Measuring radiation in the environment following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan

A group of scientists and technical staff from Toshiba Company, including Dr Hirokazu Kanai, undertook field trials at the station using a newly-developed, portable, two-dimensional gamma-ray visualization system known as a “Gamma Camera”

Pukekohe silt loam, Pukekohe Hill

Pukekohe Hill is an excellent starting point for the tour in various ways: it provides a commanding view of important market gardens developed within Ultisols, and associated landuse issues, and the Massey Memorial on the hilltop commemorates Irish-born, South Auckland identity William (‘Big Bill’) Fergusson Massey (1865-1925), Prime Minister of New Zealand 1912-1925, after whom Massey University is named. Pukekohe town has a population of about 23,000

Revision of the age and stratigraphic relationships of Hinemaiaia Tephra and Whakatane Ash, North Island, New Zealand, using distal occurrences in organic deposits

The stratigraphic and chronologic relationships of Hinemaiaia Tephra and Whakatane Ash are examined using distal tephras preserved in organic-rich deposits at five sites in eastern and northern North Island, New Zealand. A c. 10mm thick, unnamed white rhyolitic ash layer described at two of the sites (Tiniroto and Poukawa), and previously of disputed stratigraphic signillcance, also occurs at the other three sites (Kaipo, Rotomanuka, and Okoroire) as a primary airfall tephra. The tephra is derived from the Taupo Volcanic Centre and is correlated with Hinemaiaia Tephra (definition of Froggatt) using similarity of stratigraphic position, composition (ferromagnesian mineralogy and glass chemistry), and radiocarbon age. It stratigraphically overlies Whakatane Ash. The tephra underlying Whakatane Ash, and previously identified as Hinemaiaia Ash (definition of Vucetich & Pullar), is probably Motutere Tephra. Hinemaiaia Tephra has a mean age of old (T½) c. 4500 years, Whakatane Ash c. 4800 years. New ¹⁴C dates, obtained on peat or gyttja adjacent to these tephras, are (old T1/2, years B.P.): 4220 ± 60 (NZ316OA), 4490 ± 70 (Wk541)( above Hinemaiaia Tephra); 4470 ± 70 (Wk542) (below Hinemaiaia Tephra); 4800 ± 50 (NZ3161A), 4490 ±60 (Wk496), 4530 ± 60 (Wk497), 4260 ± 140 (Wk662) (below Hinemaiaia Tephra and above Whakatane Ash); 5210 ± 80 (NZ3162A), 4860 ±70 (Wk501), 4850 ± 80 (Wk660) (below Whakatane Ash). Based on the distal occurrences described here, the Hinemaiaia Tephra has a much more wide spread distribution than previously demonstrated, and may have been emplaced by a very powerful "above average" plinian eruption

Last resting place and legacy of Charles Heaphy, VC

Charles Heaphy is now recognised as a significant figure in the early European settlement of New Zealand and he also has an interesting geological connection that deserves wider recognition. Heaphy arrived in New Zealand on the Tory together with Ern(e)st Dieffenbach on 18th August, 1839, aged around 19. Employed then by Wakefield's New Zealand Company as a draughtsman, Heaphy was described by Sharp (2008. p. 25) as being a "general roustabout, explorer, surveyor, assistant naturalist, courier and verbal as well as visual propagandist". He went on to become best known as an excellent watercolour landscape artist (his early work showing "sensitivity to the clarity of the New Zealand light") (Sharp, 2008, p. 205), an explorer and surveyor, a parliamentarian, and for winning the Victoria Cross for his actions in the New Zealand (Maori land) wars

Connecting with tephras: principles, functioning, and applications of tephrochronology in Quaternary science

Tephrochronology is a unique method for linking and dating geological, palaeoecological, palaeoclimatic, or archaeological sequences or events. The method relies firstly on stratigraphy and the law of superposition, which apply in any study that connects or correlates deposits from one place to another. Secondly, it relies on characterising and hence identifying or ‘fingerprinting’ tephra layers using either physical properties evident in the field or those obtained from laboratory analysis, including mineralogical examination by optical microscopy or geochemical analysis of glass shards or crystals (e.g., Fe-Ti oxides, ferromagnesian minerals) using the electron microprobe and other tools. Thirdly, the method is enhanced when a numerical age is obtained for a tephra layer by (1) radiometric methods such as radiocarbon, fission-track, U-series, or Ar/Ar dating, (2) incremental dating methods including dendrochronology or varved sediments or layering in ice cores, or (3) age-equivalent methods such as palaeomagnetism or correlation with marine oxygen isotope stages or palynostratigraphy. Once known, that age can be transferred from one site to the next using stratigraphic methods and by matching compositional characteristics, i.e., comparing ‘fingerprints’ from each layer. Used this way, tephrochronology is an age-equivalent dating method

Conformal Models of Two-Dimensional Turbulence

Polyakov recently showed how to use conformal field theory to describe two-dimensional turbulence. Here we construct an infinite hierarchy of solutions, both for the constant enstrophy flux cascade, and the constant energy flux cascade. We conclude with some speculations concerning the stability and physical meaning of these solutions.Comment: 17 pages, PUPT-1362, uses harvmac and tables.tex (minor typos corrected

Stop 2 Kainui silt loam and Naike clay, Gordonton Rd

At this stop are several remarkable features both stratigraphic and pedological, and a “two-storied” soil, the Kainui silt loam alongside (in just a few places) the Naike clay. Both soils are Ultisols. The sequence of tephra beds and buried soil horizons spanning about 1 million years was exposed in 2007 by road works

Comments on a Covariant Entropy Conjecture

Recently Bousso conjectured the entropy crossing a certain light-like hypersurface is bounded by the surface area. We point out a number of difficulties with this conjecture.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, harvmac, eps

Renormalization Group Flows from Gravity in Anti-de Sitter Space versus Black Hole No-Hair Theorems

Black hole no-hair theorems are proven using inequalities that govern the radial dependence of spherically symmetric configurations of matter fields. In this paper, we analyze the analogous inequalities for geometries dual to renormalization group flows via the AdS/CFT correspondence. These inequalities give much useful information about the qualitative properties of such flows. For Poincare invariant flows, we show that generic flows of relevant or irrelevant operators lead to singular geometries. For the case of irrelevant operators, this leads to an apparent conflict with Polchinski's decoupling theorem, and we offer two possible resolutions to this problem.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, harvmac, epsf, references and comments adde

Project 0907: INTREPID – Enhancing tephrochronology as a global research tool through improved fingerprinting and correlation techniques and uncertainty modelling

In May, 2010, the inter-congress meeting of the INQUA International focus group on tephrochronology and volcanism (INTAV) was held in Kirishima City, southern Kyushu, Japan. INTAV was formed in 2007 at the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) congress held in Cairns. It replaced SCOTAV (Sub-commission on tephrochronology and volcanism), COT (Commission on tephrochronology), and earlier tephrarelated research groups dating back to the 1960s. Previous meetings of the group in the past two decades were held in the Yukon Territory, Canada (2005), France (1998), New Zealand (1994), and USA (1990). The venue for the 2010 meeting was the main hall of the Kokobu Civic Centre in Kirishima City, which was very generously provided free of charge by the Kirishima authorities in return partly for the delivery of two public lectures, one by David Lowe (“Connecting with our past: using tephras and archaeology to date the Polynesian settlement of Aotearoa/New Zealand”) and the other by Hiroshi Machida (“Widespread tephras originating from Kagoshima occurring in northeast Asia and adjacent seas”), on Sunday 9 May. Participants were treated to a personal welcome by the Mayor of Kirishima City, Shuji Maeda, followed by what appeared to be a very special (and delicious) banquet. However, this spread turned out to be standard lunch and dinner fare provided by the centre’s cafeteria and was enjoyed by participants throughout the meeting