characterization and migration of atmospheric ree in soils and surface waters abstract rainwater and snow collected from three different sites in france vosges mountains french alps and strasbourg show more or less similar shapes of their ree distribution patterns rainwater from strasbourg is the most ree enriched sample whereas precipitations from the two mountainous less polluted catchments are less ree enriched and have concentrations close to seawater they are all strongly lree depleted different water samples from an alpine watershed comprising snow interstitial puddle and streamwater show similar ree distributions with lree enrichment rainwater normalized but mree and hree depletion in this environment where water transfer from the soil to the river is very quick due to the low thickness of the soils it appears that ree in streamwater mainly originate from atmospheric inputs different is the behaviour of the ree in the spring and streamwaters from the vosges mountains these waters of long residence time in the deep soil horizons react with soil and bedrock ree carrying minerals and show especially significant negative eu anomalies compared to atmospheric inputs their sr and nd isotopic data suggest that most of the sr and nd originate from apatite leaching or dissolution soil solutions and soil leachates from the upper soil horizons due to alteration processes strongly depleted in ree carrying minerals have ree distribution patterns close to those of lichens and throughfall throughfall is slightly more enriched especially in light ree than filtered rainwater probably due to leaching of atmospheric particles deposited on the foliage and also to leaf excretion data suggest that sr and nd isotopes of the soil solutions in the upper soil horizons originate from two different sources 1 an atmospheric source with fertilizer dust and seawater components and 2 a source mainly determined by mineral dissolution in the soil these two different sources are also recognizable in the sr and nd isotopic composition of the tree s throughfall solution the atmospheric contributions of sr and nd to throughfall and soil solution are of 20 to 70 and 20 respectively in springwater however the atmospheric sr and ree contribution is not detectable

a critique of emanuel s hurricane model and potential intensity theory we present a critique of emanuel s steady state hurricane model which is a precursor to his theory for hurricane potential intensity pi we show that a major deficiency of the theory is the tacit assumption of gradient wind balance in the boundary layer a layer that owes its existence to gradient wind imbalance in the radial momentum equation if a more complete boundary layer formulation is included using the gradient wind profiles obtained from emanuel s theory the tangential wind speed in the boundary layer becomes supergradient invalidating the assumption of gradient wind balance we show that the degree to which the tangential wind is supergradient depends on the assumed boundary layer depth the full boundary layer solutions require a knowledge of the tangential wind profile above the boundary layer in the outer region where there is subsidence into the layer and they depend on the breadth of this profile this effect is not considered in emanuel s theory we argue that a more complete theory for the steady state hurricane would require the radial pressure gradient above the boundary layer to be prescribed or determined independently of the boundary layer the issues raised herein highlight a fundamental problem with emanuel s theory for pi since that theory makes the same assumptions as in the steady state hurricane model our current findings together with recent studies examining intense hurricanes suggest a way forward towards a more consistent theory for hurricane pi copyright 2008 royal meteorological society

identifying domestic functional areas chemical analysis of floor sediments at the classical hellenistic settlement at duzen tepe sw turkey abstract for over a decade multi element chemical analysis of floor sediments in archaeological contexts has been a tool to identify and interpret anthropogenic chemical residues and activities for the current study a multi element chemical analysis was applied to floor samples from a classical hellenistic courtyard building at duzen tepe sw turkey among a series of 19 elements analyzed k mg fe p and sr are thought to directly reflect anthropogenic chemical residues the elements cr mg ni pb and ti are considered to reflect the geological background of the site yet their contents seem to vary over different chemical residue zones making them a suitable tool for delineating activity areas overall the sampling and analysis techniques applied at duzen tepe mild acid sample extraction and icp oes analysis have proven to be fit for this kind of study the analyses allow human activity zones within the study area to be identified and interpreted and deliver insights into the archaeological contexts that could not be obtained by archaeological research alone

interpolating geochemical patterning of activity zones at late neolithic and early copper age settlements in eastern hungary the late neolithic of southeast hungary is known almost exclusively from excavations of large settlement mounds or tells geochemical analyses of sediments collected from boreholes at small flat late neolithic and early copper age settlements in hungary s koros river basin provide data necessary to interpret the spatial organization of small settlements for the first time in this region principal components analysis of multi element data produced a workable number of variables spatial analyses of these components via interpolation in arcgis 9 identified specific task areas and when combined with sediment characterizations phosphate spot tests and ph suggest long term cultural traditions in the location of activity zones within small farmsteads the results demonstrate the usefulness of multi element geochemistry as an intra site prospection method

stability and instability on maya lowlands tropical hillslope soils abstract substantial lake core and other evidence shows accelerated soil erosion occurred in the maya lowlands of central america over ancient maya history from 3000 to 1000 years ago but we have little evidence of the wider network of the sources and sinks of that eroded sediment cascade this study begins to solve the mystery of missing soil with new research and a synthesis of existing studies of tropical forest soils along slopes in nw belize the research aim is to understand soil formation long term human impacts on slopes and slope stability over time and explore ecological implications we studied soils on seven slopes in tropical forest areas that have experienced intensive ancient human impacts and those with little ancient impacts all of our soil catenas except for one deforested from old growth two years before contain evidence for about 1000 years of stable tropical forest cover since maya abandonment we characterized the physical chemical and taxonomic characteristics of soils at crest shoulder backslopes footslopes and depression locations analyzing typical soil parameters chemical elements and carbon isotopes 13 c in dated and undated sequences four footslopes or depressions in areas of high ancient occupation preserved evidence of buried clay textured soils covered by coarser sediment dating from the maya classic period three footslopes from areas with scant evidence of ancient occupation had little discernable deposition these findings add to a growing corpus of soil toposequences with similar facies changes in footslopes and depressions that date to the maya period using major elemental concentrations across a range of catenas we derived a measure ca mg al fe mn of the relative contributions of autochthonous and allochthonous materials and the relative age of soil catenas we found very low ratios in clearly older buried soils in footslopes and depressions and on slopes that had not undergone ancient maya erosion we found high ca mg al fe mn values on slopes with several lines of evidence that suggest relative youth soils possibly formed since maya abandonment carbon isotopes 13 c also provide some evidence of past vegetation change on slopes we found strong evidence for maize or other alien c 4 species in an ancient terrace soil and additional evidence in buried footslopes but only evidence for c 3 species like tropical trees on the backslopes and other crest shoulders the fact that steep slopes preserved no evidence of c 4 species inputs may mean that the ancient maya maintained forests here alternatively ancient maya land uses eroded slopes with the 13 c signatures detected today being the result of more recent soil development under forest over the last millennium additional evidence that these soils are recent in age includes elevated ca mg al fe mn values skeletal soil profiles and low soil magnetic susceptibility besides the evidence for truncating backslopes and aggrading footslopes the ancient maya built agricultural terraces that accumulated soils and altered drainage all these ancient maya slope alterations would have influenced modern tree distributions because many tree species in the modern forest show strong preferences for different soil types and topographic situations that the ancient maya changed

phosphate fractionation and spatial patterning in ancient ruins a case study from yucatan abstract as time passes phosphorus p in soils tends to become more tightly bound with minerals phosphate fractionation enables the measurement of loosely versus tightly bound p archaeologists have used p fractionation as a chronometric technique older soils should have greater proportions of p tightly bound with minerals research at chunchucmil a large maya ruin in yucatan mexico has used extractable p concentrations and other lines of evidence to investigate ancient uses of space because contemporary maya villagers use the land among the chunchucmil ruins in a number of ways and because the ancient land surfaces are neither sealed nor deeply buried we used p fractionation to determine whether geochemical signatures of activities such as gardening resulted from ancient or modern inhabitants the fractionation results at chunchucmil are unusual in comparison to studies from other sites furthermore there are strong correlations between the sum of p fractions and carbonate we discuss potential explanations for these patterns in p fractionation data these explanations consider local pedology differential length of ancient occupation and localized dumping of the byproducts of maize processing to examine the chemical signatures of maize processing specifically soaking maize in lime water contemporary samples of sediments and residues from this activity were analyzed our results suggest that dumping water from maize soaking provides a potential explanation for the ancient p patterns

marco gonzalez ambergris caye belize a geoarchaeological record of ground raising associated with surface soil formation and the presence of a dark earth marco gonzalez on the south west end of the island of ambergris caye belize has well preserved maya archaeological stratigraphy dating from preclassic times ca 300 b c to the late classic period ca a d 550 600 to 700 760 although later occupations are recorded by house platforms and inhumations terminal classic to early postclassic and use of the site continued until the 16th century a d intact stratigraphy is rare in these cases owing to a greater degree of disturbance nonetheless understanding site formation entails accounting for all processes including disturbance the site s depositional sequence as revealed through soil micromorphology and chemistry and detailed here has yielded critical information in two spheres of research as regards archaeology and the elucidation of maya activities on the caye over time soil micromorphology has contributed beyond measure to what we have been able to distinguish as material remains of cultural activity detailed descriptions of the nature of the material remains has in turn helped us to clarify or alter interpretations based on artefacts that have been identified or sediments characterised according to traditional recovery techniques the other major sphere in which soil micromorphology and chemistry play a critical role is in assessment of the environmental impact of human activity which enables us to construct and test hypotheses concerning how the site formed over time what materials and elements contributed to the character of the sediments especially in the formation of a specific maya dark earth type that is developed from carbonate rich deposits and how the modern surface soils acquired the appearance of a dark earth but essentially differ from them in terms of agricultural soil sustainability the marco gonzalez surface soil is neo formed by a woodland vegetation drawing upon the nutrients and constituents present in both the dark earth and underlying better preserved stratified deposits

human and natural impacts on fluvial and karst depressions of the maya lowlands abstract this paper begins to differentiate the major drivers and chronology of erosion and aggradation in the fluvial and fluviokarst landscapes of the southern and central maya lowlands we synthesize past research on erosion and aggradation and add new data from water soils radiocarbon dating and archaeology to study the quantity timing and causes of aggradation in regional landscape depressions geomorphic findings come from many excavations across a landscape gradient from upland valleys karst sinks and fans into the coastal plain floodplains and depressions findings from water chemistry show that sources in the uplands have low quantities of dissolved ions but water in the coastal plains has high amounts of dissolved ions often nearly saturated in calcium and sulfate we found significant geomorphic complexity in the general trends in upland karst sinks in a few instances sediments preserve late pleistocene paleosols buried 2 3 m though many more have distinct middle to late holocene paleosols buried 1 2 m after c 2300 bp maya early to late preclassic from 2300 1100 bp late preclassic to classic periods the landscape aggraded from five main mechanisms river flooding climatic instability accelerated erosion ancient maya landscape manipulation and gypsum precipitation from a rise in a water table nearly saturated in calcium and sulfate ions evidence exists for two or three high magnitude floods possibly driven by hurricanes moreover lake core and geophysical studies from the peten lakes region have shown high rates of deposition of silicate clays maya clays starting and peaking during the maya preclassic and continuing to be high through the late classic the main driver on upland karst depressions the peten lakes upland valleys and fans was accelerated soil erosion but water table rise probably driven by sea level rise was the main driver on the wetlands of the coastal plain because the aggraded sediments here are dominantly composed of gypsum precipitated from the groundwater this latter mechanism represents a little recognized mechanism of aggradation over a large region these large scale environmental changes occurred during periods of intensive ancient maya land use and climatic instability both of which may have contributed to erosion by increasing runoff despite these geomorphic changes ancient maya farmers adapted in several key cases

on the characteristic height scales of the hurricane boundary layer in this study data from 794 gps dropsondes deployed by research aircraft in 13 hurricanes are analyzed to studythecharacteristicheightscalesofthehurricaneboundarylayer theheightscalesaredefinedinavariety of ways the height of the maximum total wind speed the inflow layer depth and the mixed layer depth the height of the maximumwind speed and the inflow layerdepth are referred to asthe dynamical boundarylayer heights while the mixed layer depth is referred to as the thermodynamical boundary layer height the data analyses show that there is a clear separation of the thermodynamical and dynamical boundary layer heights consistent with previous studies on the boundary layer structure in individual storms the dynamical boundary layer height is found to decrease with decreasing radius to the storm center the thermodynamic boundary layer height which is much shallower than the dynamical boundary layer height is also found to decrease with decreasing radius to the storm center the results also suggest that using the traditional critical richardson number method to determine the boundary layer height may not accurately reproduce the height scale of the hurricane boundary layer these different height scales reveal the complexity of the hurricane boundary layer structure that should be captured in hurricane model simulations

self stratification of tropical cyclone outflow part ii implications for storm intensification tropical cyclones intensify and are maintained by surface enthalpy fluxes that result from the thermodynamics disequilibrium that exists between the tropical oceans and atmosphere while this general result has beenknownfor at least a half century the detailednatureof feedbacksbetweenthermodynamic anddynamic processes in tropical cyclones remains poorly understood in particular the spatial relationship between surface fluxes and the radial entropy distribution apparently does not act to amplify the entropy gradient and therefore the surface winds in previous work this problem was addressed by accounting for the radial distribution of convective fluxes of entropy out of the boundary layer this led to the conclusion that a radial gradient of such convective fluxes is necessary for intensification part i showed that the assumption of constant outflow temperature is incorrect and argued that the thermal stratification of the outflow is set by small scale turbulence that limits the richardson number the assumption of richardson number criticality of the outflow allows one to derive an equation for the variation of outflow temperature with angular momentum this in turn leads to predictions of vortex structure and intensity that agree well with tropical cyclones simulated using a full physics axisymmetric model here it is shown that the variation of outflow temperature with angular momentum also permits the vortex to intensify with time even in the absence of radial gradients of entrainment into the boundary layer an equation is derived for the rate of intensity change and compared to simple models and to simulations using a full physics model

self stratification of tropical cyclone outflow part i implications for storm structure extant theoretical work on the steady state structure and intensity of idealized axisymmetric tropical cyclones relies on the assumption that isentropic surfaces in the storm outflow match those of the unperturbed environment at large distances from the storm s core these isentropic surfaces generally lie just above the tropopause wheretheverticaltemperaturestructureisapproximatelyisothermal soithas beenassumedthat the absolute temperature of the outflow is nearly constant here it is shown that this assumption is not justified at least when applied to storms simulated by a convection resolving axisymmetric numerical model in whichmuchofthe outflowoccursbelowtheambienttropopauseanddevelopsits ownstratification unrelated to that of the unperturbed environment the authors propose that this stratification is set in the storm s core by the requirement that the richardson number remain near its critical value for the onset of small scale turbulence this ansatz is tested by calculating the richardson number in numerically simulated storms and then showing that the assumption of constant richardson number determines the variation of the outflow temperature with angular momentum or entropy and thereby sets the low level radial structure of the storm outside its radius of maximum surface winds part ii will show that allowing the outflow temperature to vary also allows one to discard an empirical factor that was introduced in previous work on the intensification of tropical cyclones

identification of activity areas by multi element characterization of sediments from modern and archaeological house floors using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy abstract a pilot study on the chemical analysis of earthen house floors using both modern and archaeological localities was undertaken to determine the degree to which activities leave detectable chemical residues and whether these residues are preserved in archaeological contexts the goals were to develop techniques for the identification and interpretation of activity areas in archaeological structures and to determine which elements serve to distinguish activities one modern structure from oaxaca mexico and two archaeological house floors from british columbia canada and oaxaca mexico were studied soil samples were collected from floors at all three sites and analysed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy icp aes for al ba ca fe k mg mn na p sr ti and zn preliminary results show that activity areas in the modern house compound can readily be distinguished on the basis of chemical residues in soils that archaeological features are chemically distinct from natural soils and that features such as floors and hearths can be distinguished from each other and from the natural prehistoric ground surface multi element characterization by icp aes offers an advantage over traditional single element analysis by yielding more useful data for less effort expense and time

anthropogenic units fingerprinted by ree in archaeological stratigraphy mas d is spain case abstract on occasions archaeologists have to deal with serious difficulties to differentiate between processes that ultimately are responsible for the formation of stratigraphic units sometimes we face problems related with depositional units in multilayered deposits and other times we ask for the character of some dark surface soils very similar to natural paleosols and usually associated with archaeological findings in both cases the problems we must address concern the relative impact of human activities the imbalance between anthropic and natural processes in the formation of archaeological deposits is crucial for a correct interpretation of the processes involved in the formation of archaeological sites but also of their occupation abandonment dynamics and the understanding of their spatial behaviors and relationship with the environment in this paper we propose a new methodological approach for the identification of anthropogenic fingerprints in stratigraphic units through rare earth elements ree soil analysis the role of ree for the effective identification of sediment provenance due to their coherent behavior during weathering erosion and fluvial transportation and their high resistance to chemical mobilization is well known in other areas of knowledge we try to explore its potentiality in a challenging archaeological context our purpose was to identify human traces in stratigraphic units where archaeological materials are scarce or absent intertwined with others richer in archaeological remains by the determination of multiple elements and statistical studies we believe that rare earth elements ree soil analysis provides unique insights for a better characterization of natural and archaeological sediments but more importantly to recognize different stages of the gradient we expect to discern between natural versus anthropic units and between primary versus secondary deposits redeposition using the case of the neolithic site of mas d is alicante spain as an example the application of the principal component analysis pca remarks differences in ree values those analysis show differences between units of undoubtedly anthropogenic origin and control samples taken from natural sediments including marls bedrock in their vicinity but also we could notice finer nuances like the degree of human contributions to paleosols formation

the story in the floors chemical signatures of ancient and modern maya activities at aguateca guatemala abstract soil chemical analysis has been one of the most active and promising areas among the recent innovations in household archaeology ancient inhabitants unintentionally left chemical imprints of daily activities providing important clues as to past practices and space use which are difficult to judge from artifactual data alone soil chemical testing in the maya region is particularly promising given the highly calcareous nature of the soils derived from the carbonate geology of the region as calcium ions and soil alkalinity render phosphorous iron and other metallic ions insoluble this paper reports the results of soil chemical analysis of modern and ancient residential structures at the archaeological park of aguateca guatemala an ethnoarchaeological study of the guards living quarters and archaeological data from rapidly abandoned classic period residences provided opportunities to refine an understanding of the relationship between human activities and soil chemical signatures both cases exhibited good correlations of high phosphorous concentrations in soils with food processing consumption and disposal high levels of heavy metals in the modern structures probably derived from the filing of machetes and the disposal of flashlight batteries whereas the use of mineral pigments and craft activities appear to have contributed to the concentrations of these elements in archaeological contexts

an evaluation of the site specificity of soil elemental signatures for identifying and interpreting former functional areas abstract soil multi element analysis is now a routine technique employed to help answer questions about space use and function in and around archaeological sites the pattern of enhancement of certain elements including p pb ca zn and cu has been shown by numerous studies to correlate closely with the archaeological and historical record interpretation of these soil signatures however has generally been more problematic one approach to the problem has been the use of ethnographic or known sites to guide interpretation but how confidently can results from one site be extrapolated to another this study of abandoned farms tests the site specificity of soil multi element signatures of past space use through the use of discriminant models data analysis suggests that one to one comparisons of similar sites are much less accurate 38 accuracy than comparisons based on a wider range of sites 59 3 accuracy even when the latter have contrasting geology the results highlight the importance of individual anthropogenic practices during occupation and abandonment in the development of diagnostic soil geochemical signatures

multi element analysis of soils from scottish historical sites interpreting land use history through the physical and geochemical analysis of soil arable farming in the highlands and islands of scotland by the 18th century was characterized by labour intensive techniques of husbandry and the transfer of fertilizing resources from their extensive non arable sector to their arable land such practices had a considerable impact on soil development and characteristics the use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry icp ms in this study has allowed the geoarchaeological significance of a broad range of elements to be investigated on soils collected from a former settlement site on the trotternish peninsula isle of skye the on site geochemical data are expressed as enrichment factors relative to the mean concentration of the control samples of the elements investigated in this study ba la ce pr k cs th and rb were found to be indicative of human settlement at greaulin whilst the spatial enrichment patterns for ca and sr suggest additions of shell sand to the arable land over the central region of the site vanadium co zn pb ni ga sc mg cu and u all showed minimal or no on site enrichment the generally lower on site levels of percentage loss on ignition relative to the control soils are interpreted as reflecting the former use of the fields for cultivation interpretation of the p results in the light of documentary evidence suggest that some of the 19th century croft farmsteads may have reoccupied sites formerly inhabited during pre clachan times hence the clachan at greaulin may not have been as long standing a settlement feature as traditionally envisaged

deciphering the inorganic chemical record of ancient human activity using icp ms a reconnaissance study of late classic soil floors at cancuen guatemala abstract inorganic chemical analysis of soil floors using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry icp ms was undertaken to provide information on the nature and location of past human activity in the ancient maya city of cancuen guatemala the use of icp ms to detect trace and ultra trace elemental enrichment of two excavated soil floors from the late classic period is the first study of its kind in mesoamerican archaeology geochemical background of the site was established by the analysis of palaeosols and nearby undisturbed off site soil profiles robust statistical methods used in the study clearly distinguished the level of anthropogenic enrichment across the former floors many elements measured showed only minor departures 10 20 from the site s background soil chemistry the greatest levels of elemental enrichment were detected in the rare earth elements mercury and gold the latter is of particular interest considering the consensus that gold was absent from the world of the classic period maya comparisons of the spatial pattern of mercury enrichment with lithic and archaeological data show strong linkages to past industrial and ritual activities elevated rare earth element concentrations were recorded broadly across both soil floors and are considered to be related to concentrated human occupation in antiquity

an evaluation of hurricane superintensity in axisymmetric numerical models abstractpotential intensity pi is an analytical bound on steady inviscid axisymmetric hurricane wind speed studies have shown that simulated hurricane azimuthal wind speed can greatly exceed a

rare earth element oxides for tracing sediment movement the development of soil conservation plans and evaluation of spatially distributed erosion models require knowledge of rates of soil loss and sedimentation on different landscape elements and slope positions characterization of soil erosion rates and patterns within watersheds is important for the understanding of erosion processes and landscape evolution experimental data that show spatial translocation of soil on slopes are limited a method for obtaining spatially distributed information on sediment movement employing rare earth element ree oxides is proposed five ree oxides in powder form were uniformly mixed with the soil on different parts of a 10 slope in a 4 4 m soil bed particle translocation was measured during eight simulated rainfalls at 60 mm h 1 intensity a laser scanner was utilized to obtain digital elevation models dems of the soil surface that were used as the reference data to compare with the tracer method ree concentration in soil and runoff samples was determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry icp ms erosion rates for different slope positions estimated from ree concentrations correlated with those calculated from the dems with relative differences for different slope sections of 4 40 the enrichment ratio for this type of tracer was 1 7 the amount of sediment produced on different parts of the slope varied with the greatest erosion occurring on the upper middle part of the slope the experiment showed that the multi element tracer method provided a satisfactory way to study soil erosion distribution on a uniform slope d 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

bat guano and preservation of archaeological remains in cave sites the formation of authigenic minerals in cave sediments can be used to reconstruct the paleochemical conditions that prevailed in the past and in this way to assess the completeness of the archaeological record previous studies indicated that the major driving mechanisms for chemical diagenesis in prehistoric caves that result in the formation of authigenic minerals are the degradation of bat guano and the local hydrology we therefore investigated contemporary bat guano deposits in caves and the sediments directly below such deposits the emerging patterns show that the formation of authigenic minerals occurs under acidic conditions within tens of years the availability of phosphate al k and fe increases with increasing organic matter degradation while the availability of nitrogen and sulfur decreases insectivorous bat guano contains larger amounts of phosphate and is more acidic than fruit bat guano in the first stages of diagenesis micro chemical environments form within the degrading bat guano that result in the formation of a wide variety of authigenic minerals during advanced stages of diagenesis steady state conditions are achieved resulting in authigenic mineral assemblages being dominated by one mineral type at the same locale this is reminiscent of known distributions of authigenic minerals in prehistoric cave sediments under the acidic conditions produced by degrading bat guano deposits calcareous artifacts and bones are not expected to persist for long periods of time unless there is a lot of calcite in the sediments that could buffer the sediment water ph guano itself is not likely to be preserved periods of cave abandonment can be inferred from the presence of authigenic minerals in the sediments as it is during these times that bats mainly occupy the cave the occurrence of certain authigenic minerals in open air sites may serve as evidence for areas rich in organic matter containing phosphate i e animal enclosures latrines sewers trash pits and or bones as the degradation process is rapid the use of authigenic minerals to identify these loci is relevant to almost all archaeological as well as historical sites

geophysical prospection and soil chemistry at the early copper age settlement of veszto bikeri southeastern hungary abstract geophysical prospection and soil chemical analyses were conducted at the early copper age eca ca 4500 3900 cal bc antiquity 76 2002 619 journal of field archaeology 2004 in press site of veszto bikeri as part of the koros regional archaeological project investigations of the neolithic copper age transition on the great hungarian plain the goal of these investigations was to locate and map subsurface features and activity areas at the settlement vertical magnetic gradient measurements defined the extent and layout of the structures and features across the settlement and revealed that previously unidentified concentric ditches enclosed the site excavations confirmed the locations of most of the wall trenches postholes ditches and pits detected in the geophysical survey the soil chemical survey recorded high concentrations of phosphate around the perimeter of the site some of which were associated with a midden with the geophysical survey details of the plan and organization of the early copper age settlement were revealed that could not be discerned from surface artifact distribution patterns and test excavations the soil chemistry survey results showed a contrast between the cleaner center of the site near the structures and the ring of debris at the edge of the site near the circular enclosures the continuation of such nondestructive investigations at other eca sites will help improve models of settlement organization during the neolithic copper age transition

the geoarchaeological significance and spatial variability of a range of physical and chemical soil properties from a former habitation site isle of skye of the 34 major and trace elements investigated in this study enrichments of k th rb and to a lesser extent cs were associated with former habitation of the area whilst high levels of sr and to a lesser extent ca were associated with the adjacent field area this latter enrichment is thought to represent additions of shell sand and or bone and fish refuse phosphorus is a less reliable indicator of human habitation than k rb and th possibly because p enrichment may be caused by additions of animal manure as well as by human habitation of an area vanadium co zn pb ni ga sc mg cu and u all indicated negligible on site enrichment whilst cr and organic matter content were found to be depleted in the on site soils relative to the control samples consideration of the degree of variability in the soil parameters investigated has implications for the bulk or composite sampling of soils over sites of former habitation

impacts of the ancient maya on soils and soil erosion in the central maya lowlands abstract many studies across the central and southern maya lowlands of belize guatemala honduras and mexico have produced records of land degradation mostly sedimentation and soil erosion during the ancient maya period from before 1000 bc to the maya collapse of c ad 900 this paper provides new data from two sites blue creek and cancuen synthesizes more than a decade of the authors research in guatemala belize and mexico and synthesizes other findings from this region these research projects analyzed more than 100 excavations in upland and depression sites cored lakes and wetland sediments and studied sediments in the field and laboratory using radiocarbon dating a battery of soil chemistry tests stratigraphic analysis magnetic susceptibility elemental analyses and artifact identification our objective was to date when sedimentation and soil erosion occurred identify stable surfaces and correlate them with the state of knowledge about past land use these findings indicate three general epochs of accelerated soil erosion and identified two major paleosols the three waves of soil erosion occurred in the preclassic period c 1000 bc to ad 250 the late classic ad 550 to 900 and in the last several decades the major paleosol eklu um in these sites is a well developed mollisol or vertisol that started forming in the early holocene and was buried in either the preclassic or classic periods ad 250 to 900 at some sites the eklu um paleosol lies beneath sediments with a fainter paleosol which in turn lies buried below classic period and later sediments this picture shows higher than expected soil erosion linked to the region s first pioneer farmers in the preclassic and less than expected soil erosion in the late classic when population peaked and land use was the most intensive in other regions like cancuen guatemala however most soil erosion occurred during the maya late classic ad 550 830 erosion here was intense but short lived depressions record 1 3 m of aggradation in two centuries a third epoch of accelerated soil loss and aggradation arose with the rapid land use changes brought by new pioneers during the last several decades

ancient maya impacts on the earth s surface an early anthropocene analog abstract the measure of the mayacene a microcosm of the early anthropocene that occurred from c 3000 to 1000 bp comes from multiple late quaternary paleoenvironmental records we synthesized the evidence for maya impacts on climate vegetation hydrology and the lithosphere from studies of soils lakes floodplains wetlands and other ecosystems maya civilization had likely altered local to regional ecosystems and hydrology by the preclassic period 3000 1700 bp but these impacts waned by 1000 bp they altered ecosystems with vast urban and rural infrastructure that included thousands of reservoirs wetland fields and canals terraces field ridges and temples although there is abundant evidence that indicates the maya altered their forests even at the large urban complex of tikal as much as 40 of the forest remained intact through the classic period existing forests are still influenced by ancient maya forest gardening particularly by the large expanses of ancient stone structures terraces and wetland fields that form their substrates a few studies suggest deforestation and other land uses probably also warmed and dried regional climate by the classic period 1700 1100 bp a much larger body of research documents the maya impacts on hydrology in the form of dams reservoirs canals eroded soils and urban design for runoff another metric of the mayacene are paleosols which contain chemical evidence for human occupation revealed by high phosphorus concentrations and carbon isotope ratios of c 4 species like maize in the c 3 dominated tropical forest ecosystem paleosol sequences exhibit maya clays a facies that reflects a glut of rapidly eroded sediments that overlie pre maya paleosols this stratigraphy is conspicuous in many dated soil profiles and marks the large scale maya transformation of the landscape in the preclassic and classic periods some of these also have increased phosphorous and carbon isotope evidence of c 4 species we synthesize and provide new evidence of maya period soil strata that show elevated carbon isotope ratios 13 c indicating the presence of c 4 species in typical agricultural sites this is often the case in ancient maya wetland systems which also have abundant evidence for the presence of several other economic plant species the mayacene of c 3000 to 1000 bp was thus a patchwork of cities villages roads urban heat islands intensive and extensive farmsteads forests and orchards today forests and wetlands cover much of the maya area but like so many places these are now under the onslaught of the deforestation draining and plowing of the present anthropocene

observed boundary layer wind structure and balance in the hurricane core part i hurricane georges abstract the gps dropsonde allows observations at unprecedentedly high horizontal and vertical resolution and of very high accuracy within the tropical cyclone boundary layer these data are used to document the boundary layer wind field of the core of hurricane georges 1998 when it was close to its maximum intensity the spatial variability of the boundary layer wind structure is found to agree very well with the theoretical predictions in the works of kepert and wang in particular the ratio of the near surface wind speed to that above the boundary layer is found to increase inward toward the radius of maximum winds and to be larger to the left of the track than to the right while the low level wind maximum is both more marked and at lower altitude on the left of the storm track than on the right however the expected supergradient flow in the upper boundary layer is not found with the winds being diagnosed as close to gradient balance the tropical cyclone boundary layer model of kepert and wan

elemental prospecting and geoarchaeology in turkey and mexico abstract understanding past human impacts on soils requires many forms of evidence including elemental chemistry human activities leave traces of different elements distinguishing activity sites since the 1990s more scholars have used a full range of analytical techniques including inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy icp aes and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy icp ms also since that time the near singular focus on phosphate as a prime indicator of human activity has broadened to include a large suite of elemental indicators aided by the emergence of many tools and techniques such as icp this paper focuses on the elemental chemistry of sediments at two archaeology sites chunchucmil mexico and kinet turkey the purpose of this study is to understand how certain elements correlate with each other and vary by space and time at different archaeology sites and as an important methodological consideration how different solvents affect icp aes analyses in other words does human activity significantly alter the elemental chemistry of a site and if so is this in a systematic way or does it vary geographically and are these chemical signatures of human activity hidden or highlighted by different icp methods we examined soil chemistry by types of geomorphic and archaeological location contexts e g floors natural deposits walls streets and by age of deposit e g hellenistic iron age to detect differences in soil chemistry signatures associated with them and for regional variations in icp methods effectiveness our analyses revealed detectable differences between natural and anthropogenic deposits site types eras and large differences between methods high amounts of lead were correlated with streets and rooms in the medieval and bronze periods in kinet turkey and natural deposits had lower levels of cadmium and mercury icp np treatments revealed higher detection levels of most elements than did icp dt treatments in chunchucmil mexico

an analysis of the observed low level structure of rapidly intensifying and mature hurricane earl 2010 abstract we examine dynamic and thermodynamic aspects of atlantic hurricane earl 2010 during its intensification and mature phases over four days of intensive measurements during this period earl underwent an episode of rapid intensification maturity secondary eyewall replacement re intensification and the early part of its decline the observations are used to appraise elements of a new model for tropical cyclone intensification the results affirm the conventional vortex interior and boundary layer spin up mechanisms that form dynamical elements of the azimuthally averaged view of the new intensification model the average maximum tangential winds beneath the eyewall are found to exceed the gradient wind by between 20 and 60 the results suggest also that the gradient wind balance approximation in the low level vortex interior above the strong inflow layer may not be as accurate in the inner core region of a tropical cyclone during its intensification as has been widely held an analysis of the low level thermodynamic structure affirms the radial increase of moist equivalent potential temperature e with decreasing radius during the intensification process a necessary ingredient of the new model for maintaining convective instability in the presence of a warming upper troposphere an unanticipated finding is the discovery of an unmixed boundary layer in terms of e within several hundred kilometres of the vortex centre in the inner core region this finding is not consistent with the axisymmetric eruption of the boundary layer into the eyewall unless there are non conservative eddy processes acting to modify the entropy of ascending air

effects of site lithology on geochemical signatures of human occupation in archaeological house plans in the netherlands abstract this study presents the application of multi element soil analyses x ray fluorescence spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy of 1 m hcl extracts to grid samples from 3 archaeological house plans embedded in sandy clays clays and sands to assess effects of site lithology on geochemical signatures of human occupation the results indicate that this effect is significant and that each house plan is characterized by enhanced concentrations of different sets of elements copper cr sn and nd enrichments were found at all sites and thus represent elements that have no or only a weak relation with lithology depletions of fe and mn were also found to be universal indicators of human occupation in the house plans a combination of off site sampling comparison to regional element background concentrations and the use of bivariate plots al vs selected elements was successfully applied to identify anthropogenic elements verify background element concentrations and element sources and assess element distribution patterns within house plans spatial patterning of several anthropogenic elements suggest the presence of an in house barn at two sites while for another site no spatial patterning of chemical elements was observed for two sites this contrasts with earlier archaeological interpretation our results further suggest that 1 m hcl extractable elements are unreliable indicators of human occupation in clayey and especially calcareous clayey soils

wetland geomorphology and paleoecology near akab muclil rio bravo floodplain of the belize coastal plain abstract to understand wetland geomorphology and paleoecology we collected a 2 6 m sediment core from a flooded swamp adjacent to the maya archaeological site of akab muclil in the maya lowlands of northwestern belize the site of akab muclil has a known occupation that persisted from early maya classic 1700 1350 bp through the terminal maya classic 1180 1050 bp and into the postclassic 1050 450 bp and lies near a vast network of ancient maya canal and field systems we analyzed this core using a combination of paleoecological and geochemical techniques to determine the history of land use and natural change over time within this wetland accelerator mass spectrometry dating pollen charcoal analysis micropaleontology geochemical analysis and magnetic susceptibility provide a suite of methods from which we interpret the geomorphic and ecological history of this wetland system four ams dates from the length of the core provide us with an age model that runs from 1675 cal bp through the maya classic onward to the present at the base of this system soil composition and chemistry provide evidence that the system changed from a seasonally wet terrestrial soil to a perennially wet swamp as the basal mollisol soil lies buried by peats and calcareous sediments this shift to a perennial wetland could be related to ancient maya water management or a natural geomorphic change though we suspect the former because of nearby ancient maya large scale geomorphic and hydrological manipulation in the form of intensive canalization and agriculture evidence of ancient maya uses and impacts including sedimentation zea mays pollen and high charcoal counts occur from the lowest levels of the sequence through the classic and into the postclassic period above this level the strata change to stable peats laminated deposits of light gray dark gray gypsum authigenic carbonate and layers of fibrist peat with little evidence of human impact until recent increases in charcoal and phosphorous this study compared with other regional studies indicates a later transition from terrestrial to wetland later human impacts in the postclassic and a geomorphic impact record closely tied to the history of the adjacent site rather than broader land use trends