Inverse modeling of lichen growth curves and implications for lichenometric dating     

《Quaternary Geochronology》2022

Lichenometric dating represents a quick and affordable surface exposure dating method that has been widely used to provide a minimum age constraint on tectonic and geomorphic landscape changes as well as buildings and anthropogenic landscape changes in various settings during the late Holocene. Despite its widespread usage, this method has several limitations. Major problems relate to the sampling of lichen population on any given rock surface and the modeling of growth curves. In order to overcome these issues, it has been suggested to subdivide the rock surface into some areas and measure the largest lichen thallus on each one. However, how to express the data in terms of a probability distribution function and link it to an age of last exposure of the rock surface are still a matter of debate. Here, we propose a novel approach to the modeling of lichen growth curves by treating lichen growth as a continuous-time Markov process with a time-varying rate and additive Brownian noise. Given the growth rates, the probability distribution of the lichen population at any time can then be obtained by solving the Fokker–Planck equation. This method is illustrated using a dataset from the Huashan area of eastern China, which consists of measurements of the largest thalli on 12 rock surfaces of known age. We first build up the probability distribution of the lichen population for each rock surface based on extreme value theory and then use these to optimize the growth curve by minimizing the Jensen–Shannon divergence. A new method is also proposed to use the growth curve to map a sample of size data from an undated rock surface to the calendar age domain so as to yield a fully probabilistic estimate of the exposure age of the undated rock surface rather than a point estimate.  相似文献   

Testing a new combined (U,Th)–He and U/Th dating approach on Plio-Pleistocene calcite speleothems     

《Quaternary Geochronology》2022

The geochronology of cave deposits in the Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site in South Africa provides a timeframe essential for the interpretation of its fossils. The uranium-lead (U–Pb) and uranium-thorium disequilibrium (U/Th) dating of speleothems, mostly flowstones that underlie and blanket the fossil-bearing sediments, have been effective in this sense, but U–Pb is limited by the requirement of ∼1 ppm U concentrations and low common Pb contents, and U/Th has a c. 500 ka limit of applicability. Here we report age results for calcite-aragonite speleothems obtained using a new combined uranium-thorium-helium ((U,Th)–He) and U/Th dating routine. We reproduced within analytical uncertainty, the published U–Pb or U/Th ages for (a) flowstone in three drill core samples in the range 2000–3000 ka, (b) a flowstone hand sample taken at surface with an age of 1800 ka, and (c) five underground flowstone samples in the range 100–800 ka. Calcite retentivity for He under cave conditions is thus demonstrated. In the few cases where helium loss was observed in speleothems, only some of the subsamples were affected, and to varying degrees, suggesting loss by lattice damage not related to diagenetic processes, rather than volume diffusion. In the 100 to 800 ka range, the combined U/Th disequilibrium and (U,Th)–He method also yielded reliable values for initial (²³⁰Th/²³⁸U) and (²³⁴U/²³⁸U) activity ratios. Importantly, most subsamples had high initial (²³⁰Th/²³⁸U) values, ranging from 1.0 to 19.7, although having low Th/U ratios. This is probably due to incorporation of Fe–Mn oxides-hydroxides dust, on which ²³⁰Th was previously adsorbed. Such samples are mostly not dateable by U/Th without the additional input from the He analysis. If not detected and corrected for, such high initial (²³⁰Th/²³⁸U) values can lead to inaccurate U/Th and U–Pb ages. Our study shows that the incorporation of He analysis in U/Th dating has broad potential application, with four methods for calculating the ages, in carbonates from different environments where U-Pb or U/Th dating would not work.  相似文献   

Holocene volcanic activity in Anjouan Island (Comoros archipelago) revealed by new Cassignol-Gillot groundmass K–Ar and 14C ages     

《Quaternary Geochronology》2022

The Comoros archipelago has attracted renewed attention since 2018 due to the submarine volcano growing east of the island of Mayotte and the associated ongoing seismic crisis. However, the origin of Comorian magmatism remains controversial, as it is either interpreted as related to a hotspot trail, to a fracture zone, or to a plate boundary. Lying in the central part of the archipelago, Anjouan is a key island to better understand the relationship between volcanism and geodynamics. Together with a careful selection of published whole-rock K–Ar ages, our new set of 13 groundmass K–Ar ages on lava flows and one radiocarbon age on a charcoal from a strombolian deposit, allow us to reassess the volcano-tectonic evolution of Anjouan Island. New groundmass K–Ar ages lie within the last 1 Ma, i.e. from 899 ± 14 to 11 ± 1 ka. They suggest that most of the subaerial volcanism in Anjouan is much younger than previously inferred, and occurred as pulses at 900–750 ka, perhaps 530 ka, 230–290 ka, and since 60 ka, with erosional periods in between. Among our new data, one ¹⁴C age of 7513–7089 yrs calBCE (9.3 ± 0.2 ka) and five K–Ar ages younger than 60 ka show that recent volcanism occurred in Anjouan. Moreover, the concentration of eruptive vents along a N150° alignment, parallel to the maximum horizontal stress, suggests a strong link between regional tectonics and volcanism. Considering the presence of active volcanoes on both the western and eastern extremities of the Comoros archipelago, our discovery of Holocene activity on Anjouan provides strong arguments against a chronological progression of volcanism along the archipelago, and therefore contradicts the hotspot hypothesis for the origin of volcanism.Finally, this study provides a robust geochronological timeframe of the different volcanic stages of Anjouan. It demonstrates that Anjouan is an active island and suggests that volcanism and tectonics can both resume at any time.  相似文献   

Particle mechanics modeling of creep behavior of rockfill materials under dry and wet conditions     

《Computers and Geotechnics》2015

Rockfill is an important construction material for infrastructure engineering, such as dams, railways and airport foundations, which display a long-term post-construction settlement. However, the main mechanisms for rockfill creep and weathering influence still remain poorly understood. Particle mechanics method is used to understand the rockfill creep process under dry and wet conditions. Different bond-aging models and wetting models that represent different degradation and weakening mechanisms are compared, in order to clarify the principle and secondary mechanisms for rockfill creep and weathering influence. The results show that rockfill aggregate breakage in terms of angularity abrasion is the main source for rockfill creep under dry state. Wetting can induce additional strain mainly due to the reduction of contact friction coefficient, i.e. lubrication, and the bond strength reduction just plays a secondary role in producing additional strain. The earlier the wetting occurs during rockfill creep, the more rapidly the rockfill becomes stable. The wetting–drying cycles can induce strain evolution in a ‘stepped’ way, which is in agreement with experimental observation. The practical implications from the modeling and the outstanding issues in this study are also discussed.  相似文献   

Age,composition, and source of continental arc- and syn-collision granites of the Neoproterozoic Sergipano Belt,Southern Borborema Province,Brazil     

《Journal of South American Earth Sciences》2015

The Sergipano belt is the outcome of collision between the Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain (Massif) and the São Francisco Craton during Neoproterozoic assembly of West Gondwana. Although the understanding of the Sergipano belt evolution has improved significantly, the timing of emplacement, geochemistry and tectonic setting of granitic bodies in the belt is poorly known. We recognized two granite age groups: 630–618 Ma granites in the Canindé, Poço Redondo and Macururé domains, and 590–570 Ma granites in the Macururé metasedimentary domain. U–Pb SHRIMP zircon ages for granites of first age group indicated ages of 631 ± 4 Ma for the Sítios Novos granite, 623 ± 7 Ma for the Poço Redondo granite, 619 ± 3.3 Ma for the Lajedinho monzodiorite, and 618 ± 3 Ma for the Queimada Grande granodiorite. These granitoids are dominantly high-K calc-alkaline, magnesian, metaluminous, mafic enclave-rich (Queimada Grande and Lajedinho), or with abundant inherited zircon grains (Poço Redondo and Sitios Novos). Geochemical and isotope data allow us to propose that Sítios Novos and Poço Redondo granites are product of partial melting of Poço Redondo migmatites. Sr-Nd isotopes of the Queimada Grande granodiorite and Lajedinho monzodiorite suggest that their parental magma may have originated by mixing between a juvenile mafic source and a crustal component that could be the Poço Redondo migmatites or the Macururé metasediments. Other 630–618 Ma granites in the belt are the mafic enclave-rich Coronel João Sá granodiorite and the Camará tonalite in the Macururé sedimentary domain. These granites have similar geochemical and isotopic characteristics as the Lajedinho and Queimada Grande granitoids. We infer for the Camará tonalite and Coronel João Sá granodiorite that their parental magmas have had contributions from mafic lower crust and felsic upper crust, most probably from underthrust São Francisco Craton, or Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain. The younger 590–570 Ma granite group is confined to the Macururé metasedimentary domain. Although these granites do not show typical features of S-type granites, their U–Pb age, field relationships, geochemical and Sr-Nd data suggest that their parental magmas have originated from high degree melting of the Macururé micaschists. Field observations support a model in which the Macururé domain, limited by the Belo Monte-Jeremoabo and São Miguel do Aleixo shear zones, behaved as a ductile channel flow for magma migration and emplacement during the Neoproterozoic, very much like the channel flow model proposed for emplacement of leucogranites in the Himalayas.  相似文献   

Dinosaur ichnofauna of the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous of the Paraná Basin (Brazil and Uruguay)     

《Journal of South American Earth Sciences》2015

Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous sedimentary layers are represented in the Brazilian Paraná Basin by the fluvio–aeolian Guará Formation and the Botucatu Formation palaeoerg, respectively, overlapped by the volcanic Serra Geral Formation. In Uruguay, the corresponding sedimentary units are named Batoví and Rivera Members (both from the Tacuarembó Formation), and the lava flows constitute the Arapey Formation (also in Paraná Basin). Despite the lack of body fossils in the mentioned Brazilian formations, Guará/Batoví dinosaur fauna is composed of theropod, ornithopod and wide–gauge sauropod tracks and isolated footprints, as well as theropod teeth. In turn, the Botucatu/Rivera dinosaur fauna is represented by theropod and ornithopod ichnofossils smaller than those from the underlying units. The analysis of these dinosaur ichnological records and comparisons with other global Mesozoic ichnofauna indicates that there is a size reduction in dinosaur fauna in the more arid Botucatu/Rivera environment, which is dominated by aeolian dunes. The absence of sauropod trackways in the Botucatu Sandstone fits with the increasingly arid conditions because it is difficult for heavy animals to walk on sandy dunes, as well as to obtain the required amount of food resources. This comparison between the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous dinosaur fauna in south Brazil and Uruguay demonstrates the influence of aridization on the size of animals occupying each habitat.  相似文献   

Remote sensing and geophysical survey applications for delineating near-surface palaeochannels and shallow aquifer in the United Arab Emirates     

Samy Ismail Elmahdy  Mohamed Mostafa Mohamed 《国际地球制图》2015,30(7):723-736

This study integrates remote sensing data and geoelectrical dipole–dipole resistivity to delineate near-surface palaeochannels and shallow aquifer in the northern part of Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates. The shuttle imaging radar images and shuttle radar topographic mission DEM were used to delineate near-surface palaeochannels visually based on the contrast between bright and dark tone and automatically using the eight-direction flow model. The delineated palaeochannels were validated by comparing the textural features evident from advanced land observing satellite-phased array type L-band synthetic aperture radar images and determining whether these patterns were different. Field observation and geoelectrical dipole–dipole resistivity method was used to define the depth of palaeochannels and lithology of the shallow aquifer. The remote sensing and geophysical investigations in the UAE, including the study area, indicate the presence of buried palaeochannels with south-west and north-west flow directions from Oman Mountain. The study area can be of economic importance to the local population.  相似文献   

Visualizing spatiotemporal trajectories of mobile social media users using space–time cube     

Chen Xu  Han Qin  Manzhu Yu 《制图学和地理信息科学》2015,42(4):75-83

The implementation of social network applications on mobile platforms has significantly elevated the activity of mobile social networking. Mobile social networking offers a channel for recording an individual’s spatiotemporal behaviors when location-detecting capabilities of devices are enabled. It also facilitates the study of time geography on an individual level, which has previously suffered from a scarcity of georeferenced movement data. In this paper, we report on the use of georeferenced tweets to display and analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of daily user trajectories. For georeferenced tweets having both location information in longitude and latitude values and recorded creation time, we apply a space–time cube approach for visualization. Compared to the traditional methodologies for time geography studies such as the travel diary-based approach, the analytics using social media data present challenges broadly associated with those of Big Data, including the characteristics of high velocity, large volume, and heterogeneity. For this study, a batch processing system has been developed for extracting spatiotemporal information from each tweet and then creating trajectories of each individual mobile Twitter user. Using social media data in time geographic research has the benefits of study area flexibility, continuous observation and non-involvement with contributors. For example, during every 30-minute cycle, we collected tweets created by about 50,000 Twitter users living in a geographic region covering New York City to Washington, DC. Each tweet can indicate the exact location of its creator when the tweet was posted. Thus, the linked tweets show a Twitter users’ movement trajectory in space and time. This study explores using data intensive computing for processing Twitter data to generate spatiotemporal information that can recreate the space–time trajectories of their creators.  相似文献   

Mediterranean cities under fire. A critical approach to the wildland–urban interface     

《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2015

Wildfires are widely reviewed as key inputs to Mediterranean ecosystems. However, research is often flawed by major biases. (1) The approach adopted by most planners focusing on forest fires dismisses the human dimension of fire as a component of agricultural production systems. (2) The Wildland–Urban Interface (WUI) concept postulates that cities and wildlands/wildfires are, and should remain, worlds apart, a statement whose truth is increasingly questioned by recent disastrous “urban wildfires”. (3) The Mediterranean Basin as a fire-prone area is all the more fantasized, as it is almost never studied as a whole.The present paper takes a critical view of city–wildland/wildfire interrelationships through a large-scale study of the Mediterranean Basin based on MODIS MCD12Q1 (Land Cover Type) and MCD45A1 (Burned Area Product) data collected between 2001 and 2013. The Mediterranean is an ideal place to investigate, as its human-dominated and urbanized landscapes are known to be extremely vulnerable to fire hazards. Data processing reveals that (wild)fires and cities maintain indissoluble ties, as if both elements could not be considered mutually exclusive on a geographical basis. Urban sprawl, reduced rural autonomies, changes in forest covers, old agricultural practices, and military conflicts provide the framework for an extended mitigation process challenging the WUI concept as a space divider.  相似文献   

半干旱沙地-草甸区水面蒸发模拟及其影响因子辨识   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

童新  刘廷玺  杨大文  段利民  吴尧  王天帅  王海燕  高肖彦 《干旱区地理》2015,38(1):10-17

在分析半干旱沙地—草甸区的水面蒸发过程及其影响因子的基础上,采用多元逐步回归分析方法,对水面蒸发的众多影响因子进行逐步筛选,找出显著影响因子,建立水面蒸发与其显著影响因子间的多元非线性回归模型,并模拟计算了彭曼蒸发公式、道尔顿水汽运输理论蒸发公式中的风函数,比较分析了彭曼模型、变异道尔顿模型、多元非线性回归模型计算的水面蒸发量。结果表明:彭曼模型、变异道尔顿模型和最终建立的多元非线性逐步回归模型所得结果十分接近,与实测水面蒸发量的趋势也很一致;除变异道尔顿模型稳定性稍差外,其余两者都具有较好的稳定性;多元非线性逐步回归方法可以找到水面蒸发的显著影响因子,剔除掉不显著影响因子,避免因子相关造成的影响,使所建回归模型具有良好的拟合效果,其决定系数达到了0.773,预测结果令人满意。  相似文献