Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geometry and thermal regime of the King George Island ice cap, Antarctica, from GPR and GPS

Abstract King George Island is the largest of the South Shetland Islands, close to the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The annual mean temperature on the island has increased by 1°C during the past three decades, and the ice cap that covers the majority of the island is sensitive to climatic change. We present data from two field campaigns (1997 and 2007): 700 km of global positioning system (GPS) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) profiles were collected on Arctowski Icefield and on the adjacent central part. The data were analysed to determine the surface and bed topography and the thermal regime of the ice. Average ice thickness is 250 m and maximum thickness is 420 m. The GPR profiles show isochrones throughout the ice cap which depict the uparching of Raymond bumps beneath or close to the ice divides. A water table from percolation of meltwater in the snowpack shows the firn-ice boundary at ∼ 3 5 m depth. The firn layer may be temperate due to the release of latent heat. In the area below 400ma.s. l. , backscatter by water inclusions is abundant for ice depths below the water table. We interpret this as evidence for temperate ice. Scatter decreases significantly above 400 m. Ice temperatures below the water table in this part of the ice cap are subject to further field and modelling investigations.
Assessment of Extent to Which Plastic Bag Waste Management Methods Used in Nairobi City Promote Sustainability

This study investigated sustainability of the methods used to manage plastic bag waste in Nairobi city, Kenya. Plastic bag waste appears in very high proportion in the municipal solid waste stream in Nairobi and is causing environmental problems such as choking of animals and soils; blockage of waterways; health problems, and resource depletion. Having knowledge of the methods used to curb this problem is one way of seeking lasting solutions aimed at sustainable development. The study adopted a mixed methods approach in which both quantitative data through a survey and qualitative data through focus group interviews and observations were collected. Results revealed that the problem of plastic bag waste is a consequence of ineffective by-laws on littering and illegal dumping; inadequate garbage collection by City Council of Nairobi (CCN), and throw-away culture by the public. It is recommended that CCN and reinforcing authorities such as National environmental Management Authority effectively enforce Solid Waste Management policies and guidelines and establish an elaborate recycling system for sustainable plastic bag waste management. The findings will shed more light on dynamic relationship of the variables and concepts involved in plastic bag waste production and management and promote proper planning and decision- making at CCN.
Effect of forest fire on floristic composition, structure, dominance and species richness in subtropical pine forest of Ponda watershed, Rajouri, J&K.

Forest fires have profound impacts on physical environment including land cover, land use, forest ecosystem and biodiversity. In the present study the effect of fires on floristic composition, structure, dominance and species richness in subtropical pine forest of Ponda watershed, Rajouri, J&K, lying at an altitude range of 800 m to 1000 m above mean sea level, was assessed. The forests in the study area were divided into two strata i.e., burnt and un-burnt forest. Random sampling was carried out by laying out forty sample plots in all, with twenty sample plots in each strata covering burnt and unburnt forest sites of the study area. The plot dimensions of 20m x 20m were used for studying trees and 5m x 5m for shrubs (laid within the plots for trees). The density, basal area and IVI along with diversity and concentration of dominance of trees and shrubs in both forest sites were studied. Similarity index was also calculated for burnt and unburnt forest of the study area. The results show that the total density and total basal area of trees and shrubs was highest in un-burnt forest sites with density values of 468.75 and 5284 individuals/ha and 85.33 m 2 /ha and 25.42 m 2 /ha, respectively. The results on the basis of the comparison of IVI values of all species in both forest stands also reveal that the respective dominant tree and shrub species were Pinus roxburghii and Carissa opaca. The calculated values of Shannon-Wiener, Margalef and Menhinick indices i.e. 1.93, 2.53 and 0.82 for trees and 1.80, 2.08 and 0.44 for shrubs, respectively, reveal that the species richness and diversity was high for unburnt forest stand whereas, Simpson’s index value of tree (0.48) and shrub (0.75) show that an concentration of dominance was highest in burnt forest stands. The calculated value of Sorenson’s and Jaccard’s index of similarity for trees (0.60 and 0.43) was maximum as compare to shrubs (0.47 and 0.31) which shows that forest fire have profound effect on shrub than trees.
Explaining the “Klasies Pattern”: Kua Ethnoarchaeology, the Die Kelders Middle Stone Age Archaeofauna, Long Bone Fragmentation and Carnivore Ravaging

Abstract The caves at Klasies River Mouth (KRM) in the southern Cape Province, South Africa, continue to play an important role in the study of human evolution and debates about the origins of “modern” humans. As with most Palaeolithic sites, the behavioural interpretations offered for the Middle Stone Age (MSA) inhabitants of the KRM caves are based in large part on the interpretation of fragmentary faunal remains from the “Main Site”, or caves 1, 1A, 1B and 2 excavated in 1967–68 by Singer & Wymer (1982). Using zooarchaeological patterns detected in ethnoarchaeological data collected among Kua foragers of the eastern Kalahari, Central District, Botswana, as well as in data collected from Die Kelders Cave 1, Layer 10, South Africa, we offer an alternative explanation for a provocative pattern of skeletal part representation discovered in the KRM MSA archaeofauna over 20 years ago by Richard Klein (1976). The Klasies pattern is characterized by the underrepresentation of large bovid upper limb elements relative to more anatomically complete small bovids. To date, the pattern has been interpreted in three different ways, each with strikingly different implications for Middle Stone Age (MSA)/Middle Palaeolithic (MP) human behaviour. Understanding the nature of the pattern is not only important for reconstructing MSA human behaviour at KRM, but it is also important for understanding how the conduct of zooarchaeological analyses can profoundly influence our reconstructions of the course of human behavioural evolution. The Kua ethnoarchaeological data and experimental case studies unambiguously connect to site formation histories to zooarchaeological patterns. At Die Kelders Cave 1, Layer 10, the ethnoarchaeological expectations are expressed archaeologically in a context analytically relevant to KRM. Overall, by joining the Kua and the Die Kelders data, we show how uniformitarian/actualistic approaches can be productively employed in zooarchaeological interpretation. The “Klasies Pattern” is likely to be an artefact of a widespread taphonomic sequence, followed by a particular style of analysis employed, for practical reasons, by many zooarchaeologists. We suggest that the situation is common and likely to be seriously distorting inferences about many archaeofaunas around the world. More generally we show how uniformitarian studies offer a coherent framework for developing methods and generating data useful in making behavioural inferences from faunal remains. Rather than a human behavioural signal in the KRM archaeofauna, the Klasies Pattern has more to do with the methods of zooarchaeology than with the behaviour of ancient people.
Miocene scleractinian corals from a mixed siliciclastic–carbonate system: Bakhtiari succession, Zagros Basin (central-western Iran)

Colonial scleractinian corals were sampled from three levels within a Miocene marine unit of the Bakhtiari succession, Zagros Basin, central-western Iran. The first two coral-bearing intervals, A and B, contain small-scale scattered colonies and show a poor coral diversity, whereas the third, consisting of a strongly lithified limestone package, reflects a well-developed biostromal framework with higher coral skeletal volume within the Bakhtiari succession. The Bakhtiari succession coral assemblages are characterized by Porites sp. cf. P. maigensis, Porites sp. cf. P. mancietensis, Porites sp. cf. P. collegniana, Tarbellastraea reussiana, Favia sp. , Montastrea sp. cf. P. tchihatcheffi, Favites sp. cf. P. neugeboreni, Favites sp. cf. P. neuvillei, Agathiphyllia sp. and Acropora sp. Sedimentological and palaeontological data indicate that the depositional environment is consistent with a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic ramp that was gently deepening basinwards from the shoreline. The hemispherical and massive growth forms of colonies and sparse branching forms dominated the well-illuminated euphotic zone. Abundant domestone and dense pillarstone coral growth fabrics interdigitating with coarse-grained terrigenous sediments developed in the shallow inner ramp environment. Branching forms and meandroid branching colonies together with some massive forms mostly inhabited the low-energy conditions of the lower euphotic to oligophotic zones of the middle ramp. In the middle parts of the mixed carbonate–siliciclastic ramp, sparse pillarstone together with domestone comprises a mixstone coral growth fabric. Fluctuations in nutrient and clastic sediment input, salinity and the growth of red algae likely terminated coral growth.
Calcium carbonate dissolution in the upper 1000 m of the eastern North Atlantic

Recent analyses suggest that considerable CaCO3 dissolution may occur in the upper water column of the ocean (< 1500 m). This study uses the distribution of particulate calcium from high‐resolution suspended matter sampling along the Climate Variability and Predictability/CO2 Repeat Hydrography A16N transect in 2003 to estimate CaCO3 dissolution in the top 1000 m of the North Atlantic. Dissolution rates were also approximated using changes in total alkalinity measurements along isopycnal surfaces. Water masses were found to be undersaturated with respect to aragonite at intermediate depths (400–1000 m) in the eastern tropical North Atlantic. The CaCO3 dissolution rate in this region is estimated to be 0.9 mmol CaCO3 m−2 d−1, indicating this region is a hotspot for upper water column CaCO3 dissolution compared to the Atlantic basin as a whole. Dissolution rates calculated from particulate calcium distributions outside of this region were significantly lower (0.2 mmol CaCO3 m−2 d−1) and are comparable to previous estimates of CaCO3 dissolution flux for the Atlantic Ocean. The magnitude of upper water column dissolution rates compared to measured surface ocean CaCO3 standing stocks suggests that biologically mediated CaCO3 dissolution may be occurring in the top 1000 m of the Atlantic.
SHRIMP U-Pb geochronology of Neoproterozoic Windermere Supergroup, central Idaho: Implications for rifting of western Laurentia and synchroneity of Sturtian glacial deposits

In central Idaho roof pendants, a northwest-trending belt of metamorphosed strata, correlative with the Windermere Supergroup, links northern and southern segments of the western Laurentia Neoproterozoic rift belt. Nine newly named formations within the Gospel Peaks sequence-A through Gospel Peaks sequence-D record Cryogenian preglacial, rift-glacial, and postglacial events as well as Neoproterozoic III glacial and rift events. The Edwardsburg Formation of Gospel Peaks sequence B includes interfingered bimodal rift-related volcanic and glaciogenic diamictite strata. Zircons from a rhyodacite flow in the lower Edwardsburg Formation and from a rhyolite flow at its top, dated by using the sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP), yielded a weighted average of 685 ′ 7 Ma and 684 ′ 4 Ma. Reevaluation of geochronology and correlations indicates that Cryogenian rifting may have been (1) protracted between 780 and 685 Ma, (2) diachronous along the Cordillera, and/or (3) stepwise with a Cordilleran-wide event at ca. 685 Ma that initiated the formation of the Cordilleran miogeocline and set its geometry. Reevaluation of the Cryogenian glacial record indicates that (1) two associated ca. 685 Ma glacial intervals in the Edwardsburg Formation correlate with the Rapitan glaciation, (2) the Sturtian snowball Earth event must be reevaluated on the basis of revision of Rapitan glaciation from 750-700 Ma to ca. 685 Ma, and (3) there were older Cryogenian glaciations or Cryogenian glaciations were not globally synchronous. New dates and correlations significantly impact the number and synchroneity of possible snowball Earth events and the paleolatitudes of Cryogenian glaciations. Western Laurentian events at ca. 685 Ma particularily affect Neoproterozoic paleocontinental reconstructions by indicating diachronous and multi step breakup of supercontinent Rodinia.
Control estructural en el emplazamiento del volcanismo y mineralizaciones neógenas, distrito Cañada Honda, San Luis

Structural control on Neogene volcanism and related ore deposits at Canada Honda District, San Luis province. Located at the transitional southern end (33° S) of the Pampean flat-slab, the records the eastward migration of the Andean volcanic arc due to the flattening of the Nazca Plate in Mio-Pliocene times. The tertiary volcanic belt encompasses several very important me- tallogenetic districts in the San Luis Pampean Ranges. Volcanic rocks and associated ore-deposits crop out following a NW- WNW trending belt at La Carolina, Canada Honda - Cerros Largos, Cerros del Rosario and El Morro volcanic fields. The available geochronological data indicate that the volcanic activity began early at the western end of the belt and ended ~ 10 Ma later at its eastern border. Canada Honda district represents the oldest and longest-lived volcanic field of the tertiary vol- canic belt. It records eruptive events and related hydrothermal alteration from 12-13 Ma to 7.3 Ma, including lavas and volca- niclastic products. Preliminary structural analysis shows that previous structures have strongly controlled, either directly or in- directly, the emplacement of volcanic rocks and related mineral deposits. Kinematic and strain fabric analyses allow to recog- nize two volcano-tectonic associations. One of these associations would be related to dextral reactivations of structures pa- rallel to basement foliation. On the other hand, the main one would be linked with the generation of two volcano-tectonic depressions which are aligned in a NW-WNW direction. Their dominant structures trend NW-WNW and reveal sinistral-nor- mal motions, both at local and TVB scales.
Análise da evolução tectonossedimentar da Bacia dos Parecis através de métodos potenciais

The Parecis basin is located in central-western Brazil, on the southwestern part of the Amazon Craton, partially covering the Sunsas, Rondonia-Juruena and Tapajos-Parima provinces (Santos 2002). Based on Teixeira (1993) and Siqueira (1989), the Parecis basin was divided, from west to east, into three tectono-sedimentary domains: the Rondonia tectonic, the central compartment ( negative gravimetric anomaly) and a interior sag (Alto Xingu basin). During the Ordovician to Early Permian, the eastern Amazon region was affected by an extensional event and the Cacoal formation was deposited (rift stage of the Parecis basin). From Devonian to Early Permian, Furnas, Ponta Grossa, Pimenta Bueno and Fazenda da Casa Branca formations were deposited during the sag stage of the basin. Mesozoic (Late Triassic to Cretaceous) volcanic and sedimentary successions record another extensional event in the Amazon region. This event is represented in the Parecis basin by the eolian sandstones of the Rio Avila Formation and the basalts of the Anari and Tapirapua formations. The Cretaceous depositional stage is represented by the Parecis Group. Gravity and magnetic data of the Parecis basin have been acquired by IBGE, PETROBRAS and CPRM. Gravimetry and magnetometry maps obtained through the use of the Oasis/Geosoft software show an extensive negative anomaly in the interior of the Amazon Craton, with an average deviation from regional field of -40 mgal. The east-west regional structural trend with a deviation from regional field of -80 mgal evidences the eastward continuity of Pimenta Bueno and Colorado grabens underneath the Mesozoic succession (Rondonia tectonic low). The existence of this structure is supported by the Euler Deconvolution map, obtained through an inversion procedure that allowed an estimation of the anomaly (basement) depth.
The spaces for farmers in the city: A case study comparison of Direct Selling Alternative Food Networks in Toronto, Canada and Belo Horizonte, Brazil

The current focus of the Alternative Food Network (AFN) literature in the global North overlooks the reality of Southern AFNs and the potential contributions from studying Southern case studies. In this research, we used interviews and observation to determine how the differing valuations of ‘local’ food and farmers in two case study locations, one in the global North (Toronto, Canada) and one in the global South (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), affected the physical, economic, and political spaces in the city for farmers participating in the AFNs. The geographical concepts of scale, space, and place are central to understanding these networks. Drawing on work by Cook and Crang (1996) on ‘geographical knowledges’, we examined how farmers and customers reinforced and constructed different narratives of ‘local’ food, which was valued by affluent customers in Toronto but not by affluent customers in Belo Horizonte. In Toronto, farmers operated in physical spaces that put them in contact with affluent customers, and they were able to take advantage of pricing premiums at market and off-market economic spaces like specialty grocery stores and restaurants. In Belo Horizonte, farmers were relegated to marginal physical spaces, and had limited economic and political power. There were broader social justice implications related to whether the AFN operated mainly within affluent or marginal spaces. In agreement with the geographic literature, these case studies demonstrate that the social construction of scale, space, and place lead to the privileging of some actors over others in the AFN and within the city.
Transient climate simulations from the Maunder Minimum to present day: Role of the stratosphere

[1] Transient climate simulations are performed covering the period from 1630 to 2000. A vertically extended version of a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model is used, including a detailed representation of the stratosphere. One simulation is driven by changes in total solar irradiance due to solar activity as well as volcanic eruptions and changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations. A second simulation additionally includes changes in short-wave heating due to prescribed photochemical changes in ozone. The simulations are compared with reconstructions and other simulations employing less resolved stratosphere. The inclusion of the higher resolved stratosphere plays only a moderate role for the simulated climate variability on the hemispheric scale. Larger implications are found for regional scales. Both simulations reveal a shift of the North Atlantic Oscillation toward a more positive phase from the Maunder Minimum to present day, mainly attributed to anthropogenic increase in concentration of well-mixed GHG. Increase in GHG is related to a more disturbed stratospheric polar vortex resulting in an only moderate strengthening of tropospheric westerlies over Europe compared with the tropospheric version of the model. On multidecadal to centennial time scales the stratospheric solar forcing substantially contributes to the climate change signal in the stratosphere, and there is clear evidence for an impact on the tropospheric circulation.
Extensional exhumation of a high-pressure granulite terrane in Payer Land, Greenland Caledonides: structural, petrologic, and geochronologic evidence from metapelites

The Payer Land gneiss complex is unique among the mostly amphibolite-facies, mid-crustal gneiss complexes in the East Greenland Caledonides due to its well-preserved, regional high-pressure (HP) granulite-facies metamorphism. High-pressure – high-temperature (HP–HT) assemblages are recognized in mafic, ultramafic, granitic, and metasedimentary lithologies. Anatectic metapelites contain the assemblage garnet + kyanite + K-feldspar + antiperthite (exsolved ternary feldspar) + quartz ± biotite ± rutile and record approximately the same peak metamorphic conditions (pressure ( P ) = 1.4–1.5 GPa, temperature ( T ) = 800–850°C) as those of the neighboring mafic HP granulites. The HP granulite-facies metamorphism is Caledonian based on in situ U–Th–Pb electron microprobe dating of monazite from two samples of the aluminous paragneiss. The monazites are found along garnet–kyanite phase boundaries, as inclusions in garnet and kyanite, and within small leucocratic melt pods (K-feldspar + plagioclase + kyanite ± garnet) within the HP–HT paragneisses. Mylonitic equivalents of the metapelites contain a detrital monazite age signature that suggests the Payer Land paragneisses correlate with other Mesoproterozoic metasedimentary sequences in the area. The gneisses form a metamorphic core complex that is separated from the overlying low-grade sedimentary rocks of the Neoproterozoic Eleonore Bay Supergroup by an extensional detachment. This newly recognized Payer Land detachment is part of a system of prominent extensional faults located in the southern half of the Greenland Caledonides (i.e., south of 76°N). The HP granulites preserve the deepest level of crust exposed in this southern segment of the orogen and attest to significant crustal thickening.
Broad synchrony of a Late-glacial glacier advance and the highstand of palaeolake Tauca in the Bolivian Altiplano

The morphology and sedimentology of glacially influenced fan-deltas on massifs at the margin of the southern Altiplano, Bolivia, suggest a broadly synchronous expansion of glaciers and palaeolake Tauca during the late-glacial interval. This is shown by sedimentary successions of glacigenic, glacifluvial and glacideltaic facies linking palaeoglaciers with palaeolake Tauca on the flanks of Cerro Azanaques and Cerro Tunupa at altitudes of 3770–3720 m. Radiocarbon dates from peat overlain by glacial diamict and glacifluvial outwash indicate that glaciers in this area reached their last glacial maximum extent after ca. 13 300 14 C yr BP. Glacifluvial fan-deltas contiguous with the moraines confirm that the advance coincided with a highstand of palaeolake Tauca radiocarbon dated to the interval ca. 13 500–11 500 yr BP. Modeling of climatic controls on this glacier advance suggests the primary forcing was increased summer (wet season) moisture, possibly amounting to 600 mm above the modern values of 200–400 mm. Greater cloud cover probably depressed local temperatures and reduced the evaporation rate. The consequent rise in effective annual moisture ( P − E ) comfortably accommodates a palaeolake 48–50 × 10 3 km 2 in area and up to 100 m deep in the southern Altiplano. Because the palaeoglacier equilibrium-line altitudes rose toward the south and west, like the gradient of modern precipitation totals, we conclude that the increased late-glacial moisture was brought by weather systems similar to those of the present, but that atmospheric conditions were cloudier and cooler. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.