Increased fluid flow activity in shallow sediments at the 3 km Long Hugin Fracture in the central North Sea

The North Sea hosts a wide variety of seafloor seeps that may be important for transfer of chemical species, such as methane, from the Earth's interior to its exterior. Here we provide geochemical and geophysical evidence for fluid flow within shallow sediments at the recently discovered, 3-km long Hugin Fracture in the Central North Sea. Although venting of gas bubbles was not observed, concentrations of dissolved methane were significantly elevated (up to six-times background values) in the water column at various locations above the fracture, and microbial mats that form in the presence of methane were observed at the seafloor. Seismic amplitude anomalies revealed a bright spot at a fault bend that may be the source of the water column methane. Sediment porewaters recovered in close proximity to the Hugin Fracture indicate the presence of fluids from two different shallow (<500m) sources: (i) a reduced fluid characterized by elevated methane concentrations and/or high levels of dissolved sulfide (up to 6 mmol L−1), and (ii) a low-chlorinity fluid (Cl ∼305 mmol L−1) that has low levels of dissolved methane and/or sulfide. The area of the seafloor affected by the presence of methane-enriched fluids is similar to the footprint of seepage from other morphological features in the North Sea

Bridging Legends and Science: Field Evidence of a Large Tsunami that Affected the Kingdom of Tonga in the 15th Century

The pre-colonial history (i.e. before the 16th century) of Tonga and West Polynesia still suffers from major gaps despite significant scientific advances in recent years, particularly in the field of archaeology. By the 14th century, the powerful Tu’i Tonga kingdom united the islands of the Tongan archipelago under a centralised authority and, according to tradition, extended its influence to neighbouring island groups in the Central Pacific. However, some periods of deep crisis were identified, e.g. in the mid- 15th century, marked by an abrupt cessation of inter-archipelago migration on the deep seas in the Pacific, significant cultural changes, and a decrease in accessible natural resources. The origins of these disturbances are still debated, and they are usually assigned to internal political problems or loss of external influence vis-à-vis neighboring chiefdoms. However, the hypothesis of a major natural disaster was rarely suggested up to now, while field evidence points to the occurrence of a very large tsunami in the past, including the presence of numerous megablocks that were deposited by a “red wave” (orpeau kula, which also mean tsunami in the Tongan language) according to a local myth. Drawing on a body of new evidence from sedimentary signatures and radiocarbon dating of charcoal and marine bioclasts, geomorphology, and sedimentology, in support of previously published archaeological data, we argue that a large tsunami inundated large areas of Tongatapu island in the mid-15th century with runup heights up to 30 m, and that the Tu’i Tonga kingdom was severely impacted by this event. We also discuss the likely sources of this tsunami.</jats:p

Dynamic replication strategies in data grid systems: A survey

In data grid systems, data replication aims to increase availability, fault tolerance, load balancing and scalability while reducing bandwidth consumption, and job execution time. Several classification schemes for data replication were proposed in the literature, (i) static vs. dynamic, (ii) centralized vs. decentralized, (iii) push vs. pull, and (iv) objective function based. Dynamic data replication is a form of data replication that is performed with respect to the changing conditions of the grid environment. In this paper, we present a survey of recent dynamic data replication strategies. We study and classify these strategies by taking the target data grid architecture as the sole classifier. We discuss the key points of the studied strategies and provide feature comparison of them according to important metrics. Furthermore, the impact of data grid architecture on dynamic replication performance is investigated in a simulation study. Finally, some important issues and open research problems in the area are pointed out

The influence of weathering process on riverine osmium isotopes in a basaltic terrain

This study presents Os isotope and comprehensive major and trace element data for the dissolved load, suspended particulates and bedload for Icelandic rivers, draining predominantly basaltic catchments that range in age from historic to ca. 12 Ma. Hydrothermal waters and precipitation have also been analysed. Both Os and Re concentrations are greater in the suspended load than the bedload, while Re / Os ratios are lower, suggesting that both elements are concentrated in weathering resistant minerals. Despite this elemental fractionation the suspended particulates and bedload for each river yield indistinguishable 187Os / 188Os isotope compositions that range from 0.136 to 0.292. In contrast, the dissolved load (< 0.2 μm filtered) often possesses a significantly more radiogenic Os isotope composition than the corresponding suspended or bed load with 187Os / 188Os ratios ranging from 0.15 to 1.04. The isotope and elemental data for the dissolved load can be explained in terms of an unradiogenic contribution from congruent basalt weathering (and/or hydrothermal input) and a radiogenic contribution that arises from two distinct processes. For the glacier-fed rivers there is a covariation between 187Os / 188Os and the extent of glacial cover in the catchment, and this is most readily explained by the entrainment of seawater aerosols into precipitation and subsequent glacial melting. While for direct-runoff (and spring-fed rivers) there is a covariation between 187Os/188Os and the age of the bedrock in the catchment, that cannot be explained by congruent weathering of old basalt. Calculations indicate that those direct-runoff rivers with radiogenic 187Os/188Os values are also undersaturated with respect to the primary basalt minerals olivine, pyroxene and plagioclase, indicating that these phases are unstable and prone to preferential dissolution. Published Re–Os isotope data indicate that the same phases possess exceptionally high 187Re / 188Os ratios and thus evolve to radiogenic 187Os/188Os compositions in very short time intervals. Taken together, these results indicate that incongruent (preferential) weathering of certain primary basalt minerals can impart a radiogenic Os isotope composition to the dissolved riverine load. Nevertheless, overall the Os isotope signal to the Oceans from Icelandic rivers is little affected because rivers with unradiogenic 187Os/188Os values and a high discharge dominate the Os flux