Late Pleistocene Vertebrates and Other Fossils from Epiguruk, Northwestern Alaska     

Thomas D. Hamilton  Gall M. Ashley  Katherine M. Reed  Charles E. Schweger 《Quaternary Research》1993,39(3)

Sediments exposed at Epiguruk, a large cutbank on the Kobuk River about 170 km inland from Kotzebue Sound, record multiple episodes of glacial-age alluviation followed by interstadial downcutting and formation of paleosols. Vertebrate remains from Epiguruk include mammoth, bison, caribou, an equid, a canid, arctic ground squirrel, lemmings, and voles. Radiocarbon ages of bone validated by concordant ages of peat and wood span the interval between about 37,000 and 14,000 yr B.P. The late Pleistocene pollen record is dominated by Cyperaceae, with Artemisia, Salix, Betula, and Gramineae also generally abundant. The fossil record from Epiguruk indicates that the Kobuk River valley supported tundra vegetation with abundant riparian willows during middle and late Wisconsin time. Large herbivores were present during the height of late Wisconsin glaciation as well as during its waning stage and the preceding interstadial interval. The Kobuk River valley would have been a favorable refugium for plants, animals, and possibly humans throughout the last glaciation.  相似文献   

Geoid anomalies over two South Atlantic fracture zones     

Adam P. Freedman  Barry Parsons 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1990,100(1-3)

Seasat altimetry profiles across the Falkland-Agulhas fracture zone (FZ) and the Ascension FZ in the South Atlantic were examined for evidence of step-like geoid offsets predicted from thermal modeling of the lithosphere. The geoid profiles exhibit much short-wavelength power and the step-like offsets are often small, making reliable estimation of the heights of the observed geoid offsets difficult. The offsets were estimated by the least-squares fitting of quadratic curves incorporating a step function to the altimetry profiles. A preferred offset value was determined for each profile by taking the average of step heights computed with various distances around the fracture zone excluded from the fit. The age of the crust surrounding the fracture zones, necessary for computing a theoretical geoid offset, was determined from surface ship magnetic anomaly data and from existing ocean floor age maps.Observed variations in geoid step height with age of the lithosphere are not consistent with those predicted from standard thermal plate models. For ages less than 30 Ma, the step offsets across both fracture zones decrease in a manner appropriate for an unusually thin plate with a thickness of 50–75 km. At greater ages, the offsets show complex behavior that may be due to bathymetric features adjacent to the fracture zones. Similar geoid patterns on opposite branches of the Falkland-Agulhas FZ are indicative of processes that act symmetrically on both sides of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This behavior of the geoid is consistent both with small-scale convection occurring beneath the lithosphere and with bathymetric features originally produced along the ridge crest and now located symmetrically on opposite sides of the ridge. The west flank of the Ascension FZ displays a regrowth in step height at about 40 Ma consistent with small-scale convection and in agreement with other studies of Pacific and South Atlantic fracture zones.  相似文献   

Convective instabilities in a variable viscosity fluid cooled from above     

Claude Jaupart  Barry Parsons 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1985,39(1):14-32

Whether in the mantle or in magma chambers, convective flows are characterized by large variations of viscosity. We study the influence of the viscosity structure on the development of convective instabilities in a viscous fluid which is cooled from above. The upper and lower boundaries of the fluid are stress-free. A viscosity dependence with depth of the form ν₀ + ν₁ exp(?γ.z) is assumed. After the temperature of the top boundary is lowered, velocity and temperature perturbations are followed numerically until convective breakdown occurs. Viscosity contrasts of up to 10⁷ and Rayleigh numbers of up to 10⁸ are studied.For intermediate viscosity contrasts (around 10³), convective breakdown is characterized by the almost simultaneous appearance of two modes of instability. One involves the whole fluid layer, has a large horizontal wavelength (several times the layer depth) and exhibits plate-like behaviour. The other mode has a much smaller wavelength and develops below a rigid lid. The “whole layer” mode dominates for small viscosity contrasts but is suppressed by viscous dissipation at large viscosity contrasts.For the “rigid lid” mode, we emphasize that it is the form of the viscosity variation which determines the instability. For steep viscosity profiles, convective flow does not penetrate deeply in the viscous region and only weak convection develops. We propose a simple method to define the rigid lid thickness. We are thus able to compute the true depth extent and the effective driving temperature difference of convective flow. Because viscosity contrasts in the convecting region do not exceed 100, simple scaling arguments are sufficient to describe the instability. The critical wavelength is proportional to the thickness of the thermal boundary layer below the rigid lid. Convection occurs when a Rayleigh number defined locally exceeds a critical value of 160–200. Finally, we show that a local Rayleigh number can be computed at any depth in the fluid and that convection develops below depth z_r (the rigid lid thickness) such that this number is maximum.The simple similarity laws are applied to the upper mantle beneath oceans and yield estimates of 5 × 10¹⁵?5 × 10¹⁶ m² s^?1 for viscosity in the thermal boundary layer below the plate.  相似文献   

Identification of strength equilibrium rock slopes: Further statistical considerations     

A. D. Abrahams  A. J. Parsons 《地球表面变化过程与地形》1987,12(6):631-635

Strength equilibrium slopes are rock slopes whose gradient θ and rock mass strength (RMS) are in adjustment. The identification of such slopes depends on the accurate specification of the strength equilibrium envelope. Previous attempts to delimit the envelope are reviewed and modifications are proposed that permit its more rigorous statistical definition. Because θ can be measured much more reliably than RMS, the structural relation between these variables is estimated by regressing RMS on θ, and the strength equilibrium envelope is defined by the 95 per cent confidence limits. The analysis is performed on a data set of 268 rock slopes, representing all the data on RMS and θ hitherto employed in published studies of strength equilibrium slopes.  相似文献   

4335308 Inspection of underwater structures     

L.R. Caldecourt  G.V. Evans  T.V. Parsons 《Marine pollution bulletin》1983,14(3):117-118

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Combining InSAR and seismology to study the 2003 Siberian Altai earthquakes—dextral strike-slip and anticlockwise rotations in the northern India–Eurasia collision zone     

Edwin Nissen  Brian Emmerson  Gareth J. Funning  Anatoly Mistrukov  Barry Parsons  David P. Robinson  Eugene Rogozhin  Tim J. Wright † 《Geophysical Journal International》2007,169(1):216-232

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Post-seismic motion following the 1997 Manyi (Tibet) earthquake: InSAR observations and modelling   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Isabelle Ryder  Barry Parsons  Tim J. Wright  Gareth J. Funning 《Geophysical Journal International》2007,169(3):1009-1027

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Why the Sacramento Delta area differs from other parts of the great valley: Numerical modeling of thermal structure and thermal subsidence of forearc basins     

V. O. Mikhailov  T. Parsons  R. W. Simpson  E. P. Timoshkina  C. Williams 《Izvestiya Physics of the Solid Earth》2007,43(1):75-90

Data on present-day heat flow, subsidence history, and paleotemperature for the Sacramento Delta region, California, have been employed to constrain a numerical model of tectonic subsidence and thermal evolution of forearc basins. The model assumes an oceanic basement with an initial thermal profile dependent on its age subjected to refrigeration caused by a subducting slab. Subsidence in the Sacramento Delta region appears to be close to that expected for a forearc basin underlain by normal oceanic lithosphere of age 150 Ma, demonstrating that effects from both the initial thermal profile and the subduction process are necessary and sufficient. Subsidence at the eastern and northern borders of the Sacramento Valley is considerably less, approximating subsidence expected from the dynamics of the subduction zone alone. These results, together with other geophysical data, show that Sacramento Delta lithosphere, being thinner and having undergone deeper subsidence, must differ from lithosphere of the transitional type under other parts of the Sacramento Valley. Thermal modeling allows evaluation of the rheological properties of the lithosphere. Strength diagrams based on our thermal model show that, even under relatively slow deformation (10⁻¹⁷ s⁻¹), the upper part of the delta crystalline crust (down to 20–22 km) can fail in brittle fashion, which is in agreement with deeper earthquake occurrence. Hypocentral depths of earthquakes under the Sacramento Delta region extend to nearly 20 km, whereas, in the Coast Ranges to the west, depths are typically less than 12–15 km. The greater width of the seismogenic zone in this area raises the possibility that, for fault segments of comparable length, earthquakes of somewhat greater magnitude might occur than in the Coast Ranges to the west. The text was submitted by the authors in English.  相似文献   

Reply to Carcaillet and Vernet     

Katherine J. Willis  Edina Rudner  Pl Sümegi 《Quaternary Research》2001,55(3):388

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Calcification, photosynthesis and growth of the bloom-forming coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi     

William M. Balch  Patrick M. Holligan  Katherine A. Kilpatrick 《Continental Shelf Research》1992,12(12)

Measurements were made of photosynthesis and calcification in a bloom of coccolithophores in the Gulf of Maine as well as in laboratory batch cultures of the Emiliania huxleyi strain 88E. The¹⁴C technique for measuring calcification was evaluated with calcifying and noncalcifying coccolithophore strains. Shipboard bloom observations showed physiological evidence of stratification between surface and deep populations within the surface mixed layer. Photosynthesis and calcification rates were enhanced within hours of addition of KNO₃ or nitrate-rich deep water (to the same final concentration). Such rates were strongly temperature dependent in laboratory cultures, decreasing over a factor of two from 15 to 20°C. Calcification was considerably less light-dependent than photosynthesis and consistently had a measurable dark rate. In culture, maximum calcification rates and degree of cell plating were limited to logarithmic growth phase. This was followed by rapid increase in the coccolith shedding rate 1 day prior to the onset of stationary phase which continued several days after cell division stopped. The regional significance of these features to total organic and inorganic carbon production as well as calcite burial is discussed.  相似文献