Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Earthquake distribution patterns in Africa: their relationship to variations in lithospheric and geological structure, and their rheological implications

We use teleseismic waveform inversion, along with depth phase analysis, to constrain the centroid depths and source parameters of large African earthquakes. The majority of seismic activity is concentrated along the East African Rift System, with additional active regions along stretches of the continental margins in north and east Africa, and in the Congo Basin. We examine variations in the seismogenic thickness across Africa, based on a total of 227 well-determined earthquake depths, 112 of which are new to this study. Seismogenic thickness varies in correspondence with lithospheric thickness, as determined from surface wave tomography, with regions of thick lithosphere being associated with seismogenic thicknesses of up to 40 km. In regions of thin lithosphere, the seismogenic thickness is typically limited to ≤20 km. Larger seismogenic thicknesses also correlate with regions that have dominant tectonothermal ages of ≥1500 Ma, where the East African Rift passes around the Archean cratons of Africa, through the older Proterozoic mobile belts. These correlations are likely to be related to the production, affected by method and age of basement formation, and preservation, affected by lithospheric thickness, of a strong, anhydrous lower crust. The Congo Basin contains the only compressional earthquakes in the continental interior. Simple modelling of the forces induced by convective support of the African plate, based on long-wavelength free-air gravity anomalies, indicates that epeirogenic effects are sufficient to account for the localization and occurrence of both extensional and compressional deformation in Africa. Seismicity along the margins of Africa reflects a mixture between oceanic and continental seismogenic characteristics, with earthquakes in places extending to 40 km depth.
Rapid river incision across an inactive fault—Implications for patterns of erosion and deformation in the central Colorado Plateau

The Colorado Plateau presents a contrast between deep and seemingly recent erosion and apparently only mild late Cenozoic tectonic activity. Researchers have recently proposed multiple sources of epeirogenic uplift and intriguing patterns of differential incision, yet little or no quantitative constraints exist in the heart of the plateau to test these ideas. Here, we use both optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and uranium-series dating to delimit the record of fluvial strath terraces at Crystal Geyser in southeastern Utah, where the Little Grand Wash fault crosses the Green River in the broad Mancos Shale badlands of the central plateau. Results indicate there has been no deformation of terraces or surface rupture of the fault in the past 100 k.y. The Green River, on the other hand, has incised at a relatively rapid pace of 45 cm/k.y. (450 m/m.y.) over that same time, following a regional pattern of focused incision in the “bull’s-eye” of the central plateau. The Little Grand Wash fault may have initiated during Early Tertiary Laramide tectonism, but it contrasts with related structures of the ancestral Paradox Basin that are presently active due to salt dissolution and focused differential erosion. We also hypothesize there may be a Pliocene component of fault slip in the region linked to broad-wavelength erosional unloading, domal rebound, and extension. An apparent rapid decrease in incision rates just upstream through Desolation Canyon suggests the Green River here may have recently experienced an upstream-migrating wave of incision.
Mesoscale Modeling of Spallation Failure in Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Slab due to Impact Loading

AbstractIn this paper, a model for damage and fracture, considering the heterogeneity of material properties, is validated and used to investigate the mechanism of spallation in fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) slabs with various fiber and aggregate contents under impact loading. Numerical simulations show that there is a marked difference in the failure patterns among slabs with various fiber and aggregate contents, and the fibers can remarkably improve the tensile strength of the concrete slab, effectively prevent the initiation and propagation of cracks, and inhibit the occurrence of spallation. Moreover, numerical simulations capture the whole process of the propagation of incident compressive stress waves in the FRC and the reflection of stress waves upon concrete surfaces and the spallation failure of FRC induced by the reflected tensile stress wave, which is obviously different from the failure pattern of FRC under static loads. The results of this study can also provide a valuable reference for stu.
Numerical Experiments on the Layered Structures in the Mid-Troposphere over the Equatorial Pacific

We performed numerical experiments on layered structures in the tropical mid-troposphere, which are often observed by radiosonde and airborne observations as anticorrelation between humidity and ozone, to investigate their three-dimensional structures and transport processes. We reproduced a thin layered structure of high humidity, which has a horizontal scale of about 1000 km and a vertical extent of about 1 km. Particle transport experiments around the layered structure show that the wet part of the layered structure is advected from the intertropical convergence zone by northwesterly winds, while dry parts above and below it come from the southeast direction. Streamline analysis shows that the thin layered structure is produced by vertical shear of a horizontal wind component. This shear is associated with longitudinal displacement of a stagnation point, which is located between two synoptic-scale vortices, with height.
Seasonality of precipitation along a meridian in the western U

An intramedullary compression and fixation device for compressing a long bone of a predetermined length which has been fractured medially to form first and second bone segments. The compression and fixation device includes an elongated intramedullary rod of sufficient length to project from one end of the bone past the fracture site and which is formed with a cross section of sufficient size to substantially occupy the cross section of the medial portion of the medullary canal of the bone. Peripheral thread means are formed on such rod and are of sufficient size to engage the cancellous bone forming the interior wall of the medullary canal to drive the rod axially in such canal upon rotation of the rod. Coupling threads are formed on one end of the rod for connection with an intramedullary rod driver-retractor device whereby an opening may be formed in one end of the bone and the end of the rod opposite the one end passed through the open end, the driver-retractor device engaged with the coupling threads and such device rotated to screw the rod through the one bone segment and into the second bone segment to thereby span the fracture and maintain the bone segments in fixed relationship with respect to one another.
Geochemical and geochronological constraints on the geologic evolution of the western Sonobari Complex, northwestern México

In the southern Sierra Sonobari, NW Mexico, U-Pb and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology studies allowed to define the provenance and maximum depositional age of the Francisco Gneiss basement of the Sonobari terrane, and to establish the age of some magmatic events in that area. The youngest zircon cluster in paragneisses of the Francisco Gneiss indicates a maximum depositional age of 509 Â± 29Ma. The main peaks of the relative probability plot yield ages of 1690 and 1404Ma with minor peaks at 1156, 921, and 517Ma. Major peaks suggest that the main source of sediments was the Paleo- and Mesoproterozoic crust of Laurentia. Orthogneiss from the Francisco Gneiss yields a U-Pb zircon upper intercept age of 248 Â± 28Ma, which is interpreted as the crystallization age. Crosscutting dykes of metabasite yield an 40Ar/39Ar age of 67 Â± 5Ma, which is interpreted as indicating cooling after either a latest Early Cretaceous orogenic event or Late Cretaceous contact metamorphism. Granodiorite intruding the Francisco Gneiss yields a U-Pb age of 64 Â± 1Ma, which is interpreted as a magmatic age. The hornblende-plagioclase Macochin Gabbro yields 40Ar/39Ar isochron ages of 54 Â± 10Ma and 47 Â± 5Ma, which are interpreted as cooling ages after the gabbro intrusion. Geochemical data indicate that the mafic rocks of the Francisco Gneiss correspond to subalkaline basalts of tholeiitic affinity with concentrations of high field strength elements similar to oceanic basalts, suggesting an asthenospheric upper mantle source. However, according to the variation in Th/Yb and U/Yb, the amphibolites display a significant influence of the upper continental crust. The Macochin Gabbro also has a geochemical signature characteristic of subalkaline basalt with tholeiitic affinity, and high field strength elements similar to oceanic basalts. Tectonic discrimination diagrams and elemental distribution suggest that the mafic rocks of both the Francisco Gneiss and Macochin Gabbro were emplaced during rifting in a back-arc setting.
The single‐crystal elastic moduli of stishovite

The single-crystal elastic moduli of stishovite have been determined experimentally from measured Brillouin scattering spectra. They are C11 = 4.53 ± 0.04, C33 = 7.76 ± 0.05; C44 = 2.52 ± 0.02, C66 = 3.02 ± 0.03; and C12 = 2.11 ± 0.05, C13 = 2.03 ± 0.04 in units of mbar. The estimated aggregate (Voigt-Reuss-Hill) adiabatic moduli are K = 3.16 ± 0.04 and μ = 2.20 ± . 03 mbar. Previous values of the isothermal bulk modulus, obtained from hydrostatic compression experiments, are in agreement with the Reuss value of KT = 3.06 ± . 04 mbar (as corrected to isothermal conditions). Taken together, these results suggest that the pressure derivative of the bulk modulus for stishovite is low relative to other rutile structure oxides.
Linear instability of a mixed‐layer front

The linear instabilities of a geostrophically balanced frontal jet are computed numerically in an effort to understand the origin of intense small-scale cold-core features observed in the North Atlantic subtropical convergence zones during the Frontal Air-Sea Interaction Experiment (FASINEX). A simple analytic continuously-stratified basic state is used to represent the observed frontal structure. The most unstable linear modes have e-folding timescales of 2–3 days, alongfront wavelengths near 70 km, and significant asymmetry across the front. The results provide indirect evidence that baroclinic instability of the frontal jet is a possible source of the cold-core features observed during FASINEX.
Getting Away with the Stolen Vehicle: An Investigation of Journey-after-Crime*

Abstract Analyses of criminals' travel patterns can provide significant suggestions to improve crime management. This study extends the investigation of criminals' travel behavior from journey-to-crime to journey-after-crime. Moreover, new methods are developed to examine the spatial patterns of location pairs when restricted by the underlying geographical process. The methods are employed to investigate criminals' journey-after-auto-theft in the city of Buffalo, New York. The analyses reveal that auto thieves' trips from vehicle-theft locations to the corresponding vehicle-recovery locations are local in nature. The travel distances are significantly shorter than the randomly simulated trips; the travel directions are biased from the random directions as well.
Rb-Sr isotopic dating of pseudomorphs after lawsonite in metabasalts from the Glockner nappe, Tauern Window, Eastern Alps

Pseudomorphs after lawsonite from the Glockner nappe (south-central Tauern Window, Austria), a metamorphic sequence of metasediments intercalated with metavolcanics of mid-ocean ridge basalt origin, have been dated using Rb-Sr mineral systematics. The basalts were metamorphosed in blueschist facies, as evident from pseudomorphs after lawsonite and relics of glaucophane, and then overprinted at greenschist-facies conditions. The foliated fabric suggests late syndeformative greenschist-facies formation of the pseudomorphs. The pseudomorphs show the mineral assemblage Ab +Ep +Phe +Chl +Cal +Ttn +Act ± Qtz ± Ap. Minerals from the pseudomorphs and the matrix yield an Oligocene internal mineral isochron age of 29.82 ± 0.54 Ma. This age corresponds to the late prograde-early retrograde decomposition of lawsonite and the syntectonic crystallization of the greenschist facies matrix assemblage. The new data imply that the last penetrative deformation and thermal overprint of the Glockner nappe in the central Tauern Window only slightly postdates the exhumation of the nearby Eclogite zone by about 2 Ma. The history of Alpine nappe stacking, exhumation and passage of the rocks through their thermal peak conditions is thus constrained to a surprisingly narrow time frame in the Oligocene.
Neoproterozoic-early Cambrian geology and palaeontology of Iberia

Abstract Neoproterozoic-early Cambrian successions in Iberia are reexamined. A gradual transition across the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian boundary is present in Central Iberia, whereas in the Cantabrian region and the Iberian Chains Lower Cambrian arenaceous successions rest with profound angular unconformity on Neoproterozoic turbidites. In Central Iberia, the Neoproterozoic sedimentary succession is referred to the informal Domo Extremeño group, representing mostly basinal facies, and the overlying Rio Huso group consisting of slope deposits and proximal turbidites that grade into shallower marine deposits. The latter is inferred to represent distal slope to outer platform depositional conditions and contains widespread carbonate olistostromic units. The position of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary is within the Pusa shale of the Rio Huso group and can be correlated at the regional level by the occurrence of trace fossils, acritarchs, and in particular the abundant shelly metazoan Cloudina. The succession also yielded megascopic carbonaceous fossils, such as vendotaenids and Beltanelioides? sp. ind. , and Sabellidites. Contrary to former interpretations assuming transport of older platform carbonates from the Ibor region into ‘younger’ olistostromic beds of the Rio Huso group, we interpret sedimentary and fossil evidence to suggest that shallower platform deposits of the informal Ibor group were penecontemporaneously incorporated in the olistostromic lower part of the Rio Huso group. Hence, the olistostromes are not believed to mark a major erosive unconformity. Based on the ichnofossil record and recent U-Pb age determinations, we argue that a proposed disconformity between Lower and Upper ‘Alcudian’ strata is neither regional nor does it mark a significant hiatus. Neoproterozoic-early Cambrian deposition in Central Iberia can be accommodated in a model that implies a generalized stretching of the crust during an extensional event which closely followed the Cadomian phase of the Pan-African Orogeny and which eventually could have included transcurrent components. An extensional phase with transcurrent components during the deposition of the Ibor and lower Rio Huso groups is regarded as a probable cause of widespread ponding resulting in the juxtaposition of platform and basinal successions, eventually leading to anoxic conditions in Pusa shale deposition times. A possible cause for repeated collapse events developing olistostromes and intra-sequential folding could be sought in this tectonic context.
A Regional Geologic Framework for the Athabasca Oil Sands, Northeastern Alberta, Canada

During the past 15 to 20 yr, detailed work conducted by the Alberta government, including the Alberta Geological Survey and the Energy Resources Conservation Board, allows for a better understanding of the Athabasca oil sand deposit, hosted primarily by the McMurray Formation in northeastern Alberta. Much of this work has relied on regional-scale mapping facilitated through lithofacies analysis of outcrops, cores, and well logs, along with petrographic, grain-size, and palynofacies analysis. In the past, the McMurray Formation has been informally subdivided into lower fluvial, middle estuarine, and upper coastal-plain successions. Results from regional lithofacies analysis and stratigraphic correlation and geologic modeling for the Athabasca oil sands show that much of the preserved stratigraphy is fragmented, that no clear distinctions can be made between the middle estuarine and upper coastal-plain lithofacies associations, and that no single model applies to the total succession that is preserved. At least five major unconformities and disconformities separate different system tracts, and they should not be considered to be parts of a single entity or single depositional systems tract. Within each of the original systems tracts are preserved remnants of fluvial, estuarine, and bay-fill successions; some of which are amalgamated or juxtaposed to one another, making geologic interpretations and correlations difficult. In areas of reduced accomodation space, not all the paleoenvironments are preserved. This area of reduced accomodation space occurs in the central and southern parts of the Athabasca oil sand area, where most of the existing and future in-situ technologies will be used to produce the bitumen. Recognition of the proper paleoenvironmental setting is critical for the prediction of reservoir heterogeneity, including lateral and vertical segregation of bitumen from overlying gas and water reservoirs that may be thief zones to in-situ (mostly thermal) bitumen production. The development of a regional geologic framework, using the principles of sequence stratigraphy, allows regional mapping within the different time-transgressive systems to be integrated and allows for the full understanding of the geologic framework for the oil sands. This regional geologic framework is being used by the Energy Resources Conservation Board to assess applications for exploration and development of the oil sands and aids in assessing resources and reserves for the province.
Cloudy sky shortwave radiative closure for a Baseline Surface Radiation Network site

[1] A shortwave radiative closure analysis for cloudy skies is presented for the Cabauw Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) site (51.97°N, 4.93°E). The cloudy cases are carefully selected to be overcast, single-layer, homogeneous, nonprecipitating water clouds. We selected in total 639 cases on 9 days between May 2008 and May 2009 and on 30 January 2007. The Doubling-Adding KNMI (DAK) code is used to simulate global irradiances. The cloud optical thickness is derived from the cloud liquid water path from microwave radiometer (MWR) measurements and the MODIS L2 cloud effective radius product. The scattering phase matrix of the cloud particles is calculated using a Mie code with the two-parameter Gamma size distribution. The MWR integrated water vapor column and an aerosol climatology are also used in the simulations. The cloudy cases cover a large range of liquid water path (30–400 g/m2), water vapor column (0.7–3.1 cm), and solar zenith angle (41°–75°). The mean difference between simulated global irradiances and BSRN measurements is 6 W/m2 (5%), with a standard deviation of 14 W/m2 (13%). This difference is within the uncertainties of the model input parameters and measurement errors. The correlation coefficient between the measured and simulated global irradiances is 0.95. The good closure results demonstrate the high quality of the MODIS effective radius data and MWR liquid water path data and the accuracy of the DAK model for the selected water cloud cases. Furthermore, the effects of clouds, aerosols, water vapor, and surface albedo on the global irradiance have been analyzed carefully. The sensitivity study shows that in order to achieve the closure with an uncertainty of a few W/m2, more frequent effective radius data, simultaneous aerosol and cloud measurements, and surface albedo measurements are essential.
Experimental storage of photonic polarization entanglement in a broadband cyclical quantum memory

We describe an experiment in which one member of a polarization-entangled photon pair is stored in an active Cyclical Quantum Memory (CQM) device, while the other propagates through a passive optical delay line. A comparison of Bell’s inequality tests performed before and after the storage is used to investigate the ability of the CQM to maintain entanglement, and demonstrate a rudimentary entanglement distribution protocol. The entangled photons are produced by a conventional Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion source with center wavelengths at 780 nm and band-widths of ∼ 10 THz, while the CQM has an even wider operational bandwidth that is enabled by the weakly dispersive nature of the Pockels effect used for active switching in a loop-based quantum memory platform.
The Relationship between Variations in the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current and Straits of Florida Volume Transport

Abstract Twelve years of monthly mean positions of the northern boundary of the Loop Current in the eastern Gulf of Mexico from satellite and in situ data have been compared with coincident 1977–1988 estimates of volume transport in the Straits of Florida in the subseasonal frequency band 15−1 to 5−1 cycles per month. Volume transport estimated from Cuba minus Florida sea level difference in this frequency band accounts for 69% of the variance in volume transport estimated from the Florida-Grand Bahama Island submarine cable. On average, the Loop Current has a dominant period of 11 months whereas the volume transport is dominated by annual spectral energy; little significant coherence squared occurs between them. The maximum northward penetration of the Loop Current occurs on average in winter when the volume transport is a minimum, but this is an artifact of the sampling epoch. This negative relationship is most pronounced for 1979–1981 when transport is characterized as unimodal, but for 1984–1985 and 1.
Evaluating austral summer mixed‐layer response to surface wave–induced mixing in the Southern Ocean

[1] Three ocean general circulation models and a climate model are employed to evaluate the influences of the nonbreaking surface wave–induced mixing on the austral summer (December-January-February) mixed layer in the Southern Ocean. These models use either the Mellor-Yamada turbulence closure scheme or the K profile parameterization scheme. The numerical results show that the nonbreaking surface wave–induced mixing can reduce sea surface temperature and increase subsurface temperature of the upper ocean, which can deepen the upper ocean mixed layer. For these four models, austral summer mixed-layer depths in the cases with the wave-induced mixing deepen by 6.2–21.5 m than those without in the Southern Ocean (30°S–65°S), much closer to the observation. These results indicate that incorporation of the wave-induced mixing can improve the simulation of the austral summer upper mixed layer in the Southern Ocean. Although the responses of four models are different, all simulation results show notable improvements, which may imply that the nonbreaking surface wave–induced mixing is an indispensable physical process for ocean and climate models.