitat and genetic study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolby, Greer A; Hechinger, Ryan; Ellingson, Ryan A; Findley, Lloyd T; Lorda, Julio; Jacobs, David K

    2016-11-30

    Using a novel combination of palaeohabitat modelling and genetic mixture analyses, we identify and assess a sea-level-driven recolonization process following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Our palaeohabitat modelling reveals dramatic changes in estuarine habitat distribution along the coast of California (USA) and Baja California (Mexico). At the LGM (approx. 20 kya), when sea level was approximately 130 m lower, the palaeo-shoreline was too steep for tidal estuarine habitat formation, eliminating this habitat type from regions where it is currently most abundant, and limiting such estuaries to a northern and a southern refugium separated by 1000 km. We assess the recolonization of estuaries formed during post-LGM sea-level rise through examination of refugium-associated alleles and approximate Bayesian computation in three species of estuarine fishes. Results reveal sourcing of modern populations from both refugia, which admix in the newly formed habitat between the refuges. We infer a dramatic peak in habitat area between 15 and 10 kya with subsequent decline. Overall, this approach revealed a previously undocumented dynamic and integrated relationship between sea-level change, coastal processes and population genetics. These results extend glacial refugial dynamics to unglaciated subtropical coasts and have significant implications for biotic response to predicted sea-level rise. © 2016 The Author(s).

  17. A multi-decadal remote sensing study on glacial change in the North Patagonia Ice Field Chile

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tetteh, Lucy Korlekwor

    Glaciers in the North Patagonian Ice Fields are temperate glaciers and can be studied to understand the dynamics of climate change. However, the ice field has been neglected in mass balance studies. In this study, multi decadal study of glacial mass balance, glacier retreat and glacial lake expansion in the North Patagonia were studied. Landsat (TM, ETM+ and 8) and ASTER images were used. San Quintin glacier experienced the highest retreat. Demarcation of glacier lakes boundaries indicated an increase in glacial lake area an addition of 4 new glacial lakes. Nef glacier recorded the highest mass gain of 9.91 plus or minus 1.96 m.w.e.a.-1 and HPN-4 glacier recorded the highest mass loss of -8.9 plus or minus 1.96 m.w.e.a. -1. However, there is a high uncertainty in the elevation values in the DEM due to the rugged nature of the terrain and presence of the heavy snow cover.

  18. Evidence for ephemeral middle Eocene to early Oligocene Greenland glacial ice and pan-Arctic sea ice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tripati, Aradhna; Darby, Dennis

    2018-03-12

    Earth's modern climate is defined by the presence of ice at both poles, but that ice is now disappearing. Therefore understanding the origin and causes of polar ice stability is more critical than ever. Here we provide novel geochemical data that constrain past dynamics of glacial ice on Greenland and Arctic sea ice. Based on accurate source determinations of individual ice-rafted Fe-oxide grains, we find evidence for episodic glaciation of distinct source regions on Greenland as far-ranging as ~68°N and ~80°N synchronous with ice-rafting from circum-Arctic sources, beginning in the middle Eocene. Glacial intervals broadly coincide with reduced CO 2 , with a potential threshold for glacial ice stability near ~500 p.p.m.v. The middle Eocene represents the Cenozoic onset of a dynamic cryosphere, with ice in both hemispheres during transient glacials and substantial regional climate heterogeneity. A more stable cryosphere developed at the Eocene-Oligocene transition, and is now threatened by anthropogenic emissions.

  19. The distribution of glacial erratics in the Northeast Atlantic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huggett, Q.

    1985-01-01

    A detailed study of all the available information on glacial erratics has been carried out. This has included an examination of 288 dredge hauls, 1164 sediment cores and 176 camera runs. Sufficient data have now been collected to provide an estimate of the impact risk of a point projectile with a glacial erratic, down to oxygen isotope stage 5 (127,000 years) in three areas of the North East Atlantic. 1. Porcupine seabight (50 deg N, 14 deg W) 0.460%; 2. King's Trough Flank (42 deg N, 24 deg W) 0.502%; 3. Great Meteor East (31 deg N, 25 deg W) 0.015%. These estimates are for all erratics larger than 1.5 cm diameter and apply only down to oxygen isotope stage 5. If estimates are required at greater depths than this, it is proposed that a detailed study of a long core should be undertaken. (author)

  20. Causes of strong ocean heating during glacial periods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zimov, N.; Zimov, S. A.

    2013-12-01

    During the last deglaciation period, the strongest climate changes occurred across the North Atlantic regions. Analyses of borehole temperatures from the Greenland ice sheet have yielded air temperature change estimates of 25°C over the deglaciation period (Dahl-Jensen et al. 1998). Such huge temperature changes cannot currently be explained in the frames of modern knowledge about climate. We propose that glacial-interglacial cycles are connected with gradual warming of ocean interior waters over the course of glaciations and quick transport of accumulated heat from ocean to the atmosphere during the deglaciation periods. Modern day ocean circulation is dominated by thermal convection with cold waters subsiding in the Northern Atlantic and filling up the ocean interior with cold and heavy water. However during the glaciation thermal circulation stopped and ocean circulation was driven by 'haline pumps' -Red and Mediterranean seas connected with ocean with only narrow but deep straights acts as evaporative basins, separating ocean water into fresh water which returns to the ocean surface (precipitation) and warm but salty, and therefore heavy, water which flows down to the ocean floor. This haline pump is stratifying the ocean, allowing warmer water locate under the colder water and thus stopping thermal convection in the ocean. Additional ocean interior warming is driven by geothermal heat flux and decomposition of organic rain. To test the hypothesis we present simple ocean box model that describes thermohaline circulation in the World Ocean. The first box is the Red and Mediterranean sea, the second is united high-latitude seas, the third is the ocean surface, and the fourth the ocean interior. The volume of these water masses and straight cross-sections are taken to be close to real values. We have accepted that the exchange of water between boxes is proportional to the difference in water density in these boxes, Sun energy inputs to the ocean and sea surface

  1. Climatic impacts of fresh water hosing under Last Glacial Maximum conditions: a multi-model study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Kageyama

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Fresh water hosing simulations, in which a fresh water flux is imposed in the North Atlantic to force fluctuations of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, have been routinely performed, first to study the climatic signature of different states of this circulation, then, under present or future conditions, to investigate the potential impact of a partial melting of the Greenland ice sheet. The most compelling examples of climatic changes potentially related to AMOC abrupt variations, however, are found in high resolution palaeo-records from around the globe for the last glacial period. To study those more specifically, more and more fresh water hosing experiments have been performed under glacial conditions in the recent years. Here we compare an ensemble constituted by 11 such simulations run with 6 different climate models. All simulations follow a slightly different design, but are sufficiently close in their design to be compared. They all study the impact of a fresh water hosing imposed in the extra-tropical North Atlantic. Common features in the model responses to hosing are the cooling over the North Atlantic, extending along the sub-tropical gyre in the tropical North Atlantic, the southward shift of the Atlantic ITCZ and the weakening of the African and Indian monsoons. On the other hand, the expression of the bipolar see-saw, i.e., warming in the Southern Hemisphere, differs from model to model, with some restricting it to the South Atlantic and specific regions of the southern ocean while others simulate a widespread southern ocean warming. The relationships between the features common to most models, i.e., climate changes over the north and tropical Atlantic, African and Asian monsoon regions, are further quantified. These suggest a tight correlation between the temperature and precipitation changes over the extra-tropical North Atlantic, but different pathways for the teleconnections between the AMOC/North Atlantic region

  2. Glacial refugia, recolonization patterns and diversification forces in Alpine-endemic Megabunus harvestmen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wachter, Gregor A; Papadopoulou, Anna; Muster, Christoph; Arthofer, Wolfgang; Knowles, L Lacey; Steiner, Florian M; Schlick-Steiner, Birgit C

    2016-06-01

    The Pleistocene climatic fluctuations had a huge impact on all life forms, and various hypotheses regarding the survival of organisms during glacial periods have been postulated. In the European Alps, evidence has been found in support of refugia outside the ice shield (massifs de refuge) acting as sources for postglacial recolonization of inner-Alpine areas. In contrast, evidence for survival on nunataks, ice-free areas above the glacier, remains scarce. Here, we combine multivariate genetic analyses with ecological niche models (ENMs) through multiple timescales to elucidate the history of Alpine Megabunus harvestmen throughout the ice ages, a genus that comprises eight high-altitude endemics. ENMs suggest two types of refugia throughout the last glacial maximum, inner-Alpine survival on nunataks for four species and peripheral refugia for further four species. In some geographic regions, the patterns of genetic variation are consistent with long-distance dispersal out of massifs de refuge, repeatedly coupled with geographic parthenogenesis. In other regions, long-term persistence in nunataks may dominate the patterns of genetic divergence. Overall, our results suggest that glacial cycles contributed to allopatric diversification in Alpine Megabunus, both within and at the margins of the ice shield. These findings exemplify the power of ENM projections coupled with genetic analyses to identify hypotheses about the position and the number of glacial refugia and thus to evaluate the role of Pleistocene glaciations in driving species-specific responses of recolonization or persistence that may have contributed to observed patterns of biodiversity. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Exploring the data constrained phase space of the last Antarctic glacial cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lecavalier, Benoit; Tarasov, Lev

    2017-04-01

    The evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet over the last two glacial cycles is studied using the Glacial Systems Model (GSM). Glaciological modelling is an effective tool to generate continental-scale reconstructions over glacial cycles, but the models depend on parameterizations to account for the deficiencies (e.g., missing physics, unresolved sub-grid processes, uncertain boundary conditions) inherent in any numerical model. These parameters, considered together, form a parameter phase space from which sets of parameters can be sampled; each set corresponds to an ice sheet reconstruction. The GSM has been updated with a number of recent developments: hybrid SIA-SSA physics, Schoof grounding line parameterization, broadened degrees of freedom in the climate forcing, sub-shelf melt explicitly dependent on ocean temperatures, improved hydrofracturing, cliff failure at the margins, basal topographic uncertainties, impact of basal drag roughness and subgrid statistics, and first order geoidal corrections in the coupled glacial isostatic adjustment component. Parametric uncertainties are defined in the GSM using >36 ensemble parameters. Prior to conducting a full Bayesian calibration, one must first validate the ability of the GSM to simulate a broad range of responses. We attempt this by latin hypercube sampling of the parameter phase space and comparing the model predictions against our constraint database consisting of past elevation, extent and relative sea level observations and the present day geometry. We document the capability of the GSM to envelope the observational constraints given the parametric uncertainties and discuss the implications for the evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

  4. Introduction to RF linear accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weiss, M.

    1994-01-01

    The basic features of RF linear accelerators are described. The concept of the 'loaded cavity', essential for the synchronism wave-particle, is introduced, and formulae describing the action of electromagnetic fields on the beam are given. The treatment of intense beams is mentioned, and various existing linear accelerators are presented as examples. (orig.)

  5. Glacial changes in warm pool climate dominated by shelf exposure and ice sheet albedo

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Nezio, P. N.; Tierney, J. E.; Otto-Bliesner, B. L.; Timmermann, A.; Bhattacharya, T.; Brady, E. C.; Rosenbloom, N. A.

    2017-12-01

    The mechanisms driving glacial-interglacial changes in the climate of the Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP) are unclear. We addressed this issue combining model simulations and paleoclimate reconstructions of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Two drivers - the exposure of tropical shelves due to lower sea level and a monsoonal response to ice sheet albedo - explain the proxy-inferred patterns of hydroclimate change. Shelf exposure influences IPWP climate by weakening the ascending branch of the Walker circulation. This response is amplified by coupled interactions akin to the Bjerknes feedback involving a stronger sea-surface temperature (SST) gradient along the equatorial Indian Ocean (IO). Ice sheet albedo enhances the import of cold, dry air into the tropics, weakening the Afro-Asian monsoon system. This "ventilation" mechanism alters temperature contrasts between the Arabian Sea and surrounding land leading to further monsoon weakening. Additional simulations show that the altered SST patterns associated with these responses are essential for explaining the proxy-inferred changes. Together our results show that ice sheets are a first order driver of tropical climate on glacial-interglacial timescales. While glacial climates are not a straightforward analogue for the future, our finding of an active Bjerknes feedback deserves further attention in the context of future climate projections.

  6. Topics in computational linear optimization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hultberg, Tim Helge

    2000-01-01

    Linear optimization has been an active area of research ever since the pioneering work of G. Dantzig more than 50 years ago. This research has produced a long sequence of practical as well as theoretical improvements of the solution techniques avilable for solving linear optimization problems...... of high quality solvers and the use of algebraic modelling systems to handle the communication between the modeller and the solver. This dissertation features four topics in computational linear optimization: A) automatic reformulation of mixed 0/1 linear programs, B) direct solution of sparse unsymmetric...... systems of linear equations, C) reduction of linear programs and D) integration of algebraic modelling of linear optimization problems in C++. Each of these topics is treated in a separate paper included in this dissertation. The efficiency of solving mixed 0-1 linear programs by linear programming based...

  7. Impact of increasing antarctic glacial freshwater release on regional sea-ice cover in the Southern Ocean

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merino, Nacho; Jourdain, Nicolas C.; Le Sommer, Julien; Goosse, Hugues; Mathiot, Pierre; Durand, Gael

    2018-01-01

    The sensitivity of Antarctic sea-ice to increasing glacial freshwater release into the Southern Ocean is studied in a series of 31-year ocean/sea-ice/iceberg model simulations. Glaciological estimates of ice-shelf melting and iceberg calving are used to better constrain the spatial distribution and magnitude of freshwater forcing around Antarctica. Two scenarios of glacial freshwater forcing have been designed to account for a decadal perturbation in glacial freshwater release to the Southern Ocean. For the first time, this perturbation explicitly takes into consideration the spatial distribution of changes in the volume of Antarctic ice shelves, which is found to be a key component of changes in freshwater release. In addition, glacial freshwater-induced changes in sea ice are compared to typical changes induced by the decadal evolution of atmospheric states. Our results show that, in general, the increase in glacial freshwater release increases Antarctic sea ice extent. But the response is opposite in some regions like the coastal Amundsen Sea, implying that distinct physical mechanisms are involved in the response. We also show that changes in freshwater forcing may induce large changes in sea-ice thickness, explaining about one half of the total change due to the combination of atmospheric and freshwater changes. The regional contrasts in our results suggest a need for improving the representation of freshwater sources and their evolution in climate models.

  8. Invertebrate metacommunity structure and dynamics in an andean glacial stream network facing climate change

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cauvy-Fraunié, Sophie; Espinosa, Rodrigo; Andino, Patricio

    2015-01-01

    .g., overland, watercourse, and downstream directional dispersal) in organizing the aquatic metacommunity. Results revealed that both environmental and spatial variables significantly explained community variation among sites. Among all environmental variables, the glacial influence component best explained...... macroinvertebrate metacommunity structure in many ways. Indeed, the harsh environmental conditions characterizing glacial influence not only constitute the primary environmental filter but also, limit water-borne macroinvertebrate dispersal. Therefore, glacier runoff acts as an aquatic dispersal barrier, isolating...

  9. Late Wisconsinan Glacial Geomorphology of the Kent Interlobate Complex, Ohio, USA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    João Bessa Santos

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The northern sector of the Kent Interlobate Complex, created by twomajor ice lobes of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during late Wisconsinan times, dominates the glacial landscape of northeast Ohio. The geomorphology of this impressive complex reveals the presence of large hummocks, kettle lakes and substantial esker chains. The esker chains,usually smaller than 1.3 km long, run parallel to the interlobate complex geographic orientation of northeast-southwest. Gravel pits present on large hummocks display bedded and sorted sedimentary units of gravel, sand and gravel and climbing ripple laminated sand with folds, which demonstrate that the northern sector of the interlobate complex is primarily a glaciofluvial feature. Topping these hummocks is a massive clast-supported diamicton interpreted to be a debris flow. These geomorphic and sedimentary characteristics seem to indicate that hummocks present in the interlobate area are in fact kames and that the entire northern sector of the interlobate complex is a product of late Wisconsinan time transgressive ice stagnation that occurred between two major ice lobes.

  10. Stress evolution and fault stability during the Weichselian glacial cycle

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lund, Bjoern; Schmidt, Peter; Hieronymus, Christoph (Dept. of Earth Sciences, Uppsala Univ., Uppsala (Sweden))

    2009-10-15

    In this report we examine how the waxing and waning of an ice sheet during a glacial cycle affects the state of stress in the Earth, and how those changes in stress influence the stability of faults. We focus on the stresses at repository depth in Forsmark and Oskarshamn, and on the stability field at seismogenic depth at the proposed repository sites and at the Paervie endglacial fault in northern Sweden. This study is a modelling study, where we use 3-dimensional ice and earth models to calculate the glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), i.e. the response of the Earth to an ice load, examining both displacements and stresses. We use a flat-earth finite element approach, based on Wu with some modifications. The result presented here is a continuation of previous studies in 2 dimensions and complement those studies in assessing how the 3-dimensionality of the problem affects the conclusions. We use the Fennoscandian ice model of Naeslund, which is a dynamic ice sheet model based on climate reconstructions with constraints from geological observations. The ice model spans the entire Weichselian glaciation but we only use the last 68 kyr, which includes the 2 major periods of ice cover as depicted in this ice sheet reconstruction. For the GIA calculation we use a number of different earth models, both with flat horizontal layers and with various 3D structures of lithosphere thickness. We don't include lateral variations in the viscosity of the mantle. Comparing the current day rebound velocities predicted by our models with GPS observations from the BIFROST project, we note that in general, we can obtain a reasonable fit to the observations with our models, and that the results are rather sensitive to the assumed viscosity of the mantle. We find that the differences between data and model results, for all earth models, have common features which we interpret as due to the ice model. These observations are in agreement with numerous other GIA studies. Our flat

  11. Glacial refugia and migration routes of the Neotropical genus Trizeuxis (Orchidaceae

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta Kolanowska

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The morphology and anatomy of the monotypic genus Trizeuxis make this taxon almost impossible to recognize in fossil material and hereby difficult object of historical geographic studies. To estimate the distribution of potential refugia during the last glacial maximum and migration routes for Trizeuxis the ecological niche modeling was performed. The potential niche modeling was done using maximum entropy method implemented in Maxent application based on the species presence-only observations. As input data climatic variables and the digital elevation model were used. Two models of suitable glacial habitats distribution were prepared – for the studied species and for its host. The compiled map of the suitable habitats distribution of T. falcata and P. guajava during the last glacial maximum (LGM indicate two possible refugia for the studied orchid genus. The first one was located in the Madre de Dios region and the other one in the Mosquito Coast. The models suggest the existence of two migration routes of Trizeuxis species. The results indicate that the ecological niche modeling (ENM is a useful tool for analyzing not only the possible past distribution of the species, but may be also applied to determine the migration routes of the organisms not found in the fossil material.

  12. Role of the Bering Strait on the hysteresis of the ocean conveyor belt circulation and glacial climate stability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Aixue; Meehl, Gerald A; Han, Weiqing; Timmermann, Axel; Otto-Bliesner, Bette; Liu, Zhengyu; Washington, Warren M; Large, William; Abe-Ouchi, Ayako; Kimoto, Masahide; Lambeck, Kurt; Wu, Bingyi

    2012-04-24

    Abrupt climate transitions, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, occurred frequently during the last glacial period, specifically from 80-11 thousand years before present, but were nearly absent during interglacial periods and the early stages of glacial periods, when major ice-sheets were still forming. Here we show, with a fully coupled state-of-the-art climate model, that closing the Bering Strait and preventing its throughflow between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans during the glacial period can lead to the emergence of stronger hysteresis behavior of the ocean conveyor belt circulation to create conditions that are conducive to triggering abrupt climate transitions. Hence, it is argued that even for greenhouse warming, abrupt climate transitions similar to those in the last glacial time are unlikely to occur as the Bering Strait remains open.

  13. Testing Hypotheses About Glacial Cycles Against the Observational Record

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaufmann, Robert; Juselius, Katarina

    2013-01-01

    We estimate an identified cointegrated vector autoregression (CVAR) model of the climate system to test hypotheses about the physical mechanisms that may drive glacial cycles during the late Pleistocene. Results indicate that a permanent doubling of CO2 generates a 11.1oC rise in Antarctic...

  14. Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation During the Last Glacial Maximum.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lynch-Stieglitz, J.; Adkins, J.F.; Curry, W.B.; Dokken, T.; Hall, I.R.; Herguera, J.C.; Hirschi, J.J.-M.; Ivanova, E.V.; Kissel, C.; Marchal, O.; Marchitto, T.M.; McCave, I.N.; McManus, J.F.; Mulitza, S.; Ninnemann, U.; Peeters, F.J.C.; Yu, E.-F.; Zahn, R.

    2007-01-01

    The circulation of the deep Atlantic Ocean during the height of the last ice age appears to have been quite different from today. We review observations implying that Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the Last Glacial Maximum was neither extremely sluggish nor an enhanced version of

  15. Does carbon isotope data help explain atmospheric CO2 concentrations during glacial periods?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alverson, K.; Le Grand, P.

    2002-01-01

    An inverse ocean box modeling approach is used to address the question of what may have caused decreased atmospheric CO 2 concentration during glacial periods. The inverse procedure seeks solutions that are consistent, within prescribed uncertainties, with both available paleodata constraints and box model conservation equations while relaxing traditional assumptions such as exact steady state and precise prescription of uncertain model parameters. Decreased ventilation of Southern Ocean deep water, decreased Southern Ocean air-sea gas exchange, and enhanced high latitude biological pumping are all shown to be individually capable of explaining available paleodata constraints provided that significant calcium carbonate compensation is allowed. None of the scenarios require more than a very minor (order 1 deg. C) glacial reduction in low to mid latitude sea surface temperature although scenarios with larger changes are equally plausible. One explanation for the fairly wide range of plausible solutions is that most paleo-data directly constrain the inventory of paleo-tracers but only indirectly constrain their fluxes. Because the various scenarios that have been proposed to explain pCO 2 levels during the last glacial maximum are distinguished primarily by different fluxes, the data, including ocean 13 C concentrations, do not allow one to confidently chose between them. Oceanic 14 C data for the last glacial maximum, which can constrain water mass fluxes, present an excellent potential solution to this problem if their reliability is demonstrated in the future. (author)

  16. Particle swarm optimization based feature enhancement and feature selection for improved emotion recognition in speech and glottal signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muthusamy, Hariharan; Polat, Kemal; Yaacob, Sazali

    2015-01-01

    In the recent years, many research works have been published using speech related features for speech emotion recognition, however, recent studies show that there is a strong correlation between emotional states and glottal features. In this work, Mel-frequency cepstralcoefficients (MFCCs), linear predictive cepstral coefficients (LPCCs), perceptual linear predictive (PLP) features, gammatone filter outputs, timbral texture features, stationary wavelet transform based timbral texture features and relative wavelet packet energy and entropy features were extracted from the emotional speech (ES) signals and its glottal waveforms(GW). Particle swarm optimization based clustering (PSOC) and wrapper based particle swarm optimization (WPSO) were proposed to enhance the discerning ability of the features and to select the discriminating features respectively. Three different emotional speech databases were utilized to gauge the proposed method. Extreme learning machine (ELM) was employed to classify the different types of emotions. Different experiments were conducted and the results show that the proposed method significantly improves the speech emotion recognition performance compared to previous works published in the literature.

  17. Coupled European and Greenland last glacial dust activity driven by North Atlantic climate

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Újvári, Gábor; Stevens, Thomas; Molnár, Mihály

    2017-01-01

    Centennial-scale mineral dust peaks in last glacial Greenland ice cores match the timing of lowest Greenland temperatures, yet little is known of equivalent changes in dust-emitting regions, limiting our understanding of dust−climate interaction. Here, we present the most detailed and precise age...... model for European loess dust deposits to date, based on 125 accelerator mass spectrometry14C ages from Dunaszekcso, } Hungary. The record shows that variations in glacial dust deposition variability on centennial–millennial timescales in east central Europe and Greenland were synchronous within...

  18. Glacial Inception and Carbon Cycle in CCSM4

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jochum, M.; Bailey, D. A.; Fasullo, J.; Kay, J. E.; Levis, S.; Lindsay, K. T.; Moore, J. K.; Otto-Bliesner, B. L.; Peacock, S.

    2010-12-01

    CCSM4 with ocean and land ecosystem and freely evolving atmospheric carbondioxide is used to quantify the response of carbon fluxes and climate to changes in orbital forcing. Compared to the present-day simulation, the simulation with the Earth's orbital parameters from 115.000 years ago features significantly cooler northern high latitudes, but only moderately cooler southern high latitudes. This asymmetry is explained by the sea-ice/snow albedo feedback; the MOC is almost unchanged. Most importantly, there is a substantial build up of snow cover on Baffin Island and North Canada - the origins of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The strong northern high-latitude cooling and the direct insolation induced tropical warming lead to global shifts in precipitation and winds of the same order. However, the differences in global net air-sea carbon fluxes are small, and provide no support for the hypothesis that the solubility pump is responsible for the intial drawdown of atmospheric CO2 during a glacial inception. This surprising result is due to several effects, two of which stand out: Firstly, colder SST leads to higher solubility, but also to increased sea-ice concentration, which blocks air-sea exchange; and secondly, the weakening of the Southern Ocean winds that is predicted by some idealized studies occurs only in part of the basin, and is compensated by stronger winds in other parts.

  19. Quantifying the influence of the terrestrial biosphere on glacial-interglacial climate dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies-Barnard, Taraka; Ridgwell, Andy; Singarayer, Joy; Valdes, Paul

    2017-10-01

    The terrestrial biosphere is thought to be a key component in the climatic variability seen in the palaeo-record. It has a direct impact on surface temperature through changes in surface albedo and evapotranspiration (so-called biogeophysical effects) and, in addition, has an important indirect effect through changes in vegetation and soil carbon storage (biogeochemical effects) and hence modulates the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The biogeochemical and biogeophysical effects generally have opposite signs, meaning that the terrestrial biosphere could potentially have played only a very minor role in the dynamics of the glacial-interglacial cycles of the late Quaternary. Here we use a fully coupled dynamic atmosphere-ocean-vegetation general circulation model (GCM) to generate a set of 62 equilibrium simulations spanning the last 120 kyr. The analysis of these simulations elucidates the relative importance of the biogeophysical versus biogeochemical terrestrial biosphere interactions with climate. We find that the biogeophysical effects of vegetation account for up to an additional -0.91 °C global mean cooling, with regional cooling as large as -5 °C, but with considerable variability across the glacial-interglacial cycle. By comparison, while opposite in sign, our model estimates of the biogeochemical impacts are substantially smaller in magnitude. Offline simulations show a maximum of +0.33 °C warming due to an increase of 25 ppm above our (pre-industrial) baseline atmospheric CO2 mixing ratio. In contrast to shorter (century) timescale projections of future terrestrial biosphere response where direct and indirect responses may at times cancel out, we find that the biogeophysical effects consistently and strongly dominate the biogeochemical effect over the inter-glacial cycle. On average across the period, the terrestrial biosphere has a -0.26 °C effect on temperature, with -0.58 °C at the Last Glacial Maximum. Depending on

  20. Greenland's glacial fjords and their role in regional biogeochemical dynamics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crosby, J.; Arndt, S.

    2017-12-01

    Greenland's coastal fjords serve as important pathways that connect the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) and the surrounding oceans. They export seasonal glacial meltwater whilst being significant sites of primary production. These fjords are home to some of the most productive ecosystems in the world and possess high socio-economic value via fisheries. A growing number of studies have proposed the GrIS as an underappreciated yet significant source of nutrients to surrounding oceans. Acting as both transfer routes and sinks for glacial nutrient export, fjords have the potential to act as significant biogeochemical processors, yet remain underexplored. Critically, an understanding of the quantitative contribution of fjords to carbon and nutrient budgets is lacking, with large uncertainties associated with limited availability of field data and the lack of robust upscaling approaches. To close this knowledge gap we developed a coupled 2D physical-biogeochemical model of the Godthåbsfjord system, a sub-Arctic sill fjord in southwest Greenland, to quantitatively assess the impact of nutrients exported from the GrIS on fjord primary productivity and biogeochemical dynamics. Glacial meltwater is found to be a key driver of fjord-scale circulation patterns, whilst tracer simulations reveal the relative nutrient contributions from meltwater-driven upwelling and meltwater export from the GrIS. Hydrodynamic circulation patterns and freshwater transit times are explored to provide a first understanding of the glacier-fjord-ocean continuum, demonstrating the complex pattern of carbon and nutrient cycling at this critical land-ocean interface.

  1. Glacial vs. Interglacial Period Contrasts in Midlatitude Fluvial Systems, with Examples from Western Europe and the Texas Coastal Plain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blum, M.

    2001-12-01

    Mixed bedrock-alluvial valleys are the conveyor belts for sediment delivery to passive continental margins. Mapping, stratigraphic and sedimentologic investigations, and development of geochronological frameworks for large midlatitude rivers of this type, in Western Europe and the Texas Coastal Plain, provide for evaluation of fluvial responses to climate change over the last glacial-interglacial period, and the foundations for future quantitative evaluation of long profile evolution, changes through time in flood magnitude, and changes in storage and flux of sediments. This paper focuses on two issues. First, glacial vs. interglacial period fluvial systems are fundamentally different in terms of channel geometry, depositional style, and patterns of sediment storage. Glacial-period systems were dominated by coarse-grained channel belts (braided channels in Europe, large-wavelength meandering in Texas), and lacked fine-grained flood-plain deposits, whereas Holocene units, especially those of late Holocene age, contain appreciable thicknesses of flood-plain facies. Hence, extreme overbank flooding was not significant during the long glacial period, most flood events were contained within bankfull channel perimeters, and fine sediments were bypassed through the system to marine basins. By contrast, extreme overbank floods have been increasingly important during the relatively short Holocene, and a significant volume of fine sediment is sequestered in flood-plain settings. Second, glacial vs. interglacial systems exhibit different amplitudes and frequencies of fluvial adjustment to climate change. High-amplitude but low-frequency adjustments characterized the long glacial period, with 2-3 extended periods of lateral migration and sediment storage puncuated by episodes of valley incision. Low-amplitude but high-frequency adjustments have been more typical of the short Holocene, when there has been little net valley incision or net changes in sediment storage, but

  2. Language identification using excitation source features

    CERN Document Server

    Rao, K Sreenivasa

    2015-01-01

    This book discusses the contribution of excitation source information in discriminating language. The authors focus on the excitation source component of speech for enhancement of language identification (LID) performance. Language specific features are extracted using two different modes: (i) Implicit processing of linear prediction (LP) residual and (ii) Explicit parameterization of linear prediction residual. The book discusses how in implicit processing approach, excitation source features are derived from LP residual, Hilbert envelope (magnitude) of LP residual and Phase of LP residual; and in explicit parameterization approach, LP residual signal is processed in spectral domain to extract the relevant language specific features. The authors further extract source features from these modes, which are combined for enhancing the performance of LID systems. The proposed excitation source features are also investigated for LID in background noisy environments. Each chapter of this book provides the motivatio...

  3. Inverse vertical migration and feeding in glacier lanternfish (Benthosema glaciale)

    KAUST Repository

    Dypvik, Eivind; Klevjer, Thor A.; Kaartvedt, Stein

    2011-01-01

    lanternfish (Benthosema glaciale) were mainly distributed below ~200 m and displayed three different diel behavioral strategies: normal diel vertical migration (NDVM), inverse DVM (IDVM) and no DVM (NoDVM). The IDVM group was the focus of this study

  4. Glacier protection laws: Potential conflicts in managing glacial hazards and adapting to climate change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anacona, Pablo Iribarren; Kinney, Josie; Schaefer, Marius; Harrison, Stephan; Wilson, Ryan; Segovia, Alexis; Mazzorana, Bruno; Guerra, Felipe; Farías, David; Reynolds, John M; Glasser, Neil F

    2018-03-13

    The environmental, socioeconomic and cultural significance of glaciers has motivated several countries to regulate activities on glaciers and glacierized surroundings. However, laws written to specifically protect mountain glaciers have only recently been considered within national political agendas. Glacier Protection Laws (GPLs) originate in countries where mining has damaged glaciers and have been adopted with the aim of protecting the cryosphere from harmful activities. Here, we analyze GPLs in Argentina (approved) and Chile (under discussion) to identify potential environmental conflicts arising from law restrictions and omissions. We conclude that GPLs overlook the dynamics of glaciers and could prevent or delay actions needed to mitigate glacial hazards (e.g. artificial drainage of glacial lakes) thus placing populations at risk. Furthermore, GPL restrictions could hinder strategies (e.g. use of glacial lakes as reservoirs) to mitigate adverse impacts of climate change. Arguably, more flexible GPLs are needed to protect us from the changing cryosphere.

  5. Trans-pacific glacial response to the Antarctic Cold Reversal in the southern mid-latitudes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sagredo, Esteban A.; Kaplan, Michael R.; Araya, Paola S.; Lowell, Thomas V.; Aravena, Juan C.; Moreno, Patricio I.; Kelly, Meredith A.; Schaefer, Joerg M.

    2018-05-01

    Elucidating the timing and regional extent of abrupt climate events during the last glacial-interglacial transition (∼18-11.5 ka) is critical for identifying spatial patterns and mechanisms responsible for large-magnitude climate events. The record of climate change in the Southern Hemisphere during this time period, however, remains scarce and unevenly distributed. We present new geomorphic, chronological, and equilibrium line altitude (ELA) data from a climatically sensitive mountain glacier at Monte San Lorenzo (47°S), Central Patagonia. Twenty-four new cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages from moraines provide a comprehensive glacial record in the mid-latitudes of South America, which constrain the timing, spatial extent and magnitude of glacial fluctuations during the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR, ∼14.5-12.9 ka). Río Tranquilo glacier advanced and reached a maximum extent at 13.9 ± 0.7 ka. Three additional inboard moraines afford statistically similar ages, indicating repeated glacier expansions or marginal fluctuations over the ACR. Our record represents the northernmost robust evidence of glacial fluctuations during the ACR in southern South America, documenting not only the timing of the ACR maximum, but also the sequence of glacier changes within this climate event. Based on ELA reconstructions, we estimate a cooling of >1.6-1.8 °C at the peak of the ACR. The Río Tranquilo record along with existing glacial reconstructions from New Zealand (43°S) and paleovegetation records from northwestern (41°S) and central-west (45°S) Patagonia, suggest an uniform trans-Pacific glacier-climate response to an ACR trigger across the southern mid-latitudes. We posit that the equatorial migration of the southern westerly winds provides an adequate mechanism to propagate a common ACR signal across the Southern Hemisphere.

  6. Mid-latitude trans-Pacific reconstructions and comparisons of coupled glacial/interglacial climate cycles based on soil stratigraphy of cover-beds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alloway, B. V.; Almond, P. C.; Moreno, P. I.; Sagredo, E.; Kaplan, M. R.; Kubik, P. W.; Tonkin, P. J.

    2018-06-01

    South Westland, New Zealand, and southern Chile, are two narrow continental corridors effectively confined between the Pacific Ocean in the west and high mountain ranges in the east which impart significant influence over regional climate, vegetation and soils. In both these southern mid-latitude regions, evidence for extensive and repeated glaciations during cold phases of the Quaternary is manifested by arrays of successively older glacial drift deposits with corresponding outwash plain remnants. In South Westland, these variably aged glacial landforms are mantled by layered (multisequal) soils characterised by slow loess accretion and pedogenesis in an extreme leaching and weathering environment. These cover-bed successions have undergone repeated coupled phases of topdown and upbuilding soil formation that have been related to fluctuating cycles of interglacial/warm and glacial/cold climate during the Quaternary. In this study, we recognise multisequal soils overlying glacial landforms in southern continental Chile but, unlike the spodic (podzolic) soil sequences of South Westland, these are of dominantly volcanigenic (andic) provenance and are very similar to multisequal soils of andic provenance that predominate in, and adjacent to, areas of rhyolitic to andesitic volcanism in North Island, New Zealand. Here we develop a soil-stratigraphic model to explain the observed occurrence of multisequal soils mantling dominantly glacial landforms of southern continental Chile. Based on proxy data from southern Chile, we propose that persistent vegetation cover and high precipitation on the western side of the Andes, during colder-than-present episodes tended to suppress the widespread production of glacially-derived loessial materials despite the pervasive occurrence of glacial and glacio-fluvial deposits that have frequently inundated large tracts of this landscape during the Quaternary. Given the lack of loess cover-beds that have traditionally assisted in the

  7. The last glacial cycles in East Greenland, an overVIew

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Funder, Svend Visby

    1994-01-01

    /glacial cycle. The stratigraphical scheme is based on studies on the Jameson Land peninsula, and contains five glacial stages and stades with the Greenland ice sheet or its outlets reaching the outer coasts. Individual sites are correlated and dated by a combination of biostratigraphy, luminescence dating...... ( ~ Eemian) the advection of warm Atlantic water was higher than during the Holocene, and the terrestrial flora and insect faullas show that summer temperatures were 3-4"C higher than during the Holocene optimum. There is no unambiguous evidence for cooling in the sediments from this interval. Later......, in isotope stage 5, there were apparently two ice-free periods. During the Hugin Sa interstade, stable Polar water dominated Scoresby Sund, and the terrestrial flora suggests summer temperatures 2"_3" lower than the present. The marine and fluvial sediments from the second ice-free period, the Manselv...

  8. Linear feature selection in texture analysis - A PLS based method

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Marques, Joselene; Igel, Christian; Lillholm, Martin

    2013-01-01

    We present a texture analysis methodology that combined uncommitted machine-learning techniques and partial least square (PLS) in a fully automatic framework. Our approach introduces a robust PLS-based dimensionality reduction (DR) step to specifically address outliers and high-dimensional feature...... and considering all CV groups, the methods selected 36 % of the original features available. The diagnosis evaluation reached a generalization area-under-the-ROC curve of 0.92, which was higher than established cartilage-based markers known to relate to OA diagnosis....

  9. Post-glacial landform evolution in the middle Satluj River valley, India

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    incision. Climatically, the event corresponds to the post-glacial strengthened Indian summer monsoon. (ISM). ... middle Satluj valley extreme events shape the land- scape besides ...... District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Kinnaur,.

  10. EEG feature selection method based on decision tree.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duan, Lijuan; Ge, Hui; Ma, Wei; Miao, Jun

    2015-01-01

    This paper aims to solve automated feature selection problem in brain computer interface (BCI). In order to automate feature selection process, we proposed a novel EEG feature selection method based on decision tree (DT). During the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal processing, a feature extraction method based on principle component analysis (PCA) was used, and the selection process based on decision tree was performed by searching the feature space and automatically selecting optimal features. Considering that EEG signals are a series of non-linear signals, a generalized linear classifier named support vector machine (SVM) was chosen. In order to test the validity of the proposed method, we applied the EEG feature selection method based on decision tree to BCI Competition II datasets Ia, and the experiment showed encouraging results.

  11. Dominant factors controlling glacial and interglacial variations in the treeline elevation in tropical Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Haibin; Guiot, Joël; Brewer, Simon; Guo, Zhengtang; Peng, Changhui

    2007-06-05

    The knowledge of tropical palaeoclimates is crucial for understanding global climate change, because it is a test bench for general circulation models that are ultimately used to predict future global warming. A longstanding issue concerning the last glacial maximum in the tropics is the discrepancy between the decrease in sea-surface temperatures reconstructed from marine proxies and the high-elevation decrease in land temperatures estimated from indicators of treeline elevation. In this study, an improved inverse vegetation modeling approach is used to quantitatively reconstruct palaeoclimate and to estimate the effects of different factors (temperature, precipitation, and atmospheric CO(2) concentration) on changes in treeline elevation based on a set of pollen data covering an altitudinal range from 100 to 3,140 m above sea level in Africa. We show that lowering of the African treeline during the last glacial maximum was primarily triggered by regional drying, especially at upper elevations, and was amplified by decreases in atmospheric CO(2) concentration and perhaps temperature. This contrasts with scenarios for the Holocene and future climates, in which the increase in treeline elevation will be dominated by temperature. Our results suggest that previous temperature changes inferred from tropical treeline shifts may have been overestimated for low-CO(2) glacial periods, because the limiting factors that control changes in treeline elevation differ between glacial and interglacial periods.

  12. Geochemical Weathering in Glacial and Proglacial Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tranter, M.

    2003-12-01

    solution, typically monitored by electrical conductivity, is often inverse with discharge on both a diurnal and a seasonal basis at lower latitudes, but ismore complex at higher latitudes (Figure 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3). Figure 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3 also show that the total flux of glacial solutes is usually dominated by fluxes associated with high discharge, dilute waters. The chemical weathering reactions that are inferred to occur from the field studies have been supported, in part, by controlled laboratory studies (e.g., Brown et al., 1993a). Recent stable-isotope studies have reported the key involvement of microbial processes in certain regions of the glacier bed ( Bottrell and Tranter, 2002), and these processes are yet to be incorporated in lab-based chemical weathering studies. (14K)Figure 1. (a) The temporal variation of discharge and in non-sea-salt calcium (*Ca2+) concentration in runoff from Haut Glacier d'Arolla, a small, warm-based, valley glacier in the Swiss Alps, during 1989 (Brown et al., 1993a). (b) The temporal variation in *Ca2+ flux from Haut Glacier d'Arolla during 1989. Maximum fluxes are associated with higher discharge waters. (9K)Figure 2. (a) The temporal variation of discharge (Q) and non-sea-salt *Ca2+ concentration in runoff from Manitsoq Glacier, a small outlet glacier on the SW margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet, during 1999. The glacier is warm based, but has a cold-based margin during the winter and early ablation season, so displays polythermal-based hydrological features (Skidmore et al., in preparation). (b) The temporal variation in *Ca2+ flux from Manitsoq Glacier during 1999. Maximum flux is associated with an early season "outburst" event, where longer stored subglacial water first exits the glacier. Otherwise, maximum fluxes are associated with higher discharge waters. (10K)Figure 3. (a) The temporal variation of discharge and *Ca2+ concentration in runoff from Scott Turnerbreen, a small, cold-based, valley glacier on

  13. Glacial hazards: communicating the science and managing the risk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reynolds, J. M.

    2009-04-01

    The recession of glaciers worldwide has received huge media coverage over the last few years in association with the issue of climate change. Young people at schools and colleges are increasingly aware of the environmental pressures due to ‘global warming'. Yet simultaneously, there appears to be an increasing move away from studying science both at pre-university and undergraduate levels. One of the oft cited reasons is that students cannot see the application of the subjects being taught them. Glacial hazards are one of the most obvious adverse effects of climate change, with many, often poor, communities in remote mountain areas being the most affected by frequently devastating Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). When students are exposed to examples of these hazards and the science behind them, many become enthused by the subject and want to study it further. There has been a huge increase in the number of students selecting projects on glacial hazards as well as a large increase in the number of institutions offering to teach modules on this subject. In an effort to provide a basic visualisation, Peter Kennett has taken the principle of GLOFs and developed a cheap but highly visual demonstration of the potentially devastating effect of melting ice within a moraine leading to subsidence and subsequent dam failure. This is available on www.earthlearningidea.com as ‘Dam burst danger - modelling the collapse of a natural dam in the mountains - and the disaster that might follow'. Furthermore, the methods by which glacial hazards are assessed provide excellent applications of geophysics, geology, geography (physical and Human), engineering, mathematics, and glaciology. By exploring the potential vulnerability of communities downstream, the applications can be extended to include sociology, economics, geopolitics and even psychology. Glacial hazards have been the subject of presentations to the Earth Science Teachers Association (ESTA) in the UK to demonstrate

  14. Early human-plant interactions based on palaeovegetation simulations of Africa over glacial-interglacial cycles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cowling, S. A.; Cox, P. M.; Jones, C. D.; Maslin, M. A.; Spall, S. A.

    2003-04-01

    A greater understanding of African palaeovegetation environments over the Pleistocene (1.6 Mya) is important for evaluating potential catalysts underlying the anatomical, social and demographic changes observed in early human populations. We used a state-of-the-art fully-coupled earth system model (HADLEY-GCM3) to simulate typical glacial and interglacial environments likely encountered by late-Pleistocene humans. Our simulations indicate that tropical broadleaf forests of central Africa were not severely restricted by expanding grasslands during the last glacial maximum, although the carbon content of stem and density of leaf components were substantially reduced. We interpret a natural eastern migration corridor between southern Africa and the Rift Valley based on simulations of a no-analogue vegetation assemblage characterised by a unique combination of grass and low density forest. We postulate that early human populations in southern Africa were isolated from northern groups during warm interglacials, and that trans-African migration was facilitated during glacial cycles via a more openly forested eastern corridor.

  15. A synthesis of post-glacial diatom records from Lake Baikal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bradbury, J. Platt; Bezrukova, E.; Chernyaeva, G.; Colman, S.M.; Khursevich, G.; King, J.W.; Likoshway, Ye. V.

    1994-01-01

    The biostratigraphy of fossil diatoms contributes important chronologic, paleolimnologic, and paleoclimatic information from Lake Baikal in southeastern Siberia. Diatoms are the dominant and best preserved microfossils in the sediments, and distinctive assemblages and species provide inter-core correlations throughout the basin at millennial to centennial scales, in both high and low sedimentation-rate environments. Distributions of unique species, once dated by radiocarbon, allow diatoms to be used as dating tools for the Holocene history of the lake.Diatom, pollen, and organic geochemical records from site 305, at the foot of the Selenga Delta, provide a history of paleolimnologic and paleoclimatic changes from the late glacial (15 ka) through the Holocene. Before 14 ka diatoms were very rare, probably because excessive turbidity from glacial meltwater entering the lake impeded productivity. Between 14 and 12 ka, lake productivity increased, perhaps as strong winds promoted deep mixing and nutrient regeneration. Pollen evidence suggests a cold shrub — steppe landscape dominated the central Baikal depression at this time. As summer insolation increased, conifers replaced steppe taxa, but diatom productivity declined between 11 and 9 ka perhaps as a result of increased summer turbidity resulting from violent storm runoff entering the lake via short, steep drainages. After 8 ka, drier, but more continental climates prevailed, and the modern diatom flora of Lake Baikal came to prominence.On Academician Ridge, a site of slow sedimentation rates, Holocene diatom assemblages at the top of 10-m cores reappear at deeper levels suggesting that such cores record at least two previous interglacial (or interstadial?) periods. Nevertheless, distinctive species that developed prior to the last glacial period indicate that the dynamics of nutrient cycling in Baikal and the responsible regional climatic environments were not entirely analogous to Holocene conditions. During

  16. Last Glacial vegetation and climate change in the southern Levant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miebach, Andrea; Chen, Chunzhu; Litt, Thomas

    2015-04-01

    Reconstructing past climatic and environmental conditions is a key task for understanding the history of modern mankind. The interaction between environmental change and migration processes of the modern Homo sapiens from its source area in Africa into Europe is still poorly understood. The principal corridor of the first human dispersal into Europe and also later migration dynamics crossed the Middle East. Therefore, the southern Levant is a key area to investigate the paleoenvironment during times of human migration. In this sense, the Last Glacial (MIS 4-2) is particularly interesting to investigate for two reasons. Firstly, secondary expansions of the modern Homo sapiens are expected to occur during this period. Secondly, there are ongoing discussions on the environmental conditions causing the prominent lake level high stand of Lake Lisan, the precursor of the Dead Sea. This high stand even culminated in the merging of Lake Lisan and Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). To provide an independent proxy for paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the southern Levant during the Last Glacial, we investigated pollen assemblages of the Dead Sea/Lake Lisan and Lake Kinneret. Located at the Dead Sea Transform, the freshwater Lake Kinneret is nowadays connected via the Jordan with the hypersaline Dead Sea, which occupies Earth's lowest elevation on land. The southern Levant is a transition area of three different vegetation types. Therefore, also small changes in the climate conditions effect the vegetation and can be registered in the pollen assemblage. In contrast to the Holocene, our preliminary results suggest another vegetation pattern during the Last Glacial. The vegetation belt of the fragile Mediterranean biome did no longer exist in the vicinity of Lake Kinneret. Moreover, the vegetation was rather similar in the whole study area. A steppe vegetation with dwarf shrubs, herbs, and grasses predominated. Thermophilous elements like oaks occurred in limited amounts. The

  17. Glacial-interglacial water cycle, global monsoon and atmospheric methane changes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guo, Zhengtang; Wu, Haibin [Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Beijing (China); Zhou, Xin [Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Beijing (China); University of Science and Technology of China, School of Earth and Space Sciences and Institute of Polar Environment, Hefei (China)

    2012-09-15

    The causes of atmospheric methane (CH{sub 4}) changes are still a major contention, in particular with regards to the relative contributions of glacial-interglacial cycles, monsoons in both hemispheres and the late Holocene human intervention. Here, we explore the CH{sub 4} signals in the Antarctic EPICA Dome C and Vostok ice records using the methods of timeseries analyses and correlate them with insolation and geological records to address these issues. The results parse out three distinct groups of CH{sub 4} signals attributable to different drivers. The first group ({proportional_to}80% variance), well tracking the marine {delta}{sup 18}O record, is attributable to glacial-interglacial modulation on the global water cycle with the effects shared by wetlands at all latitudes, from monsoonal and non-monsoonal regions in both hemispheres. The second group ({proportional_to}15% variance), centered at the {proportional_to}10-kyr semi-precession frequency, is linkable with insolation-driven tropical monsoon changes in both hemispheres. The third group ({proportional_to}5% variance), marked by millennial frequencies, is seemingly related with the combined effect of ice-volume and bi-hemispheric insolation changes at the precession bands. These results indicate that bi-hemispheric monsoon changes have been a constant driver of atmospheric CH{sub 4}. This mechanism also partially explains the Holocene CH{sub 4} reversal since {proportional_to}5 kyr BP besides the human intervention. In the light of these results, we propose that global monsoon can be regarded as a system consisting of two main integrated components, one primarily driven by the oscillations of Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in response to the low-latitude summer insolation changes, anti-phase between the two hemispheres (i.e. the ITCZ monsoon component); and another modulated by the glacial-interglacial cycles, mostly synchronous at the global scale (i.e. the glacial-interglacial monsoon

  18. SEEDLING DISCRIMINATION USING SHAPE FEATURES DERIVED FROM A DISTANCE TRANSFORM

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mosgaard Giselsson, Thomas; Jørgensen, Rasmus Nyholm; Midtiby, Henrik

    NN, Naive-Bayes, Linear SVM, Non-linear SVM). A set of well known features is used for comparison. This feature set will be referred to as Standard Feature Set (SFS). The used dataset consisted of 139 samples of Corn Flower (Centaura cyanus L.) and 63 samples of Night Shade (Solanum nigrum L.). The highest...

  19. Identification of glacial flood hazards in karakorum range using remote sensing technique and risk analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ashraf, A.; Roohi, R.; Naz, R.

    2011-01-01

    Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) are great hazard for the downstream communities in context of changing climatic conditions in the glaciated region of Pakistan. The remote sensing data of Landsat ETM+ was utilized for the identification of glacial lakes susceptible to posing GLOF hazard in Karakoram Range. Overall, 887 glacial lakes are identified in different river-basins of Karakoram Range, out of which 16 lakes are characterized as potentially dangerous in terms of GLOF. The analysis of community's response to GLOF events of 2008 in the central Karakoram Range indicated gaps in coordination and capacity of the local communities to cope with such natural hazards. A regular monitoring of hot spots and potential GLOF lakes along with capacity- of local communities and institutions in coping future disaster situation is necessary, especially in the context of changing climatic conditions in Himalayan region. (author)

  20. Integrated Phoneme Subspace Method for Speech Feature Extraction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Park Hyunsin

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Speech feature extraction has been a key focus in robust speech recognition research. In this work, we discuss data-driven linear feature transformations applied to feature vectors in the logarithmic mel-frequency filter bank domain. Transformations are based on principal component analysis (PCA, independent component analysis (ICA, and linear discriminant analysis (LDA. Furthermore, this paper introduces a new feature extraction technique that collects the correlation information among phoneme subspaces and reconstructs feature space for representing phonemic information efficiently. The proposed speech feature vector is generated by projecting an observed vector onto an integrated phoneme subspace (IPS based on PCA or ICA. The performance of the new feature was evaluated for isolated word speech recognition. The proposed method provided higher recognition accuracy than conventional methods in clean and reverberant environments.

  1. Menu-Driven Solver Of Linear-Programming Problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viterna, L. A.; Ferencz, D.

    1992-01-01

    Program assists inexperienced user in formulating linear-programming problems. A Linear Program Solver (ALPS) computer program is full-featured LP analysis program. Solves plain linear-programming problems as well as more-complicated mixed-integer and pure-integer programs. Also contains efficient technique for solution of purely binary linear-programming problems. Written entirely in IBM's APL2/PC software, Version 1.01. Packed program contains licensed material, property of IBM (copyright 1988, all rights reserved).

  2. Use of multi-criteria decision analysis to identify potentially dangerous glacial lakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kougkoulos, Ioannis; Cook, Simon J; Jomelli, Vincent; Clarke, Leon; Symeonakis, Elias; Dortch, Jason M; Edwards, Laura A; Merad, Myriam

    2018-04-15

    Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) represent a significant threat in deglaciating environments, necessitating the development of GLOF hazard and risk assessment procedures. Here, we outline a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach that can be used to rapidly identify potentially dangerous lakes in regions without existing tailored GLOF risk assessments, where a range of glacial lake types exist, and where field data are sparse or non-existent. Our MCDA model (1) is desk-based and uses freely and widely available data inputs and software, and (2) allows the relative risk posed by a range of glacial lake types to be assessed simultaneously within any region. A review of the factors that influence GLOF risk, combined with the strict rules of criteria selection inherent to MCDA, has allowed us to identify 13 exhaustive, non-redundant, and consistent risk criteria. We use our MCDA model to assess the risk of 16 extant glacial lakes and 6 lakes that have already generated GLOFs, and found that our results agree well with previous studies. For the first time in GLOF risk assessment, we employed sensitivity analyses to test the strength of our model results and assumptions, and to identify lakes that are sensitive to the criteria and risk thresholds used. A key benefit of the MCDA method is that sensitivity analyses are readily undertaken. Overall, these sensitivity analyses lend support to our model, although we suggest that further work is required to determine the relative importance of assessment criteria, and the thresholds that determine the level of risk for each criterion. As a case study, the tested method was then applied to 25 potentially dangerous lakes in the Bolivian Andes, where GLOF risk is poorly understood; 3 lakes are found to pose 'medium' or 'high' risk, and require further detailed investigation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Directional filtering for linear feature enhancement in geophysical maps

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sykes, M.P.; Das, U.C.

    2000-01-01

    Geophysical maps of data acquired in ground and airborne surveys are extensively used for mineral, groundwater, and petroleum exploration. Lineaments in these maps are often indicative of contacts, basement faulting, and other tectonic features of interest. To aid the interpretation of these maps, a

  4. Classification of acute stress using linear and non-linear heart rate variability analysis derived from sternal ECG

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tanev, George; Saadi, Dorthe Bodholt; Hoppe, Karsten

    2014-01-01

    Chronic stress detection is an important factor in predicting and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. This work is a pilot study with a focus on developing a method for detecting short-term psychophysiological changes through heart rate variability (HRV) features. The purpose of this pilot...... study is to establish and to gain insight on a set of features that could be used to detect psychophysiological changes that occur during chronic stress. This study elicited four different types of arousal by images, sounds, mental tasks and rest, and classified them using linear and non-linear HRV...

  5. Inherent characteristics of sawtooth cycles can explain different glacial periodicities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Omta, A.W.; Kooi, B.W.; van Voorn, G.A.K.; Rickaby, R.E.M; Follows, M.J.

    2016-01-01

    At the Mid-Pleistocene Transition about 1 Ma, the dominant periodicity of the glacial-interglacial cycles shifted from ~40 to ~100 kyr. Here, we use a previously developed mathematical model to investigate the possible dynamical origin of these different periodicities. The model has two variables,

  6. Inherent characteristics of sawtooth cycles can explain different glacial periodicities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Omta, Anne Willem; Kooi, Bob W.; Voorn, van G.A.K.; Rickaby, Rosalind E.M.; Follows, Michael J.

    2016-01-01

    At the Mid-Pleistocene Transition about 1 Ma, the dominant periodicity of the glacial-interglacial cycles shifted from ~40 to ~100 kyr. Here, we use a previously developed mathematical model to investigate the possible dynamical origin of these different periodicities. The model has two

  7. Asynchronous Glacial Chronologies in the Central Andes (15-40°S) and Paleoclimatic Implications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zech, R.; Kull, C.; Kubik, P. W.; Veit, H.

    2006-12-01

    We have established glacial chronologies along a N-S transect over the Central Andes using 10Be surface exposure dating. Our results show that maximum glacial advances occurred asynchronously and reflect the varying influence and shifts of the major atmospheric circulation systems during the Late Quaternary: the tropical circulation in the north and the westerlies in the south. In Bolivia (three research areas in the Cordillera Real and the Cordillera Cochabamba, ~15°S) glacial advances could be dated to ~20 and 12 ka BP. This is in good agreement with published exposure age data from moraines in Bolivia and Peru (provided that all ages are calculated following the same scaling system). Accordingly, the maximum glaciation there probably occurred roughly synchronous to the temperature minimum of the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the lateglacial cold reversals. Strict correlation with neither the Younger Dryas in the northern hemisphere, nor the Antarctic Cold Reversal is possible due to the current systematic exposure age uncertainties (~10%). Glacier-Climate-Modelling corroborates the sensitivity of the reconstructed glaciers to temperature changes, rather than precipitation. On the contrary, there is good evidence for the dominant role of precipitation changes on the glacial chronologies in the lee of the Cordillera Occidental, i.e. on the Altiplano and further south. The pronounced lateglacial wet phase, which is well documented in lake transgression phases as far south as 28°S (-> tropical moisture source), seems to have caused glacial advances even at ~30°S. In two research areas in Chile at that latitude, we were able to date several lateglacial moraines. Besides, the maximum datable glaciation there occurred at ~30 ka BP. That is significantly earlier than the LGM (sensu strictu) and points to favourable climate conditions for glaciation at that time (particularly increased precipitation). We conclude that the westerlies were more intensive or

  8. Sensitivity of Photosynthetic Gas Exchange and Growth of Lodgepole Pine to Climate Variability Depends on the Age of Pleistocene Glacial Surfaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osborn, B.; Chapple, W.; Ewers, B. E.; Williams, D. G.

    2014-12-01

    The interaction between soil conditions and climate variability plays a central role in the ecohydrological functions of montane conifer forests. Although soil moisture availability to trees is largely dependent on climate, the depth and texture of soil exerts a key secondary influence. Multiple Pleistocene glacial events have shaped the landscape of the central Rocky Mountains creating a patchwork of soils differing in age and textural classification. This mosaic of soil conditions impacts hydrological properties, and montane conifer forests potentially respond to climate variability quite differently depending on the age of glacial till and soil development. We hypothesized that the age of glacial till and associated soil textural changes exert strong control on growth and photosynthetic gas exchange of lodgepole pine. We examined physiological and growth responses of lodgepole pine to interannual variation in maximum annual snow water equivalence (SWEmax) of montane snowpack and growing season air temperature (Tair) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) across a chronosequence of Pleistocene glacial tills ranging in age from 700k to 12k years. Soil textural differences across the glacial tills illustrate the varying degrees of weathering with the most well developed soils with highest clay content on the oldest till surfaces. We show that sensitivity of growth and carbon isotope discrimination, an integrated measure of canopy gas exchange properties, to interannual variation SWEmax , Tair and VPD is greatest on young till surfaces, whereas trees on old glacial tills with well-developed soils are mostly insensitive to these interannual climate fluctuations. Tree-ring widths were most sensitive to changes in SWEmax on young glacial tills (p < 0.01), and less sensitive on the oldest till (p < 0.05). Tair correlates strongly with δ13C values on the oldest and youngest tills sites, but shows no significant relationship on the middle aged glacial till. It is clear that

  9. Microwave Radiometer Linearity Measured by Simple Means

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skou, Niels

    2002-01-01

    Modern spaceborne radiometer systems feature an almost perfect on-board calibration, hence the primary calibration task to be carried out before launch is a check of radiometer linearity. This paper describes two ways of measuring linearity of microwave radiometers only requiring relatively simple...

  10. The importance of snow albedo for ice sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Willeit

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available The surface energy and mass balance of ice sheets strongly depends on the amount of solar radiation absorbed at the surface, which is mainly controlled by the albedo of snow and ice. Here, using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity, we explore the role played by surface albedo for the simulation of glacial cycles. We show that the evolution of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets over the last glacial cycle is very sensitive to the representation of snow albedo in the model. It is well known that the albedo of snow depends strongly on snow grain size and the content of light-absorbing impurities. Excluding either the snow aging effect or the dust darkening effect on snow albedo leads to an excessive ice build-up during glacial times and consequently to a failure in simulating deglaciation. While the effect of snow grain growth on snow albedo is well constrained, the albedo reduction due to the presence of dust in snow is much more uncertain because the light-absorbing properties of dust vary widely as a function of dust mineral composition. We also show that assuming slightly different optical properties of dust leads to very different ice sheet and climate evolutions in the model. Conversely, ice sheet evolution is less sensitive to the choice of ice albedo in the model. We conclude that a proper representation of snow albedo is a fundamental prerequisite for a successful simulation of glacial cycles.

  11. Glacially striated, soft sediment surfaces on late Paleozoic tillite at São Luiz do Purunã, PR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivo Trosdtorf Jr.

    2005-06-01

    Full Text Available Striae and furrows found on the upper surfaces of three stratigraphically superposed decimetric beds of late Paleozoic lodgement tillite of the Itararé Subgroup in the northern Paraná Basin were engraved by ploughing of clasts and possibly also ice protuberances at the base of the glacier, on unconsolidated to partially consolidated sediment. Associated features indicate that the rheology of the bed varied from stiff during lodgement to soft and deformable during ploughing. Poor drainage of meltwater at the glacier-bed interface may have contributed to lower the strength of sediment to deformation. The deformed interval was probably generated during a single glacial phase or advance of a glacier grounding in a marine or lacustrine water body. Changes in the dynamics of the glacier involving slow and fast flow were correlated respectively with alternation of deposition and erosion. The proposed model is analogous to that of lodgement till complexes from the Pleistocene of the northern hemisphere. Retreat of the glacier was probably fast, followed by settling of muds on top of the upper striated and furrowed surface, and progradation of deltaic sands during post-glacial time.Estrias e sulcos encontrados sobre três camadas decimétricas, estratigraficamente superpostas, de tilito de alojamento neopaleozóico do Subgrupo Itararé, na porção norte da Bacia do Paraná, foram formados por aração de clastos e, possivelmente, por protuberâncias de gelo, na base da geleira. Feições associadas indicam que a reologia do sedimento variou de rígido, durante o alojamento, a inconsolidado e deformável durante a aração. A baixa drenagem da água de degelo na interface geleira-substrato pode ter contribuído para reduzir a resistência do sedimento à deformação. A sucessão acima foi gerada provavelmente durante uma única fase glacial ou avanço de geleira sobre corpo de água marinho ou lacustre. Mudanças na dinâmica da geleira envolvendo

  12. A linear-time algorithm for Euclidean feature transform sets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hesselink, Wim H.

    2007-01-01

    The Euclidean distance transform of a binary image is the function that assigns to every pixel the Euclidean distance to the background. The Euclidean feature transform is the function that assigns to every pixel the set of background pixels with this distance. We present an algorithm to compute the

  13. Persistent Tracers of Historic Ice Flow in Glacial Stratigraphy near Kamb Ice Stream, West Antarctica

    OpenAIRE

    Holschuh, Nicholas; Christianson, Knut; Conway, Howard; Jacobel, Robert W.; Welch, Brian C.

    2018-01-01

    Variations in properties controlling ice flow (e.g., topography, accumulation rate, basal friction) are recorded by structures in glacial stratigraphy. When anomalies that disturb the stratigraphy are fixed in space, the structures they produce advect away from the source, and can be used to trace flow pathways and reconstruct ice-flow patterns of the past. Here we provide an example of one of these persistent tracers: a prominent unconformity in the glacial layering that originates at Mt. Re...

  14. Generalized hydrogeologic framework and groundwater budget for a groundwater availability study for the glacial aquifer system of the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reeves, Howard W.; Bayless, E. Randall; Dudley, Robert W.; Feinstein, Daniel T.; Fienen, Michael N.; Hoard, Christopher J.; Hodgkins, Glenn A.; Qi, Sharon L.; Roth, Jason L.; Trost, Jared J.

    2017-12-14

    The glacial aquifer system groundwater availability study seeks to quantify (1) the status of groundwater resources in the glacial aquifer system, (2) how these resources have changed over time, and (3) likely system response to future changes in anthropogenic and environmental conditions. The glacial aquifer system extends from Maine to Alaska, although the focus of this report is the part of the system in the conterminous United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The glacial sand and gravel principal aquifer is the largest source of public and self-supplied industrial supply for any principal aquifer and also is an important source for irrigation supply. Despite its importance for water supply, water levels in the glacial aquifer system are generally stable varying with climate and only locally from pumping. The hydrogeologic framework developed for this study includes the information from waterwell records and classification of material types from surficial geologic maps into likely aquifers dominated by sand and gravel deposits. Generalized groundwater budgets across the study area highlight the variation in recharge and discharge primarily driven by climate.

  15. Non-linear effects in the Boltzmann equation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barrachina, R.O.

    1985-01-01

    The Boltzmann equation is studied by defining an integral transformation of the energy distribution function for an isotropic and homogeneous gas. This transformation may be interpreted as a linear superposition of equilibrium states with variable temperatures. It is shown that the temporal evolution features of the distribution function are determined by the singularities of said transformation. This method is applied to Maxwell and Very Hard Particle interaction models. For the latter, the solution of the Boltzmann equation with the solution of its linearized version is compared, finding out many basic discrepancies and non-linear effects. This gives a hint to propose a new rational approximation method with a clear physical meaning. Applying this technique, the relaxation features of the BKW (Bobylev, Krook anf Wu) mode is analyzed, finding a conclusive counter-example for the Krook and Wu conjecture. The anisotropic Boltzmann equation for Maxwell models is solved as an expansion in terms of the eigenfunctions of the corresponding linearized collision operator, finding interesting transient overpopulation and underpopulation effects at thermal energies as well as a new preferential spreading effect. By analyzing the initial collision, a criterion is established to deduce the general features of the final approach to equilibrium. Finally, it is shown how to improve the convergence of the eigenfunction expansion for high energy underpopulated distribution functions. As an application of this theory, the linear cascade model for sputtering is analyzed, thus finding out that many differences experimentally observed are due to non-linear effects. (M.E.L.) [es

  16. The Labrador Sea during the Last Glacial Maximum: Calcite dissolution or low biogenic carbonate fluxes?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marshall, Nicole; de Vernal, Anne; Mucci, Alfonso; Filippova, Alexandra; Kienast, Markus

    2017-04-01

    Low concentrations of biogenic carbonate characterize the sediments deposited in the Labrador Sea during the last glaciation. This may reflect poor calcite preservation and/or low biogenic carbonate productivity and fluxes. Regional bottom water ventilation was reduced during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), so the calcite lysocline might have been shallower than at present in the deep Labrador Sea making dissolution of calcite shells in the deep Labrador Sea possible. To address the issue, a multi-proxy approach based on micropaleontological counts (coccoliths, foraminifers, palynomorphs) and biogeochemical analyses (alkenones) was applied in the investigation of core HU2008-029-004-PC recovered in the northwestern Labrador Sea. Calcite dissolution indices based on the relative abundance benthic foraminifera shells to their organic linings as well as on fragmentation of planktonic foraminifera shells were used to evaluate changes in calcite dissolution/ preservation since the LGM. In addition, the ratio of the concentrations of coccoliths, specifically of the alkenone-producer Emiliania huxleyi, and alkenones (Emiliania huxleyi: alkenones) was explored as a potential new proxy of calcite dissolution. A sharp increase in coccoliths, foraminifers and organic linings from nearly none to substantial concentrations at 12 ka, reflect a jump to significantly greater biogenic fluxes at the glacial-interglacial transition. Furthermore, conventional dissolution indices (shells/linings of benthic foraminifera and fragmentation of planktic foraminifers) reveal that dissolution is not likely responsible for the lower glacial abundances of coccoliths and foraminifers. Only the low Emiliania huxleyi: alkenones ratios in glacial sediments could be interpreted as evidence of increased dissolution during the LGM. Given the evidence of allochthonous alkenone input into the glacial Labrador Sea, the latter observations must be treated with caution. Overall, the records indicate that

  17. Variaciones glaciales durante el Holoceno en Patagonia Central, Aisén, Chile: evidencias geomorfológicas Holocene glacial variations in Central Patagonia, Aisén, Chile: geomorphological evidences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Mardones

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Durante el Holoceno, avances y retrocesos glaciares geomorfológicamente registrados caracterizan la Patagonia. Este artículo presenta la evolución geomorfológica y las evidencias de fluctuaciones glaciales holocénicas de una región patagónica, que servirán de referencia para el estudio de la evolución paleoclimática Postglacial del extremo sur de Sudamérica. El área de trabajo es la cuenca del río Blanco (45°30'S, en la Patagonia Central (Región de Aisén, Chile. Dataciones radiométricas de sedimentos orgánicos de morrenas terminales aportan antecedentes preliminares de dos avances glaciares: el primero, representado por la morrena frontal del lago Elizalde, arroja una edad inferior a 9.370±50 años 14C AP (10.700 a 10.480 cal. años AP, lo que cronológicamente ubica este evento glaciar en el Holoceno Temprano. Esta progresión del hielo es 100 a 200 años más antigua que aquella observada inmediatamente al sur del área de estudio, en el margen oriental del lago General Carrera (o lago Buenos Aires en Argentina y aproximadamente 100 años más joven, que la registrada en la morrena de Puerto Banderas I (lago Argentino, 50°S. Este resultado sugiere un patrón de comportamiento de los glaciares de Patagonia Central diferente a aquel observado por otros investigadores en la Región de Los Lagos (41°S y en la Región de Magallanes (54°S, donde no se registran huellas de reavances glaciares durante el Holoceno Temprano. Luego de un importante retroceso hacia el oeste, un reavance glaciar más reciente se habría producido en el valle del río Quetro (afluente del río Blanco, a una edad inferior a 2.250±40 AP (2.340 a 2.150 cal. años AP, comparable con el estadio frío del Neoglacial Medio, verificado en distintos puntos de la Patagonia. Confrontando estos resultados con registros palinológicos previamente publicados por otros autores, interpretamos que las causas de ambas fluctuaciones glaciales son variaciones regionales

  18. Stress evolution and fault stability during the Weichselian glacial cycle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lund, Bjoern; Schmidt, Peter; Hieronymus, Christoph

    2009-01-01

    In this report we examine how the waxing and waning of an ice sheet during a glacial cycle affects the state of stress in the Earth, and how those changes in stress influence the stability of faults. We focus on the stresses at repository depth in Forsmark and Oskarshamn, and on the stability field at seismogenic depth at the proposed repository sites and at the Paervie endglacial fault in northern Sweden. This study is a modelling study, where we use three-dimensional ice and earth models to calculate the glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), i.e. the response of the Earth to an ice load, examining both displacements and stresses. We use a flat-earth finite element approach, based on Wu with some modifications. The result presented here is a continuation of previous studies in two dimensions and complement those studies in assessing how the three-dimensionality of the problem affects the conclusions. We use the Fennoscandian ice model of Naeslund, which is a dynamic ice sheet model based on climate reconstructions with constraints from geological observations. The ice model spans the entire Weichselian glaciation but we only use the last 68 kyr, which includes the two major periods of ice cover as depicted in this ice sheet reconstruction. For the GIA calculation we use a number of different earth models, both with flat horizontal layers and with various 3D structures of lithosphere thickness. We do not include lateral variations in the viscosity of the mantle. Comparing the current day rebound velocities predicted by our models with GPS observations from the BIFROST project, we note that in general, we can obtain a reasonable fit to the observations with our models, and that the results are rather sensitive to the assumed viscosity of the mantle. We also find that the differences between data and model results, for all earth models, have common features which we interpret as due to the ice model. These observations are in agreement with numerous other GIA studies

  19. The Atlantic-Mediterranean watershed, river basins and glacial history shape the genetic structure of Iberian poplars.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macaya-Sanz, D; Heuertz, M; López-de-Heredia, U; De-Lucas, A I; Hidalgo, E; Maestro, C; Prada, A; Alía, R; González-Martínez, S C

    2012-07-01

    Recent phylogeographic studies have elucidated the effects of Pleistocene glaciations and of Pre-Pleistocene events on populations from glacial refuge areas. This study investigates those effects in riparian trees (Populus spp.), whose particular features may convey enhanced resistance to climate fluctuations. We analysed the phylogeographic structure of 44 white (Populus alba), 13 black (Populus nigra) and two grey (Populus x canescens) poplar populations in the Iberian Peninsula using plastid DNA microsatellites and sequences. We also assessed fine-scale spatial genetic structure and the extent of clonality in four white and one grey poplar populations using nuclear microsatellites and we determined quantitative genetic differentiation (Q(ST) ) for growth traits in white poplar. Black poplar displayed higher regional diversity and lower differentiation than white poplar, reflecting its higher cold-tolerance. The dependence of white poplar on phreatic water was evidenced by strong differentiation between the Atlantic and Mediterranean drainage basins and among river basins, and by weaker isolation by distance within than among river basins. Our results suggest confinement to the lower river courses during glacial periods and moderate interglacial gene exchange along coastlines. In northern Iberian river basins, white poplar had lower diversity, fewer private haplotypes and larger clonal assemblies than in southern basins, indicating a stronger effect of glaciations in the north. Despite strong genetic structure and frequent asexual propagation in white poplar, some growth traits displayed adaptive divergence between drainage and river basins (Q(ST) >F(ST)), highlighting the remarkable capacity of riparian tree populations to adapt to regional environmental conditions. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  20. Lithologic influences on groundwater recharge through incised glacial till from profile to regional scales: Evidence from glaciated Eastern Nebraska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gates, John B.; Steele, Gregory V.; Nasta, Paolo; Szilagyi, Jozsef

    2014-01-01

    Variability in sediment hydraulic properties associated with landscape depositional and erosional features can influence groundwater recharge processes by affecting soil-water storage and transmission. This study considers recharge to aquifers underlying river-incised glaciated terrain where the distribution of clay-rich till is largely intact in upland locations but has been removed by alluvial erosion in stream valleys. In a stream-dissected glacial region in eastern Nebraska (Great Plains region of the United States), recharge estimates were developed for nested profile, aquifer, and regional scales using unsaturated zone profile measurements (matric potentials, Cl- and 3H), groundwater tracers (CFC-12 and SF6), and a remote sensing-assisted water balance model. Results show a consistent influence of till lithology on recharge rates across nested spatial scales despite substantial uncertainty in all recharge estimation methods, suggesting that minimal diffuse recharge occurs through upland glacial till lithology whereas diffuse recharge occurs in river valleys where till is locally absent. Diffuse recharge is estimated to account for a maximum of 61% of total recharge based on comparison of diffuse recharge estimated from the unsaturated zone (0-43 mm yr-1) and total recharge estimated from groundwater tracers (median 58 mm yr-1) and water balance modeling (median 56 mm yr-1). The results underscore the importance of lithologic controls on the distributions of both recharge rates and mechanisms.

  1. A chronology for glacial Lake Agassiz shorelines along Upham's namesake transect

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lepper, Kenneth; Buell, Alex W.; Fisher, Timothy G.; Lowell, Thomas V.

    2013-07-01

    Four traditionally recognized strandline complexes in the southern basin of glacial Lake Agassiz are the Herman, Norcross, Tintah and Campbell, whose names correspond to towns in west-central Minnesota that lie on a linear transect defined by the Great Northern railroad grade; the active corridor for commerce at the time when Warren Upham was mapping and naming the shorelines of Lake Agassiz (ca.1880-1895). Because shorelines represent static water planes, their extension around the lake margin establishes time-synchronous lake levels. Transitions between shoreline positions represent significant water-level fluctuations. However, geologic ages have never been obtained from sites near the namesake towns in the vicinity of the southern outlet. Here we report the first geologic ages for Lake Agassiz shorelines obtained at field sites along the namesake transect, and evaluate the emerging chronology in light of other paleoclimate records. Our current work from 11 sampling sites has yielded 16 independent ages. These results combined with a growing OSL age data set for Lake Agassiz's southern basin provide robust age constraints for the Herman, Norcross and Campbell strandlines with averages and standard deviations of 14.1 ± 0.3 ka, 13.6 ± 0.2 ka, and 10.5 ± 0.3 ka, respectively.

  2. The role of orbital forcing, carbon dioxide and regolith in 100 kyr glacial cycles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Ganopolski

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The origin of the 100 kyr cyclicity, which dominates ice volume variations and other climate records over the past million years, remains debatable. Here, using a comprehensive Earth system model of intermediate complexity, we demonstrate that both strong 100 kyr periodicity in the ice volume variations and the timing of glacial terminations during past 800 kyr can be successfully simulated as direct, strongly nonlinear responses of the climate-cryosphere system to orbital forcing alone, if the atmospheric CO2 concentration stays below its typical interglacial value. The existence of long glacial cycles is primarily attributed to the North American ice sheet and requires the presence of a large continental area with exposed rocks. We show that the sharp, 100 kyr peak in the power spectrum of ice volume results from the long glacial cycles being synchronized with the Earth's orbital eccentricity. Although 100 kyr cyclicity can be simulated with a constant CO2 concentration, temporal variability in the CO2 concentration plays an important role in the amplification of the 100 kyr cycles.

  3. Radiocarbon datings and glacial striae from the innar part of Boknfjord area, South Norway

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anundsen, K.

    1977-01-01

    Whale bones overlain by moraine at Borgoey island have been dated to 12,380+-150 B.P. At Tveit, further east, whale bones overlain by littoral material were dated to 11,970+-100 B.P. These datings, together with the glacial striae in the area, show that Borgoe was covered by ice during a glacial advance at about Older Dryas Chronozone, while Tveit was not, and that a calving bay existed in the inner part of the Boknfjord area at the same time. At the mouth of Vindafjord, east of Tveit, and 3-4 km outside terminal moraines of Younger Dryas age, shells overlain by ground moraine were dated to 11,630+-100 B.P. This shows that the ice front in an early phase of the Younger Dryas glacial advance was situated at least 3-4 km beyond the pronounced Ra moraines in Vindafjord. The main trend of the shore line displacement between 12,000 and 9,500 B.P., based upon the whale bones and earlier investigations, can be established. (Auth.)

  4. Evolution of the Great Tehuelche Paleolake in the Torres del Paine National Park of Chilean Patagonia during the Last Glacial Maximum and Holocene Evolución del Gran Paleolago Tehuelche en el Parque Nacional Torres del Paine de la Patagonia chilena durante el Último Máximo Glacial y Holoceno

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo A Solari

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available A number of glacial moraines are distributed from the eastern margin of the Torres del Paine drainage basin to near the present margin of the Patagonian Ice Fields, together with a set of regionally continuous lacustrine terraces related to glacial fluctuations. The geomorphology, supported by lake sediment evidence, indicates the existence of a single proglacial paleolake in this area, here referred to as the Great Tehuelche Paleolake. This concept helps to clarify the chronology of glacial events and leads to a better understanding of the evolution of the hydrologic system in the Torres del Paine area. Glacial advances previously referred to as A, B and C occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum and fed the Great Tehuelche Paleolake with meltwater, allowing it to reach its maximum extension. The discovery of thrombolites at Laguna Amarga suggests that the drainage of the paleolake towards the Última Esperanza Fjord took place at 7,113 Cal. yr BP, after the melting of an ice barrier that existed during the earlier glacial advance. This gave rise to the development of a complex fluvio-lacustrine hydrologic system that persists to the present day.Un grupo de morrenas glaciales están distribuidas desde el margen este de la cuenca de drenaje de Torres del Paine hacia el margen actual de los Campos de Hielo Patagónicos. Las morrenas se observan en conjunto con un grupo de terrazas lacustres regionales, las cuales están vinculadas a las fluctuaciones glaciales. La geomorfología y evidencias de sedimentos lacustres indican la existencia de un único lago proglacial, referido en este estudio como Gran Paleolago Tehuelche. Este concepto ayuda a clarificar la cronología de los eventos glaciales y permite una mejor comprensión de la evolución del sistema hidrológico del sector de Torres del Paine. Los eventos glaciales, previamente referidos como Avance A, B y C, ocurrieron durante el Último Máximo Glacial y alimentaron con aguas de fusión al

  5. Linear sign in cystic brain lesions ≥5 mm. A suggestive feature of perivascular space

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sung, Jinkyeong [The Catholic University of Korea, Department of Radiology, Seoul St. Mary' s Hospital, College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); The Catholic University of Korea, Department of Radiology, St. Vincent' s Hospital, College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Jang, Jinhee; Choi, Hyun Seok; Jung, So-Lyung; Ahn, Kook-Jin; Kim, Bum-soo [The Catholic University of Korea, Department of Radiology, Seoul St. Mary' s Hospital, College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2017-11-15

    To determine the prevalence of a linear sign within enlarged perivascular space (EPVS) and chronic lacunar infarction (CLI) ≥ 5 mm on T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) and time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), and to evaluate the diagnostic value of the linear signs for EPVS over CLI. This study included 101 patients with cystic lesions ≥ 5 mm on brain MRI including TOF MRA. After classification of cystic lesions into EPVS or CLI, two readers assessed linear signs on T2WI and TOF MRA. We compared the prevalence and the diagnostic performance of linear signs. Among 46 EPVS and 51 CLI, 84 lesions (86.6%) were in basal ganglia. The prevalence of T2 and TOF linear signs was significantly higher in the EPVS than in the CLI (P <.001). For the diagnosis of EPVS, T2 and TOF linear signs showed high sensitivity (> 80%). TOF linear sign showed significantly higher specificity (100%) and accuracy (92.8% and 90.7%) than T2 linear sign (P <.001). T2 and TOF linear signs were more frequently observed in EPVS than CLI. They showed high sensitivity in differentiation of them, especially for basal ganglia. TOF sign showed higher specificity and accuracy than T2 sign. (orig.)

  6. Phylogeographical analysis of mtDNA data indicates postglacial expansion from multiple glacial refugia in woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cornelya F C Klütsch

    Full Text Available Glacial refugia considerably shaped the phylogeographical structure of species and may influence intra-specific morphological, genetic, and adaptive differentiation. However, the impact of the Quaternary ice ages on the phylogeographical structure of North American temperate mammalian species is not well-studied. Here, we surveyed ~1600 individuals of the widely distributed woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou using mtDNA control region sequences to investigate if glacial refugia contributed to the phylogeographical structure in this subspecies. Phylogenetic tree reconstruction, a median-joining network, and mismatch distributions supported postglacial expansions of woodland caribou from three glacial refugia dating back to 13544-22005 years. These three lineages consisted almost exclusively of woodland caribou mtDNA haplotypes, indicating that phylogeographical structure was mainly shaped by postglacial expansions. The putative centres of these lineages are geographically separated; indicating disconnected glacial refugia in the Rocky Mountains, east of the Mississippi, and the Appalachian Mountains. This is in congruence with the fossil record that caribou were distributed in these areas during the Pleistocene. Our results suggest that the last glacial maximum substantially shaped the phylogeographical structure of this large mammalian North American species that will be affected by climatic change. Therefore, the presented results will be essential for future conservation planning in woodland caribou.

  7. Identification of Hazard and Risk for Glacial Lakes in the Nepal Himalaya Using Satellite Imagery from 2000–2015

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David R. Rounce

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Glacial lakes in the Nepal Himalaya can threaten downstream communities and have large socio-economic consequences if an outburst flood occurs. This study identified 131 glacial lakes in Nepal in 2015 that are greater than 0.1 km2 and performed a first-pass hazard and risk assessment for each lake. The hazard assessment included mass entering the lake, the moraine stability, and how lake expansion will alter the lake’s hazard in the next 15–30 years. A geometric flood model was used to quantify potential hydropower systems, buildings, agricultural land, and bridges that could be affected by a glacial lake outburst flood. The hazard and downstream impacts were combined to classify the risk associated with each lake. 11 lakes were classified as very high risk and 31 as high risk. The potential flood volume was also estimated and used to prioritize the glacial lakes that are the highest risk, which included Phoksundo Tal, Tsho Rolpa, Chamlang North Tsho, Chamlang South Tsho, and Lumding Tsho. These results are intended to assist stakeholders and decision makers in making well-informed decisions with respect to the glacial lakes that should be the focus of future field studies, modeling efforts, and risk-mitigation actions.

  8. Evaluating signatures of glacial refugia for north Atlantic benthic marine taxa

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maggs, Christine A.; Castilho, Rita; Foltz, David; Henzler, Christy; Jolly, Marc Taimour; Kelly, John; Olsen, Jeanine; Perez, Kathryn E.; Stam, Wytze; Vainola, Risto; Viard, Frederique; Wares, John

    A goal of phylogeography is to relate patterns of genetic differentiation to potential historical geographic isolating events. Quaternary glaciations, particularly the one culminating in the Last Glacial Maximum similar to 21 ka (thousands of years ago), greatly affected the distributions and

  9. Glacial refugia and recolonization pathways in the brown seaweed Fucus serratus

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoarau, G.G.; Coyer, J.A.; Veldsink, J.H.; Stam, W.T.; Olsen, J.L.

    The last glacial maximum (20 000-18 000 years ago) dramatically affected extant distributions of virtually all northern European biota. Locations of refugia and postglacial recolonization pathways were examined in Fucus serratus (Heterokontophyta; Fucaceae) using a highly variable intergenic spacer

  10. Evaluating signatures of glacial refugia for north Atlantic benthic marine taxa

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maggs, Christine A.; Castilho, Rita; Foltz, David; Henzler, Christy; Jolly, Marc Taimour; Kelly, John; Olsen, Jeanine; Perez, Kathryn E.; Stam, Wytze; Vainola, Risto; Viard, Frederique; Wares, John

    2008-01-01

    A goal of phylogeography is to relate patterns of genetic differentiation to potential historical geographic isolating events. Quaternary glaciations, particularly the one culminating in the Last Glacial Maximum similar to 21 ka (thousands of years ago), greatly affected the distributions and

  11. 10Be dating of late-glacial moraines near the Cordillera Vilcanota and the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, M. A.; Thompson, L. G.

    2004-12-01

    The surface exposure method, based on the measurement of cosmogenic 10Be produced in quartz, is applied to determine the age of deposition of glacial moraines near the Cordillera Vilcanota and the Quelccaya Ice Cap (about 13° S, 70° W) in southeastern Peru. These data are useful for examining the timing of past glaciation in the tropical Andes and for comparison with chronologies of glaciation at higher latitudes. The preliminary data set consists of more than ten surface exposure ages. Samples used for dating are from the surfaces of boulders on a set of prominent moraines about four kilometers away from the present ice margins. The age of the moraine set was previously bracketed by radiocarbon dating of peat associated with the glacial deposits. Based on radiocarbon ages, these moraines were formed during the late-glacial period, just prior to the last glacial-interglacial transition. The surface exposure dating method enables the direct dating of the moraines. Surface exposure dates are cross-checked with the previously existing radiocarbon dates and provide a means to improve the chronology of past glaciation in the tropical Andes.

  12. Extraction and development of inset models in support of groundwater age calculations for glacial aquifers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feinstein, Daniel T.; Kauffman, Leon J.; Haserodt, Megan J.; Clark, Brian R.; Juckem, Paul F.

    2018-06-22

    The U.S. Geological Survey developed a regional model of Lake Michigan Basin (LMB). This report describes the construction of five MODFLOW inset models extracted from the LMB regional model and their application using the particle-tracking code MODPATH to simulate the groundwater age distribution of discharge to wells pumping from glacial deposits. The five study areas of the inset model correspond to 8-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC8) basins. Two of the basins are tributary to Lake Michigan from the east, two are tributary to the lake from the west, and one is just west of the western boundary of the Lake Michigan topographic basin. The inset models inherited many of the inputs to the parent LMB model, including the hydrostratigraphy and layering scheme, the hydraulic conductivity assigned to bedrock layers, recharge distribution, and water use in the form of pumping rates from glacial and bedrock wells. The construction of the inset models entailed modifying some inputs, most notably the grid spacing (reduced from cells 5,000 feet on a side in the parent LMB model to 500 feet on a side in the inset models). The refined grid spacing allowed for more precise location of pumped wells and more detailed simulation of groundwater/surface-water interactions. The glacial hydraulic conductivity values, the top bedrock surface elevation, and the surface-water network input to the inset models also were modified. The inset models are solved using the MODFLOW–NWT code, which allows for more robust handling of conditions in unconfined aquifers than previous versions of MODFLOW. Comparison of the MODFLOW inset models reveals that they incorporate a range of hydrogeologic conditions relative to the glacial part of the flow system, demonstrated by visualization and analysis of model inputs and outputs and reflected in the range of ages generated by MODPATH for existing and hypothetical glacial wells. Certain inputs and outputs are judged to be candidate predictors that, if

  13. Rule set transferability for object-based feature extraction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Anders, N.S.; Seijmonsbergen, Arie C.; Bouten, Willem

    2015-01-01

    Cirques are complex landforms resulting from glacial erosion and can be used to estimate Equilibrium Line Altitudes and infer climate history. Automated extraction of cirques may help research on glacial geomorphology and climate change. Our objective was to test the transferability of an

  14. Glacial-interglacial vegetation dynamics in South Eastern Africa coupled to sea surface temperature variations in the Western Indian Ocean

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dupont, L.M.; Caley, T.; Kim, J.H.; Castañeda, I.S; Malaize, B.; Giraudeau, J.

    2011-01-01

    Glacial-interglacial fluctuations in the vegetation of South Africa might elucidate the climate system at the edge of the tropics between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. However, vegetation records covering a full glacial cycle have only been published from the eastern South Atlantic. We present a

  15. SDP_mharwit_1: Demonstration of HIFI Linear Polarization Analysis of Spectral Features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harwit, M.

    2010-03-01

    We propose to observe the polarization of the 621 GHz water vapor maser in VY Canis Majoris to demonstrate the capability of HIFI to make polarization observations of Far-Infrared/Submillimeter spectral lines. The proposed Demonstration Phase would: - Show that HIFI is capable of interesting linear polarization measurements of spectral lines; - Test out the highest spectral resolving power to sort out closely spaced Doppler components; - Determine whether the relative intensities predicted by Neufeld and Melnick are correct; - Record the degree and direction of linear polarization for the closely-Doppler shifted peaks.

  16. Landslides in moraines as triggers of glacial lake outburst floods: example from Palcacocha Lake (Cordillera Blanca, Peru)

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Klimeš, Jan; Novotný, J.; Novotná, I.; Urries de, B.J.; Vilímek, V.; Emmer, Adam; Strozzi, T.; Kusák, Michal; Rapre, A.C.; Hartvich, Filip; Frey, H.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 13, č. 6 (2016), s. 1461-1477 ISSN 1612-510X R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP209/11/1000 Institutional support: RVO:67985891 ; RVO:67179843 Keywords : landslides * moraines * glacial lakes * slope stability calculation * glacial lake outburst floods * impact wave models * Cordillera Blanca Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography; DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography (UEK-B) Impact factor: 3.657, year: 2016

  17. Late Quaternary geomorphic history of a glacial landscape - new sedimentary and chronological data from the Cordillera de Cochabamba (Bolivia)

    Science.gov (United States)

    May, J.-H.; Preusser, F.; Zech, R.; Ilgner, J.; Veit, H.

    2009-04-01

    Throughout the Central Andes, glacial landscapes have long been used for the reconstruction of Late Quaternary glaciations and landscape evolution. Much work has focused on the Andes in Peru, Chile and the Bolivian Altiplano, whereas relatively little data has been published on glaciation history in the eastern Andean ranges and slopes. Even less is known with regard to the postglacial evolution of these glacial landscapes. In the Cordillera de Cochabamba (Bolivia), local maximum advances probably peaked around 20-25 ka BP and were followed by significant readvances between ~12-16 ka BP. This generally points to temperature controlled maximum glacial advances along the humid eastern slopes of the Central Andes, which is supported by glacier-climate-modelling studies. However, most studies include only marginal information with regard to the complex geomorphic and sedimentary situation in the Cordillera de Cochabamba. Furthermore, the chronological results are afflicted with several methodological uncertainties inherent to surface exposure dating and call for application of alternative, independent age dating methods. Therefore this study aims at i) documenting and interpreting the complex glacial geomorphology of the Huara Loma valley in the Cordillera de Cochabamba (Bolivia), ii) analyzing the involved units of glacial sediments, and iii) improving the chronological framework by applying optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating (14C). For this purpose, geomorphic mapping was combined with field documentation of sedimentary profiles. The involved sediments were subject to geochemical and mineralogical analysis in order to deduce information on their erosional and weathering histories. In addition, the interpretation of OSL ages from glacial and proglacial sediments integrated several methodological procedures with regard to sample preparation and statistical analysis of the measurements in order to increase the degree of confidence. These

  18. The use of multibeam backscatter intensity data as a tool for mapping glacial deposits in the Central North Sea, UK

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, Heather; Bradwell, Tom

    2014-05-01

    gravelly sands and sandy gravels compared to the surrounding sandy and muddy sediments. Moraines are indicated as areas of high backscatter intensity and comprise coarse grained sediments. A range of moraine sizes have been identified from large scale moraines reflecting both frontal still stands or re-advances of the ice-sheet margin, de geer moraines and smaller moraines that may represent annual variations. Meltwater channels and tunnel valleys are revealed as areas of low backscatter intensity reflecting post-glacial soft sediment infill of the depressions incised into coarser grained and higher strength glacial deposits by these features.

  19. Glacial lake outburst flood risk assessment using combined approaches of remote sensing, GIS and dam break modelling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arpit Aggarwal

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available A great number of glacial lakes have appeared in many mountain regions across the world during the last half-century due to receding of glaciers and global warming. In the present study, glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF risk assessment has been carried out in the Teesta river basin located in the Sikkim state of India. First, the study focuses on accurate mapping of the glaciers and glacial lakes using multispectral satellite images of Landsat and Indian Remote Sensing satellites. For glacier mapping, normalized difference snow index (NDSI image and slope map of the area have been utilized. NDSI approach can identify glaciers covered with clean snow but debris-covered glaciers cannot be mapped using NDSI method alone. For the present study, slope map has been utilized along with the NDSI approach to delineate glaciers manually. Glacial lakes have been mapped by supervised maximum likelihood classification and normalized difference water index followed by manual editing afterwards using Google Earth images. Second, the first proper inventory of glacial lakes for Teesta basin has been compiled containing information of 143 glacial lakes. Third, analysis of these lakes has been carried out for identification of potentially dangerous lakes. Vulnerable lakes have been identified on the basis of parameters like surface area, position with respect to parent glacier, growth since 2009, slope, distance from the outlet of the basin, presence of supraglacial lakes, presence of other lakes in downstream, condition of moraine, condition of the terrain around them, etc. From these criterions, in total, 18 lakes have been identified as potentially dangerous glacial lakes. Out of these 18 lakes, further analysis has been carried out for the identification of the most vulnerable lake. Lake 140 comes out to be the most vulnerable for a GLOF event. Lastly, for this potentially dangerous lake, different dam break parameters have been generated using satellite data

  20. Evolution of high-Arctic glacial landforms during deglaciation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Midgley, N. G.; Tonkin, T. N.; Graham, D. J.; Cook, S. J.

    2018-06-01

    Glacial landsystems in the high-Arctic have been reported to undergo geomorphological transformation during deglaciation. This research evaluates moraine evolution over a decadal timescale at Midtre Lovénbreen, Svalbard. This work is of interest because glacial landforms developed in Svalbard have been used as an analogue for landforms developed during Pleistocene mid-latitude glaciation. Ground penetrating radar was used to investigate the subsurface characteristics of moraines. To determine surface change, a LiDAR topographic data set (obtained 2003) and a UAV-derived (obtained 2014) digital surface model processed using structure-from-motion (SfM) are also compared. Evaluation of these data sets together enables subsurface character and landform response to climatic amelioration to be linked. Ground penetrating radar evidence shows that the moraine substrate at Midtre Lovénbreen includes ice-rich (radar velocities of 0.17 m ns-1) and debris-rich (radar velocities of 0.1-0.13 m ns-1) zones. The ice-rich zones are demonstrated to exhibit relatively high rates of surface change (mean thresholded rate of -4.39 m over the 11-year observation period). However, the debris-rich zones show a relatively low rate of surface change (mean thresholded rate of -0.98 m over the 11-year observation period), and the morphology of the debris-rich landforms appear stable over the observation period. A complex response of proglacial landforms to climatic warming is shown to occur within and between glacier forelands as indicated by spatially variable surface lowering rates. Landform response is controlled by the ice-debris balance of the moraine substrate, along with the topographic context (such as the influence of meltwater). Site-specific characteristics such as surface debris thickness and glaciofluvial drainage are, therefore, argued to be a highly important control on surface evolution in ice-cored terrain, resulting in a diverse response of high-Arctic glacial landsystems

  1. Hydrochemical Regions of the Glacial Aquifer System, Northern United States, and Their Environmental and Water-Quality Characteristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnold, Terri L.; Warner, Kelly L.; Groschen, George E.; Caldwell, James P.; Kalkhoff, Stephen J.

    2008-01-01

    The glacial aquifer system in the United States is a large (953,000 square miles) regional aquifer system of heterogeneous composition. As described in this report, the glacial aquifer system includes all unconsolidated geologic material above bedrock that lies on or north of the line of maximum glacial advance within the United States. Examining ground-water quality on a regional scale indicates that variations in the concentrations of major and minor ions and some trace elements most likely are the result of natural variations in the geologic and physical environment. Study of the glacial aquifer system was designed around a regional framework based on the assumption that two primary characteristics of the aquifer system can affect water quality: intrinsic susceptibility (hydraulic properties) and vulnerability (geochemical properties). The hydrochemical regions described in this report were developed to identify and explain regional spatial variations in ground-water quality in the glacial aquifer system within the hypothetical framework context. Data analyzed for this study were collected from 1991 to 2003 at 1,716 wells open to the glacial aquifer system. Cluster analysis was used to group wells with similar ground-water concentrations of calcium, chloride, fluoride, magnesium, potassium, sodium, sulfate, and bicarbonate into five unique groups. Maximum Likelihood Classification was used to make the extrapolation from clustered groups of wells, defined by points, to areas of similar water quality (hydrochemical regions) defined in a geospatial model. Spatial data that represented average annual precipitation, average annual temperature, land use, land-surface slope, vertical soil permeability, average soil clay content, texture of surficial deposits, type of surficial deposit, and potential for ground-water recharge were used in the Maximum Likelihood Classification to classify the areas so the characteristics of the hydrochemical regions would resemble the

  2. Selecting protein families for environmental features based on manifold regularization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Xingpeng; Xu, Weiwei; Park, E K; Li, Guangrong

    2014-06-01

    Recently, statistics and machine learning have been developed to identify functional or taxonomic features of environmental features or physiological status. Important proteins (or other functional and taxonomic entities) to environmental features can be potentially used as biosensors. A major challenge is how the distribution of protein and gene functions embodies the adaption of microbial communities across environments and host habitats. In this paper, we propose a novel regularization method for linear regression to adapt the challenge. The approach is inspired by local linear embedding (LLE) and we call it a manifold-constrained regularization for linear regression (McRe). The novel regularization procedure also has potential to be used in solving other linear systems. We demonstrate the efficiency and the performance of the approach in both simulation and real data.

  3. Imaging linear and circular polarization features in leaves with complete Mueller matrix polarimetry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patty, C H Lucas; Luo, David A; Snik, Frans; Ariese, Freek; Buma, Wybren Jan; Ten Kate, Inge Loes; van Spanning, Rob J M; Sparks, William B; Germer, Thomas A; Garab, Győző; Kudenov, Michael W

    2018-06-01

    Spectropolarimetry of intact plant leaves allows to probe the molecular architecture of vegetation photosynthesis in a non-invasive and non-destructive way and, as such, can offer a wealth of physiological information. In addition to the molecular signals due to the photosynthetic machinery, the cell structure and its arrangement within a leaf can create and modify polarization signals. Using Mueller matrix polarimetry with rotating retarder modulation, we have visualized spatial variations in polarization in transmission around the chlorophyll a absorbance band from 650 nm to 710 nm. We show linear and circular polarization measurements of maple leaves and cultivated maize leaves and discuss the corresponding Mueller matrices and the Mueller matrix decompositions, which show distinct features in diattenuation, polarizance, retardance and depolarization. Importantly, while normal leaf tissue shows a typical split signal with both a negative and a positive peak in the induced fractional circular polarization and circular dichroism, the signals close to the veins only display a negative band. The results are similar to the negative band as reported earlier for single macrodomains. We discuss the possible role of the chloroplast orientation around the veins as a cause of this phenomenon. Systematic artefacts are ruled out as three independent measurements by different instruments gave similar results. These results provide better insight into circular polarization measurements on whole leaves and options for vegetation remote sensing using circular polarization. Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Linear feature detection algorithm for astronomical surveys - II. Defocusing effects on meteor tracks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bektešević, Dino; Vinković, Dejan; Rasmussen, Andrew; Ivezić, Željko

    2018-03-01

    Given the current limited knowledge of meteor plasma micro-physics and its interaction with the surrounding atmosphere and ionosphere, meteors are a highly interesting observational target for high-resolution wide-field astronomical surveys. Such surveys are capable of resolving the physical size of meteor plasma heads, but they produce large volumes of images that need to be automatically inspected for possible existence of long linear features produced by meteors. Here, we show how big aperture sky survey telescopes detect meteors as defocused tracks with a central brightness depression. We derive an analytic expression for a defocused point source meteor track and use it to calculate brightness profiles of meteors modelled as uniform brightness discs. We apply our modelling to meteor images as seen by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope telescopes. The expression is validated by Monte Carlo ray-tracing simulations of photons travelling through the atmosphere and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope telescope optics. We show that estimates of the meteor distance and size can be extracted from the measured full width at half-maximum and the strength of the central dip in the observed brightness profile. However, this extraction becomes difficult when the defocused meteor track is distorted by the atmospheric seeing or contaminated by a long-lasting glowing meteor trail. The full width at half-maximum of satellite tracks is distinctly narrower than meteor values, which enables removal of a possible confusion between satellites and meteors.

  5. Limiting factors for vegetation development during the early late glacial in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mortensen, Morten Fischer; Odgaard, Bent Vad; Jessen, Cathrine

    Slotseng, a small basin in southern Jutland, is the first Danish site with a bio- and chronostratigraphy that unambiguously reflects the environment of the earliest late glacial, the Bølling period. Results of pollen and macrofossil analyses show that the vegetation of the Bølling and Older Dryas...... periods at Slotseng was dominated by Betula nana and Dryas octopetala and associated with many herbs of open habitats. Late-glacial pollen records are frequently interpreted only in the context of climate change. However, the forcing mechanisms of vegetational change may shift over time between e...... to climate change suggests that other factors limited vegetational development. These factors included soil instability, aridity and low soil nitrogen.. This study highlights the multitude of climatic, physical, chemical and biological interactions important for the formation of pollen records of late...

  6. A coherent high-precision radiocarbon chronology for the Late-glacial sequence at Sluggan Bog, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowe, J. J.; Walker, M. J. C.; Scott, E. M.; Harkness, D. D.; Bryant, C. L.; Davies, S. M.

    2004-02-01

    Seventy-five radiocarbon dates are presented from Sluggan Bog in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Holocene peats are underlain by Late-glacial sediments, which also appear to have accumulated largely in a mire environment. The radiocarbon dates, from the Late-glacial and early Holocene part of the profile, were obtained from the humic and humin fractions of the sedimentary matrix, and from plant macrofossils. The last-named were dated by AMS and the sediment samples by radiometric (beta counting) methods. Age-depth models for the three dating series show a very high level of agreement between the two fractions and the macrofossils. No statistically significant difference is found between the beta counting and AMS results. Three tephras were located in the profile, the uppermost of which is in a stratigraphical position suggestive of the Vedde Ash, but the geochemical and radiocarbon evidence do not support this interpretation. The lower ashes are in the correct stratigraphical position for the Laacher See and Borrobol tephras, attributions substantiated by the radiocarbon evidence, but not by the geochemical data. The Sluggan sequence has generated one of the most internally consistent radiocarbon chronologies for any Late-glacial site in the British Isles, and it is suggested that in future more effort should be devoted to the search for, and analysis of, Late-glacial mire sequences, rather than the limnic records that have formed the principal focus of Late-glacial investigations hitherto. Copyright

  7. Simulation of groundwater flow in the glacial aquifer system of northeastern Wisconsin with variable model complexity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juckem, Paul F.; Clark, Brian R.; Feinstein, Daniel T.

    2017-05-04

    The U.S. Geological Survey, National Water-Quality Assessment seeks to map estimated intrinsic susceptibility of the glacial aquifer system of the conterminous United States. Improved understanding of the hydrogeologic characteristics that explain spatial patterns of intrinsic susceptibility, commonly inferred from estimates of groundwater age distributions, is sought so that methods used for the estimation process are properly equipped. An important step beyond identifying relevant hydrogeologic datasets, such as glacial geology maps, is to evaluate how incorporation of these resources into process-based models using differing levels of detail could affect resulting simulations of groundwater age distributions and, thus, estimates of intrinsic susceptibility.This report describes the construction and calibration of three groundwater-flow models of northeastern Wisconsin that were developed with differing levels of complexity to provide a framework for subsequent evaluations of the effects of process-based model complexity on estimations of groundwater age distributions for withdrawal wells and streams. Preliminary assessments, which focused on the effects of model complexity on simulated water levels and base flows in the glacial aquifer system, illustrate that simulation of vertical gradients using multiple model layers improves simulated heads more in low-permeability units than in high-permeability units. Moreover, simulation of heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity fields in coarse-grained and some fine-grained glacial materials produced a larger improvement in simulated water levels in the glacial aquifer system compared with simulation of uniform hydraulic conductivity within zones. The relation between base flows and model complexity was less clear; however, the relation generally seemed to follow a similar pattern as water levels. Although increased model complexity resulted in improved calibrations, future application of the models using simulated particle

  8. A first look at the ACER-SST dataset: Mapping the spatio-temporal variability of sea-surface temperatures in the last Glacial and the Holocene

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rehfeld, Kira; Laepple, Thomas; Bassinot, Franck; Daniau, Anne-Laure; Desprat, Stéphanie; Kim, Jung-Hyun; Fernanda Sánchez-Goñi, Maria; Harrison, Sandy

    2016-04-01

    Climate in the last Glacial was characterized by abrupt and large-scale changes around cold Heinrich-Events and warm Dansgaard-Oeschger excursions in the Northern high latitudes. The global repercussions of these periods of rapid dynamics are, to date, unconstrained. Here, we present a first statistical analysis of the global multi-proxy ACER (Abrupt Climate Changes and Environmental Responses) sea surface temperature dataset, spanning the last 80 thousand years, to investigate the spatial footprints of glacial climate dynamics. In a first step we evaluate the spatial and temporal variability throughout the Glacial period, and contrast them with that during the Holocene. In a second step we investigate to which extent a temporal synchroneity of extreme events during the Glacial is detectable in the proxy records, and analyze the reversibility of Glacial dynamics.

  9. Mitochondrial DNA signals of late glacial recolonization of Europe from near eastern refugia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pala, Maria; Olivieri, Anna; Achilli, Alessandro; Accetturo, Matteo; Metspalu, Ene; Reidla, Maere; Tamm, Erika; Karmin, Monika; Reisberg, Tuuli; Hooshiar Kashani, Baharak; Perego, Ugo A; Carossa, Valeria; Gandini, Francesca; Pereira, Joana B; Soares, Pedro; Angerhofer, Norman; Rychkov, Sergei; Al-Zahery, Nadia; Carelli, Valerio; Sanati, Mohammad Hossein; Houshmand, Massoud; Hatina, Jiři; Macaulay, Vincent; Pereira, Luísa; Woodward, Scott R; Davies, William; Gamble, Clive; Baird, Douglas; Semino, Ornella; Villems, Richard; Torroni, Antonio; Richards, Martin B

    2012-05-04

    Human populations, along with those of many other species, are thought to have contracted into a number of refuge areas at the height of the last Ice Age. European populations are believed to be, to a large extent, the descendants of the inhabitants of these refugia, and some extant mtDNA lineages can be traced to refugia in Franco-Cantabria (haplogroups H1, H3, V, and U5b1), the Italian Peninsula (U5b3), and the East European Plain (U4 and U5a). Parts of the Near East, such as the Levant, were also continuously inhabited throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, but unlike western and eastern Europe, no archaeological or genetic evidence for Late Glacial expansions into Europe from the Near East has hitherto been discovered. Here we report, on the basis of an enlarged whole-genome mitochondrial database, that a substantial, perhaps predominant, signal from mitochondrial haplogroups J and T, previously thought to have spread primarily from the Near East into Europe with the Neolithic population, may in fact reflect dispersals during the Late Glacial period, ∼19-12 thousand years (ka) ago. Copyright © 2012 The American Society of Human Genetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Reconstructing the Mineralogy and Bioavailability of Dust-Borne Iron Deposited to the Southern Ocean through the Last Glacial Cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shoenfelt, E. M.; Winckler, G.; Lamy, F.; Bostick, B. C.

    2017-12-01

    The iron (Fe) in dust deposited to the Fe-limited Southern Ocean plays an important role in ocean biogeochemistry and global climate. For instance, increases in dust-borne Fe deposition in the subantarctic Southern Ocean have been linked to increases in productivity and part of the CO2 drawdown of the last glacial cycle [1]. Notably, bioavailable Fe impacts productivity rather than total Fe. While it has long been understood that Fe mineralogy impacts Fe bioavailability in general, our understanding of the mineralogy of Fe in dust in specific is limited to that in modern dust sources. Reduced mineral Fe in dust has been shown to be more bioavailable than oxidized mineral iron, as it is more readily dissolved [2], and it is more easily utilized directly by a model diatom [3]. Our previous work focusing on South American dust sources shows that glacial activity is associated with higher Fe(II) fractions in dust-borne minerals, due to the physical weathering of Fe(II)-rich silicates in bedrock [3]. Thus, we hypothesize that there were higher Fe(II) fractions in dust deposited during cold glacial periods where ice sheets were more widespread. Using synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy, we have reconstructed the mineralogy of Fe deposited to Southern Ocean sediment cores from the subantarctic South Atlantic (TN057-6/ODP Site 1090) and South Pacific (PS7/56-1) through the last glacial cycle, creating the first paleorecord of Fe mineralogy and its associated bioavailability. During cold glacial periods there is a higher fraction of reduced Fe - in the form of Fe(II) silicates - deposited to the sediments compared to warm interglacial periods. Thus, Fe(II) content is directly correlated with dust input. The presence of Fe(II) silicates rather than products of diagenesis such as pyrite suggests that these Fe(II) minerals are physically weathered from bedrock and preserved rather than produced in the sediment. This result suggests that not only was there more dust

  11. Explorative methods in linear models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Høskuldsson, Agnar

    2004-01-01

    The author has developed the H-method of mathematical modeling that builds up the model by parts, where each part is optimized with respect to prediction. Besides providing with better predictions than traditional methods, these methods provide with graphic procedures for analyzing different feat...... features in data. These graphic methods extend the well-known methods and results of Principal Component Analysis to any linear model. Here the graphic procedures are applied to linear regression and Ridge Regression....

  12. Glacial alteration of volcanic terrains: A chemical investigation of the Three Sisters, Oregon, USA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rutledge, Alicia; Horgan, Briony; Havig, Jeff

    2017-04-01

    Glacial silica cycling is more efficient than previously reported, and in some settings, particularly glaciated mafic volcanics, can be the dominant weathering process. Based on field work at glaciated volcanic sites, we hypothesize that this is due to a combination of high rates of silica dissolution from mafic bedrock and reprecipitation of silica in the form of opaline silica coatings and other poorly crystalline silicate alteration phases. The high rate of bedrock comminution in subglacial environments results in high rates of both chemical and physical weathering, due to the increased reactive mineral surface area formed through glacial grinding. In most bedrock types, carbonate weathering is enhanced and silica fluxes are depressed in glacial outwash compared with global average riverine catchment runoff due to low temperatures and short residence times. However, in mafic systems, higher dissolved SiO2 concentrations have been observed. The major difference between observed glacial alteration of volcanic bedrock and more typical continental terrains is the absence of significant dissolved carbonate in the former. In the absence of carbonate minerals which normally dominate dissolution processes at glacier beds, carbonation of feldspar can become the dominant weathering process, which can result in a high proportion of dissolved silica fluxes in glacial outwash waters compared to the total cation flux. Mafic volcanic rocks are particularly susceptible to silica mobility, due to the high concentration of soluble minerals (i.e. plagioclase) as compared to the high concentration of insoluble quartz found in felsic rocks. To investigate melt-driven chemical weathering of mafic volcanics, water and rock samples were collected during July 2016 from glaciated volcanic bedrock in the Three Sisters Wilderness, Oregon, U.S.A. (44°9'N, 121°46'W): Collier Glacier (basaltic andesite, andesite), Hayden Glacier (andesite, dacite), and Diller Glacier (basalt). Here we

  13. Glacial cold-water coral growth in the Gulf of Cádiz: Implications of increased palaeo-productivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wienberg, Claudia; Frank, Norbert; Mertens, Kenneth N.; Stuut, Jan-Berend; Marchant, Margarita; Fietzke, Jan; Mienis, Furu; Hebbeln, Dierk

    2010-10-01

    A set of 40 Uranium-series datings obtained on the reef-forming scleractinian cold-water corals Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata revealed that during the past 400 kyr their occurrence in the Gulf of Cádiz (GoC) was almost exclusively restricted to glacial periods. This result strengthens the outcomes of former studies that coral growth in the temperate NE Atlantic encompassing the French, Iberian and Moroccan margins dominated during glacial periods, whereas in the higher latitudes (Irish and Norwegian margins) extended coral growth prevailed during interglacial periods. Thus it appears that the biogeographical limits for sustained cold-water coral growth along the NE Atlantic margin are strongly related to climate change. By focussing on the last glacial-interglacial cycle, this study shows that palaeo-productivity was increased during the last glacial. This was likely driven by the fertilisation effect of an increased input of aeolian dust and locally intensified upwelling. After the Younger Dryas cold event, the input of aeolian dust and productivity significantly decreased concurrent with an increase in water temperatures in the GoC. This primarily resulted in reduced food availability and caused a widespread demise of the formerly thriving coral ecosystems. Moreover, these climate induced changes most likely caused a latitudinal shift of areas with optimum coral growth conditions towards the northern NE Atlantic where more suitable environmental conditions established with the onset of the Holocene.

  14. Orbital and millennial-scale features of atmospheric CH4 over the past 800,000 years

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loulergue, L.; Lemieux, B.; Barnola, J.M.; Raynaud, D.; Chappellaz, J.; Schilt, A.; Spahni, R.; Blunier, T.; Stocker, T.F.; Schilt, A.; Spahni, R.; Blunier, T.; Stocker, T.F.; Masson-Delmotte, V.

    2008-01-01

    Atmospheric methane is an important greenhouse gas and a sensitive indicator of climate change and millennial-scale temperature variability. Its concentrations over the past 650,000 years have varied between ∼ 350 and ∼ 800 parts per 10 9 by volume (p.p.b.v.) during glacial and interglacial periods, respectively. In comparison, present-day methane levels of ∼ 1,770 p.p.b.v. have been reported. Insights into the external forcing factors and internal feedbacks controlling atmospheric methane are essential for predicting the methane budget in a warmer world. Here we present a detailed atmospheric methane record from the EPICA Dome C ice core that extends the history of this greenhouse gas to 800,000 yr before present. The average time resolution of the new data is ∼ 380 yr and permits the identification of orbital and millennial-scale features. Spectral analyses indicate that the long-term variability in atmospheric methane levels is dominated by ∼100,000 yr glacial - interglacial cycles up to ∼400,000 yr ago with an increasing contribution of the precessional component during the four more recent climatic cycles. We suggest that changes in the strength of tropical methane sources and sinks (wetlands, atmospheric oxidation), possibly influenced by changes in monsoon systems and the position of the intertropical convergence zone, controlled the atmospheric methane budget, with an additional source input during major terminations as the retreat of the northern ice sheet allowed higher methane emissions from extending peri-glacial wetlands. Millennial-scale changes in methane levels identified in our record as being associated with Antarctic isotope maxima events are indicative of ubiquitous millennial-scale temperature variability during the past eight glacial cycles. (authors)

  15. Linear morphea with secondary mucinosis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khandpur Sujay

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Secondary mucin deposition in the skin is a common feature of lupus erythematosus and dermatomyositis. In scleroderma, it occurs uncommonly or in small amount. We describe a 7-year-old boy with progressive, linear, bound-down plaques involving the thighs, lower abdomen and back with no systemic involvement. Histopathology showed features of scleroderma with abundant mucin deposition in the reticular dermis. This report highlights excessive mucin deposition in lesions of morphea.

  16. Feature extraction with deep neural networks by a generalized discriminant analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stuhlsatz, André; Lippel, Jens; Zielke, Thomas

    2012-04-01

    We present an approach to feature extraction that is a generalization of the classical linear discriminant analysis (LDA) on the basis of deep neural networks (DNNs). As for LDA, discriminative features generated from independent Gaussian class conditionals are assumed. This modeling has the advantages that the intrinsic dimensionality of the feature space is bounded by the number of classes and that the optimal discriminant function is linear. Unfortunately, linear transformations are insufficient to extract optimal discriminative features from arbitrarily distributed raw measurements. The generalized discriminant analysis (GerDA) proposed in this paper uses nonlinear transformations that are learnt by DNNs in a semisupervised fashion. We show that the feature extraction based on our approach displays excellent performance on real-world recognition and detection tasks, such as handwritten digit recognition and face detection. In a series of experiments, we evaluate GerDA features with respect to dimensionality reduction, visualization, classification, and detection. Moreover, we show that GerDA DNNs can preprocess truly high-dimensional input data to low-dimensional representations that facilitate accurate predictions even if simple linear predictors or measures of similarity are used.

  17. Glacial-interglacial vegetation dynamics in South Eastern Africa coupled to sea surface temperature variations in the Western Indian Ocean

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. M. Dupont

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Glacial-interglacial fluctuations in the vegetation of South Africa might elucidate the climate system at the edge of the tropics between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. However, vegetation records covering a full glacial cycle have only been published from the eastern South Atlantic. We present a pollen record of the marine core MD96-2048 retrieved by the Marion Dufresne from the Indian Ocean ∼120 km south of the Limpopo River mouth. The sedimentation at the site is slow and continuous. The upper 6 m (spanning the past 342 Ka have been analysed for pollen and spores at millennial resolution. The terrestrial pollen assemblages indicate that during interglacials, the vegetation of eastern South Africa and southern Mozambique largely consisted of evergreen and deciduous forests. During glacials open mountainous scrubland dominated. Montane forest with Podocarpus extended during humid periods was favoured by strong local insolation. Correlation with the sea surface temperature record of the same core indicates that the extension of mountainous scrubland primarily depends on sea surface temperatures of the Agulhas Current. Our record corroborates terrestrial evidence of the extension of open mountainous scrubland (including fynbos-like species of the high-altitude Grassland biome for the last glacial as well as for other glacial periods of the past 300 Ka.

  18. Managing the effects of accelerated glacial melting on volcanic collapse and debris flows: Planchon-Peteroa Volcano, Southern Andes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tormey, Daniel

    2010-11-01

    Glaciated mountains are among the most sensitive environments to climatic changes, and recent work has shown that large-scale glacial melting, including at the end of the Pleistocene, caused a significant increase in the incidence of large volcanic sector collapse and debris flows on then-active volcanoes. With current accelerated rates of glacial melting, glaciated active volcanoes are at an increasing risk of sector collapse, debris flow and landslide. These catastrophic events are Earth's most damaging erosion phenomenon, causing extensive property damage and loss of life. This paper illustrates these effects in well-studied settings, focusing on the end-Pleistocene to Holocene glaciovolcanic growth and destruction of the cone of the active volcano Planchon-Peteroa in the Andean Southern Volcanic Zone at latitude 35° 15' S, along the border between Chile and Argentina. The development of the volcano over the last 14,000 years illustrates how glacial melting and magmatic activity can trigger landslides and sector collapses. Planchon had a large sector collapse that produced a highly mobile and erosive debris avalanche 11,000 years BP, and other slope instabilities during the end-Pleistocene/early Holocene deglaciation. The summit amphitheater left after the sector collapse was subject to alternating periods of glaciation and melting-induced lake formation. Breaching of the moraine dams then formed lahars and landslides originating at the western edge of the summit amphitheater, and the deposits are preserved along the western flank of the volcano. Deep incision of moraine deposits further down the western slope of the volcano indicates that the lahars and landslides were water-rich and had high erosive power. As illustrated by Planchon-Peteroa, the interplay among glacial growth and melting, magmatic activity, and slope stability is complex, but must be accounted for in volcanic hazard assessment. Planchon-Peteroa currently has the southernmost temperate zone

  19. Lithostratigraphy does not always equal lithology: lessons learned in communicating uncertainty from stochastic modelling glacial and post glacial deposits in Glasgow U.K.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kearsey, Tim; Williams, John; Finlayson, Andrew; Williamson, Paul; Dobbs, Marcus; Kingdon, Andrew; Campbell, Diarmad

    2014-05-01

    Geological maps and 3D models usually depict lithostragraphic units which can comprise of many different types of sediment (lithologies). The lithostratigraphic units shown on maps and 3D models of glacial and post glacial deposits in Glasgow are substantially defined by the method of the formation and age of the unit rather than its lithological composition. Therefore, a simple assumption that the dominant lithology is the most common constituent of any stratigraphic unit is erroneous and is only 58% predictive of the actual sediment types seen in a borehole. This is problematic for non-geologist such as planners, regulators and engineers attempting to use these models to inform their decisions and can lead to such users viewing maps and models as of limited use in such decision making. We explore the extent to which stochastic modelling can help to make geological models more predictive of lithology in heterolithic units. Stochastic modelling techniques are commonly used to model facies variations in oil field models. The techniques have been applied to an area containing >4000 coded boreholes to investigate the glacial and fluvial deposits in the centre of the city of Glasgow. We test the predictions from this method by deleting percentages of the control data and re-running the simulations to determine how predictability varies with data density. We also explore the best way of displaying such stochastic models to and suggest that displaying the data as probability maps rather than a single definitive answer better illustrates the uncertainties inherent in the input data. Finally we address whether is it possible truly to be able to predict lithology in such geological facies. The innovative Accessing Subsurface Knowledge (ASK) network was recently established in the Glasgow are by the British Geological Survey and Glasgow City Council to deliver and exchange subsurface data and knowledge. This provides an idea opportunity to communicate and test a range of

  20. Using satellite images to monitor glacial-lake outburst floods: Lago Cachet Dos drainage, Chile

    Science.gov (United States)

    Friesen, Beverly A.; Cole, Christopher J.; Nimick, David A.; Wilson, Earl M.; Fahey, Mark J.; McGrath, Daniel J.; Leidich, Jonathan

    2015-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is monitoring and analyzing glacial-lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in the Colonia valley in the Patagonia region of southern Chile. A GLOF is a type of flood that occurs when water impounded by a glacier or a glacial moraine is released catastrophically. In the Colonia valley, GLOFs originating from Lago Cachet Dos, which is dammed by the Colonia Glacier, have recurred periodically since 2008. The water discharged during these GLOFs flows under or through the Colonia Glacier, into Lago Colonia and then the Río Colonia, and finally into the Río Baker—Chile's largest river in terms of volume of water.

  1. [Feature extraction for breast cancer data based on geometric algebra theory and feature selection using differential evolution].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jing; Hong, Wenxue

    2014-12-01

    The feature extraction and feature selection are the important issues in pattern recognition. Based on the geometric algebra representation of vector, a new feature extraction method using blade coefficient of geometric algebra was proposed in this study. At the same time, an improved differential evolution (DE) feature selection method was proposed to solve the elevated high dimension issue. The simple linear discriminant analysis was used as the classifier. The result of the 10-fold cross-validation (10 CV) classification of public breast cancer biomedical dataset was more than 96% and proved superior to that of the original features and traditional feature extraction method.

  2. Glacial and postglacial geology near Lake Tennyson, Clarence River, New Zealand

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McCalpin, J.P.

    1992-01-01

    Otiran valley glaciers extended 15 km down the upper Clarence Valley in central Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand. A massive Otiran terminal moraine complex, composed of moraines of three glacial advances, impounds Lake Tennyson. The moraines are early and middle Otiran, and possibly late Otiran-early Aranuian in age, based on relative position and differences in moraine morphology, weathering rinds, and soils. Radiocarbon ages from a tributary (Serpentine Creek) suggest the latest major episode of aggradation in the Clarence Valley was in progress by 11.3 ka, and had ended by 9.2 ka. Postglacial history was dominated by incision of glacial outwash, deposition of small alluvial fans, and landsliding near the trace of the Awatere Fault. Fault scarps of the Awatere Fault and of unnamed parallel splays displace early Otiran moraines up to 19 m and early Holocene terraces up to 2.6 m. (author). 25 refs., 10 figs., 3 tabs

  3. Conceptual and numerical models of the glacial aquifer system north of Aberdeen, South Dakota

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marini, Katrina A.; Hoogestraat, Galen K.; Aurand, Katherine R.; Putnam, Larry D.

    2012-01-01

    This U.S. Geological Survey report documents a conceptual and numerical model of the glacial aquifer system north of Aberdeen, South Dakota, that can be used to evaluate and manage the city of Aberdeen's water resources. The glacial aquifer system in the model area includes the Elm, Middle James, and Deep James aquifers, with intervening confining units composed of glacial till. The Elm aquifer ranged in thickness from less than 1 to about 95 feet (ft), with an average thickness of about 24 ft; the Middle James aquifer ranged in thickness from less than 1 to 91 ft, with an average thickness of 13 ft; and the Deep James aquifer ranged in thickness from less than 1 to 165 ft, with an average thickness of 23 ft. The confining units between the aquifers consisted of glacial till and ranged in thickness from 0 to 280 ft. The general direction of groundwater flow in the Elm aquifer in the model area was from northwest to southeast following the topography. Groundwater flow in the Middle James aquifer was to the southeast. Sparse data indicated a fairly flat potentiometric surface for the Deep James aquifer. Horizontal hydraulic conductivity for the Elm aquifer determined from aquifer tests ranged from 97 to 418 feet per day (ft/d), and a confined storage coefficient was determined to be 2.4x10-5. Estimates of the vertical hydraulic conductivity of the sediments separating the Elm River from the Elm aquifer, determined from the analysis of temperature gradients, ranged from 0.14 to 2.48 ft/d. Average annual precipitation in the model area was 19.6 inches per year (in/yr), and agriculture was the primary land use. Recharge to the Elm aquifer was by infiltration of precipitation through overlying outwash, lake sediments, and glacial till. The annual recharge for the model area, calculated by using a soil-water-balance method for water year (WY) 1975-2009, ranged from 0.028 inch in WY 1980 to 4.52 inches in WY 1986, with a mean of 1.56 inches. The annual potential

  4. Multiple glacial refugia of the low-dispersal ground beetle Carabus irregularis: molecular data support predictions of species distribution models.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katharina Homburg

    Full Text Available Classical glacial refugia such as the southern European peninsulas were important for species survival during glacial periods and acted as sources of post-glacial colonisation processes. Only recently, some studies have provided evidence for glacial refugia north of the southern European peninsulas. In the present study, we combined species distribution models (SDMs with phylogeographic analyses (using mitochondrial DNA = mtDNA to investigate if the cold-adapted, stenotopic and flightless ground beetle species, Carabus irregularis, survived the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM in classical and/or other refugia. SDMs (for both a western European and for a Carpathian subgroup were calculated with MAXENT on the basis of 645 species records to predict current and past distribution patterns. Two mtDNA loci (CO1 and ND5, concatenated sequence length: 1785 bp were analyzed from 91 C. irregularis specimens to reconstruct the phylogeography of Central and eastern European populations and to estimate divergence times of the given lineages. Strong intra-specific genetic differentiation (inter-clade ΦST values ranged from 0.92 to 0.99 implied long-term isolation of major clades and subsclades. The high divergence between the nominate subspecies and the Carpathian subspecies C. i. montandoni points to two independent species rather than subspecies (K-2P distance 0.042 ± 0.004; supposed divergence of the maternal lineages dated back 1.6 to 2.5 million years BP differing not only morphologically but also genetically and ecologically from each other. The SDMs also inferred classical as well as other refugia for C. irregularis, especially north of the Alps, in southeastern Europe and in the Carpathians. The coincidences between the results of both methods confirm the assumption of multiple glacial refugia for the studied species and the usefulness of combining methodological approaches for the understanding of the history of low-dispersal insect species.

  5. Hydrologic and Geomorphic Impacts of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods From Low-Order Tributaries

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCoy, S. W.; Jacquet, J.; McGrath, D.; George, D. L.; Koschitzki, R.; Nimick, D.; Fahey, M. J.; Okuinghttons, J.

    2017-12-01

    Lakes dammed by glacial ice or moraines are common features in the headwaters of both glaciated and recently deglaciated catchments. These dams can fail releasing water in a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), which raises the question: do GLOFs from low-order tributaries significantly alter the hydrology and sediment transport regimes of the large mainstem rivers to which they drain? Here we use repeat satellite imagery, in situ measurements, and 2D hydrodynamic modeling to quantify the hydrologic and geomorphic changes that resulted from 22 GLOFs that occurred between 2008 and 2016 from Lago Cachet Dos, Patagonia, Chile. We find that the complicated flood path that includes two lakes and a broad floodplain can dampen peak discharges from over 15,000 m³/s at the source lake to generally less than 2,000 m³/s where the floods enter the mainstem Rio Baker, 40 km downstream. Despite this dampening of GLOF peak discharge, peak discharges still exceeded the peak annual discharge of the Rio Baker, the largest river in Chile by volume, by 1 to 2 times, which in turn increased the frequency and magnitude of flood events. We also document the sediment dynamics in the source lake, where we find that over 25,000,000 m³ of stored sediment was removed during the GLOF cycle that began in 2008. Further downstream, repeat satellite imagery reveals that the large discharges associated with GLOFs produced a nonsteady channel configuration in which old stable channels were abandoned, many new channels were formed, and conveyance capacity changed, best illustrated by the 200 m of delta progradation from the GLOF-affected tributary into the Rio Baker that locally narrowed the Rio Baker channel width from 300 m to 60 m. In total, this analysis demonstrates that GLOFs from distant source lakes can have an outsized impact, both in terms of changing flood characteristics as well as sediment transport, even on the largest river systems.

  6. A numerical solution to define channel heads and hillslope parameters from digital topography of glacially conditioned catchments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salcher, Bernhard; Baumann, Sebastian; Kober, Florian; Robl, Jörg; Heiniger, Lukas

    2016-04-01

    The analysis of the slope-area relationship in bedrock streams is a common way for discriminating the channel from the hillslope domain and associated landscape processes. Spatial variations of these domains are important indicators of landscape change. In fluvial catchments, this relationship is a function of contributing drainage area, channel slope and the threshold drainage area for fluvial erosion. The resulting pattern is related to climate, tectonic and underlying bedrock. These factors may become secondary in catchments affected by glacial erosion, as it is the case in many mid- to high-latitude mountain belts. The perturbation (i.e. the destruction) of an initial steady state fluvial bedrock morphology (where uplift is balanced by surface lowering rates) will tend to become successively larger if the repeated action of glacial processes exceeds the potential of fluvial readjustment during deglaciated periods. Topographic change is associated with a decrease and fragmentation of the channel network and an extension of the hillslope domain. In case of glacially conditioned catchments discrimination of the two domains remains problematic and a discrimination inconsistent. A definition is therefore highly needed considering that (i) a spatial shift in the domains affect the process and rate of erosion and (ii) topographic classifications of alpine catchments often base on channel and hillslope parameters (i.e.channel or hillslope relief). Here we propose a novel numerical approach to topographically define channel heads from digital topography in glacially conditioned mountain range catchments in order to discriminate the channel from the hillslope domain. We analyzed the topography of the southern European Central Alps, a region which (i) has been glaciated multiple times during the Quaternary, shows (ii) little lithological variations, is (iii) home of very low erodible rocks and is (iv) known as a region were tectonic processes have largely ceased. The

  7. WHIZARD 2.2 for linear colliders

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kilian, W.; Ohl, T.

    2014-03-01

    We review the current status of the WHIZARD event generator. We discuss, in particular, recent improvements and features that are relevant for simulating the physics program at a future Linear Collider.

  8. Relations that affect the probability and prediction of nitrate concentration in private wells in the glacial aquifer system in the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warner, Kelly L.; Arnold, Terri L.

    2010-01-01

    Nitrate in private wells in the glacial aquifer system is a concern for an estimated 17 million people using private wells because of the proximity of many private wells to nitrogen sources. Yet, less than 5 percent of private wells sampled in this study contained nitrate in concentrations that exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 10 mg/L (milligrams per liter) as N (nitrogen). However, this small group with nitrate concentrations above the USEPA MCL includes some of the highest nitrate concentrations detected in groundwater from private wells (77 mg/L). Median nitrate concentration measured in groundwater from private wells in the glacial aquifer system (0.11 mg/L as N) is lower than that in water from other unconsolidated aquifers and is not strongly related to surface sources of nitrate. Background concentration of nitrate is less than 1 mg/L as N. Although overall nitrate concentration in private wells was low relative to the MCL, concentrations were highly variable over short distances and at various depths below land surface. Groundwater from wells in the glacial aquifer system at all depths was a mixture of old and young water. Oxidation and reduction potential changes with depth and groundwater age were important influences on nitrate concentrations in private wells. A series of 10 logistic regression models was developed to estimate the probability of nitrate concentration above various thresholds. The threshold concentration (1 to 10 mg/L) affected the number of variables in the model. Fewer explanatory variables are needed to predict nitrate at higher threshold concentrations. The variables that were identified as significant predictors for nitrate concentration above 4 mg/L as N included well characteristics such as open-interval diameter, open-interval length, and depth to top of open interval. Environmental variables in the models were mean percent silt in soil, soil type, and mean depth to

  9. Cosmic ray production rates of Be-10 and Al-26 in quartz from glacially polished rocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishiizumi, K.; Kohl, C. P.; Winterer, E. L.; Klein, J.; Middleton, R.

    1989-01-01

    The concentrations of Be-10 and Al-26 in quartz crystals extracted from glacially polished granitic surfaces from the Sierra Nevada range are studied. These surfaces are identified with the glacial advance during the Tioga period about 11,000 yr ago. The measurements yield the most accurate estimates to date for the absolute production rates of three nuclides in SiO2 due to cosmic ray nucleons and muons for geomagnetic latitudes 43.8-44.6 N and altitudes 2.1-3.6 km.

  10. Icelandic volcanic ash from the Late-glacial open-air archaeological site of Ahrenshöft LA 58 D, North Germany

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Housley, R. A.; Lane, C. S.; Cullen, V. L.

    2012-01-01

    Cryptotephra of Icelandic origin from the open-air archaeological site of Ahrenshöft LA 58 D (Kr. Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Holstein), northern Germany overlies a Late-glacial Havelte lithic assemblage, hitherto dated by 14C and biostratigraphy to the earliest part of the Late-glacial interstadial...

  11. Discriminative Elastic-Net Regularized Linear Regression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zheng; Lai, Zhihui; Xu, Yong; Shao, Ling; Wu, Jian; Xie, Guo-Sen

    2017-03-01

    In this paper, we aim at learning compact and discriminative linear regression models. Linear regression has been widely used in different problems. However, most of the existing linear regression methods exploit the conventional zero-one matrix as the regression targets, which greatly narrows the flexibility of the regression model. Another major limitation of these methods is that the learned projection matrix fails to precisely project the image features to the target space due to their weak discriminative capability. To this end, we present an elastic-net regularized linear regression (ENLR) framework, and develop two robust linear regression models which possess the following special characteristics. First, our methods exploit two particular strategies to enlarge the margins of different classes by relaxing the strict binary targets into a more feasible variable matrix. Second, a robust elastic-net regularization of singular values is introduced to enhance the compactness and effectiveness of the learned projection matrix. Third, the resulting optimization problem of ENLR has a closed-form solution in each iteration, which can be solved efficiently. Finally, rather than directly exploiting the projection matrix for recognition, our methods employ the transformed features as the new discriminate representations to make final image classification. Compared with the traditional linear regression model and some of its variants, our method is much more accurate in image classification. Extensive experiments conducted on publicly available data sets well demonstrate that the proposed framework can outperform the state-of-the-art methods. The MATLAB codes of our methods can be available at http://www.yongxu.org/lunwen.html.

  12. Methane Hydrate Formation from Enhanced Organic Carbon Burial During Glacial Lowstands: Examples from the Gulf of Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malinverno, A.; Cook, A.; Daigle, H.; Oryan, B.

    2017-12-01

    Methane hydrates in fine-grained marine sediments are often found within veins and fractures occupying discrete depth intervals that are surrounded by hydrate-free sediments. As they are not connected with gas sources beneath the base of the methane hydrate stability zone (MHSZ), these isolated hydrate-bearing intervals have been interpreted as formed by in situ microbial methane. We investigate here the hypothesis that these hydrate deposits form in sediments that were deposited during glacial lowstands and contain higher amounts of labile particulate organic carbon (POC), leading to enhanced microbial methanogenesis. During Pleistocene lowstands, river loads are deposited near the steep top of the continental slope and turbidity currents transport organic-rich, fine-grained sediments to deep waters. Faster sedimentation rates during glacial periods result in better preservation of POC because of decreased exposure times to oxic conditions. The net result is that more labile POC enters the methanogenic zone and more methane is generated in these sediments. To test this hypothesis, we apply an advection-diffusion-reaction model with a time-dependent deposition of labile POC at the seafloor controlled by glacioeustatic sea level variations in the last 250 kyr. The model is run for parameters estimated at three sites drilled by the 2009 Gulf of Mexico Joint Industry Project: Walker Ridge in the Terrebonne Basin (WR313-G and WR313-H) and Green Canyon near the canyon embayment into the Sigsbee Escarpment (GC955-H). In the model, gas hydrate forms in sediments with higher labile POC content deposited during the glacial cycle between 230 and 130 kyr (marine isotope stages 6 and 7). The corresponding depth intervals in the three sites contain hydrates, as shown by high bulk electrical resistivities and resistive subvertical fracture fills. This match supports the hypothesis that enhanced POC burial during glacial lowstands can result in hydrate formation from in situ

  13. Methane Hydrate Formation from Enhanced Organic Carbon Burial During Glacial Lowstands: Examples from the Gulf of Mexico

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malinverno, Alberto; Cook, Ann; Daigle, Hugh; Oryan, Bar

    2017-12-15

    Methane hydrates in fine-grained marine sediments are often found within veins and fractures occupying discrete depth intervals that are surrounded by hydrate-free sediments. As they are not connected with gas sources beneath the base of the methane hydrate stability zone (MHSZ), these isolated hydrate-bearing intervals have been interpreted as formed by in situ microbial methane. We investigate here the hypothesis that these hydrate deposits form in sediments that were deposited during glacial lowstands and contain higher amounts of labile particulate organic carbon (POC), leading to enhanced microbial methanogenesis. During Pleistocene lowstands, river loads are deposited near the steep top of the continental slope and turbidity currents transport organic-rich, fine-grained sediments to deep waters. Faster sedimentation rates during glacial periods result in better preservation of POC because of decreased exposure times to oxic conditions. The net result is that more labile POC enters the methanogenic zone and more methane is generated in these sediments. To test this hypothesis, we apply an advection-diffusion-reaction model with a time-dependent deposition of labile POC at the seafloor controlled by glacioeustatic sea level variations in the last 250 kyr. The model is run for parameters estimated at three sites drilled by the 2009 Gulf of Mexico Joint Industry Project: Walker Ridge in the Terrebonne Basin (WR313-G and WR313-H) and Green Canyon near the canyon embayment into the Sigsbee Escarpment (GC955-H). In the model, gas hydrate forms in sediments with higher labile POC content deposited during the glacial cycle between 230 and 130 kyr (marine isotope stages 6 and 7). The corresponding depth intervals in the three sites contain hydrates, as shown by high bulk electrical resistivities and resistive subvertical fracture fills. This match supports the hypothesis that enhanced POC burial during glacial lowstands can result in hydrate formation from in situ

  14. Phylogeography and post-glacial recolonization in wolverines (Gulo gulo from across their circumpolar distribution.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanna Zigouris

    Full Text Available Interglacial-glacial cycles of the Quaternary are widely recognized in shaping phylogeographic structure. Patterns from cold adapted species can be especially informative - in particular, uncovering additional glacial refugia, identifying likely recolonization patterns, and increasing our understanding of species' responses to climate change. We investigated phylogenetic structure of the wolverine, a wide-ranging cold adapted carnivore, using a 318 bp of the mitochondrial DNA control region for 983 wolverines (n=209 this study, n=774 from GenBank from across their full Holarctic distribution. Bayesian phylogenetic tree reconstruction and the distribution of observed pairwise haplotype differences (mismatch distribution provided evidence of a single rapid population expansion across the wolverine's Holarctic range. Even though molecular evidence corroborated a single refugium, significant subdivisions of population genetic structure (0.01< ΦST <0.99, P<0.05 were detected. Pairwise ΦST estimates separated Scandinavia from Russia and Mongolia, and identified five main divisions within North America - the Central Arctic, a western region, an eastern region consisting of Ontario and Quebec/Labrador, Manitoba, and California. These data are in contrast to the nearly panmictic structure observed in northwestern North America using nuclear microsatellites, but largely support the nuclear DNA separation of contemporary Manitoba and Ontario wolverines from northern populations. Historic samples (c. 1900 from the functionally extirpated eastern population of Quebec/Labrador displayed genetic similarities to contemporary Ontario wolverines. To understand these divergence patterns, four hypotheses were tested using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC. The most supported hypothesis was a single Beringia incursion during the last glacial maximum that established the northwestern population, followed by a west-to-east colonization during the Holocene. This

  15. Phylogeography and post-glacial recolonization in wolverines (Gulo gulo) from across their circumpolar distribution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zigouris, Joanna; Schaefer, James A; Fortin, Clément; Kyle, Christopher J

    2013-01-01

    Interglacial-glacial cycles of the Quaternary are widely recognized in shaping phylogeographic structure. Patterns from cold adapted species can be especially informative - in particular, uncovering additional glacial refugia, identifying likely recolonization patterns, and increasing our understanding of species' responses to climate change. We investigated phylogenetic structure of the wolverine, a wide-ranging cold adapted carnivore, using a 318 bp of the mitochondrial DNA control region for 983 wolverines (n=209 this study, n=774 from GenBank) from across their full Holarctic distribution. Bayesian phylogenetic tree reconstruction and the distribution of observed pairwise haplotype differences (mismatch distribution) provided evidence of a single rapid population expansion across the wolverine's Holarctic range. Even though molecular evidence corroborated a single refugium, significant subdivisions of population genetic structure (0.01< ΦST <0.99, P<0.05) were detected. Pairwise ΦST estimates separated Scandinavia from Russia and Mongolia, and identified five main divisions within North America - the Central Arctic, a western region, an eastern region consisting of Ontario and Quebec/Labrador, Manitoba, and California. These data are in contrast to the nearly panmictic structure observed in northwestern North America using nuclear microsatellites, but largely support the nuclear DNA separation of contemporary Manitoba and Ontario wolverines from northern populations. Historic samples (c. 1900) from the functionally extirpated eastern population of Quebec/Labrador displayed genetic similarities to contemporary Ontario wolverines. To understand these divergence patterns, four hypotheses were tested using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). The most supported hypothesis was a single Beringia incursion during the last glacial maximum that established the northwestern population, followed by a west-to-east colonization during the Holocene. This pattern is

  16. Orbital and millennial-scale features of atmospheric CH{sub 4} over the past 800,000 years

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Loulergue, L; Lemieux, B; Barnola, J M; Raynaud, D; Chappellaz, J [Univ. Grenoble 1, CNRS, lab. glaciol. geophys. environm., F-38402 Saint Martin d' Heres, (France); Schilt, A; Spahni, R; Blunier, T; Stocker, T F [Climate and Environm. Physics, Physics Inst., Univ. Bern, CH-3012 Bern, (Switzerland); Schilt, A; Spahni, R; Blunier, T; Stocker, T F [Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Univ. Bern, CH-3012 Bern, (Switzerland); Masson-Delmotte, V [Inst. Pierre Simon Laplace, LSCE, CEA-CNRS-Universite Versailles Saint Quentin, CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif sur Yvette, (France)

    2008-07-01

    Atmospheric methane is an important greenhouse gas and a sensitive indicator of climate change and millennial-scale temperature variability. Its concentrations over the past 650,000 years have varied between {approx} 350 and {approx} 800 parts per 10{sup 9} by volume (p.p.b.v.) during glacial and interglacial periods, respectively. In comparison, present-day methane levels of {approx} 1,770 p.p.b.v. have been reported. Insights into the external forcing factors and internal feedbacks controlling atmospheric methane are essential for predicting the methane budget in a warmer world. Here we present a detailed atmospheric methane record from the EPICA Dome C ice core that extends the history of this greenhouse gas to 800,000 yr before present. The average time resolution of the new data is {approx} 380 yr and permits the identification of orbital and millennial-scale features. Spectral analyses indicate that the long-term variability in atmospheric methane levels is dominated by {approx}100,000 yr glacial - interglacial cycles up to {approx}400,000 yr ago with an increasing contribution of the precessional component during the four more recent climatic cycles. We suggest that changes in the strength of tropical methane sources and sinks (wetlands, atmospheric oxidation), possibly influenced by changes in monsoon systems and the position of the intertropical convergence zone, controlled the atmospheric methane budget, with an additional source input during major terminations as the retreat of the northern ice sheet allowed higher methane emissions from extending peri-glacial wetlands. Millennial-scale changes in methane levels identified in our record as being associated with Antarctic isotope maxima events are indicative of ubiquitous millennial-scale temperature variability during the past eight glacial cycles. (authors)

  17. Glacial refugia and the prediction of future habitat coverage of the South American lichen species Ochrolechia austroamericana.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kukwa, Martin; Kolanowska, Marta

    2016-12-08

    The biogeographic history of lichenized fungi remains unrevealed because those organisms rarely fossilize due to their delicate, often tiny and quickly rotting thalli. Also the ecology and factors limiting occurrence of numerous taxa, especially those restricted in their distribution to tropical areas are poorly recognized. The aim of this study was to determine localization of glacial refugia of South American Ochrolechia austroamericana and to estimate the future changes in the coverage of its habitats using ecological niche modeling tools. The general glacial potential range of the studied species was wider than it is nowadays and its niches coverage decreased by almost 25% since last glacial maximum. The refugial areas were covered by cool and dry grasslands and scrubs and suitable niches in South America were located near the glacier limit. According to our analyses the further climate changes will not significantly influence the distribution of the suitable niches of O. austroamericana.

  18. Glacial lakes in South Tyrol: distribution, evolution and potential for GLOFs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schug, Marie-Claire; Mergili, Martin

    2017-04-01

    All over the world glaciers are currently retreating, leading to the formation or growth of glacial lakes. Some of these lakes are susceptible to sudden drainage. In order to assess the danger of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in South Tyrol in the Italian Alps, we present (i) an inventory of lakes, (ii) an analysis of the development of selected glacial lakes since 1945, and (iii) the susceptibility to and the possible impact areas of GLOFs. The inventory includes 1010 lakes that are larger than 250 m2 at an elevation above 2000 m asl, most of them of glacial origin. These lakes are mapped manually from orthophotos. Apart from collecting information on the spatial distribution of these lakes, the inventory lists dam material, glacier contact, and further parameters. 89% of the lakes in the investigation area are impounded by bedrock, whereas 93% of the lakes are detached from the associated glacier. The majority of lakes is small to medium sized (selected lakes are analyzed in detail in the field and from multi-temporal orthophotos, including the development of lake size and surroundings in the period since 1945. The majority of the selected lakes, however, was first recorded on orthophotos from the early 1980s. Eight of ten lakes grew significantly in that period. But when the lakes detached from the glacier until the early 2000s, the growth slowed down or ceased. Based on the current development of the selected lakes we conclude that the close surroundings of these lakes have stabilised and the lakes' susceptibility to an outburst has thus decreased. We further conduct broad-scale analyses of the susceptibility of the mapped lakes to GLOFs, and of the potential reach of possible GLOFs. The tool r.glachaz is used to determine the potentially dangerous lakes. Even though some few lakes require closer attention, the overall susceptibility to GLOFs in South Tyrol is relatively low, as most lakes are impounded by bedrock. In some cases, GLOFs caused by impact

  19. Assimilation of aged organic carbon in a glacial river food web

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fellman, J.; Hood, E. W.; Raymond, P. A.; Bozeman, M.; Hudson, J.; Arimitsu, M.

    2013-12-01

    Identifying the key sources of organic carbon supporting fish and invertebrate consumers is fundamental to our understanding of stream ecosystems. Recent laboratory bioassays highlight that aged organic carbon from glacier environments is highly bioavailable to stream bacteria relative to carbon originating from ice-free areas. However, there is little evidence suggesting that this aged, bioavailable organic carbon is also a key basal carbon source for stream metazoa. We used natural abundance of Δ14C, δ13C, and δ15N to determine if fish and invertebrate consumers are subsidized by aged organic carbon in a glacial river in southeast Alaska. We collected biofilm, leaf litter, three different species of macroinvertebrates, and resident juvenile salmonids from a reference stream and two sites (one site is directly downstream of the glacial outflow and one site is upstream of the tidal estuary) on the heavily glaciated Herbert River. Key producers, fish, and invertebrate consumers in the reference stream had carbon isotope values that ranged from -26 to -30‰ for δ13C and from -12 to 53‰ for Δ14C, reflecting a food web sustained mainly on contemporary primary production. In contrast, biofilm in the two glacial sites was highly Δ14C depleted (-203 to -215‰) relative to the reference site. Although biofilm may consist of both bacteria and benthic algae utilizing carbon depleted in Δ14C, δ13C values for biofilm (-24.1‰), dissolved inorganic carbon (-5.9‰), and dissolved organic carbon (-24.0‰) suggest that biofilm consist of bacteria sustained in part by glacier-derived, aged organic carbon. Invertebrate consumers (mean Δ14C of -80.5, mean δ13C of -26.5) and fish (mean Δ14C of -63.3, mean δ13C of -25.7) in the two glacial sites had carbon isotope values similar to biofilm. These results similarly show that aged organic carbon is incorporated into the metazoan food web. Overall, our findings indicate that continued watershed deglaciation and

  20. Alternative glacial-interglacial refugia demographic hypotheses tested on Cephalocereus columna-trajani (Cactaceae) in the intertropical Mexican drylands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cornejo-Romero, Amelia; Vargas-Mendoza, Carlos Fabián; Aguilar-Martínez, Gustavo F; Medina-Sánchez, Javier; Rendón-Aguilar, Beatriz; Valverde, Pedro Luis; Zavala-Hurtado, Jose Alejandro; Serrato, Alejandra; Rivas-Arancibia, Sombra; Pérez-Hernández, Marco Aurelio; López-Ortega, Gerardo; Jiménez-Sierra, Cecilia

    2017-01-01

    Historic demography changes of plant species adapted to New World arid environments could be consistent with either the Glacial Refugium Hypothesis (GRH), which posits that populations contracted to refuges during the cold-dry glacial and expanded in warm-humid interglacial periods, or with the Interglacial Refugium Hypothesis (IRH), which suggests that populations contracted during interglacials and expanded in glacial times. These contrasting hypotheses are developed in the present study for the giant columnar cactus Cephalocereus columna-trajani in the intertropical Mexican drylands where the effects of Late Quaternary climatic changes on phylogeography of cacti remain largely unknown. In order to determine if the historic demography and phylogeographic structure of the species are consistent with either hypothesis, sequences of the chloroplast regions psbA-trnH and trnT-trnL from 110 individuals from 10 populations comprising the full distribution range of this species were analysed. Standard estimators of genetic diversity and structure were calculated. The historic demography was analysed using a Bayesian approach and the palaeodistribution was derived from ecological niche modelling to determine if, in the arid environments of south-central Mexico, glacial-interglacial cycles drove the genetic divergence and diversification of this species. Results reveal low but statistically significant population differentiation (FST = 0.124, P < 0.001), although very clear geographic clusters are not formed. Genetic diversity, haplotype network and Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) demographic analyses suggest a population expansion estimated to have taken place in the Last Interglacial (123.04 kya, 95% CI 115.3-130.03). The species palaeodistribution is consistent with the ABC analyses and indicates that the potential area of palaedistribution and climatic suitability were larger during the Last Interglacial and Holocene than in the Last Glacial Maximum. Overall

  1. Basic linear partial differential equations

    CERN Document Server

    Treves, Francois

    1975-01-01

    Focusing on the archetypes of linear partial differential equations, this text for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students features most of the basic classical results. The methods, however, are decidedly nontraditional: in practically every instance, they tend toward a high level of abstraction. This approach recalls classical material to contemporary analysts in a language they can understand, as well as exploiting the field's wealth of examples as an introduction to modern theories.The four-part treatment covers the basic examples of linear partial differential equations and their

  2. Cosmogenic 10Be Dating of Northern Quebec-Labrador Glacial Lake Shorelines and Drainage Deposits: Implications for the Final Meltwater Discharges of the Last Deglaciation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roy, M.; Dube-Loubert, H.; Schaefer, J. M.; Hébert, S.

    2017-12-01

    The decay of the Laurentide ice sheet played an important role in the climate variability of the last deglaciation, notably through large discharges of meltwater from glacial lakes that disturbed the Atlantic meridional overturning oceanic circulation (AMOC). These former climate-forcing events are now under focus due to growing evidence showing that the present-day increase in freshwater releases from Greenland and other Arctic glaciers may potentially lead to a slowdown of the AMOC and cause important climate feedbacks. In northern Quebec and Labrador, the end of the deglaciation led to the formation of at least 10 important glacial lakes that drained into the nearby Labrador Sea where repeated meltwater discharges could have destabilized the ocean surface conditions in this key sector of the North Atlantic Ocean. Although the drainage of these ice-dammed lakes may form a good analogue for modern processes, the lack of direct constraints on the physiographic configuration and temporal evolution of these lakes limits our understanding of the timing and climate impact of these final meltwater pulses. Here we applied cosmogenic 10Be dating to raised boulder shorelines belonging to Lake Naskaupi, one of the largest glacial lakes in northern Quebec and Labrador. We reconstructed the lake extent and meltwater volume, as well as its lake-level history by systematic mapping of geomorphic features. We sampled a total of 16 boulders at 4 sites along the valley. In addition, we dated five boulders belonging to a large-scale outburst flood deposit recording the abrupt drainage of the lake. The distribution of the 21 ages shows a remarkable consistency, yielding a mean age of 7.8 ± 0.4 ka (1 outlier excluded). The ages from the shorelines are indistinguishable from those of the outburst flood deposit, suggesting that Lake Naskaupi existed for a relatively short time span. These new chronological data constrain the timing of the lake development and attendant drainage

  3. Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Risk in Nepal and Their Mitigation Practices in Nepal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurung, S.

    2017-12-01

    Glacial lakes in Nepal face a huge risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) due to the ongoing effects of climate change leading to considerable amount of snow and glacier melt thus weakening the natural barriers holding these high altitude glacial lakes. Nepal is at an ever growing risk every year and always waiting for an inevitable natural disaster. Since GLOF can cause extreme huge loss of human lives and physical properties, it has now become very important to design a proper mechanism which helps in reducing hazards from such events. There is little we can do to stop natural disasters, but we can implement pro-active control measures to minimize the loss. Early Warning System is the provision of timely and effective information, which allows individuals exposed to hazards to take action, avoid or reduce risk to life and property and prepare for effective response. The basic idea behind Early Warning System is that, the earlier and more accurately we are able to predict potential risks associated with natural hazards especially flood, the more likely we will be able to manage and mitigate the disasters' impact on society, economies and environment. We are currently focused on the development of early warning system for Imja Glacial Lake. The objective of developing early warning system for Imja GLOF is to help reduce economic losses and mitigate the number of injuries or deaths by providing information that allows individuals and communities downstream of Imja Lake to protect their lives and properties by using the latest and most advanced technology available. We have installed one Automatic Weather Station near the left lateral moraine of Imja Lake to study the effects of different meteorological parameters so as to predict occurrence of any GLOF event. The sensor includes pluviometer, pyranometer, temperature and humidity sensor, wind sensor, Snowdepth sensor. Two radar level sensors are installed at the outlet of Imja Lake and downstream of Imja river

  4. Salient Region Detection via Feature Combination and Discriminative Classifier

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Deming Kong

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available We introduce a novel approach to detect salient regions of an image via feature combination and discriminative classifier. Our method, which is based on hierarchical image abstraction, uses the logistic regression approach to map the regional feature vector to a saliency score. Four saliency cues are used in our approach, including color contrast in a global context, center-boundary priors, spatially compact color distribution, and objectness, which is as an atomic feature of segmented region in the image. By mapping a four-dimensional regional feature to fifteen-dimensional feature vector, we can linearly separate the salient regions from the clustered background by finding an optimal linear combination of feature coefficients in the fifteen-dimensional feature space and finally fuse the saliency maps across multiple levels. Furthermore, we introduce the weighted salient image center into our saliency analysis task. Extensive experiments on two large benchmark datasets show that the proposed approach achieves the best performance over several state-of-the-art approaches.

  5. Glacial cycles:exogenous orbital changes vs. endogenous climate dynamics

    OpenAIRE

    Kaufmann, R. K.; Juselius, Katarina

    2010-01-01

    We use a statistical model, the cointegrated vector autoregressive model, to assess the degree to which variations in Earth's orbit and endogenous climate dynamics can be used to simulate glacial cycles during the late Quaternary (390 kyr-present). To do so, we estimate models of varying complexity and compare the accuracy of their in-sample simulations. Results indicate that strong statistical associations between endogenous climate variables are not enough for statistical models to reproduc...

  6. The last glacial maximum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, P.U.; Dyke, A.S.; Shakun, J.D.; Carlson, A.E.; Clark, J.; Wohlfarth, B.; Mitrovica, J.X.; Hostetler, S.W.; McCabe, A.M.

    2009-01-01

    We used 5704 14C, 10Be, and 3He ages that span the interval from 10,000 to 50,000 years ago (10 to 50 ka) to constrain the timing of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in terms of global ice-sheet and mountain-glacier extent. Growth of the ice sheets to their maximum positions occurred between 33.0 and 26.5 ka in response to climate forcing from decreases in northern summer insolation, tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures, and atmospheric CO2. Nearly all ice sheets were at their LGM positions from 26.5 ka to 19 to 20 ka, corresponding to minima in these forcings. The onset of Northern Hemisphere deglaciation 19 to 20 ka was induced by an increase in northern summer insolation, providing the source for an abrupt rise in sea level. The onset of deglaciation of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet occurred between 14 and 15 ka, consistent with evidence that this was the primary source for an abrupt rise in sea level ???14.5 ka.

  7. Some comments on the terminology of the Late Glacial in Central Europe and the problem of its application to SW Europe

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olaf JÖRIS

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Today, the Late Glacial interstadials Bølling and Allerød, originally defined in northern Europe, are often applied as chronozones in different palaeoclimate contexts across the Northern Hemisphere. The scientific community in both palaeoclimate research and archaeology often disregards the fact that the Meiendorf interstadial has long been identified as preceding the Bølling-Allerød sequence, and that there are lots of difficulties with the synchronization of the Oldest Dryas-Bølling-Older Dryas-sequence. Synchronization of important Central European high-resolution pollen records with the Greenland GRIP ice core demonstrates a strong climatic gradient from the South to the North of Europe over the entire Late Glacial. Therefore, the northern European interstadials (Meiendorf, Bølling, Allerød cannot serve universally as Late Glacial chronozones with reference to their characteristic pollen compositions, even though they are of greatest importance for the understanding of the regional vegetational history. The Greenland ice cores offer continous climate information over the entire Late Glacial and may serve as chronostratigraphical type sections. In the close future, detailed synchronization of terrestrial sequences with the Greenland ice core records will be achieved, using high-precision radiocarbon calibration based on Late Glacial dendrochronologies.

  8. Large drainages from short-lived glacial lakes in the Teskey Range, Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narama, Chiyuki; Daiyrov, Mirlan; Duishonakunov, Murataly; Tadono, Takeo; Sato, Hayato; Kääb, Andreas; Ukita, Jinro; Abdrakhmatov, Kanatbek

    2018-04-01

    Four large drainages from glacial lakes occurred during 2006-2014 in the western Teskey Range, Kyrgyzstan. These floods caused extensive damage, killing people and livestock as well as destroying property and crops. Using satellite data analysis and field surveys of this area, we find that the water volume that drained at Kashkasuu glacial lake in 2006 was 194 000 m3, at western Zyndan lake in 2008 was 437 000 m3, at Jeruy lake in 2013 was 182 000 m3, and at Karateke lake in 2014 was 123 000 m3. Due to their subsurface outlet, we refer to these short-lived glacial lakes as the tunnel-type, a type that drastically grows and drains over a few months. From spring to early summer, these lakes either appear, or in some cases, significantly expand from an existing lake (but non-stationary), and then drain during summer. Our field surveys show that the short-lived lakes form when an ice tunnel through a debris landform gets blocked. The blocking is caused either by the freezing of stored water inside the tunnel during winter or by the collapse of ice and debris around the ice tunnel. The draining then occurs through an opened ice tunnel during summer. The growth-drain cycle can repeat when the ice-tunnel closure behaves like that of typical supraglacial lakes on debris-covered glaciers. We argue here that the geomorphological characteristics under which such short-lived glacial lakes appear are (i) a debris landform containing ice (ice-cored moraine complex), (ii) a depression with water supply on a debris landform as a potential lake basin, and (iii) no visible surface outflow channel from the depression, indicating the existence of an ice tunnel. Applying these characteristics, we examine 60 depressions (> 0.01 km2) in the study region and identify here 53 of them that may become short-lived glacial lakes, with 34 of these having a potential drainage exceeding 10 m3 s-1 at peak discharge.

  9. Postglacial development of the eastern Gulf of Finland: from Pleistocene glacial lake basins to Holocene lagoon systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryabchuk, Daria; Sergeev, Alexander; Kotilainen, Aarno; Hyttinen, Outi; Grigoriev, Andrey; Gerasimov, Dmitry; Anisimov, Mikhail; Gusentsova, Tatiana; Zhamoida, Vladimir; Amantov, Aleksey; Budanov, Leonid

    2016-04-01

    Despite significant amount of data, there are still lots of debatable questions and unsolved problems concerning postglacial geological history of the Eastern Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea. Among these problems are: 1) locations of the end moraine and glacio-fluvial deposits; 2) time and genesis of the large accretion forms (spits, bars, dunes); 3) basinwide correlations of trangression/regression culminations with the other parts of the Baltic Sea basin; 4) study of salinity, timing, frequency and intensity of Holocene saline water inflows and their links of sedimentation processes associated with climate change. Aiming to receive new data about regional postglacial development, the GIS analyses of bottom relief and available geological and geophysical data was undertaken, the maps of preQuaternary relief, moraine and Late Pleistocene surfaces, glacial moraine and Holocene sediments thicknesses were compiled. High-resolution sediment proxy study of several cores, taken from eastern Gulf of Finland bottom, allows to study grain-size distribution and geochemical features of glacial lake and Holocene sediments, to reveal sedimentation rates and paleoenvironment features of postglacial basins. Interdisciplinary geoarcheological approaches offer new opportunities for studying the region's geological history and paleogeography. Based on proxy marine geological and coastal geoarcheological studies (e.g. off-shore acoustic survey, side-scan profiling and sediment sampling, on-shore ground-penetrating radar (GPR SIR 2000), leveling, drilling, grain-size analyses and radiocarbon dating and archeological research) detailed paleogeographical reconstruction for three micro-regions - Sestroretsky and Lahta Lowlands, Narva-Luga Klint Bay and Southern Ladoga - were compiled. As a result, new high resolution models of Holocene geological development of the Eastern Gulf of Finland were received. Model calibration and verification used results from proxy geoarcheological research

  10. The interglacial-glacial record at the mouth of Scoresby Sund, East Greenland

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mangerud, Jan; Funder, Svend Visby

    1994-01-01

    Brewster (facing the open ocean) and till on top of the interglacial beds at Kikiakajik show that both an outlet from the Greenland Ice Sheet, and more local glaciers reached the continental shelf during the Weichselian. This glacial event is poorly dated, but tentatively correlated with the Flakkerhuk...... interglaciation ( "" isotope substage Se) on the basis of mollusc assemblages and luminescence dates. Abundant Balal/lls Crel/atlls, and several bivalves, show that the advection of warm Atlantic water to the East Greenland coast was higher during that interglacial than during the Holocene. Glacial striae at Kap...... stade ( "" 19-15 ka BP) when, from marine geological data, it is suggested that the Scoresby Sund glacier terminated c. 30 km east of Kap Brewster. During the Milne Land stade (c. 10 ka BP) there was a resurgence of local ice caps in the mountains both north and south of the fjord mouth, but Scoresby...

  11. Dust fluxes and iron fertilization in Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum climates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lambert, Fabrice; Tagliabue, Alessandro; Shaffer, Gary; Lamy, Frank; Winckler, Gisela; Farias, Laura; Gallardo, Laura; De Pol-Holz, Ricardo

    2015-07-01

    Mineral dust aerosols play a major role in present and past climates. To date, we rely on climate models for estimates of dust fluxes to calculate the impact of airborne micronutrients on biogeochemical cycles. Here we provide a new global dust flux data set for Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) conditions based on observational data. A comparison with dust flux simulations highlights regional differences between observations and models. By forcing a biogeochemical model with our new data set and using this model's results to guide a millennial-scale Earth System Model simulation, we calculate the impact of enhanced glacial oceanic iron deposition on the LGM-Holocene carbon cycle. On centennial timescales, the higher LGM dust deposition results in a weak reduction of pump. This is followed by a further ~10 ppm reduction over millennial timescales due to greater carbon burial and carbonate compensation.

  12. Introducing glacial geomorphology to secondary schools - an edutainment resource targeting the New Zealand curriculum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hemmingsen, Maree; Winkler, Stefan

    2015-04-01

    excellent opportunity to become increasingly implemented in outreach programmes. Geomorphologists can promote their subject as well as demonstrate the importance of geomorphology across countless scientific and engineering disciplines. Within the New Zealand secondary school's curriculum there are, for example, several opportunities where "landforms" are the topics of scientific teaching, providing an excellent opportunity for (glacial) geomorphological outreach. The morpho-memory resource presented here incorporates and utilises a number of educational principles. Its competitive character links it to "edutainment" which has successfully been applied in self directed and instructional museum programmes and popular science, enhancing the active engagement ("interaction") and acceptance by students in preference to more traditional methods. Another principle easily integrated is "visualisation", i.e. combining textual or numerical information with supportive visual information to enhance both understanding and deep memorisation. Evidence of the success of morpho-memory was already demonstrated empirically when used in the context of university block seminars and field trips. And updated and specifically version targeting the New Zealand curriculum for years 11 to 13 has now been developed and is currently supplied to a considerable number of schools for practical application and subsequent evaluation. Strength of our resource is that its concept easily allows for any future adjustment to individual requirements because the actual level of information provided as well as the selection of features/processes displayed can quickly be modified following teacher's feedback and practical experience. Summarising, this outreach resource also helps to highlight (glacial) geomorphology as an essential topic within the broad field of geosciences/earth system science, giving it the focus it deserves.

  13. Millennial and sub-millennial scale climatic variations recorded in polar ice cores over the last glacial period

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. Capron

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Since its discovery in Greenland ice cores, the millennial scale climatic variability of the last glacial period has been increasingly documented at all latitudes with studies focusing mainly on Marine Isotopic Stage 3 (MIS 3; 28–60 thousand of years before present, hereafter ka and characterized by short Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO events. Recent and new results obtained on the EPICA and NorthGRIP ice cores now precisely describe the rapid variations of Antarctic and Greenland temperature during MIS 5 (73.5–123 ka, a time period corresponding to relatively high sea level. The results display a succession of abrupt events associated with long Greenland InterStadial phases (GIS enabling us to highlight a sub-millennial scale climatic variability depicted by (i short-lived and abrupt warming events preceding some GIS (precursor-type events and (ii abrupt warming events at the end of some GIS (rebound-type events. The occurrence of these sub-millennial scale events is suggested to be driven by the insolation at high northern latitudes together with the internal forcing of ice sheets. Thanks to a recent NorthGRIP-EPICA Dronning Maud Land (EDML common timescale over MIS 5, the bipolar sequence of climatic events can be established at millennial to sub-millennial timescale. This shows that for extraordinary long stadial durations the accompanying Antarctic warming amplitude cannot be described by a simple linear relationship between the two as expected from the bipolar seesaw concept. We also show that when ice sheets are extensive, Antarctica does not necessarily warm during the whole GS as the thermal bipolar seesaw model would predict, questioning the Greenland ice core temperature records as a proxy for AMOC changes throughout the glacial period.

  14. Obsidian hydration dates glacial loading?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Friedman, I; Pierce, K L; Obradovich, J D; Long, W D

    1973-05-18

    Three different groups of hydration rinds have been measured on thin sections of obsidian from Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The average thickness of the thickest (oldest) group of hydration rinds is 16.3 micrometers and can be related to the original emplacement of the flow 176,000 years ago (potassium-argon age). In addition to these original surfaces, most thin sections show cracks and surfaces which have average hydration rind thicknesses of 14.5 and 7.9 micrometers. These later two hydration rinds compare closely in thickness with those on obsidian pebbles in the Bull Lake and Pinedale terminal moraines in the West Yellowstone Basin, which are 14 to 15 and 7 to 8 micrometers thick, respectively. The later cracks are thought to have been formed by glacial loading during the Bull Lake and Pinedale glaciations, when an estimated 800 meters of ice covered the Obsidian Cliff flow.

  15. Late-glacial recolonization and phylogeography of European red deer (Cervus elaphus L.).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meiri, Meirav; Lister, Adrian M; Higham, Thomas F G; Stewart, John R; Straus, Lawrence G; Obermaier, Henriette; González Morales, Manuel R; Marín-Arroyo, Ana B; Barnes, Ian

    2013-09-01

    The Pleistocene was an epoch of extreme climatic and environmental changes. How individual species responded to the repeated cycles of warm and cold stages is a major topic of debate. For the European fauna and flora, an expansion-contraction model has been suggested, whereby temperate species were restricted to southern refugia during glacial times and expanded northwards during interglacials, including the present interglacial (Holocene). Here, we test this model on the red deer (Cervus elaphus) a large and highly mobile herbivore, using both modern and ancient mitochondrial DNA from the entire European range of the species over the last c. 40,000 years. Our results indicate that this species was sensitive to the effects of climate change. Prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) haplogroups restricted today to South-East Europe and Western Asia reached as far west as the UK. During the LGM, red deer was mainly restricted to southern refugia, in Iberia, the Balkans and possibly in Italy and South-Western Asia. At the end of the LGM, red deer expanded from the Iberian refugium, to Central and Northern Europe, including the UK, Belgium, Scandinavia, Germany, Poland and Belarus. Ancient DNA data cannot rule out refugial survival of red deer in North-West Europe through the LGM. Had such deer survived, though, they were replaced by deer migrating from Iberia at the end of the glacial. The Balkans served as a separate LGM refugium and were probably connected to Western Asia with genetic exchange between the two areas. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  16. Impact of glacial/interglacial sea level change on the ocean nitrogen cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Haojia; Sigman, Daniel M.; Martínez-García, Alfredo; Anderson, Robert F.; Chen, Min-Te; Ravelo, Ana Christina; Straub, Marietta; Wong, George T. F.; Haug, Gerald H.

    2017-08-01

    The continental shelves are the most biologically dynamic regions of the ocean, and they are extensive worldwide, especially in the western North Pacific. Their area has varied dramatically over the glacial/interglacial cycles of the last million years, but the effects of this variation on ocean biological and chemical processes remain poorly understood. Conversion of nitrate to N2 by denitrification in sediments accounts for half or more of the removal of biologically available nitrogen (“fixed N”) from the ocean. The emergence of continental shelves during ice ages and their flooding during interglacials have been hypothesized to drive changes in sedimentary denitrification. Denitrification leads to the occurrence of phosphorus-bearing, N-depleted surface waters, which encourages N2 fixation, the dominant N input to the ocean. An 860,000-y record of foraminifera shell-bound N isotopes from the South China Sea indicates that N2 fixation covaried with sea level. The N2 fixation changes are best explained as a response to changes in regional excess phosphorus supply due to sea level-driven variations in shallow sediment denitrification associated with the cyclic drowning and emergence of the continental shelves. This hypothesis is consistent with a glacial ocean that hosted globally lower rates of fixed N input and loss and a longer residence time for oceanic fixed N—a “sluggish” ocean N budget during ice ages. In addition, this work provides a clear sign of sea level-driven glacial/interglacial oscillations in biogeochemical fluxes at and near the ocean margins, with implications for coastal organisms and ecosystems.

  17. Hydrology of surface waters and thermohaline circulation during the last glacial period

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vidal, L.

    1996-01-01

    Sedimentological studies on oceanic cores from the north Atlantic have revealed, over the last glacial period, abrupt climatic changes with a periodicity of several thousand years which contrasts strongly with the glacial-interglacial periodicity (several tens of thousand years). These periods of abrupt climate changes correspond to massive icebergs discharges into the north Atlantic. The aim of this work was to study the evolution of the thermohaline circulation in relation to these episodic iceberg discharges which punctuated the last 60 ka. To reconstruct the oceanic circulation in the past, we have analysed oxygen and carbon stable isotopes on benthic foraminifera from north Atlantic deep-sea cores. First of all, the higher temporal resolution of sedimentary records has enabled us to establish a precise chrono-stratigraphy for the different cores. Then, we have shown the close linkage between surface water hydrology and deep circulation, giving evidence of the sensibility of thermohaline circulation to melt water input in the north Atlantic ocean. Indeed, changes in deep circulation are synchronous from those identified in surface waters and are recorded on a period which lasted ∼ 1500 years. Deep circulation reconstructions, before and during a typical iceberg discharge reveal several modes of circulation linked to different convection sites at the high latitudes of the Atlantic basin. Moreover, the study of the last glacial period gives the opportunity to differentiate circulation changes due to the external forcing (variations of the orbital parameters) and those linked to a more local forcing (icebergs discharges). 105 refs., 50 figs., 14 tabs., 4 appends

  18. Regional seesaw between the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas during the last glacial abrupt climate events

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Wary

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Dansgaard–Oeschger oscillations constitute one of the most enigmatic features of the last glacial cycle. Their cold atmospheric phases have been commonly associated with cold sea-surface temperatures and expansion of sea ice in the North Atlantic and adjacent seas. Here, based on dinocyst analyses from the 48–30 ka interval of four sediment cores from the northern Northeast Atlantic and southern Norwegian Sea, we provide direct and quantitative evidence of a regional paradoxical seesaw pattern: cold Greenland and North Atlantic phases coincide with warmer sea-surface conditions and shorter seasonal sea-ice cover durations in the Norwegian Sea as compared to warm phases. Combined with additional palaeorecords and multi-model hosing simulations, our results suggest that during cold Greenland phases, reduced Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and cold North Atlantic sea-surface conditions were accompanied by the subsurface propagation of warm Atlantic waters that re-emerged in the Nordic Seas and provided moisture towards Greenland summit.

  19. Kisameet Glacial Clay: an Unexpected Source of Bacterial Diversity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svensson, Sarah L; Behroozian, Shekooh; Xu, Wanjing; Surette, Michael G; Li, Loretta; Davies, Julian

    2017-05-23

    Widespread antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens is providing the impetus to explore novel sources of antimicrobial agents. Recently, the potent antibacterial activity of certain clay minerals has stimulated scientific interest in these materials. One such example is Kisameet glacial clay (KC), an antibacterial clay from a deposit on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. However, our understanding of the active principles of these complex natural substances is incomplete. Like soils, clays may possess complex mixtures of bacterial taxa, including the Actinobacteria , a clade known to be rich in antibiotic-producing organisms. Here, we present the first characterization of both the microbial and geochemical characteristics of a glacial clay deposit. KC harbors surprising bacterial species richness, with at least three distinct community types. We show that the deposit has clines of inorganic elements that can be leached by pH, which may be drivers of community structure. We also note the prevalence of Gallionellaceae in samples recovered near the surface, as well as taxa that include medically or economically important bacteria such as Actinomycetes and Paenibacillus These results provide insight into the microbial taxa that may be the source of KC antibacterial activity and suggest that natural clays may be rich sources of microbial and molecular diversity. IMPORTANCE Identifying and characterizing the resident microbial populations (bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi) is key to understanding the ecology, chemistry, and homeostasis of virtually all sites on Earth. The Kisameet Bay deposit in British Columbia, Canada, holds a novel glacial clay with a history of medicinal use by local indigenous people. We previously showed that it has potent activity against a variety of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, suggesting it could complement our dwindling arsenal of antibiotics. Here, we have characterized the microbiome of this deposit to gain insight

  20. Multimodal Discrimination of Schizophrenia Using Hybrid Weighted Feature Concatenation of Brain Functional Connectivity and Anatomical Features with an Extreme Learning Machine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Naveed Iqbal Qureshi

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Multimodal features of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI of the human brain can assist in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. We performed a classification study on age, sex, and handedness-matched subjects. The dataset we used is publicly available from the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE and it consists of two groups: patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. We performed an independent component analysis and calculated global averaged functional connectivity-based features from the resting-state functional MRI data for all the cortical and subcortical anatomical parcellation. Cortical thickness along with standard deviation, surface area, volume, curvature, white matter volume, and intensity measures from the cortical parcellation, as well as volume and intensity from sub-cortical parcellation and overall volume of cortex features were extracted from the structural MRI data. A novel hybrid weighted feature concatenation method was used to acquire maximal 99.29% (P < 0.0001 accuracy which preserves high discriminatory power through the weight of the individual feature type. The classification was performed by an extreme learning machine, and its efficiency was compared to linear and non-linear (radial basis function support vector machines, linear discriminant analysis, and random forest bagged tree ensemble algorithms. This article reports the predictive accuracy of both unimodal and multimodal features after 10-by-10-fold nested cross-validation. A permutation test followed the classification experiment to assess the statistical significance of the classification results. It was concluded that, from a clinical perspective, this feature concatenation approach may assist the clinicians in schizophrenia diagnosis.

  1. Analysis of Feature Extraction Methods for Speaker Dependent Speech Recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gurpreet Kaur

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Speech recognition is about what is being said, irrespective of who is saying. Speech recognition is a growing field. Major progress is taking place on the technology of automatic speech recognition (ASR. Still, there are lots of barriers in this field in terms of recognition rate, background noise, speaker variability, speaking rate, accent etc. Speech recognition rate mainly depends on the selection of features and feature extraction methods. This paper outlines the feature extraction techniques for speaker dependent speech recognition for isolated words. A brief survey of different feature extraction techniques like Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC, Linear Predictive Coding Coefficients (LPCC, Perceptual Linear Prediction (PLP, Relative Spectra Perceptual linear Predictive (RASTA-PLP analysis are presented and evaluation is done. Speech recognition has various applications from daily use to commercial use. We have made a speaker dependent system and this system can be useful in many areas like controlling a patient vehicle using simple commands.

  2. Linear interictal pain in Epicrania Fugax.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pareja, Juan A; Bandrés, Pablo

    2015-01-01

    Epicrania Fugax is a paroxysmal, short-lasting, head pain moving across one hemicranium, describing a linear or zag trajectory, starting and ending in territories of different nerves. Between attacks, patients are usually free of symptoms. We describe an Epicrania Fugax patient complaining of interictal pain. The interictal pain was line-shaped and extended across the usual starting and ending points of the typical Epicrania Fugax paroxysms. Although rarely encountered, persistent linear pain may be a feature of Epicrania Fugax.

  3. Predicting future glacial lakes in Austria using different modelling approaches

    Science.gov (United States)

    Otto, Jan-Christoph; Helfricht, Kay; Prasicek, Günther; Buckel, Johannes; Keuschnig, Markus

    2017-04-01

    Glacier retreat is one of the most apparent consequences of temperature rise in the 20th and 21th centuries in the European Alps. In Austria, more than 240 new lakes have formed in glacier forefields since the Little Ice Age. A similar signal is reported from many mountain areas worldwide. Glacial lakes can constitute important environmental and socio-economic impacts on high mountain systems including water resource management, sediment delivery, natural hazards, energy production and tourism. Their development significantly modifies the landscape configuration and visual appearance of high mountain areas. Knowledge on the location, number and extent of these future lakes can be used to assess potential impacts on high mountain geo-ecosystems and upland-lowland interactions. Information on new lakes is critical to appraise emerging threads and potentials for society. The recent development of regional ice thickness models and their combination with high resolution glacier surface data allows predicting the topography below current glaciers by subtracting ice thickness from glacier surface. Analyzing these modelled glacier bed surfaces reveals overdeepenings that represent potential locations for future lakes. In order to predict the location of future glacial lakes below recent glaciers in the Austrian Alps we apply different ice thickness models using high resolution terrain data and glacier outlines. The results are compared and validated with ice thickness data from geophysical surveys. Additionally, we run the models on three different glacier extents provided by the Austrian Glacier Inventories from 1969, 1998 and 2006. Results of this historical glacier extent modelling are compared to existing glacier lakes and discussed focusing on geomorphological impacts on lake evolution. We discuss model performance and observed differences in the results in order to assess the approach for a realistic prediction of future lake locations. The presentation delivers

  4. Millennial and sub-millennial scale climatic variations recorded in polar ice cores over the last glacial period

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Capron, E.; Landais, A.; Chappellaz, J.

    2010-01-01

    Since its discovery in Greenland ice cores, the millennial scale climatic variability of the last glacial period has been increasingly documented at all latitudes with studies focusing mainly on Marine Isotopic Stage 3 (MIS 3; 28–60 thousand of years before present, hereafter ka) and characterized...... that when ice sheets are extensive, Antarctica does not necessarily warm during the whole GS as the thermal bipolar seesaw model would predict, questioning the Greenland ice core temperature records as a proxy for AMOC changes throughout the glacial period....

  5. Reconciling phylogeography and ecological niche models for New Zealand beetles looking beyond glacial refugia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Marske, Katharine Ann; Leschen, Richard; Buckley, Thomas

    2011-01-01

    stochastic search variable selection incorporated in BEAST to identify historical dispersal patterns via ancestral state reconstruction. Ecological niche models (ENMs) were incorporated to reconstruct the potential geographic distribution of each species during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Coalescent...... analyses suggest a North Island origin for E. lawsoni, with gene flow predominately north–south between adjacent regions. ENMs for E. lawsoni indicated glacial refugia in coastal regions of both main islands, consistent with phylogenetic patterns but at odds with the coalescent dates, which implicate much...... on both main islands is evident. Divergence dates for both species are consistent with the topographic evolution of New Zealand over the last 10 Ma, whereas the signature of the LGM is less apparent in the time-scaled phylogeny....

  6. Novel features of non-linear Raman instability in a laser plasma

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Mašek, Martin; Rohlena, Karel

    2010-01-01

    Roč. 56, č. 1 (2010), s. 79-90 ISSN 1434-6060 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) 7E08099; GA MŠk(CZ) LC528; GA ČR GA202/05/2475 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10100523 Keywords : laser plasma * non-linear Raman instability Subject RIV: BH - Optics, Masers, Lasers Impact factor: 1.513, year: 2010

  7. Towards Constraining Glacial Isostatic Adjustment in Greenland Using ICESat and GPS Observations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Karina; Sørensen, Louise Sandberg; Khan, Shfaqat Abbas

    2014-01-01

    Constraining glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) i.e. the Earth’s viscoelastic response to past ice changes, is an important task, because GIA is a significant correction in gravity-based ice sheet mass balance estimates. Here, we investigate how temporal variations in the observed and modeled cru...

  8. Effects of mantle rheologies on viscous heating induced by glacial isostatic adjustment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huang, Ping Ping; Wu, Patrick; van der Wal, W.

    2018-01-01

    It has been argued that viscous dissipation from mantle flow in response to surface loading during glacial cycles can result in short-term heating and thus trigger transient volcanism or changes in mantle properties, which may in turn affect mantle dynamics. Furthermore, heating near the Earth's

  9. Increased risk of glacial mudflows origin in Kabardino-Balkaria in the recent period

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. V. Malneva

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with probability of glacial mudflow formation during the nearest years in the highland of Central Caucasus where the most mudflow-hazardous rivers are concentrated: Gerhozhansu, Adylsu, Adyrsu and others. It is established on the basis of calculated multi-year air temperatures during summer period that in June–August of 2012–2013 considerable increase and can intensify the activity of glacial mudflows. We estimate the tendency in mudflow activity using the analysis of multi-year regime of atmospheric circulation, the types of which determine mudflow-hazardous weather on a given territory (e.g. 12a, 13s, etc. according to the classification of B.L. Dzerdzeevsky. The duration of these types is presently sufficiently long and will remain the same during the nearest years. Due to the above-mentioned weather situation and availability of sufficient amounts of loose-clastic rock material on the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria, an increase of mudflow hazard is possible. So, in 2011 the glacial-flash mudflows happened in the basins of the rivers Cherek Balkarsky, Chegem, Baksan. In all these cases the weather corresponded to the type of ECM 13s. In 2013 the increase in duration of the above-mentioned ECM and mudflow activity can be connected with maximum of the solar cycle. During the previous maximum in 2000 the catastrophic mudflow happened on the river Gerhonzhansu; the town Tyrnyauz have been highly destructed.

  10. Timing of maximum glacial extent and deglaciation from HualcaHualca volcano (southern Peru), obtained with cosmogenic 36Cl.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alcalá, Jesus; Palacios, David; Vazquez, Lorenzo; Juan Zamorano, Jose

    2015-04-01

    Andean glacial deposits are key records of climate fluctuations in the southern hemisphere. During the last decades, in situ cosmogenic nuclides have provided fresh and significant dates to determine past glacier behavior in this region. But still there are many important discrepancies such as the impact of Last Glacial Maximum or the influence of Late Glacial climatic events on glacial mass balances. Furthermore, glacial chronologies from many sites are still missing, such as HualcaHualca (15° 43' S; 71° 52' W; 6,025 masl), a high volcano of the Peruvian Andes located 70 km northwest of Arequipa. The goal of this study is to establish the age of the Maximum Glacier Extent (MGE) and deglaciation at HualcaHualca volcano. To achieve this objetive, we focused in four valleys (Huayuray, Pujro Huayjo, Mollebaya and Mucurca) characterized by a well-preserved sequence of moraines and roches moutonnées. The method is based on geomorphological analysis supported by cosmogenic 36Cl surface exposure dating. 36Cl ages have been estimated with the CHLOE calculator and were compared with other central Andean glacial chronologies as well as paleoclimatological proxies. In Huayuray valley, exposure ages indicates that MGE occurred ~ 18 - 16 ka. Later, the ice mass gradually retreated but this process was interrupted by at least two readvances; the last one has been dated at ~ 12 ka. In the other hand, 36Cl result reflects a MGE age of ~ 13 ka in Mollebaya valley. Also, two samples obtained in Pujro-Huayjo and Mucurca valleys associated with MGE have an exposure age of 10-9 ka, but likely are moraine boulders affected by exhumation or erosion processes. Deglaciation in HualcaHualca volcano began abruptly ~ 11.5 ka ago according to a 36Cl age from a polished and striated bedrock in Pujro Huayjo valley, presumably as a result of reduced precipitation as well as a global increase of temperatures. The glacier evolution at HualcaHualca volcano presents a high correlation with

  11. Atmospheric radiocarbon calibration to 45,000 yr B.P.: late glacial fluctuations and cosmogenic isotope production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kitagawa; van der Plicht J

    1998-02-20

    More than 250 carbon-14 accelerator mass spectrometry dates of terrestrial macrofossils from annually laminated sediments from Lake Suigetsu (Japan) provide a first atmospheric calibration for almost the total range of the radiocarbon method (45,000 years before the present). The results confirm the (recently revised) floating German pine chronology and are consistent with data from European and marine varved sediments, and combined uranium-thorium and carbon-14 dating of corals up to the Last Glacial Maximum. The data during the Glacial show large fluctuations in the atmospheric carbon-14 content, related to changes in global environment and in cosmogenic isotope production.

  12. LATE GLACIAL AND HOLOCENE BIOCLIMATIC RECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTHERN ITALY: THE TRIFOGLIETTI LAKE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. Brugiapaglia

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available The pollen record from Trifoglietti lake (Calabria region provides new information about the paleoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic changes occurred during the LateGlacial and Holocene period. The LateGlacial part of the record, for which only preliminary data is available, is a new and original sequence from southern Italy. The Holocene sequence, with 11 AMS radiocarbon dates shows a stable Fagus forest for the entire period. Apart from sporadic pastoralism activities and the selective exploitation of Abies, only a weak human impact is recognized in the pollen records. Lake level oscillations have been reconstructed and annual precipitations quantified using the Modern Analogue Technique. The reconstruction was effectuated both at millennial and centennial scale: the first shows an increasing of moisture from 11000 to 9400 cal BP and a maximum of humidity from 9400 to 6200 cal BP. Moreover, several climatic oscillations punctuated the Holocene and therefore superimposed the millennial trend.

  13. Interglacial insects and their possible survival in Greenland during the last glacial stage

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bøcher, Jens Jensenius

    2012-01-01

    Sediments from the last interglacial (Eemian) in Jameson Land, East Greenland, and the Thule area, NW Greenland, have revealed a number of insect fragments of both arctic and more or less warmth-demanding species. Altogether, the interglacial fauna of Coleoptera (beetles) indicates boreal...... beetle species such as Amara alpina and Isochnus arcticus did not survive the last glacial stage in Greenland. Two factors that have not been sufficiently considered when discussing survival contra extinction are the importance of microclimate and the number of sun-hours during the Arctic summer. Even...... among the Coleoptera, which as a group fares quite badly in the Arctic, there might be survivors, at least among those found both during the interglacial and as fossils during the early Holocene. First of all, glacial survival applies to the seed bug Nysius groenlandicus, which was widespread during...

  14. Phylogenetic assemblage structure of North American trees is more strongly shaped by glacial-interglacial climate variability in gymnosperms than in angiosperms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Ziyu; Sandel, Brody; Svenning, Jens-Christian

    2016-05-01

    How fast does biodiversity respond to climate change? The relationship of past and current climate with phylogenetic assemblage structure helps us to understand this question. Studies of angiosperm tree diversity in North America have already suggested effects of current water-energy balance and tropical niche conservatism. However, the role of glacial-interglacial climate variability remains to be determined, and little is known about any of these relationships for gymnosperms. Moreover, phylogenetic endemism, the concentration of unique lineages in restricted ranges, may also be related to glacial-interglacial climate variability and needs more attention. We used a refined phylogeny of both angiosperms and gymnosperms to map phylogenetic diversity, clustering and endemism of North American trees in 100-km grid cells, and climate change velocity since Last Glacial Maximum together with postglacial accessibility to recolonization to quantify glacial-interglacial climate variability. We found: (1) Current climate is the dominant factor explaining the overall patterns, with more clustered angiosperm assemblages toward lower temperature, consistent with tropical niche conservatism. (2) Long-term climate stability is associated with higher angiosperm endemism, while higher postglacial accessibility is linked to to more phylogenetic clustering and endemism in gymnosperms. (3) Factors linked to glacial-interglacial climate change have stronger effects on gymnosperms than on angiosperms. These results suggest that paleoclimate legacies supplement current climate in shaping phylogenetic patterns in North American trees, and especially so for gymnosperms.

  15. To what extent can global warming events influence scaling properties of climatic fluctuations in glacial periods?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alberti, Tommaso; Lepreti, Fabio; Vecchio, Antonio; Carbone, Vincenzo

    2017-04-01

    The Earth's climate is an extremely unstable complex system consisting of nonlinear and still rather unknown interactions among atmosphere, land surface, ice and oceans. The system is mainly driven by solar irradiance, even if internal components as volcanic eruptions and human activities affect the atmospheric composition thus acting as a driver for climate changes. Since the extreme climate variability is the result of a set of phenomena operating from daily to multi-millennial timescales, with different correlation times, a study of the scaling properties of the system can evidence non-trivial persistent structures, internal or external physical processes. Recently, the scaling properties of the paleoclimate changes have been analyzed by distinguish between interglacial and glacial climates [Shao and Ditlevsen, 2016]. The results show that the last glacial record (20-120 kyr BP) presents some elements of multifractality, while the last interglacial period (0-10 kyr BP), say the Holocene period, seems to be characterized by a mono-fractal structure. This is associated to the absence of Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events in the interglacial climate that could be the cause for the absence of multifractality. This hypothesis is supported by the analysis of the period between 18 and 27 kyr BP, i.e. during the Last Glacial Period, in which a single DO event have been registred. Through the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) we were able to detect a timescale separation within the Last Glacial Period (20-120 kyr BP) in two main components: a high-frequency component, related to the occurrence of DO events, and a low-frequency one, associated to the cooling/warming phase switch [Alberti et al., 2014]. Here, we investigate the scaling properties of the climate fluctuations within the Last Glacial Period, where abrupt climate changes, characterized by fast increase of temperature usually called Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events, have been particularly pronounced. By using the

  16. Role of the Bering Strait on the hysteresis of the ocean conveyor belt circulation and glacial climate stability

    OpenAIRE

    Hu, Aixue; Meehl, Gerald A.; Han, Weiqing; Timmermann, Axel; Otto-Bliesner, Bette; Liu, Zhengyu; Washington, Warren M.; Large, William; Abe-Ouchi, Ayako; Kimoto, Masahide; Lambeck, Kurt; Wu, Bingyi

    2012-01-01

    Abrupt climate transitions, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, occurred frequently during the last glacial period, specifically from 80–11 thousand years before present, but were nearly absent during interglacial periods and the early stages of glacial periods, when major ice-sheets were still forming. Here we show, with a fully coupled state-of-the-art climate model, that closing the Bering Strait and preventing its throughflow between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans during the g...

  17. Assessing the sensitivity of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation to freshwater perturbation in various glacial climate states

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meerbeeck, Cedric J. van; Renssen, Hans [VU University Amsterdam, Section Climate Change and Landscape Dynamics, Department of Earth Sciences, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Roche, Didier M. [VU University Amsterdam, Section Climate Change and Landscape Dynamics, Department of Earth Sciences, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Laboratoire CEA/INSU-CNRS/UVSQ, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l' Environnement (LSCE/IPSL), Gif sur Yvette (France)

    2011-11-15

    A striking characteristic of glacial climate in the North Atlantic region is the recurrence of abrupt shifts between cold stadials and mild interstadials. These shifts have been associated with abrupt changes in Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) mode, possibly in response to glacial meltwater perturbations. However, it is poorly understood why they were more clearly expressed during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3, {proportional_to}60-27 ka BP) than during Termination 1 (T1, {proportional_to}18-10 ka BP) and especially around the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, {proportional_to}23-19 ka BP). One clue may reside in varying climate forcings, making MIS3 and T1 generally milder than LGM. To investigate this idea, we evaluate in a climate model how ice sheet size, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and orbital insolation changes between 56 ka BP (=56k), 21k and 12.5k affect the glacial AMOC response to additional freshwater forcing. We have performed three ensemble simulations with the earth system model LOVECLIM using those forcings. We find that the AMOC mode in the mild glacial climate type (56k and 12.5k), with deep convection in the Labrador Sea and the Nordic Seas, is more sensitive to a constant 0.15 Sv freshwater forcing than in the cold type (21k), with deep convection mainly south of Greenland and Iceland. The initial AMOC weakening in response to freshwater forcing is larger in the mild type due to an early shutdown of Labrador Sea deep convection, which is completely absent in the 21k simulation. This causes a larger fraction of the freshwater anomaly to remain at surface in the mild type compared to the cold type. After 200 years, a weak AMOC is established in both climate types, as further freshening is compensated by an anomalous salt advection from the (sub-)tropical North Atlantic. However, the slightly fresher sea surface in the mild type facilitates further weakening of the AMOC, which occurs when a surface buoyancy threshold (-0.6 kg

  18. Non-linear wave packet dynamics of coherent states

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    In recent years, the non-linear quantum dynamics of these states have revealed some striking features. It was found that under the action of a Hamil- tonian which is a non-linear function of the photon operator(s) only, an initial coherent state loses its coherent structure quickly due to quantum dephasing induced by the non-.

  19. Glacial history of a modern invader: phylogeography and species distribution modelling of the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniele Porretta

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is one of the 100 most invasive species in the world and a vector of human diseases. In the last 30 years, it has spread from its native range in East Asia to Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Although this modern invasion has been the focus of many studies, the history of the species' native populations remains poorly understood. Here, we aimed to assess the role of Pleistocene climatic changes in shaping the current distribution of the species in its native range. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated the phylogeography, historical demography, and species distribution of Ae. albopictus native populations at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM. Individuals from 16 localities from East Asia were analyzed for sequence variation at two mitochondrial genes. No phylogeographic structure was observed across the study area. Demographic analyses showed a signature of population expansion that started roughly 70,000 years BP. The occurrence of a continuous and climatically suitable area comprising Southeast China, Indochinese Peninsula, and Sundaland during LGM was indicated by species distribution modelling. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest an evolutionary scenario in which, during the last glacial phase, Ae. albopictus did not experience a fragmentation phase but rather persisted in interconnected populations and experienced demographic growth. The wide ecological flexibility of the species probably played a crucial role in its response to glacial-induced environmental changes. Currently, there is little information on the impact of Pleistocene climatic changes on animal species in East Asia. Most of the studies focused on forest-associated species and suggested cycles of glacial fragmentation and post-glacial expansion. The case of Ae. albopictus, which exhibits a pattern not previously observed in the study area, adds an important piece to our understanding of the Pleistocene history

  20. Restoring the missing features of the corrupted speech using linear interpolation methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rassem, Taha H.; Makbol, Nasrin M.; Hasan, Ali Muttaleb; Zaki, Siti Syazni Mohd; Girija, P. N.

    2017-10-01

    One of the main challenges in the Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is the noise. The performance of the ASR system reduces significantly if the speech is corrupted by noise. In spectrogram representation of a speech signal, after deleting low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) elements, the incomplete spectrogram is obtained. In this case, the speech recognizer should make modifications to the spectrogram in order to restore the missing elements, which is one direction. In another direction, speech recognizer should be able to restore the missing elements due to deleting low SNR elements before performing the recognition. This is can be done using different spectrogram reconstruction methods. In this paper, the geometrical spectrogram reconstruction methods suggested by some researchers are implemented as a toolbox. In these geometrical reconstruction methods, the linear interpolation along time or frequency methods are used to predict the missing elements between adjacent observed elements in the spectrogram. Moreover, a new linear interpolation method using time and frequency together is presented. The CMU Sphinx III software is used in the experiments to test the performance of the linear interpolation reconstruction method. The experiments are done under different conditions such as different lengths of the window and different lengths of utterances. Speech corpus consists of 20 males and 20 females; each one has two different utterances are used in the experiments. As a result, 80% recognition accuracy is achieved with 25% SNR ratio.

  1. New exposure ages for the Last Glacial Cycle in the Sanabria Lake region (northwestern Spain)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Laura; Jiménez-Sánchez, Montserrat; Domínguez-Cuesta, María Jose; Rinterknecht, Vincent; Pallàs, Raimon; Braucher, Régis; Bourlès, Didier; Valero-Garcés, Blas

    2013-04-01

    The Sanabria Lake region is located in the Trevinca Massif, a mid-latitude mountain area up to 2128 m asl in the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula (42oN 6oW). An ice cap glaciation took place during the Last Glacial Cycle in this massif, with an equilibrium line altitude of 1687 m for the Tera glacial outlet at its local maximum (Cowton et al., 2009). A well preserved glacial sequence occurs on an area of 45 km2 around the present Sanabria Lake (1000 m asl) and is composed by lateral and end moraines in close relationship with glaciolacustrine deposits. This sequence shows the ice snout oscillations of the former Tera glacier during the Last Glacial Cycle and offers a good opportunity to compare radiocarbon and OSL- based chronological models with new cosmogenic isotope dates. The new dataset of 10Be exposure ages presented here for the Sanabria Lake moraines is based on measurements conducted on 23 boulders and is compared with previous radiocarbon and OSL data conducted on ice related deposits (Pérez-Alberti et al., 2011; Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al., 2011). Our results are coherent with the available deglaciation radiocarbon chronology, and support a last deglaciation origin for the whole set of end moraines that are downstream the Sanabria Lake (19.2 - 15.7 10Be ka). Discrepancies between results of the different dating methods concern the timing of the local glacial maximum, with the cosmogenic exposure method always yielding the youngest minimum ages. As proposed to explain similar observations made elsewhere (Palacios et al., 2012), reconciling the ages from different dating methods would imply the occurrence of two glacial advances close enough in extent to generate an overlapping polygenic moraine. Cowton, T., Hughes, P.D., Gibbard, P.L., 2009. Palaeoglaciation of Parque Natural Lago de Sanabria, northwest Spain. Geomorphology 108, 282-291. Rodríguez-Rodríguez, L., Jiménez-Sánchez, M., Domínguez-Cuesta, M.J., Rico, M.T., Valero-Garcés, B

  2. Teaching Linear Algebra: Must the Fog Always Roll In?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlson, David

    1993-01-01

    Proposes methods to teach the more difficult concepts of linear algebra. Examines features of the Linear Algebra Curriculum Study Group Core Syllabus, and presents problems from the core syllabus that utilize the mathematical process skills of making conjectures, proving the results, and communicating the results to colleagues. Presents five…

  3. Quaternary glacial stratigraphy and chronology of Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Sidney E.

    The volcano Iztaccihuatl in central Mexico was glaciated twice during the middle Pleistocene, once probably in pre-Illinoian (or pre-Bull Lake) time, and once in late Illinoian (or Bull Lake) time. Glaciation during the late Pleistocene was restricted to the late Wisconsin (or Pinedale). A maximum advance and one readvance are recorded in the early part, and one readvance in the latter part. Three or four small neoglacial advances occurred during the Holocene. Two other volcanoes nearby, Ajusco and Malinche, have a partial record of late Pleistocene and Holocene glaciations. Three others, Popocatépetl, Pico de Orizaba, and Nevado de Toluca, have a full Holocene record of three to five glacial advances during Neoglaciation.

  4. Biomarker Evidence of Relatively Stable Community Structure in the Northern South China Sea during the Last Glacial and Holocene

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan He

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available High-resolution molecular abundance records for several marine biomarkers during the last glacial and Holocene have been generated for core MD05-2904 (19 _ 116 _ 2066 mwater depth from the northern South China Sea. The UK' 37 SST record indicates a 4.4 C cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum for this site, consistent with previous reconstructions. The contents of C37 alkenones, dinosterol, brassicasterol, and C30 alkyl diols are used as productivity proxies for haptophytes, dinoflagellates, diatoms, and eustigmatophytes, respectively. These records reveal that both individual phytoplankton group and total productivity increased by several factors during the LGM compared with those for the Holocene, in response to increased nutrient supply. However, the community structure based on biomarker percentages remained relatively stable during the last glacial-Holocene transition, although there were short-term oscillations.

  5. Linear Malignant Melanoma In Situ: Reports and Review of Cutaneous Malignancies Presenting as Linear Skin Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Philip R

    2017-09-18

    Melanomas usually present as oval lesions in which the borders may be irregular. Other morphological features of melanoma include clinical asymmetry, variable color, diameter greater than 6 mm and evolving lesions. Two males whose melanoma in situ presented as linear skin lesions are described and cutaneous malignancies that may appear linear in morphology are summarized in this report. A medical literature search engine, PubMed, was used to search the following terms: cancer, cutaneous, in situ, linear, malignant, malignant melanoma, melanoma in situ, neoplasm, and skin. The 25 papers that were generated by the search and their references, were reviewed; 10 papers were selected for inclusion. The cancer of the skin typically presents as round lesions. However, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma may arise from primary skin conditions or benign skin neoplasms such as linear epidermal nevus and linear porokeratosis. In addition, linear tumors such as basal cell carcinoma can occur. The development of linear cutaneous neoplasms may occur secondary to skin tension line or embryonal growth patterns (as reflected by the lines of Langer and lines of Blaschko) or exogenous factors such as prior radiation therapy. Cutaneous neoplasms and specifically melanoma in situ can be added to the list of linear skin lesions.

  6. The dispersion of fibrous amphiboles by glacial processes in the area surrounding Libby, Montana, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langer, William H.; Van Gosen, Bradley S.; Meeker, Gregory P.; Adams, David T.; Hoefen, Todd M.

    2011-01-01

    Mining operations began at a world-class vermiculite deposit at Vermiculite Mountain near Libby, Montana, circa 1920 and ended in 1990. Fibrous and asbestiform amphiboles intergrown with vermiculite ore are suspected to be a causative factor in an abnormally high number of cases of respiratory diseases in former mine and mill workers, and in residents of Libby. The question addressed in this report is whether some of the amphibole from Vermiculite Mountain could have been dispersed by Pleistocene glacial processes rather than by human activity after vermiculite mining began. The history of Pinedale glaciation in the Libby area provides a framework for estimating the presence and distribution of asbestiform amphiboles derived from Vermiculite Mountain and found in naturally occurring sediments of Glacial Lake Kootenai that underlie the Libby Valley area. There were two situations where sediments derived from Vermiculite Mountain were deposited into Glacial Lake Kootenai: (1) as lake-bottom sediments derived from meltwater flowing down Rainy Creek when the valley south of Vermiculite Mountain was free of ice but active ice still covered Vermiculite Mountain; and (2) as lake-bottom sediments eroded from the Rainy Creek outwash and re-deposited during a re-advance of the Purcell Trench Glacier lobe near Moyie Springs, Idaho.

  7. Palaeocirculation across New Zealand during the last glacial maximum at ˜21 ka

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorrey, Andrew M.; Vandergoes, Marcus; Almond, Peter; Renwick, James; Stephens, Tom; Bostock, Helen; Mackintosh, Andrew; Newnham, Rewi; Williams, Paul W.; Ackerley, Duncan; Neil, Helen; Fowler, Anthony M.

    2012-03-01

    What circulation pattern drove Southern Alps glacial advances at ˜21 ka? Late 20th century glacial advances in New Zealand are commonly attributed to a dual precipitation increase and cooler than normal temperatures associated with enhanced westerly flow that occur under synoptic pressure patterns termed 'zonal' regimes (Kidson, 2000). But was the circulation pattern that supported major Southern Alps glacial advances during the global LGM similar to the modern analog? Here, a Regional Climate Regime Classification (RCRC) time slice was used to infer past circulation for New Zealand during the LGM at ˜21 ka. Palaeoclimate information that supported the construction of the ˜21 ka time slice was derived from the NZ-INTIMATE Climate Event Stratigraphy (CES), one new Auckland maar proxy record, and additional low-resolution data sourced from the literature. The terrestrial evidence at ˜21 ka implicates several possibilities for past circulation, depending on how interpretations for some proxies are made. The interpretation considered most tenable for the LGM, based on the agreement between terrestrial evidence, marine reconstructions and palaeoclimate model results is an 'anticyclonic/zonal' circulation regime characterized by increased influences from blocking 'highs' over the South Island during winter and an increase in zonal and trough synoptic types (with southerly to westerly quarter wind flow) during summer. These seasonal circulation traits would have generated lower mean annual temperatures, cooler than normal summer temperatures, and overall lower mean annual precipitation for New Zealand (particularly in the western South Island) at ˜21 ka. The anticyclonic/zonal time slice reconstruction presented in this study has different spatial traits than the late 20th Century and the early Little Ice Age signatures, suggesting more than one type of regional circulation pattern can drive Southern Alps glacial activity. This finding lends support to the hypothesis

  8. Visco-Plastic Flow of Glacial Covers and the Laws of Ice Deformation,

    Science.gov (United States)

    The report presents the results of investigations which were made by the author during the Second Antartic Expedition (1956-1958). In the first part...plastic flow of glacial covers and a comparison of the analytic results which were obtained with data from observations under natural conditions in the Antartic . (Author)

  9. Large drainages from short-lived glacial lakes in the Teskey Range, Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Narama

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Four large drainages from glacial lakes occurred during 2006–2014 in the western Teskey Range, Kyrgyzstan. These floods caused extensive damage, killing people and livestock as well as destroying property and crops. Using satellite data analysis and field surveys of this area, we find that the water volume that drained at Kashkasuu glacial lake in 2006 was 194 000  m3, at western Zyndan lake in 2008 was 437 000 m3, at Jeruy lake in 2013 was 182 000 m3, and at Karateke lake in 2014 was 123 000 m3. Due to their subsurface outlet, we refer to these short-lived glacial lakes as the tunnel-type, a type that drastically grows and drains over a few months. From spring to early summer, these lakes either appear, or in some cases, significantly expand from an existing lake (but non-stationary, and then drain during summer. Our field surveys show that the short-lived lakes form when an ice tunnel through a debris landform gets blocked. The blocking is caused either by the freezing of stored water inside the tunnel during winter or by the collapse of ice and debris around the ice tunnel. The draining then occurs through an opened ice tunnel during summer. The growth–drain cycle can repeat when the ice-tunnel closure behaves like that of typical supraglacial lakes on debris-covered glaciers. We argue here that the geomorphological characteristics under which such short-lived glacial lakes appear are (i a debris landform containing ice (ice-cored moraine complex, (ii a depression with water supply on a debris landform as a potential lake basin, and (iii no visible surface outflow channel from the depression, indicating the existence of an ice tunnel. Applying these characteristics, we examine 60 depressions (> 0.01 km2 in the study region and identify here 53 of them that may become short-lived glacial lakes, with 34 of these having a potential drainage exceeding 10 m3 s−1 at peak discharge.

  10. Influence of boundary conditions on the Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation during the last glacial maximum Influência das condições de fronteira na circulação atmosférica do Hemisfério Sul durante o último máximo glacial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Justino

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Based upon coupled climate simulations driven by present day and glacial boundary conditions, we demonstrate that although the ice sheet topography modifications during the glacial period are primarily placed in the Northern Hemisphere (NH, a climate simulation that employs the ICE-5G glacial topography delivers significantly enhanced climate anomalies in the Southern Hemisphere (SH as well. These conditions, in association with climate anomalies produced by the modification of the atmospheric CO² concentration characteristic of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM interval, are shown to be the primary forcing of the SH climate during this epoch. Climate anomalies up to -6°C over the Antarctic region and -4°C over South America are predicted to occur in respect to present day conditions. Accompanying the SH cooling in the LGM simulation there exists a remarkable reduction in the specific humidity, which in turn enforces the overall Southern Hemisphere cooling due to the weaker greenhouse capacity of the dry atmosphere.Com base em simulações numéricas conduzidas com condições de fronteiras características dos períodos glaciais e atual, demonstra-se que embora as maiores anomalias da topografia da Terra no período glacial estejam no Hemisfério Norte, esta inclusão dos blocos de gelo leva a substanciais mudanças na circulação atmosférica austral para aquela época, indicando uma forte teleconexão inter-hemisférica. Em associação com a redução nos níveis de carbono atmosférico para 200 ppm, anomalias de temperatura de -6°C em torno da região antártica, e -4°C no continente sul-americano são simuladas para o último máximo glacial (UMG em relação a condições atuais. Concomitantemente, o UMG é caracterizado por uma drástica redução na umidade específica, que por sua vez intensifica o esfriamento inicial devido à mais fraca capacidade de estufa da atmosfera mais seca.

  11. Effects of post-glacial phylogeny and genetic diversity on the growth variability and climate sensitivity of European silver fir

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Bošela, M.; Popa, I.; Gömöry, D.; Longauer, R.; Tobin, B.; Kyncl, J.; Kyncl, T.; Nechita, C.; Petras, R.; Sidor, C. G.; Šebeň, V.; Büntgen, Ulf

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 104, č. 3 (2016), s. 716-724 ISSN 0022-0477 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) EE2.3.20.0248 Institutional support: RVO:67179843 Keywords : abies-alba mill. * western carpathians * time-series * mitochondrial-dna * glacial refugia * forest decline * air-pollution * consequences * quaternary * drought * air pollution * dendroecology * drought * ecology * global warming * plant-climate interactions * post-glacial migration * radial growth * tree decline Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour Impact factor: 5.813, year: 2016

  12. Glacial geology of the upper Wairau Valley, Marlborough, New Zealand

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McCalpin, J.P.

    1992-01-01

    Late Pleistocene glaciers in the upper Wairau Valley deposited four groups of moraines inferred to represent one Waimean ice advance, two Otiran ice advances, and an advance of early Aranuian age. The Waimean and early Otiran glaciers advanced into Tarndale Valley, deposited terminal moraines, and shed outwash down both the Alma River and Travellers Valley. The middle Otiran glacier terminated in northern Tarndale Valley and shed outwash from the southern part of its terminus down the Alma River. The north side of the terminus abutted a large ice-dammed lake in the Wairau Gorge, and fan-deltas graded to an old shore level at an elevation of 1040 m. Well-preserved moraines at the mouths of four glaciated tributaries may be middle Otiran recessional, or late Otiran terminal moraines. The latest ice advance extended 11 km down the upper Wairau Valley and deposited a subdued moraine at Island Gully. The composite chronology of the latest glacial advance based on 10 radiocarbon ages suggests it occurred between about 9.5 and 10.2 ka. This age span is similar to that of early Aranuian glacial advances dated by other workers in the Southern Alps, and may reflect Younger Dryas cooling. (author). 22 refs., 10 figs., 3 tabs

  13. Embedded Incremental Feature Selection for Reinforcement Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-01

    Prior to this work, feature selection for reinforce- ment learning has focused on linear value function ap- proximation ( Kolter and Ng, 2009; Parr et al...InProceed- ings of the the 23rd International Conference on Ma- chine Learning, pages 449–456. Kolter , J. Z. and Ng, A. Y. (2009). Regularization and feature

  14. Large temperature variability in the southern African tropics since the Last Glacial Maximum

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Powers, L.A.; Johnson, T.C.; Werne, J.P.; Castañeda, I.S.; Hopmans, E.; Sinninghe Damsté, J.S.; Schouten, S.

    2005-01-01

    The role of the tropics in global climate change is actively debated, particularly in regard to the timing and magnitude of thermal and hydrological response. Continuous, high-resolution temperature records through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) from tropical oceans have provided much insight

  15. The extent of permafrost in China during the local Last Glacial Maximum (LLGM)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhao, L.; Jin, H.; Li, C.; Cui, Z.; Chang, X.; Marchenko, S.S.; Vandenberghe, J.; Zhang, T.; Luo, D.; Liu, G.; Yi, C.

    2014-01-01

    Recent investigations into relict periglacial phenomena in northern and western China and on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau provide information for delineating the extent of permafrost in China during the Late Pleistocene. Polygonal and wedge-shaped structures indicate that, during the local Last Glacial

  16. Introduced or glacial relict? Phylogeography of the cryptogenic tunicate Molgula manhattensis (Ascidiacea, Pleurogona)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haydar, D.; Hoarau, G.; Olsen, J. L.; Stam, W. T.; Wolff, W. J.

    Aim The tunicate Molgula manhattensis has a disjunct amphi-Atlantic distribution and a recent history of world-wide introductions. Its distribution could be the result of regional extinctions followed by post-glacial recolonization, or anthropogenic dispersal. To determine whether the North Atlantic

  17. Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Risk in the Poiqu/Bhote Koshi/Sun Koshi River Basin in the Central Himalayas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Narendra Raj Khanal

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The Himalayas have experienced several glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs, and the risk of GLOFs is now increasing in the context of global warming. Poiqu watershed in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, also known as the Bhote Koshi and Sun Koshi downstream in Nepal, has been identified as highly prone to GLOFs. This study explored the distribution of and changes in glacial lakes, past GLOFs and the resulting losses, risk from potential future GLOFs, and risk reduction initiatives within the watershed. A relationship was established between lake area and volume of lake water based on data from 33 lakes surveyed within the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, and the maximum possible discharge was estimated using this and other previously developed empirical equations. We recommend different strategies to reduce GLOF risk and highlight the need for a glacial lake monitoring and early-warning system. We also recommend strong regional cooperation, especially on issues related to transboundary rivers.

  18. Strongly seasonal Proterozoic glacial climate in low palaeolatitudes: Radically different climate system on the pre-Ediacaran Earth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    George E. Williams

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Proterozoic (pre-Ediacaran glaciations occurred under strongly seasonal climates near sea level in low palaeolatitudes. Metre-scale primary sand wedges in Cryogenian periglacial deposits are identical to those actively forming, through the infilling of seasonal (winter thermal contraction-cracks in permafrost by windblown sand, in present-day polar regions with a mean monthly air temperature range of 40 °C and mean annual air temperatures of −20 °C or lower. Varve-like rhythmites with dropstones in Proterozoic glacial successions are consistent with an active seasonal freeze–thaw cycle. The seasonal (annual oscillation of sea level recorded by tidal rhythmites in Cryogenian glacial successions indicates a significant seasonal cycle and extensive open seas. Palaeomagnetic data determined directly for Proterozoic glacial deposits and closely associated rocks indicate low palaeolatitudes: Cryogenian deposits in South Australia accumulated at ≤10°, most other Cryogenian deposits at 54° during Proterozoic low-latitude glaciations, whereby the equator would be cooler than the poles, on average, and global seasonality would be greatly amplified.

  19. Crustaceans from bitumen clast in Carboniferous glacial diamictite extend fossil record of copepods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Selden, Paul A; Huys, Rony; Stephenson, Michael H; Heward, Alan P; Taylor, Paul N

    2010-08-10

    Copepod crustaceans are extremely abundant but, because of their small size and fragility, they fossilize poorly. Their fossil record consists of one Cretaceous (c. 115 Ma) parasite and a few Miocene (c. 14 Ma) fossils. In this paper, we describe abundant crustacean fragments, including copepods, from a single bitumen clast in a glacial diamictite of late Carboniferous age (c. 303 Ma) from eastern Oman. Geochemistry identifies the source of the bitumen as an oilfield some 100-300 km to the southwest, which is consistent with an ice flow direction from glacial striae. The bitumen likely originated as an oil seep into a subglacial lake. This find extends the fossil record of copepods by some 188 Ma, and of free-living forms by 289 Ma. The copepods include evidence of the extant family Canthocamptidae, believed to have colonized fresh water in Pangaea during Carboniferous times.

  20. Ground-water hydrology and glacial geology of the Kalamazoo area, Michigan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deutsch, Morris; Vanlier, K.E.; Giroux, P.R.

    1960-01-01

    The Kalamazoo report area includes about 150 square miles of Kalamazoo County, Mich. The area is principally one of industry and commerce, although agriculture also is of considerable importance. It has a moderate and humid climate and lies within the Lake Michigan “snow belt”. Precipitation averages about 35 inches per year. Snowfall averages about 55 inches. The surface features of the area were formed during and since the glacial epoch and are classified as outwash plain, morainal highlands, and glaciated channels or drainageways. The area is formed largely on the remnants of an extensive outwash plain, which is breached by the Kalamazoo River in the northeastern part and is dissected elsewhere by several small tributaries to the river. Most of the land drained by these tributaries lies within the report area. A small portion of the southern part drains to the St. Joseph River. The Coldwater shale, which underlies the glacial deposits throughout the area, and the deeper bedrock formations are not tapped for water by wells and they have little or no potential for future development. Deposits of glacial drift, which are the source of water to all the wells in the area, have considerable potential for future development. These deposits range in thickness from about 40 feet along the Kalamazoo River to 350 feet where valleys were eroded in the bedrock surface. Permeable outwash and channel deposits are the sources of water for wells of large capacity. The moraines are formed dominantly by till of lower permeability which generally yields small supplies of water, but included sand and gravel beds of higher permeability yield larger supplies locally. The aquifers of the Kalamazoo area are recharged by infiltration of rainfall and snowmelt and by infiltration of surface waters induced by pumping of wells near the surface sources. Water pumped from most of the municipal well fields is replenished in part by such induced infiltration. Many of the industrial wells

  1. Linear and non-linear interdependence of EEG and HRV frequency bands in human sleep.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaparro-Vargas, Ramiro; Dissanayaka, P Chamila; Patti, Chanakya Reddy; Schilling, Claudia; Schredl, Michael; Cvetkovic, Dean

    2014-01-01

    The characterisation of functional interdependencies of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) stands an evergrowing interest to unveil electroencephalographic (EEG) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) interactions. This paper presents a biosignal processing approach as a supportive computational resource in the estimation of sleep dynamics. The application of linear, non-linear methods and statistical tests upon 10 overnight polysomnographic (PSG) recordings, allowed the computation of wavelet coherence and phase locking values, in order to identify discerning features amongst the clinical healthy subjects. Our findings showed that neuronal oscillations θ, α and σ interact with cardiac power bands at mid-to-high rank of coherence and phase locking, particularly during NREM sleep stages.

  2. Analysis of separation test for automatic brake adjuster based on linear radon transformation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Zai; Jiang, Wensong; Guo, Bin; Fan, Weijun; Lu, Yi

    2015-01-01

    The linear Radon transformation is applied to extract inflection points for online test system under the noise conditions. The linear Radon transformation has a strong ability of anti-noise and anti-interference by fitting the online test curve in several parts, which makes it easy to handle consecutive inflection points. We applied the linear Radon transformation to the separation test system to solve the separating clearance of automatic brake adjuster. The experimental results show that the feature point extraction error of the gradient maximum optimal method is approximately equal to ±0.100, while the feature point extraction error of linear Radon transformation method can reach to ±0.010, which has a lower error than the former one. In addition, the linear Radon transformation is robust.

  3. The Downstream Fate of Glacial Runoff and Groundwater in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKenzie, J. M.; Gordon, R.; Chavez, D.; Maharaj, L.; Baraer, M.; Mark, B. G.; Lautz, L. K.

    2013-12-01

    Rapid glacier recession in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, is raising concerns about current and future water resources for the inhabitants of the Rio Santa watershed. Glacier meltwater buffers stream discharge throughout the range, reducing the variability of annual runoff and maintaining stream flows during the dry season. Groundwater is also an important component of dry season runoff as it can contribute as much as 50-70% to outflow in some Rio Santa tributaries. A better understanding of groundwater dynamics in high elevation watersheds is needed, including quantification of recharge, subsurface processes, and available storage. We present the results from recent groundwater studies in the Cordillera Blanca where numerous investigative techniques have been used, including ground penetrating radar, hydraulic conductivity measurements, tracer tests, and hydrochemical mixing models. Our research focuses primarily on the low-relief pampa valley floors across which glacial-melt derived rivers flow. Across the Cordillera, these valley systems cover approximately 65 km2 and are comprised of unconsolidated glacial, talus, and lacustrine deposits and wetlands. The valleys commonly have buried, permeable, talus aquifers that are overlain by relatively impermeable, glaciolacustrine deposits. Glaciofluvial outwash deposits also act as aquifers (hydraulic conductivity of 10-4 m/s). The travel time of water stored in these systems is generally less than 3-4 years and the maximum observed dry season groundwater velocity is 60 cm/day. While groundwater represents an important component of dry season water resources source of water in the Cordillera Blanca, it is also potentially vulnerable to climate change including changes in the precipitation regime and decrease in glacially derived recharge.

  4. A continuous record of glacial-interglacial cycles spanning more than 500 kyr from Lake Junín, Perú

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodbell, D. T.; Abbott, M. B.; McGee, D.; Chen, C. Y.; Stoner, J. S.; Hatfield, R. G.; Tapia, P. M.; Bush, M. B.; Weidhaas, N.; Woods, A.; Valero-Garces, B. L.; Lehmann, S. B.; Bustamante, M. G.; Larsen, D. J.

    2017-12-01

    Lake Junín (11.0°S, 76.2°W) is a shallow (zmax 12 m), intermontane, high-elevation (4080 masl) lake in the inner-tropics of the Southern Hemisphere that spans 300 km2. It is dammed by coalescing alluvial fans that are >250 ka that emanate from glacial valleys. Lake Junín has not been overrun by glacial ice in several hundred thousand years and is ideally located to receive glacigenic sediment. The Junín basin is underlain by carbonate rocks that have provided a source of Ca and HCO3 ions; precipitation of CaCO3 in the western margin of the lake during the present interglacial period has occurred at 1mm yr-1. An airgun seismic survey revealed a strong reflector at 105 meters depth, which marks the base of the lacustrine section. Drilling focused on three sites. Site 1, located near the depocenter and most distal to glacial sources, yielded a composite sediment thickness of 95m; Site 2, proximal to glacial outwash fans, yielded a composite thickness of 28 m; Site 3, located at an intermediate distance yielded a sediment thickness of 55m. The stratigraphy of Site 1 is marked by 8 glacial/interglacial cycles; the latter are characterized by low bulk density and magnetic susceptibility (MS) and high CaCO3. These units are intercalated with glacigenic sediment that has high density and MS, and low CaCO3. The age model for Site 1 is based on AMS radiocarbon dates on terrestrial macrofossils and dozens of U/Th ages on authigenic CaCO3. Strong and protracted interglacial periods appear to be associated with intervals of reduced variability of solar insolation in the Southern Hemisphere tropics. During these intervals there is strong covariation (r2>0.9) between the δ13C and δ18O of authigenic calcium carbonate, and δ18O values are relatively enriched (-12 to -2‰); examples include interglacial periods correlative with marine isotope stages (MIS) 1, 13, and 15. The magnitude of tropical glaciation appears to have been greater during glacial cycles prior to the LGM

  5. ANN modelling of sediment concentration in the dynamic glacial environment of Gangotri in Himalaya.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Nandita; Chakrapani, G J

    2015-08-01

    The present study explores for the first time the possibility of modelling sediment concentration with artificial neural networks (ANNs) at Gangotri, the source of Bhagirathi River in the Himalaya. Discharge, rainfall and temperature have been considered as the main controlling factors of variations in sediment concentration in the dynamic glacial environment of Gangotri. Fourteen feed forward neural networks with error back propagation algorithm have been created, trained and tested for prediction of sediment concentration. Seven models (T1-T7) have been trained and tested in the non-updating mode whereas remaining seven models (T1a-T7a) have been trained in the updating mode. The non-updating mode refers to the scenario where antecedent time (previous time step) values are not used as input to the model. In case of the updating mode, antecedent time values are used as network inputs. The inputs applied in the models are either the variables mentioned above as individual factors (single input networks) or a combination of them (multi-input networks). The suitability of employing antecedent time-step values as network inputs has hence been checked by comparative analysis of model performance in the two modes. The simple feed forward network has been improvised with a series parallel non-linear autoregressive with exogenous input (NARX) architecture wherein true values of sediment concentration have been fed as input during training. In the glacial scenario of Gangotri, maximum sediment movement takes place during the melt period (May-October). Hence, daily data of discharge, rainfall, temperature and sediment concentration for five consecutive melt periods (May-October, 2000-2004) have been used for modelling. High Coefficient of determination values [0.77-0.88] have been obtained between observed and ANN-predicted values of sediment concentration. The study has brought out relationships between variables that are not reflected in normal statistical analysis. A

  6. Glacially derived material in an Inner Mongolian desert lake during Marine Isotope Stage 2

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Selvaraj, K.; Chen, C-T.A; PrakashBabu, C.; Lou, J-Y.; Liu, C-L.; Hsu, K.J.

    Establishing the precise timing of continental glacial dynamics and abrupt high-latitude climate events is crucial to understanding the causes of global climate change. Multi-proxy records in a lake sediment core from arid Inner Mongolia...

  7. Pro-glacial soil variability and geomorphic activity - the case of three Swiss valleys

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Temme, A.J.A.M.; Lange, de K.

    2014-01-01

    Soils in pro-glacial areas are often approached from a chronosequence viewpoint. In the chronosequence approach, the objective is to derive rates of soil formation from differences in properties between soils of different age. For this reason, in chronosequence studies, soils are sampled in

  8. The Last Interglacial-Glacial cycle (MIS 5-2) re-examined based on long proxy records from central and northern Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helmens, Karin F.

    2014-02-01

    characterized the climate variability of MIS 3. Mild climate conditions in early MIS 3 caused large-scale deglaciation of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, and ice-free conditions with Betula-dominated vegetation (including tree birch) persisted over large parts of Fennoscandia, possibly interrupted by glaciation, during major part of MIS 3 till ca 35 ka BP. Overall, MIS 5 was mostly mild with warmest or peak interglacial conditions at the very start during MIS 5e. MIS 4-2 was mostly cold with most extreme or peak glacial conditions in the closing phase during MIS 2. This points to a subdivision of the last climate cycle into an early, overall mild interglacial half and a late, overall cold glacial half, each with duration of ca 50 ka. This review also shows that the climate variability in central and northern Europe during the LI-G cycle was mostly in degrees of continentality with major shifts in winter temperature and precipitation values; summer temperatures, on the other hand, remained largely unchanged. It points to the waxing and waning of sea-ice over the North Atlantic Ocean as a possible characteristic feature of the Late Pleistocene. The present compilation, based on long terrestrial sequences, high-resolution multi-proxy data from the oceans, and quantified paleo-climate data, strongly favors a definition of entire Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 5 as the Last Interglacial similar as in the original marine stratigraphy and the stratigraphy at La Grande Pile in France. The proxy-based climate data places the start of the Last Glacial at the base of MIS 4 and the northwest European Pleniglacial. It shows that the division between the Eemian (MIS 5e) and the Early Weichselian (MIS 5d-a) is not useful, as not relevant from a climate point of view.

  9. ALPS: A Linear Program Solver

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferencz, Donald C.; Viterna, Larry A.

    1991-01-01

    ALPS is a computer program which can be used to solve general linear program (optimization) problems. ALPS was designed for those who have minimal linear programming (LP) knowledge and features a menu-driven scheme to guide the user through the process of creating and solving LP formulations. Once created, the problems can be edited and stored in standard DOS ASCII files to provide portability to various word processors or even other linear programming packages. Unlike many math-oriented LP solvers, ALPS contains an LP parser that reads through the LP formulation and reports several types of errors to the user. ALPS provides a large amount of solution data which is often useful in problem solving. In addition to pure linear programs, ALPS can solve for integer, mixed integer, and binary type problems. Pure linear programs are solved with the revised simplex method. Integer or mixed integer programs are solved initially with the revised simplex, and the completed using the branch-and-bound technique. Binary programs are solved with the method of implicit enumeration. This manual describes how to use ALPS to create, edit, and solve linear programming problems. Instructions for installing ALPS on a PC compatible computer are included in the appendices along with a general introduction to linear programming. A programmers guide is also included for assistance in modifying and maintaining the program.

  10. The last glacial inception in continental northwestern Europe: characterization and timing of the Late Eemian Aridity Pulse (LEAP) recorded in multiple Belgian speleothems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vansteenberge, Stef; Verheyden, Sophie; Quinif, Yves; Genty, Dominique; Blamart, Dominique; Deprez, Maxim; Van Stappen, Jeroen; Cnudde, Veerle; Cheng, Hai; Edwards, R. Lawrence; Claeys, Philippe

    2017-04-01

    speleothems. All samples are investigated through a multiproxy approach consisting of growth rate, stable isotopes (δ13C and δ18O) and trace elements (Mg, Sr, Ba, Zn, Pb, U). Furthermore, µCT scans with a resolution down to 10µm characterize pronounced changes in speleothem morphology. First results show the presence of similar δ13C excursions in the two newly analyzed speleothems. The plenitude of U-Th dates now confirms the timing of the LEAP at 117.5 ka, as determined from Han-9 but significantly reduce the age error to 0.4 ka. Also, the various proxies demonstrate that pre-LEAP climate conditions were not reestablished after the event, indicating that, at least in Belgium, the LEAP may have had a more severe impact than previously thought. This study shows that events such as the LEAP are an important feature within the gradual cooling occurring during glacial inceptions, and they contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of an interglacial-glacial transition. References: Irvali, N., et al., 2016, Quaternary Science Reviews, 150, 184-199. Sirocko, F., et al., 2005, Nature, 436, 833-836. Vansteenberge, S., et al., 2016, Climate of the Past., 12, 1445-1458.

  11. Changes in Fe Oxidation Rate in Hydrothermal Plumes as a Potential Driver of Enhanced Hydrothermal Input to Near-Ridge Sediments During Glacial Terminations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cullen, J. T.; Coogan, L. A.

    2017-12-01

    Recent studies have hypothesized that changes in sea level due to glacial-interglacial cycles lead to changes in the rate of melt addition to the crust at mid-ocean ridges with globally significant consequences. Arguably the most compelling evidence for this comes from increases in the hydrothermal component in near-ridge sediments during glacial-interglacial transitions. Here we explore the hypothesis that changes in ocean bottom water [O2] and pH across glacial-interglacial transitions would lead to changes in the rate of Fe oxidation in hydrothermal plumes. A simple model shows that a several fold increase in the rate of Fe oxidation is expected at glacial-interglacial transitions. Uncertainty in bottom water chemistry and the relationship between oxidation and sedimentation rates prevent direct comparison of the model and data. However, it appears that the null hypothesis of invariant hydrothermal vent fluxes into ocean bottom water that changed in O2 content and pH across these transitions cannot currently be discounted.

  12. Coupled Northern Hemisphere permafrost-ice-sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willeit, M.; Ganopolski, A.

    2015-09-01

    Permafrost influences a number of processes which are relevant for local and global climate. For example, it is well known that permafrost plays an important role in global carbon and methane cycles. Less is known about the interaction between permafrost and ice sheets. In this study a permafrost module is included in the Earth system model CLIMBER-2, and the coupled Northern Hemisphere (NH) permafrost-ice-sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle is explored. The model performs generally well at reproducing present-day permafrost extent and thickness. Modeled permafrost thickness is sensitive to the values of ground porosity, thermal conductivity and geothermal heat flux. Permafrost extent at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) agrees well with reconstructions and previous modeling estimates. Present-day permafrost thickness is far from equilibrium over deep permafrost regions. Over central Siberia and the Arctic Archipelago permafrost is presently up to 200-500 m thicker than it would be at equilibrium. In these areas, present-day permafrost depth strongly depends on the past climate history and simulations indicate that deep permafrost has a memory of surface temperature variations going back to at least 800 ka. Over the last glacial cycle permafrost has a relatively modest impact on simulated NH ice sheet volume except at LGM, when including permafrost increases ice volume by about 15 m sea level equivalent in our model. This is explained by a delayed melting of the ice base from below by the geothermal heat flux when the ice sheet sits on a porous sediment layer and permafrost has to be melted first. Permafrost affects ice sheet dynamics only when ice extends over areas covered by thick sediments, which is the case at LGM.

  13. Coupled Northern Hemisphere permafrost–ice-sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Willeit

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Permafrost influences a number of processes which are relevant for local and global climate. For example, it is well known that permafrost plays an important role in global carbon and methane cycles. Less is known about the interaction between permafrost and ice sheets. In this study a permafrost module is included in the Earth system model CLIMBER-2, and the coupled Northern Hemisphere (NH permafrost–ice-sheet evolution over the last glacial cycle is explored. The model performs generally well at reproducing present-day permafrost extent and thickness. Modeled permafrost thickness is sensitive to the values of ground porosity, thermal conductivity and geothermal heat flux. Permafrost extent at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM agrees well with reconstructions and previous modeling estimates. Present-day permafrost thickness is far from equilibrium over deep permafrost regions. Over central Siberia and the Arctic Archipelago permafrost is presently up to 200–500 m thicker than it would be at equilibrium. In these areas, present-day permafrost depth strongly depends on the past climate history and simulations indicate that deep permafrost has a memory of surface temperature variations going back to at least 800 ka. Over the last glacial cycle permafrost has a relatively modest impact on simulated NH ice sheet volume except at LGM, when including permafrost increases ice volume by about 15 m sea level equivalent in our model. This is explained by a delayed melting of the ice base from below by the geothermal heat flux when the ice sheet sits on a porous sediment layer and permafrost has to be melted first. Permafrost affects ice sheet dynamics only when ice extends over areas covered by thick sediments, which is the case at LGM.

  14. Linear Polarization Properties of Parsec-Scale AGN Jets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander B. Pushkarev

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available We used 15 GHz multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA polarization sensitive observations of 484 sources within a time interval 1996–2016 from the MOJAVE program, and also from the NRAO data archive. We have analyzed the linear polarization characteristics of the compact core features and regions downstream, and their changes along and across the parsec-scale active galactic nuclei (AGN jets. We detected a significant increase of fractional polarization with distance from the radio core along the jet as well as towards the jet edges. Compared to quasars, BL Lacs have a higher degree of polarization and exhibit more stable electric vector position angles (EVPAs in their core features and a better alignment of the EVPAs with the local jet direction. The latter is accompanied by a higher degree of linear polarization, suggesting that compact bright jet features might be strong transverse shocks, which enhance magnetic field regularity by compression.

  15. Glacial vicariance in the Pacific Northwest: evidence from a lodgepole pine mitochondrial DNA minisatellite for multiple genetically distinct and widely separated refugia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Godbout, Julie; Fazekas, Aron; Newton, Craig H; Yeh, Francis C; Bousquet, Jean

    2008-05-01

    The Canadian side of the Pacific Northwest was almost entirely covered by ice during the last glacial maximum, which has induced vicariance and genetic population structure for several plant and animal taxa. Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex. Loud.) has a wide latitudinal and longitudinal distribution in the Pacific Northwest. Our main objective was to identify relictual signatures of glacial vicariance in the population structure of the species and search for evidence of distinct glacial refugia in the Pacific Northwest. A maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA minisatellite-like marker was used to decipher haplotype diversity in 91 populations of lodgepole pine located across the natural range. Overall population differentiation was sizeable (G(ST) = 0.365 and R(ST) = 0.568). Four relatively homogeneous groups of populations, possibly representative of as many genetically distinct glacial populations, were identified for the two main subspecies, ssp. latifolia and ssp. contorta. For ssp. contorta, one glacial lineage is suggested to have been located at high latitudes and possibly off the coast of mainland British Columbia (BC), while the other is considered to have been located south of the ice sheet along the Pacific coast. For ssp. latifolia, two genetically distinct glacial populations probably occurred south of the ice sheet: in the area bounded by the Cascades and Rocky Mountains ranges, and on the eastern side of the Rockies. A possible fifth refugium located in the Yukon may have also been present for ssp. latifolia. Zones of contact between these ancestral lineages were also apparent in interior and northern BC. These results indicate the role of the Queen Charlotte Islands and the Alexander Archipelago as a refugial zone for some Pacific Northwest species and the vicariant role played by the Cascades and the American Rocky Mountains during glaciation.

  16. Glacial/interglacial wetland, biomass burning, and geologic methane emissions constrained by dual stable isotopic CH4 ice core records

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bock, Michael; Schmitt, Jochen; Beck, Jonas; Seth, Barbara; Chappellaz, Jérôme; Fischer, Hubertus

    2017-07-01

    Atmospheric methane (CH4) records reconstructed from polar ice cores represent an integrated view on processes predominantly taking place in the terrestrial biogeosphere. Here, we present dual stable isotopic methane records [δ13CH4 and δD(CH4)] from four Antarctic ice cores, which provide improved constraints on past changes in natural methane sources. Our isotope data show that tropical wetlands and seasonally inundated floodplains are most likely the controlling sources of atmospheric methane variations for the current and two older interglacials and their preceding glacial maxima. The changes in these sources are steered by variations in temperature, precipitation, and the water table as modulated by insolation, (local) sea level, and monsoon intensity. Based on our δD(CH4) constraint, it seems that geologic emissions of methane may play a steady but only minor role in atmospheric CH4 changes and that the glacial budget is not dominated by these sources. Superimposed on the glacial/interglacial variations is a marked difference in both isotope records, with systematically higher values during the last 25,000 y compared with older time periods. This shift cannot be explained by climatic changes. Rather, our isotopic methane budget points to a marked increase in fire activity, possibly caused by biome changes and accumulation of fuel related to the late Pleistocene megafauna extinction, which took place in the course of the last glacial.

  17. High altitude C4 grasslands in the northern Andes: relicts from glacial conditions?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boom, A.; Mora, G.; Cleef, A.M.; Hooghiemstra, H.

    2001-01-01

    The altitudinal vegetation distribution in the northern Andes during glacial time differed from the present-day conditions as a result of temperature and precipitation change. New evidence indicate that as a response to a reduced atmospheric partial CO2 pressure (pCO2), the competitive balance

  18. Combining ground-based and airborne EM through Artificial Neural Networks for modelling glacial till under saline groundwater conditions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gunnink, J.L.; Bosch, A.; Siemon, B.

    2012-01-01

    Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) methods supply data over large areas in a cost-effective way. We used ArtificialNeural Networks (ANN) to classify the geophysical signal into a meaningful geological parameter. By using examples of known relations between ground-based geophysical data (in this case...... electrical conductivity, EC, from electrical cone penetration tests) and geological parameters (presence of glacial till), we extracted learning rules that could be applied to map the presence of a glacial till using the EC profiles from the airborne EM data. The saline groundwater in the area was obscuring...

  19. A Chronology of Late-Glacial and Holocene Advances of Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru, Based on 10Be and Radiocarbon Dating

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, M. A.; Lowell, T. V.; Schaefer, J. M.

    2007-12-01

    The Quelccaya Ice Cap region in the southeastern Peruvian Andes (~13-14°S latitude) is a key location for the development of late-glacial and Holocene terrestrial paleoclimate records in the tropics. We present a chronology of past extents of Quelccaya Ice Cap based on ~thirty internally consistent 10Be dates of boulders on moraines and bedrock as well as twenty radiocarbon dates of organic material associated with moraines. Based on results from both dating methods, we suggest that significant advances of Quelccaya Ice Cap occurred during late-glacial time, at ~12,700-11,400 yr BP, and during Late Holocene time ~400-300 yr BP. Radiocarbon dating of organic material associated with moraines provides maximum and minimum ages for ice advances and recessions, respectively, thus providing an independent check on 10Be dates of boulders on moraines. The opportunity to use both 10Be and radiocarbon dating makes the Quelccaya Ice Cap region a potentially important low-latitude calibration site for production rates of cosmogenic nuclides. Our radiocarbon chronology provides a tighter constraint on maximum ages of late-glacial and Late Holocene ice advances. Upcoming field research will obtain organic material for radiocarbon dating to improve minimum age constrains for late-glacial and Late Holocene ice recessions.

  20. Linear scleroderma following Blaschko′s lines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mukhopadhyay Amiya

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Blaschko′s lines form a pattern, which many diseases are found to follow, but linear scleroderma following Blaschko′s lines is a controversial entity rarely reported in the literature. A 24-year-old man presented with multiple linear, atrophic, hyperpigmented lesions punctuated by areas of depigmentations on the left half of the trunk distributed on the anterior, lateral and posterior aspects. The lesions were distributed in a typical S-shaped line. Antinuclear antibody and antihistone antibody tests were negative. Histopathological examination of the skin from the affected area showed features suggestive of scleroderma. Here, we present a case of linear scleroderma following Blaschko′s lines in a male patient - an entity reported only three times so far.

  1. The George V Land Continental Margin (East Antarctica): new Insights Into Bottom Water Production and Quaternary Glacial Processes from the WEGA project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caburlotto, A.; de Santis, L.; Lucchi, R. G.; Giorgetti, G.; Damiani, D.; Macri', P.; Tolotti, R.; Presti, M.; Armand, L.; Harris, P.

    2004-12-01

    The George Vth Land represents the ending of one of the largest subglacial basin (Wilkes Basin) of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS). Furthermore, its coastal areas are zone of significant production of High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW). Piston and gravity cores and high resolution echo-sounding (3.5 kHz) and Chirp profiles collected in the frame of the joint Australian and Italian WEGA (WilkEs Basin GlAcial History) project provide new insights into the Quaternary history of the EAIS and the HSSW across this margin: from the sediment record filling and draping valleys and banks along the continental shelf, to the continuous sedimentary section of the mound-channel system on the continental rise. The discovery of a current-lain sediment drift (Mertz Drift, MD) provides clues to understanding the age of the last glacial erosive events, as well as to infer flow-pathways of bottom-water masses changes. The MD shows disrupted, fluted reflectors due to glacial advance during the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum) in shallow water, while undisturbed sediment drift deposited at greater water depth, indicates that during the LGM the ice shelf was floating over the deep sector of the basin. The main sedimentary environment characterising the modern conditions of the continental rise is dominated by the turbiditic processes with a minor contribution of contour currents action. Nevertheless, some areas (WEGA Channel) are currently characterised by transport and settling of sediment through HSSW, originating in the shelf area. This particular environment likely persisted since pre-LGM times. It could indicate a continuous supply of sedimentary material from HSSW during the most recent both glacial and interglacial cycles. This would be consistent with the results obtained in the continental shelf suggesting that the Ice Sheet was not grounding over some parts of the continental shelf. Furthermore, the comparison of the studied area with other Antarctic margins indicate that, contrary

  2. A community-based geological reconstruction of Antarctic Ice Sheet deglaciation since the Last Glacial Maximum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bentley, Michael J.; Ó Cofaigh, Colm; Anderson, John B.; Conway, Howard; Davies, Bethan; Graham, Alastair G. C.; Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter; Hodgson, Dominic A.; Jamieson, Stewart S. R.; Larter, Robert D.; Mackintosh, Andrew; Smith, James A.; Verleyen, Elie; Ackert, Robert P.; Bart, Philip J.; Berg, Sonja; Brunstein, Daniel; Canals, Miquel; Colhoun, Eric A.; Crosta, Xavier; Dickens, William A.; Domack, Eugene; Dowdeswell, Julian A.; Dunbar, Robert; Ehrmann, Werner; Evans, Jeffrey; Favier, Vincent; Fink, David; Fogwill, Christopher J.; Glasser, Neil F.; Gohl, Karsten; Golledge, Nicholas R.; Goodwin, Ian; Gore, Damian B.; Greenwood, Sarah L.; Hall, Brenda L.; Hall, Kevin; Hedding, David W.; Hein, Andrew S.; Hocking, Emma P.; Jakobsson, Martin; Johnson, Joanne S.; Jomelli, Vincent; Jones, R. Selwyn; Klages, Johann P.; Kristoffersen, Yngve; Kuhn, Gerhard; Leventer, Amy; Licht, Kathy; Lilly, Katherine; Lindow, Julia; Livingstone, Stephen J.; Massé, Guillaume; McGlone, Matt S.; McKay, Robert M.; Melles, Martin; Miura, Hideki; Mulvaney, Robert; Nel, Werner; Nitsche, Frank O.; O'Brien, Philip E.; Post, Alexandra L.; Roberts, Stephen J.; Saunders, Krystyna M.; Selkirk, Patricia M.; Simms, Alexander R.; Spiegel, Cornelia; Stolldorf, Travis D.; Sugden, David E.; van der Putten, Nathalie; van Ommen, Tas; Verfaillie, Deborah; Vyverman, Wim; Wagner, Bernd; White, Duanne A.; Witus, Alexandra E.; Zwartz, Dan

    2014-09-01

    A robust understanding of Antarctic Ice Sheet deglacial history since the Last Glacial Maximum is important in order to constrain ice sheet and glacial-isostatic adjustment models, and to explore the forcing mechanisms responsible for ice sheet retreat. Such understanding can be derived from a broad range of geological and glaciological datasets and recent decades have seen an upsurge in such data gathering around the continent and Sub-Antarctic islands. Here, we report a new synthesis of those datasets, based on an accompanying series of reviews of the geological data, organised by sector. We present a series of timeslice maps for 20 ka, 15 ka, 10 ka and 5 ka, including grounding line position and ice sheet thickness changes, along with a clear assessment of levels of confidence. The reconstruction shows that the Antarctic Ice sheet did not everywhere reach the continental shelf edge at its maximum, that initial retreat was asynchronous, and that the spatial pattern of deglaciation was highly variable, particularly on the inner shelf. The deglacial reconstruction is consistent with a moderate overall excess ice volume and with a relatively small Antarctic contribution to meltwater pulse 1a. We discuss key areas of uncertainty both around the continent and by time interval, and we highlight potential priorities for future work. The synthesis is intended to be a resource for the modelling and glacial geological community.

  3. Geomorphology and natural hazards of the selected glacial valleys, Cordillera Blanca, Peru

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Klimeš, Jan

    2012-01-01

    Roč. 47, č. 2 (2012), s. 25-31 ISSN 0300-5402 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP209/11/1000 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30460519 Keywords : geomorphologic map * natural hazards * glacial lakes Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography http://web.natur.cuni.cz/ksgrrsek/acta/2012/Geographica_2_2012_Klimes.pdf

  4. Universal features of multiplicity distributions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Balantekin, A.B.; Washington Univ., Seattle, WA

    1994-01-01

    Universal features of multiplicity distributions are studied and combinants, certain linear combinations of ratios of probabilities, are introduced. It is argued that they can be a useful tool in analyzing multiplicity distributions of hadrons emitted in high energy collisions and large scale structure of galaxy distributions

  5. Glacial-interglacial variability in ocean oxygen and phosphorus in a global biogeochemical model

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Palastanga, V.; Slomp, C.P.; Heinze, C.

    2013-01-01

    Increased transfer of particulate matter from continental shelves to the open ocean during glacials may have had a major impact on the biogeochemistry of the ocean. Here, we assess the response of the coupled oceanic cycles of oxygen, carbon, phosphorus, and iron to the input of particulate organic

  6. A ~20,000 year history of glacial variability in the tropical Andes recorded in lake sediments from the Cordillera Blanca, Peru

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stansell, N.; Rodbell, D. T.; Moy, C. M.

    2010-12-01

    Pro-glacial lake sediments from the Cordillera Blanca, Peru contain continuous records of climate variability spanning the Last Glacial Maximum to present day. Here we present results from two alpine lake basins in the Queshgue Valley (9.8°S, 77.3°W) that contain high-resolution records of clastic sediment deposition for the last ~20,000 years. Radiocarbon-dated sediment cores were scanned at 0.5 to 1.0 cm resolution using a profiling x-ray fluorescence scanner for major and minor element distributions. In addition, we measured down-core variations in magnetic susceptibility, organic carbon, biogenic silica and calcium carbonate. Samples of bedrock and sediments from glacial moraines in the Queshgue watershed were analyzed using an ICP-MS in order to fingerprint and trace the source of glacial sediments deposited in the lakes. The bedrock is dominated by a combination of granodiorite with high Sr concentrations and meta-sedimentary rocks with high Zr values. Because the glacial sediments proximal to the modern glacier terminus are composed mostly of the granodiorite end-member, we interpret changes in Sr and clastic sediment concentrations in the lake sediment profiles as proxies for past glacial variability. Preliminary results indicate that glaciers retreated soon after ~14,500 cal yr BP and remained less extensive during the remaining late Glacial Stage and early Holocene. Gradually increasing clastic sediments through the middle and late Holocene indicate that glaciers became progressively larger, or more erosive towards present day. However, this overall Holocene trend of increasing glacier extent was interrupted by multiple periods of centennial- to millennial-scale ice margin retreat. For example, relative peaks in clastic sediments occurred from ~14,500 to 6000, 5600 to 5000, 4600 to 4200, 3600 to 3200, 2800 to 2700, 2400 to 2200, 1750 to 1550, 1100 to 900 cal yr BP, and during the Little Ice Age (~700 to 50 cal yr BP), while periods of low clastic

  7. The role of Southern Ocean mixing and upwelling in glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO2 change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watson, Andrew J.; Naveira Garabato, Alberto C.

    2006-01-01

    Decreased ventilation of the Southern Ocean in glacial time is implicated in most explanations of lower glacial atmospheric CO 2 . Today, the deep (>2000 m) ocean south of the Polar Front is rapidly ventilated from below, with the interaction of deep currents with topography driving high mixing rates well up into the water column. We show from a buoyancy budget that mixing rates are high in all the deep waters of the Southern Ocean. Between the surface and 2000 m depth, water is upwelled by a residual meridional overturning that is directly linked to buoyancy fluxes through the ocean surface. Combined with the rapid deep mixing, this upwelling serves to return deep water to the surface on a short time scale. We propose two new mechanisms by which, in glacial time, the deep Southern Ocean may have been more isolated from the surface. Firstly, the deep ocean appears to have been more stratified because of denser bottom water resulting from intense sea ice formation near Antarctica. The greater stratification would have slowed the deep mixing. Secondly, subzero atmospheric temperatures may have meant that the present-day buoyancy flux from the atmosphere to the ocean surface was reduced or reversed. This in turn would have reduced or eliminated the upwelling (contrary to a common assumption, upwelling is not solely a function of the wind stress but is coupled to the air/sea buoyancy flux too). The observed very close link between Antarctic temperatures and atmospheric CO 2 could then be explained as a natural consequence of the connection between the air/sea buoyancy flux and upwelling in the Southern Ocean, if slower ventilation of the Southern Ocean led to lower atmospheric CO 2 . Here we use a box model, similar to those of previous authors, to show that weaker mixing and reduced upwelling in the Southern Ocean can explain the low glacial atmospheric CO 2 in such a formulation

  8. A Chronologic Dual-Hemisphere Approach to the Last Glacial Termination from the Southern Alps of New Zealand and the Altai Mountains of Western Mongolia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strand, P.; Putnam, A. E.; Schaefer, J. M.; Denton, G.; Barrell, D.; Putnam, D.; Schwartz, R.; Sambuu, O.; Radue, M. J.; Lindsay, B. J.; Stevens, J.

    2017-12-01

    Understanding the processes that drove the last glacial termination in the tropics and mid-latitudes is a major unresolved problem in paleoclimate. The most recent glacial to interglacial transition represents the last great global warming and the last time CO2 rose by a substantial amount before the industrial period. Determining the speed of this warming will help refine the global climate system sensitivity to CO2 and will place ongoing global warming into a paleoclimatic context. Here, we test possible drivers of the last glacial termination by comparing chronologies of mountain glaciers, which are highly sensitive to changes in atmospheric temperature, in the middle latitudes of both polar hemispheres. The dating of glacier landforms, such as moraine ridges constructed along glacier margins, affords quantitative insight into past climate conditions. We present 10Be surface-exposure chronologies and glacial geomorphologic maps of mountain glacier recession since the Last Glacial Maximum in the Southern Alps of New Zealand (44°S, 170°E) and in the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia (49°N, 88°E). On the basis of these chronologies from opposing hemispheres, we evaluate the relative roles of rising atmospheric CO2, local insolation forcing, and ocean-atmosphere reorganizations in driving the global warming that ended the last ice age.

  9. Comparative studies of the dose-response relationship of radiation-induced chromosomal aberrations in human lymphocytes induced by low radiation doses, using Feulgen orcein glacial acetic acid and FPG staining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wagner, R.

    1982-01-01

    Peripheral lymphocytes were exposed in vitro to 220 kV X-radiation, with doses of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.5 Gy, their culture and preparation was made under standardized conditions. The slides were stained using two different methods, namely FPG staining (fluorescence plus giemsa), and the conventional Feulgen orcein glacial acetic acid method. Compared to the conventional method, FPG staining achieved absolute yields of acentric fragments three times higher, and of dicentric chromosomes twice as high. A linear dose-response relationship in acentric fragments was found by the two staining methods alike, which agrees with the theory. Both staining methods revealed a linear-square dose-response relationship in dicentric chromosomes. Using FPG staining, preparing only M 1 cells for evaluation, the linear component was found to be dominant over the whole dose range applied. The conventional method, analysing M 1 and M 2 cells, revealed the square component to be the most important one. The dose-response relationships determined after FPG staining can be used for biological dosimetry. Calibration can be improved by increasing the number of cells analysed at doses [de

  10. Linking microbial diversity and functionality of arctic glacial surface habitats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lutz, Stefanie; Anesio, Alexandre M; Edwards, Arwyn; Benning, Liane G

    2017-02-01

    Distinct microbial habitats on glacial surfaces are dominated by snow and ice algae, which are the critical players and the dominant primary colonisers and net producers during the melt season. Here for the first time we have evaluated the role of these algae in association with the full microbial community composition (i.e., algae, bacteria, archaea) in distinct surface habitats and on 12 glaciers and permanent snow fields in Svalbard and Arctic Sweden. We cross-correlated these data with the analyses of specific metabolites such as fatty acids and pigments, and a full suite of potential critical physico-chemical parameters including major and minor nutrients, and trace metals. It has been shown that correlations between single algal species, metabolites, and specific geochemical parameters can be used to unravel mixed metabolic signals in complex communities, further assign them to single species and infer their functionality. The data also clearly show that the production of metabolites in snow and ice algae is driven mainly by nitrogen and less so by phosphorus limitation. This is especially important for the synthesis of secondary carotenoids, which cause a darkening of glacial surfaces leading to a decrease in surface albedo and eventually higher melting rates. © 2016 The Authors. Environmental Microbiology published by Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  11. Acoustic features of objects matched by an echolocating bottlenose dolphin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delong, Caroline M; Au, Whitlow W L; Lemonds, David W; Harley, Heidi E; Roitblat, Herbert L

    2006-03-01

    The focus of this study was to investigate how dolphins use acoustic features in returning echolocation signals to discriminate among objects. An echolocating dolphin performed a match-to-sample task with objects that varied in size, shape, material, and texture. After the task was completed, the features of the object echoes were measured (e.g., target strength, peak frequency). The dolphin's error patterns were examined in conjunction with the between-object variation in acoustic features to identify the acoustic features that the dolphin used to discriminate among the objects. The present study explored two hypotheses regarding the way dolphins use acoustic information in echoes: (1) use of a single feature, or (2) use of a linear combination of multiple features. The results suggested that dolphins do not use a single feature across all object sets or a linear combination of six echo features. Five features appeared to be important to the dolphin on four or more sets: the echo spectrum shape, the pattern of changes in target strength and number of highlights as a function of object orientation, and peak and center frequency. These data suggest that dolphins use multiple features and integrate information across echoes from a range of object orientations.

  12. Orbital and millennial-scale features of atmospheric CH4 over the past 800,000 years.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loulergue, Laetitia; Schilt, Adrian; Spahni, Renato; Masson-Delmotte, Valérie; Blunier, Thomas; Lemieux, Bénédicte; Barnola, Jean-Marc; Raynaud, Dominique; Stocker, Thomas F; Chappellaz, Jérôme

    2008-05-15

    Atmospheric methane is an important greenhouse gas and a sensitive indicator of climate change and millennial-scale temperature variability. Its concentrations over the past 650,000 years have varied between approximately 350 and approximately 800 parts per 10(9) by volume (p.p.b.v.) during glacial and interglacial periods, respectively. In comparison, present-day methane levels of approximately 1,770 p.p.b.v. have been reported. Insights into the external forcing factors and internal feedbacks controlling atmospheric methane are essential for predicting the methane budget in a warmer world. Here we present a detailed atmospheric methane record from the EPICA Dome C ice core that extends the history of this greenhouse gas to 800,000 yr before present. The average time resolution of the new data is approximately 380 yr and permits the identification of orbital and millennial-scale features. Spectral analyses indicate that the long-term variability in atmospheric methane levels is dominated by approximately 100,000 yr glacial-interglacial cycles up to approximately 400,000 yr ago with an increasing contribution of the precessional component during the four more recent climatic cycles. We suggest that changes in the strength of tropical methane sources and sinks (wetlands, atmospheric oxidation), possibly influenced by changes in monsoon systems and the position of the intertropical convergence zone, controlled the atmospheric methane budget, with an additional source input during major terminations as the retreat of the northern ice sheet allowed higher methane emissions from extending periglacial wetlands. Millennial-scale changes in methane levels identified in our record as being associated with Antarctic isotope maxima events are indicative of ubiquitous millennial-scale temperature variability during the past eight glacial cycles.

  13. Eocene to mid-Pliocene landscape evolution in Scandinavia inferred from offshore sediment volumes and pre-glacial topography using inverse modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedersen, Vivi K.; Braun, Jean; Huismans, Ritske S.

    2018-02-01

    The origin of high topography in Scandinavia is highly debated, both in terms of its age and the underlying mechanism for its formation. Traditionally, the current high topography is assumed to have formed by several Cenozoic (mainly Neogene) phases of surface uplift and dissection of an old peneplain surface. These same surface uplift events are suggested to explain the increased deposition observed in adjacent offshore basins on the Norwegian shelf and in the North Sea. However, more recently it has been suggested that erosion and isostatic rock uplift of existing topography may also explain the recent evolution of topography in Scandinavia. For this latter view, the increased sedimentation towards the present is assumed to be a consequence of a climate related increase in erosion. In this study we explore whether inverse modelling of landscape evolution can give new insight into Eocene to mid-Pliocene (54-4 Ma) landscape evolution in the Scandinavian region. We do this by combining a highly efficient forward-in-time landscape evolution model (FastScape) with an optimization scheme suitable for non-linear inverse problems (the neighbourhood algorithm - NA). To limit our approach to the fluvial regime, we exclude the most recent mid-Pliocene-Quaternary time period where glacial erosion processes are expected to dominate landscape evolution. The "goodness" of our landscape evolution models is evaluated using i) sediment fluxes based on decompacted offshore sediment volumes and ii) maximum pre-glacial topography from a mid-Pliocene landscape, reconstructed using geophysical relief and offshore sediment volumes from the mid-Pliocene-Quaternary. We find several tested scenarios consistent with the offshore sediment record and the maximum elevation for our reconstructed pre-glacial (mid-Pliocene) landscape reconstruction, including: I) substantial initial topography ( 2 km) at 54 Ma and no induced tectonic rock uplift, II) the combination of some initial topography ( 1

  14. Multiple glacial culminations from the Lateglacial to the late Holocene in central and southern Peru (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Licciardi, J. M.; Schaefer, J. M.; Rodbell, D. T.; Stansell, N.; Schweinsberg, A.; Finkel, R. C.; Zimmerman, S. R.

    2013-12-01

    Fluctuations in small tropical mountain glaciers serve as sensitive indicators of variations in past and present-day climate. Most of the world's modern tropical glaciers reside in the Peruvian Andes, where a growing number of well-dated glacial records have recently been developed. As additional records are documented, regional patterns of late Pleistocene to Holocene glacial activity have begun to emerge. Here we present a compilation of new and previously obtained 10Be surface exposure ages from boulders on well-preserved moraine successions in two glaciated Andean ranges: the Cordillera Vilcabamba of southern Peru (13°20'S, 72°32'W) and the Huaguruncho massif (10°32'S, 75°56'W), located in central Peru ~450 km northwest of the Vilcabamba. A high-resolution composite chronology that merges >100 10Be measurements on moraine sequences in five glaciated drainages of the Cordillera Vilcabamba reveals the occurrence of at least five discrete glacial culminations from the Lateglacial to the late Holocene. At the Huaguruncho massif, >20 10Be exposure ages obtained from moraine sequences in a south-facing cirque indicate at least three major glacial stages spanning the Lateglacial to the Little Ice Age. The moraine ages at Huaguruncho are broadly correlative with the Vilcabamba moraine chronologies, with some dated moraine belts exhibiting geomorphic expressions that closely resemble those of their coeval counterparts in the Vilcabamba. A recurring finding in both field areas is a mismatch between basal radiocarbon ages from bog and lake sediments and 10Be exposure ages on outboard moraines, which enclose the depositional basins. These age discrepancies suggest that cosmogenic 10Be production rates scaled to high altitudes in the tropics are substantially lower than previous estimates. While we anticipate that future refinements to scaled isotope production rates may significantly affect correlation of 10Be exposure ages in the high Andes with ages derived from

  15. Linear latent variable models: the lava-package

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holst, Klaus Kähler; Budtz-Jørgensen, Esben

    2013-01-01

    are implemented including robust standard errors for clustered correlated data, multigroup analyses, non-linear parameter constraints, inference with incomplete data, maximum likelihood estimation with censored and binary observations, and instrumental variable estimators. In addition an extensive simulation......An R package for specifying and estimating linear latent variable models is presented. The philosophy of the implementation is to separate the model specification from the actual data, which leads to a dynamic and easy way of modeling complex hierarchical structures. Several advanced features...

  16. Linear Basal Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuko Ichinokawa

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Basal cell carcinoma (BCC presents with diverse clinical features, and several morphologic and histologic variants of BCC have been reported [Sexton et al.: J Am Acad Dermatol 1990;23:1118–1126]. Linear BCC was first described as a new clinical subtype in 1985 by Lewis [Int J Dematol 1985;24:124–125]. Here, we present a case of linear BCC that we recently encountered in an elderly Japanese patient, and review other cases reported in Japan.

  17. Dissolution of calcite in glacial water; evidence of inhibition and consequences for subglacial speleogenesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lauritzen, S.-E.

    2012-04-01

    Subglacial speleogenesis (i.e. formation of caves by ice-contact underneath or along glaciers) is an important speleogenetic modus that have taken place in many previously glaciated areas. It is however controversial how efficient this process is when compared to speleogenesis under non-glacial conditions: Can caves be formed from 'scratch' - from a pristine, microscopic fracture (speleogenesis sensu stricto) - or is this process more intensive under non-glacial conditions, so that ice-contact water can only widen pre-existing conduits (speleogenesis sensu lato)? Subglacial waters are low in CO2 and close to zero degrees. A critical parameter for transforming a fracture into a cave is the breakthrough time, tB, which is the time from commencement of flow until undersaturated water can flow freely through the full length of the flowpath. The breathrough effect (i.e. when radial widening accelerates) is dependent on the switching concentration, Cs, which drops dramatically with low CO2 in the system. Apart from the initial aperture and length of the percolation paths through the rock mass, two additional factors are important for tB: 1) the concentration of glacial rock flour and 2) its ability to interfer with the carbonate chemistry. A series of thermostated dissolution experiments using marble and various additions of authentic glacier silt and crushed metamorphic rocks demonstrate and support theoretical considerations that subglacial speleogenesis in low CO2 waters is slower than first anticipated. The sensu stricto mechanism is also severely hampered by the clogging effect of glacial silt, whilst the sensu lato mechanism is sluggish because corrosion of the large specific area of silt particles consumes aggressiveness thus slowing first-order rates when the water comes in contact with the karst surface. Also, for the same reason, Cs may be exceeded before the water enters karst, so that breakthrough may be totally suppressed. Interglacial waters seem > 50 times

  18. Size and shape stasis in late Pleistocene mammals and birds from Rancho La Brea during the Last Glacial-Interglacial cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prothero, Donald R.; Syverson, Valerie J.; Raymond, Kristina R.; Madan, Meena; Molina, Sarah; Fragomeni, Ashley; DeSantis, Sylvana; Sutyagina, Anastasiya; Gage, Gina L.

    2012-11-01

    Conventional neo-Darwinian theory views organisms as infinitely sensitive and responsive to their environments, and considers them able to readily change size or shape when they adapt to selective pressures. Yet since 1863 it has been well known that Pleistocene animals and plants do not show much morphological change or speciation in response to the glacial-interglacial climate cycles. We tested this hypothesis with all of the common birds (condors, golden and bald eagles, turkeys, caracaras) and mammals (dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, giant lions, horses, camels, bison, and ground sloths) from Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, which preserves large samples of many bones from many well-dated pits spanning the 35,000 years of the Last Glacial-Interglacial cycle. Pollen evidence showed the climate changed from chaparral/oaks 35,000 years ago to snowy piñon-juniper forests at the peak glacial 20,000 years ago, then back to the modern chaparral since the glacial-interglacial transition. Based on Bergmann's rule, we would expect peak glacial specimens to have larger body sizes, and based on Allen's rule, peak glacial samples should have shorter and more robust limbs. Yet statistical analysis (ANOVA for parametric samples; Kruskal-Wallis test for non-parametric samples) showed that none of the Pleistocene pit samples is statistically distinct from the rest, indicating complete stasis from 35 ka to 9 ka. The sole exception was the Pit 13 sample of dire wolves (16 ka), which was significantly smaller than the rest, but this did not occur in response to climate change. We also performed a time series analysis of the pit samples. None showed directional change; all were either static or showed a random walk. Thus, the data show that birds and mammals at Rancho La Brea show complete stasis and were unresponsive to the major climate change that occurred at 20 ka, consistent with other studies of Pleistocene animals and plants. Most explanations for such

  19. Honeycomb development on Alexander Island, glacial history of George VI Sound and palaeoclimatic implications (Two Step Cliffs/Mars Oasis, W Antarctica)

    Science.gov (United States)

    André, Marie-Françoise; Hall, Kevin

    2005-02-01

    Analysis of three generations of glacial deposits and of a range of geomorphic features including widespread honeycombs and tafonis at Two Step Cliffs/Mars Oasis (71°52‧S, 68°15‧W) provides new insights into the geomorphological evolution of West Antarctica, with special respect to alveolar weathering. At Two Step Terrace, indicators of the inherited character of cavernous weathering were found, such as 97% non-flaking and varnished backwalls, and 80% tafoni floors that are till-covered and/or sealed by lithobiontic coatings. Based on the NE predominant aspect of the alveolized boulder faces, tafoni initiation is attributed to coastal salt spray weathering by halite coming from the George VI Sound during the 6.5 ka BP open water period. The present-day activity of these inherited cavities is restricted to roof flaking attributed to a combination of processes involving thermal stresses. This 6.5 ka BP phase of coastal alveolization is the first step of a six-stage Holocene geomorphological scenario that includes alternatively phases of glacial advance or stationing, and phases of vegetal colonization and/or rock weathering and aeolian abrasion on the deglaciated outcrops. This geomorphic scenario is tentatively correlated with the available palaeoenvironmental record in the Antarctic Peninsula region, with two potential geomorphic indicators of the Holocene Optimum being identified: (1) clusters of centimetric honeycombs facing the sound (marine optimum at 6.5 ka BP); (2) salmon-pink lithobiontic coatings preserved inside cavities and at the boulder surface (terrestrial optimum at 4 3 ka BP).

  20. On the issue of equifinality in glacial geomorphology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Möller, Per; Dowling, Thomas; Cleland, Carol; Johnson, Mark

    2016-04-01

    A contemporary trend in glacial geomorphology is the quest for some form of unifying theory for drumlin and/or ribbed moraine formation: there MUST be ONE explanation. The result of this is attempts to apply 'instability theory' to the formation of all drumlinoid and ribbed moraine formation or, as an alternative to this, the 'erodent layer hypothesis' for single processes driven formation. However, based on field geology evidence on internal composition and architecture and the internals relation to the exterior, i.e. the shape of drumlins or ribbed moraine, many glacial sedimentologists would argue that it is instead different processes in their own or in combination that lead to similar form, i.e. look-alike geomorphologic expression or equifinality in spite of different process background for their formation. As expressed by Cleland (2013) from a philosophical point of view of a 'common cause explanation', as exemplified with mass extinctions through geologic time, there is probably a 'common cause explanation' for the K/T boundary extinction (massive meteorite impact on Earth), but this is not a common explanation for every other mass extinction. The parallel to our Quaternary enigma is that there can of course be a single common cause for explaining a specific drumlinoid flow set (a particular case), but that does not have to be the explanation of another flow set showing other sedimentological/structural attributes, in turn suggesting that the particular case cause cannot be used for explaining the general case, i.e. all drumlins over glaciated terrain on the globe. We argue in the case of streamlined terrain, which often have considerable morphologic difference between features at local landscape scale whilst still remaining part of the drumlinoid continuum on regional scale, is a product of different processes or process combinations (erosion/deformation/accumulation) in the subglacial system, tending towards the most efficient obstacle shape and thus

  1. Response in atmospheric circulation and sources of Greenland precipitation to glacial boundary conditions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Langen, Peter Lang; Vinther, Bo Møllesøe

    2009-01-01

    The response in northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation and the resulting changes in moisture sources for Greenland precipitation to glacial boundary conditions are studied in NCAR's CCM3 atmospheric general circulation model fitted with a moisture tracking functionality. We employ both...... seasonality, condensation temperatures and source temperatures are assessed. Udgivelsesdato: June 2009...

  2. Inventory and recently increasing GLOF susceptibility of glacial lakes in Sikkim, Eastern Himalaya

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Aggarwai, S.; Rai, S. C.; Thakur, P. K.; Emmer, Adam

    2017-01-01

    Roč. 30, č. 295 (2017), s. 39-54 ISSN 0169-555X Institutional support: RVO:86652079 Keywords : climate change * sikkim * glacial lake outburst flood (glof) * ahp * hazard assessment Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour OBOR OECD: Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7) Impact factor: 2.958, year: 2016

  3. Glacial origin for cave rhythmite during MIS 5d-c in a glaciokarst landscape, Picos de Europa (Spain)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ballesteros, Daniel; Jiménez-Sánchez, Montserrat; Giralt, Santiago; DeFelipe, Irene; García-Sansegundo, Joaquín

    2017-06-01

    Laminated slackwater deposits have been identified in many karst caves related to fluvial and lacustrine sedimentation. However, sedimentological evidence rarely supports a glacial origin for these deposits, which was proposed by previous studies. The Torca La Texa shaft is located in a glaciokarst area that comprises numerous slackwater-type deposits, piled up in fining-upward sequences. A basal sandy erosive layer and millimeter-sized laminated rhythmite with interbedded flowstone characterize these sequences. Fining-upward layers of carbonate silt, clay, and minor quartz sand deposited in flooded conduits define the rhythmite lamination. The presence of allochthonous minerals indicates that the rhythmite sediment comes from the glacial erosion of nearby carbonate mountains. Two 234U/230Th radiometric ages dated the rhythmite deposits around 109 and 95 ka, coinciding with relative cold periods included in the MIS 5d-c. These cold periods were marked by a high annual seasonality, immediately after the glacial local maximum extension, in agreement with a varve-type deposit. The combination of these sedimentological mineralogical, geomorphological and paleoclimate information indicates that the rhythmite should be introduced into the studied cave during the summer melting of the glaciers, which produced the recharge of the karst aquifer, triggering cave floods. In addition, punctual glacier collapses would also have their imprint in the slackwater sequences with thicker, coarser and erosive sand deposits and the spring blocking by glaciers may have promoted floods inside the cave. Therefore, the studied rhythmite can be interpreted as glacial varves decanted during the relatively cold climate conditions.

  4. Topics in quaternion linear algebra

    CERN Document Server

    Rodman, Leiba

    2014-01-01

    Quaternions are a number system that has become increasingly useful for representing the rotations of objects in three-dimensional space and has important applications in theoretical and applied mathematics, physics, computer science, and engineering. This is the first book to provide a systematic, accessible, and self-contained exposition of quaternion linear algebra. It features previously unpublished research results with complete proofs and many open problems at various levels, as well as more than 200 exercises to facilitate use by students and instructors. Applications presented in the book include numerical ranges, invariant semidefinite subspaces, differential equations with symmetries, and matrix equations. Designed for researchers and students across a variety of disciplines, the book can be read by anyone with a background in linear algebra, rudimentary complex analysis, and some multivariable calculus. Instructors will find it useful as a complementary text for undergraduate linear algebra courses...

  5. Reconstruction of Last Glacial to early Holocene monsoon variability from relict lake sediments of the Higher Central Himalaya, Uttrakhand, India

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Juyal, N.; Pant, R.K.; Basavaiah, N.

    2009-01-01

    .5 ka and after14.5–13 ka. The Last Glacial phase ended with the deposition of outwash gravel dated at 11 ka indicating glacial retreat and the onset of Holocene condition. Additionally, centennial scale fluctuations between 16.5 ka and 12.7 ka in the magnetic and geochemical data are seen. A close...... instability in higher northern latitudes. However, centennial scale abrupt changes are attributed to the result of albedo changes on the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau....

  6. Evidence of volcanic and glacial activity in Chryse and Acidalia Planitiae, Mars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez-Alonso, Sara; Mellon, Michael T.; Banks, Maria E.; Keszthelyi, Laszlo P.; McEwen, Alfred S.

    2011-01-01

    Chryse and Acidalia Planitiae show numerous examples of enigmatic landforms previously interpreted to have been influenced by a water/ice-rich geologic history. These landforms include giant polygons bounded by kilometer-scale arcuate troughs, bright pitted mounds, and mesa-like features. To investigate the significance of the last we have analyzed in detail the region between 60°N, 290°E and 10°N, 360°E utilizing HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) images as well as regional-scale data for context. The mesas may be analogous to terrestrial tuyas (emergent sub-ice volcanoes), although definitive proof has not been identified. We also report on a blocky unit and associated landforms (drumlins, eskers, inverted valleys, kettle holes) consistent with ice-emplaced volcanic or volcano-sedimentary flows. The spatial association between tuya-like mesas, ice-emplaced flows, and further possible evidence of volcanism (deflated flow fronts, volcanic vents, columnar jointing, rootless cones), and an extensive fluid-rich substratum (giant polygons, bright mounds, rampart craters), allows for the possibility of glaciovolcanic activity in the region.Landforms indicative of glacial activity on Chryse/Acidalia suggest a paleoclimatic environment remarkably different from today's. Climate changes on Mars (driven by orbital/obliquity changes) or giant outflow channel activity could have resulted in ice-sheet-related landforms far from the current polar caps.

  7. Complementary constraints from carbon (13C) and nitrogen (15N) isotopes on the glacial ocean's soft-tissue biological pump

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmittner, A.; Somes, C. J.

    2016-06-01

    A three-dimensional, process-based model of the ocean's carbon and nitrogen cycles, including 13C and 15N isotopes, is used to explore effects of idealized changes in the soft-tissue biological pump. Results are presented from one preindustrial control run (piCtrl) and six simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) with increasing values of the spatially constant maximum phytoplankton growth rate μmax, which accelerates biological nutrient utilization mimicking iron fertilization. The default LGM simulation, without increasing μmax and with a shallower and weaker Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and increased sea ice cover, leads to 280 Pg more respired organic carbon (Corg) storage in the deep ocean with respect to piCtrl. Dissolved oxygen concentrations in the colder glacial thermocline increase, which reduces water column denitrification and, with delay, nitrogen fixation, thus increasing the ocean's fixed nitrogen inventory and decreasing δ15NNO3 almost everywhere. This simulation already fits sediment reconstructions of carbon and nitrogen isotopes relatively well, but it overestimates deep ocean δ13CDIC and underestimates δ15NNO3 at high latitudes. Increasing μmax enhances Corg and lowers deep ocean δ13CDIC, improving the agreement with sediment data. In the model's Antarctic and North Pacific Oceans modest increases in μmax result in higher δ15NNO3 due to enhanced local nutrient utilization, improving the agreement with reconstructions there. Models with moderately increased μmax fit both isotope data best, whereas large increases in nutrient utilization are inconsistent with nitrogen isotopes although they still fit the carbon isotopes reasonably well. The best fitting models reproduce major features of the glacial δ13CDIC, δ15N, and oxygen reconstructions while simulating increased Corg by 510-670 Pg compared with the preindustrial ocean. These results are consistent with the idea that the soft-tissue pump was more efficient

  8. A 33,000-year-old incipient dog from the Altai Mountains of Siberia: evidence of the earliest domestication disrupted by the Last Glacial Maximum.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikolai D Ovodov

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Virtually all well-documented remains of early domestic dog (Canis familiaris come from the late Glacial and early Holocene periods (ca. 14,000-9000 calendar years ago, cal BP, with few putative dogs found prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ca. 26,500-19,000 cal BP. The dearth of pre-LGM dog-like canids and incomplete state of their preservation has until now prevented an understanding of the morphological features of transitional forms between wild wolves and domesticated dogs in temporal perspective. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDING: We describe the well-preserved remains of a dog-like canid from the Razboinichya Cave (Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. Because of the extraordinary preservation of the material, including skull, mandibles (both sides and teeth, it was possible to conduct a complete morphological description and comparison with representative examples of pre-LGM wild wolves, modern wolves, prehistoric domesticated dogs, and early dog-like canids, using morphological criteria to distinguish between wolves and dogs. It was found that the Razboinichya Cave individual is most similar to fully domesticated dogs from Greenland (about 1000 years old, and unlike ancient and modern wolves, and putative dogs from Eliseevichi I site in central Russia. Direct AMS radiocarbon dating of the skull and mandible of the Razboinichya canid conducted in three independent laboratories resulted in highly compatible ages, with average value of ca. 33,000 cal BP. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The Razboinichya Cave specimen appears to be an incipient dog that did not give rise to late Glacial-early Holocene lineages and probably represents wolf domestication disrupted by the climatic and cultural changes associated with the LGM. The two earliest incipient dogs from Western Europe (Goyet, Belguim and Siberia (Razboinichya, separated by thousands of kilometers, show that dog domestication was multiregional, and thus had no single place of

  9. Asymptotic stability of linearly evolving non-stationary modes in a ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    attention and it is believed to shed important light on the unresolved .... number assumption and is termed as the triple-deck theory. Having ... to analyse asymptotically the linear and weakly non-linear stability features of the station- ..... A numerical integration of equations (7–9) was implemented first to obtain the basic flow.

  10. Linear programming mathematics, theory and algorithms

    CERN Document Server

    1996-01-01

    Linear Programming provides an in-depth look at simplex based as well as the more recent interior point techniques for solving linear programming problems. Starting with a review of the mathematical underpinnings of these approaches, the text provides details of the primal and dual simplex methods with the primal-dual, composite, and steepest edge simplex algorithms. This then is followed by a discussion of interior point techniques, including projective and affine potential reduction, primal and dual affine scaling, and path following algorithms. Also covered is the theory and solution of the linear complementarity problem using both the complementary pivot algorithm and interior point routines. A feature of the book is its early and extensive development and use of duality theory. Audience: The book is written for students in the areas of mathematics, economics, engineering and management science, and professionals who need a sound foundation in the important and dynamic discipline of linear programming.

  11. Geologia e pedologia da bacia glacial no distrito de Sousas, Campinas, SP Geology and pedology of a glacial basin found in the Sousas area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adolpho José Melfi

    1962-01-01

    Full Text Available O presente trabalho refere-se à geologia e pedología de uma bacia sedimentar glacial, situada no distrito de Sousas, Município de Campinas, em região de rochas pré-cambrianas. Os estudos geológicos constaram da elaboração de mapa geológico, baseado em fotografias aéreas, na escala média de 1:14 000 e mapa topográfico na escala de 1:5000; reconhecimento das rochas e esbôço estrutural da bacia. Quando à pedología, foram feitas caracterizações morfo-pedogenétícas dos solos por meio de perfis e determinações das classes texturais através de análise granulométrica.A glacial basin was found in the Sousas area, Campinas County, surrounded by pre-Cambrian rocks and not connected with the Paraná sedimentary basin which possesses a similar formation. Geological studies were carried out consisting of petrographie identifications, structural sketch of the basin, delimitation of its occurrence, and mapping of its geological limits. The field delimitation was done by means of aerial photographs (average scale 1:14, 000 and topographic maps (scale 1:5, 000. The pedological studies that were performed consisted in taking soil profiles for morphological and genetic characterization of the great soil groups and collection of samples for textural analysis.

  12. Early and late Holocene glacial fluctuations and tephrostratigraphy, Cabin Lake, Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zander, Paul D.; Kaufman, Darrell S.; Kuehn, Stephen C.; Wallace, Kristi L.; Anderson, R. Scott

    2013-01-01

    Marked changes in sediment types deposited in Cabin Lake, near Cordova, Alaska, represent environmental shifts during the early and late Holocene, including fluctuations in the terminal position of Sheridan Glacier. Cabin Lake is situated to receive meltwater during periods when the outwash plain of the advancing Sheridan Glacier had aggraded. A brief early Holocene advance from 11.2 to 11.0 cal ka is represented by glacial rock flour near the base of the sediment core. Non-glacial lake conditions were restored for about 1000 years before the water level in Cabin Lake lowered and the core site became a fen. The fen indicates drier-than-present conditions leading up to the Holocene thermal maximum. An unconformity spanning 5400 years during the mid-Holocene is overlain by peat until 1110 CE when meltwater from Sheridan Glacier returned to the basin. Three intervals of an advanced Sheridan Glacier are recorded in the Cabin Lake sediments during the late Holocene: 1110–1180, 1260–1540 and 1610–1780 CE. The sedimentary sequence also contains the first five reported tephra deposits from the Copper River delta region, and their geochemical signatures suggest that the sources are the Cook Inlet volcanoes Redoubt, Augustine and Crater Peak, and possibly Mt Churchill in the Wrangell Volcanic field.

  13. Late glacial ice advances in the Strait of Magellan, Southern Chile

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mcculloch, Robert D.; Bentley, Michael J.

    During the last glacial cycle low gradient glaciers repeatedly drained north-eastward into the Strait of Magellan and dammed extensive proglacial lakes in the central section of the strait. This paper focuses on the two most recent glacial advances in the strait, culminating over 150 and 80 km from the present ice limits. The timing of the first of the two advances has, up to now, been ambiguous and depended on the interpretation of anomously older dates of 16,590-15,800 yr BP for deglaciation at Puerto del Hambre. Here, we show there is evidence from seismic data and truncated shorelines that the Puerto del Hambre basin has been tectonically displaced and that the dates do not represent minimums for deglaciation. Several other dates show that the advance occurred sometime before 14,260 yr BP. The timing of the second advance has been investigated using a refined tephrochronology for the region, which has also enabled a palaeoshoreline and glaciolacustrine sediments to be linked to a moraine limit. 14C dating of peat and a key tephra layer, above and below the glaciolacustrine deposits, respectively suggest that the advance culminated in the Strait of Magellan between 12,010 and 10,050 yr BP.

  14. Influential aspects of glacial resource for establishing Kuhl system (gravity flow irrigation) in the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalaya ranges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ashraf, Arshad; Iqbal, Ayesha

    2018-04-27

    The meltwater components play an important role in the hydrological regime of the Hindu Kush, Karakorum and Himalaya (HKH) region, in terms of high demand of water for food and fiber from snow and glacial resource. The communities of Himalayan mountains are facing challenges of food security owing to lack of the resource information for meeting their water requirements. In this study, suitability index approach was adopted to assess glacier resource potential for establishing kuhl irrigation system in HKH ranges of Pakistan. The basis of indexing is glacier accessibility and water yield potential of the glacial resource for irrigation estimated in terms of number and ice reserve of the glaciers. The suitability index was found good for about 1.4% glaciers constituting about 80% of the total ice reserves of the HKH region. Medium suitability constitutes about 36.1% glaciers with 12.6% of the total ice reserves, while low suitability was assessed for about 60% glaciers containing 1.5% ice reserves only. Maximum unit glacial reserve was estimated for Shigar basin, i.e., 1.44 km 3 , and among HKH ranges, 0.46 km 3 for the Karakoram range. A regular monitoring of the glacial resource would prove helpful in assessing vulnerability of this resource to climate change in the high Himalayan region in future. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  15. Lake-level increasing under the climate cryoaridization conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amosov, Mikhail; Strelkov, Ivan

    2017-04-01

    A lake genesis and lake-level increasing during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are the paramount issues in paleoclimatology. Investigating these problems reveals the regularities of lake development and figures out an arid territory conditions at the LGM stage. Pluvial theory is the most prevalent conception of lake formation during the LGM. This theory is based on a fact that the water bodies emerged and their level increased due to torrential rainfalls. In this study, it is paid attention to an alternative assumption of lake genesis at the LGM stage, which is called climate cryoaridization. In accordance with this hypothesis, the endorheic water basins had their level enlarged because of a simultaneous climate aridity and temperature decrease. In this research, a lake-level increasing in endorheic regions of Central Asia and South American Altiplano of the Andes is described. The lake investigation is related to its conditions during the LGM. The study also includes a lake catalogue clearly presenting the basin conditions at the LGM stage and nowadays. The data compilation partly consists of information from an earlier work of Mikhail Amosov, Lake-levels, Vegetation And Climate In Central Asia During The Last Glacial Maximum (EGU2014-3015). According to the investigation, a lake catalogue on 27 lakes showed that most of the water bodies had higher level. This feature could be mentioned for the biggest lakes of the Aral Sea, Lake Balkhash, Issyk-Kul etc. and for the small ones located in the mountains, such as Pamir, Tian-Shan and Tibet. Yet some lakes that are situated in Central Asian periphery (Lake Qinghai and lakes in Inner Mongolia) used to be lower than nowadays. Also, the lake-level increasing of Altiplano turned to be a significant feature during the LGM in accordance with the data of 5 lakes, such as Titicaca, Coipasa-Uyuni, Lejia, Miscanti and Santa-Maria. Most of the current endorheic basins at the LGM stage were filled with water due to abundant

  16. High resolution record of the Last Glacial Maximum in eastern Australia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petherick, Lynda; Moss, Patrick; McGowan, Hamish

    2010-05-01

    A continuous, high resolution (average ca. 22 year) record encompassing the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) has been developed using multiple proxies (aeolian sediment flux, grain size, pollen and charcoal) in lake sediment from Tortoise Lagoon (TOR), North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia. The presence of Asteraceae tubilifloreae and spineless Asteraceae (common indicators of glacial conditions in Australia) at TOR indicates significantly cooler temperatures (mean annual temperature up to 6oC lower than today). In addition to the palaeoclimatic reconstruction, a record of palaeodust transport pathways for eastern Australia was developed using ICP-MS trace element analysis and geochemical "fingerprinting" of TOR aeolian sediment to continental dust source areas. Vectors between dominant dust source areas and North Stradbroke Island allowed the reconstruction of the position and intensity of LGM dust transport pathways. Furthermore, changes in likely synpotic scale conditions can be postulated based on the position of the dust transport corridors. Similarities between the vegetation at TOR during the LGM and that at temperate sites e.g. Caledonia Fen, Victoria (Kershaw et al. 2007), Redhead Lagoon, New South Wales (Williams et al. 2006) and Barrington Tops, New South Wales (Sweller and Martin 2001) suggests that this record reflects regional conditions across southeastern Australia. The TOR record also correlates well with that from nearby Native Companion Lagoon which suggests that the LGM was actually an extended period of ca. 8 - 10 kyr, characterised by 2 periods of increased aridity (ca. 30 - 26.5 kyr and 21 - 19.5 kyr) (Petherick et al. 2008). A growing number of records from across the Southern Hemisphere e.g. New Zealand (Suggate and Almond 2003; Alloway et al. 2007; Newnham et al. 2007), Chile (Denton et al. 1999), Antarctica (Röthlisberger et al. 2002; EPICA 2006) and Australia (Smith 2009) also show evidence that the LGM encompassed a longer period of

  17. Analysis of blood pressure signal in patients with different ventricular ejection fraction using linear and non-linear methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arcentales, Andres; Rivera, Patricio; Caminal, Pere; Voss, Andreas; Bayes-Genis, Antonio; Giraldo, Beatriz F

    2016-08-01

    Changes in the left ventricle function produce alternans in the hemodynamic and electric behavior of the cardiovascular system. A total of 49 cardiomyopathy patients have been studied based on the blood pressure signal (BP), and were classified according to the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in low risk (LR: LVEF>35%, 17 patients) and high risk (HR: LVEF≤35, 32 patients) groups. We propose to characterize these patients using a linear and a nonlinear methods, based on the spectral estimation and the recurrence plot, respectively. From BP signal, we extracted each systolic time interval (STI), upward systolic slope (BPsl), and the difference between systolic and diastolic BP, defined as pulse pressure (PP). After, the best subset of parameters were obtained through the sequential feature selection (SFS) method. According to the results, the best classification was obtained using a combination of linear and nonlinear features from STI and PP parameters. For STI, the best combination was obtained considering the frequency peak and the diagonal structures of RP, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 79%. The same results were obtained when comparing PP values. Consequently, the use of combined linear and nonlinear parameters could improve the risk stratification of cardiomyopathy patients.

  18. Investigating the evolution of major Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the last glacial-interglacial cycle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Bonelli

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available A 2.5-dimensional climate model of intermediate complexity, CLIMBER-2, fully coupled with the GREMLINS 3-D thermo-mechanical ice sheet model is used to simulate the evolution of major Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the last glacial-interglacial cycle and to investigate the ice sheets responses to both insolation and atmospheric CO2 concentration. This model reproduces the main phases of advance and retreat of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the last glacial cycle, although the amplitude of these variations is less pronounced than those based on sea level reconstructions. At the last glacial maximum, the simulated ice volume is 52.5×1015 m3 and the spatial distribution of both the American and Eurasian ice complexes is in reasonable agreement with observations, with the exception of the marine parts of these former ice sheets.
    A set of sensitivity studies has also been performed to assess the sensitivity of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets to both insolation and atmospheric CO2. Our results suggest that the decrease of summer insolation is the main factor responsible for the early build up of the North American ice sheet around 120 kyr BP, in agreement with benthic foraminifera δ18O signals. In contrast, low insolation and low atmospheric CO2 concentration are both necessary to trigger a long-lasting glaciation over Eurasia.

  19. A method for selecting potential geosites. The case of glacial geosites in the Chablais area (French and Swiss Prealps)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perret, Amandine; Reynard, Emmanuel

    2014-05-01

    Since 2009, an Interreg IVA project (123 Chablais), dealing with the promotion of natural and cultural heritage in the Chablais area, has been developed. It is linked to the creation of the Chablais Geopark. In a context of development of smart forms of tourism, the objective was to develop a strategy promoting the glacial heritage to a wide public in an area where the glaciers have almost disappeared. The recognition of specific places as geoheritage is the result of a double process: a scientific one, based on more or less sophisticated methods, and a social one, that is the acknowledgment by the society. One of the first scientific tasks is to produce a list of "potential geosites" that will be assessed in more details. However, this selection is often a weak point of inventories. It often seems like a "black box" without any transparency. In this project (123 Chablais) we carried out an inventory of glacial geosites, using the method developed by Reynard et al. (2007, 2012). However, a method has been created to enlighten the selection process, and to enhance choices in geoheritage management. As it was not possible to consider all sites in the Chablais area, a mixed selection approach was developed, halfway between completeness and specificity (Martin, 2012). The first step was the creation of a list of "points of interest", established using different sources: literature review, fieldwork and use of GIS to cross information. A selection was then performed according to two criteria: correspondence with a glacial stage (time axis) and belonging to a type of forms (spatial axis). Finally, selected sites aimed at providing a representative overview of the regional glacial witnesses. Therefore, representative sites of the regional geology were selected as well as sites presenting regional peculiarities Temporal and spatial attributes were given to the 101 points of interest identified. From a temporal point of view, this inventory aimed at presenting the main

  20. Fault diagnosis of rotating machine by isometric feature mapping

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Yun; Li, Benwei; Wang, Lin; Wang, Wen; Wang, Zibin

    2013-01-01

    Principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminate analysis (LDA) are well-known linear dimensionality reductions for fault classification. However, since they are linear methods, they perform not well for high-dimensional data that has the nonlinear geometric structure. As kernel extension of PCA, Kernel PCA is used for nonlinear fault classification. However, the performance of Kernel PCA largely depends on its kernel function which can only be empirically selected from finite candidates. Thus, a novel rotating machine fault diagnosis approach based on geometrically motivated nonlinear dimensionality reduction named isometric feature mapping (Isomap) is proposed. The approach can effectively extract the intrinsic nonlinear manifold features embedded in high-dimensional fault data sets. Experimental results with rotor and rolling bearing data show that the proposed approach overcomes the flaw of conventional fault pattern recognition approaches and obviously improves the fault classification performance.

  1. Weak oceanic heat transport as a cause of the instability of glacial climates

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Colin de Verdiere, Alain [Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, Laboratoire de Physique des Oceans, Alain Colin de Verdiere, Brest 3 (France); Te Raa, L. [Utrecht University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht (Netherlands); Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO, The Hague (Netherlands)

    2010-12-15

    The stability of the thermohaline circulation of modern and glacial climates is compared with the help of a two dimensional ocean - atmosphere - sea ice coupled model. It turns out to be more unstable as less freshwater forcing is required to induce a polar halocline catastrophy in glacial climates. The large insulation of the ocean by the extensive sea ice cover changes the temperature boundary condition and the deepwater formation regions moves much further South. The nature of the instability is of oceanic origin, identical to that found in ocean models under mixed boundary conditions. With similar strengths of the oceanic circulation and rates of deep water formation for warm and cold climates, the loss of stability of the cold climate is due to the weak thermal stratification caused by the cooling of surface waters, the deep water temperatures being regulated by the temperature of freezing. Weaker stratification with similar overturning leads to a weakening of the meridional oceanic heat transport which is the major negative feedback stabilizing the oceanic circulation. Within the unstable regime periodic millennial oscillations occur spontaneously. The climate oscillates between a strong convective thermally driven oceanic state and a weak one driven by large salinity gradients. Both states are unstable. The atmosphere of low thermal inertia is carried along by the oceanic overturning while the variation of sea ice is out of phase with the oceanic heat content. During the abrupt warming events that punctuate the course of a millennial oscillation, sea ice variations are shown respectively to damp (amplify) the amplitude of the oceanic (atmospheric) response. This sensitivity of the oceanic circulation to a reduced concentration of greenhouse gases and to freshwater forcing adds support to the hypothesis that the millennial oscillations of the last glacial period, the so called Dansgaard - Oeschger events, may be internal instabilities of the climate system

  2. Glacier-related landforms and glacial lakes in Huascarán National Park, Peru

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Vilímek, V.; Klimeš, Jan; Červená, L.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 12, č. 1 (2016), s. 193-202 ISSN 1744-5647 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP209/11/1000 Institutional support: RVO:67985891 Keywords : moraines * rock glaciers * glacial lakes * Cordillera Blanca * Huascarán National Park * Peru Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography Impact factor: 2.174, year: 2016

  3. Periodic isolation of the southern coastal plain of South Africa and the evolution of modern humans over late Quaternary glacial to interglacial cycles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Compton, J. S.

    2012-04-01

    Humans evolved in Africa, but where in Africa and by what mechanisms remain unclear. The evolution of modern humans over the last million years is associated with the onset of major global climate fluctuations, glacial to interglacial cycles, related to the build up and melting of large ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere. During interglacial periods, such as today, warm and wet climates favored human expansion but during cold and dry glacial periods conditions were harsh and habitats fragmented. These large climate fluctuations periodically expanded and contracted African ecosystems and led to human migrations to more hospitable glacial refugia. Periodic isolation of relatively small numbers of humans may have allowed for their rapid evolutionary divergence from the rest of Africa. During climate transitions these divergent groups may have then dispersed and interbred with other groups (hybridization). Two areas at the opposite ends of Africa stand out as regions that were periodically isolated from the rest of Africa: North Africa (the Maghreb) and the southern coastal plain (SCP) of South Africa. The Maghreb is isolated by the Sahara Desert which periodically greens and is reconnected to the rest of Africa during the transition from glacial to interglacial periods. The SCP of South Africa is isolated from the rest of Africa by the rugged mountains of the Cape Fold Belt associated with inedible vegetation and dry climates to the north. The SCP is periodically opened when sea level falls by up to 130 m during glacial maxima to expose the present day submerged inner continental shelf. A five-fold expansion of the SCP receiving more rainfall in glacial periods may have served as a refuge to humans and large migratory herds. The expansive glacial SCP habitat abruptly contracts, by as much as one-third in 300 yr, during the rapid rise in sea level associated with glacial terminations. Rapid flooding may have increased population density and competition on the SCP to

  4. Takaka Fossil Cave : a stratified Late Glacial to Late Holocene deposit from Takaka Hill, New Zealand

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Worthy, T.H.; Roscoe, D.

    2003-01-01

    A rich terrestrial vertebrate fauna from the pitfall trap deposit of Takaka Fossil Cave on Takaka Hill, South Island, New Zealand, is described. Radiocarbon ages on moa bones bracket the onset of sedimentation in the site to between 12361 and 11354 14 C yrs BP. Euryapteryx geranoides was in the Late Glacial moa fauna that predates the onset of sedi-mentation in the site, but was absent in younger faunas. The moa Anomalopteryx didiformis was present in the Late Glacial fauna as well throughout the Holocene. A total of 1633 bones from 25 species of birds and a further 895 bones of 154 individuals of vertebrates other than birds (two species of frog, one tuatara, three lizards, two bats, and a rat) were identified in the total recovered fauna. A well-preserved partial skeleton of Haast's eagle (Harpagornis moorei) of Late Glacial age had severe arthritis. Unusually small specimens of Euryapteryx were morphologically diagnosed as E. geranoides, and confirmed as such by mitochondrial DNA analysis. The molluscan fauna contained two aquatic, troglobitic hydrobiids and 29 taxa of land snails. While there is little change in species diversity between lower and upper layers, there are marked changes in relative abundance of some taxa that suggest the environment was drier in the Early and Middle Holocene than it was in the Late Holocene. (author). 26 refs., 3 figs., 4 tabs

  5. Simulation of the European ice sheet through the last glacial cycle and prediction of future glaciation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boulton, G.S.; Payne, A.

    1992-12-01

    Global climates of the recent past appear to correlate with patterns of variation in the earths orbit round the sun. As such orbital changes can be predicted into the future, it is argued that the pattern of natural long-term future change can also be estimated. From this, future trends of glaciation can be inferred. The physical and mathematical basis of a time-dependent, thermo mechanically coupled, three dimensional ice sheet model is described. The model is driven by changes in the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) on its surface. This causes flexure of the underlying lithosphere. The model is tuned to the maximum extension of the last (Weichselian) ice sheet and driven by an ELA fluctuation which reflects the NE Atlantic sea surface temperature fluctuation pattern during the last glacial cycle in such a way that the model reproduces the ice sheet margin at the glacial maximum. The distribution of internal ice sheet velocity, temperature, basal melting rate and sub glacial permafrost penetration are all computed. The model is then tested against its predictions of the areal pattern of ice sheet expansion and decay, the pattern of crustal flexure and relative sea level change, and the distribution of till produced by the last European ice sheet. The tested model is then driven by predictions of future climate change to produce simulations of future ice sheet glaciation in northern Europe

  6. Changes in vegetation since the late glacial on peat bog in the Small Carpathians

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ciernikova, M.

    2014-01-01

    Mires are ecosystems accumulating high amount of organic matter with preserved micro- and macro-fossils. Thus they can serve as natural archives allowing reconstruction of local vegetation and landscape development. Main aim of this study was to bring evidence of the whole Holocene history of mire birch woodland located on the ridge of the Male Karpaty Mts (SW Slovakia) using pollen analysis. One peat core was sampled from the middle part containing the whole Holocene sequence. The local development of study site started with small lake in a terrain depression, which arose at the end of the Late Glacial (Middle Dryas). The Late Glacial landscape was mosaic of birch-pine forests on suitable places and Artemisia steppes. Early Holocene is characterized by steep decline of pine and increase of Corylus and other mesophilous trees (Quercus, Tilia, Ulmus, Fraxinus). Fagus started dominate in middle Holocene (about 5000 cal BP). The recent vegetation established only several hundred years ago (ca 500 cal. BP), when birch started dominate. (author)

  7. Linear gate with prescaled window

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Koch, J; Bissem, H H; Krause, H; Scobel, W [Hamburg Univ. (Germany, F.R.). 1. Inst. fuer Experimentalphysik

    1978-07-15

    An electronic circuit is described that combines the features of a linear gate, a single channel analyzer and a prescaler. It allows selection of a pulse height region between two adjustable thresholds and scales the intensity of the spectrum within this window down by a factor 2sup(N) (0<=N<=9), whereas the complementary part of the spectrum is transmitted without being affected.

  8. Glacial reduction and millennial-scale variations in Drake Passage throughflow.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lamy, Frank; Arz, Helge W; Kilian, Rolf; Lange, Carina B; Lembke-Jene, Lester; Wengler, Marc; Kaiser, Jérôme; Baeza-Urrea, Oscar; Hall, Ian R; Harada, Naomi; Tiedemann, Ralf

    2015-11-03

    The Drake Passage (DP) is the major geographic constriction for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and exerts a strong control on the exchange of physical, chemical, and biological properties between the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean basins. Resolving changes in the flow of circumpolar water masses through this gateway is, therefore, crucial for advancing our understanding of the Southern Ocean's role in global ocean and climate variability. Here, we reconstruct changes in DP throughflow dynamics over the past 65,000 y based on grain size and geochemical properties of sediment records from the southernmost continental margin of South America. Combined with published sediment records from the Scotia Sea, we argue for a considerable total reduction of DP transport and reveal an up to ∼ 40% decrease in flow speed along the northernmost ACC pathway entering the DP during glacial times. Superimposed on this long-term decrease are high-amplitude, millennial-scale variations, which parallel Southern Ocean and Antarctic temperature patterns. The glacial intervals of strong weakening of the ACC entering the DP imply an enhanced export of northern ACC surface and intermediate waters into the South Pacific Gyre and reduced Pacific-Atlantic exchange through the DP ("cold water route"). We conclude that changes in DP throughflow play a critical role for the global meridional overturning circulation and interbasin exchange in the Southern Ocean, most likely regulated by variations in the westerly wind field and changes in Antarctic sea ice extent.

  9. A New View of Glacial Age Coastal Wetlands from A Well-Preserved Underwater Baldcypress Forest in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeLong, K. L.; Harley, G. L.; Bentley, S. J.; Xu, K.; Reese, A.; Caporaso, A.; Obelcz, J.; Gonzalez Rodriguez, S. M.; Truong, J. T.; Shen, Z.; Raines, B.

    2017-12-01

    A unique site in the northern Gulf of Mexico contains well-preserved baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) stumps in life position deposited when sea level was lower during the last glacial interval presumably uncovered by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Previous pollen and climate model studies suggest the southeastern USA was cold and dry during the glacial with boreal forests; however, little paleo-evidence for the northern gulf coast exist. Wood normally decomposes quickly in marine environments thus such sites are rare and understudied until this multi-disciplinary team began studying the site in 2012. The team has dived the site collecting 23 wood samples, conducted two geophysical surveys, and recovered 18 vibracores. Radiocarbon dating of tree stumps reveal that the trees are radiocarbon dead yet some dates from the woody fractions in the sediments above the trees have 14C ages from 37,350-41,830 years BP, which are close to the 14C dating limitations. Optically stimulated luminescence dating pushes burial of the forest back to 60-70 ka. Based on the site location (13.5 km offshore), water depth (18 m), and relative tectonic stability of this area, and geophysical surveys, these subtropical baldcypress trees lived 30 m above sea level in a backwater swamp in an area with topographic relief during a lower sea level stand in the last glacial interval (MIS 3-4) near the now buried and incised Mobile River channels. Pollen analysis from sediment core samples found an abundance of baldcypress and tupelo (Nyssa aquatic)with some pine pollen similar to the modern northern Gulf Coast. We developed a floating tree-ring chronology spanning 489 years using wood samples with bark still intact. This chronology reveals growth suppression events towards the end of their life with death occurring simultaneously and burial possibly caused by floodplain aggradation from a quick rise in sea level during the glacial interval. These large baldcypress trees and pollen results suggest the

  10. Glacial isostatic adjustment and sea-level change. State of the art report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Whitehouse, Pippa

    2009-04-01

    This report outlines the physics of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), how this affects sea-level, and the methods which are employed by researchers to study and understand these processes. The report describes the scientific background into the processes and methods presented in SKB TR-06-23 (INIS ref 38-021351). The purpose of this report is to provide a reference document for people who require a more in-depth understanding of GIA processes than is presented in the earlier report. The key components of the GIA system are described, and this is followed by a concise description of the processes that take place within and between these components during a glacial cycle. The report contains 4 chapters: Chapter 1, 'Introduction'; Chapter 2, 'GIA systems', describes the three main systems which are involved in the GIA process; the solid Earth, the hydrosphere and the cryosphere. The various parameters which govern the behaviour of these systems, and must be known in order to model GIA processes, are defined. Chapter 3, 'Governing equations', lays out the physics of GIA and derives the equations which must be solved to determine the redistribution of water over the surface of the Earth, and the solid Earth response. Secondary processes, such as ocean syphoning, are also described. The driving forces behind glacial cycles are briefly discussed. The methods used to solve these equations are laid out in chapter 4, 'State-of-the-art GIA models'. In this chapter, the different approaches used by different groups of researchers are discussed, as are the relative accuracy of the methods. Recent improvements to the theory are described, as are current shortcomings of the models. The various data sets used to calibrate and verify the accuracy of the modelling are also briefly described in this chapter. In the past few years advances in computational speed have enabled researchers to develop models which attempt to account for the effects 3-D Earth structure upon GIA processes

  11. Late Proterozoic glacially controlled shelf sequences in western Mali (west Africa)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deynoux, M.; Prousti, J. N.; Simon, B.

    The Late Proterozoic deposits of the Bakoye Group (500 m) in western Mali constitute a remarkable example of a glacially influenced sedimentary record on an epicratonic platform. They are composed of alternating marine and continental formations which represent accumulation in a basin located in the vicinity of upland areas covered by ice sheets. One of these formations (the Ba4 Formation), which is the focus of this study, is composed of three major units. The basal Unit 1 is made up of carbonaceous coarse to fine grained sandstones which are organized in fining upward sequences and which comprise lenticular diamictite intercalations. This Unit is considered to represent the fore slope gravity flows of a subaqueous ice-cootact fan fed by meltwater streams (≪glacioturbidites≫). Unit 2 is made up of coarse to fine grained sandstones in a highly variable association of facies. This Unit is characterized by the abundance of wave ripples associated with convolute beddings. planar or wavy beddings and tabular or hummocky crossbeddings in a general shallowing upward trend. It also comprises evidence of gravity processes including debris flows and large slumped sandstone bodies. Unit 2 represents the progressive filling of the Ba4 basin and reflects the combined effect of glacially induced eustatism and isostacy during a phase of glacial retreat. The basal part of Unit 3 is made up of a succession (a few meters thick) of conglomerates, diamictites, sandstones, siltstones or carbonates lying on an erosional unconformity marked by periglacial frost wedges. The upper part of Unit 3 is thicker (100-150 m) and onlaps on these basal facies with a succession of sandstone bars exhibiting swaley and hummocky crossbeddings, large cut and fill structures, and planar laminations. Unit 3 is strongly transgressive, the lower shoreface and backshore deposits include algal mats and are onlapped by sand ridges emplaced in a high energy upper to middle shoreface environment. Overall

  12. Lithic technological responses to Late Pleistocene glacial cycling at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, South Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Kyle S.; Oestmo, Simen; Pereira, Telmo; Ranhorn, Kathryn L.; Schoville, Benjamin J.; Marean, Curtis W.

    2017-01-01

    There are multiple hypotheses for human responses to glacial cycling in the Late Pleistocene, including changes in population size, interconnectedness, and mobility. Lithic technological analysis informs us of human responses to environmental change because lithic assemblage characteristics are a reflection of raw material transport, reduction, and discard behaviors that depend on hunter-gatherer social and economic decisions. Pinnacle Point Site 5–6 (PP5-6), Western Cape, South Africa is an ideal locality for examining the influence of glacial cycling on early modern human behaviors because it preserves a long sequence spanning marine isotope stages (MIS) 5, 4, and 3 and is associated with robust records of paleoenvironmental change. The analysis presented here addresses the question, what, if any, lithic assemblage traits at PP5-6 represent changing behavioral responses to the MIS 5-4-3 interglacial-glacial cycle? It statistically evaluates changes in 93 traits with no a priori assumptions about which traits may significantly associate with MIS. In contrast to other studies that claim that there is little relationship between broad-scale patterns of climate change and lithic technology, we identified the following characteristics that are associated with MIS 4: increased use of quartz, increased evidence for outcrop sources of quartzite and silcrete, increased evidence for earlier stages of reduction in silcrete, evidence for increased flaking efficiency in all raw material types, and changes in tool types and function for silcrete. Based on these results, we suggest that foragers responded to MIS 4 glacial environmental conditions at PP5-6 with increased population or group sizes, ‘place provisioning’, longer and/or more intense site occupations, and decreased residential mobility. Several other traits, including silcrete frequency, do not exhibit an association with MIS. Backed pieces, once they appear in the PP5-6 record during MIS 4, persist through MIS

  13. Breaking of ensembles of linear and nonlinear oscillators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buts, V.A.

    2016-01-01

    Some results concerning the study of the dynamics of ensembles of linear and nonlinear oscillators are stated. It is shown that, in general, a stable ensemble of linear oscillator has a limited number of oscillators. This number has been defined for some simple models. It is shown that the features of the dynamics of linear oscillators can be used for conversion of the low-frequency energy oscillations into high frequency oscillations. The dynamics of coupled nonlinear oscillators in most cases is chaotic. For such a case, it is shown that the statistical characteristics (moments) of chaotic motion can significantly reduce potential barriers that keep the particles in the capture region

  14. International Conference on Trends and Perspectives in Linear Statistical Inference

    CERN Document Server

    Rosen, Dietrich

    2018-01-01

    This volume features selected contributions on a variety of topics related to linear statistical inference. The peer-reviewed papers from the International Conference on Trends and Perspectives in Linear Statistical Inference (LinStat 2016) held in Istanbul, Turkey, 22-25 August 2016, cover topics in both theoretical and applied statistics, such as linear models, high-dimensional statistics, computational statistics, the design of experiments, and multivariate analysis. The book is intended for statisticians, Ph.D. students, and professionals who are interested in statistical inference. .

  15. The glacial inception as recorded in the NorthGRIP Greenland ice core: timing, structure and associated abrupt temperature changes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Landais, Amaelle [UMR CEA-CNRS, CEA Saclay, IPSL/Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l' Environnement, Gif-sur -Yvette (France); Hebrew University, Institute of Earth Sciences, Givat Ram, Jerusalem (Israel); Masson-Delmotte, Valerie; Jouzel, Jean; Minster, Benedicte [UMR CEA-CNRS, CEA Saclay, IPSL/Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l' Environnement, Gif-sur -Yvette (France); Raynaud, Dominique [LGGE, UMR CNRS-UJF, St Martin d' Heres (France); Johnsen, Sigfus [University of Copenhagen, Department of Geophysics, Copenhagen (Denmark); Huber, Christof; Leuenberger, Markus; Schwander, Jakob [University of Bern, Physics Institute, Bern (Switzerland)

    2006-02-01

    The mechanisms involved in the glacial inception are still poorly constrained due to a lack of high resolution and cross-dated climate records at various locations. Using air isotopic measurements in the recently drilled NorthGRIP ice core, we show that no evidence exists for stratigraphic disturbance of the climate record of the last glacial inception ({proportional_to}123-100 kyears BP) encompassing Dansgaard-Oeschger events (DO) 25, 24 and 23, even if we lack sufficient resolution to completely rule out disturbance over DO 25. We quantify the rapid surface temperature variability over DO 23 and 24 with associated warmings of 10{+-}2.5 and 16{+-}2.5 C, amplitudes which mimic those observed in full glacial conditions. We use records of {delta}{sup 18}O of O{sub 2} to propose a common timescale for the NorthGRIP and the Antarctic Vostok ice cores, with a maximum uncertainty of 2,500 years, and to examine the interhemispheric sequence of events over this period. After a synchronous North-South temperature decrease, the onset of rapid events is triggered in the North through DO 25. As for later events, DO 24 and 23 have a clear Antarctic counterpart which does not seem to be the case for the very first abrupt warming (DO 25). This information, when added to intermediate levels of CO{sub 2} and to the absence of clear ice rafting associated with DO 25, highlights the uniqueness of this first event, while DO 24 and 23 appear similar to typical full glacial DO events. (orig.)

  16. Rule Set Transferability for Object-Based Feature Extraction: An Example for Cirque Mapping

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Anders, N.S.; Seijmonsbergen, A.C.; Bouten, W.

    2015-01-01

    Cirques are complex landforms resulting from glacial erosion and can be used to estimate Equilibrium Line Altitudes and infer climate history. Automated extraction of cirques may help research on glacial geomorphology and climate change. Our objective was to test the transferability of an

  17. Isolation and characterization of coliforms from glacial ice and water in Canada's High Arctic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dancer, S J; Shears, P; Platt, D J

    1997-05-01

    Ellesmere Island is the northern most member of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago with over one-third of the land mass covered by ice. A joint services expedition to the island's Blue Mountains offered a unique opportunity for microbiological studies of resident bacteria in an environment uninhabited by man. Over 100 samples of water and ice were collected from stream, lake and glacier and the filtrate cultured under canvas. Bacterial growth was harvested onto swabs for transport back to the UK and 50 coliforms chosen at random for identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Most of the glacial strains were capsulated, pigmented and some over 2000 years old. Genera such as Serratia, Enterobacter, Klebsiella and Yersinia were found; speciation was inconclusive and some organisms remain unidentified. Ampicillin resistance was evident in 80% of water isolates as opposed to 30% of the glacial organisms, but the isolates were generally exquisitely susceptible to antibiotics. The facility for ampicillin resistance did not appear to be transferable. Plasmid DNA was found in 33% of the glacial organisms and over 50% of the water isolates. Similar profiles were identified within and apparently between species and required plasmid restriction analysis to help establish identity. Plasmid-free Serratia spp. were subjected to genomic fingerprinting. Indistinguishable patterns were found within sets of isolates both widely spaced by distance and collection date and it was postulated that coliforms able to survive an Arctic environment had spread extensively throughout the expedition area. In conclusion, this study contributes towards knowledge of naturally occurring antibiotic resistance, confirms the presence of plasmids and genotypic data provided evidence that potentially ancient organisms from glaciers can be cultured from water samples significantly distant.

  18. A kernel-based multivariate feature selection method for microarray data classification.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shiquan Sun

    Full Text Available High dimensionality and small sample sizes, and their inherent risk of overfitting, pose great challenges for constructing efficient classifiers in microarray data classification. Therefore a feature selection technique should be conducted prior to data classification to enhance prediction performance. In general, filter methods can be considered as principal or auxiliary selection mechanism because of their simplicity, scalability, and low computational complexity. However, a series of trivial examples show that filter methods result in less accurate performance because they ignore the dependencies of features. Although few publications have devoted their attention to reveal the relationship of features by multivariate-based methods, these methods describe relationships among features only by linear methods. While simple linear combination relationship restrict the improvement in performance. In this paper, we used kernel method to discover inherent nonlinear correlations among features as well as between feature and target. Moreover, the number of orthogonal components was determined by kernel Fishers linear discriminant analysis (FLDA in a self-adaptive manner rather than by manual parameter settings. In order to reveal the effectiveness of our method we performed several experiments and compared the results between our method and other competitive multivariate-based features selectors. In our comparison, we used two classifiers (support vector machine, [Formula: see text]-nearest neighbor on two group datasets, namely two-class and multi-class datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that the performance of our method is better than others, especially on three hard-classify datasets, namely Wang's Breast Cancer, Gordon's Lung Adenocarcinoma and Pomeroy's Medulloblastoma.

  19. Geodetic measurements reveal similarities between post–Last Glacial Maximum and present-day mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Khan, Shfaqat Abbas; Sasgen, Ingo; Bevis, Michael

    2016-01-01

    and ocean load changes occurring since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ~21 thousand years ago) and may be used to constrain the GrIS deglaciation history. We use data from the Greenland Global Positioning System network to directly measure GIA and estimate basinwide mass changes since the LGM. Unpredicted......Accurate quantification of the millennial-scale mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) and its contribution to global sea-level rise remain challenging because of sparse in situ observations in key regions. Glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) is the ongoing response of the solid Earth to ice...

  20. Interpreting last glacial to Holocene dust changes at Talos Dome (East Antarctica: implications for atmospheric variations from regional to hemispheric scales

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Albani

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Central East Antarctic ice cores preserve stratigraphic records of mineral dust originating from remote sources in the Southern Hemisphere, and represent useful indicators of climatic variations on glacial-interglacial time scales. The peripheries of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, where ice-free areas with the potential to emit dust exist, have been less explored from this point of view. Here, we present a new profile of dust deposition flux and grain size distributions from an ice core drilled at Talos Dome (TALDICE, Northern Victoria Land, East Antarctica, where there is a significant input of dust from proximal Antarctic ice-free areas. We analyze dust and stable water isotopes variations from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Late Holocene, and compare them to the EPICA Dome C profiles from central East Antarctica. The smaller glacial-interglacial variations at Talos Dome compared to Dome C and a distinctive decreasing trend during the Holocene characterize the TALDICE dust profile. By deciphering the composite dust signal from both remote and local sources, we show the potential of this combined proxy of source activity and atmospheric transport to give information on both regional and larger spatial scales. In particular, we show how a regional signal, which we relate to the deglaciation history of the Ross Sea embayment, can be superimposed to the broader scale glacial-interglacial variability that characterizes other Antarctic sites.