Oxygen isotopes from Chinese caves: records not of monsoon rainfall but of circulation regime   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Barbara A. Maher  Roy Thompson 《第四纪科学杂志》2012,27(6):615-624

Oxygen isotope variations in Chinese stalagmites have been widely interpreted as a record of the amount of East Asian summer monsoonal rainfall. This interpretation infers decreasing monsoonal rainfall from the mid‐Holocene and large, dipolar rainfall oscillations within glaciations. However, the speleothem δ¹⁸O variations conflict with independent palaeoclimate proxies (cave δ¹³C, loess/palaeosol magnetic properties, δ¹³C alkanes), which indicate no systematic decline in rainfall from the mid‐Holocene, and no glacial rainfall maxima. Using mass balance calculations (which incorporate seasonality effects in both δ¹⁸O concentration and amount of precipitation), we demonstrate that the cave δ¹⁸O variations cannot be accounted for by summer rainfall changes, or rainfall seasonality or winter cooling, but instead reflect changes in moisture source. A possible driver of the δ¹⁸O variations in Chinese stalagmites is precessional forcing of inter‐hemispheric temperature gradients, and resultant shifts in the position and intensity of the subtropical pressure cells. Through such forcing, Indian monsoon‐sourced δ¹⁸O may have dominated at times of high boreal summer insolation, and local Pacific‐sourced moisture at low insolation. Suppression of summer monsoonal rainfall during glacial stages may reflect diminished sea and land surface temperatures and the radiative impacts of increased regional dust fluxes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Wrench structural deformation in Ras Al Hilal-Al Athrun area, NE Libya: a new contribution in Northern Al Jabal Al Akhdar Belt     

Maher A. El Amawy  Ahmed M. Muftah  Mohamed Abd El-Wahed  Aymn Nassar 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2011,4(7-8):1067-1085

Al Jabal Al Akhdar is a NE/SW- to ENE/WSW-trending mobile part in Northern Cyrenaica province and is considered a large sedimentary belt in northeast Libya. Ras Al Hilal-Al Athrun area is situated in the northern part of this belt and is covered by Upper Cretaceous–Tertiary sedimentary successions with small outcrops of Quaternary deposits. Unmappable and very restricted thin layers of Palaeocene rocks are also encountered, but still under debate whether they are formed in situ or represent allochthonous remnants of Palaeocene age. The Upper Cretaceous rocks form low-lying to unmappable exposures and occupy the core of a major WSW-plunging anticline. To the west, south, and southeast, they are flanked by high-relief Eocene, Oligocene, and Lower Miocene rocks. Detailed structural analyses indicated structural inversion during Late Cretaceous–Miocene times in response to a right lateral compressional shear. The structural pattern is themed by the development of an E–W major shear zone that confines inside a system of wrench tectonics proceeded elsewhere by transpression. The deformation within this system revealed three phases of consistent ductile and brittle structures (D₁, D₂, and D₃) conformable with three main tectonic stages during Late Cretaceous, Eocene, and Oligocene–Early Miocene times. Quaternary deposits, however, showed at a local scale some of brittle structures accommodated with such deformation and thus reflect the continuity of wrenching post-the Miocene. D₁ deformation is manifested, in Late Cretaceous, via pure wrenching to convergent wrenching and formation of common E- to ENE-plunging folds. These folds are minor, tight, overturned, upright, and recumbent. They are accompanied with WNW–ESE to E–W dextral and N–S sinistral strike-slip faults, reverse to thrust faults and pop-up or flower structures. D₂ deformation initiated at the end of Lutetian (Middle Eocene) by wrenching and elsewhere transpression then enhanced by the development of minor ENE–WSW to E–W asymmetric, close, and, rarely, recumbent folds as well as rejuvenation of the Late Cretaceous strike-slip faults and formation of minor NNW–SSE normal faults. At the end of Eocene, D₂ led to localization of the movement within E–W major shear zone, formation of the early stage of the WSW-plunging Ras Al Hilal major anticline, preservation of the contemporaneity (at a major scale) between the synthetic WNW–ESE to E–W and ENE–WSW strike-slip faults and antithetic N–S strike-slip faults, and continuity of the NW–SE normal faults. D₃ deformation is continued, during the Oligocene-Early Miocene, with the appearance of a spectacular feature of the major anticline and reactivation along the E–W shear zone and the preexisting faults. Estimating stress directions assumed an acted principal horizontal stress from the NNW (N33°W) direction.  相似文献   

Solar Flare Prediction Using Advanced Feature Extraction, Machine Learning, and Feature Selection   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Omar W. Ahmed  Rami Qahwaji  Tufan Colak  Paul A. Higgins  Peter T. Gallagher  D. Shaun Bloomfield 《Solar physics》2013,283(1):157-175

Novel machine-learning and feature-selection algorithms have been developed to study: i) the flare-prediction-capability of magnetic feature (MF) properties generated by the recently developed Solar Monitor Active Region Tracker (SMART); ii) SMART’s MF properties that are most significantly related to flare occurrence. Spatiotemporal association algorithms are developed to associate MFs with flares from April 1996 to December 2010 in order to differentiate flaring and non-flaring MFs and enable the application of machine-learning and feature-selection algorithms. A machine-learning algorithm is applied to the associated datasets to determine the flare-prediction-capability of all 21 SMART MF properties. The prediction performance is assessed using standard forecast-verification measures and compared with the prediction measures of one of the standard technologies for flare-prediction that is also based on machine-learning: Automated Solar Activity Prediction (ASAP). The comparison shows that the combination of SMART MFs with machine-learning has the potential to achieve more accurate flare-prediction than ASAP. Feature-selection algorithms are then applied to determine the MF properties that are most related to flare occurrence. It is found that a reduced set of six MF properties can achieve a similar degree of prediction accuracy as the full set of 21 SMART MF properties.  相似文献   

Probabilistic earthquake risk assessment using CAPRA: application to the city of Barcelona, Spain   总被引：2，自引：2，他引：0  

Mabel C. Marulanda  Martha L. Carreño  Omar D. Cardona  Mario G. Ordaz  Alex H. Barbat 《Natural Hazards》2013,69(1):59-84

The risk evaluation model CAPRA (Comprehensive Approach to Probabilistic Risk Assessment) is a techno-scientific methodology and information platform, composed of tools for evaluating and communicating risk at various territorial levels. The model allows evaluating losses on exposed elements using probabilistic metrics, such as the loss exceedance curve, the expected annual loss and the probable maximum loss, useful for multi-hazard risk analyses. In this article, the process of probabilistic seismic risk analysis is described, explaining the main features of the CAPRA modules of hazard, vulnerability and risk estimation applied to the city of Barcelona, Spain. In addition, according to the physical risk results and the information on the socioeconomic indicators of the city, this article presents the holistic evaluation of seismic risk, which is a valuable result to facilitate the integrated risk management by the different stakeholders involved in risk reduction decision making.  相似文献   

Coastal progradation in response to the recent sea level rise: a case study of El Grine coast, Gulf of Gabes (Southeastern Tunisia)     

Maher Gzam  Mohamed Moncef Serbaji  Mohamed Ouaja  Younes Jedoui 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2013,6(12):5007-5016

Over the last 30 years El Grine coast recorded significant morphological changes leading to the shoreline progradation. Diachronic coastal evolution, through a set of satellite images data, supported by sedimentologic analysis of five sand cores have been applied to elucidate tidal flat reaction following the recent sea level rise. We found that an emerging sandy barrier and salt marsh domain were shaped by the local hydro-sedimentary processes. The marine sediments, mobilised by wave and tide currents, have been the sole sedimentary source. Recent sandy accumulations, occurred around 1987, have been able to balance a recent sea level rise. While during a mid-Holocene period, El Grine coast was governed by net erosion tendency inducing cliff recession.  相似文献   

Inverted basin analysis and geological modeling, Razzak Oil Field, Western Desert, Egypt     

Mohamed Salah Sedek  Omar Mohamed Mohamed Al Mahdy 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2013,6(7):2261-2283

This paper deals with a geological modeling based on seismic and well data of the Razzak Oil Field, located in northwestern desert of Egypt aimed mainly at improving the knowledge on inversion tectonics in the sedimentary basin corresponding to the oil field. Contour maps of significant seismic horizons corresponding to the top of Meso-Cenozoic formations which represent the stratigraphic traps of the oil field (top Apollonia, top Abu Roash “G,” top Bahariya, and top Alamein) are presented. The final model consists of geological cross-sections showing the inversion basin in the Razzak Oil Field. From the seismic data interpretation and modeling, we have different results matching with regional tectonic and transcurrent motion model. There are two main fault trends: the first one was northeast–southwest matching the Jurassic rift where the Jurassic is characterized by normal faults that formed in conjunction with the opening of the Neo-Tethys, and the other fault trend is northwest–southeast matching with Cretaceous faults. This is followed by a period of compressive tectonism (Syrian Arc deformation) in which two of the Jurassic normal faulted blocks (one at the northern part and the other at the southern part of the Qattara–Alamein ridge in the Razzak field) are reactivated as reverse faulted by Eocene–Early Oligocene time.  相似文献   

Community forest management in Mexico: carbon mitigation and biodiversity conservation through rural development   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Daniel Klooster  Omar Masera   《Global Environmental Change》2000,10(4):2184

Forest management is an important carbon mitigation strategy for developing countries. As demonstrated by the case of Mexico, community forest management is especially effective because it offers tangible local benefits while conserving forests and sequestering carbon. Community forestry receives minimal government support now, but the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol could leverage additional resources to promote the approach in Mexico and elsewhere. We argue that adequately designed and implemented, community forestry management projects can avoid deforestation and restore forest cover and forest density. They comprise promising options for providing both carbon mitigation and sustainable rural development. These kinds of projects should be included in the CDM.  相似文献   

Provenance, diagenesis, tectonic setting and geochemistry of Tawil Sandstone (Lower Devonian) in Central Saudi Arabia     

Omar A. Al-Harbi  M. Mujtaba Khan 《Journal of Asian Earth Sciences》2008,33(3-4):278-287

The Tawil Sandstone (Lower Devonian) in Central Saudi Arabia overlies the Sharwara Member of the Tayyarat Formation (Silurian) and succeeded conformly by the Shaiba Member of the Jauf Formation. Petrographical data reveal that the Tawil Sandstone comprises 96% quartz, 3% feldspar, and 1% rock fragments and all samples are classified as quartz arenites. The presence of well sorted, altered to fresh feldspar, and discriminate function analysis suggests that the sediments have been subjected to substartial reworking resulting in a high level of maturity. Modal analysis data (Q–F–L) suggest a stable cratonic provenance for the sediments and accumulation in a passive margin basin is indicated (binary plot of SiO₂ vs K₂O/Na₂O). Diagenetic features include dissolution of feldspar and rock fragments, compaction, reduction of the existing pore space through rearrangements, and rotation and fragmentation of grains resulting in dissolution of quartz grains and cementation.  相似文献   

Quantifying deformation in North Borneo with GPS     

Mohamad?Asrul?MustafarEmail authorView author&#;s OrcID profile  Wim?J.?F.?Simons  Felix?Tongkul  Chalermchon?Satirapod  Kamaludin?Mohd?Omar  Pieter?N.?A.?M.?Visser 《Journal of Geodesy》2017,91(10):1241-1259

The existence of intra-plate deformation of the Sundaland platelet along its eastern edge in North Borneo, South-East Asia, makes it an interesting area that still is relatively understudied. In addition, the motion of the coastal area of North-West Borneo is directed toward a frontal fold-and-thrust belt and has been fueling a long debate on the possible geophysical sources behind it. At present this fold-and-thrust belt is not generating significant seismic activity and may also not be entirely active due to a decreasing shelfal extension from south to north. Two sets of Global Positioning System (GPS) data have been used in this study; the first covering a time period from 1999 until 2004 (ending just before the Giant Sumatra–Andaman earthquake) to determine the continuous Sundaland tectonic plate motion, and the second from 2009 until 2011 to investigate the current deformations of North Borneo. Both absolute and relative positioning methods were carried out to investigate horizontal and vertical displacements. Analysis of the GPS results indicates a clear trend of extension along coastal regions of Sarawak and Brunei in North Borneo. On the contrary strain rate tensors in Sabah reveal that only insignificant and inconsistent extension and compression occurs throughout North-West Borneo. Moreover, station velocities and rotation rate tensors on the northern part of North Borneo suggest a clockwise (micro-block) rotation. The first analysis of vertical displacements recorded by GPS in North-West Borneo points to low subsidence rates along the western coastal regions of Sabah and inconsistent trends between the Crocker and Trusmadi mountain ranges. These results have not been able to either confirm or reject the hypothesis that gravity sliding is the main driving force behind the local motions in North Borneo. The ongoing Sundaland–Philippine Sea plate convergence may also still play an active role in the present-day deformation (crustal shortening) in North Borneo and the possible clockwise rotation of the northern part of North Borneo as a micro-block. However, more observations need to be collected to determine if the northern part of North Borneo indeed is (slowly) moving independently.  相似文献   

Characterization of carbon monoxide,methane and nonmethane hydrocarbons in emerging cities of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and in Singapore     

Barbara?BarlettaEmail authorView author&#;s OrcID profile  Isobel?J.?Simpson  Nicola?J.?Blake  Simone?Meinardi  Louisa?K.?Emmons  Omar?S.?Aburizaiza  Azhar?Siddique  Jahan?Zeb  Liya?E.?Yu  Haider?A.?Khwaja  Muhammad?A.?Farrukh  Donald?R.?Blake 《Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry》2017,74(1):87-113

We investigate the composition of 63 C₂-C₁₀ nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs), methane (CH₄) and carbon monoxide (CO), in Jeddah, Mecca, and Madina (Saudi Arabia), in Lahore, (Pakistan), and in Singapore. We established a database with which to compare and contrast NMHCs in regions where ambient levels and emissions are poorly characterized, but where conditions are favorable to the formation of tropospheric ozone, and where measurements are essential for improving emission inventories and modeling. This dataset will also serve as a base for further analysis of air pollution in Western Saudi Arabia including, but not limited to, the estimation of urban emissions and long range pollution transport from these regions. The measured species showed enhanced levels in all Saudi Arabian cities compared to the local background but were generally much lower than in Lahore. In Madina, vehicle exhaust was the dominant NMHC source, as indicated by enhanced levels of combustion products and by the good correlation between NMHCs and CO, while in Jeddah and Mecca a combination of sources needs to be considered. Very high NMHC levels were measured in Lahore, and elevated levels of CH₄ in Lahore were attributed to natural gas. When we compared our results with 2010 emissions from the MACCity global inventory, we found discrepancies in the relative contribution of NMHCs between the measurements and the inventory. In all cities, alkenes (especially ethene and propene) dominated the hydroxyl radical (OH) reactivity (k _OH) because of their great abundance and their relatively fast reaction rates with OH.  相似文献