Middle Paleolithic occupation on a Marine Isotope Stage 5 lakeshore in the Nefud Desert,Saudi Arabia     

Michael D. Petraglia  Abdullah M. Alsharekh  Rémy Crassard  Nick A. Drake  Huw Groucutt  Adrian G. Parker  Richard G. Roberts 《Quaternary Science Reviews》2011,30(13-14):1555-1559

Major hydrological variations associated with glacial and interglacial climates in North Africa and the Levant have been related to Middle Paleolithic occupations and dispersals, but suitable archaeological sites to explore such relationships are rare on the Arabian Peninsula. Here we report the discovery of Middle Paleolithic assemblages in the Nefud Desert of northern Arabia associated with stratified deposits dated to 75,000 years ago. The site is located in close proximity to a substantial relict lake and indicates that Middle Paleolithic hominins penetrated deeply into the Arabian Peninsula to inhabit landscapes vegetated by grasses and some trees. Our discovery supports the hypothesis of range expansion by Middle Paleolithic populations into Arabia during the final humid phase of Marine Isotope Stage 5, when environmental conditions were still favorable.  相似文献   

A framework of Holocene and Late Pleistocene environmental change in eastern Iran inferred from the dating of periods of alluvial fan abandonment,river terracing,and lake deposition     

Richard Thomas Walker  Morteza Fattahi 《Quaternary Science Reviews》2011,30(9-10):1256-1271

We review studies of the Holocene and Late Pleistocene stratigraphy of eastern Iran to infer past changes in the environment within this presently arid region. We build a scenario of widespread, and presumably climatically driven, evolution of the landscape through the Holocene. Six sites, covering a 10° range in latitude, indicate a regional abandonment of alluvial fan surfaces at ～10 ± 3 ka, with the younger (～9 ka) end of this age range supported by several of the best-constrained studies. Incision of rivers into the fan surfaces has occurred in discrete stages in the early to mid-Holocene (～9–7 ka) leading to the formation of flights of river terraces. Detailed records of lakebed deposition in the presently arid interior of Iran are rare, though the available data indicate lake highstand conditions at <7.8 ka at South Golbaf in SE Iran and at < 8.7 ± 1.1 ka at the Nimbluk plain in NE Iran. The major periods of Holocene landscape development hence correlate with a period of time where water was more abundant than at present, with incision of rivers into thick alluvial deposits possibly occurring due to a combination of decreased sediment supply and high levels of precipitation, and with the formation of inset river terraces possibly responding to century-scale fluctuations in precipitation. No major geomorphic changes are identified within the later part of the Holocene, from which we infer that increased aridity has slowed evolution of the landscape. A decrease in precipitation in the mid-Holocene may have had a detrimental effect on bronze age societies in eastern Iran as has been inferred elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean region. The pre-Holocene environmental changes in eastern Iran are less well constrained, though there are suggestions of alluvial fan abandonment at 40–60 ka, at ～80 ka, and at ～120 ka.  相似文献   

Intensification of Southern Hemisphere westerly winds 2000–1000 years ago: evidence from the subantarctic Campbell and Auckland Islands (52–50°S)          下载免费PDF全文

Chris S. M. Turney  Matt McGlone  Jonathan Palmer  Christopher Fogwill  Alan Hogg  Zoë A. Thomas  Mathew Lipson  Janet M. Wilmshurst  Pavla Fenwick  Richard T. Jones  Ben Hines  Graeme F. Clark 《第四纪科学杂志》2016,31(1):12-19

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Recent progress on combining geomorphological and geochronological data with ice sheet modelling,demonstrated using the last British–Irish Ice Sheet     

Jeremy C. Ely  Chris D. Clark  Richard C. A. Hindmarsh  Anna L. C. Hughes  Sarah L. Greenwood  Sarah L. Bradley  Edward Gasson  Lauren Gregoire  Niall Gandy  Chris R. Stokes  David Small 《第四纪科学杂志》2021,36(5):946-960

Palaeo-ice sheets are important analogues for understanding contemporary ice sheets, offering a record of ice sheet behaviour that spans millennia. There are two main approaches to reconstructing palaeo-ice sheets. Empirical reconstructions use the available glacial geological and chronological evidence to estimate ice sheet extent and dynamics but lack direct consideration of ice physics. In contrast, numerically modelled simulations implement ice physics, but often lack direct quantitative comparison with empirical evidence. Despite being long identified as a fruitful scientific endeavour, few ice sheet reconstructions attempt to reconcile the empirical and model-based approaches. To achieve this goal, model-data comparison procedures are required. Here, we compare three numerically modelled simulations of the former British–Irish Ice Sheet with the following lines of evidence: (a) position and shape of former margin positions, recorded by moraines; (b) former ice-flow direction and flow-switching, recorded by flowsets of subglacial bedforms; and (c) the timing of ice-free conditions, recorded by geochronological data. These model–data comparisons provide a useful framework for quantifying the degree of fit between numerical model simulations and empirical constraints. Such tools are vital for reconciling numerical modelling and empirical evidence, the combination of which will lead to more robust palaeo-ice sheet reconstructions with greater explicative and ultimately predictive power.  相似文献   

A probabilistic approach for computing water retention of particulate systems from statistics of grain size and tessellated pore network     

Richard Wan  Mehdi Pouragha  Mahdad Eghbalian  Jérôme Duriez  Tai Wong 《国际地质力学数值与分析法杂志》2019,43(5):956-973

The paper offers an analytical determination of the hydraulic properties of an unsaturated soil with reference to its retention curve, which describes the relationship between the volumetric water content and capillarity through matric suction. The analysis combines a particulate approach focused on the physics at the pore scale, including microstructural aspects, with a probabilistic approach where the void space and grain size are considered as random variables. In the end, the soil water characteristic curve of an unsaturated granular medium along a drying path can be derived analytically based on the sole information of particle size distribution. The analysis hinges on the tessellation of a wet granular system into an assemblage of tetrahedral unit cells revealing a pore network upon which capillary physics are computed with respect to pore throat invasion by a non-wetting fluid with evolving pendular capillary bridges. The crux of the paper is to pass from particle size probability distribution to a matching void space distribution to eventually reveal key information such as void cell and solid volume statistics. Making reasonable statistically based assumptions to render calculations tractable, the water retention curve can be readily constructed. Model predictions compare quite favourably with experimental data available for actual soils, especially in the high saturation range. Having a sound scientific basis, the model can be made amenable to address a variety of soils with a wider range of particle sizes.  相似文献   

High-resolution rainfall variability simulated by the WRF RCM: application to eastern France     

Romain Marteau  Yves Richard  Benjamin Pohl  Carmela Chateau Smith  Thierry Castel 《Climate Dynamics》2015,44(3-4):1093-1107

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Hydrologic and water isotope characterization of a regulated Canadian Shield river basin     

Nancy England  April L. James  Krystopher J. Chutko  Richard S. Pyrce  Huaxia Yao 《水文研究》2019,33(6):905-919

Stable water isotope surveys have increasingly been integrated into river basins studies, but fewer have used them to evaluate impact of hydropower regulation. This study applies hydrologic and water isotope survey approaches to a Canadian Shield river basin with both regulated and natural flows. Historical streamflow records were used to evaluate the influence of three hydroelectric reservoirs and unregulated portions of the basin on downstream flows and changes in water level management implemented after an extreme flood year (1979). In 2013, water isotope surveys of surface and source waters (e.g., rainfall, groundwater, snowmelt) were conducted to examine spatial and temporal variation in contributions to river flow. Seasonal changes in relative groundwater contribution were assessed using a water‐isotope mass balance approach. Within the basin, two regulated reservoirs exhibited inverted hydrographs with augmented winter flows, whereas a third exhibited a hydrograph dominated by spring snowmelt. In 2013, spatial variation in rain‐on‐snow and air temperatures resulted in a critical lag in snowmelt initiation in the southern and northern portions of the basin resulting in a dispersed, double peak spring hydrograph, contrasting with 1979 when a combination of rain‐on‐snow and coincident snowmelt led to the highest flood on record. Although eastern basin reservoirs become seasonally enriched in δ¹⁸O and δ²H values, unregulated western basin flows remain less variable due to groundwater driven baseflow with increasing influence downstream. Combined analysis of historical streamflow (e.g., flood of 1979, drought of 2010) and the 2013 water isotope surveys illustrate extreme meteorological conditions that current management activities are unable to prevent. In this study, the influence of evaporative fractionation on large surface water reservoirs provides important evidence of streamflow partitioning, illustrating the value of stable water isotope tracers for study of larger catchments.  相似文献   

Traces of volcanic ash from the Mediterranean,Iceland and North America in a Holocene record from south Wales,UK     

Gwydion Jones  Siwan M. Davies  Richard A. Staff  Neil J. Loader  Sarah J. Davies  Michael J. C. Walker 《第四纪科学杂志》2020,35(1-2):163-174

A tephra record is presented for a sediment core from Llyn Llech Owain, south Wales, spanning the early- to mid-Holocene. Seven cryptotephra deposits are discovered with three thought to correlate with known eruptions and the remaining four considered to represent previously undocumented events. One deposit is suggested to correlate with the ~6.9 cal ka bp Lairg A tephra from Iceland, whereas more distant sources are proposed as the origin for two of the tephra deposits. A peak of colourless shards in early-Holocene sediments is thought to tentatively correlate with the ~9.6 cal ka bp Fondi di Baia tephra (Campi Flegrei) and a second cryptotephra is tentatively correlated with the ~3.6 cal ka bp Aniakchak (CFE) II tephra (Alaska). The Fondi di Baia tephra has never been recorded beyond proximal sites and its discovery in south Wales significantly extends the geographical distribution of ash from this eruption. The remaining four cryptotephra deposits are yet to be correlated with known eruptions, demonstrating that our current understanding of widespread tephra deposits is incomplete. This new tephra record highlights the potential for sites at more southerly and westerly locations in northwest Europe to act as repositories for ash from several volcanic regions.  相似文献   

Micromechanical approach to swelling behavior of capillary-porous media with coupled physics     

Mahdad Eghbalian  Mehdi Pouragha  Richard Wan 《国际地质力学数值与分析法杂志》2019,43(1):353-380

A detailed multiscale analysis is presented of the swelling phenomenon in unsaturated clay-rich materials in the linear regime through homogenization. Herein, the structural complexity of the material is formulated as a three-scale, triple porosity medium within which microstructural information is transmitted across the various scales, leading ultimately to an enriched stress-deformation relation at the macroscopic scale. As a side note, such derived relationship leads to a tensorial stress partitioning that is reminiscent of a Terzaghi-like effective stress measure. Otherwise, a major result that stands out from previous works is the explicit expression of swelling stress and capillary stress in terms of micromechanical interactions at the very fine scale down to the clay platelet level, along with capillary stress emerging due to interactions between fluid phases at the different scales, including surface tension, pore size, and morphology. More importantly, the swelling stress is correlated with the disjoining forces due to electrochemical effects of charged ions on clay minerals and van der Waals forces at the nanoscale. The resulting analytical expressions also elucidate the role of the various physics in the deformational behavior of clayey material. Finally, the capability of the proposed formulation in capturing salient behaviors of unsaturated expansive clays is illustrated through some numerical examples.  相似文献   

A late Quaternary vertebrate deposit in Kudjal Yolgah Cave,south‐western Australia: refining regional late Pleistocene extinctions          下载免费PDF全文

Nathan R. Jankowski  Grant A. Gully  Zenobia Jacobs  Richard G. Roberts  Gavin J. Prideaux 《第四纪科学杂志》2016,31(5):538-550

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