cosmic impact event in lake sediments from central europe postdates the laacher see eruption and marks onset of the younger dryas abstractthe younger dryas yd climate episode 12 850 11 650 calendar years before present cal bp is an event recorded widely across the northern hemisphere we conducted multiple analyses at

flow and suspended sediment division at two highly asymmetric bifurcations in a river delta implications for channel stability the division of sediment at river bifurcations results from the complex interaction between three dimensional flow planform and channel bed morphology as well as the heterogeneity of the bed material sediment division processes cannot be incorporated in their full complexity in scale experiments and are difficult to reproduce with numerical models field measurements are thus necessary to advance our understanding of those processes in river deltas however such measurements are rare we present measurements of the flow and sediment division at two tidally influenced bifurcations of the kapuas river a large sand bedded suspended load dominated river in west kalimantan indonesia at both bifurcations a smaller channel branches off from the side of the main river which makes the planform strongly asymmetric the planform of both bifurcations has been stable at least since the end of the nineteenth century when the region was mapped for the first time based on our measurements we explore possible factors that stabilize the bifurcations we measure the flow velocities with a boat mounted acoustic velocity profiler and determine the sediment concentration from acoustic backscatter calibrated against water samples the side branch of the first bifurcation receives a proportionally lower fraction of sediment than water in contrast the side branch at the second bifurcation receives a proportionally higher fraction of sediment than water a comparison of flow velocity and suspended sand concentration indicates that the bed material sorting strongly influences the division of sediment in particular at one of the bifurcations which is situated in a meander bend

a 3 d hydrodynamic model of river flow in a delta region in this paper an application of telemac 3d to simulate the hydrodynamics of the river po delta flow is presented the po delta is a particular hydrological system in which the morphological configuration is in continuous evolution owing to natural and human activities a large amount of field data collected during several years has been used to test the 3 d mathematical model in the present article the main characteristics of the delta the data and hypotheses assumed in the calculations and the main results in terms of hydrodynamic and environmental variables are described copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

the fall dump a new perspective on the role of a shade flora in the annual cycle of diatom production and export flux investigations of diatom fluxes recorded in laminated sediments using scanning electron microscope techniques together with evidence from sediment trap studies have contributed to a reappraisal of the annual cycle of diatom production and export flux we propose that where there is a strong seasonal thermocline and nutricline a number of diatoms hitherto regarded as typical sparse summer flora characteristic of oligotrophic waters are able to generate substantial production at depth these species including rhizosolenia spp stephanopyxis palmeriana thalassiothrix spp and some coscinodiscus spp may represent a shade flora that have adapted to grow in low light conditions and or to regulate their buoyancy to move between a deep nutrient source and the euphotic zone although rates of growth and primary production are substantially lower than species characteristic of spring bloom or upwelling conditions the total primary production integrated over the several month period of summer stratification may be as significant as the spring bloom or greater the term fall or autumn bloom as a counterpart of the spring bloom is therefore a misnomer whereas the spring bloom involves a rapid burst of reproduction and sedimentation the fall dump is the sedimentation of a long lived episode of production lasting the duration of the seasonal thermocline and triggered by the fall winter mixing that breaks down stratification the fall dump may produce as much or in some cases more export production than the spring bloom the results of this study suggest that a reorientation of thinking on diatom ecology and palaeoecology may be required

geochemistry of inorganic and organic sulphur in organic rich sediments from the peru margin abstract we have determined 1 the abundance and isotopic composition of pyrite monosulphide elemental sulphur organically bound sulphur and dissolved sulphide 2 the partition of ferric and ferrous iron 3 the organic carbon contents of sediments recovered at two sites drilled on the peru margin during leg 112 of the ocean drilling program sediments at both sites are characterised by high levels of organically bound sulphur obs obs comprises up to 50 of total sedimentary sulphur and up to 1 of bulk sediment the weight ratio of s to c in organic matter varies from 0 03 to 0 15 mean 0 10 such ratios are like those measured in lithologically similar but more deeply buried petroleum source rocks of the monterey and sisquoc formations in california the sulphur content of organic matter is not limited by the availability of porewater sulphide isotopic data suggest that sulphur is incorporated into organic matter within a metre of the sediment surface at least partly by reaction with polysulphides most inorganic sulphur occurs as pyrite pyrite formation occurred within surface sediments and was limited by the availability of reactive iron but despite highly reducing sulphidic conditions only 35 65 of the total iron was converted to sulphide 10 30 of the total iron still occurs as fe iii in surface sediments the isotopic composition of pyrite is similar to that of both iron monosulphide and dissolved sulphide either pyrite like monosulphide formed by direct reaction between dissolved sulphide and detrital iron and or the sulphur species responsible for converting fes to fes2 is isotopically similar to dissolved sulphide likely stoichiometries for the reaction between ferric iron and excess sulphide imply a maximum resulting fes2 fes ratio of 1 1 where pyrite dominates the pool of iron sulphides at least some pyrite must have formed by reaction between monosulphide and elemental sulphur and or polysulphide elemental sulphur s0 is most abundant in surface sediments and probably formed by oxidation of sulphide diffusing across the sediment water interface in surface sediments s0 is isotopically heavier than dissolved sulphide fes and fes2 and is unlikely to have been involved in the conversion of fes to fes2 polysulphides are thus implicated as the link between fes and fes2

nanodiamonds in the younger dryas boundary sediment layer we report abundant nanodiamonds in sediments dating to 12 9 0 1 thousand calendar years before the present at multiple locations across north america selected area electron diffraction patterns reveal two diamond allotropes in this boundary layer but not above or below that interval cubic diamonds form under high temperature pressure regimes and n diamonds also require extraordinary conditions well outside the range of earth9s typical surficial processes but common to cosmic impacts n diamond concentrations range from 10 to 3700 parts per billion by weight comparable to amounts found in known impact layers these diamonds provide strong evidence for earth9s collision with a rare swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comets at the onset of the younger dryas cool interval producing multiple airbursts and possible surface impacts with severe repercussions for plants animals and humans in north america

delta channel networks 1 a graph theoretic approach for studying connectivity and steady state transport on deltaic surfaces river deltas are intricate landscapes with complex channel networks that self organize to deliver water sediment and nutrients from the apex to the delta top and eventually to the coastal zone the natural balance of material and energy fluxes which maintains a stable hydrologic geomorphologic and ecological state of a river delta is often disrupted by external perturbations causing topological and dynamical changes in the delta structure and function a formal quantitative framework for studying delta channel network connectivity and transport dynamics and their response to change is lacking here we present such a framework based on spectral graph theory and demonstrate its value in computing delta s steady state fluxes and identifying upstream contributing and downstream nourishment areas and fluxes from any point in the network we use this framework to construct vulnerability maps that quantify the relative change of sediment and water delivery to the shoreline outlets in response to possible perturbations in hundreds of upstream links the framework is applied to the wax lake delta in the louisiana coast of the u s and the niger delta in west africa in a companion paper we present a comprehensive suite of metrics that quantify topologic and dynamic complexity of delta channel networks and via application to seven deltas in diverse environments demonstrate their potential to reveal delta morphodynamics and relate to notions of vulnerability and robustness

a model of water and sediment balance as determinants of relative sea level rise in contemporary and future deltas abstract modern deltas are dependent on human mediated freshwater and sediment fluxes changes to these fluxes impact delta biogeophysical functioning and affect the long term sustainability of these landscapes for human and for natural systems here we present contemporary estimates of long term mean sediment balance and relative sea level rise across 46 global deltas we model scenarios of contemporary and future water resource management schemes and hydropower infrastructure in upstream river basins to explore how changing sediment fluxes impact relative sea level rise in delta systems model results show that contemporary sediment fluxes anthropogenic drivers of land subsidence and sea level rise result in delta relative sea level rise rates that average 6 8 mm y assessment of impacts of planned and under construction dams on relative sea level rise rates suggests increases on the order of 1 mm y in deltas with new upstream construction sediment fluxes are estimated to decrease by up to 60 in the danube and 21 in the ganges brahmaputra meghna if all currently planned dams are constructed reduced sediment retention on deltas caused by increased river channelization and management has a larger impact increasing relative sea level rise on average by nearly 2 mm y long term delta sustainability requires a more complete understanding of how geophysical and anthropogenic change impact delta geomorphology local and regional strategies for sustainable delta management that focus on local and regional drivers of change especially groundwater and hydrocarbon extraction and upstream dam construction can be highly impactful even in the context of global climate induced sea level rise

a fast and easy method to derive highest resolution time series datasets from drillcores and rock samples abstract we present a fast method to obtain highest resolution greyvalue datasets from digital core images these datasets are processed using a software package developed by us artificially introduced trends in the datasets are corrected disturbances i e cracks voids are eliminated to reduce the high level noise in data we have developed a vector filter that effectively removes such noise application of the method to odp drillcores from the santa barbara basin allowed exact correlation of two drillcores from the same basin the influence of the termination of the last glacial cold period on the flux rates in the basin are reflected in the greyvalue datasets we found a transitional period of about 3000 yr between the end of the last glacial cold period and the onset of post glacial climatic oscillation in the basin fourier analyses show that the high resolution greyvalue time series record climatic cycles with frequencies as high as 1 cycle yr varves

biogeochemical cycling in an organic rich coastal marine basin 8 a sulfur isotopic budget balanced by differential diffusion across the sediment water interface abstract the sulfur isotopic composition of the sulfur fluxes occurring in the anoxic marine sediments of cape lookout bight n c u s a was determined and the result of isotopic mass balance was obtained via the differential diffusion model seasonal pore water sulfate 34 s measurements yielded a calculated sulfate input of 0 6 sulfate transported into the sediments via diffusion appeared to be enriched in the lighter isotope because its concentration gradient was steeper due to the increase in the measured isotopic composition of sulfate with depth similarly the back diffusion of dissolved sulfide towards the sediment water interface appeared enriched in the heavier isotope the isotopic composition of this flux was calculated from measurements of the 34 s of dissolved sulfide and was determined to be 15 9 the isotopic composition of buried sulfide was determined to be 5 2 and the detrital sulfur input was estimated to be 6 2 an isotope mass balance equation based upon the fluxes at the sediment water interface successfully predicted the isotopic composition of the buried sulfur flux within 0 5 thus confirming that isotopes diffuse in response to their individual concentration gradients

morphodynamics of a high discharge tropical delta san juan river pacific coast of colombia abstract the san juan river has one of the most extensive and best developed deltas on the pacific coast of south america measuring 800 km 2 the river drainage basin measures 16 465 km 2 and is located in one of the areas with the highest precipitation in the western hemisphere the annual rainfall varies from 7000 to 11 000 mm and as a result the san juan river has the highest water discharge 2550 m 3 s 1 sediment load 16 10 6 t yr 1 and basin wide sediment yield 1150 t km 2 yr 1 on the west coast of south america the san juan delta growth began approximately 5000 years bp the structure of the delta is determined by the interactions between fluvial deposition and the effect of 1 7 m significant swells mostly from the sw and strong tidal currents analysis of delta progradation indicates that during 1848 1992 the morphology of the delta was characterized by beach ridge accretion spit growth narrowing of inlets and a general advance of the delta shoreline during the past decade processes such as rapid erosion of the delta shore narrowing of barrier islands and breaching of a new inlet are the result of a long term relative sea level rise of 2 6 mm yr 1 due to tectonically induced subsidence coupled with a eustatic rise of sea level the delta also experiences strong oceanographic manifestations associated with the el nino la nina cycle causing regional sea level elevation of 20 30 cm during el nino years recent coastal subsidence in the delta is evidenced by 1 increased occurrence of non storm washover events 2 increased erosion of barrier islands with average loss of 11 m yr 1 during 1993 1997 and 3 a relative sea level rise of 3 4 mm yr 1 during 1991 1999 the morphology and recent evolution of the san juan delta are unique when compared to other deltas of south america because of the singular combination of extreme climatic geologic and oceanographic conditions under which the delta has formed and the absence of human induced impact in the drainage basin

sediment flux and the anthropocene data and computer simulations are reviewed to help better define the timing and magnitude of human influence on sediment flux the anthropocene epoch impacts on the earth surface processes are not spatially or temporally homogeneous human influences on this sediment flux have a secondary effect on floodplain and delta plain functions and sediment dispersal into the coastal ocean human impact on sediment production began 3000 years ago but accelerated more widely 1000 years ago by the sixteenth century societies were already engineering their environment early twentieth century mechanization has led to global signals of increased sediment flux in most large rivers by the 1950s this sediment disturbance signal reversed for many rivers owing to the proliferation of dams and sediment load reduction below pristine conditions is the dominant signal today a delta subsidence signal began in the 1930s and is now a dominant signal in terms of sea level for many coastal environments overwhelming even the global warming imprint on sea level humans have engineered how most water and sediment are discharged into the coastal ocean hyperpycnal flow events have become more common for some rivers and less common for other rivers bottom trawling is now widespread suggesting that even continental shelves have received a significant but as yet quantified anthropocene impact the anthropocene attains the level of a geological climate event such as that seen in the transition between the pleistocene and the holocene

north european last glacial interglacial transition lgit 15 9 ka tephrochronology extended limits and new events high precision correlation of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental records is crucial for testing hypotheses of synchronous change although radiocarbon is the traditional method for dating late quaternary sedimentary sequences particularly during the last glacial interglacial transition lgit 15 9 ka there are inherent problems with the method particularly during periods of climate change which are often accompanied by major perturbations in atmospheric radiocarbon content an alternative method is the use of tephras that act as time parallel marker horizons within europe numerous volcanic centres are known to have erupted during the lgit providing considerable potential for high precision correlation independent of past radiocarbon fluctuations here we report the first identification of the vedde ash and askja tephra in ireland significantly extending the known provenance of these events we have also identified two new horizons the roddans port tephras a and b and tentatively recognise an additional horizon from vallensgard mose denmark that provide crucial additional chronological control for the lgit two phases of the laacher see tephra lst are reported the lower laacher see tephra llst and probably the c2 phase of the middle laacher see tephra mlst c2 indicating a more northeasterly distribution of this fan than reported previously copyright 2006 john wiley sons ltd

onshore to offshore anatomy of a late quaternary source to sink system po plain adriatic sea italy abstract in understanding the evolution of siliciclastic systems late quaternary analogs may enable reliable predictive models of facies tract architecture the po plain adriatic sea system where a wealth of research has been conducted during the last 20 years represents one of the most intensively investigated late quaternary successions with the aid of a chronologically well constrained stratigraphy paleoenvironmental evolution is tracked for the first time from fluvial to deep marine realms over 1000 km in length vertical stacking trends onshore and stratal terminations offshore are the key observations that allow identification of surfaces with sequence stratigraphic significance systems tract boundaries in the distinct segments of the system recurring motifs in stratigraphic architecture showing tight coupling of sedimentary responses among source area catchment basin and coastal and marine depocenters reveal a cyclicity driven by glacio eustatic fluctuations in the milankovitch band due to high rates of subsidence middle pleistocene forced regressive systems tracts are exceptionally expanded and the mis5e mis2 interval late pleistocene preserves a nearly continuous record of fourth order 100 kyr stepwise sea level fall the stratigraphic architecture of last glacial maximum deposits highlights the genetic relations between channel belt development pedogenesis and sediment delivery to the lowstand delta through narrow incised valley conduits the late glacial holocene succession records the last episode of sea level rise and stabilization through well developed patterns of shoreline transgression regression tst hst that can be readily traced updip from offshore to onshore locations architectural styles across the whole system reflect a dominance of allogenic forcing in the tst as opposed to a predominantly autogenic control on stratigraphic development in the hst external drivers of facies architecture were also effective on millennial timescales the younger dryas cold reversal which marks the transgressive surface on land records a short lived episode of subaqueous progradation that is correlative onshore with widespread immature paleosol development and small sized channel belt formation quantitative assessment of sediment budgets over different time intervals requires precise positioning of the key bounding surfaces based on this approach we outline for the first time over the entire po adriatic basin an estimate of the sediment volumes stored in each systems tract

mechanics of river mouth bar formation implications for the morphodynamics of delta distributary networks 1 in this paper we use observational data and numerical modeling to present a new explanation for the formation of river dominated delta networks observational data from deltas throughout the world show that distributary channel widths depths and lengths decrease nonlinearly with successive bifurcations trends in width and depth are an outcome of hydraulic geometry scaling the trend in channel length is a consequence of delta growth analyses of serial maps show that the positions of bifurcations are the fossilized locations of river mouth bars also called middle ground and distributary mouth bar in front of old delta channel mouths therefore the trend in channel length can be explained through the mechanics of river mouth bar formation and evolution we use delft3d a coupled hydrodynamic and morphodynamic model to simulate the process of river mouth bar formation within an expanding turbulent jet in front of distributary channel mouths our results describe in detail the formation and evolution of a river mouth bar system and demonstrate that the distance to the river mouth bar is proportional to jet momentum flux and inversely proportional to grain size therefore channel length decreases down delta because with each successive bifurcation the jet momentum flux decreases these results can be used to predict the future evolution of river dominated deltas and can be used to aid in hydrocarbon exploration of these depositional environments

stepwise morphological evolution of the active yellow river huanghe delta lobe 1976 2013 dominant roles of riverine discharge and sediment grain size abstract the presently active yellow river huanghe delta lobe has been formed since 1976 when the river was artificially diverted the process and driving forces of morphological evolution of the present delta lobe still remain unclear here we examined the stepwise morphological evolution of the active yellow river delta lobe including both the subaerial and the subaqueous components and illustrated the critical roles of riverine discharge and sediment grain size in dominating the deltaic evolution the critical sediment loads for maintaining the delta stability were also calculated from water discharge and sediment load measured at station lijin the last gauging station approximately 100 km upstream from the river mouth the results indicated that the development of active delta lobe including both subaerial and subaqueous components has experienced four sequential stages during the first stage 1976 1981 after the channel migration the unchannelized river flow enhanced deposition within the channel and floodplain between lijin station and the river mouth therefore the critical sediment supply calculated by the river inputs obtained from station lijin was the highest however the actual sediment load at this stage 0 84 gt yr was more than twice of the critical sediment load 0 35 gt yr for sustaining the active subaerial area which favored a rapid seaward progradation of the yellow river subaerial delta during the second stage 1981 1996 the engineering facilitated channelized river flow and the increase in median grain size of suspended sediment delivered to the sea resulted in the critical sediment load for keeping the delta stability deceasing to 0 29 gt yr the active delta lobe still gradually prograded seaward at an accretion rate of 11 9 km2 yr at this stage as the annual sediment load at lijin station was 0 55 gt yr from 1996 to 2002 the critical sediment load further decreased to 0 15 gt yr with the sediment grain size increased to 22 5 m however the delta suffered net erosion because of the insufficient sediment supply 0 11 gt yr in the most recent stage 2002 2013 the intensive scouring of the lower river channel induced by the dam regulation provided relatively coarser sediment which effectively reduced the critical sediment load to 0 06 gt yr much lower than the corresponding sediment load at lijin station 0 16 gt yr consequently the subaerial yellow river delta transitioned to a slight accretion phase overall the evolution of the active yellow river delta is highly correlated to riverine water and sediment discharge the sediment supply for keeping the subaerial delta stability is inconstant and varying with the river channel morphology and sediment grain size we conclude that the human impacted riverine sediment discharge and grain size composition play dominant roles in the stepwise morphological evolution of the active delta lobe

kerogen asphaltene sulfur relationships in sulfur rich monterey oils abstract monterey oils in the santa maria basin onshore and offshore are generally low maturity oils because of low thermal exposure relatively shallow burial for short times they are generated as heavy high sulfur oils because of the composition of the unusual type ii source kerogens which are exceptionally rich in organic sulfur 8 14 these high sulfur kerogens which we designate type ii s appear to generate oil at significantly lower thermal exposures than ordinary type ii kerogens with less than 6 s in contrast to common type ii kerogens which generate oil largely by cleavage at oxygen bridge groups and carbon carbon bonds eliminating co2 h2o and hydrocarbon fragments type ii s kerogens have an additional complement of weak bonds associated with bound sulfur the preferential cleavage at weak sulfur linkages tends to produce larger fragments leading to high initial amounts of asphaltenes resins and sulfur rich aromatics together with smaller amounts of saturated hydrocarbons elemental analyses of monterey kerogens and asphaltenes clearly support the concept that the asphaltenes are essentially fragments of kerogen cleaved sufficiently to be soluble or peptized in this heavy oil system solubilization of asphaltenes is attributed to their interactions with the abundant resins and aromatics this sysstem is sufficiently stable under source and reservoir conditions to allow expulsion and migration for reasonable distance without significant fractionation or changes in gross properties initial asphaltenes have essentially the same atomic h c ratios as the source kerogen but have significantlyy lower o c ratios and slightly lower s c ratios the n c ratios are nearly the same for kerogens and their derived asphaltenes with increasing maturity the h c ratios in asphaltenes decrease much like maturation changes in kerogen the s c ratio also decreases significantly however the o c ratios initially low in asphaltenes and n c ratios increase slightly due to material balance caused by other losses these element composition and atomic ratio relationships allow some important inferences concerning source kerogen composition from analysis of asphaltenes alone this can be useful when potential source rock samples are not available for analysis and or when a choice between alternate source rock possibilities must be made

evaluation of high frequency paleoenvironmental variation using an optimized cyclostratigraphic framework example for c s fe analysis of devonian mississippian black shales central appalachian basin u s a abstract stratigraphic successions are rarely sampled at sufficiently dense spacing to permit evaluation of paleoenvironmental variation at the shortest fundamental frequency operative in the depositional system of interest often because that frequency remains undetermined here we provide an example of a sampling strategy optimized for recovery of high frequency paleoenvironmental signals based on 1 full core analysis using a continuous survey tool such as x radiography followed by 2 fine sampling of selected small scale cycles that record significant short term paleoenvironmental variation we show that this strategy results in recovery of high frequency paleoenvironmental signals that are completely missed by low density sampling protocols permitting key insights into depositional and early diagenetic processes that may otherwise by overlooked the present case study is based on c s fe systematics of the cleveland and sunbury shales which belong to the upper devonian lowermost carboniferous black shale succession of the central appalachian basin in eastern north america in these units the fundamental scale of paleoenvironmental variation is recorded by pervasive decimeter scale 5 to 20 cm thick compositional cycles that are readily visible in outcrop in which high organic layers weather out as resistant ledges we identified these cycles in drillcores using x radiography which proved to be an effective proxy for compositional variation owing to control of bulk density primarily by total organic carbon toc content we then sampled selected dm scale cycles n 21 at a centimeter spacing generating short high resolution multiproxy chemostratigraphic records including toc sulfur and fe concentrations fepy fehr a redox proxy 34spyrite and organic maceral content this analysis yielded the novel insight that all proxies related to authigenic iron sulfides e g stotal and spyrite fetotal and fepyrite fepy fehr and 34spyrite covary negatively with toc within the dm scale cycles we interpret the unusual pattern of negative toc pyrite covariation in the cleveland and sunbury shales to have resulted from differential distributions of labile organic matter om which drove h2s production via microbial sulfate reduction msr and reactive fe which controlled pyrite formation labile om was concentrated in high toc layers whereas reactive fe was concentrated in low toc layers possibly as fe oxyhydroxide coatings on silt grains as a consequence of which part of the h2s generated in the high toc layers diffused upward into the low toc layers before becoming fixed as pyrite this process is evidenced by several contrasts between high toc and low toc layers 1 higher spyrite concentrations and fepy fehr values in the latter 2 concentration of pyrite in the lower part of low toc layers immediately above high toc layers and 3 higher 34spyrite values in the latter reflecting late diagenetic formation of the h2s that diffused upward into the low toc layers to our knowledge this process has not been documented previously in ancient marine shales probably owing to insufficiently high resolution analysis in earlier studies

natural vs human induced facies changes in recent shallow fjord sediments of the store lungegardsvannet in bergen western norway a basin wide change from an older homogeneous bioturbated to a younger laminated facies occurs in sediments from the 26 m deep permanently anoxic store lungegardsvannet fjord the younger facies consists of alternating packages of light and dark layers each containing millimetre scale laminae the composition of the dark layers differs from that of the light layers in the occurrence of predominantly marine benthic diatoms larger grain size lower loss on ignition loi and lower trace metal cu pb zn concentrations total trace metal concentrations correlate with the redox sensitive trace elements mo and v r 0 8 and with loi r 0 6 the correlation of the minerogenic matter and the grain size related elements al and li is poor r 0 2 the shoaling of the sill depth and reduction of the fjord area resulting in the reduction of bottom water exchange accounted for the shift from bioturbated to laminated sediments during the end of the last century the alternating changes within the laminated facies are the result of alternating wind forces during years of calm wind conditions 1908 1919 and 1945 1961 undisturbed sedimentation of organic matter from primary production and an associated accumulation of trace metals prevail years of high wind force 1919 1945 and 1961 1991 trigger shore erosion and an increased influx of minerogenic matter

support for two subglacial impact craters in northwest greenland from earth gravity model eigen 6c4 and other data abstract we support the very recent discovery of two impact craters under the ice of northwest greenland hiawatha glacier and paterson these discoveries are based mainly on geology and bedrock topography we added an analysis of gravity field aspects descriptors in addition to the traditional gravity and magnetic anomalies the gravity aspects the marussi tensor of the second derivatives the gravity invariants and their special ratio strike angles and virtual deformations provide more complex and comprehensive information about the underground density variations due to a causative body than ordinary gravity anomalies they show signals typical for the individual geological features like a mountain volcano fault river valley paleo lake ground water hydrocarbon mineral deposits etc as well as for the targets known as impact craters our method has been tested on various geological features on the earth and the moon the gravity aspects are in our case derived from the recent global static combined earth gravity field model eigen 6c4 with a ground resolution 9 km and a precision 10 mgal a further data come from the digital magnetic field database emag 2 with resolution 5 km our method is novel and independent of anything which led to discoveries of these craters in greenland

the role of long term human impact on avulsion and fan development this study aims to understand mainly qualitatively the long term role of human impact on avulsion processes and the development of fluvial mega fans in semi arid environments in this paper we refer to human impact as the direct influences of actions on the river s hydraulics i e flow regulation flow diversion and channel engineering in five case studies drawn from the khuzestan plains in southwest iran we have analysed the setup and triggering conditions of specific avulsions that occurred in the past timescale of millennia and identified the role of human interference in their causation our analysis is based on the integration of historical archaeological geomorphological and geological data through this study we demonstrate that avulsions in the khuzestan plains are the result of long term and complex interplay between multiple human induced and natural causes in similar ways human induced actions may play important roles during different phases of avulsion development the success of an avulsion in the post triggering phase may be defined by human induced setup causes as well as morphodynamic processes we suggest that present day flood events may be partly inherited from long term human alterations of the natural processes these finding could have implications for any fluvial system e g distributive fluvial systems deltas where avulsion plays a major role in their development and research tends to emphasize on natural mechanisms copyright 2016 john wiley sons ltd

sea level related architectural trends in coarse grained delta complexes distinct stratigraphical styles of delta development can be related to basically different patterns of relative sea level base level change 1 an overall rise with periods of standstill and without significant fall rs 2 an overall rise with superimposed falls rf 3 an overall fall with superimposed rises fr and 4 an overall fall with periods of standstill and no significant rises fs the related stratigraphical models contain either preserved elements of prototype deltas or show characteristic trends in development from one prototype delta into another each stratigraphical model is characterized by lateral and vertical lithofacies features which can be reasonably well established from outcrop in coarse clastic basin margins where age control is poor sedimentological and stratigraphical delta models as presented here may help refining reconstructions of basin fill patterns and basin subsidence kinematics

evidence from central mexico supporting the younger dryas extraterrestrial impact hypothesis we report the discovery in lake cuitzeo in central mexico of a black carbon rich lacustrine layer containing nanodiamonds microspherules and other unusual materials that date to the early younger dryas and are interpreted to result from an extraterrestrial impact these proxies were found in a 27 m long core as part of an interdisciplinary effort to extract a paleoclimate record back through the previous interglacial our attention focused early on an anomalous 10 cm thick carbon rich layer at a depth of 2 8 m that dates to 12 9 ka and coincides with a suite of anomalous coeval environmental and biotic changes independently recognized in other regional lake sequences collectively these changes have produced the most distinctive boundary layer in the late quaternary record this layer contains a diverse abundant assemblage of impact related markers including nanodiamonds carbon spherules and magnetic spherules with rapid melting quenching textures all reaching synchronous peaks immediately beneath a layer containing the largest peak of charcoal in the core analyses by multiple methods demonstrate the presence of three allotropes of nanodiamond n diamond i carbon and hexagonal nanodiamond lonsdaleite in order of estimated relative abundance this nanodiamond rich layer is consistent with the younger dryas boundary layer found at numerous sites across north america greenland and western europe we have examined multiple hypotheses to account for these observations and find the evidence cannot be explained by any known terrestrial mechanism it is however consistent with the younger dryas boundary impact hypothesis postulating a major extraterrestrial impact involving multiple airburst s and and or ground impact s at 12 9 ka

high resolution late glacial chronology for the gerzensee lake record switzerland δ18o correlation between a gerzensee stack and ngrip oxygen isotope variations were analyzed on bulk samples of shallow water lake marl from gerzensee switzerland in order to evaluate major and minor climatic oscillations during the late glacial to highlight the overall signature of the gerzensee 18o record 18o records of four parallel sediment cores were first correlated by synchronizing major isotope shifts and pollen abundances then the records were stacked with a weighting depending on the differing sampling resolution to develop a precise chronology the 18o stack was then correlated with the ngrip 18o record applying a monte carlo simulation relying on the assumption that the shifts in 18o were climate driven and synchronous in both archives the established chronology on the gicc05 time scale is the basis for 1 comparing the 18o changes recorded in gerzensee with observed climatic and environmental fluctuations over the whole north atlantic region and 2 comparing sedimentological and biological changes during the rapid warming with smaller climatic variations during the bolling allerod period the 18o record of gerzensee is characterized by two major isotope shifts at the onset and at the termination of the bolling allerod warm period as well as four intervening negative shifts labeled gi 1e2 d c2 and b which show a shift of one third to one fourth of the major 18o shifts at the beginning and end of the bolling allerod despite some inconsistency in terminology these oscillations can be observed in various climatic proxies over wide regions in the north atlantic region especially in reconstructed colder temperatures and they seem to be caused by hemispheric climatic variations

size limits for rounding of volcanic ash particles heated by lightning volcanic ash particles can be remelted by the high temperatures induced in volcanic lightning discharges the molten particles can round under surface tension then quench to produce glass spheres melting and rounding timescales for volcanic materials are strongly dependent on heating duration and peak temperature and are shorter for small particles than for large particles therefore the size distribution of glass spheres recovered from ash deposits potentially record the short duration high temperature conditions of volcanic lightning discharges which are hard to measure directly we use a 1 d numerical solution to the heat equation to determine the timescales of heating and cooling of volcanic particles during and after rapid heating and compare these with the capillary timescale for rounding an angular particle we define dimensionless parameters capillary fourier stark biot and peclet numbers to characterize the competition between heat transfer within the particle heat transfer at the particle rim and capillary motion for particles of different sizes we apply this framework to the lightning case and constrain a maximum size for ash particles susceptible to surface tension driven rounding as a function of lightning temperature and duration and ash properties the size limit agrees well with maximum sizes of glass spheres found in volcanic ash that has been subjected to lightning or experimental discharges demonstrating that the approach that we develop can be used to obtain a first order estimate of lightning conditions in volcanic plumes

backwater controls of avulsion location on deltas river delta complexes are built in part through repeated river channel avulsions which often occur about a persistent spatial node creating delta lobes that form a fan like morphology predicting the location of avulsions is poorly understood but it is essential for wetland restoration hazard mitigation reservoir characterization and delta morphodynamics following previous work we show that the upstream distance from the river mouth where avulsions occur is coincident with the backwater length i e the upstream extent of river flow that is affected by hydrodynamic processes in the receiving basin to explain this observation we formulate a fluvial morphodynamic model that is coupled to an offshore spreading river plume and subject it to a range of river discharges results show that avulsion is less likely in the downstream portion of the backwater zone because during high flow events the water surface is drawn down near the river mouth to match that of the offshore plume resulting in river bed scour and a reduced likelihood of overbank flow furthermore during low discharge events flow deceleration near the upstream extent of backwater causes enhanced deposition locally and a reduced channel fill timescale there both mechanisms favor preferential avulsion in the upstream part of the backwater zone these dynamics are fundamentally due to variable river discharges and a coupled offshore river plume with implications for predicting delta response to climate and sea level change and fluvio deltaic stratigraphy

late quaternary depositional architecture of po and tevere river deltas italy and worldwide comparison with coeval deltaic successions abstract po and tevere rivers form two of the most important deltas of the whole mediterranean area detailed investigations have been carried out in the last decade beneath the present delta plains of these two river systems using borehole data correlation with the aid of radiocarbon dates and other dating methods pollens archaeology a detailed sequence stratigraphic framework has been constructed in both areas especially for the last glacial interglacial cycle regional subsidence combined with short term sea level fluctuations of relatively high amplitude played a fundamental role in creating subtracting accommodation during the long phase of falling sea level which followed the tyrrhenian substage 5e transgressive event a discontinuous record of this phase is present in the subsurface of the po plain whereas poor or no preservation has been detected in the tevere area progradational lowstand wedges accumulated during the last glacial maximum mostly in the central part of the basins far from the present deltas and are lacking in the study areas where a hiatal surface is invariably recorded below the transgressive deposits glacioeustasy exerted a major control on sedimentation in both areas during the latest pleistocene holocene sea level rise infilling of fluvial valleys and rapid landward migration of barrier lagoon systems in the context of wave dominated estuaries characterized the transgressive phase in both po and tevere systems in place drowning and transgressive submergence mechanisms of barrier migration were effective predominantly between 13 5 and 9 ka bp in contrast shoreface retreat was dominant in the late transgressive phase the maximum flooding surface mfs can be traced physically from continental to marine deposits and has similar characteristics in the po and tevere river systems being marked by peat layers or lagoonal deposits at landward locations and by distinctive lithological characteristics and micro and macrofossils assemblages basinwards above the mfs the early highstand systems tract records initially the filling of the lagoons followed by the rapid progradation of wave dominate delta systems and flanking strandplains autocyclic processes such as distributary channel avulsion delta lobe abandonment and local subsidence due to sediment compaction were the fundamental controlling factors on sedimentation during deposition of the hst the stratigraphic architecture of the post glacial po and tevere delta complexes closely resembles the basic facies successions documented from coeval deposits of wave dominated and wave influenced clastic coasts both locally within the mediterranean area and in other parts of the world our study emphasizes however some additional features and major differences with previously published depositional models including i the development of backstepping wave dominated estuaries during transgression ii consistent changes through time in the mechanism of barrier migration iii a later construction of the delta systems with respect to what traditionally considered

the chromium isotope composition of reducing and oxic marine sediments the chromium cr isotope composition of marine sediments has the potential to provide new insights into the evolution of earth surface redox conditions there are significant but poorly constrained isotope fractionations associated with oxidative subaerial weathering and riverine transport the major source of seawater cr and with partial cr reduction during burial in marine sediments the major sink for seawater cr a more comprehensive understanding of these processes is needed to establish global cr isotope mass balance and to gauge the utility of cr isotopes as a paleoredox proxy for these purposes we investigated the cr isotope composition of reducing sediments from the upwelling zone of the peru margin and the deep cariaco basin chromium is present in marine sediments in both detrital and authigenic phases and to estimate the isotopic composition of the authigenic fraction we measured 53cr on a weakly acid leached fraction in addition to the bulk sediment in an effort to examine potential variability in the cr isotope composition of the detrital fraction we also measured 53cr on a variety of oxic marine sediments that contain minimal authigenic cr the average 53cr value of the oxic sediments examined here is 0 05 0 10 2 n 25 which is within the range of 53cr values characteristic of the bulk silicate earth this implies that uncertainty in estimates of authigenic 53cr values based on bulk sediment analyses is mainly linked to estimation of the ratio of cr in detrital versus authigenic phases rather than to the cr isotopic composition of the detrital pool leaches of cariaco basin sediments have an average 53cr value of 0 38 0 10 2 n 7 which shows no dependency on sample location within the basin and is close to that of atlantic deepwater cr 0 5 this suggests that authigenic cr in anoxic sediments may reliably reflect the first order cr isotope composition of deepwaters for peru margin samples the average 53cr values of bulk sediments 0 59 0 06 2 and leach fractions 0 61 0 06 2 are also comparable with those of cariaco basin samples and modern deepwater values finally we found that the 53cr of peru margin samples correlates with 15n on glacial interglacial timescales which we attribute to secular variation in basinal or global ocean redox conditions thus the 53cr stratigraphic record of peru margin sediments indicates that cr isotopes may be suited to tracking geologically short term changes in ocean oxygenation

a study of sulphur enrichment in the humic fraction of marine sediments during early diagenesis abstract the evolution of the sulphur content of humic acids extracted from a near shore sediment core was investigated special attention was taken to avoid s contamination of the humic materials during extraction the s c ratios increased continuously with depth to values which strongly suggest s addition to the humic matrix during early diagenesis by reactions between organic matter and h2s or its oxidation products their light isotopic composition supports this view however subsequent isotopic exchange has obscured the mechanism initially involved since a large fraction of the enrichment occurred above the sulphidic zone redox boundaries such as the interface of anoxic microniches within more oxidized zones or the sulphidic suboxic boundary of the sediment column must have been important sites for s addition bioturbation by increasing the contact between sedimentary zones of a different redox regime will likely enhance such processes

biogenic and abiogenic components of laminated hemipelagic sediments in the central gulf of california abstract alternating light and dark submillimeter to millimeter thick layered sediments rhythmites are found along the slopes of the central and southern gulf of california where a strong oxygen minimum zone intersects the sediment water interface two short intervals of distinct alternations were sampled lamina by lamina from two cores in the central gulf both cores are from the slope of the guaymas basin one core is from the mainland side the other core is from the baja side each lamina sample was analyzed for its opal micro floral assemblage textural character trace metal and bulk chemical cu mn fe ni zn ca k al sio2 and c org content and mineralogy on both sides of the gulf the light laminae contain more diatom frustules up to 90 and less terrigenous and organic material than the dark laminae the sediment is predominantly silt sized the dark laminae contain more terrigenous material which is primarily clay size on both sides of the gulf the light laminae apparently represent sedimentation during the dry winter season of northwesterly winds whereas the dark laminae represent the wet summer season of southeasterly winds

distributary channels and their impact on sediment dispersal a global analysis of world deltas with details from a natural and an anthropogenic influenced delta demonstrates how distributary channels control the flux of sediment into the coastal ocean the study addresses the range in the number of distributary channels across world deltas using remote sensing techniques a power law relationship is found between the number of distributary channels and the length of river and separately the delta gradient these relationships hold for all types of deltas whether controlled or strongly influenced by waves river discharge tides or ice permafrost or sea ice nature controlled deltas such as the klinaklini delta have distributary channels that act as overflow conduits that become active during flooding events anthropogenic controlled deltas like the po delta have distributary channels that are controlled for flood mitigation or low flow maintenance anthropogenic influences greatly impact the natural rate of delta progradation through changes in sediment supply controlling the position of distributary channels and impacting subsidence from gas and groundwater extraction even with flood controls the po delta traps 16 of the sediment load in its channels that are becoming super elevated at rates of 4 to 10 cm yr with respect to the delta plain a new model is formulated and shown to predict accurately the sediment flux through each channel along with their hydraulic properties deltas with high numbers of distributary channels produce hypopycnal plumes with reduced transport capacity as a result sediment diffuses out of the multi channel deltas as a buoyantly driven plume rather than as a momentum driven jet

estimating river sediment discharge to the ocean application to the eel margin northern california abstract hydrotrend a synthetic river discharge numerical model can simulate the natural variability daily annually and longer in the flux of water and sediment delivered to the coastal ocean the numerical model is designed to make discharge predictions based on climate even though field measurements of river flow are not available provided that appropriate assumptions are made regarding past climate the model can predict how a river may have behaved in the geological past sediment load is determined from a river s rating coefficients when applied to the flood dominated eel river northern california hydrotrend captures the intermonthly and interannual variability of discharge and loads over a century or more hydrotrend is applied to the ice age paleo eel river when sea level was lower and climate much cooler and wetter the paleo eel river at 18 000 year bp would see its hinterland runoff increase but not the magnitude of the peak discharges the post dicted sediment load of the paleo eel river was 25 greater than today s although basin precipitation was 45 greater and the hinterland area 4 greater through sea level lowering a method is provided to obtain sediment discharge rating coefficients for unmonitored modern rivers and paleo rivers the relationship q s g 1 2 h 3 2 a 1 2 provides for an estimate of a river s sediment load q s to within a factor of 3 over 7 orders of magnitude from knowledge of basin relief h and basin area a rating coefficients are determined from this estimate of q s and the power law rating curve q s aq b 1 where q is discharge

tracing the laacher see tephra in the varved sediment record of the trzechowskie palaeolake in central northern poland abstract tephrochronological studies of partly varved sediments of trzechowskie palaeolake in central northern poland led to the finding of the late allerod laacher see tephra lst from the eifel volcanic field for the first time in a very distal site ca 840 km ene from its volcanic source the detection of glass shards of the lst involved a comprehensive combination of techniques i e biostratigraphical constrains high resolution xrf core scanning and areal xrf mapping of impregnated sediment slabs as well as detailed visual inspection of sediments the major element chemistry of volcanic glass confirmed the laacher see tephra composition in trzechowskie palaeolake sediments suggesting a deposition from the middle laacher see tephra mlst c or upper laacher see tephra ulst dispersal fans the finding of the lst in this palaeolake enables direct synchronisation with other high resolution archives in north central europe i e lake meerfelder maar rehwiese palaeolake to investigate regional variations of environmental responses at the onset of the younger dryas along a west east transect through north central europe

effect of ocean oxidation on the chemical structure of marine kerogen abstract the burial of organic matter om in marine sediments is an important control on global climate and petroleum formation on geological timescales while the oxygen exposure time of sediment has been shown to affect the efficiency of organic carbon burial and influence om properties in recent sediments the implications for the chemical composition of kerogen have not been tested this study tests the hypothesis that oceanic redox conditions are an important control on the molecular structure and composition of kerogen samples from a number of outcropping late cretaceous mudstones of the eagle ford formation were chosen spanning a gradient of paleo redox depositional conditions oxic sub oxic to anoxic and the bulk molecular composition of the kerogen was determined using solid state 13 c nuclear magnetic resonance nmr spectroscopy the nmr spectral properties of kerogen covaried with redox sensitive trace metal abundance whereas the thermal maturity and om source biomarkers were relatively invariant anoxic environments favor the preservation of alkyl c moieties while kerogen formed in oxic depositional environments was enriched in aromatic c this study is the first to demonstrate that diagenetic consequences of bottom water redox conditions are retained in the molecular structure of the kerogen macromolecule on geological timescales

impact of the late glacial eruption of the laacher see volcano central rhineland germany abstract within a period of a few weeks toward the end of the allerod interstadial the major plinian eruption of the laacher see volcano produced some 20 km3 of eruptiva covering and preserving the late glacial landscape in the german central rhineland over an area of more than 1000 km2 correlation of terrestrial archives with the greenland ice core records and improved calibration of the radiocarbon timescale permit a precise accurate age determination of the laacher see event some 200 yr before the onset of the younger dryas cold episode carbonized trees and botanical macrofossils preserved by laacher see tephra permit detailed regional paleoenvironmental reconstruction and show that open woodland were typical for the cool and humid hemiboreal climatic conditions during the late allerod this woodland provided the habitat for a large variety of animal species documented at both paleontological and final paleolithic archeological sites preserved below laacher see deposits of special interest are numerous animal tracks intercalated in middle laacher see deposits at the south of the neuwied basin this knowledge may help to evaluate possible supraregional impacts of this volcanic event on northern hemispheric environment and climate during the late allerod

very high temperature impact melt products as evidence for cosmic airbursts and impacts 12 900 years ago it has been proposed that fragments of an asteroid or comet impacted earth deposited silica and iron rich microspherules and other proxies across several continents and triggered the younger dryas cooling episode 12 900 years ago although many independent groups have confirmed the impact evidence the hypothesis remains controversial because some groups have failed to do so we examined sediment sequences from 18 dated younger dryas boundary ydb sites across three continents north america europe and asia spanning 12 000 km around nearly one third of the planet all sites display abundant microspherules in the ydb with none or few above and below in addition three sites abu hureyra syria melrose pennsylvania and blackville south carolina display vesicular high temperature siliceous scoria like objects or slos that match the spherules geochemically we compared ydb objects with melt products from a known cosmic impact meteor crater arizona and from the 1945 trinity nuclear airburst in socorro new mexico and found that all of these high energy events produced material that is geochemically and morphologically comparable including i high temperature rapidly quenched microspherules and slos ii corundum mullite and suessite fe3si a rare meteoritic mineral that forms under high temperatures iii melted sio2 glass or lechatelierite with flow textures or schlieren that form at 2 200 c and iv particles with features indicative of high energy interparticle collisions these results are inconsistent with anthropogenic volcanic authigenic and cosmic materials yet consistent with cosmic ejecta supporting the hypothesis of extraterrestrial airbursts impacts 12 900 years ago the wide geographic distribution of slos is consistent with multiple impactors

bayesian chronological analyses consistent with synchronous age of 12 835 12 735 cal b p for younger dryas boundary on four continents the younger dryas impact hypothesis posits that a cosmic impact across much of the northern hemisphere deposited the younger dryas boundary ydb layer containing peak abundances in a variable assemblage of proxies including magnetic and glassy impact related spherules high temperature minerals and melt glass nanodiamonds carbon spherules aciniform carbon platinum and osmium bayesian chronological modeling was applied to 354 dates from 23 stratigraphic sections in 12 countries on four continents to establish a modeled ydb age range for this event of 12 835 12 735 cal b p at 95 probability this range overlaps that of a peak in extraterrestrial platinum in the greenland ice sheet and of the earliest age of the younger dryas climate episode in six proxy records suggesting a causal connection between the ydb impact event and the younger dryas two statistical tests indicate that both modeled and unmodeled ages in the 30 records are consistent with synchronous deposition of the ydb layer within the limits of dating uncertainty 100 y the widespread distribution of the ydb layer suggests that it may serve as a datum layer

identifying environmental controls on the shoreline of a natural river delta river deltas form where sediment laden water debouches into a basin the spatial delineation of a delta is nontrivial and yet is fundamental to systematically evaluating fluxes across its surface here we study shoreline dynamics of the wax lake delta wld a naturally developing delta downstream of the atchafalaya river usa we demonstrate the ability to extract hydrodynamic and morphodynamic shorelines from time series of satellite imagery and topography data respectively the hydrodynamic shoreline corresponds to the traditional dry wet interface whereas we introduce the concept of a morphodynamic shoreline demarcating the topset foreset transition of a delta to quantitatively express the degree of inundation of a delta plain these shorelines enable us to assess environmental controls on inundation of the wld delta plain noting the abundance of satellite imagery whereas time series of bathymetric data from delta plains are scarce from the analysis of noaa and u s geological survey environmental data we identify the effects of river discharge tides wind and vegetation on shoreline position in particular using delft3d simulations and a simplified momentum balance we highlight the nonuniform and nonlinear effect of wind on delta plain inundation our analyses reveal that wind riverine discharge and tides significantly contribute to inundation of the wld and hence incorporating their interaction is essential to the accurate modeling of hydrodynamics and ecodynamics of the wld delta plain as well as to the dynamic shape of delta plains in general

vegetation responses to rapid warming and to minor climatic fluctuations during the late glacial interstadial gi 1 at gerzensee switzerland abstract high resolution pollen analyses made on the same samples on which the ratios of oxygen isotopes were measured that provided the time scale and a temperature proxy after correlation to northgrip 1 a primary succession the vegetation responded to the rapid rise of temperatures around 14 685 yr bp with a primary succession on a decadal to centennial time scale the succession between ca 15 600 and 13 000 yr bp included 1 1 the replacement of shrub tundra by woodland of juniperus and tree birch around 14 665 yr bp 1 2 the response of juniperus pollen to the shift in oxygen isotopes in less than 20 yr 1 3 a sequence of population increases of hippophae rhamnoides ca 14 600 yr bp salix spp ca 14 600 yr bp betula trees ca 14 480 yr bp populus cf tremula ca 14 300 yr bp and pinus cf sylvestris ca 13 830 yr bp 2 biological processes plants responded to the rapid increase of summer temperatures on all organisational levels 2 1 individuals may have produced more pollen e g juniperus 2 2 populations increased or decreased e g juniperus betula later pinus and 2 3 populations changed their biogeographical range and may show migrational lags 2 4 plant communities changed in their composition because the species pools changed through immigration and local extinction some plant communities may have been without modern analogue these mechanisms require increasing amounts of time 2 5 processes on the level of ecosystems with species interactions may involve various time scales besides competition and facilitation nitrogen fixation is discussed 3 the minor fluctuations of temperature during the late glacial interstadial which are recorded in 18o resulted in only very minor changes in pollen during the aegelsee oscillation older dryas biozone gi 1d and the gerzensee oscillation gi 1b 4 biodiversity the afforestation at the onset of bolling coincided with a gradual increase of taxonomic diversity up to the time of the major pinus expansion

a laacher see eruption supplement to tephrabase investigating distal tephra fallout dynamics abstract tephrabase www tephrabase org is an online data repository and research tool for tephrochronological investigations in northern europe this paper presents and discusses an update to tephrabase that contains geographic and as far as available geochemical data on 452 data points for the widespread isochronous laacher see tephra this tephra is dated to c 12 920 calendar years bp and acts as an important chronostratigraphic marker for the lateglacial gi 1a late allerod chronozone in terrestrial and lacustrine palaeoenvironmental archives as well as in archaeological stratigraphies based on these data a revised map of the total tephra distribution is presented suggesting that the north eastern fallout lobe might contain a secondary fallout thickness maximum 230 340 km distant from the eruptive centre in addition new geochemical data from a series of distal tephra deposits spanning most of the north eastern fallout lobe are used to evaluate previous suggestions regarding the distribution of fallout from distinct eruption phases the aim of the study is that future tephrochronological investigations can use this database and the revised distribution map for effectively targeting sites for analysis

lodestone natures only permanent magnet what it is and how it gets charged magnetite and titanomagnetite exhibit magnetic properties which are attributable to the micro structures developed during oxidation and exsolution all magnetite iron ores which are lodestones contain maghemite these lodestones have hc between 10 and 30 mt sirm between 8 and 18 am kg and ri between 0 10 and 0 26 magnetite titanomagnetite and metals have rem values ratio of nrm to sirm 0 05 samples called fulgarites obtained from the smithsonian institution have rem values ranging from 0 45 to 0 92 the rem value serves as a witness parameter to the magnetic fields associated with the lightning bolt if a high rem value say 0 1 can be verified as not to be due to contamination by man and does not contain md hematite then the rock has lrm lightning remanent magnetization the magnetic field associated with lightning can be revealed from an isothermal remanent acquisition ra curve

comparative study of organic matter preservation in immature sediments along the continental margins of peru and oman part i results of petrographical and bulk geochemical data abstract detailed petrographical and bulk geochemical investigations of organic matter om have been performed on sediments deposited below or close to upwelling areas offshore peru odp leg 112 sites 679 681 688 and oman odp leg 117 sites 720 723 724 in order to obtain a quantitative understanding of its accumulation and degradation microscopical as well as nanoscopical investigations reveal that the om in sediments affected by upwelling mechanisms mainly up to 98 consists of unstructured amorphous organic aggregates without any apparent biological structures in sediments which are not or to a lesser extent affected by upwelling site 720 terrestrial om predominates organic carbon toc contents are highly variable and range between 9 8 in sediments deposited below upwelling cells and 0 2 in sediments outside the upwelling zone the toc sulphur ratios of the sediments scatter widely the samples from the deep water locations sites 688 and 720 show c s ratios of normal marine sediments whereas at the other locations no correlation or even a negative correlation between sulphur and toc concentration exists in most of the upwelling influenced sediments om contains a significant amount of sulphur the incorporation of sulphur into the om followed microbial sulphate reduction and occurred in the upper meters of the sedimentary column below om is still present in vast amounts and relatively hydrogen rich but is nevertheless non metabolizable and becomes the limiting factor for bacterial sulphate reduction according to mass balance calculations 90 99 of the om produced in the photic zone was remineralized and 1 3 was consumed by microbial sulphate reduction the aerobic and anaerobic processes have greatly affected degradation and conservation of om

mapping turbidity patterns in the po river prodelta using multi temporal landsat 8 imagery abstract thirty meters resolution turbidity maps derived from landsat 8 l8 images were used to investigate spatial and temporal variations of suspended matter patterns and distribution in the area of po river prodelta italy in the period from april 2013 to october 2015 the main focus of the work was the study of small and sub mesoscale structures linking them to the main forcings that control the fate of suspended sediments in the northern adriatic sea a number of hydrologic and meteorological events of different extent and duration was captured by l8 data quantifying how river discharge and meteo marine conditions modulate the distribution of turbidity on and off shore at sub mesoscale peculiar patterns and smaller structures as multiple plumes and sand bars were identified thanks to the unprecedented spatial and radiometric resolution of l8 sensor the use of these satellite derived products provides interesting information particularly on turbidity distribution among the different delta distributaries in specific fluvial regimes that fills the knowledge gap of traditional studies based only on in situ data a novel approach using satellite data within model implementation is then suggested

hydrological connectivity in river deltas the first order importance of channel island exchange deltaic systems are composed of distributary channels and interdistributary islands while previous work has focused either on the channels or on the islands here we study the hydrological exchange between channels and islands and point at its important role in delta morphology and ecology we focus our analysis on wax lake delta in coastal louisiana usa and characterize the surface water component of hydrological connectivity through measurements of water discharge and hydraulic tracer propagation we find that deltaic islands are zones of significant water flux as 23 54 of the incoming distributary channel flux enters the islands a calculation of the travel times through a channel island complex shows travel times through the islands to be at least 3 times their channel counterparts a dye release experiment also indicates that travel times in islands are much longer that those within channels as dye remained in the island for the 3 8 day duration of the experiment additionally islands are more sensitive than channels to environmental forces such as tides which cause flow reversal and thus can increase travel times through the islands our work defines the hydrological network of a river delta to include not only the distributary channel network but also the interdistributary islands quantifies the implications of channel island hydrological connectivity to travel times through the system and discusses the relevance of our findings to channel mouth dynamics at the delta front and the potential for denitrification in coastal systems

radiocarbon simulation fails to support the temporal synchroneity requirement of the younger dryas impact hypothesis fine scale temporal processes such as the synchronous deposition of organic materials can be challenging to identify using 14 c datasets while some events such as volcanic eruptions leave clear evidence for synchronous deposition synchroneity is more difficult to establish for other types of events this has been a source of controversy regarding 14 c dates associated with a hypothesized extraterrestrial impact at the younger dryas boundary ydb to address this controversy we first aggregate 14 c measurements from northern hemisphere ydb sites we also aggregate 14 c measurements associated with a known synchronous event the laacher see volcanic eruption we then use a monte carlo simulation to evaluate the magnitude of variability expected in a 14 c dataset associated with a synchronous event the simulation accounts for measurement error calibration uncertainty old wood effects and laboratory measurement biases the laacher see 14 c dataset is consistent with expectations of synchroneity generated by the simulation however the ydb 14 c dataset is inconsistent with the simulated expectations for synchroneity these results suggest that a central requirement of the younger dryas impact hypothesis synchronous global deposition of a ydb layer is extremely unlikely calling into question the younger dryas impact hypothesis more generally

late glacial sediments of the stara jimka paleolake and the first finding of laacher see tephra in the czech republic the late glacial sedimentary sequence of the stara jimka paleolake bohemian forest czech republic is characterized by the prevalence of detrital minerals with an elevated proportion of organic matter and abundant diatom valves in relatively warm periods the mineral debris originated mainly from local migmatites and mica schists or glacial and deluvial deposits derived from the same material low background contents of cao 0 20 wt and na2o 0 50 wt reflect chemical weathering correlation analysis of trace elements shows that the mineral debris concentrates rb cs ga cr zr hf light rare earth elements th u pb ba sr and weakly zn whereas mo co se as ni cu br and weakly au are allocated predominantly to sulphides and organic matter the sequence contains a continuous horizon with the laacher see tephra lst causing contrasting maxima of na ca cl and nb in bulk composition while the phonolitic tephra corresponds to the lower part of the middle lst unit it also contains phosphorus rich relicts of older sediments with small euhedral air transported volcanic crystals such sediments may have occurred in depressions at an older volcano prior to the major laacher see eruption 12 880 cal bp

holocene evolution of the danube delta an integral reconstruction and a revised chronology abstract the danube delta is one of the few large deltas in the world the evolution of which has involved numerous and varied episodes within a complex framework of interactivity between river sediment supply allochthonous sediments supplied by longshore currents marine dispersing forces vertical movements neotectonics sediment compaction and sea level the resulting complex morphology comprises diversified landscapes varying from labyrinthic net of channels and lakes fluvial delta to massive tracts of monotonous reed marshes large lagoons divided by barriers or beach ridge plains accommodating large transgressive dunefields maritime delta whilst previous studies have focused on various sectors of the danube delta the current paper proposes for the first time an integral reconstruction of delta evolution based on existing and new sedimentological and morphological analyses and absolute ages ams 14 c and osl enabling a comprehensive synthesis in terms of both evolutionary phases and growth patterns a chronological framework was established for all the deltaic lobes and beach ridge plains highlighting the relationship between formation timespan growth rates and the resultant morphology this work unveils the early stage of delta formation including the reconstruction of delta front advancement into danube bay old danube lobe prior to 7 5 5 5 ka and initial spit barrier development 6 7 6 5 5 8 ka inception of the bayhead delta started 1000 yr before the relative stabilization of sea level and of the initial spit formation the original fluvial delta plain topography is now buried at a depth of 4 6 m depth below the present topography representing the current stage of fluvial aggradation as a result of subsidence and sea level rise regarding the maritime delta six large open coast lobes developed in the last six millennia of which four were formed by the sf gheorghe branch attesting the long uninterrupted activity of this branch whereas the other two were created respectively by the sulina and the chilia branches the evolution of each lobe is derived from successive chronological shoreline positions and discussed in relation with changes in danube discharge special attention has been paid to their growth stages and progradation rates for the southern delta we bring in new arguments for an active southern distributary the dunav derived from the sf gheorghe branch that formed successive open coast lobes between 2 6 and 1 3 ka additionally we discuss the effects of modern anthropogenically driven fluvial sediment reduction on the morphology and morphodynamics of the active lobes of the danube

quantitative metrics that describe river deltas and their channel networks 1 densely populated river deltas are losing land at an alarming rate and to successfully restore these environments we must understand the details of their morphology toward this end we present a set of five metrics that describe delta morphology 1 the fractal dimension 2 the distribution of island sizes 3 the nearest edge distance 4 a synthetic distribution of sediment fluxes at the shoreline and 5 the nourishment area the nearest edge distance is the shortest distance to channelized or unchannelized water from a given location on the delta and is analogous to the inverse of drainage density in tributary networks the nourishment area is the downstream delta area supplied by the sediment coming through a given channel cross section and is analogous to catchment area in tributary networks as a first step we apply these metrics to four relatively simple fluvially dominated delta networks for all these deltas the average nearest edge distances are remarkably constant moving down delta suggesting that the network organizes itself to maintain a consistent distance to the nearest channel nourishment area distributions can be predicted from a river mouth bar model of delta growth and also scale with the width of the channel and with the length of the longest channel analogous to hack s law for drainage basins the four delta channel networks are fractal but power laws and scale invariance appear to be less pervasive than in tributary networks thus deltas may occupy an advantageous middle ground between complete similarity and complete dissimilarity where morphologic differences indicate different behavior

monitoring the variations of the socotra upwelling system during the last 250 kyr a biogenic and geochemical approach abstract a combination of changes in the species composition of the radiolarian populations and in the sediment chemical composition content and mass accumulation rates of carbonate organic carbon and selected major and trace elements with special attention paid to ba is used to reconstruct the variations in upwelling activity over the last 250 kyr in the socotra gyre area somali socotra upwelling system nw indian ocean in the socotra gyre core md 962073 at 10 n the variations in upwelling intensity are reconstructed by the upwelling radiolarian index uri while the thermocline surface radiolarian index tsri testifies to productivity variations during non upwelling intervals despite an origin related both to marine and terrigenous inputs the geochemical records of organic carbon silica and trace elements ba p cu and zn normalized to al are controlled by the variations in surface paleoproductivity the data indicate a continuous increase in upwelling intensity during the last 250 kyr with a maximum activity within the mis 3 while high productivity periods in between the upwelling seasons occurred both during glacial and interglacial intervals a comparison of our data with published observations from another gyre of the somalian upwelling area located at 5 n in the somali gyre area shows differences regarding periods of upwelling activity and their geochemical imprint three hypotheses are proposed to explain these differences 1 changes in the planktonic community resulting in more silica rich deposits in the socotra gyre and more carbonate rich deposits in the somali gyre that are controlled by differences in the source water of the upwelling 2 a more important terrigenous input in the southern gyre and 3 a different location of the sites relative to the geographic distribution of the upwelling gyres and hydrologic fronts

large pt anomaly in the greenland ice core points to a cataclysm at the onset of younger dryas one explanation of the abrupt cooling episode known as the younger dryas yd is a cosmic impact or airburst at the yd boundary ydb that triggered cooling and resulted in other calamities including the disappearance of the clovis culture and the extinction of many large mammal species we tested the ydb impact hypothesis by analyzing ice samples from the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 ice core across the bolling allerod yd boundary for major and trace elements we found a large pt anomaly at the ydb not accompanied by a prominent ir anomaly with the pt ir ratios at the pt peak exceeding those in known terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials whereas the highly fractionated pt ir ratio rules out mantle or chondritic sources of the pt anomaly it does not allow positive identification of the source circumstantial evidence such as very high superchondritic pt al ratios associated with the pt anomaly and its timing different from other major events recorded on the gisp2 ice core such as well understood sulfate spikes caused by volcanic activity and the ammonium and nitrate spike due to the biomass destruction hints for an extraterrestrial source of pt such a source could have been a highly differentiated object like an ir poor iron meteorite that is unlikely to result in an airburst or trigger wide wildfires proposed by the ydb impact hypothesis

the dakhleh glass product of an impact airburst or cratering event in the western desert of egypt impact cratering is a ubiquitous geological process on the terrestrial planets meteorite impact craters are the most visible product of impact events but there is a growing recognition that large aerial bursts or airbursts should occur relatively frequently throughout geological time in this contribution we report on an unusual impact glass the dakhleh glass dg which is distributed over an area of 400 km 2 of the dakhleh oasis egypt this region preserves a rich history of habitation stretching back to over 400 000 years before the emergence of homo sapiens we report on observations made during recent fieldwork and subsequent analytical analyses that strengthen previous suggestions that the dg formed during an impact event the wide distribution and large size of dg specimens up to 50 cm across the chemistry e g cao and al2o3 contents up to 25 and 18 wt respectively the presence of lechatelierite and burnt sediments and the inclusion of clasts and spherules in the dg is inconsistent with known terrestrial processes of glass formation the age and other textural characteristics rule out a human origin instead we draw upon recent numerical modeling of airbursts to suggest that the properties of dg coupled with the absence of a confirmed crater can best be explained by melting of surficial sediments as a result of a large airburst event we suggest that glass produced by such events should therefore be more common in the rock record than impact craters assuming that the glass formed in a suitable preserving environment

experimental alluvial fan evolution channel dynamics slope controls and shoreline growth 1 river deltas and alluvial fans have channelization and deposition dynamics that are not entirely understood but which dictate the evolution of landscapes of great social economic and ecologic value our lack of a process based understanding of fan dynamics hampers our ability to construct accurate prediction and hazard models leaving these regions vulnerable here we describe the growth of a series of experimental alluvial fans composed of a noncohesive grain mixture bimodal in size and density we impose conditions that simulate a gravel sand fan prograding into a static basin with constant water and sediment influx and the resulting fans display realistic channelization and avulsion dynamics we find that we can describe the dynamics of our fans in terms of a few processes 1 an avulsion sequence with a timescale dictated by mass conservation between incoming flux and deposit volume 2 a tendency for flow to reoccupy former channel paths and 3 bistable slopes corresponding to separate entrainment and deposition conditions for grains several important observations related to these processes are an avulsion timescale that increases with time and decreases with sediment feed rate fan lobes that grow in a self similar quasi radial pattern and channel geometry that is adjusted to the threshold entrainment stress we propose that the formation of well defined channels in noncohesive fans is a transient phenomenon resulting from incision following avulsion and can be directly described with dual transport thresholds we present a fairly complete process based description of the mechanics of avulsion and its resulting timescale on our fans because the relevant dynamics depend only on threshold transport conditions and conservation of mass we show how results may be directly applied to field scale systems

relationship between sedimentation rate and total organic carbon content in ancient marine sediments an analysis of deep sea drilling project dsdp cores indicates quantitative relations between sedimentation rate and total organic carbon content in fine grained ancient marine sediments of jurassic cretaceous and cenozoic ages these relations are largely independent of geographic setting geologic age and differential compaction but are strongly affected by lithology for any given sedimentation rate the total organic carbon content toc by weight percent increases from calcareous sediments to calcareous siliceous sediments to siliceous sediments to black shale the total organic carbon content also varies with the sedimentation rate for each lithology starting at low rates of sedimentation toc first increases with sedimentation rate owing to a more rapid passage of the sediment through the near surface zone of intense organic degradation above a critical sedimentation rate toc typically decreases with increasing sedimentation rate owing to clastic dilution of the organic input near surface organic degradation however continues to be less efficient at higher burial rates therefore the oil generation potential of oil prone organic constit ents should continue to increase with increasing sedimentation rate similar relations were also established between total organic carbon accumulation rate and grain accumulation rate and support both reduced near surface organic degradation and the clastic dilution effect by using the toc cutoff for a petroleum source rock these relations can be used to identify the presence of petroleum source rock formations in marine sedimentary basins the results of this study may have important implications for petroleum exploration in frontier regions sedimentation rate can be determined from seismic reflection records or seismic isopachs in basins where only limited well data are generally available seismic records can thus be used to identify potential petroleum source rocks and to estimate the relative oil generation potential of source rocks in various frontier sedimentary basins prior to and during the early phases of exploratory drilling

environmental impact of the laacher see eruption at a large distance from the volcano integrated palaeoecological studies from vorpommern ne germany abstract in order to investigate the environmental impacts of the laacher see eruption 12 900 calendar years b p and the deposition of the laacher see tephra at a large distance from the volcano fine resolution micromorphological diatomological and palynological investigations were carried out on closely spaced areas in the reinberg basin vorpommern ne germany the lower part of the lst originates from atmospheric input whereas the upper part was washed in from the surrounding basin slopes diatom populations expanded as a consequence of the input of silica while simultaneously dissolution of dead diatoms decreased the tephra provided a favourable habitat for many epilithic and epipelic diatom taxa the diatoms show a slight acidification and an increase in specific conductivity of the water whereas no eutrophication is indicated these effects disappeared after lake sediments covered the tephra the pollen diagrams from the reinberg basin as well as many other pollen diagrams from ne germany indicate that the vegetation reacted to rising temperatures after the cooler gerzensee fluctuation to a short lived water level rise connected with higher precipitation after the volcanic eruption and to minor openings in the forest vegetation due to increased fire probably connected with severe thunderstorms

contrasted sediment processes and morphological adjustments in three successive cutoff meanders of the danube delta abstract since the 1980s intensive anthropogenic disturbances have affected the channel of the st george branch the southern distributary of the danube river the meander cutoff programme since 1984 1988 induced different hydrosedimentary impacts on the local distribution of river flow velocities discharge and sediment fluxes between the former meanders and the man made canals ichim and radoane 1986 popa 1997 panin 2003 this paper selects three large cutoff meander reaches of the st george branch the mahmudia dunav de sus and dunav de jos meanders noted here as m1 m2 and m3 respectively as an example to analyse the human impact in the danube river delta the diversion of the flow induces strong modifications by acceleration of the fluxes through the artificial canals combined with dramatically enhanced deposition in the former meander where it was observed in two cases m1 and m3 with slight modifications in m2 an exceptional flood that occurred in april 2006 offered a good opportunity for scanning different cross sections of the meander systems bathymetry flow velocity suspended load concentration and liquid and solid discharge data were acquired throughout several cross sections of both natural channels and artificial canals of the three cutoffs using acoustic doppler current profiler adcp technology in order to investigate the distribution of the flow and sediment and its impact on the hydrosedimentary processes in each channelized reach and adjacent former meander therefore the results obtained during the 2006 flood were referred to a long term evolution 1970 2006 analysed by gis techniques

eifel maars quantitative shape characterization of juvenile ash particles eifel volcanic field germany abstract the eifel region in western central germany is the type locality for maar volcanism which is classically interpreted to be the result of explosive eruptions due to shallow interaction between magma and external water i e phreatomagmatic eruptions sedimentary structures deposit features and particle morphology found in many maar deposits of the west eifel volcanic field wevf in contrast to deposits in the east eifel volcanic field eevf lack the diagnostic criteria of typical phreatomagmatic deposits the aim of this study was to determine quantitatively the shape of wevf and eevf maar ash particles in order to infer the governing eruption style in eifel maar volcanoes the quantitative shape characterization was done by analyzing fractal dimensions of particle contours 125 250 m sieve fraction obtained from scanning electron microscopy sem and sem micro computed tomography sem micro ct images the fractal analysis dilation method and the fractal spectrum technique confirmed that the wevf and eevf maar particles have contrasting multifractal shapes whereas the low small scale dimensions of eevf particles eppelsberg green unit coincide with previously published values for phreatomagmatic particles the wevf particles meerfelder maar pulvermaar and ulmener maar have larger values indicating more complex small scale features which are characteristic for magmatic particles these quantitative results are strengthening the qualitative microscopic observations that the studied wevf maar eruptions are rather dominated by magmatic processes the different eruption styles in the two volcanic fields can be explained by the different geological and hydrological settings found in both regions and the different chemical compositions of the magmas

evidence for deposition of 10 million tonnes of impact spherules across four continents 12 800 y ago airbursts impacts by a fragmented comet or asteroid have been proposed at the younger dryas onset 12 80 0 15 ka based on identification of an assemblage of impact related proxies including microspherules nanodiamonds and iridium distributed across four continents at the younger dryas boundary ydb spherule peaks have been independently confirmed in eight studies but unconfirmed in two others resulting in continued dispute about their occurrence distribution and origin to further address this dispute and better identify ydb spherules we present results from one of the largest spherule investigations ever undertaken regarding spherule geochemistry morphologies origins and processes of formation we investigated 18 sites across north america europe and the middle east performing nearly 700 analyses on spherules using energy dispersive x ray spectroscopy for geochemical analyses and scanning electron microscopy for surface microstructural characterization twelve locations rank among the world s premier end pleistocene archaeological sites where the ydb marks a hiatus in human occupation or major changes in site use our results are consistent with melting of sediments to temperatures 2 200 c by the thermal radiation and air shocks produced by passage of an extraterrestrial object through the atmosphere they are inconsistent with volcanic cosmic anthropogenic lightning or authigenic sources we also produced spherules from wood in the laboratory at 1 730 c indicating that impact related incineration of biomass may have contributed to spherule production at 12 8 ka an estimated 10 million tonnes of spherules were distributed across 50 million square kilometers similar to well known impact strewnfields and consistent with a major cosmic impact event

predicting the terrestrial flux of sediment to the global ocean a planetary perspective a new model for predicting the long term flux of sediment from river basins to the coastal ocean is applied to a global data set of 340 river basins the model is based on relief basin area or averaged discharge and basin averaged temperature basinaveraged temperature is determined from basin location latitude longitude and the lapse rate across the basin relief hypsometric approximation the sediment flux model incorporates climate through basin temperature and hydrologic runoff solutions are provided for each of the major hemispheric climate regions polar temperate and tropic the model successfully predicts the pre anthropogenic flux of sediment to within the uncertainties associated with the global observations within a factor of two for 75 of rivers that range across five orders of magnitude in basin area and discharge most of the problem rivers are associated with low observational loads often smaller rivers where anthropogenic impacts are often magnified and temporal variability is high model predictions provide a baseline for researchers 1 to question the quality of observational data where available and disagreement is greatest 2 to examine a river basin for unusually large anthropogenic influences i e causes of erosion or causes of hinterland sediment retention and 3 to uncover secondary factors not addressed by our model lithology lakes the model provides a powerful tool to address the impact of paleo climate fluctuations warmer colder wetter drier on the impact of sediment flux to the coastal ocean d 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

morphodynamics of the erosional phase of crevasse splay evolution and implications for river sediment diversion function abstract despite being a primarily depositional landform a crevasse splay experiences an initial evolutionary phase that is primarily erosional as sediment laden river water spills from a main river channel and incises a new route through the river banks and levee into an interdistributary basin or floodplain this phase sets the dimensions and the conveyance properties of the crevasse which in turn influences the continued expansion or closure of the crevasse channel however little is known about the controlling morphodynamics or how the erosional processes transition to depositional processes during this phase the objective of this study is to investigate these phenomena at the west bay sediment diversion louisiana usa using coupled field observations and numerical modeling the west bay diversion was cut into a lower mississippi river levee to mimic the function of a crevasse splay i e to divert river water and sediment to an adjacent receiving basin for land building purposes bathymetric measurements show that the diversion channel experienced significant natural morphologic evolution during the initial decade 2004 2014 hydrodynamic and sediment transport modeling suggests that this evolution initially increased the discharge of flow and sediment through the crevasse as the channel became wider and deeper and altered its orientation relative to the main river flow direction after 5 years the model results predict that further evolution led to monotonically reduced diversion discharges during this time natural and engineered sediment deposition in the receiving basin decreased predicted basin flow velocities and promoted a backwater effect that reduced the sediment transport capacity of the diversion channel observations during the final 2 years show that much of the initial erosion around the diversion had abated indicating that diversion morphology may have stabilized a modeling sensitivity analysis confirmed that the observed changes to channel geometry and orientation likely promoted flows of water and sediment through the diversion while increases in basin bed elevation would have had a contrary effect the morphodynamic evolution of the west bay diversion documented in this study presents a model indicative of the erosional phase of crevasse splay evolution in a deltaic distributary fluvial network study results offer an analogue on how an engineered river sediment diversion constructed for coastal restoration may function during its first years of operation and suggest that the desired land building processes may take time to become established

high resolution organic record of bridge creek deposition northwest new mexico abstract organic and inorganic geochemical data are presented and interpreted for a high resolution sample set from the uppermost portion of a transgressive systems tract condensed interval spanning the cenomanian turonian boundary at red wash northwest new mexico source potential toc rock eval yields thermal maturity vr elemental ca th and u in whole rock and molecular n alkanes steranes terpanes data are presented for a 64 sample 12 4 m composite section of limestones marlstones and shales of the bridge creek member of the greenhorn formation vertical sampling resolutions of 1 spl 19 cm spatial and 1 spl 33 ka temporal are used to monitor the progress of the transgression from the uppermost cenomanian up to the beginning of the highstand systems tract the section is thermally immature and maturity fluctuations are absent indicating that organic parameters are a function of organic matter production and preservation including diagenesis the rhythmic lithologic fluctuation within the bridge creek is not reflected in the source potential elemental or molecular data which show either no obvious pattern e g carbonate content toc or a unidirectional trend toward development of anoxia upsection e g hydrogen index sterane distributions homohopane index the distribution of the triaromatic steroid hydrocarbons c 20 21 26 28 according to side chain length also varies significantly despite the absence of maturity differences all of the unidirectional trends in the data are interpreted as related to either productivity differences e g sterane hopane ratios and changes in the relative concentration of r c 28 and r c 30 desmethylsteranes or the development of anoxia in the lower water column e g decreases in the diasterane regular sterane ratio increases in the homohopane index westward movement of the paleoshoreline during bridge creek time is also monitored by upsection decreasing th u ratios at red wash

conceptual framework for assessing the response of delta channel networks to holocene sea level rise abstract recent research has identified two fundamental unit processes that build delta distributary channels the first is mouth bar deposition at the shoreline and subsequent channel bifurcation which is driven by progradation of the shoreline the second is avulsion to a new channel a result of aggradation of the delta topset the former creates relatively small branching networks such as wax lake delta the latter generates relatively few long distributaries such as the mississippi and atchafalaya channels on the mississippi delta the relative rate of progradation to aggradation and hence the creation of accommodation space emerges as a controlling parameter on channel network form field and experimental research has identified sea level as the dominant control on holocene delta growth worldwide and has empirically linked channel network changes to changes in the rate of sea level rise here i outline a simple modeling framework for distributary network evolution and use this to explore large scale changes in holocene channel pattern that have been observed in deltas such as the rhine meuse and mississippi rapid early to mid holocene sea level rise forced many deltas into an aggradational mode where i hypothesize that avulsion and the generation of large scale branches should dominate slowing of sea level rise in the last 6000 yr allowed partitioning of sediment into progradation facilitating the growth of smaller scale distributary trees at the shorelines of some deltas and a reduction in the number of large scale branches significant antecedent topography modulates delta response the filling of large incised valleys for example caused many deltas to bypass the aggradational phase human effects on deltas can be cast in terms of geologic controls affecting accommodation constriction of channels forces rapid local progradation and mouth bar bifurcation while accelerated sea level rise increases aggradation and induces more frequent channel avulsion

routing of heterogeneous sediments over movable bed model development a one dimensional numerical model of sediment routing is derived to simulate erosion transport and deposition of individual size density fractions in the bed material within a relatively straight nonbifurcating alluvial channel the reach of interest is subdivided into a number of longitudinal elements of varying width averaged properties during each time step flow depths and velocities in each element are determined from the gradually varied flow equation using the standard step method for backwater calculations the bedload transport rate of each size fraction is calculated from a modified bagnold equation implementing a novel approach that takes into consideration the effects of turbulent fluctuations in the bed shear stress critical shear stresses for entrainment of particles from the mixed bed are determined using relationships that treat grain protrusion and hiding the transport of particles in suspension is modeled using a convection diffusion sediment continuity equation either explicitly

delta distributary dynamics in the skagit river delta washington usa extending testing and applying avulsion theory in a tidal system article i nfo analysis of historical aerial photos shows that skagit delta washington usa distributary dynamics are consistent with the slingerland and smith model of avulsion dynamics where the ratio of the water surface slopes of the two branches of a bifurcation predicts avulsion stability this model was extended to predict distributary inlet upstream width and bankfull cross sectional area the water surface gradient ratio for a bifurcation pair predicted distributary width well the lowest r 2 was 0 61 for the 1937 data points but r 2 ranged from 0 83 to 0 90 for other year specific regression lines gradient ratios were not constant over the historical record from 1937 to 1972 the mainstem river channel lengthened by 1250 m in the course of marsh progradation while distributary lengthening was comparatively negligible consequently the gradient advantage of the distributaries increased and their channels widened after the mainstem river terminus stabilized from 1972 to the present the distributaries continued to lengthen with marsh progradation so that distributary gradient advantage steadily declined and the distributaries narrowed while distributary cross sections were not available for the historical period they were surveyed in 2007 near the distributary inlets gradient ratio was more closely related to distributary inlet bankfull cross sectional area r 2 0 95 than to minimum distributary width for any photo year examined applying this form of analysis to skagit delta distributaries that have been dammed in the course of agricultural development suggests that their restoration to stabilize eroding marshes at their outlets and recover salmon migration pathways would be feasible without significant risk of full river avulsion

new evidence on the evolution of the po delta coastal plain during the holocene abstract the po coastal plain dominated by the po and adige rivers deltaic systems is characterized by beach ridges which mark successive positions of the coastline during the holocene the most evident of these ridges are the most recent ones their dating is mainly based on archaeological and historical data the complex formed by some of the most prominent beach ridges was previously considered by experts to be the first post glacial shoreline this shoreline enclosed a single lagoonal system comprising the lagoon of venice and the delta of the main rivers more recent studies have instead allowed us to recognize other beach ridges older than this one these beach ridges are partially or totally buried by alluvial sediments belonging we believe to active subboreal shorelines additionally other studies we are now carrying out such as the geomorphologic map of the po plain and the venetian lagoonal system project have allowed the identification of older buried intertidal facies this work proposes a progradational model mainly developed by the building of the marine deltas including episodic or discontinuous lagoonal environments in opposition to the continuous lagoonal system model described up to now

pathways and processes associated with the transport of groundwater in deltaic systems summary rivers are considered to be the primary means driving hydrological and geochemical fluxes between the continents and the ocean however it is unclear how well surface water fluxes represent total fluxes or whether more diffuse subterranean fluxes of river water to the coastal ocean occur this question is important in light of research demonstrating that submarine groundwater discharge sgd is important for geochemical and hydrological fluxes here we examine the pathways and potential magnitude of the role that sgd plays in the mississippi river delta mrd the largest delta in north america we present multiple independent lines of evidence demonstrating a hydrological connection between the mississippi river mr and the mrd evidence includes hydrological budgets demonstrating downstream water losses from the mr which are unexplained and are of the same magnitude as water sources to adjacent coastal bays of the mrd well data indicating a correlation between groundwater height and the stage of the mr and excess 222 rn inventories exceeding that expected from in situ production implying an advective i e groundwater source to coastal bays sgd likely flows from the mr to its delta via paleochannels and other buried sand bodies seismic data indicates that such features are common whereas resistivity data suggest the intrusion of low salinity water to coastal bays adjacent to the river these results may be applicable to other deltas worldwide as many of the world largest rivers have deltas with numerous abandoned distributaries that could act as conduits for groundwater

oil source rock correlations limitations and recommendations a rigorous defensible and causal oil source rock correlation definitively ties an individual source rock sample to an individual crude oil using genetically based internally consistent parameter matches such a correlation is a relationship established between the two components which is consistent with all known chemical geochemical and geological information and meets three criteria a the relationship must be causal the oil must arise at least in part from the specified source rock s b chemical data used in the correlation must be comparable the elemental molecular and isotopic data derived from the source rock must be of the same type as that derived from the oil and c all available geological data must be supportive clear geological evidence must exist which allows the proposed source rock to have sourced the oil the three points of this definition are satisfied and the correlation is successful if we solve one analytical and three geological problems natural extraction of crude oil from its source rock i e expulsion differs mechanically and temporally from laboratory extraction leading to a correlation problem referred to as extraction differences and representing the single greatest analytical uncertainty in correlation efforts geologically three aspects confound oil source correlations occurrence of multiple source units and or source units at differing maturity levels lateral and vertical depositional variations in source unit s organic matter and lateral and vertical variation in reservoir unit s organic matter these concerns are overcome by taking five actions for each oil source correlation effort 1 select representative samples using statistically defensible methods 2 establish the inherent compositional variability laterally and temporally due to depositional and maturation processes in each prospective source unit 3 assess the extent of migration induced changes in oil composition including post migration changes such as in reservoir alteration 4 support each correlation with migration histories derived from 4d models 5 iterate correlation results with new data gathered from ongoing exploration efforts these five actions will a allow correlation success to be measured more objectively b establish risking parameters for direct use in basin assessment and c provide baseline criteria for use in assessing the reliability of oil source rock correlations although these approaches will improve conventional oil source rock correlation efforts ultimately they may not be needed if inversion methods become more reliable the ability to invert compositional data for crude oil i e predict the age lithology maturity and other characteristics of a source rock solely through chemical analysis of its expelled oil could eventually result in successful oil source rock correlations in which source rock analysis for oil source rock correlation purposes is less critical

palaeogeography of radiolarite and organic rich deposits in mesozoic tethys siliceous and marine organic rich deposits are sometimes associated sometimes separate in space and time however both are generally accepted to be the result of high planktonic productivity among the siliceous marine deposits the phtanite family facies is distinguished from the radiolarite family facies by several characteristics they contain organic material and as a result are blackish vs red green for radiolarite facies their time of deposition corresponds with strong faunal modifications and they are deposited generally in shallower environments a palaeogeographic analysis of locations of tethyan biosiliceous and marine organic rich rocks both resulting from a high planktonic palaeoproductivity for three mesozoic high sea level intervals toarcian kimmeridgian and cenomanian show a during jurassic times these tethyan deposits were dissociated the siliceous deposits being closer to open ocean waters than the organic rich ones this is a common disposition in modern upwelling systems and suggests a common process b during cretaceous times these tethyan deposits were often associated i e both occur at the same site and are probably the result of a different process from that in the jurassic

inverse modeling of post last glacial maximum transgressive sedimentation using 2d sedflux application to the northern adriatic sea abstract a coupled simulation of the hydrologic model hydrotrend and the stratigraphic model 2d sedflux is applied to transgressive deposits in the north adriatic sea area over the last 21 000 years synthetic sediment discharge from the po river which increases more than 70 during late pleistocene compared to those during holocene due to glacier melt and enlarged drainage area is employed in the simulation of sediment deposition by the process based forward model 2d sedflux paleo morphology is reconstructed in a pseudo inverse manner by comparing the predicted deposit distribution and the modern morphology accommodation for thick prograding deposits in the modern po delta and the po lowstand delta are created by drawing back the modern bathymetric profile the bathymetric profile is then adjusted for aggradational deposits these sequential simulations produced a likely profile of the paleo morphology which had accommodation matching with the sediment supply evaluation of effects of waves however suggested that the predicted rate of sediment input was too low to produce a prograding delta a good match with the observation of the modern po delta was achieved when further adjustments in basin width was properly made

floods floodplains delta plains a satellite imaging approach abstract thirty three lowland floodplains and their associated delta plains are characterized with data from three remote sensing systems amsr e srtm and modis these data provide new quantitative information to characterize late quaternary floodplain landscapes and their penchant for flooding over the last decade daily proxy records for discharge since 2002 and for each of the 33 river systems can be derived with novel advanced microwave scanning radiometer amsr e methods a descriptive framework based on analysis of shuttle radar topography mission srtm data is used to capture the major landscape scale floodplain elements or zones 1 container valleys with their long and narrow pathways of largely sediment transit and bypass 2 floodplain depressions that act as loci for frequent flooding and sediment storage 3 zones of nodal avulsions common to many continental scale rivers and often located seaward of container valleys and 4 coastal floodplains and delta plains that offer both sediment bypass and storage but under the influence of marine processes the srtm data allow mapping of smaller scale architectural elements in unprecedented systematic manner floodplain depressions were found to play a major role which may largely be overlooked in conceptual floodplain models lastly modis data independently and combined with amsr e allows the tracking of flood hydrographs and pathways and sedimentation patterns on a near daily timescale worldwide these remote sensing data show that 85 of the studied major river systems experienced extensive flooding in the last decade a new quantitative paradigm of floodplain processes honoring the frequency and extent of floods can be develop by careful analysis of these new remotely sensed data

deposition and flux of sediment from the po river italy an idealized and wintertime numerical modeling study abstract recent studies of sediment dynamics and clinoform development in the northern adriatic sea focused on winter 2002 2003 and provided the data and motivation for development of a detailed sediment transport model for the area near the po river delta we used both idealized test cases and more realistic simulations to improve our understanding of seasonal sediment dynamics there we also investigated the relationship between physical processes and the observed depositional products e g the accumulation of sediment very near the po river distributary mouths sediment transport near the po river was evaluated using a three dimensional ocean model coupled to sediment transport calculations that included wave and current induced resuspension suspended sediment transport multiple grain classes and fluvial input from the po river high resolution estimates from available meteorological and wave models were used to specify wind wave and meteorological forcing model results indicated that more than half of the discharged sediment remained within 15 km of the po river distributary mouths even after two months of intensive reworking by winter storms during floods of the po river transport in the middle to upper water column dominated sediment fluxes otherwise sediment fluxes from the subaqueous portion of the delta were confined to the bottom few meters of the water column and correlated with increases in current speed and wave energy spatial and temporal variation in wind velocities determined depositional patterns and the directions of sediment transport northeasterly bora winds produced relatively more eastward transport while southwesterly sirocco winds generated fluxes towards both the north and the south eastward transport accounted for the majority of the sediment exported from the subaqueous delta most likely due to the frequent occurrence of bora conditions progradation of the po river delta into the adriatic sea may restrict the formation of the western adriatic coastal current increasing sediment retention at the po delta and reducing the supply of sediment to the apennine margin a positive morphodynamic feedback may therefore be present whereby the extension of the delta into the adriatic increases sediment accumulation at the delta and facilitates further progradation

high resolution greenland ice core data show abrupt climate change happens in few years the last two abrupt warmings at the onset of our present warm interglacial period interrupted by the younger dryas cooling event were investigated at high temporal resolution from the north greenland ice core project ice core the deuterium excess a proxy of greenland precipitation moisture source switched mode within 1 to 3 years over these transitions and initiated a more gradual change over 50 years of the greenland air temperature as recorded by stable water isotopes the onsets of both abrupt greenland warmings were slightly preceded by decreasing greenland dust deposition reflecting the wetting of asian deserts a northern shift of the intertropical convergence zone could be the trigger of these abrupt shifts of northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation resulting in changes of 2 to 4 kelvin in greenland moisture source temperature from one year to the next

scaling relationships and evolution of distributary networks on wave influenced deltas 1 no genetic model can explain the variability in distributary network pattern on modern deltas here we derive scaling relationships for two processes known to create distributary channels and with these laws construct a simple model for distributary network evolution the first process is mouth bar deposition at the shoreline and subsequent channel bifurcation the second is avulsion the wholesale abandonment of a channel in favor of a new path the former creates relatively small networks with power law distributions of channel length the latter generates relatively few backwater scale distributaries frequency magnitude plots of channel length on natural deltas agree with theoretical predictions and show a clear separation in scale that reflects these processes mouth bar distributary lengths scale with the width of the parent channel and avulsive distributary lengths scale with the backwater length intermediate channel lengths are relatively rare wave energy controls network topology by suppressing mouth bar development thereby preferentially eliminating smaller scale distributaries

a unifying framework for shoreline migration 1 multiscale shoreline evolution on sedimentary coasts 1 a unifying framework for shoreline migration is presented which synthesizes problems from coastal engineering geomorphology and stratigraphy into a common quantitative basis consideration of characteristic problems from these fields reveals that multiscale shoreline evolution problems naturally break into three classes on the basis of the morphologic unit of evolution shoreface bed versus shoreline planform versus stratigraphic shoreline trajectory shoreline evolution models correspondingly break into morphodynamic morphokinematic and hybrid approaches a generalized shoreline continuity equation is derived the shoreline exner equation which subsumes equilibrium profile models commonly used in geomorphology and engineering and provides a natural framework for interpreting shoreline trajectories preserved in the sedimentary record the shoreline exner equation provides a rigorous basis for geometric and moving boundary models which have significant untapped potential for shoreline migration problems recent advances in computational methods for evolving interface problems make hybrid models particularly attractive for problems of large scale planform shoreline dynamics such as delta evolution

the use of 7be to identify event and seasonal sedimentation near the po river delta adriatic sea in october 2000 a major flood event of the po river occurred the resulting seabed deposit was initially sampled in december 2000 and most sites were reoccupied on subsequent cruises over a 3 yr period using the maximum penetration depth of the short lived radioisotope 7be half life 53 3 d the flood deposit was found to be up to 15 cm thick individual depocenters of thick strata were located immediately adjacent to the distributaries at the river mouth in relatively shallow water 30 m these flood deposit thicknesses are minimum estimates because the depth of 234th half life 24 1 d exceeds that of 7be in physically stratified flood sediment indicating that the first sediment deposited during the flood event likely originated from the river channel 30 55 of the estimated sediment load delivered to the shelf during the flood event can be accounted for using 7be penetration depths seasonal deposition also can be quantified using 7be after removing the effects of biological mixing seasonal deposition rates are a maximum of 6 cm yr 1 near the pila distributary decreasing to 2 cm yr 1 in the southern portions of the dispersal system

gradual onset of anoxia across the permian triassic boundary in svalbard norway the permian triassic extinction event is considered to be the most devastating environmental crisis of the phanerozoic with many coinciding factors involved the role of marine anoxia during the extinction is still poorly understood in this study a boreal permian triassic boundary ptb section from svalbard norway has been investigated with the aim of better understanding the timing and nature of local marine anoxia onset and extinction events across the ptb the section comprises the kapp starostin and vikinghogda formations 13corg values indicate the ptb is located within the lower part of the vikinghogda formation lag deposits at the top of the kapp starostin formation indicate a marine hiatus and ensuing transgression during the late permian shortly before the extinction event implying concurrence of major ecological changes and sea level rise pyrite framboid size distributions and total organic carbon toc were used to evaluate bottom water oxygen conditions and show that changes in bottom water redox conditions and extinction are clearly linked oxic to dysoxic bottom water conditions prevailed during deposition of kapp starostin formation sediments and changed to anoxic to euxinic conditions above the formation boundary the onset of anoxia is not abrupt but rather shows a gradual increase within the kapp starostin formation during the late permian the tipping point where bottom waters reach a long term state of anoxia to euxinia coincides with the final extinction event though changes in biotic assemblages at the top of the kapp starostin formation indicate a marine ecosystem crisis prior to this oxygen depletion in the boreal region as seen in our study section and correlating to greenland and arctic canada seems to be consistently more severe than in lower latitude settings

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 stratigraphy due to their outstanding resolution and well constrained chronologies greenland ice core records provide a master record of past climatic changes throughout the last interglacial glacial cycle in the north atlantic region as part of the intimate integration of ice core marine and terrestrial records project protocols have been proposed to ensure consistent and robust correlation between different records of past climate a key element of these protocols has been the formal definition and ordinal numbering of the sequence of greenland stadials gs and greenland interstadials gi within the most recent glacial period the gs and gi periods are the greenland expressions of the characteristic dansgaard oeschger events that represent cold and warm phases of the north atlantic region respectively we present here a more detailed and extended gs gi template for the whole of the last glacial period it is based on a synchronization of the ngrip grip and gisp2 ice core records that allows the parallel analysis of all three records on a common time scale the boundaries of the gs and gi periods are defined based on a combination of stable oxygen isotope ratios of the ice 18o reflecting mainly local temperature and calcium ion concentrations reflecting mainly atmospheric dust loading measured in the ice the data not only resolve the well known sequence of dansgaard oeschger events that were first defined and numbered in the ice core records more than two decades ago but also better resolve a number of short lived climatic oscillations some defined here for the first time using this revised scheme we propose a consistent approach for discriminating and naming all the significant abrupt climatic events of the last glacial period that are represented in the greenland ice records the final product constitutes an extended and better resolved greenland stratotype sequence against which other proxy records can be compared and correlated it also provides a more secure basis for investigating the dynamics and fundamental causes of these climatic perturbations

short term evolution of po della pila delta lobe from time lapse high resolution multibeam bathymetry 2013 2016 abstract over the last few years 2013 2016 repeated high resolution multibeam surveys were carried out at the recent most delta lobe of the po river in correspondence to po della pila the collected multibeam bathymetry together with backscatter data seabed samples and high resolution seismic profiles provided insights on the short term morphological and sedimentological evolution of this extremely dynamic submarine portion of the delta a high variety of geomorphological features and depositional bodies were observed from the mouth bar to the prodelta slope such as for example the alongshore and transverse bars formed under the effect of marine currents gravitational instability phenomena and collapse depressions driven by fluid expulsion concurrently the analysis of the seabed reflectivity and sediment samples allowed the identification of two main dominant types of seafloor sediment corresponding to sandy and muddy seabed and the mapping of their variable distribution in the study area the comparison of time lapsed high resolution dems showed that the main changes occurred on the northern side of the prodelta slope where a new lobe shaped fine sediment deposit built up to 4 5 m adding roughly a volume of 1 16 mm3 of new sediments at the same time in the prodelta slope transverse depositional bars showed a clear migration toward the south of the system and local subsidence phenomena up to 1 5 m between 7 and 10 m water depth are observed

the modern po delta system lobe switching and asymmetric prodelta growth the modern po delta system comprising five main delta lobes has been investigated by integrating vhr seismic surveys recorded offshore from water depths as shallow as 5 m to the toe of the prodelta in about 30 m with accurate historical cartography extending back several centuries previous studies give sedimentological and geochronological information from precisely positioned sediment cores this combined historical and stratigraphic reconstruction of the modern po prodelta allows volumetric reconstructions indicating an average sediment load of 9 4 10 6 ty r 1 for po di pila and po di goro gnocca lobes this estimate is remarkably consistent with the total sediment load of 11 5 10 6 ty r 1 available for parts of the last century from a gauge station at the apex of the delta plain in pontelagoscuro these integrated stratigraphic studies allow to explain the key characters of the po delta system a the marked asymmetry of the whole delta prodelta system reflecting prevailing sediment dispersal to the south of each individual delta outlet b the shoreparallel overlapping of successive prodelta lobes fed by distinct river outlets of ever changing relative importance c the delta outlets being artificially forced in a fixed position so that natural avulsion is prevented and delta lobes undergo headland retreat leaving a marked erosion on the prodelta d the presence of prodelta lobes showing widespread bcut and fillq features ranging from 100 to 300 m and depths up to 4 5 m filled with massive silt to very fine sand offshore of short lived very active distributary channels e g po di tolle lobe and suggesting that in some particular interval short lived episodes of submarine erosion are induced by catastrophic increases in river discharge of natural origin or induced by human maintenance the seismic stratigraphy of the modern po delta documents that markedly distinct prodelta architectures form when a newly activated lobe is located updrift north in this case or downdrift south of the one that is retreating in the first case the abandoned lobe becomes sheltered by the new rapidly advancing one in the opposite case the retreating lobe is updrift and a substantial portion of the sediment is cannibalized and transported to the new lobe downdrift d 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

clay mineral organic matter relationships in the early solar system as the solar system formed it inherited and perpetuated a rich organic chemistry the molecular products of which are preserved in ancient extraterrestrial objects such as carbonaceous chondrites these organic rich meteorites provide a valuable and tangible record of the chemical steps taken towards the origin of life in the early solar system chondritic organic matter is present in the inorganic meteorite matrix which in the cm and ci chondrites contains evidence of alteration by liquid water on the parent asteroid an unanswered and fundamental question is to what extent did the organic matter and inorganic products of aqueous alteration interact or display interdependence we have used an organic labelling technique to reveal that the meteoritic organic matter is strongly associated with clay minerals this association suggests that clay minerals may have had an important trapping and possibly catalytic role in chemical evolution in the early solar system prior to the origin of life on the early earth