Schematic Structural Design for Center for Centering (C4C)

The Center for Centering (C4C) is a meditative center for individuals to reflect and discover their own creativity. Based on a spoke and wheel concept, the center integrates social, sensory, environmental, and inductive spaces, allowing for individuals to discover themselves in different settings, while appearing as a striking sculpture conceived in a spiral gesture integrated in the local landscape. The location for this structure is in Santa Cruz, CA, on Swanton Ranch. The building is built on mostly flat terrain surrounded by sparse trees and an overlooking view of the ocean. The initial concept for the Center for Centering is inspired by the naturally layered structure of a succulent. This project is intended to be a place where residents can self-reflect and discover their own creativity in the direct contact of nature. The C4C structural dome houses four different experiential spaces; a social space within the dome, for connecting with others; surrounded by warm timber elements and shaded by the shadows of the woven dome, with a light breeze blowing past you and through the building. An inductive space, representing a place for solitude; for meditation; for quiet reflection.  A shallow indent on the floor will be filled with small clay balls, providing a space for visitors to lay back and relax, gazing up to the open sky above that will be visible through a ceiling opening resembling a human shape, reflecting in spirit the person lying down. A sensory space; a space with a large gong-like bowl affixed to one wall, inviting visitors to touch it, to engage with the bowl to emit sound that will resonate in the space, in the visitors’ ears, as well as through their body. And lastly, an environmental space; incorporating movement by inviting visitors to wander through a floor-level labyrinth. The main goal of the senior project design team was to provide two clients, Marcos Lutyens and Cynthia Campoy Brophy, with a practical schematic design that can be used to present the project to possible donors. By joining ARCH 551 for the quarter, the team was tasked to the “structures group”, whose goal would be to absorb architectural ideas and feedback from architects, professors, clients, and others, then assess the structural viability of them. Through the experience of the design team, the team was able to give the clients a more engineering-focused viewpoint. The structure of the building is composed of discontinuous timber pieces that form the main diagrid form of the main dome. The members are pin-connected, with a compression ring at the tip and where the dome meets the walls of the sensory spaces. The bottom of the dome is supported by concrete columns that curve in-plane to allow the form of the dome structure to be fully realized to the foundation. The pathway is made up of a series of three-hinged arches, also made with discontinuous timber pieces. The three spaces at the Northern face of the dome are designed with concrete, to allow for the free-form shapes which the architecture demands

Oxygen-isotope ratios in the Blue Glacier, Olympic Mountains, Washington, U.S.A.

The mean per mil deviation from a standard (average ocean water) in the O^(18)/O^(16) ratio of 291 specimens of ice, firn, snow, and rain from the Blue Glacier is −12.4; extremes are −8.6 and −19.2. This is consistent with the moist temperate climatological environment. The O^(18)/O^(16) ratio of snow decreases with declining temperature of precipitation, and it also decreases with increasing altitude at 0.5/100 meters. Analyses of the three principal types of ice, coarse-bubbly, coarse-clear, and fine, composing lower Blue Glacier, show that ratios for coarse-clear ice are generally lower and for fine ice they are mostly higher than the ratios for coarse-bubbly ice. This indicates that the fine ice represents masses of firn and snow recently incorporated into the glacier by filling of crevasses or by infolding in areas of severe deformation. Coarse-clear ice masses may represent fragments of coarse-bubbly ice within a breccia formed in the icefall. Because of unfavorable orientation, these fragments could have undergone exceptional recrystallization with reduction in air bubbles and, possibly, a relative decrease in O^(18). A longitudinal septum in the lower Blue Glacier is characterized by higher than normal O^(18)/O^(16) ratios. These values are consistent with an origin for this feature involving incorporation of much surficial snow and firn near the base of the icefall. Samples from longitudinal profiles on the ice tongue suggest that ice close to the snout comes from high parts of the accumulation area. Analyses from the light and dark bands of ogives are compatible with the concept that the dark bands represent greatly modified insets of firn-ice breccia filling icefall crevasses. The range in ratios of materials is much greater in the accumulation area than in the ice tongue. This is attributed to homogenization, much of which takes place during the conversion of snow to glacier ice. This is supported by comparative analyses of snow layers when first deposited and months later, after alteration. Refreezing of rain and meltwater percolating into underlying cold snow is an important mechanism as shown by analyses of ice layers and lenses in the firn formed in this manner

Six-year record of oxygen and hydrogen isotope variations in South Pole firn

Direct measurements of snow accumulation at stakes near the South Pole over a 6-year period (1958–1963) provide an unusual opportunity to check the reliability of accumulation and annual-layer determinations by stratigraphic and isotopic methods. The results are gratifying. Agreement between interpretations based on stratigraphic and isotopic data is excellent, and both are consistent with accumulation-stake measurements in nearly all respects. All three procedures indicate an average annual accumulation of 7 cm of water at the South Pole over the 1958–1963 interval. Isotope data suggest that depth-hoar formation may result in relative enrichment in O^(18). This could come about through partial recondensation of vapor generated within the depth-hoar layer accompanied by escape of residual vapor impoverished in O^(18)

Comments on Annual Rates of Accumulation in West Antarctica

Several maps have recently been prepared showing annual accumulation over much or all of Antarctica. These maps, based on surface measurements and on interpretations of pit stratigraphy, differ in detail but are reasonably comparable in broad aspects. Data of this type provide the basis for various recent estimates of mean annual precipitation in Antarctica ranging from 7 to 20 cm of water, with a median value near 14 and an average of about 11.5 cm. For many reasons, it is important that this figure be as accurate as possible. Well over five hundred analyses have been made of oxygen-isotope ratios (O^(18)/O^(16)) in snow samples from pits and bore holes at West Antarctic stations. These ratios display variations similar to those believed to be of seasonal origin in other areas. Greenland for example. If the variations in the accumulated Antarctic snow represent seasonal influences, they suggest annual accumulation rates 20 to 100 per cent higher than determined by other methods. The following comparative values (O^(18)/O^(16)) (determinations in parentheses) illustrate this point: South Pole, 7 (15); Byrd station, 18 (36); Little America V, 15-24 (30); Wilkes satelite, 13 (15). It is possible that annual accumulation rates in West Antarctica have generally been underestimated? It has not yet been established that the (O^(18)/O^(16) variations in the accumulated snow and firn or Antarctica are definitely of seasonal origin; some other type of cycle or influence may be represented. However, the consistency and large magnitude of those variations show that they are not the product of mere chance; a basic control of some sort is reflected. In our present state of knowledge seasonal control seems the most likely. The short time interval over which surface measurements of accumulation have been made and the uncertainties attending interpretations of pit stratigraphy in Antarctica arc such that every opportunity should be taken to check these methods by independent means, such as (O^(18)/O^(16) variations

Automated extraction of single H atoms with STM: tip state dependency

The atomistic structure of the tip apex plays a crucial role in performing reliable atomic-scale surface and adsorbate manipulation using scanning probe techniques. We have developed an automated extraction routine for controlled removal of single hydrogen atoms from the H:Si(100) surface. The set of atomic extraction protocols detect a variety of desorption events during scanning tunneling microscope (STM)-induced modification of the hydrogen-passivated surface. The influence of the tip state on the probability for hydrogen removal was examined by comparing the desorption efficiency for various classifications of STM topographs (rows, dimers, atoms, etc). We find that dimer-row-resolving tip apices extract hydrogen atoms most readily and reliably (and with least spurious desorption), while tip states which provide atomic resolution counter-intuitively have a lower probability for single H atom removal