Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
General climatic controls and topoclimatic variations in Central and High Asia

Basic features of current spatial and seasonal climate variations in Central and High Asia are presented. Large-scale circulation modes were inferred from NCAR/CDAS General Circulation Model (GCM) data and interpreted with particular emphasis on the Asian Monsoon circulation. Using spatial high-resolution estimates of radiation, temperature and precipitation covering Central and High Asia in a regular grid network with a grid-cell spacing of 1 km2, topoclimatic variations are investigated and discussed with respect to their major barometric and topographic controls. In general, weather patterns of Central and High Asia are determined by tropical monsoon as well as extratropical circulation modes. Associated synoptic conditions and processes, in particular the alternation of tropical and polar air masses, lead to distinct large-scale variations valid for all climatic parameters in all seasons. The regional analysis and discussion of climatic gradients and environmental lapse rates stress the significant role of Asia's marked orography and its influence on advective processes, flow currents and topoclimatic settings. Preliminary estimations of the annual water balance, however, are still afflicted with major uncertainties owing to methodical limits in the spatial estimation of precipitation rates and widely lacking evapotranspiration records, particularly in the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent high mountain systems. Given the importance of the mountainous water resources for the affected economies, further regional investigations on the water cycle and its components are vital future tasks for climate research.
An approach to the development of isohyetal maps for mountainous areas

A technique was developed in which anomalies from precipitation-elevation relationships were used in preparing isohyetal maps of Utah. October–April and May–September precipitation normals (averages for the 1921 to 1950 period) were computed for all available Utah precipitation records. The double-mass analysis technique was used in the derivation of the October–April normals, and for this purpose the state was separated into eight climatic divisions. Relationships between precipitation and water equivalent of snow cover at a network of 29 stations were used in estimating normal October–April precipitation for snow courses located above 8000 feet. The May–September precipitation values for short-term stations were adjusted to the 1921–1950 period by the ratio method. The state was divided into 20 geographic zones, and for these zones it was found that good correlations existed between precipitation and station elevation for both the October–April and May–September periods. The precipitation-elevation relationships showed marked differences for some adjacent areas separated by high mountain ranges. From combined data for several zones, general precipitation-elevation curves for larger areas were obtained and departures of individual station normals from these curves were plotted on a contour base map. Analysis of these anomalies showed that the departures were related to physiographic features. Normal May–September and October–April values were determined for a grid of points over the state by using the anomaly pattern and general precipitation-elevation relationships. These values, together with the observed and adjusted normals, were used to locate the October–April and May–September isohyetals. The large variations in normal precipitation due to topography were taken into account, yet the general precipitation-elevation relationships for small zones were retained. The accuracy of the isohyetal maps is considered comparable to that obtained by presently known methods, and the technique is less time consuming.
Do transcurrent faults guide volcano growth? The case of NW Bicol Volcanic Arc, Luzon, Philippines

ABSTRACT This paper shows that although volcanoes can be aligned along transcurrent faults, their growth can in reality be controlled by secondary structures that have a different orientation and kinematics. Assessing the relationships between local structures and volcano growth can be very useful for the evaluation of volcanic hazards and for economic purposes such as geothermal and hydrogeological exploration. In the north‐western Bicol Volcanic Arc (Luzon, Philippines) the Quaternary Labo and Caayunan volcanoes are aligned with the NW‐striking transcurrent Philippine Fault System. They are exceptional examples of composite volcanoes mostly comprising lava domes, where regional tectonic structures and hydraulic radial fracturing have alternated to control volcano growth. Field data and analogue modelling demonstrate that apical depressions affecting the domes reflect the geometry of magma‐feeding fractures. These data, together with alignments of domes and hot springs and other structural information, suggest that magma rose at depth along the NW‐striking transcurrent faults, but that in the uppermost crust magma rose along NE‐striking fractures parallel to the greatest principal stress.
Features of amplitude and Doppler frequency variation of ELF/VLF waves generated by “beat‐wave” HF heating at high latitudes

Observations of extremely low frequency (ELF, 3–3000 Hz) radio waves generated by a “beat‐wave” (BW) high frequency (~ 4.04–4.9 MHz) ionospheric heating are presented. ELF waves were registered with the ELF receiver located at Lovozero (68°N, 35°E), 660 km east from the European Incoherent Scatter Tromso heating facility (69.6°N, 19.2°E). Frequency shifts between the generated beat‐wave and received ELF waves were detected in all sessions. It is shown that the amplitudes of ELF waves depend on the auroral electrojet current strength. Our results showing a strong dependence of ELF signal intensities on the substorm development seem to support the conclusion that electrojet currents may affect the BW generation of ELF/VLF waves.
Systematics of chlorite alteration at the Phelps Dodge massive sulfide deposit, Matagami, Quebec

Hydrothermal alteration at the Phelps Dodge Archcan volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit has converted rhyodacite and rhyolite footwall rocks into the following mineral assemblages: quartz-chlorite-albite-epidote + or - sericite, quartz-chlorite + or - sericite, chlorite + or - sericite, and chlorite-talc + or - stilpnomelane. Alteration at constant Al was initiated by hydration, addition of Fe + Mg, silicification, and leaching of Ca + Na which produced Al-saturated chlorites with a wide range of Fe/Fe + Mg ratios within the assemblage quartz-chlorite-albite-epidote + or - sericite. With continued addition of Fe and less Mg, combined with extensive leaching of quartz, the chlorite became Al-undersaturated (quartz-chlorite-talc assemblage), and ultimately formed a rock composed essentially of chlorite. The chlorite-talc + or - stilpnomelane assemblage is stable in late crosscutting veinlets and in the ore zone.Chlorites in the Si-Al-Mg-Fe system form a rectangular solid solution plane with limited substitution of Al for Si and extensive substitution of Fe for Mg. In Si-Al space the solid solution plane is outlined by Al saturation (presence of other Al-rich mineral) and Al undersaturation (presence of Al-poor or Al-free mineral) boundaries. Al iv substitution for Si in the chlorites increases from 2.3 to 3.01 formula units (based on 8 Si + Al iv ) with Fe/Fe + Mg, whereas Al iv occupancy decreases from 2.88 to 2.65. The valence charge balance is compensated by octahedral site vacancies or by the conversion of Fe (super +2) to Fe (super +3) . The Al iv content of chlorite also increases with temperature. Chlorites on the Al-saturated boundary of the solid solution field form a potentially useful geothermometer: T degrees C = 106 Al iv + 18; Al iv is corrected for changes with the Fe/Fe + Mg ratio as: Al iv corrected = Al iv + 0.7 Fe/Fe + Mg.The Fe/Fe + Mg ratios of bulk rock and contained chlorite correlate well. Birefringence colors of the chlorite change from green to brown, violet, and Berlin Blue as Fe/Fe + Mg changes from 0.18 to 0.64. The Fe/Fe + Mg variation apparently depends largely on the proportions of Mg-rich seawater and Fe-rich hydrothermal fluid in the altering brine.
A Laboratory and Numerical Investigation of Solute Transport in Discontinuous Fracture Systems

The mixing of fluids at fracture intersections was examined, in the laboratory, using fourteen plexiglass models that simulated open fractures with no contact between the fracture walls. Twelve models contained two fully intersecting fractures. One model contained two intersecting but offset fractures (parallel flow model) and one fracture system model contained a total of eleven fractures in two sets of intersecting fractures, all with the same aperture. One set was composed of five parallel fractures and the other set was composed of six parallel fractures. The twelve fully intersecting fracture models were designed to investigate the effects, on mixing, of seven angles of intersection and three fracture apertures. Iodide solution of known concentration was injected into one fracture and distilled water into another (inlet ports). At each of the outlet ports the concentration of iodide and the discharge volume were measured. The ratio of the volumes of distilled water and iodide solution in each of the discharge fractures was compared to calculate the percent mixing at the fracture intersection. -- Testing, conducted at three hydraulic gradients, indicated that essentially no mixing occurred in the fully intersecting fracture models and only nominal mixing occurred in the parallel flow model. In general mixing was found to be dependent only upon the relative size of the inlet and outlet fractures. Testing, using the fracture system model, indicated a similar lack of mixing at six intersections through which the fluid moved. -- A two dimensional finite element model was written to simulate the transport of a conservative solute in a discontinuous, random, fracture system. Mixing at fracture intersections in the numerical model was based on the results of the physical model study. Hence no mixing was allowed to take place at the fracture intersections except that which was due to the differences in the apertures of the inlet and discharge fractures. Using this mixing algorithm the numerical model indicates that more longitudinal and less lateral dispersion takes place than when complete mixing at fracture intersections is assumed. In addition, more longitudinal transport takes place in discontinuous than in continuous fracture systems. These findings indicate that contaminants migrating through fractured media, where the fracture walls are not in contact, will not be dispersed and diluted to the extent that past numerical models have predicted and hence the contaminant will be discharged to the biosphere in much greater concentration than expected.
Long‐term current and temperature observations on the Middle Atlantic Shelf

Nearly 2200 days of current and temperature data were collected at a midshelf location in the Middle Atlantic Bight between June 1974 and March 1977. These data were examined for the average conditions and seasonal cycles of water circulation and temperature and some statistical properties of their variation at higher frequency. The average flow is found to be toward the south-southwest at about 5 cm/s near the surface, diminishing to about 1 cm/s near the bottom. The occurrence of energetic wind-driven transient current events which can exceed a 2-month duration makes it impossible to determine a clear seasonal pattern in the sequence of monthly mean flows. There is, however, a clear seasonal pattern in the distribution of higher-frequency fluctuations. Storm wind-induced transient currents of 3- to 10-day duration appear prominently in winter records. Inertial currents appear selectively in the summer, that is, in parts of the water column well insulated from the bottom by a strong thermocline. For low-frequency motions (periods from 3 to 10 days) in both summer and winter records the preferred directions of motion throughout the water column appear to be consistent with equilibrium (mean) Ekman veering arguments. The water column response was found also to be most sensitive to the component of wind stress parallel to the bathymetry. The temperature follows a well-known seasonal cycle of heating and stratification. During the unstratified seasons, very little high-frequency temperature variation is observed, but during summer, thermal oscillations due to daily heating and inertial and semidaily tidal frequencies (3/3, 4/3, and 6/3 cpd) and a 5/3-cpd oscillation appear prominently.
Theoretical and quantitative analyses of the fault slip rate uncertainties from single event and erosion of the accumulated offset

Fault slip rate is one of the most important subjects in active tectonics research, which reveals the activity and seismic potential of a fault. Due to the improvement of dating precision with the development of dating methods, Holocene geological markers, even the young markers of thousands or hundreds of years old, are widely used in fault slip rate calculation. Usually, uncertainties from a single event and erosion of the accumulated offsets are involved in fault slip rate determination. Two types of uncertainties are related to a single event; the first is the time elapsed since the latest (the most recent) event; the second is the period since the formation of the geological marker to the occurrence of the first event. High‐slip‐rate faults are more sensitive to these uncertainties than low‐slip‐rate faults. In this study, we studied quantitatively the effects of a single event on fault slip rate following the three classic earthquake models: the characteristic earthquake, uniform slip and variable slip models. We suggest that the erosion of the accumulated offset–lateral erosion on a strike‐slip fault, should also be considered in fault slip estimation. Therefore, we propose a differential method to obtain a reliable fault slip rate. In the differential method, the slip rate is the ratio of offset differentials and corresponding age differentials between the older and younger terraces along strike‐slip faults. This kind of differential method could avoid the uncertainties from the first and latest events, as well as that from the lateral erosion. By applying the differential method, we got the revised slip rates of ∼5–10 mm/year on the Altyn Tagh and Kunlun faults. These low slip rates could fit previous geodetic and geological fault slip rates and shortening rates as well as the millennial recurrence intervals of strong earthquakes along the major segments of these faults.
Comments on the Reported Unusual Progression of Petroleum Hydrocarbon Distribution Patterns During Environmental Weathering

Over the past 5 years, a group of United States Geological Survey (USGS) researchers published a series of articles (Hostettler and Kvenvolden, 2002; Bekins et al., 2005; Hostettler et al., 2007) suggesting a rather unusual progression of petroleum degradation in the subsurface environment under anoxic (predominantly methanogenic) conditions. Based on results of the two field studies, the researchers concluded that for the >C10 petroleum fraction, degradation under methanogenic conditions depletes the longer chain normal alkanes (n-alkanes), nalkylcyclohexanes and n-alkylbenzenes before the shorter chain homologs. Moreover, Hostettler et al. (2007) stated that “nalkyl[-substituted] compounds are apparently attacked at the end of n-alkane chains, resulting in the formation of progressively lower MW homologs. ” (p. 152). USGS researchers warned that—if unrecognized—the effect of this process on a degraded petroleum product fingerprint could be erroneously attributed to admixture of a lower boiling petroleum product (Hostettler and Kvenvolden, 2002). Whereas preferential methanogenic degradation of heavier n-alkanes was reported for gasoline range (<C10) hydrocarbons (Siddique et al., 2006, 2007), we were unable to find published results supporting similar progression of biodegradation for heavier (>C10) homologs, or biogenic formation of lower-molecular-weight n-alkanes by breaking down highermolecular-weight n-alkane homologs. Apart from the previously
Only stereo information improves performance in surgical tasks

Laboratory based research has shown that the use of stereoscopic displays and observer-produced motion parallax in telepresence systems can each improve operators' performance beyond that achieved using conventional 2-D displays. In applied contexts such as minimal access surgery (MAS) tasks are more complex and a range of sources of depth information is available. We therefore decided to examine the benefits of stereoscopic displays and observer-produced motion parallax under more realistic conditions. The 'pick and place' task was taken from surgical performance studies. It involved picking up small irregular spheres from one place and dropping them through apertures in another. The task was performed under seven different viewing conditions: (1) baseline (monocular), (2) biocular, (3) stereoscopic, (4) free motion parallax, (5) instructed motion parallax, (6) augmented motion parallax and (7) stereo and motion parallax. Each subject did a baseline condition (monocular viewing) followed by one of the seven experimental conditions, followed by a final block of the baseline condition (n = 7 conditions x 10 subjects). Only stereoscopic viewing (conditions 3 and 7) leads to better performance. The provision of motion parallax adds nothing to performance. It may even reduce the effectiveness of stereoscopic viewing. The evidence converges on the fact that binocular viewing confers a considerable performance advantage, while providing motion parallax information, to novice operators at least, is not beneficial.
Behavioral and Brain Functions

Background: Recent research recognizes the association between handedness, linguistic processes and cerebral networks subserving executive functioning, but the nature of this association remains unclear. Since the P50 event related potential (ERP) is considered to reflect thalamocortical processes in association with working memory (WM) operation the present study focuses on P50 patterns elicited during the performance of a linguistic related executive functioning test in rightand left-handers. Methods: In 64 young adults with a high educational level (33 left-handed) the P50 event-related potential was recorded while performing the initiation and inhibition condition of a modified version of the Hayling Sentence Completion test adjusted to induce WM. The manual preference of the participants was evaluated with the use of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI). Results: P50 showed greater amplitudes in leftthan in right-handers, mainly in frontal leads, in the initiation condition. Reduced amplitudes in inhibition compared to initiation condition were observed in left-handers. Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA) analysis showed lower frontal lobe activation in the inhibition than in the initiation condition in both rightand left-handers. Also, LORETA yielded that right-handers exhibited greater activation in the inhibition condition than left-handers. Additionally, LORETA showed assymetrical hemispheric activation patterns in right-handers, in contrast to symmetrical patterns observed in left-handers. Higher P50 amplitudes were recorded in righthemisphere of right-handers in the initiation condition. Conclusion: Brain activation, especially the one closely related to thalamocortical function, elicited during WM operation involving initiation and inhibition processes appears to be related to handedness. Published: 24 December 2009 Behavioral and Brain Functions 2009, 5:51 doi:10.1186/1744-9081-5-51 Received: 9 August 2009 Accepted: 24 December 2009 This article is available from: http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions. com/content/5/1/51 © 2009 Beratis et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
COMMENT ON "THE SEMIANNUAL VARIATION OF GREAT GEOMAGNETIC STORMS AND THE POSTSHOCK RUSSELL-MCPHERRON EFFECT PRECEDING CORONAL

It is proposed by Crooker et al. (1992) that for a subgroup of great geomagnetic storms, for which the associated strong southward IMF (B(S)) fields reside in the postshock plasma, preceding the driver gas of coronal mass ejections, such strong B(S) fields result from a 'major increase in the Russell-McPherron polarity effect, through a systematic pattern of compression and draping' of the Archimedean field in the x-y plane. The critics test the scenario proposed by Crooker et al., namely, that the Russell-McPherron polarity effect is a major contribution to the semiannual variable of intense geomagnetic storms. It is found by the critics that in the cases studied there is little difference between the B(S) values as measured in geocentric solar ecliptic and geocentric solar magnetospheric coordinates, and it is concluded that the Russell-McPherron mechanism cannot explain by itself the seasonal dependence of intense storms, for which the variation is the largest. Crooker et al. present arguments to show that the combined preshock and postshock Russell-McPherron effect remains the sole cause of the semiannual variation of great storm occurrence.
On the variability of winds, sea surface temperature, and surface layer heat content in the western equatorial Pacific

In this study we examine the surface layer heat balance using wind, current, and temperature data from equatorial moorings along 165°E. The analysis focuses primarily on daily to monthly time scale variations during the 1986–1987 El Nino/Southern Oscillation event. The period is one of high mean sea surface temperatures (≳29°C) and frequent outbreaks of westerly winds. We infer that evaporative cooling related to wind speed variations accounts for a significant fraction of the observed sea surface temperature (SST) and upper ocean heat content variability. This evaporative heat flux converges nonlinearly in the surface layer, giving rise to larger temperature variations in the upper 10 m than below. Other processes examined (wind-forced vertical advection and entrainment, lateral advection) were negligible or of secondary importance relative to evaporative cooling. A large fraction of the SST and surface layer heat content variance could not be directly related to wind fluctuations; this unexplained variance is probably related to shortwave radiative fluxes at the air-sea interface.