warming of global abyssal and deep southern ocean waters between the 1990s and 2000s contributions to global heat and sea level rise budgets abyssalglobalanddeepsouthern oceantemperature trendsarequantifiedbetweenthe1990sand2000sto assesstheroleofrecentwarmingoftheseregionsin globalheatandsealevelbudgets theauthors1 compute warming rates with uncertainties along 28 full depth high quality hydrographic sections that have been occupied two or more times between 1980 and 2010 2 divide the global ocean into 32 basins defined by the topography and climatological ocean bottom temperatures and then 3 estimate temperature trends in the 24 sampled basins the three southernmost basins show a strong statistically significant abyssal warming trend with that warming signal weakening to the north in the central pacific western atlantic and eastern indian oceans eastern atlantic and western indian ocean basins show statistically insignificant abyssal cooling trends excepting the arctic ocean and nordic seas the rate of abyssal below 4000 m global ocean heat content change in the 1990s and 2000s is equivalent to a heat flux of 0 027 60 009 w m 22 applied over the entire surface of the earth deep 1000 4000 m warming south of the subantarctic front of the antarctic circumpolar current adds 0 068 60 062 w m 22 the abyssal warming produces a 0 053 60 017 mm yr 21 increase in global average sea level and the deep warming south of the subantarctic front adds another 0 093 60 081 mm yr 21 thus warmingin theseregions ventilatedprimarilyby antarcticbottomwater accounts for a statistically significant fraction of the present global energy and sea level budgets

sedimentary pyrite formation an update sedimentary pyrite formation during early diagenesis is a major process for controlling the oxygen level of the atmosphere and the sulfate concentration in seawater over geologic time the amount of pyrite that may form in a sediment is limited by the rates of supply of decomposable organic matter dissolved sulfate and reactive detrital iron minerals organic matter appears to be the major control on pyrite formation in normal non euxinic terrigenous marine sediments where dissolved sulfate and iron minerals are abundant by contrast pyrite formation in non marine freshwater sediments is severely limited by low concentrations of sulfate and this characteristic can be used to distinguish ancient organic rich fresh water shales from marine shales under marine euxinic conditions sufficient h2s is produced that the dominant control on pyrite formation is the availability of reactive iron minerals calculations based on a sulfur isotope model indicate that over phanerozoic time the worldwide average organic carbon to pyrite sulfur ratio of sedimentary rocks has varied considerably high cs ratios during permo carboniferous time can be explained by a shift of major organic deposition from the oceans to the land which resulted in the formation of vast coal swamps at that time low cs ratios compared to today during the early paleozoic can be explained in terms of a greater abundance of euxinic basins combined with deposition of a more reactive type of organic matter in the remaining oxygenated portions of the ocean the latter could have been due to lower oceanic oxygen levels and or a lack of transportation of refractory terrestrial organic matter to the marine environment due to the absence of vascular land plants at that time

calculating trends from grace in the presence of large changes in continental ice storage and ocean mass summary a simulation of monthly global gravity coefficients has been created that represents time variable hydrology ice mass loss and global mean sea level rise hydrology variations are from a numerical model whereas the ice mass variations are based on recently observed rates and patterns of melt for glaciers greenland and antarctica a eustatic sea level variation consistent to balance the mass variations over land is added this simulation is then used to test the capability of recovering trends in ocean mass continental water storage and greenland and antarctica melting using methods used to determine these from grace data we find that ocean mass trends can be significantly biased low by the large melting rates from greenland antarctica and glaciers unless data within 300 km of continents is ignored any smoothing of the data beyond a truncation to degree order 60 will also slightly bias the result trends of continental water storage and antarctica mass loss also tend to be biased due to the sea level rise signal leaking into the estimate greenland melting rates are not affected

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

a consistent sea level reconstruction and its budget on basin and global scales over 1958 2014 different sea level reconstructions show a spread in sea level rise over the last six decades and it is not yet certain whether the sum of contributors explains the reconstructed rise possible causes for this spread are among others vertical land motion at tide gauge locations and the sparse sampling of the spatially variable ocean to assess these open questions reconstructed sea level and the role of the contributors are investigated on a local basin and global scale high latitude seas are excluded tide gauge records are combined with observations of vertical land motion independent estimates of ice mass loss terrestrial water storage and barotropic atmospheric forcing in a self consistent framework to reconstruct sea level changes on basin and global scales which are compared to the estimated sum of contributing processes for the first time it is shown that for most basins the reconstructed sea level trend and acceleration can be explained by the sum of contributors as well as a large part of the decadal variability the sparsely sampled south atlantic ocean forms an exception the global mean sea level reconstruction shows a trend of 1 5 0 2 mm yr 1 over 1958 2014 1 compared to 1 3 0 1 mm yr 1 for the sum of contributors over the same period the reconstruction shows a positive acceleration of 0 07 0 02 mm yr 2 which is also in agreement with the sum of contributors which shows an acceleration of 0 07 0 01 mm yr 2 since 1993 both reconstructed sea level and the sum of contributors show good agreement with altimetry estimates

phanerozoic atmospheric co2 change evaluating geochemical and paleobiological approaches abstract the theory and use of geochemical modeling of the long term carbon cycle and four paleo pco 2 proxies are reviewed and discussed in order to discern the best applications for each method geochemical models provide pco 2 predictions for the entire phanerozoic but most existing models present 5 10 m y means and so often do not resolve short term excursions error estimates based on sensitivity analyses range from 75 200 ppmv for the tertiary to as much as 3000 ppmv during the early paleozoic the 13 c of pedogenic carbonates provide the best proxy based pco 2 estimates for the pre tertiary with error estimates ranging from 500 1000 ppmv pre devonian estimates should be treated cautiously error estimates for tertiary reconstructions via this proxy are higher than other proxies and models 400 500 ppmv and should not be solely relied upon we also show the importance of measuring the 13 c of coexisting organic matter instead of inferring its value from marine carbonates the 13 c of the organic remains of phytoplankton from sediment cores provide high temporal resolution up to 10 3 10 4 year high precision 25 100 ppmv for the tertiary to 150 200 ppmv for the cretaceous pco 2 estimates that can be near continuous for most of the tertiary its high temporal resolution and availability of continuous sequences is advantageous for studies aiming to discern short term excursions this method however must correct for changes in growth rate and oxygen level at elevated pco 2 750 1250 ppmv this proxy loses its sensitivity and is not useful the stomatal density and stomatal index of land plants also provide high temporal resolution 2 year high precision 10 40 ppmv for the tertiary and possibly cretaceous pco 2 estimates and so also is ideal for discerning short term excursions unfortunately this proxy also loses sensitivity at some level of pco 2 above 350 ppmv which currently is largely undetermined our analysis of the recently developed 11 b technique shows that it currently is not yet well constrained most importantly it requires the assumption that the boron isotopic composition of the ocean remains nearly constant through time in addition it assumes that there are no biological or temperature effects and that diagenetic alteration of the boron isotopic composition does not occur a fifth co 2 proxy based on the redox chemistry of marine cerium has several fundamental flaws and is not discussed in detail here

a unique asymmetry in the pattern of recent sea level change the spatial pattern of 20 year sea surface height trends from satellite altimetry is placed into the context of historical modes of wind driven ocean volume redistribution identified in basin scale regional averages of tide gauge data the difference between recent rates of sea level change in northern and southern regions is found to be twice as large and statistically greater than any other 20 year period during the twentieth century this unique asymmetry in the pattern of sea level change coincides with a departure from a historical mode of volume redistribution between southern regions related to a measure of asymmetry in the southern annular mode the asymmetry also coincides with a maximum in the rate of global mean sea level rise during recent decades but the asymmetry is not apparent during an early twentieth century maximum in the global rate of similar magnitude

grace measurements of mass variability in the earth system monthly gravity field estimates made by the twin gravity recovery and climate experiment grace satellites have a geoid height accuracy of 2 to 3 millimeters at a spatial resolution as small as 400 kilometers the annual cycle in the geoid variations up to 10 millimeters in some regions peaked predominantly in the spring and fall seasons geoid variations observed over south america that can be largely attributed to surface water and groundwater changes show a clear separation between the large amazon watershed and the smaller watersheds to the north such observations will help hydrologists to connect processes at traditional length scales tens of kilometers or less to those at regional and global scales

equation for compaction of paleosols due to burial existing empirically derived compaction curves for marine sediments fail to estimate the compaction of paleosols flood plain sediments and peats as indicated by deformation of clastic dikes dinosaur footprints and sandstone paleochannels yet compaction estimates are vital to reconstructing paleoclimate and geochemical profiles of paleosols to modeling sediment accumulation rates of nonmarine rocks and to tectonic flexural modeling of molasse facies this paper presents a compaction equation and physically derived constants that make geologically realistic estimates of compaction of paleosols and other nonmarine sediments a protocol for the application of the equation is suggested that would allow the following equation to solve for burial compaction c as a fraction of original thickness given depth of burial d in km as c s i f e d k 1 this equation can be applied to nonmarine sedimentary rocks or paleosols given appropriate empirical data on the physical constants in the equation such as initial solidity s i initial porosity f and the corresponding curve fitting constant k data on physical constants useful for this equation are compiled here for a range of paleosol and nonmarine sediment types

distinguishing base level change and climate signals in a cretaceous alluvial sequence we present the results of oxygen isotope and electron microprobe analyses of sphaerosiderites obtained from cretaceous paleosols in iowa the sphaerosiderite d 18 o values record creta ceous meteoric groundwater chemistry and an overall waning of brackish groundwater inundation during alluvial plain aggrada tion and soil genesis we focus on horizons that precipitated from freshwater in which d 18 o values ranging from 23 3 to 26 8 relative to the peedee belemnite standard are interpreted to record variations in the cretaceous atmospheric hydrologic cycle during relative sea level highstands moisture was derived from the cre taceous western interior seaway whereas during lowstands when the seaway narrowed and occasionally withdrew from the midcon tinent the dominance of hemispheric scale atmospheric moisture transport initiated in the tropical tethys ocean led to decreased precipitation rates these processes did not operate like a switch but rather as a continuum of competing moisture sources and mechanisms of transport between the nearby epicontinental sea and the distant tropics the sphaerosiderite data demonstrate 1 temporal variation in the intensity of hemispheric scale atmospher ic moisture transport and 2 long term amplification of the global hydrologic cycle marked by extreme 18 o depletion at the albian cenomanian boundary

distal alluvial deposits in a foreland basin setting the lower freshwater molasse lower miocene switzerland sedimentology architecture and palaeosols the lower freshwater molasse untere susswasser molasse crops out over a wide area of the swiss molasse basin coarse grained alluvial fan conglomerates dominate in proximal basin areas along the alpine front these conglomerates pass northwards into sandstones and mudstones of an extensive northeastward draining meandering river system which ran parallel to the basin axis sedimentological study of outcrops quarry exposures and boreholes in the basal miocene aquitanian has permitted detailed facies analysis of this distal alluvial sequence the distal aquitanian is made up of distinct architectural elements characterized by their geometries and sedimentary structures each may be assigned to a particular depositional setting meander belt levees crevasse channels and splays overbank fines and palaeosols and lacustrine meander belt sandstones were deposited in mixed load channels with a dominant bedload component sandstones commonly comprise amalgamated and locally stacked ribbon bodies 2 15 m thick and 150 1500 m wide interbedded rippled laminated and mottled fine grained levee sandstones and siltstones form lenticular packages up to 3 m thick and 30 100 m across small scale crevasse channel sandstones 2 4 m thick and 5 10 m across pass laterally into metre scale medium to fine grained crevasse sandstone sheets rare laminated lacustrine siltstones occur only in the north east part of the basin floodplain mudstones and marls make up the remainder of the succession these display a variety of pedogenic features recording cyclical palaeosol development palaeosols show strong variations in morphology and maturity both laterally across the floodplain and downstream along the basin axis reflecting local variation in aggradation rate associated with proximity to alluvial channel courses as well as regional variation in subsidence and floodplain drainage analysis of the organization and distribution of the various sediment bodies permits reconstruction of the fluvial system and allows development of a model for the sedimentary architecture of the lower freshwater molasse in the study area integration of palaeosol studies into a well defined architectural framework assists recognition of areal facies belts and may aid location of sand prone sequences in the subsurface

ocean bottom deformation due to present day mass redistribution and its impact on sea level observations present day mass redistribution increases the total ocean mass and on average causes the ocean bottom to subside elastically therefore barystatic sea level rise is larger than the resulting global mean geocentric sea level rise observed by satellite altimetry and gps corrected tide gauges we use realistic estimates of mass redistribution from ice mass loss and land water storage to quantify the resulting ocean bottom deformation and its e ect on global and regional ocean volume change estimates over 1993 2014 the resulting globally averaged geocentric sea level change is 8 percent smaller than the barystatic contribution over the altimetry domain the di erence is about 5 percent and due to this e ect barystatic sea level rise will be underestimated by more than 0 1 mm y over 1993 2014 regional di erences are of ten larger up to 1 mm y over the arctic ocean and 0 4 mm y in the south paci c ocean bottom deformation should be considered when regional sea level changes are observed in a geocentric reference frame

multidecadal change of the south pacific gyre circulation abstractmultidecadal trends in ocean heat and freshwater content are well documented but much less evidence exists of long term changes in ocean circulation previously a 12 yr increase 1993 to 2004 in the circulation of the south pacific subtropical gyre interior was described that analysis was based on differences between early argo and 1990s hydrographic data and changes in sea surface height here it is shown that the trend of increasing circulation continues through 2014 with some differences within the argo decade 2005 to 2014 patterns that indicate or are consistent with increasing equatorward transport in the eastern portion of the south pacific gyre are seen in argo temperature and steric height argo trajectory velocity altimetric sea surface height sea surface temperature sea level pressure and wind stress between 2005 and 2014 the geostrophic circulation across 35 s from 160 w to south america was enhanced by 5 sv 1 sv 106 m3 s 1 of added northward flow this was countered

improved methods for observing earth s time variable mass distribution with grace using spherical cap mascons we discuss several classes of improvements to gravity solutions from the gravity recovery and climate experiment grace mission these include both improvements in background geophysical models and orbital parameterization leading to the unconstrained spherical harmonic solution jpl rl05 and an alternate jpl rl05m mass concentration mascon solution benefitting from those same improvements but derived in surface spherical cap mascons the mascon basis functions allow for convenient application of a priori information derived from near global geophysical models to prevent striping in the solutions the resulting mass flux solutions are shown to suffer less from leakage errors than harmonic solutions and do not necessitate empirical filters to remove north south stripes lowering the dependence on using scale factors the global mean scale factor decreases by 0 17 to gain accurate mass estimates ocean bottom pressure obp time series derived from the mascon solutions are shown to have greater correlation with in situ data than do spherical harmonic solutions increase in correlation coefficient of 0 08 globally particularly in low latitude regions with small signal power increase in correlation coefficient of 0 35 regionally in addition to reducing the error rms with respect to the in situ data reduction of 0 37 cm globally and as much as 1 cm regionally greenland and antarctica mass balance estimates derived from the mascon solutions agree within formal uncertainties with previously published results computing basin averages for hydrology applications shows general agreement between harmonic and mascon solutions for large basins however mascon solutions typically have greater resolution for smaller spatial regions in particular when studying secular signals

antarctic bottom water warming and freshening contributions to sea level rise ocean freshwater budgets and global heat gain abstractfreshening and warming of antarctic bottom water aabw between the 1980s and 2000s are quantified assessing the relative contributions of water mass changes and isotherm heave the analysis uses highly accurate full depth ship based conductivity temperature depth measurements taken along repeated oceanographic sections around the southern ocean fresher varieties of aabw are present within the south pacific and south indian oceans in the 2000s compared to the 1990s with the strongest freshening in the newest waters adjacent to the antarctic continental slope and rise indicating a recent shift in the salinity of aabw produced in this region bottom waters in the weddell sea exhibit significantly less water mass freshening than those in the other two southern basins however a decrease in the volume of the coldest deepest waters is observed throughout the entire southern ocean this isotherm heave causes a salinification and warming on isobaths from the bottom up to the shallow potential tem

the patagonian shelf tides the patagonian shelf tides constitute one of the strongest regimes among the biggest in the world where a significant amount of global tidal energy is dissipated by the effect of bottom friction in this paper the tidal response of the patagonian shelf is described by means of information generated by a numerical model and computations of energy fluxes and dissipation rates are presented since measurements of tidal elevations and currents on the patagonian shelf are scarce and mostly limited to coastal locations the information obtained from the model offers valuable insight in a region where a detailed description was not available particularly in the context of global tidal modelling the tidal regime on the patagonian shelf is dominated by the principal lunar semidiurnal tide m2 with contributions from other semidiurnal diurnal and fourth diurnal constituents this regional study shows that dissipation is highly localized and that the integrated value of the dissipation rate over the model domain constitutes a significant fraction of the estimated global dissipation

on the variability of tidal fronts on a macrotidal continental shelf northern patagonia argentina abstract tidal fronts are associated with the transition between homogeneous and vertically stratified water and are characterized by the simultaneous availability of light and nutrients that enhance the growth of marine productivity we study the variability in the position of two tidal fronts located in patagonia argentina the san matias and valdes fronts the rate of tidal dissipation in these regions is among the highest of the world oceans the study is based on the analysis of over 1200 satellite derived sea surface temperature images the results indicate that the mean monthly position of both fronts is strongly linked to the characteristics of the bottom topography in response to increasing surface heat flux the fronts displace toward shallower areas similarly a slight displacement towards deeper waters is observed when the heat flux decreases high frequency variability is revealed by the standard deviation around monthly averages at the mouth of the san matias gulf the front location variability in the spring neap cycle is around 10 km while east of the valdes peninsula the fortnightly cycle is masked by high frequency fluctuations 30 km governed by meanders and meso scale filaments a simple conceptual model is proposed which suggests that the mean frontal position is determined by the bottom topography while its seasonal variability is driven by the surface heat flux and the front intensity is modulated by the spring neap transition

determining terrestrial paleotemperatures using the oxygen isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonate abstract quantifying terrestrial paleotemperatures has proven to be a challenging endeavor this paper explores the use of the oxygen isotopic composition of pedogenic calcite for terrestrial paleotemperature reconstructions we generate three paleotemperature equations two of them derived by simultaneous solution of equations that describe the fractionation of oxygen isotopes in the exogenic cycle while the third equation is derived using a linear regression through modern 18occ mat oxygen isotopic composition of pedogenic calcite versus mean annual temperature data we use the paleotemperature equations to evaluate climate change across the k t boundary by analyzing the oxygen isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonates from a series of stacked paleosols in west texas the fabrics in the calcite nodules were evaluated in order to identify soil carbonate components that have the best chance of containing isotopic information that represents ancient pedogenic conditions the average temperature for west texas during the time period studied is 18 0 5 c two temperature excursions are recognized prior to the k t boundary in which terrestrial temperatures increase by about 4 c for relatively short periods of time these short greenhouse events documented in west texas correlate with changes in marine temperatures as well as terrestrial temperatures in north dakota during the same time period latitudinal temperature gradients generated using the west texas and north dakota data indicate that the spatial simultaneous solution yields the most reliable temperature reconstructions of the three equations considered in this study

closing the sea level budget on a regional scale trends and variability on the northwestern european continental shelf long term trends and decadal variability of sea level in the north sea and along the norwegian coast have been studied over the period 1958 2014 we model the spatially nonuniform sea level and solid earth response to large scale ice melt and terrestrial water storage changes gps observations corrected for the solid earth deformation are used to estimate vertical land motion we find a clear correlation between sea level in the north sea and along the norwegian coast and open ocean steric variability in the bay of biscay and west of portugal which is consistent with the presence of wind driven coastally trapped waves the observed nodal cycle is consistent with tidal equilibrium we are able to explain the observed sea level trend over the period 1958 2014 well within the standard error of the sum of all contributing processes as well as the large majority of the observed decadal sea level variability

ongoing glacial isostatic contributions to observations of sea level change studies determining the contribution of water fluxes to sea level rise typically remove the ongoing effects of glacial isostatic adjustment gia unfortunately use of inconsistent terminology between various disciplines has caused confusion as to how contributions from gia should be removed from altimetry and grace measurements in this paper we review the physics of the gia corrections applicable to these measurements and discuss the differing nomenclature between the gia literature and other studies of sea level change we then examine a range of estimates for the gia contribution derived by varying the earth and ice models employed in the prediction we find similar to early studies that gia produces a small compared to the observed value but systematic contribution to the altimetry estimates with a maximum range of 0 15 to 0 5 mm yr 1 moreover we also find that the gia contribution to the mass change measured by grace over the ocean is significant in this regard we demonstrate that confusion in nomenclature between the terms absolute sea level and geoid has led to an overestimation of this contribution in some previous studies a component of this overestimation is the incorrect inclusion of the direct effect of the contemporaneous perturbations of the rotation vector which leads to a factor of two larger value of the degree two order one spherical harmonic component of the model results aside from this confusion uncertainties in earth model structure and ice sheet history yield a spread of up to 1 4 mm yr 1 in the estimates of this contribution however even if the ice and earth models were perfectly known the processing techniques used in grace data analysis can introduce variations of up to 0 4 mm yr 1 thus we conclude that a single valued gia correction is not appropriate for sea level studies based on gravity data each study must estimate a bound on the gia correction consistent with the adopted data analysis scheme

antarctica greenland and gulf of alaska land ice evolution from an iterated grace global mascon solution we have determined the ice mass evolution of the antarctica and greenland ice sheets ais and gis and gulf of alaska goa glaciers from a new grace global solution of equal area surface mass concentration parcels mascons in equivalent height of water the mascons were estimated directly from the reduction of the inter satellite k band range rate kbrr observations taking into account the full noise covariance and formally iterating the solution the new solution increases signal recovery while reducing the grace kbrr observation residuals the mascons were estimated with 10 day and 1 arc degree equal area sampling applying anisotropic constraints an ensemble empirical mode decomposition adaptive filter was applied to the mascon time series to compute annual mass balances the details and causes of the spatial and temporal variability of the land ice regions studied are discussed the estimated mass trend over the total gis ais and goa glaciers for the time period 1 december 2003 to 1 december 2010 is 380 plus or minus 31 gt a exp 1 equivalent to 1 05 plus or minus 0 09 mma exp 1 sea level rise over the same time period we estimate the mass acceleration to be 41 plus or minus 27 gt a exp 2 equivalent to a 0 11 plus or minus 0 08 mm a exp 2 rate of change in sea level the trends and accelerations are dependent on significant seasonal and annual balance anomalies

semidiurnal switching of stratification in the region of freshwater influence of the rhine observations in the rhine region of freshwater influence rofi system in the north sea show evidence of large semidiurnal oscillations in stability superimposed on a mean stratification occurring throughout the stratified region at times of reduced mixing the amplitude of this semidiurnal variation is of the same order as the mean stability and frequently results in conditions being mixed or nearly mixed once per tide it is deduced that this semidiurnal variation results primarily from cross shore tidal straining which interacts with the density gradient to induce stratification this conceptual picture of the contributing processes has been tested in a one dimensional point model forced by the observed slopes and the local density gradients the model exhibits the same qualitative behavior as the observations produces oscillations in stratification of the amplitude observed and confirms the critical role of cross shore tidal straining the large cross shore shear nder stratified conditions is identified with the changes in ellipse configuration which are observed between mixed and stratified conditions the occurrence of semidiurnal variations in stability in the rhine rofi is thus inferred to be a consequence of the development of mean stability whenever the horizontal density gradients relax in conditions of low stirring

classification of paleosols despite increased interest in paleosols during the past decade no satisfactory classification is in current use presented here is a largely descriptive classification system that utilizes those pedogenic features that have the highest preservation potential in the rock record emphasized in the classification are morphological and mineralogical features that are easily recognizable in the field and through the petrographic microscope the classification is based on evaluation of the relative prominence in a paleosol of six pedogenic features or processes organic matter content horizonation redox conditions in situ mineral alteration illuviation of insoluble minerals compounds and accumulation of soluble minerals the most prominent of these six features processes provides the key to classifying a paleosol into one of nine orders four of the order names are borrowed from soil taxonomy histosol spodosol oxisol vertisol whereas the other five order names are presented here for the first time calcisol gypsisol gleysol argillisol protosol the orders may be preceded by one or more subordinate modifiers that describe other important features of the paleosol the classification is relatively easy to apply to the rock record and should enhance communication and aid in the standardization of terminology

computations of the viscoelastic response of a 3 d compressible earth to surface loading an application to glacial isostatic adjustment in antarctica and canada s u m m a r y we develop a 3 d finite element model to study the viscoelastic response of a compressible earth to surface loads the effects of centre of mass motion polar wander feedback and selfconsistent ocean loading are implemented to assess the model s accuracy we benchmark the numerical results against a semi analytic solution for spherically symmetric structure we force our model with the ice 5g global ice loading history to study the effects of laterally varying viscosity structure on several glacial isostatic adjustment gia observables including relative sea level rsl measurements incanada and present day time variable gravity and uplift rates in antarctica canadian rsl observations have been used to determine the earth s globally averaged viscosity profile antarcticgps uplift rates have been used to constrainantarcticgia models and gia time variable gravity and uplift signals are error sources for grace and altimeter estimates of present day antarctic ice mass loss and must be modelled and removed from those estimates computinggia results for a 3 d viscosity profile derived from a realistic seismic tomography model and comparing with results computed for 1 d averages of that 3 d profile we conclude that 1 a gia viscosity model based on canadian relative sea level data is more likely to represent a canadian average than a true global average 2 the effects of 3 d viscosity structure on grace estimates of present day antarctic mass loss are probably smaller than the difference between gia models based on different antarctic deglaciation histories and 3 the effects of 3 d viscosity structure on antarctic gps observations of present day uplift rate can be significant and can complicate efforts to use gps observations to constrain 1 d gia models

the antarctica component of postglacial rebound model ice 6g_c vm5a based on gps positioning exposure age dating of ice thicknesses and relative sea level histories

space geodesy constrains ice age terminal deglaciation the global ice 6g_c vm5a model a new model of the last deglaciation event of the late quaternary ice age is here described and denoted as ice 6g c vm5a it differs from previously published models in this sequence in that it has been explicitly refined by applying all of the available global positioning system gps measurements of vertical motion of the crust that may be brought to bear to constrain the thickness of local ice cover as well as the timing of its removal additional space geodetic constraints have also been applied to specify the reference frame within which the gps data are described the focus of the paper is upon the three main regions of last glacial maximum ice cover namely north america northwestern europe eurasia and antarctica although greenland and the british isles will also be included if peripherally in the discussion in each of the three major regions the model predictions of the time rate of change of the gravitational field are also compared to that being measured by the gravity recovery and climate experiment satellites as an independent means of verifying the improvement of the model achieved by applying the gps constraints several aspects of the global characteristics of this new model are also discussed including the nature of relative sea level history predictions at far field locations in particular the caribbean island of barbados from which especially high quality records of postglacial sea level change are available but which records were not employed in the development of the model although ice 6g c vm5a is a significant improvement insofar as the most recently available gps observations are concerned comparison of model predictions with such far field relative sea level histories enables us to identify a series of additional improvements that should follow from a further stage of model iteration

optimizing estimates of annual variations and trends in geocenter motion and j2 from a combination of grace data and geophysical models the focus of the study is optimizing the technique for estimating geocenter motion and variations in j2 by combining data from the gravity recovery and climate experiment grace satellite mission with output from an ocean bottom pressure obp model and a glacial isostatic adjustment gia model swenson et al 2008 sun et al 2016 first we conduct an end to end numerical simulation study we generate input time variable gravity field observations by perturbing a synthetic earth model with realistically simulated errors we show that it is important to avoid large errors at short wavelengths and signal leakage from land to ocean as well as to account for self attraction and loading sal effects second the optimal implementation strategy is applied to real grace data we show that the estimates of annual amplitude in geocenter motion are in line with estimates from other techniques such as slr and global gps inversion at the same time annual amplitudes of c10 and c11 are increased by about 50 and 20 respectively compared to estimates based on swenson et al 2008 estimates of j2 variations are by about 15 larger than slr results in terms of annual amplitude linear trend estimates are dependent on the adopted gia model but still comparable to some slr results

quantitative paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstruction using paleosols abstract paleosols fossil soils are preserved throughout the geologic record in depositional settings ranging from alluvial systems to between basalt flows until recently paleosols were studied using primarily qualitative methods in recent years paleopedology has shifted from a largely qualitative field based on comparisons with modern analogues to an increasingly quantitative endeavor some of this change has been a result of applying existing techniques to new materials but many of the innovations have been the result of applying new techniques to new materials including thermodynamic modeling of soil formation isotope geochemistry and applications of empirical relationships derived from modern soils a variety of semi quantitative and quantitative tools has been developed to examine past weathering and pedogenesis and to reconstruct both paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions at the time that the paleosols formed though it is often not possible to achieve the same temporal resolution as with marine records for paleoclimatic reconstructions proxies based on paleosols are potentially a much more direct means of making paleoclimatic reconstructions because soils form at the earth s surface in direct contact with the atmospheric and climatic conditions at the time of their formation paleoclimatic and environmental properties that may be reconstructed using the new proxies include provenance weathering intensity mean annual precipitation and temperature during pedogenesis nutrient fluxes into and out of the paleosols the atmospheric composition of important gases including co2 and o2 the moisture balance during pedogenesis the soil gas composition reconstructed vegetative covering and paleo altitude

estimates of m2 tidal energy dissipation from topex poseidon altimeter data most of the tidal energy dissipation in the ocean occurs in shallow seas as has long been recognized however recent work has suggested that a significant fraction of the dissipation perhaps 1 tw or more occurs in the deep ocean this paper builds further evidence for that conclusion more than 6 years of data from the topex poseidon satellite altimeter are used to map the tidal dissipation rate throughout the world ocean the dissipation rate is estimated as a balance between the rate of working by tidal forces and the energy flux divergence computed using currents derived by least squares fitting of the altimeter data and the shallow water equations such calculations require dynamical assumptions in particular about the nature of dissipation to assess sensitivity of dissipation estimates to input assumptions a large suite of tidal inversions based on a wide range of drag parameterizations and employing both real and synthetic altimeter data are compared these experiments and monte carlo error fields from a generalized inverse model are used to establish error uncertainties for the dissipation estimates owing to the tight constraints on tidal elevation fields provided by the altimeter area integrals of the energy balance are remarkably insensitive to required dynamical assumptions tidal energy dissipation is estimated for all major shallow seas excluding individual polar seas and compared with previous model and data based estimates dissipation in the open ocean is significantly enhanced around major bathymetric features in a manner consistent with simple theories for the generation of baroclinic tides

the pole tide and its effect on grace time variable gravity measurements implications for estimates of surface mass variations gravity recovery and climate experiment grace provides monthly solutions for the earth s gravity field in the form of spherical harmonic coefficients these can be used to infer changes in mass at the earth s surface the pole tide the response of the earth and oceans to polar motion causes gravity signals dominated by harmonics of degree 2 order 1 if the pole tide is not removed from grace data it affects the coefficients of those harmonics c21 s21 and introduces errors when using those coefficients to determine surface mass variations the pole tide is partially removed by grace processing centers before solving for the gravity field but long period pole tide signals are not usually included in the grace pole tide correction and so those signals are still present in the grace coefficients we discuss this issue from the standpoint of somebody who uses the grace gravity fields to infer changes in surface mass we arrive at a recommendation for an optimal grace pole tide correction we describe how to modify the c21 s21 coefficients provided by the processing centers so that they conform with our recommendation we discuss the size of the pole tide contributions to c21 s21 compared to those of the direct load induced contributions as an example we show how an incompletely removed pole tide can impact grace results for the trend in ocean mass we consider the impact of mantle anelasticity on long period pole tide corrections and conclude that it is unlikely to affect those corrections by more than 20

low frequency exchange of mass between ocean basins 1 we examine the gravity recovery and climate experiment grace data and output from an ocean model to quantify mass fluctuations for the pacific atlantic and indian ocean basins from august 2002 until december 2008 the monthly spatial mean is removed to study interbasin mass exchange we find a seasonal exchange of mass between the atlantic and pacific that is similar to one documented previously although the amplitude observed by grace is about 20 lower than that simulated by an ocean model there are also significant fluctuations with periods longer than 1 year we find large interannual exchanges in 2005 and 2007 with grace observing yearly averaged mass anomalies in the pacific that are about 30 40 larger than simulated by a model this is shown to be from significant interannual mass losses from the indian ocean that are observed by grace but not simulated by the model a longer run of the model from 1976 to 2008 suggests that such interbasin mass exchanges are a regular occurrence and can last for as long as a couple of decades

benthic pelagic uncoupling between the northern patagonian frontal system and patagonian scallop beds abstract availability of planktonic food in the bottom is the most important factor to explain the persistence and recurrent localization of patagonian scallop zygochlamys patagonica populations the establishment of the scallop sea bay bed sbb has been related with food supply from the northern patagonian frontal system npfs in this article outputs from high resolution numerical models combined with particle tracking methods were used to identify for the first time potential physical mechanisms of food transfer the model results showed no evidence of benthic pelagic coupling between the npfs and the sbb they also revealed that the dominant instantaneous semidiurnal tidal currents and the mean n ne flow on the inner middle patagonian shelf are the main dynamical mechanisms preventing particles released at the surface of the npfs to reach the sbb area sensitivity studies changing the stochastic numerical method for solving the particle trajectories the release month and location of the particles the magnitude of the horizontal turbulent diffusion coefficient and the frequency of the wind forcing did not alter this conclusion significantly

a pedotype approach to latest cretaceous and earliest tertiary paleosols in eastern montana a pedotype approach to the study of paleosols emphasizes individual profiles it is an alternative approach to the study of geosols which are laterally extensive suites of paleosols or pedofacies which are pedogenically distinctive sedimentary facies this is the first pedotype study of paleosols across the cretaceous tertiary boundary in eastern montana pedotypes allow assessment of sedimentation and fossilization the sequence of paleosols across the cretaceous tertiary boundary at bug creek is one of high temporal resolution because most available geological time can be accounted for by differing degree of development inferred for each pedotype paleosols at bug creek include pedotypes that preserve plant fossils well but were unfavorable for preservation of fossil vertebrates pedotypes also allow reassessment of ecosystem change despite indications of catastrophe at the cretaceous tertiary boundary the array of paleocene and cretaceous pedotypes are not strikingly different the upper cretaceous hell creek formation includes pedotypes interpreted as gleyed alfisols inceptisols and entisols probably formed under seasonally water logged forest and mean annual rainfall of the order of 900 1200 mm most paleosols of the lower paleocene tullock formation were histosols but some can be interpreted as gleyed inceptisols and entisols probably formed under bald cypress swamps in a humid climate with 1200 mm mean annual rainfall broadly comparable pedotypes were present before and after the cretaceous tertiary boundary although paleocene flood plain forest lived in paleosols chemically a little more oligotrophic than cretaceous paleosols this modest difference supports the idea that change to coaly facies in the earliest paleocene was a local shift in sedimentary environment such local changes do not begin to account for profound disruption in specific composition of plant and animal communities at the cretaceous tertiary boundary in eastern montana

estimating geocenter variations from a combination of grace and ocean model output 1 in this study we estimate a time series of geocenter anomalies from a combination of data from the gravityrecoveryandclimateexperiment grace satellitemissionandthe outputfromoceanmodels amatrixequationisderivedrelating totalgeocentervariations to the grace coefficients of degrees two and higher and to the oceanic component of the degree one coefficients we estimate the oceanic component from two state of the art ocean models results are compared to independent estimates of geocenter derived from other satellite data such as satellite laser ranging and gps finally we compute degree one coefficients that are consistent with the processing applied to the grace level 2 gravity field coefficients the estimated degree one coefficients can be used to improve estimates of mass variability from grace which alone cannot provide them directly

mixing of a tracer in the pycnocline a patch of sulfur hexafluoride was released in may 1992 in the eastern north atlantic on an isopycnal surface near 300 m depth and was surveyed over a period of 30 months as it dispersed across and along isopycnal surfaces the diapycnal eddy diffusivity k estimated for the first 6 months was 0 12 0 02 cm2 s while for the subsequent 24 months it was 0 17 0 02 cm2 s the vertical tracer distribution remained very close to gaussian for the full 30 months as the root mean square rms dispersion grew from 5 to 50 m lateral dispersion was measured on several scales the growth of the rms width of the tracer streaks from less than 100 m to approximately 300 m within 2 weeks implies an isopycnal diffusivity of 0 07 m2 s at scales of 0 1 to 1 km larger than expected from the interaction between vertical shear of the internal waves and diapycnal mixing teasing of the overall patch initially about 25 km across into streaks with an overall length of 1800 km within 6 months supports predictions of exponential growth by the mesoscale strain field at a rate of 3 0 5 10 7 s 1 the rms width of these streaks estimated as 3 km and maintained in the face of the streak growth indicates an isopycnal diffusivity of 2 m2 s at scales of 1 to 10 km much greater than expected from internal wave shear dispersion the patch was painted in albeit streakily by 12 months confirming expectations from analytical and numerical models homogenization of the patch continued during the subsequent 18 months while the patch continued to spread with an effective isopycnal eddy diffusivity on the order of 1000 m2 s acting at scales of 30 to 300 km

forcing of recent decadal variability in the equatorial and north indian ocean recent decadal sea surface height ssh variability across the equatorial and north indian ocean enio north of 5 s is spatially coherent and related to a reversal in basin scale upper ocean temperature trends analysis of ocean and forcing fields from a data assimilating ocean synthesis eccov4 suggests that two equally important mechanisms of wind driven heat redistribution within the indian ocean account for a majority of the decadal variability the first is the cross equatorial cell cec forced by zonal wind stress curl at the equator the wind stress curl variability relates to the strength and position of the mascarene high which is influenced by the phase of the indian ocean subtropical dipole the second mechanism is deep 700 m upwelling related to zonal wind stress at the equator that causes deep cross equatorial overturning due to the unique geometry of the basin the cec acts to cool the upper ocean throughout most of the first decade of satellite altimetry while the deep upwelling delays and then amplifies the effect of the cec on ssh during the subsequent decade reversals in the forcing anomalies drive warming of the upper ocean and increasing ssh with the effect of the deep upwelling leading the cec this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

steric sea level variations over 2004 2010 as a function of region and depth inference on the mass component variability in the north atlantic ocean 1 we investigate the regional ocean depth layer down to 2000 m contributions to global mean steric sea level from january 2004 to march 2010 using argo based ocean temperature and salinity data from the scripps oceanographic institution database we find that indian ocean warming is almost compensated by atlantic ocean cooling so that the total global mean steric sea level increases only slightly over the considered period 0 35 0 30 mm yr salinity variations also contribute at lower rate to the observed steric compensation meanwhile the pacific steric sea level increases only slightly 0 35 0 25 mm yr in the north atlantic region the mass component estimated by the difference between satellite altimetry based minus steric sea level over the same area is negatively correlated over 2004 2010 with the steric component during that period north atlantic sea level variability seems mostly driven by the north atlantic oscillation nao this is unlike during the previous years 1997 to 2004 a period during which we observe significant correlation between north atlantic sea level and el nino southern oscillation enso with positive sea level corresponding to enso cold phases la nina

vertisol carbonate properties in relation to mean annual precipitation implications for paleoprecipitation estimates abstract previous publications combining the properties of multiple soil orders show that depth to carbonate dtc increases systematically between 350 and 1000 mm of mean annual precipitation map we hypothesize that carbonate in vertisols clay rich shrink swell soils respond differently to water flux than other soil orders because of lower permeability to test this hypothesis we compiled soil description and characterization data from multiple published sources across a late pleistocene climosequence of the coast prairie of texas to assess the relationship between map 700 1400 mm and dtc the dtc of carbonate nodules represents an index of accumulation and the dtc of calcium carbonate equivalent total carbonate 2 0 mm diam an index of leaching the dtc for 1 2 and 5 abundances were assessed using regression analysis the r2 values were highest for the dtc of 2 nodules and of 1 calcium carbonate equivalent in vertisol microlows surprisingly relatively high r2 values were calculated

on postglacial sea level summary an exact method is presented for calculating the changes in sea level that occur when ice and water masses are rearranged on the surface of elastic and viscoelastic non rotating earth models the method is used to calculate the instantaneous elastic and delayed vi scoelastic sea level changes following the partial melting of late quaternary ice sheets we find that there can be large errors in the usual assumption that changes in sea level are uniform over the ocean basins if a quantity of ice equivalent to a uniform 100 m rise in sea level melts from the laurentide and fennoscandian ice sheets then in the south pacific the instantaneous rise in sea level can be as large as 120m in the north atlantic the instantaneous rise is always less than 100 m there is a zone in the north atlantic with almost no sea level change and near greenland and norway the sea level falls rather than rises by over 100 m one thousand years after the melting a forebulge migrating towards the ice loads causes water to flow from the south pacific into the north pacific suggesting that raised beaches should occur in the south pacific the gravitational attraction of an ice mass upon a nearby ocean tends to hold sea level high in the vicinity of the ice this extra load near the ice may have a significant influence on postglacial isostatic adjustment

sem and light microscopic observations of minerals in bog ores of the belgian campine abstract stoops g 1983 sem and light microscopic observations of minerals in bog ores of the belgian campine geoderma 30 179 186 soft bog ore deposits are frequently present in alluvial soils of the nete valley province of antwerp belgium a profile was studied consisting of four layers of which the upper three were analyzed with the light microscope and sem scanning electron microscope the top layer consisted mainly of clay and fragmented diatom shells isotropic fe oxihydrates and radiating goethite needles were present in the underlying limonitic layer siderite and vivianite were found in the third layer the former often present in the wall of root channels whereas the latter was frequently found within the channels vivianite was also found associated with decaying roots or alone inside root channels pyrite framboids were also found in the lower part of the profile the presence close to each other of different minerals such as goethite pyrite siderite and vivianite cannot be explained by macroenvironmental mineral equilibria alone it requires the existence of different microenvironments which can vary in time and place the study of such microenvironments however requires additional in situ microchemical submicroscopic techniques

a warm equable cretaceous the nature of the problem abstract the nature of the problem of warm equable paleoclimates is defined by investigating the mid cretaceous period the problem consists of three components 1 defining precisely the climatic state during any specified interval of geologic time 2 specifying the external climatic forcing factors which may have been important and 3 understanding the climatic response to any specific modifying influence these components are characterized by limitations of critical importance in understanding paleoclimates the nature of the problem of a warm cretaceous is defined both qualitatively and quantitatively within these limits

cretaceous plate tectonic reconstructions abstract plate tectonic reconstructions for each cretaceous stage are produced as base maps for cretaceous paleogeography and for oceanic and continental data both geologic and geophysical data are utilized to determine the relative rotations of cretaceous plates with respect to north america a sea floor spreading history is generated from the relative rotations this history is consistent with data from the deep sea drilling project paleolatitude lines are derived using average paleomagnetic pole positions these reconstructions are significantly more comprehensive than previous global reconstructions although there are still many areas which remain controversial

precipitation rates and atmospheric heat transport during the cenomanian greenhouse warming in north america estimates from a stable isotope mass balance model stable isotope mass balance modeling results of meteoric 18o values from the cenomanian stage of the cretaceous western interior basin kwib suggest that precipitation and evaporation fluxes were greater than that of the present and significantly different from simulations of albian kwib paleohydrology sphaerosiderite meteoric 18o values have been compiled from the lower tuscaloosa formation of southwestern mississippi 25 n paleolatitude the dakota formation rose creek pit fairbury nebraska 35 n and the dunvegan formation of eastern british columbia 55 n paleolatitude these paleosol siderite 18o values define a paleolatitudinal gradient ranging from 4 2 vpdb at 25 n to 12 5 vpdb at 55 n this trend is significantly steeper and more depleted than a modern theoretical siderite gradient 25 n 1 7 65 n 5 6 vpdb and a holocene meteoric calcite trend 27 n 3 6 67 n 7 4 vpdb the cenomanian gradient is also comparatively steeper than the albian trend determined for the kwib in the mid to high latitudes the steep latitudinal trend in meteoric 18o values may be the result of increased precipitation and evaporation fluxes amount effects under a more vigorous greenhouse world hydrologic cycle a stable isotope mass balance model has been used to generate estimates of precipitation and evaporation fluxes and precipitation rates estimates of cenomanian precipitation rates based upon the mass balance modeling of the kwib range from 1400 mm yr at 25 n paleolatitude to 3600 mm yr at 45 n paleolatitude the precipitation evaporation p e flux values were used to delineate zones of moisture surplus and moisture deficit comparisons between cenomanian p e and modern theoretical siderite and holocene calcite latitudinal trends shows an amplification of low latitude moisture deficits between 5 25 n paleolatitude and moisture surpluses between 40 60 n paleolatitude the low latitude moisture deficits correlate with a mean annual average heat loss of 48 w m2 at 10 n paleolatitude present 8 w m2 at 15 n the increased precipitation flux and moisture surplus in the mid latitudes corresponds to a mean average annual heat gain of 180 w m2 at 50 n paleolatitude present 17 w m2 at 50 n the cenomanian low latitude moisture deficit is similar to that of the albian however the mid latitude 40 60 n precipitation flux values and precipitation rates are significantly higher albian 2200 mm yr at 45 n cenomanian 3600 mm yr at 45 n furthermore the heat transferred to the atmosphere via latent heat of condensation was approximately 10 6 that of the present at 50 n the intensified hydrologic cycle of the mid cretaceous greenhouse warming may have played a significant role in the poleward transfer of heat and more equable global conditions paleoclimatological reconstructions from multiple time periods during the mid cretaceous will aid in a better understanding of the dynamics of the hydrologic cycle and latent heat flux during greenhouse world conditions