Notes: Abstract Small left-lateral strike-slip faults and right-lateral monoclinal kink bands with subvertical fold axes may be related to the formation of a very large right-lateral kink band (Bear Creek kink band), about 8 km wide and at least 15 km long, trending N27W along Bear Creek Valley in the Mt. Abbot quadrangle, Sierra Nevada, California. A foliation within Bear Creek Valley is defined by vertical slabs of granodiorite bounded by joints and faults. Small strike-slip faults and larger fault zones have nucleated along preëxisting joints and accommodated shearing between granodiorite slabs. The orientations of small cracks that occur near the tips of faults or connect adjacent fault segments indicate that the direction of maximum compression was about 20° counterclockwise from traces of joints at the time the faults nucleated. In some places where faults are closely spaced there are small, right-lateral kink bands with widths of 1 to 20 m. The slabs of granodiorite are gently curved through the kink bands, and analysis of the orientations of slabs in the limbs of the small kink bands indicates that the direction of maximum compression during kink-band formation was 15° to 20° counterclockwise from the traces of faults outside the kink bands. The orientation of the maximum compression for the formation of the small cracks at tips of many strike-slip faults and for the formation of the small kink bands, relative to the orientation of the maximum compression inferred from the joints on the limb of Bear Creek kink band, suggests that the foliation within the Bear Creek Valley has reoriented a maximum of 40° to 60° clockwise. Although the various orientations of joints, faults, and kink bands could be explained in terms of different regional compression directions at different places and at different times in the Mt. Abbot quadrangle, a much simpler interpretation, based on analysis of large and small structures in the granodiorite in Bear Creek Valley, is that they all formed in response to one maximum regional compression in the direction N25E.

Notes: Abstract The radial pattern of syenite and syenodiorite dikes of the Spanish Peaks region is analysed using theories of elasticity and dike emplacement. The three basic components of Odé's model for the dike pattern (a pressurized, circular hole; a rigid, planar boundary; and uniform regional stresses) are adopted, but modified to free the regional stresses from the constraint of being orthogonal to the rigid boundary. Dike areal density, the White Peaks intrusion, the strike of the upturned Mesozoic strata, and the contact between these strata and the intensely folded and faulted Paleozoic rocks are used to brient the rigid boundary along a north-south line. The line of dike terminations locates the rigid boundary about 8 km west of West Peak. The location of a circular plug, Goemmer Butte, is chosen as a point of isotropic stress. A map correlating the location of isotropic stress points with regional stress parameters is derived from the theory and used to determine a regional stress orientation (N82E) and a normalized stress magnitude. The stress trajectory map constructed using these parameters mimics the dike pattern exceptionally well. The model indicates that the regional principal stress difference was less than 0.05 times the driving pressure in the West Peak intrusion. The regional stress difference probably did not exced 5 MN/m2.

Notes: [Auszug] The sudden, widespread glaciation of Antarctica and the associated shift towards colder temperatures at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary (∼34 million years ago) (refs 1–4) is one of the most fundamental reorganizations of global climate known in the geologic record. The ...

Notes: Numerous studies have underscored the importance of terrestrial ecosystems as an integral component of the Earth's climate system. This realization has already led to efforts to link simple equilibrium vegetation models with Atmospheric General Circulation Models through iterative coupling procedures. While these linked models have pointed to several possible climate–vegetation feedback mechanisms, they have been limited by two shortcomings: (i) they only consider the equilibrium response of vegetation to shifting climatic conditions and therefore cannot be used to explore transient interactions between climate and vegetation; and (ii) the representations of vegetation processes and land-atmosphere exchange processes are still treated by two separate models and, as a result, may contain physical or ecological inconsistencies.Here we present, as a proof concept, a more tightly integrated framework for simulating global climate and vegetation interactions. The prototype coupled model consists of the GENESIS (version 2) Atmospheric General Circulation Model and the IBIS (version 1) Dynamic Global Vegetation Model. The two models are directly coupled through a common treatment of land surface and ecophysiological processes, which is used to calculate the energy, water, carbon, and momentum fluxes between vegetation, soils, and the atmosphere. On one side of the interface, GENESIS simulates the physics and general circulation of the atmosphere. On the other side, IBIS predicts transient changes in the vegetation structure through changes in the carbon balance and competition among plants within terrestrial ecosystems.As an initial test of this modelling framework, we perform a 30 year simulation in which the coupled model is supplied with modern CO2 concentrations, observed ocean temperatures, and modern insolation. In this exploratory study, we run the GENESIS atmospheric model at relatively coarse horizontal resolution (4.5° latitude by 7.5° longitude) and IBIS at moderate resolution (2° latitude by 2° longitude). We initialize the models with globally uniform climatic conditions and the modern distribution of potential vegetation cover. While the simulation does not fully reach equilibrium by the end of the run, several general features of the coupled model behaviour emerge.We compare the results of the coupled model against the observed patterns of modern climate. The model correctly simulates the basic zonal distribution of temperature and precipitation, but several important regional biases remain. In particular, there is a significant warm bias in the high northern latitudes, and cooler than observed conditions over the Himalayas, central South America, and north-central Africa. In terms of precipitation, the model simulates drier than observed conditions in much of South America, equatorial Africa and Indonesia, with wetter than observed conditions in northern Africa and China.Comparing the model results against observed patterns of vegetation cover shows that the general placement of forests and grasslands is roughly captured by the model. In addition, the model simulates a roughly correct separation of evergreen and deciduous forests in the tropical, temperate and boreal zones. However, the general patterns of global vegetation cover are only approximately correct: there are still significant regional biases in the simulation. In particular, forest cover is not simulated correctly in large portions of central Canada and southern South America, and grasslands extend too far into northern Africa.These preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of coupling climate models with fully dynamic representations of the terrestrial biosphere. Continued development of fully coupled climate-vegetation models will facilitate the exploration of a broad range of global change issues, including the potential role of vegetation feedbacks within the climate system, and the impact of climate variability and transient climate change on the terrestrial biosphere.

Notes: [Auszug] The global climate model15 combines atmospheric general circulation with transfer of energy, moisture and momentum between the atmosphere and oceans and land surfaces. The atmospheric general circulation model is derived from the National Center for Atmospheric Research community climate model ...

Notes: [Auszug] The ice sheet model1'2 predicts ice thickness in a cross-section running approximately north-south along a typical flow line (see Fig. 4). A vertically integrated approximate ice flow law is used with east-west flow neglected, which reduces the ice dynamics to a non-linear diffusion equation for ...

Notes: [Auszug] The weather of 1 yr is described by a zonally symmetric, time-dependent, one-level energy-balance equation which is solved numerically for sea-level air temperature Ts as a function of latitude, /, and month. Details of the model are listed under Fig. 1. Net infrared cooling and atmospheric/oceanic ...

Notes: Abstract Recent K-Ar dating of eruptions at Pantelleria, a peralkaline volcanic island in the Strait of Sicily, shows a correlation between eruption of pantellerite lavas from caldera ring fractures and low stands of sea level as determined fromδ 18O stratigraphy. Post-caldera pantellerite lavas associated with an ∼ 114-ky-old caldera erupted along the ring-fracture zone during a major low stand of sea level at about 67 Ka. The most recent episode of lava-flow emplacement began about 20 ky ago during the last glacial maximum. Magma vented along the ring fault of a 45-ky-old caldera, from fractures radial to the caldera, and along faults formed by intracaldera trapdoor uplift. Two mechanical models based on elasticity theory are presented to explain the correlation of post-caldera ring-fracture eruptions at Pantelleria with lowering of sea level. A simple analysis of a bending circular plate of thickness,T r, and radius,R, representing the magma-chamber roof block, shows that tensile stress is concentrated by a factor of 0.75R 2/T r 2 at the lower perimeter of the plate when sea level drops. Stress changes may be even greater ifT r is effectively less than the stratigraphic thickness due to layering of rocks in the roof block. Calculated stress changes due to a 100-m drawdown of sea level are similar in magnitude to stresses associated with dike propagation. More realistic model geometries, including different chamber shapes, a conical volcanic edifice, and sea-level drawdown beyond the surface projection of the magma chamber, were tested using the boundary-element method. Lowering sea level generates a horizontal tensile stress above the chamber, even when sea water is removed outboard of the magma chamber. For some chamber geometries the magnitude of the tensile stress maximum is greater than the ∼ 1 MPa pressure of the 100 m of removed water and is of the right order of magnitude for dike propagation. Dikes initiated by the change of the stress field may originate and propagate along fractures inboard of the chamber margin. The magnitudes of tensile maxima along the top of the chamber decrease as original sea level is moved outboard of the chamber margin and as the chamber thickness decreases. When the depth to the top of the magma chamber reaches a critical value, dependent on chamber geometry, the propagation of dikes to the surface is inhibited.

Notes: Summary The goodness-of-fit of a parametric model for non-categorical data can be tested using the x 2 statistic calculated after grouping the data into a finite number of disjoint cells. Work of Watson, Čebyšev, Moore and others shows that the classical limit distributions still hold even for certain methods of grouping that depend on the data themselves. These results are generalised to cover a much wider class of methods of grouping; the parameters can be estimated from either the grouped or the ungrouped data. The proofs use a Central Limit Theorem for Empirical Measures due to Dudley. The grouping cells are allowed to come from any Donsker class for the underlying sampling distribution.