Geological and geophysical studies of the Agoudal impact structure (Central High Atlas,Morocco): New evidence for crater size and age     

Houda El Kerni  Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane  David Baratoux  Mohammed Aoudjehane  Andr Charrire  Hassan Ibouh  Pierre Rochette  Yoann Quesnel  Minoru Uehara  Thomas Kenkmann  Gerwin Wulf  Michael Poelchau  Van Binh Nguyen  Maria Aboulahris  Samira Makhoukhi  Georges Aumaître  Didier Bourls  Karim Keddadouche 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2019,54(10):2483-2509

Since the discovery of shatter cones (SCs) near the village of Agoudal (Morocco, Central High Atlas Mountains) in 2013, the absence of one or several associated circular structures led to speculation about the age of the impact event, the number, and the size of the impact crater or craters. Additional constraints on the crater size, age, and erosion rates are obtained here from geological, structural, and geophysical mapping and from cosmogenic nuclide data. Our geological maps of the Agoudal impact site at the scales of 1:30,000 (6 km²) and 1:15,000 (2.25 km²) include all known occurrences of SCs in target rocks, breccias, and vertical to overturned strata. Considering that strata surrounding the impact site are subhorizontal, we argue that disturbed strata are related to the impact event. Three types of breccias have been observed. Two of them (br1‐2 and br2) could be produced by erosion–sedimentation–consolidation processes, with no evidence for impact breccias, while breccia (br1) might be impact related. The most probable center of the structure is estimated at 31°59′13.73?N, 5°30′55.14?W using the concentric deviation method applied to the orientation of strata over the disturbed area. Despite the absence of a morphological expression, the ground magnetic and electromagnetic surveys reveal anomalies spatially associated with disturbed strata and SC occurrences. The geophysical data, the structural observations, and the area of occurrence of SCs in target rocks are all consistent with an original size of 1.4–4.2 km in diameter. Cosmogenic nuclide data (³⁶Cl) constrain the local erosion rates between 220 ± 22 m Ma^?1 and 430 ± 43 m Ma^?1. These erosion rates may remove the topographic expression of such a crater and its ejecta in a time period of about 0.3–1.9 Ma. This age is older than the Agoudal iron meteorite age (105 ± 40 kyr). This new age constraint excludes the possibility of a genetic relationship between the Agoudal iron meteorite fall and the formation of the Agoudal impact site. A chronolgy chart including the Atlas orogeny, the alternation of sedimentation and erosion periods, and the meteoritic impacts is presented based on all obtained and combined data.  相似文献   

On the D́ust content of nearby galaxies     

Issa Ali Mohammed Issa 《Astronomische Nachrichten》1980,301(4):177-180

By inspection of photographs of the Hubble Atlas of Galaxies the frequency distribution of the sizes of dark cloud complexes in the four nearby galaxies NGC 3031, 5128, 5194 and 5457 is derived and the total amount of dust in these systems is estimated. The frequency distribution of the clouds is nearly the same in all the considered galaxies and may be approximated by n(R) ∼ e^−kR, k ≈︂ 0.050 pc⁻¹. The total amount of dust yields to roughly 10⁶M⊙.  相似文献   

Book reviews     

T. Littmann  Rudolf Brázdil  Manfred Domrös  Mohammed A. Kishk  A. Wallner  Radan Květ  Andreas Grotewold 《GeoJournal》1992,26(4):547-549

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The marine killers: Dinoflagellates in estaurine and coastal waters     

Shoukri N. Messieh  Mohammed I. El-Sabh 《Natural Hazards》1984,3(1):69-86

Records of massive fish kills and paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in Europe and North America go back to the 17th century. But, it was not until the 1940s when the relationship between PSP, red tide and toxic dinoflagellateGonyaulax was established. Recent records show that PSP and related poisons caused by toxic dinoflagellates in coastal waters and estuaries, are a world-wide problem. Diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) and neurotoxic poisoning (NSP), believed earlier as bacterial or viral infections are now shown to be caused by other toxic dinoflagellates such asDinophysis. The shellfish most often involved in the poisoning are mussels and clams. Other dinoflagellates,Gyrodinium, occasionally cause massive fish kills in vast coastal areas, resulting in fishery and economic losses.Factors promoting toxic dinoflagellate bloom development and PSP/DSP outbreaks are not fully understood. In previous studies, temperature was considered as the principal factor influencing dinoflagellate blooming. Recent studies showed that other factors such as salinity, sunlight, freshwater runoff and water stability are also important. Pollution from land drainage and sewage discharge in inshore waters were also implicated.Current knowledge indicates that although chemical and biotic factors are important forin-situ growth of dinoflagellate cells, convergence by thermal and tidal fronts is essential for cell accumulation and bloom development. Advances in physical oceanographic research, modelling and remote sensing enabled the detection of fronts and bordering eddies with high precision. There is a potential for an increased use of these technological advances in predicting and monitoring the bloom development.The present paper overviews the history and distribution of toxic dinoflagellates, and the physical factors influencing bloom development and PSP/DSP outbreaks. Future research needs to improve the predictability and control of this world-wide hazard are also discussed.  相似文献   

Jewish settlement and its economic impact on the West Bank, 1967–1987     

Hassan Abdul Kadir Saleh Prof. 《GeoJournal》1990,21(4):337-348

This paper focuses on the process of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and its economic consequences in the period from 1967 to the outbreak of the Intifada late in 1987. It attempts to show that this process is the practical application of Israeli objectives which are based on expansion and occupation of neighbouring Arab lands, facilitated by the fashioning of a dual or bifurcate economy there.After the war of June 1967, Israeli occupation authorities started to draw up plans with a view to settling Jews in the West Bank. There has been an increase in the numbers of settlements and settlers, estimated at 122 and 52,000 respectively in 1987. The pattern of settlement distribution is randomly dispersed, although it is concentrated in a region located to the NW of Jerusalem. The settlement began in the Jordan valley and extended gradually westward in the highlands.Jewish settlement has affected economic development of the West Bank, where there were many constraints on Arab agriculture and industry. Inequality is evident between settlers and Palestinians in an economy that has been structurally bifurcated: although settlers represent about 3% of total population of the West Bank, their economic activity constitutes at least 35% of the GDP of the West Bank.  相似文献   

Application of Remotely-Sensed Data to Estimate a Water Budget for Data-Scarce Endorheic Basins: A Case Study of Lake Urmia basin,Iran     

MohammadHossein Bagheri  Saeid Morid  Saleh Arshad 《Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing》2017,45(1):101-112

Estimating the water budgets of large basins is a challenge because of the lack of data and information. It becomes more complicated in endorheic basins that consist of separate land and water phases. The application of remotely-sensed data is one solution in this regard. The present study addresses this issue and develops a modeling framework to evaluate a water budget based on remotely-sensed data for endorheic basins. To explore the methodology, Lake Urmia basin was selected as a case study. The lake water level has declined steeply since 1995 and stakeholders have agreed to allocate 3100 MCM of water per year to the lake. This makes it necessary to monitor river inflow into the lake to fulfill the agreement. Gauging stations have been employed around the lake, but they could not account for shortages such as water uptake below the stations. To do this, separate water budgets for the water body and the land were required. More specifically, it was necessary to estimate actual evapotranspiration (ET _a ) from freshwater (E _f ) and saltwater (E _s ) estimated using the SEBAL model. Different methods were applied to estimate soil moisture, groundwater exploitation, and surface-groundwater inflow into the lake. A comparison of the observed and estimated amounts showed good agreement. For instance, the coefficient of determination for the observed/reported and estimated ET _a and E _f were 0.83 and 0.84, respectively. The average annual inflow was estimated to be 2.2 BCM/year for 2002–2008 using the RS model, which is about 84 % of the total inflow from the last recording stations before the lake and shows influence of water exploitation after these stations. Future study should focus on increasing temporal and spatial resolution of the method  相似文献   

Foreword     

Mohammed Bensaid 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》1992,81(1):I-I

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The distribution and growth of urban settlements in Saudi Arabia     

Saleh Al Hathloul  Narayanan Edadan Dr. 《GeoJournal》1991,23(3):269-281

This paper examines the distribution characteristics of urban settlements in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through major dimensions such as settlement regularly, degree of primacy and polarisation at the national and geographic regional levels. The paper points out that the settlement pattern at the national level has transformed from a primate distribution during the pre-plan period (< 1970) to an intermediary distribution during the period of development planning (1970 >). At the geographical regional level the settlement distribution, however, has shown diverse pattern. While the regional settlement distribution of Western and Eastern Region have shown trends of increasing polarisation, settlements in the Northern and Southern Regions are more log-normal in character. This is explained by the increasing growth of small and intermediary towns in the Northern and Southern Regions. The paper concludes that the national trend of decreasing urban primacy, induced by the decentralised national development strategies, is less pronounced due to the absence of a balanced regional investment policy. Since the government expenditure and settlement population growth rates are not related, slow growing primate cities continue to receive a larger share of public expenditure, enabling them to retain their primacy. This calls for a balanced regional investment policy to fully realise the national strategy of regional balance and multi-polar settlement pattern.  相似文献   

Dynamics of particle creation in relativistic viscous fluid Universe in Brans Dicke theory     

L. Ibochouba  Mohammed Ashraf Ali 《Astrophysics and Space Science》1996,241(2):227-235

The study of dynamics of the particle creation in relativistic viscous fluid in Robertson-Walker Universe is studied by using Brans-Dicke theory. The behaviour of these solutions with respect to Dirac's hypothesis are investigated along with the discussion of the physical parameters as well as the variable gravitational constant. By adopting a particular method of integration, exact solutions are obtained and physical interpretations are presented.  相似文献   

Optical and radiative properties of aerosols over Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates     

S Naseema Beegum  Haifa Ben Romdhane  Mohammed Tauha Ali  Peter Armstrong  Hosni Ghedira 《Journal of Earth System Science》2016,125(8):1579-1602

The present study is on the aerosol optical and radiative properties in the short-wave radiation and its climate implications at the arid city of Abu Dhabi (24.42 ^°N, 54.61 ^°E, 4.5 m MSL), in the United Arab Emirates. The direct aerosol radiative forcings (ARF) in the short-wave region at the top (TOA) and bottom of the atmosphere (BOA) are estimated using a hybrid approach, making use of discrete ordinate radiative transfer method in conjunction with the short-wave flux and spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements, over a period of 3 years (June 2012–July 2015), at Abu Dhabi located at the south-west coast of the Arabian Gulf. The inferred microphysical properties of aerosols at the measurement site indicate strong seasonal variations from the dominance of coarse mode mineral dust aerosols during spring (March–May) and summer (June–September), to the abundance of fine/accumulation mode aerosols mainly from combustion of fossil-fuel and bio-fuel during autumn (October–November) and winter (December–February) seasons. The monthly mean diurnally averaged ARF at the BOA (TOA) varies from ?13.2 Wm^?2 (～?0.96 Wm^?2) in November to ?39.4 Wm^?2 (?11.4 Wm^?2) in August with higher magnitudes of the forcing values during spring/summer seasons and lower values during autumn/winter seasons. The atmospheric aerosol forcing varies from + 12.2 Wm^?2 (November) to 28.2 Wm^?2 (June) with higher values throughout the spring and summer seasons, suggesting the importance of mineral dust aerosols towards the solar dimming. Seasonally, highest values of the forcing efficiency at the surface are observed in spring (?85.0 ± 4.1 W m^?2 τ ^?1) followed closely by winter (?79.2 ± 7.1 W m^?2 τ ^?1) and the lowest values during autumn season (?54 ± 4.3 W m^?2 τ ^?1). The study concludes with the variations of the atmospheric heating rates induced by the forcing. Highest heating rate is observed in June (0.39 K day ^?1) and the lowest in November (0.17 K day ^?1) and the temporal variability of this parameter is linearly associated with the aerosol absorption index.  相似文献