On the peritidal cycles and their diagenetic evolution in the Lower Jurassic carbonates of the Calcare Massiccio Formation (Central Apennines)

This paper shows the environmental changes and high-frequency cyclicity recorded by Lower Jurassic shallow- water carbonates known as the Calcare Massiccio Formation which crop out in the central Apennines of Italy. Three types of sedimentary cycle bounded by subaerial erosion have been recognized: Type I consists of a shallowing upward cycle with oncoidal floatstones to rudstones passing gradationally up into peloidal packstone alternating with cryptoalgal laminites and often bounded by desiccation cracks and pisolitic-peloidal wackestones indicating a period of subaerial exposure. Type II shows a symmetrical trend in terms of facies arrangement with peloidal packstones and cryptoalgal laminites present both at the base and in the upper portion of the cycle, separated by oncoidal floatstones to rudstones. Type III displays a shallowing upward trend with an initial erosion surface overlain by oncoidal floatstones to rudstones that, in turn, are capped by pisolitic-peloidal wackestones and desiccation sheet cracks. Sheet cracks at the top of cycles formed during the initial phase of subaerial exposure were successively enlarged by dissolution during prolonged subaerial exposure. The following sea-level fall produced dissolution cavities in subtidal facies, while the successive sea-level rise resulted in the precipitation of marine cements in dissolution cavities. Spectral analysis revealed six peaks, five of which are consistent with orbital cycles. While a tectonic control cannot be disregarded, the main signal recorded by the sedimentary succession points toward a main control related to orbital forcing. High frequency sea-level fluctuations also controlled diagenetic processes

Certain Caddo Sites in the Ouachita Mountains of Southwestern Arkansas

In the last few years, we have had the opportunity to study a number of prehistoric Caddo Indian sites in the Ouachita Mountains of southwestern Arkansas through conducting archeological surveys of more than 2700 acres at three lakes constructed and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District. The three lakes are DeGray Lake on the Caddo River, Lake Ouachita on the Ouachita River, and Lake Greeson on the Little Missouri River. Our purpose in this article is to summarize the archeological character of the prehistoric Caddo sites in these three different parts of the Ouachita Mountains. We focus in particular on the material culture record of these prehistoric Caddo settlements—especially on the ceramic sherds found on them—and discuss when these sites may have been occupied by Caddo peoples

A Platform for Proactive, Risk-Based Slope Asset Management, Phase II

INE/AUTC 15.0

Interbasin Water Transfers and Water Scarcity in a Changing World: A Solution or a Pipedream?

The world is increasingly forced to face the challenge of how to ensure access to adequate water resources for expanding populations and economies, whilst maintaining healthy freshwater ecosystems and the vital services they provide. Now the growing impacts of climate change are exacerbating the problem of water scarcity in key regions of the world. One popular way for governments to distribute water more evenly across the landscape is to transfer it from areas with perceived surpluses, to those with shortages.While there is a long history of water transfers from ancient times, as many societies reach the limits of locally renewable water supplies increasingly large quantities of water are being moved over long distances, from one river basin to another. Since the beginning of dam building that marked the last half of the 1900s more that 364 large-scale interbasin water transfer schemes (IBTs) have been established that transfer around 400 km³ of water per year (Shiklomanov 1999). IBTs are now widely touted as the quick fix solution to meeting escalating water demands. One estimate suggests that the total number of largescale water transfer schemes may rise to between 760 and 1 240 by 2020 to transfer up to 800 km³ of water per year (Shiklomanov 1999).The wide range of IBT projects in place, or proposed, has provoked the preparation of this review, including seven case studies from around the globe. It builds on previous assessments and examines the costs and benefits of large scale IBTs. This report assesses related, emerging issues in sustaining water resources and ecosystems, namely the virtual water trade, expanding use of desalination, and climate change adaptation. It is based on WWF's 2007 publication "Pipedreams? Interbasin water transfers and water shortages".The report concludes that while IBTs can potentially solve water supply issues in regions of water shortage - they come with significant costs. Large scale IBTs are typically very high cost, and thus economically risky, and they usually also come with significant social and environmental costs; usually for both the river basin providing and the river basin receiving the water

EPISODIC UPLIFT OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS: EVIDENCE FROM U-PB DETRITAL ZIRCON GEOCHRONOLOGY AND LOW-TEMPERATURE THERMOCHRONOLOGY WITH A CHAPTER ON USING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION

The timing and processes of development of the high topography and high relief of the southern Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico has been controversial for over a hundred years. The Mesozoic and Paleozoic rocks in the region formed a 3-4 km thick sub-horizontal stratigraphy that resided at elevations of zero to minus 4 km at the end of the Cretaceous. These units have been differentially uplifted/subsided and are presently at elevations of -10 to 4 km elevations, and have been eroded from above the core of many Precambrian basement cored uplifts exposed in \u3e 4 km peaks. This study applies several different methodologies towards understanding the timing and relative importance of the events that uplifted and shaped the Rocky Mountains. These studies include incision studies (Chapter 1), detrital zircon analysis of Cenozoic fluvial deposits resting on the Rocky Mountain Erosion Surface (Chapter 2), and low temperature apatite fission track (AFT) and U-Th/He (AHe) low temperature thermochronology to look at differential cooling histories across the Rockies (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 investigates a project in which I designed and deployed a mobile device application for enhancing the traditional geoscience field education and research experience. Incision studies (Chapter 1) investigated the timing and rate of incision of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison by the Gunnison River. Canyon geometry is shaped by a headward-migrating knickzone presently located within the Painted Wall section of the Black Canyon. Average bedrock incision rates over the last 0.64 Ma surrounding the knickpoint vary from 150 m/Ma (downstream), to 400-550 m/Ma (within), to 90-95 m/Ma (upstream), suggesting it is a transient feature. Lava Creek B ash constrains strath terraces along a paleo-profile of the river. Within the paleo-Bostwick River tributary, we determine an incision rate of 400-550 m/Ma, reflecting incision at 2-3 times regional incision rates. We interpret this to be incision response to a headward-migrating wave of transient incision, potentially initiated by downstream base level fall during abandonment of Unaweep Canyon at about 1 Ma. Rate extrapolation indicates that the ~700 m depth of Black Canyon has been eroded since 1.3 – 1.75 Ma. The Black Canyon knickpoint overlies a strong gradient between low velocity mantle under the Colorado Rockies and higher velocity mantle of the Colorado Plateau. We interpret drainage reorganization and transient incision of both the Gunnison and upper Colorado River systems to be responding to mantle-driven epeirogenic uplift of the southern Rockies in the last 10 Ma. This study (Chapter 2) investigates the timing of erosion and deposition of several fragmented and little-understood conglomerate and sedimentary units, which are then used to better understand the timing of formation of the enigmatic Rocky Mountain Erosion Surface. Detrital zircon studies reclassify the Telluride Conglomerate and Blanco Basin Formation as being of Oligocene age, with maximum depositional ages of 30±3 Ma. This requires new understanding of the uplift of the San Juan Mountain regions, as we interpret these units to be the conglomeratic/sedimentary response to pre-volcanic epeirogenic doming and unroofing. This study also expands into New Mexico to investigate the depositional timing of the Paleocene-Eocene age McDermott, Galisteo and Baca Formations, and the Oligocene-age El Rito Formation and Ritito Conglomerate; each of these units rests upon the diachronous Rocky Mountain Erosion Surface and grades upward into volcanic deposits; these units are interpreted to be a sedimentary record of the multi-stage uplift of the Rocky Mountains. At each age, these units record the repeated process of doming and unroofing of basement rocks accompanying magmatism, deposition of thin gravel-sand sheets above regional unconformities, deposition of voluminous volcaniclastic aprons. This study suggests that relief has increased through time as the Rocky Mountain headwater regions of the fluvial systems that deposited progressively younger units of this study have gained in absolute elevation, while the ultimate base levels have remained the same or very similar. The third study (Chapter 3) moves to larger scales of both time and space in order to investigate uplift and exhumation histories on the regional scale. This study included a literature review and compilation of all published low-temperature thermochronology data (apatite fission track and apatite (U-Th)/He) (AHe) for the southern Rocky Mountain region and adds new apatite (U-Th)/He data on selected conglomeratic/sedimentary units to both add richness to the data base and to attempt to better constrain Oligocene burial histories. This study reinforces interpretations of a multi-stage uplift history to the Rocky Mountains by identifying regional episodes of rapid cooling that was driven by regional exhumation and differential uplift. Laramide cooling is investigated in compiled AFT and AHe data and age-elevation transects across the region. We notice spatial preservation of Laramide ages in Rocky Mountain thrust uplifts and elevation differences between the base of the Laramide-age AFT partial annealing zone, reinforcing models suggesting that Laramide cooling was driven by thrust uplifts that have not been reheated since uplift. New AHe data show that the Oligocene fluvial deposits were covered by ~1 km of volcaniclastic debris that likely extended westward onto the Colorado Plateau, refining understanding of the geometry and extent of the San Juan volcaniclastic apron. A delay of ~10 Ma between Oligocene magmatism and regional cooling through the 110-50ºC (AFT-AHe system) implies that post-Oligocene denudation was driven by erosional denudation following Oligocene surface uplift. Case studies highlight the semi-steady cooling of Oligocene plutons from ~30-15 Ma, followed by a potential ~20-10 Ma acceleration in cooling perhaps due to local faulting and/or uplift associated with Rio Grande rifting. Post-10 Ma cooling in areas not associated with the Rio Grande rift is compatible with models that incorporate regional integration of the Colorado River and Rio Grande to cause differential incision and localized rapid cooling. The fourth study highlights a project called Field Play. Our current human interaction with these landscapes is also of importance. The communication of science and education of Rockies both academic and public populations is of great importance as we have unprecedented access to information and rapidly evolving digital technologies. This project utilizes mobile technologies (smartphones, tablets) to augment the field experience. The goal of this project is to create a personalized, scalable and interactive educational learning environment which facilitates user exploration and access to robust geologic information. This project was featured in the New Mexico Geological Society\u27s 2014 Fall Field Conference, as well as being used in my own teaching of introductory environmental science classes. This project is ongoing

Proceedings of a Workshop on Antarctic Meteorite Stranding Surfaces

The discovery of large numbers of meteorites on the Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the most exciting developments in polar science in recent years. The meteorites are found on areas of ice called stranding surfaces. Because of the sudden availability of hundreds, and then thousands, of new meteorite specimens at these sites, the significance of the discovery of meteorite stranding surfaces in Antarctica had an immediate and profound impact on planetary science, but there is also in this discovery an enormous, largely unrealized potential to glaciology for records of climatic and ice sheet changes. The glaciological interest derives from the antiquity of the ice in meteorite stranding surfaces. This exposed ice covers a range of ages, probably between zero and more than 500,000 years. The Workshop on Antarctic Meteorite Stranding Surfaces was convened to explore this potential and to devise a course of action that could be recommended to granting agencies. The workshop recognized three prime functions of meteorite stranding surfaces. They provide: (1) A proxy record of climatic change (i.e., a long record of climatic change is probably preserved in the exposed ice stratigraphy); (2) A proxy record of ice volume change; and (3) A source of unique nonterrestrial material

Integration of hydrological and economic approaches to water and land management in Mediterranean climates: an initial case study in agriculture

A distinction is commonly drawn in Hydrology between ‘green’ and ‘blue water’ in accounting for total water availability in semi-arid regions. The criterion underlying this classification is important for successful water management, because it reveals how much natural water is and/or could be used by households, industry and, especially, agriculture. The relative share of green and blue water is generally treated as a constant. In recent years, a growing hydro-geological literature has focused on a phenomenon that significantly affects the stability of the green/blue water ratio. This is the increase in land cover density and its impact on runoff in regions with a Mediterranean climate, such as the Ebro Basin in Spain. We seek to carry this knowledge over into the parameters of disciplines concerned with the economic valuation of water and territorial resources, and translate it into the language used by water management professionals in the expectation that this contribution will improve the way we assess and account for real water availability. The heart of the matter is that the increasing density of forest cover produces both positive and negative environmental and economic impacts, presenting new economic and environmental problems that must be examined and assessed in a hydrological-economic context. We will show that these positive and negative effects are sufficiently important to merit attention, whether they are measured in physical or economic terms. Finally, we make an initial proposal for the economic valuation of some of the effects produced by these hydrological changes.blue water; green water; hydro-economic framework; water resources accounting

Geographical location and regional diversity of Poland

Published in: Natural environment of Poland and its protection in Łódź University Geographical Research, edited by E. Kobojek and T.Marsza

The potential of permanent gullies in Europe as geomorphosites

Geotourism is a useful way to educate societies in the field of geomorphology and natural hazards. Geosites, including geomorphosites, represent the basis for the development of this type of tourism. This study describes twelve representative gully regions within nine European countries. The characteristics of 42 permanent gullies, gully systems and badland landscapes are presented and a geotouristic assessment of these gullies was made, based on scientific, educational, functional and touristic indicators. This assessment demonstrates a large difference between the selected gully sites, particularly with regard to functional and tourist values. The geotouristic potential of gullies is the highest in Italy and Spain and the lowest in Romania and Latvia. In some countries, permanent gullies are not regarded as geotouristic attractions at all, while in others they constitute a significant element of their tourism development strategy. Based on the analysis of scientific values of the gully sites, educational lessons to be learned were identified that are mainly related to i) gullies as a geological window, ii) present-day geomorphological processes, and iii) stages of historical gully erosion reflecting past human-environment interactions. These must be part of a broader strategy for the development of geotourism in gully regions. Gullies are potential geosites within existing or planned geoparks. Values of gullies for other forms of tourism (active, cultural, nature), should be also emphasized