Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strontium isotope dating of the New Zealand Oligocene

Abstract One of the least well resolved portions of the New Zealand Cenozoic time‐scale is that centred on and about the Oligocene Epoch, internationally regarded as spanning c. 10 m.y. from 33.7 to 23.8 Ma. We have determined the 87Sr/86Sr ratios and derived absolute ages for 77 macrofossil samples collected from several biostratigraphically dated mid‐Tertiary sections in the South Auckland (North Island) and North Otago/South Canterbury (South Island) regions. While the site‐specific stratigraphic significance of our ages remains to be assessed, we present them here to foster wider consideration and discussion in relation to evolving absolute age schemes for the New Zealand Oligocene biostratigraphic stages. Initial results suggest: 1. The approximate boundary ages for the mid‐Tertiary Stages are: Runangan/Whaingaroan, 34.8 Ma; early Whaingaroan/late Whaingaroan, 31.0 Ma; Whaingaroan/ Duntroonian, 28.5 Ma; Duntroonian/Waitakian, 25.5 Ma; Waitakian/Otaian, 22.2 Ma. These values are mainly older than ages assigned over the past decade. 2. The early Whaingaroan Stage, traditionally held to be entirely within the Oligocene, and to define its base, extends back across the Eocene/Oligocene boundary at 33.7 Ma into the late Eocene by up to 1.1 m.y. , as previously suspected by Morgans et al. (1996) on biostratigraphic grounds. 3. There has been considerable uncertainty about placement of the Waitakian Stage over the past two decades, whether entirely in the Miocene, entirely in the Oligocene, or straddling both epochs. Our Sr dating shows that the Oligocene/Miocene boundary (23.8 Ma) lies about midway through the Waitakian Stage, in agreement with Graham et al. (2000). 4. The Whaingaroan/Duntroonian boundary approximates the international early‐late Oligocene one (28.5 Ma). Comparisons with recently published Oligocene stable oxygen isotope records suggest that δ18O maxima and attendant sea‐level lowering, with possibly significant unconformity development, may be anticipated on three occasions in the early Whaingaroan, two or three in the late Whaingaroan, two in the Duntroonian, and at least two in the Waitakian. The unconformities bounding formations and members in the Oligocene successions may relate to these sea‐level changes, and so be regionally correlatable, including the well publicised Marshall Paraconformity of latest Whaingaroan (c. 29 Ma) age.
Zooplankton Distribution in Four Western Norwegian Fjords

Abstract A multi-instrumental array constructed in the Laboratoire d'Ecologie du Plancton Marin in Villefranche sur mer, France, named the Underwater Video Profiler (UVP), was used to investigate the vertical distribution of zooplankton in four western Norwegian fjords in the summer 1996. Six distinct zoological groups were monitored. The fauna included: (a) small crustaceans (mainly copepods), (b) ctenophores (mainly lobates), (c) siphonophores (mainly physonects), (d) a scyphomedusa Periphylla periphylla , (e) chaetognaths and (f) appendicularians. The use of the non-disturbing video technique demonstrated that the distribution of large zooplankton is heterogeneous vertically and geographically. Furthermore, the abundance of non-migrating filter feeders in the deep basins of the fjords indicates that there is enough food (living and non-living particulate organic matter) to support their dietary needs. This adaptation may be considered as a strategy for survival in fjords. Specifically, living in dark, deep water reduces visual predation and population loss encountered in the upper layer due to advective processes.
Decadal changes in the link between El Niño and springtime North Atlantic oscillation and European–North African rainfall

The link between El Niño–southern oscillation (ENSO) variability in boreal winter (represented by the NIÑO3 index, i.e. East Pacific sea‐surface temperature anomalies) and the large‐scale circulation and weather conditions over Europe–northwest Africa in spring is explored, considering station reports of precipitation, sea‐level pressure (SLP) anomalies and two North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) indices. It is found that these relations have undergone consistent and simultaneous changes in the 20th century. Three characteristic periods can be identified. During 1900–25 and 1962–87, positive NIÑO3 index values are associated with enhanced precipitation over central Europe and reduced rainfall in southern Europe and northern Africa. The ENSO influence on precipitation over Scotland and Norway is small. The rainfall anomalies can be explained from the advective and dynamical implications of a north–south dipole in SLP correlations (warm ENSO events followed by low pressure in northern Europe and high pressure over the Mediterranean Sea–North Africa). This dipole hardly projects on the commonly used NAO centres (Iceland and Azores/Gibraltar) and thus ENSO–NAO correlations are insignificant. During 1931–56 the NIÑO3 index reveals little influence on precipitation over the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco, but there are large negative correlations with precipitation over Scotland and Norway. This is related to an alteration of the NIÑO3–SLP correlation pattern, which implies high pressure over northern Europe and low pressure over central Europe after warm events, and thus a virtually inverted dipole with respect to the other two periods. The large westward extension of the dipole leads to a significant NAO–NIÑO3 correlation of r = −0.5. These alterations were accompanied by substantial large‐scale circulation changes during the period 1931–56, as revealed by anomalously high pressure and dry conditions over central–western Europe, a change in precipitation‐producing SLP patterns for Morocco and an anomalously low number of positive NAO and NIÑO3 index values. It is left for discussion as to whether the decadal variations described are due to a change in the physics of the teleconnection or to stochastic fluctuations. Copyright © 2003 Royal Meteorological Society
Classification of geomagnetic micropulsations

The notation and classification of geomagnetic micropulsations have been discussed in two recent letters in this Journal [Matsushita, 1963; Jacobs et al., 1963]. At the 13th General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) in Berkeley, California, August 1963, the question was considered in some detail by Committee 10 of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA). A small subcommittee, consisting of the four authors of this note, was set up to submit the recommendations which are presented below. From experimental knowledge, particularly that obtained since the IGY, it has been recognized that micropulsations can be divided into two main classes: those of a regular and mainly continuous character, and those with an irregular pattern. The first class covers the whole range of micropulsations with periods from about 0.2 to 600 sec. They can be divided into subgroups depending on their period, but it is extremely difficult to decide where the boundaries should be drawn. A purely mathematical division can be made, based perhaps on a logarithmic scale, or a division can be based on their physical and morphological properties. The second approach was adopted, and Table 1 gives the proposed classification and notation.
Enigmatic sedimentary structures in the Lower Old Red Sandstone, south Wales, UK: possible microbial influence on surface processes and early terrestrial food webs

Abstract Several enigmatic sedimentary structures are present in Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian terrestrial rocks of south Wales. These are millimetre ripples, wrinkle structures, ‘cauliflower’ and ‘molehill’ structures, calcretized matgrounds, ‘pepper-pots’ and ‘fairy rings’. Most of the structures occur on fine-grained sandstone bedding surfaces in both inclined and non-inclined red heterolithic deposits that form a large part of the Lower Old Red Sandstone in south Wales. These deposits consist of conspicuous units up to 3 m thick, comprising millimetre- to centimetre-scale laminasets of alternating mudstone and fine-grained sandstone, interpreted as muddy point bars on ephemeral channel margins, crevasse-splay lobes or distal flood-out deposits from ephemeral flow. They are rich in trace fossils reflecting animal locomotion, burrowing, foraging, ploughing and resting. Millimetre ripples and wrinkle structures are related to rapid growth of cyanobacterial mats on wet sediment surfaces, especially in films of standing water, that may have been a critical constituent of the food chain for terrestrial communities. Pustular ‘cauliflower’ and ‘molehill’ structures are preserved on tuffs and have been linked to algal blooms formed following an increase in nutrients due to ashfall into floodplain ponds. The tuffs are associated with a diverse ichnofauna indicating that opportunist colonizers took advantage of an abundant food source.
Modification of Summertime Arctic Cloud Characteristics between a Coastal and Inland Site

Abstract Cloud characteristics at two sites on the North Slope of Alaska separated by ∼100 km have been examined for the warmer months of 2001–03 using data collected from microwave radiometers, ceilometers, rotating shadowband radiometers, and pyranometers. Clouds at the inland site, Atqasuk, were found to have approximately 26% greater optical depths than those at the coastal site, Barrow, and the ratio of measured irradiance to clear-sky irradiance was nearly 20% larger at Barrow under cloudy conditions. It is hypothesized that a significant factor contributing to these differences is the upward fluxes of heat and water vapor over the wet tundra and lakes. Support for this hypothesis is found from the behavior of the liquid water paths for low clouds, which tend to be higher at Atqasuk than at Barrow for onshore winds but not for offshore ones, from differences in sensible heat fluxes, which are small but significant over the tundra but are nearly zero over the ocean adjacent to Barrow, and from the mi.
Petrogenesis of a Mid-Proterozoic Anorthosite-Mangerite-Charnockite-Granite (AMCG) Complex: Isotopic and Chemical Evidence from the Nain Plutonic Suite

The Nain Plutonic Suite (NPS), about 1.30 Ga, underlies some 19,000 km², intruding the boundary between Middle to Late Archean rocks in the east (Nain Province) and Late Archean and Early Proterozoic rocks in the west (Churchill Province). Nd isotopic compositions in most igneous units of the NPS reflect their geographic position relative to the inferred boundary between the Nain and Churchill Provinces. Rare exceptions are local intrusions of olivine-bearing basic rocks with highest $$\epsilon_{Nd}$$ @ 1.3 Ga (near -3.0), present in both eastern and western sectors of the NPS. Anorthositic rocks have variable and significant contributions of crustal Nd but notably lower $$I_{Sr}$$ than granitoid rocks. Ferrodiorites are similar isotopically to the anorthositic group and have chemical and mineral compositions more akin to the anorthositic group than the granitoids. Aluminous orthopyroxene megacrysts in NPS anorthositic rocks indicate crystallization pressures of 6.2 to 11.0 kbar, consistent with lower crustal to upper mantle depths. The granitoid rocks crystallized from magmas derived in large part by crustal partial melting. These rocks show the influence of sources similar to the basement gneisses, but were augmented by materials with much shorter crustal residence time, offering support for contemporaneous basaltic underplating of the lower crust. Nd and Sr isotope data, trace element geochemistry, and mineral compositions in major rock units of the NPS, together with knowledge of the timing of intrusive events, permits assessment of the essential features of petrogenesis and development of a paradigm that may have wider application. Separation of early granitoid melts left depleted, hot, plagioclase-pyroxene granulite crustal residues assimilated by mantle-derived basaltic magmas. That process developed large volumes of anorthositic magma in upper levels of deep crustal to uppermost mantle magma chambers by plagioclase flotation. Concurrently, fractionation moved residual liquids toward ferrodiorite compositions. Buoyant upward movement of anorthositic magmas followed crustal paths preheated by earlier passage of granitoid magmas. Only small volumes of high density, Fe-rich, ferrodiorite melts were expelled to higher crustal levels.
Distribution of Soybean Roots, Soil Water, Phosphorus and Potassium Concentrations with Broadcast and Subsurface‐Band Fertilization

Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 76:1079–1089 doi:10.2136/sssaj2011.0202 Received 3 June 2011. *Corresponding author (fernande@illinois.edu). © Soil Science Society of America, 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison WI 53711 USA All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permission for printing and for reprinting the material contained herein has been obtained by the publisher. Distribution of Soybean Roots, Soil Water, Phosphorus and Potassium Concentrations with Broadcast and Subsurface-Band Fertilization Nutrient Management & Soil & Plant Analysis
Shear‐wave birefringence: A new tool for evaluating fractured reservoirs

Propagation characteristics of shear waves make them particularly well suited to exploration for and definition of fractured reservoirs. The Department of Geophysics at Colorado School of Mines conducted a three‐component P- and S-wave seismic survey in order to determine whether shear‐wave polarization and splitting (birefringence) caused by fracture induced azimuthal anisotropy could be measured over a naturally fractured reservoir. Results indicate that surface seismic recordings of shear waves can be used to calculate azimuthal anisotropy and that seismic observation of azimuthal anisotropy can provide information about the location, orientation, and intensity of subsurface fractures. Data obtained from this investigation indicate that measurement of shear‐wave birefringence is a potentially powerful tool for predicting fracture orientation and permeability trends.
Enhancing agricultural innovation : how to go beyond the strengthening of research systems

Agricultural development depends to a great extent on how successfully knowledge is generated and applied. Investments in knowledge - especially in the form of science and technology have featured prominently and consistently in most strategies to promote sustainable and equitable agricultural development at the national level. As the context of agricultural development has changed, ideas of what constitutes innovation have changed, and so have approaches for investing in it. Strengthened research systems may increase the supply of new knowledge and new technologies, but they may not necessarily improve the capacity for innovation throughout the agricultural sector. The concept of an innovation system has guided this more holistic approach to planning knowledge production and use. This paper uses this concept to develop a framework for guiding diagnosis of innovation capacity and for planning interventions. The innovation systems concept focuses not merely on the science suppliers but on the totality and interaction of actors involved in innovation. It extends beyond the creation of knowledge to encompass the factors affecting demand for and use of new and existing knowledge in novel and useful ways. The question then is whether the principles and insights arising from the innovation systems concept and the perspective on innovation capacity development it implies can be converted into operational tools for policies and projects that address the practical challenges of agricultural development and sustained economic growth. This paper attempts to answer that question. Chapter one presents why assess the value of the innovation systems perspective? The innovation systems concept is discussed in chapter two, especially with regard to its potential value for agricultural development interventions. Chapter three describes the methodology for the study, further discusses the rationale for selecting each case study, and summarizes results of each study. Chapter four, a comparative analysis of the eight studies highlights differences in the evolution of the eight cases and identifies potential sources of these differences. The main findings from the case studies are used in chapter five to derive lessons on what drives innovation and the generic interventions that promote the capacity to innovate. The comparative analysis of the case studies is used to develop an intervention framework in chapter six. Chapter seven recapitulates the main conclusions from the case studies, revisits the utility of the analytical framework for understanding agricultural innovation, and also revisits the value of the intervention framework for identifying activities in support of agricultural innovation.
Growth and decay of palsas and peat plateaus in the Macmillan Pass–Tsichu River area, Northwest Territories, Canada

Macmillan Pass, at 1350 m asl (above sea level), is located in the Selwyn Mountains at the Yukon–Northwest Territories border (63 °15′N, 130°02′W). This area lies within the discontinuous but widespread permafrost zone. Palsa–peat plateau complexes cover 0.7% of the 235 km2 study area and are found in bog and fen depressions at elevations from 1285–1690 m. Palsa heights range from 0.15–9.75 m and diameters from 3.25–75.0 m; peat plateaus have maximum heights of 2.5 m and maximum diameters of 225 m. Both features are vegetated by Cladina-Betula glandulosa, Cladina-Polytrichum-Cetraria, and crustose lichens-Polytrichum plant communities.Palsas and peat plateaus are windswept during winter. On surfaces which support recumbent (5–15 cm tall) plant communities there was an average of only 7.5 cm of snow during late winter 1978. Snow cover was thinner by a ratio of 1:4 compared to control areas.These permafrost features have formed since the White River volcanic ash fall of 1220 BP. On palsas and peat plateaus .
A study of the seismic noise from its long-range correlation properties

[1] We study the origin of the background seismic noise averaged over long time by cross correlating of the vertical component of motion, which were first normalized by 1-bit coding. We use 1 year of recording at several stations of networks located in North America, western Europe, and Tanzania. We measure normalized amplitudes of Rayleigh waves reconstructed from correlation for all available station to station paths within the networks for positive and negative correlation times to determine the seasonally averaged azimuthal distribution of normalized background energy flow (NBEF) through the networks. We perform the analysis for the two spectral bands corresponding to the primary (10–20 s) and secondary (5–10 s) microseism and also for the 20–40 s band. The direction of the NBEF for the strongest spectral peak between 5 and 10 s is found to be very stable in time with signal mostly coming from the coastline, confirming that the secondary microseism is generated by the nonlinear interaction of the ocean swell with the coast. At the same time, the NBEF in the band of the primary microseism (10–20 s) has a very clear seasonal variability very similar to the behavior of the long-period (20–40 s) noise. This suggests that contrary to the secondary microseism, the primary microseism is not produced by a direct effect of the swell incident on coastlines but rather by the same process that generates the longer-period noise. By simultaneously analyzing networks in California, eastern United States, Europe, and Tanzania we are able to identify main source regions of the 10–20 s noise. They are located in the northern Atlantic and in the northern Pacific during the winter and in the Indian Ocean and in southern Pacific during the summer. These distributions of sources share a great similarity with the map of average ocean wave height map obtained by TOPEX-Poseidon. This suggests that the seismic noise for periods larger than 10 s is clearly related to ocean wave activity in deep water. The mechanism of its generation is likely to be similar to the one proposed for larger periods, namely, infragravity ocean waves.
The Precambrian supercontinent Palaeopangaea: two billion years of quasi-integrity and an appraisal of geological evidence

The Protopangaea-Palaeopangaea model for the Precambrian continental crust predicts quasi-integrity reflecting a dominant Lid Tectonics defined by a palaeomagnetic record showing prolonged near-static polar behaviour during very long time intervals (~2.7–2.2, 1.5–1.2, and 0.75–0.6 Ga). Intervening times show polar loops radiating from the geometric centre of the crust explaining the anomalous Precambrian magnetic inclination bias. The crustal lid was a symmetrical crescent-shaped body confined to a single hemisphere on the globe comparable in form to the Phanerozoic supercontinent (Neo)Pangaea. There were two major transitions in the tectonic regime when prolonged near-static motion was succeeded by widespread tectonic-magmatic activity, and each coincided with the major isotopic/geochemical signatures in the Precambrian record. The first comprised a ~90° reconfiguration of crust and mantle at ~2.2 Ga terminating the long 2.7–2.2 Ga static interval; the second was the largest continental break-up event in geological history and is constrained to the Ediacaran Period at ~0.6 Ga by multiple isotopic and geochemical signatures and the subsidence history of marine passive margins. Break-up of the lid at ~0.6 Ga defines a transition from dominant Lid Tectonics to dominant Plate Tectonics and is the primary cause of contrasts between the Precambrian and Phanerozoic aeons of geological times. The long interval of minimal continental motion in the mid-Proterozoic correlates with extensive emplacement of anorogenic anorthosite-rapakivi plutons unique to these times, and high-level emplacement was probably caused by blanketing of the mantle and comprehensive thermal weakening of the crust. Continental velocities were low during the two Proterozoic intervals characterized by profound glaciation (~2.4–2.2 and ~0.75–0.6 Ga) when partial or complete magmatic shutdown is likely to have reduced volcanic greenhouse gas production. Specific implications of Protopangaea-Palaeopangaea include: (i) support for recent evidence that 60–70% of the present continental crust had accreted by ~2.5 Ga; (ii) recognition from spatially constrained mineral provinces that sub-crustal lithosphere was already chemically differentiated by mid-Archaean times; (iii) strong axial alignment of younger greenstone belts, major Palaeoproterozoic shear zones, and later Meso–Neoproterozoic mobile/orogenic belts; (iv) concentration of anorogenic magmatism and progressive contraction of activity towards the orogenic margin subsequently to become the focus of Grenville (~1.1 Ga) orogenesis; and (v) late Neoproterozoic arc magmatism/tectonics at the instep margin of the continental crescent persisting until the Ediacaran continental break-up.