the stable isotopic composition of modern soil carbonate and its relationship to climate the oxygen isotopic composition of modern soil carbonate is well correlated with the isotopic composition of local meteoric water the carbon isotopic cycle for co 2 in soils can be described in terms of the proportion of biomass using the c 4 photosynthetic pathway and the co 2 respiration rate of the soil at low soil respiration rates significant atmospheric co 2 mixing can occur in general the carbon isotopic composition of soil carbonate is related to the proportion of c 4 biomass present in soil but soils that freeze to the depth of carbonate formation often have a significant atmospheric component this suggests that freezing of the soil solution should be considered as another important mechanism for soil carbonate formation because of these relationships the isotopic composition of soil carbonate may be a paleoclimatic and paleoecologic indicator in cases in which diagenetic alteration has not occurred

a flexible approach to assessing synchroneity of past events using bayesian reconstructions of sedimentation history the dating of depths in two or more cores is frequently followed by a study of the synchroneity or otherwise of events reflected in the cores the difficulties most frequently encountered are a determining precisely the depths associated with the events and b determining the ages associated with the depths there has been much progress in recent years in developing tools for the study of uncertainties in establishing chronologies this has not yet been matched by similar progress in modelling event depth relationships this paper proposes a simple and flexible approach showing how uncertain events can be married to uncertain chronologies difficulties in studying event depth age relationships typically involve a confounding of two different problems first what exactly do we mean by an event a point in history a single depth in the core corresponding to a single time or a depth time range sometimes event is in fact a shorthand for a space time process do the data reflect more than one type of event process this can reflect vagueness in definition second what are the sources and implications of the uncertainties here we illustrate the issues involved by examination of several features seen in north european holocene pollen records the alnus rise is regarded as a diachronous early holocene event in contrast the ulmus decline is widely seen as a near synchronous event in the mid holocene the third feature we examine is the interval between the ulmus decline and the first occurrence of cerealia type pollen the evidence for these events lies in cores of lake sediment from which are determined a the proportions of pollen at many depths and b radiocarbon age estimates from usually fewer depths for this illustration we focus on six sites we draw attention to a new and flexible method implemented in the free r software package bchron haslett j parnell a 2008 a simple monotone process with application to radiocarbon dated depth chronologies journal of the royal statistical society series c 57 4 399 418 for the establishment of the uncertainties surrounding the dating of samples in such cores we illustrate its flexibility by assessing the synchroneity of past events

origin of calcium in pedogenic carbonate nodules from silicate watersheds in the far north region of cameroon respective contribution of in situ weathering source and dust input significant amounts of pedogenic ca carbonate nodules have been observed in the far north region of cameroon in the carbonate free watershed of the mayo tsanaga thus a priori not favourable for carbonate nodules accumulations these nodules are associated with a clay rich parent material crpm covering either a granitic upstream or a greenstone bedrock downstream in this peculiar context the amount of pedogenic carbonate nodules represents large quantities of ca and c therefore determining the ca sources for pedogenic carbonate nodules is a key point regarding the mechanisms leading to carbonate nodule precipitation and their role in the biogeochemical cycle of ca three sites two on granite and one on greenstone were studied by combining sr et nd isotope systematics in order to assess the ca sources of carbonate nodules and the origin of the crpm associated with nodules carbonate nodules have a distinct sr isotopic composition in each profile pointing to the contribution of a local source for ca sr isotopic compositions of plagioclases and carbonate nodules display a concomitant variation in each profile indicating that plagioclases acted as a sr and thus ca source for the carbonate nodules nevertheless carbonate nodules have a higher sr isotopic signature than plagioclases implying the contribution of another more radiogenic sr source sr and nd isotope data from the crpm show that it is a mixture of weathered bedrock compounds and saharan dust this result highlights two other potential sr and ca sources biotite and saharan dust calculations of their respective contributions demonstrate that in situ weathering significantly adds to the ca source of nodules this result contrasts with many other studies from similar settings that highlight the importance of allochthonous marine aeolian inputs this conclusion points out that a substantial part of ca is transferred from the local bedrock to the carbonate nodules this mechanism seems to have been possible as peculiar edaphic conditions preserved the primary ca sources making in situ weathering a significant process for providing ca

assessing the reliability of the modified three component spatial autocorrelation technique summary analysis of seismic ambient vibrations is becoming a widespread approach to estimate subsurface shear wave velocity profiles however the common restriction to vertical component wavefield data does not allow investigations of love wave dispersion and the partitioning between rayleigh and love waves in this study we extend the modified spatial autocorrelation technique mspac to three component analysis 3c mspac by determination of love wave dispersion curves this technique provides additional information for the determination of shear wave velocity depth profiles furthermore the relative fraction of rayleigh waves in the total portion of surface waves on the horizontal components is estimated tests of the 3c mspac method are presented using synthetic ambient vibration waveform data different types of surface waves are simulated as well as different modes in addition different spatial distributions of sources are used we obtain rayleigh and love wave dispersion curves for broad frequency bands in agreement with the models used for waveform simulation the same applies for the relative fraction of rayleigh waves dispersion curves are observed at lower frequencies for love waves than for rayleigh waves while 3c mspac has clear advantages for determination of love waves velocities 3c mspac and conventional vertical frequency wavenumber analysis complement each other in estimating the rayleigh wave dispersion characteristics inversions of the dispersion curves for the shear wave velocity depth profile show that the use of love wave velocities confirms the results derived from rayleigh wave velocities in the presence of higher mode surface waves love waves even can improve results application of 3c mspac to ambient vibration data recorded during field measurements pulheim germany show dominance of love waves in the wavefield existing shear wave profiles for this site are consistent with models obtained from inversion of rayleigh and love wave dispersion curves

the global climate response to lowering surface orography of antarctica and the importance of atmosphere ocean coupling abstracta global climate model is used to study the effect of flattening the orography of the antarctic ice sheet on climate a general result is that the antarctic continent and the atmosphere aloft warm while there is modest cooling globally the large local warming over antarctica leads to increased outgoing longwave radiation which drives anomalous southward energy transport toward the continent and cooling elsewhere atmosphere and ocean both anomalously transport energy southward in the southern hemisphere near antarctica poleward energy and momentum transport by baroclinic eddies strengthens anomalous southward cross equatorial energy transport is associated with a northward shift in the intertropical convergence zone in the ocean anomalous southward energy transport arises from a slowdown of the upper cell of the oceanic meridional overturning circulation and a weakening of the horizontal ocean gyres causing sea ice in the northern hemisphere to expand and the arctic to cool comparison wi

pedo sedimentary constituents as paleoenvironmental proxies in the sudano sahelian belt during the late quaternary southwestern chad basin abstract climate and environmental changes since the last glacial maximum in the tropical zone of west africa are usually inferred from marine and continental records in this study the potential of carbonate pedo sedimentary geosystems i e vertisol relics to record paleoenvironmental changes in the southwestern part of chad basin are investigated a multi dating approach was applied on different pedogenic organo mineral constituents optically stimulated luminescence osl dating was performed on the soil k rich feldspars and was combined with radiocarbon dating on both the inorganic 14cinorg and organic carbon 14corg soil fractions three main pedo sedimentary processes were assessed over the last 20 ka bp 1 the soil parent material deposition from 18 ka to 12 ka bp osl 2 the soil organic matter integration from 11 cal ka to 8 cal ka bp 14corg and 3 the pedogenic carbonate nodule precipitation from 7 cal ka to 5 cal ka bp 14cinorg these processes correlate well with the chad basin stratigraphy and west african records and are shown to be related to significant changes in the soil water balance responding to the evolution of continental hydrology during the late quaternary the last phase affecting the vertisol relics is the increase of erosion which is hypothesized to be due to a decrease of the vegetation cover triggered by i the onset of drier conditions possibly strengthened by ii anthropogenic pressure archaeological data from far north cameroon and northern nigeria as well as sedimentation times in lake tilla northeastern nigeria were used to test these relationships the increase of erosion is suggested to possibly occur between c 3 cal ka and 1 cal ka bp finally satellite images revealed similar geosystems all along the sudano sahelian belt and initial 14cinorg ages of the samples collected in four sites gave similar ages to those reported in this study consequently the carbonate pedo sedimentary geosystems are valuable continental paleoenvironmental archives and soil water balance proxies of the semiarid tropics of west africa

late quaternary climate and vegetation of the sudanian zone of northeast nigeria the lake tilla crater lake in northeastern nigeria 10 23 n 12 08 e provides a ca 17 000 14c yr multiproxy record of the environmental history of a sudanian savanna in west africa evaluation of pollen diatoms and sedimentary geochemistry from cores suggests that dry climatic conditions prevailed throughout the late pleistocene before the onset of the holocene the slow rise in lake levels was interrupted by a distinct dry event between ca 10 900 and 10 500 14c yr b p which may coincide with the younger dryas episode the onset of the holocene is marked by an abrupt increase in lake levels and a subsequent spread of guinean and sudanian tree taxa into the open grass savanna that predominated throughout the late pleistocene the dominance of the mountain olive olea hochstetteri suggests cool climatic conditions prior to ca 8600 14c yr b p the early to mid holocene humid period culminated between ca 8500 and 7000 14c yr b p with the establishment of a dense guinean savanna during high lake levels frequent fires were important in promoting the open character of the vegetation the palynological and palaeolimnological data demonstrate that the humid period terminated after ca 7000 14c yr b p in a gradual decline of the precipitation evaporation ratio and was not interrupted by abrupt climatic events the aridification trend intensified after ca 3800 14c yr b p and continued until the present

a revised picture of the structure of the monsoon and land itcz over west africa this article presents an overview of the land itcz intertropical convergence zone over west africa based on analysis of ncar ncep reanalysis data the picture that emerges is much different than the classic one the most important feature is that the itcz is effectively independent of the system that produces most of the rainfall rainfall linked directly to this zone of surface convergence generally affects only the southern sahara and the northern most sahel and only in abnormally wet years in the region a second feature is that the rainbelt normally assumed to represent the itcz is instead produced by a large core of ascent lying between the african easterly jet and the tropical easterly jet this region corresponds to the southern track of african easterly waves which distribute the rainfall this finding underscores the need to distinguish between the itcz and the feature better termed the tropical rainbelt the latter is conventionally but improperly used in remote sensing studies to denote the surface itcz over west africa the new picture also suggests that the moisture available for convection is strongly coupled to the strength of the uplift which in turn is controlled by the characteristics of the african easterly jet and tropical easterly jet rather than by moisture convergence this new picture also includes a circulation feature not generally considered in most analyses of the region this feature a low level westerly jet termed the african westerly jet plays a significant role in interannual and multidecadal variability in the sahel region of west africa included are discussions of the how this new view relates to other aspects of west africa meteorology such as moisture sources rainfall production and forecasting desertification climate monitoring hurricanes and interannual variability the west african monsoon is also related to a new paradigm for examining the interannual variability of rainfall over west africa one that relates changes in annual rainfall to changes in either the intensity of the rainbelt or north south displacements of this feature the new view presented here is consistent with a plethora of research on the synoptic and dynamic aspects of the african easterly waves the disturbances that are linked to rainfall over west africa and spawn hurricanes over the atlantic and with our knowledge of the prevailing synoptic and dynamic features this article demonstrate a new aspect of the west africa monsoon a bimodal state with one mode linked to dry conditions in the sahel and the other linked to wet conditions the switch between modes appears to be linked to an inertial instability mechanism with the cross equatorial pressure gradient being a critical factor the biomodal state has been shown for the month of august only but this month contributes most of the interannual variability this new picture of the monsoon and interannual variability shown here appears to be relevant not only to interannual variability but also to the multidecadal variability evidenced in the region between the 1950s and 1980s

centennial scale climate instabilities in a wet early holocene west african monsoon a holocene gulf of guinea record of riverine runoff based on ba ca in tests of a shallow dwelling planktic foraminifer and sea surface temperature sst based on mg ca reveals centennial scale instabilities in west african monsoon wam precipitation and eastern equatorial atlantic eea thermal conditions the long term holocene climate trend is characterized by a warm and wet early mid holocene and gradual drying and cooling during the late holocene superimposed on this trend are numerous centennial scale drops in precipitation during the early mid holocene the greatest declines in early holocene monsoon precipitation were accompanied by significant sst cooling in the eea and correlate with drops in air temperature over greenland and fresh water outbursts into the north atlantic na this observation suggests that early holocene climate instabilities in the na were closely linked to changes in the wam the strong imprint of na events in summer monsoon precipitation suggests that these events were not confined to winter time the late holocene does not show large amplitude changes in riverine runoff at the centennial level the relatively stable late holocene conditions likely reflect a weakening and stabilization of the monsoon system probably due to diminished influence of the na region due to a reduction in ice sheet

vs30 estimates using constrained h v measurements abstract most seismic codes adopt the average shear wave velocity as a key parameter in the first 30 m of subsoil v s 30 estimates of v s 30 are therefore required for both large and small scale seismic microzonation we propose a technique to measure the v s 30 based on the horizontal to vertical spectral ratio h v of microtremor recorded at a single station the h v is fitted with a synthetic curve using the independently known thickness of a superficial layer of the subsoil as a constraint the proposed procedure consists of three steps 1 identify the depth of a shallow stratigraphic horizon from independent geotechnical data 2 identify its corresponding h v marker and 3 use it as a constraint to fit the experimental h v curve with the theoretical one the synthetic h v curve is calculated by assuming a stratified one dimensional 1d soil model and a tremor wave field from distant random sources that are composed of rayleigh and love waves this technique has been validated on different geological settings following a triple check procedure 1 the theoretical rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion curves calculated for the model derived from the h v fit were compared to the experimental curves measured with the 2d extended spatial autocorrelation esac method and the 1d refraction microtremor remi array surveys 2 the v s profiles and 3 the v s 30 estimates obtained by the proposed technique were compared to those obtained by using the latter array techniques finally the inferred stratigraphy was compared to the geological model the proposed technique is not meant to provide accurate v s profiles but has the potential to provide v s 30 estimates that are coherent with those measured through esac and remi and to satisfy law requirements furthermore the h v is found to be capable in detecting deviations from 1d subsoil geometry over the length of a few meters the correctness of which was confirmed by direct drilling

abrupt onset and termination of the african humid period rapid climate responses to gradual insolation forcing a detailed ca 100 yr resolution and well dated 18 ams 14 c dates to 23 cal ka bp record of latest pleistocene holocene variations in terrigenous eolian sediment deposition at odp site 658c off cap blanc mauritania documents very abrupt large scale changes in subtropical north african climate the terrigenous record exhibits a well defined period of low influx between 14 8 and 5 5 cal ka bp associated with the african humid period when the sahara was nearly completely vegetated and supported numerous perennial lakes an arid interval corresponding to the younger dryas chronozone punctuates this humid period the african humid period has been attributed to a strengthening of the african monsoon due to gradual orbital increases in summer season insolation however the onset and termination of this humid period were very abrupt occurring within decades to centuries both transitions occurred when summer season insolation crossed a nearly identical threshold value which was 4 2 greater than present these abrupt climate responses to gradual insolation forcing require strongly non linear feedback processes and current coupled climate model studies invoke vegetation and ocean temperature feedbacks as candidate mechanisms for the non linear climate sensitivity the african monsoon climate system is thus a low latitude corollary to the bi stable behavior of high latitude deep ocean thermohaline circulation which is similarly capable of rapid and large amplitude climate transitions

high resolution pollen record from core kw31 gulf of guinea documents the history of the lowland forests of west equatorial africa since 40 000 yr ago abstract pollen data from core kw31 recovered off the mouth of the niger river 3 31 1n 05 34 1e 1181 m water depth provide an exceptional record of vegetation changes in the west african lowlands between 40 000 and 3500 cal yr b p the highly diverse microflora testify for the permanency of rain and secondary forests in the niger river catchment at least as gallery formations along rivers during the last glacial period when dry conditions occurred in relation to enhanced trade wind circulation the direct consequence of the post glacial warming and the correlative increase in monsoon fluxes over west africa was the increase in forest diversity and the expansion of rain and secondary forests on the nearby continent comparison between kw31 pollen record and continental pollen data from 5 s to 25 n allows the evaluation of migration rates of tropical forest populations throughout north west africa at the beginning of the holocene and the vegetation response to the shift toward aridity recorded widely at the end of the african humid period around 4000 cal yr b p

holocene climatic instability a prominent widespread event 8200 yr ago the most prominent holocene climatic event in greenland ice core proxies with approximately half the amplitude of the younger dryas occurred 8000 to 8400 yr ago this holocene event affected regions well beyond the north atlantic basin as shown by synchronous increases in windblown chemical indicators together with a significant decrease in methane widespread proxy records from the tropics to the north polar regions show a short lived cool dry or windy event of similar age the spatial pattern of terrestrial and marine changes is similar to that of the younger dryas event suggesting a role for north atlantic thermohaline circulation possible forcings identified thus far for this holocene event are small consistent with recent model results indicating high sensitivity and strong linkages in the climatic system

radiocarbon chronology of the mammoth site at niederweningen switzerland results from dating bones teeth wood and peat abstract the peat section at niederweningen is a site of spectacular excavations of numerous bones of mammoth and other animals that was first recognized in the late 19th century in 1987 1990 new excavations provided more peat material which was radiocarbon dated to 33 000 14 c years bp and 42 000 14 c years bp the first ams radiocarbon ages of mammoth bones from 1890 1891 excavations placed the age between 33 000 14 c years bp and 35 000 14 c years bp in this study new results were obtained on bones teeth wood and peat from the layer that buried the mammoths the ages confirm that the mammoths as well as the peat section in which they were found are older than 40 000 14 c years bp in order to explain the discrepancy between the previous chronology and the new results two preparation techniques were applied for the dating of bones an organic fraction called collagen used to obtain the first radiocarbon ages was dated as well as gelatine prepared using the modified longin method the differences of up to 7000 years between ages obtained on collagen and gelatine fractions show contamination of the collagen fraction with modern carbon the oldest age of 45 870 1080 14 c years bp was obtained on base cleaned gelatine from mammoth bone this age is close to an age of 45 430 1020 14 c years bp obtained for the peat layer that buried the mammoths

ubiquity of anomalous fading in k feldspars and the measurement and correction for it in optical dating anomalous fading rates were measured in k feldspars separated from 49 sediment samples mainly from north america the intensity of the optically stimulated luminescence was found to decrease linea

microtremor observations of deep sediment resonance in metropolitan memphis tennessee we measured site resonance periods throughout metropolitan memphis tennessee the site resonance was derived from recordings of ambient microtremor and is a direct measurement of seismic ground shaking in the memphis metropolitan area the period t0 in s is predicted by the empirical relation t0 0 39899 7 8922 10 3h 3 0634 10 6h2 350 h 1100 m where h is the thickness in m of the unconsolidated sediments that overly hard paleozoic rocks assuming that a quarter wavelength relationship governs the relationship between resonant period sediment thickness and average shear wave speed we estimate the average shear wave speed of unconsolidated sediments as a function of sediment thicknesses vs 521 15 0 37459h 350 h 1100 m the scatter in the observations and discordance with earlier work suggests that caution is warranted in applying these values of wave speed indiscriminately to sites in the absence of further detailed work

the contemporary physical and chemical flux of aeolian dust a synthesis of direct measurements of dust deposition abstract the deposition of aeolian or windblown dust is widely recognized as an important physical and chemical flux to ecosystems dust deposition adds exogenous mineral and organic material to terrestrial surfaces and can be important for the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients there have been many studies that characterize the physical and chemical composition of dust however few studies have synthesized these observations in order to examine patterns geochemical fluxes we have compiled observations of dust deposition rates particle size distributions psd mineralogy and bulk elemental and organic chemistry the rates of dust deposition observed across the globe vary from almost 0 to greater than 450 g m 2 yr 1 sites receiving dust deposition can be partitioned into broad categories based on there distance from dust source regions when compared to global dust models our results suggest some models may underestimate dust deposition rates at the regional and local scales the distance from the source region that dust is deposited also influences the particle size distributions mineralogy and chemical composition of dust however more consistent dust sampling and geochemical analyses are needed to better constrain these spatial patterns on average the concentrations of most major elements si al fe mg ca k in aeolian dust tend to be similar 20 to the composition of the upper continental crust ucc but there is substantial variability from sample to sample in contrast some elements tend to be depleted na or enriched ti in dust likely as a result of soil weathering processes prior to dust emissions trace elements especially heavy metals are consistently enriched in dust relative to the ucc ecologically important nutrients such as n and p are also present in dust deposition the geochemical flux attributable to dust deposition can be substantial in ecosystems located proximal to dust source regions we calculate estimates of elemental flux rates based on the average chemical composition of aeolian dust and varying rates of deposition these estimated flux rates are useful as a rough gauge of the degree to which dust deposition may influence biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and should be utilized to better constrain deposition estimates of global dust models

repeatable process for seismic microzonation using 1 d site specific response spectra assessment approaches application to the city of nice france abstract we are testing three different approaches to assess the site effects based on 1d soil column data the first method follows the eurocodes 8 ec8 approach based on the determination of vs30 soil classes the second one is based on an empirical relationship between vs30 and the fundamental resonance frequency of the site f0 with a response spectra amplification function proposed by cadet et al 2013 and the last one is the application of a 1 d equivalent linear simulation then we propose a repeatable methodology to define the zonation and the associated surface response spectrum from individual results this methodology uses a shape recognition algorithm to build homogeneous response spectra zones and the definition of a specific ec8 like response spectrum adjusted to the distribution of the response spectra in each zone this has been applied to downtown nice a city located on the french riviera that faces the highest seismic hazard in the french mainland area the city is built on two different sedimentary valleys that are prone to lithological site effects the ground acceleration around 1 8 hz can be 20 times higher in the valleys than the one recorded on the surrounding jurassic rock outcrop we defined a 3d geotechnical model composed of 9 homogenous soil layers the surface elastic response spectra in pseudo acceleration obtained with the three methods are compared on the whole city the results indicate that the amplification functions methodology proposed by cadet et al 2012b provides results closer to the numerical simulations compared to ec8 in addition in five sites of the french permanent accelerometric network rap resif located in the valley of nice the site to reference response spectra ratio from the numerical simulations and the spectra amplification function proposed by cadet et al 2012b were compared to earthquake recordings data although the spectra amplification functions are closer to the observations both evaluations underestimate the amplification as they could not capture complex site geometry using the repeatable zonation process on the response spectra from the amplification function three different zones are defined the associated specific response spectra are significantly different from the recommended ec8 response spectra

smooth bumps in h v curves over a broad area from single station ambient noise recordings are meaningful and reveal the importance of q in array processing the boumerdes algeria case 1 single station h v curves from ambient noise recordings in boumerdes algeria show smooth bumps around 1 and 3 hz a complementary microtremor study based on two 34 and 134 meter aperture arrays evidences that these bumps are indeed real peaks produced by two strong vs contrasts at 37 and 118 meters depth strongly smoothed by very high s wave attenuation in the two sedimentary layers these two h v bumps observed over a broad area are meaningful and reveal the importance of q in s wave velocity modeling from microtremor array data processing it also appears that tertiary rocks should be at least in some cases taken into account together with the quaternary sediments to explain single station h v frequency peaks and therefore that considering only the first 30 m of soil for vs amplification evaluation as usually recommended sometimes leads to flaky results by artificially eliminating non explained low frequency peaks from the analysis

climate induced fluvial dynamics in tropical africa around the last glacial maximum abstract the alluvia of the ntem nyong and sanaga fluvial systems in southern cameroon recorded repeated fluvial activity fluctuations during the late pleistocene including the last glacial maximum lgm the beginning of the african humid period and the northern hemispheric bolling allerod we applied a multi proxy approach on alluvial stratigraphies dated between 22 4 and 13 0 cal ka bp including remote sensing sedimentological and morphogenetic methods phytoliths sponge spicules 14c and 13c data a distinct ne sw gradient of landscape and fluvial dynamics around the lgm can be drawn with evidence for the persistence of extended fluvial rainforest refuges only in the ntem catchment the sanaga and nyong catchment areas were characterized by frequent channel migrations floodplain reorganization and unstable vegetation subject to fire including grasslands woodlands and gallery forests with bamboo thickets in spite of increasing rainfall after 16 4 cal ka bp persisting landscape instability played the major role for fluvial system dynamics floodplain transformations and vegetation development until 13 0 cal ka bp before a general landscape stabilization and rainforest expansion set in at the beginning of the holocene

the 8k event cause and consequences of a major holocene abrupt climate change abstract a prominent abrupt climate event about 8200 years ago brought generally cold and dry conditions to broad northern hemisphere regions especially in wintertime in response to a very large outburst flood that freshened the north atlantic changes were much larger than typical climate variability before and after the event with anomalies up to many degrees contributing to major displacement of vegetative patterns this 8k event provides a clear case of cause and effect in the paleoclimatic realm and so offers an excellent opportunity for model testing the response to north atlantic freshening has the same general anomaly pattern as observed for older events associated with abrupt climate changes following north atlantic freshening and so greatly strengthens the case that those older events also reflect north atlantic changes the north atlantic involvement in the 8k event helps in estimating limits on climate anomalies that might result in the future if warming caused ice melt and hydrologic cycle intensification at high latitudes lead to major changes in north atlantic circulation few model experiments have directly addressed the 8k event and most studies of proxy records across this event lack the time resolution to fully characterize the anomalies so much work remains to be done

site characterization of strong motion recording stations of delhi using joint inversion of phase velocity dispersion and h v curve site characterization is one of the most important aspects of any strong motion instrumentation nowadays it has become common practice to provide the characterization details up to bedrock level without proper site characterization strong motion records of any station cannot be fully utilized in india strong motion instrumentation sites were classified in three categories as per v s 30 values these v s 30 values were estimated using the borcherdt 1994 methodology in which physical properties of visible soil layer are used for v s 30 estimation because this methodology does not use any field testing the probability of getting erroneous results is very high hence to get accurate assessment of site characteristics we conducted field testing at 19 strong motion instrumentation sites in delhi india the site characteristics assessed here are determined using joint inversion of multichannel analysis of surface waves and horizontal to vertical spectral ratio hvsr from ambient noise results simultaneously to estimate shear wave velocity profiles the benefit of using this method is that it provides site characteristics assessed through shear wave velocity profiles up to much deeper soil strata the results obtained from this analysis are further validated using ground response analysis from recorded ground motions further the profiles obtained are studied for uncertainties using the computer program strata transfer functions obtained from strata are then compared with hvsr of ambient vibration records as well as hvsr from weak motion earthquake records available for the sites these curves are found to well matching with each other in this study site characterization carried out here will be very useful for studies related to seismic hazard assessment of the delhi region and studies related to attenuation models

high resolution record of northern hemisphere climate extending into the last interglacial period high resolution record of northern hemisphere climate extending into the last interglacial period

hydropedology of a mildly arid loess covered area southern israel extensive loess covered areas characterize the mildly arid areas of western israel where average annual rainfall is 280 mm hydrological data point to a peculiar hydrological behavior of the ephemeral streams the frequency of sporadic flash floods is very high however even in extreme rain events peak discharges are extremely low hydrographs are usually characterized by very steep rising and falling limbs representative of saturated areas extending over a limited part of the watershed following this observation we advanced the hypothesis that storm channel runoff originated in the channel itself with negligible contribution from the adjoining hillslopes the study was based on two complementary approaches the hydrological approach was based on the detailed analysis of rainfall runoff relationships in a small watershed 11 km2 and on the analysis of the hydrological characteristics of the drainage network the second approach was based on the toposequence concept several boreholes were dug along a hillslope 400 m long chemical data obtained show no significant difference in the downslope direction similar results were also obtained for the particle size distribution and soil moisture content data obtained perfectly fit the concept of partial area contribution as it presents an extreme case of hydrological discontinuity at the hillslope channel interface the lack of pedological trends in the downslope direction is an additional indication of the limited connectivity between the hillslopes and the adjoining channel the limited connectivity is attributed to the prevalence of low rain intensities in the study area the present study is also relevant to our understanding of pedological processes in dry land areas the high frequency of intermittent low intensity rainstorms limits runoff generation and flow distances and casts doubt on the general application of the toposequence approach this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

dating constituent formation in soils to determine rates of soil processes a review abstract rates of soil processes are poorly known one approach to determine them could be through the radiogenic isotopic dating of soil constituents such methods have been recently used to date minerals in soils and weathering profiles thanks to the development of high resolution techniques such as 40ar 39ar u series of micro drilled samples u series by laser ablation and u th he and to the development of suitable methodology expanding application of the techniques to a variety of supergene minerals e g fe and mn oxihydroxides carbonates etc in this paper we identify i the main soil constituents that can be dated through these isotopic methods that are mainly fe oxides mn oxides pedogenic carbonates and organic matter ii the main pedogenic processes that leads to their formation in soils and iii the different soil settings that allow transforming soil constituent ages into rates of soil processes namely growth bands transformation fronts and chronosequences

hydrological processes in a small arid catchment scale effects of rainfall and slope length many studies have been concerned with the scale issue in geomorphology and hydrology most studies focus on the possibility of data transfer from small to large watersheds less attention has been given to the scale problem within very small watersheds where differences in slope length may seriously affect the spatial distribution and extent of runoff contributing areas to the channel it is usually assumed that runoff and erosion increase as slope length and angle increase however field observations in the negev highlands show positive relationships between slope length and deposition rates regardless of slope angles short hillslopes are devoid of colluvial mantle while thick colluvial deposits with well developed soil profiles indicative of long term stability are found at the base of long hillslopes the hypothesis advanced is that temporal variations in effective rainfall control the spatial structures of surface properties that further enhance the effects of temporal variations in rainfall long term monitoring of rainfall and runoff 1982 1998 conducted at spatial scales varying from few hundreds of m2 up to 0 3 km2 show a decrease in runoff at the hillslope scale the low efficiency of runoff and erosion processes on long hillslopes is because the concentration time required for continuous flow along such slopes is longer than the duration of most effective rain showers prevailing in the area field data lead to the notion that runoff and erosion models in which a positive relationship between slope length and angle and runoff and erosion rates is assumed should not be applied to arid and semiarid areas more attention should be given in latter areas to the complex hydrological relationships between rainfall scales and spatial scales the implications of data obtained regarding the spatial distribution of areas contributing to channel flow at a geological time scale and under changing climatic conditions are discussed

using advanced insar techniques to monitor landslide deformations induced by tunneling in the northern apennines italy synthetic aperture radar sar interferometry insar is used to make measurements of small surface displacements in different situations including ground settlement landslides and excavations we document the deformation history of four dormant deep seated landslides in the northern apennines of italy that were reactivated by the excavation of a double road tunnel the tunnel is part of a larger infrastructure project that involves the improvement of the a1 highway which connects bologna and florence the excavation of the tunnel under the landslides basal shear surfaces started in 2011 and with the advance of the tunnel front deformation began to occur causing damages to homes and infrastructures the tunnel passes under the small villages of ripoli and santa maria maddalena the deformation slowed down after the tunnel was completed in november 2014 and low surface displacement rates were registered for the period between october 2014 and june 2016 we show the results of an insar analysis designed to measure surface movements between 2003 and 2016 the insar displacements are derived from the envisat cosmo skymed and sentinel 1 datasets and cover the main construction phase of the tunnel 2011 2015 a detailed geological and geomorphological mapping of the slope is developed based on the field evidence and on the spatial pattern of surface deformation provided by our insar analysis together with the map a new conceptual geological model of the slope in tectonically sheared and weathered flysch is presented the satellite insar data show good agreement with available ground based monitoring data that include inclinometer and gps measurements while small differences occur with respect to deformation time series obtained from a ground based insar instrument in particular the insar results for the x band data of cosmo skymed demonstrate the close relationship between the position of the excavation front and the displacement rates of previously dormant landslide deposits conversely the concurrent rainfall does not appear to significantly influence the observed behavior and if any had only a minor influence on the displacement history of the investigated landslides

single grain optical dating of grave infill associated with human burials at lake mungo australia abstract recent age constraints on australia s oldest human remains mungo i and iii found at lake mungo in western new south wales relied on optical dating of sands from the same stratigraphic units as those into which the remains had been inserted 42 3 ka and those that overlay the graves 38 2 ka giving a burial age of 40 2 ka this indirect means of dating the burials was necessary because the original site from which the remains had been excavated had been completely eroded away at the time of the original excavation of the mungo iii grave blocks of sediment from the grave infill were collected for sediment fabric analysis these sediment blocks were impregnated with polyester resin sectioned for analysis and the remaining resin impregnated sediment blocks were then stored in a cupboard where they have lain for the last 30 years here we report on optical dating of single grains of quartz extracted from one of these sediment blocks grains extracted from the centre of the block show a wide distribution of equivalent doses 0 0 0 3 to 43 7 8 3 gy indicating that not all of the grains have remained hidden from light light safe following excavation we show that the population of grains with the maximum equivalent dose produces an age consistent with that of the previous study indicating that some of the grains have remained light safe we also use linearly modulated optically stimulated luminescence to identify light safe grains these yield an age of 41 4 ka which represents a direct optical age for the grave infill and which is consistent with the age obtained in the previous study for sands from the same stratigraphic unit as that containing the burial the results reported here demonstrate the potential of applying optical dating to archived sediment samples that have not been stored in a light safe environment

faster better shear wave velocity to 100 meters depth from refraction microtremor arrays current techniques of estimating shallow shear velocities for assessment of earthquake site response are too costly for use at most construction sites they require large sources to be effective in noisy urban settings or specialized independent recorders laid out in an extensive array this work shows that microtremor noise recordings made on 200 m long lines of seismic refraction equipment can estimate shear velocity with 20 accuracy often to 100 m depths the combination of commonly available equipment simple recording with no source a wavefield transformation data processing technique and an interactive rayleigh wave dispersion modeling tool exploits the most effective aspects of the microtremor spectral analysis of surface wave sasw and multichannel analysis of surface wave masw techniques the slowness frequency wavefield transformation is particularly effective in allowing accurate picking of rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion curves despite the presence of waves propagating across the linear array at high apparent velocities higher mode rayleigh waves body waves air waves and incoherent noise two locations illustrate the application of this technique in detail coincident with a large accelerometer microtremor array in reno nevada and atop a borehole logged for shear velocity in newhall california refraction equipment could duplicate microtremor results above 3 hz but could not estimate velocities deeper than 100 m refraction microtremor cannot duplicate the detail in the velocity profile yielded by a suspension logger but can match the average velocity of 10 to 20 m depth intervals and suggest structure below the 100 m logged depth of the hole eight additional examples from southern california and new zealand demonstrate that the refraction microtremor technique quickly produces good results from a wide range of hard and soft sites

can mima like mounds be vertisol relics far north region of cameroon chad basin abstract non anthropogenic earth mounds defined as mima like mounds in this study have recently been observed in non carbonate watersheds along the sudano sahelian belt in the chad basin in the diamare piedmont northern cameroon they are particularly well developed within stream networks in less eroded areas they occur as whaleback flattened morphologies or even as buried features all these shapes are composed of clay rich sediment associated with high proportions of secondary carbonate nodules and fe mn micro nodules their soil structure is prismatic to massive and vertical cracks are observed locally grain size distributions emphasize the clay rich nature of the sediment with average clay contents of 32 12 8 n 186 which is significantly higher than the clay content in the adjacent sediments in the landscape mean 10 4 n 21 moreover high proportions of smectite characterize the soil with average contents of 34 7 n 25 at the micro scale the groundmass has a cross striated b fabric with embedded smooth subangular quartz and feldspar grains of the silt size fraction all the characteristics point to altered vertic properties in the clay rich sediment composing the mima like mounds mima like mounds are thus interpreted as degraded vertisols compared to present day vertisols occurring in the piedmont mima like mounds are located upstream it is thus proposed that the vertisol areas were more extensive during a former and wetter period than the present day subsequent changing climatic conditions increased erosion revealing the gilgai micro relief by preferential erosion in micro lows rather than in micro highs mima like mounds of the chad basin might thus result from pedogenesis combined with later erosion these local processes can be inherited from regional climatic variations during the late pleistocene holocene and likely be related to the african humid period

vertical seismic profiling of oroville microearthquakes velocity spectra and particle motion as a function of depth direct evidence of site distortion of p and s wave microearthquake source spectra at oroville california is presented the data were gathered by placing vertical and three component seismometers at 90 m intervals in a 500 m borehole through the cleveland hill normal fault on which the 1975 ml 5 7 oroville earthquake took place high pressure hydraulic locking mechanisms were used to firmly lock the seismometer packages against the borehole wall digital event triggering geos recorders were used to receive the data some 30 seismic events including 12 microearthquakes were recorded during the 4 months the seismometers were deployed by comparing the velocity spectra of microearthquake waves at the different depths it can be seen that scattering and attenuation in the shallow crust around the borehole dominantly affect high frequency s waves above 15 hz the value of the apparent s wave quality factor qas for the upper 500 m of crust at this site is 9 one feature of this low qas is a gross difference between s wave corner frequencies observed at ground level and 500 m downhole for example the uphole and downhole s wave corner frequencies for the mcoda 0 4 microearthquake of julian day 259 differ by a factor of 2 or more low quality factors and depth dependent corner frequencies were also observed for p waves but these data are less definitive due to lower signal to noise ratios based on their three component particle motions and polarizations the direct s waves of the microearthquakes appear to be composed of two phases which have similar amplitudes but different apparent velocities it is possible that the velocity differences are a result of anisotropy in the underlying rock

extracting coherent wave fronts from acoustic ambient noise in the ocean a method to obtain coherent acoustic wave fronts by measuring the space time correlation function of ocean noise between two hydrophones is experimentally demonstrated though the sources of ocean noise are uncorrelated the time averaged noise correlation function exhibits deterministic waveguide arrival structure embedded in the time domain green s function a theoretical approach is derived for both volume and surface noise sources shipping noise is also investigated and simulated results are presented in deep or shallow water configurations the data of opportunity used to demonstrate the extraction of wave fronts from ocean noise were taken from the synchronized vertical receive arrays used in the frame of the north pacific laboratory npal during time intervals when no source was transmitting

examining the spatial consistency of palaeosol proxies implications for palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in terrestrial sedimentary basins terrestrial sediments are a significant archive of past conditions and the critical zone in particular is important for understanding past and ongoing interactions between the atmosphere biosphere and lithosphere understanding the details of a palaeolandscape or palaeocatena record can greatly improve palaeoenvironmental descriptions and palaeoclimate reconstructions during crucial time periods in the past this article presents multi proxy data including palaeosol descriptions major element geochemistry magnetic composition and stable isotope geochemistry from an early eocene palaeosol transect which show distinct trends in palaeosol features and geochemistry across the landscape particularly in terms of the differences between a horizon and b horizon samples a horizon geochemical and physical features are highly variable and reflect other not strictly pedogenic controls whereas b horizon composition is extremely consistent given that most palaeoclimatic or palaeoenvironmental proxies based on palaeosols use b horizon features these results highlight the robustness of those proxies at the same time the difference between a horizons and b horizons and the variability within a horizons of the same palaeosol in different geomorphic settings underscores the importance of palaeosol description detailed sampling and a multi proxy approach to produce both precise and accurate reconstructions of past environments and climates using terrestrial sedimentary records

seismic scattering attenuation estimates for the german ktb area derived from well log statistics we applied a recently developed scattering attenuation theory to model q values measured at the german ktb site and found that scattering attenuation plays an important role in the upper crust in this area this does not conform with previous studies that suggest absorption mechanisms as the main reason for the attenuation the scattering attenuation model used is based on the wave propagation theory in random media and allows quantification of scattering attenuation in complex geological regions using simple statistical estimates from well log data for our estimates of scattering q we used statistical models of heterogeneities obtained from ktb logs a good agreement between the magnitude of scattering attenuation and the measured q values shows the necessity of evaluating the role of scattering in seismic attenuation phenomena

centennial scale climate cooling with a sudden cold event around 8 200 years ago the extent of climate variability during the current interglacial period the holocene is still debated temperature records derived from central greenland ice cores show one significant temperature anomaly between 8 200 and 8 100 years ago which is often attributed to a meltwater outflow into the north atlantic ocean and a slowdown of north atlantic deep water formation this anomaly provides an opportunity to study such processes with relevance to present day freshening of the north atlantic anomalies in climate proxy records from locations around the globe are often correlated with this sharp event in greenland but the anomalies in many of these records span 400 to 600 years start from about 8 600 years ago and form part of a repeating pattern within the holocene more sudden climate changes around 8 200 years ago appear superimposed on this longer term cooling the compounded nature of the signals implies that far field climate anomalies around 8 200 years ago cannot be used in a straightforward manner to assess the impact of a slowdown of north atlantic deep water formation and the geographical extent of the rapid cooling event 8 200 years ago remains to be determined

evaluating the use of dune sediments as a proxy for palaeo aridity a southern african case study abstract the dominance of dryland environments in the southern hemisphere makes the study of these regions of critical importance for the development of regional hemispheric and global models of environmental change unfortunately the wetting and drying cycles associated with semi hyperarid climates are not conducive to the preservation of traditional organic proxy data sources the last decade however has seen the development of a number of alternative archives including the application of luminescence dating techniques to dunes and other aeolian deposits in continental situations the existence of relict dune fields has long been thought to be evidence of drier conditions during the pleistocene and direct ages from these features have been interpreted almost exclusively as indicating phases of aridity however an increasing number of ages from a broader range of environments are calling into question the assumption that aeolian activity can be simply equated with aridity presented here is a comparison of dune ages that have been obtained from across southern africa with a range of proxies from both terrestrial and marine records taken as a whole three primary phases of activity can be identified at 60 40 35 20 and 17 4 ka the frequent discordance with other terrestrial records indicating coeval increases in humidity and the close correlation of these phases with wind strength proxies suggest that aridity is unlikely to be the sole or even primary forcing mechanism for aeolian activity in the region and the palaeoclimatic significance of these sedimentary archives needs to be reassessed

site effect evaluation using spectral ratios with only one station the spectral ratio technique is a common useful way to estimate empirical transfer function to evaluate site effects in regions of moderate to high seismicity the purpose of this paper is to show that it is possible to estimate empirical transfer function using spectral ratios between horizontal and vertical components of motion without a reference station the technique originally proposed by nakamura to analyze rayleigh waves in the microtremor records is presented briefly and it is discussed why it may be applicable to study the intense s wave part in earthquake records results are presented for three different cities in mexico oaxaca oax acapulco gro and mexico city these cities are very different by their geological and tectonic contexts and also by the very different epicentral distances to the main seismogenic zones affecting each city each time we compare the results of nakamura s technique with standard spectral ratios in all three cases the results are very encouraging we conclude that if site effects are caused by simple geology a first estimate of dominant period and local amplification level can be obtained using records of only one station

the mechanics and geological implications of dust transport and deposition in deserts with particular reference to loess formation and dune sand diagenesis in the northern negev israel

the nature and origin of the aeolian mantles of central northern nigeria abstract evidence is presented here to show that the upland soils of central northern nigeria are formed in aeolian mantles deposited by two aeolian processes aeolian suspension or dust deposition and aeolian saltation or dune sand deposition the soils to the south and west of kano are largely the product of harmattan dust deposition whereas the northern soils appear to originate from dune sand migration from the quaternary dune fields to the east of the study area the spatial pattern of particle size populations or quanta and quartz grain roundness characteristics within the mantles and dune sands indicates that considerable mixing of dune sands and dust has occurred in the formation of these mantles

late pleistocene holocene vegetation and climate change in the middle kalahari lake ngami botswana abstract pollen spores and microscopic charcoal from a sediment core from lake ngami in the middle kalahari reflect paleovegetation and paleoclimatic conditions over the last 16 600 cal years bp the location of lake ngami allows for the receipt of moisture sourced from the indian and or atlantic oceans which may have influenced local rainfall or long distance water transport via the okavango system we interpret results of statistical analyses of the pollen data as showing a complex dynamic system wherein variability in tropical convective systems and local forcing mechanisms influence hydrological changes our reconstructions show three primary phases in the regional precipitation regime 1 an early period of high but fluctuating summer rainfall under relatively cool conditions from 16 600 12 500 cal bp with reduced tree to herb and shrub ratio 2 an episode of significantly reduced rainfall centered around c 11 400 cal bp characterized by an increase in xeric asteraceae pollen but persistent aquatic elements suggesting less rainfall but cool conditions and lower evaporation that maintained water in the basin and 3 a longer phase of high but fluctuating rainfall from 9000 cal bp to present with more woody savanna vegetation vachellia acacia and combretaceae we propose a model to relate these changes to increased indian ocean sourced moisture in the late pleistocene due to a southerly position of the african rain belt a northerly contraction of tropical systems that immediately followed the younger dryas and a subsequent dominance of local insolation forcing modulated by changes in the se atlantic basin

s wave velocity profiling by joint inversion of microtremor dispersion curve and horizontal to vertical h v spectrum a joint inverse analysis using both microtremor dispersion curve and horizontal to vertical h v spectrum is proposed for estimating the s wave velocity vs profiles of subsurface soils in the inversion both microtremor dispersion and h v data are assumed to be the rayleigh wave dispersion curve and the surface both rayleigh and love wave h v spectrum that have been theoretically derived by taking into account the effects of their fundamental and higher modes the proposed joint inversion as well as the conventional one using dispersion data alone is per formed at four sites where shallow vs profiles down to engineering bedrock are available the vs profiles estimated by the proposed joint inversion are more con sistent with available down hole velocity logs than those by the conventional method in particular the proposed inversion shows significant improvement in estimating bedrock vs structures compared to the conventional inversion sensitivity analyses indicate that the surface wave h v ratio is sensitive to the bedrock vs structure more than the rayleigh wave phase velocity confirming that the proposed joint inversion including h v spectrum is promising

paleosols as indicators of paleoenvironment and paleoclimate paleosols are ancient soils that have been incorporated into the geological record soils form in response to interactions among the lithosphere hydrosphere biosphere and atmosphere so paleosols potentially record physical biological and chemical information about past conditions near earth s surface as a result paleosols are an important resource for terrestrial environmental and climatic reconstructions long standing paleosol research topics include morphology classification and clay mineralogy all of which provide information about pedogenic processes and local paleoenvironments paleosols are also used to infer processes involved in the development of stratigraphic architecture and basin evolution recent paleosol research has introduced semiquantitative and quantitative measures for environmental and chronometric reconstructions that provide insight into major regional to global changes in temperature precipitation and atmospheric pco2 these new proxies focus on morphological and chemi

are microtremors useful in site response evaluation we have reviewed the applicability of microtremor measurements to evaluate site response of soft soils to this end we evaluated three different techniques commonly used to estimate site effects from microtremor measurements interpretation of fourier amplitude spectra computation of spectral ratios relative to a firm reference station and finally computation of spectral ratios of horizontal components relative to the vertical component of ground motion nakamura s technique these techniques are applied to microtremor records obtained in three cities in mexico mexico city oaxaca and acapulco these cities differ in their local geological conditions and in their seismotectonic environment in order to evaluate the results obtained from microtremor measurements we compare them with standard spectral ratios of the intense s wave part of weak or strong motion records obtained at the same sites our results showed that microtremor measurements can be used to estimate the dominant period of a site with very acceptable reliability in the range 0 3 to 5 hz the best results were obtained with nakamura s technique which also gives a rough estimate of amplification of seismic waves when the local geology is relatively simple simple numerical simulations indicate that the underlying assumptions of nakamura s technique are consistent with the propagation of rayleigh waves these simple numerical simulations also explain why different researchers have been able to successfully characterize 1d site effects using microtremor records regardless of whether they consider microtremors to consist of surface or body waves our results strongly suggest that the technique by nakamura effectively compensates for source effects in microtremor measurements which eliminates a major limitation to their application in earthquake engineering

microtremor measurements used to map thickness of soft sediments the observations about the behavior of microtremor spectra presented here show that noise measurements can be used as a powerful tool to determine the thickness of soft cover layers the most suitable method for this determination is nakamura s technique which is the ratio of the horizontal component noise spectrum and that of the vertical component i i v spectrum the frequency of the main peak in these spectral ratios correlates well with the sediment thickness at the site using an extensive database of microtremor measurements carried out in the western lower rhine embayment germany it was possible to show that this correlation is clearly valid for a wide range of thickness namely from tens of meters to more than 1000 m a simple formula was derived that for the sediments to be found in the area investigated directly calculates the cover thickness from the frequency of the main peak in the h v spectrum a comparison with calculated resonant frequencies sug gests the relation derived from the noise measurements depending on the velocity depth function of the shear wave classical spectral ratios are shown to be strongly influenced by the noise level and are therefore less reliable in determining the res onant frequency of the subsoil the practical relevance of the investigation is illus trated by means of cross sections constructed from results of the microtremor anal yses which provide a convincing image of the surficial structure of the areas investigated

dune ages in the sand deserts of the southern sahara and sahel in this paper we aim to document the history of aeolian processes within the southern sahara as part of the inqua dune atlas we review available luminescence ages for sand dunes across the southern sahara to develop an improved understanding of the dune chronology on a regional basis and attempt to correlate periods of sand accumulation this was achieved by analysing dune age by country as well as by latitude and longitude the results show a very patchy spatial distribution of dune ages with large gaps that encompass some of the largest sand seas despite these gaps some related patterns in dune morphology and stratigraphy appear to be consistent between northern nigeria and southern mali where older linear dunes are distinct from younger late holocene transverse and barchanoid dunes elsewhere in mauretania linear dunes with different orientations appear to have accumulated at different times most likely in response to changes in atmospheric circulation regional climatic changes are identified where dunes are transgressed by lake deposits within endorehic basins we identify four locations where dune accumulation is terminated by lacustrine transgressions two of which in lake chad and the bodele depression occur shortly after the last glacial maximum lgm the third example at gobiero in niger occurred later in the early holocene around 8 4 ka and a fourth marks a later transgression of palaeolake megachad after 4 7 ka larger scale latitudinal and longitudinal distributions in dune ages across the southern sahara do not show any consistent patterns though this may be due to the small sample size relative to the study area in addition local variations in external controls such as wind regime rainfall vegetation and sand supply need to be considered sometimes on a site by site basis limiting the analysis to dune ages determined using the single aliquot regenerative dose sar protocol indicates a lack of dune preservation during the lgm and the younger dryas times associated with increased dust input to the oceans which is assumed to indicate increased aeolian activity the sar dune dates suggest that preservation of dunes at the onset of succeeding humid intervals is an important component of the dune record the most striking examples of this phenomenon occur where dunes are preserved within endorehic basins by lacustrine transgressions

characteristics of the seismic attenuation in two tectonically active zones of southern europe the seismic energy attenuation in the frequency range of 1 18 hz was studied in the two tectonically active zones of irno valley southern italy and granada basin south east spain data were recorded by short period vertical components seismographs for low magnitude local earthquakes the method of coda waves assuming singles tos scattering approximation was used to calculate the quality factorq from the two data set results show a quality factor increasing with frequency following the empirical lawq qofn qo andn are lower for the irno valley than for granada this result is interpreted in terms of different scattering environments present in the two investigated areas

the three dimensional shear wave structure in the mantle by overtone waveform inversion i radial seismogram inversion summary the three dimensional 3 d shear wave structure of the mantle down to the depth of about 900 km is obtained by inverting waveforms of radial component seismograms radial component seismograms contain large amplitude overtone signals which circle the earth as wave packets and are sometimes called x1 x2 x3 we use data which contain r1 x1 and x2 and filtered between 2 and 10mhz it is shown that unless each seismogram is weighted all seismograms are not fitted uniformly only data from large earthquakes are fitted and the final velocity anomalies are biased by the small number of large earthquake data resolution is good at shallow depths becomes worse in the intermediate depth range between about 400 and 500 km and then becomes better at greater depth ranges 600 900km even though we use only spheroidal mode data velocity anomalies in the shallow structure show excellent correlation with the age of the surface rocks of the earth in the deeper regions between about 600 and 900km south america shows a fast velocity anomaly which may indicate the slab penetration beyond 700 km there another region which shows a fast velocity anomaly is the mariana trench but other subduction regions do not show such features

sahara and sahel vulnerability to climate changes lessons from holocene hydrological data abstract the examination of more than 1500 paleohydrological dated records collected between 10 and 28 n during the last 50 years have been used to improve our knowledge and understanding of the sahara and sahel vulnerability to the atlantic monsoon changes in the long term we have analyzed the distribution of water bodies mainly lakes and wetlands over time and space the central saharan massifs played a major role in favoring water supply to the lowlands throughout the whole african humid period in addition distinct east west dynamics is recorded with humidity starting and stopping several millennia earlier to the east than to the west of the sahara a series of time lags are discussed 1 between the maximum of deep fresh water lake formation during the early holocene and the maximum of water body extensions during the mid holocene which highlight the primary role of aquifer water level in lake response to climate change 2 between the hydrological history of the sahara and the sahel and the forcings mainly insolation changes during the early and mid holocene which involves complex interactions between remnant ice sheet in the northern hemisphere open water bodies in the sahara and sahel and the atlantic monsoon system