A comparison of the use of X-ray and neutron tomographic core scanning techniques for drilling projects: insights from scanning core recovered during the Alpine Fault Deep Fault Drilling Project

Abstract. It is now commonplace for non-destructive X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans to be taken of core recovered during a drilling project. However, other forms of tomographic scanning are available, and these may be particularly useful for core that does not possess significant contrasts in density and/or atomic number to which X-rays are sensitive. Here, we compare CT and neutron tomography (NT) scans of 85 mm diameter core recovered during the first phase of the Deep Fault Drilling Project (DFDP-1) through New Zealand's Alpine Fault. For the instruments used in this study, the highest resolution images were collected in the NT scans. This allows clearer imaging of some rock features than in the CT scans. However, we observe that the highly neutron beam attenuating properties of DFDP-1 core diminish the quality of images towards the interior of the core. A comparison is also made of the suitability of these two scanning techniques for a drilling project. We conclude that CT scanning is far more favourable in most circumstances. Nevertheless, it could still be beneficial to take NT scans over limited intervals of suitable core, where varying contrast is desired. </jats:p

Geodetic constraints on cratonic microplates and broad strain during rifting of thick Southern African lithosphere

Southern Africa is typically considered to belong to a single tectonic plate, Nubia, despite active faulting along the southwestern branch of the East African Rift System. We analyze regional Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements, and find that the “San” microplate, situated south of the southwestern branch of the East African Rift, is statistically distinct from Nubia, with 0.4–0.7 mm/yr of extension across the boundary. Adding nine new campaign GNSS sites, we show that the extension rate across the southern Malawi Rift is 2.2 ± 0.3 mm/yr, with 75% of the relative velocity occurring over 890 km, despite the surface expression of faulting being <150 km wide. Thus, for the first time, we use geodetic measurements to describe the accommodation of strain in broad zones between Archean cratons in southern Africa's thick continental lithosphere

A systems-based approach to parameterise seismic hazard in regions with little historical or instrumental seismicity:Active fault and seismogenic source databases for southern Malawi

Seismic hazard is commonly characterised using instrumental seismic records. However, these records are short relative to earthquake repeat times, and extrapolating to estimate seismic hazard can misrepresent the probable location, magnitude, and frequency of future large earthquakes. Although paleoseismology can address this challenge, this approach requires certain geomorphic setting, is resource intensive, and can carry large inherent uncertainties. Here, we outline how fault slip rates and recurrence intervals can be estimated by combining fault geometry, earthquake-scaling relationships, geodetically derived regional strain rates, and geological constraints of regional strain distribution. We apply this approach to southern Malawi, near the southern end of the East African Rift, and where, although no on-fault slip rate measurements exist, there are constraints on strain partitioning between border and intra-basin faults. This has led to the development of the South Malawi Active Fault Database (SMAFD), a geographical database of 23 active fault traces, and the South Malawi Seismogenic Source Database (SMSSD), in which we apply our systems-based approach to estimate earthquake magnitudes and recurrence intervals for the faults compiled in the SMAFD. We estimate earthquake magnitudes of MW 5.4–7.2 for individual fault sections in the SMSSD and MW 5.6–7.8 for whole-fault ruptures. However, low fault slip rates (intermediate estimates ∼ 0.05–0.8 mm/yr) imply long recurrence intervals between events: 102–105 years for border faults and 103–106 years for intra-basin faults. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the large range of these estimates can best be reduced with improved geodetic constraints in southern Malawi. The SMAFD and SMSSD provide a framework for using geological and geodetic information to characterise seismic hazard in regions with few on-fault slip rate measurements, and they could be adapted for use elsewhere in the East African Rift and globally

Structural inheritance and border fault reactivation during active early-stage rifting along the Thyolo fault, Malawi

We present new insights on the geometry, initiation and growth of the Thyolo fault, an 85 km long active border fault in the southern Malawi Rift, from high-resolution topography, field and microstructural observations. The Thyolo fault is located towards the edge of the Proterozoic Unango Terrane, and is the border fault of the Lower Shire Graben, which has experienced four phases of extension since the Jurassic. Recent activity is demonstrated by an 18.6 ± 7.7 m high fault scarp, with two substantial reductions in scarp height along strike. However, the segment boundaries suggested by these displacement measurements do not coincide with changes in fault strike. Elsewhere, a ∼5 km long fault perpendicular scarp joins two overlapping sections, yet the scarp height in this linking section is similar to the bounding sections, and there is no evidence of significant pre-linkage strain accumulation. Microstructural analyses along the fault show a 15–45 m thick footwall damage zone with a 0.7 m thick core. We suggest that favourably-oriented, pre-existing shallow structures control changes in surface geometry and the narrow fault core, whereas exploitation of weak ductile zones at depth, possibly associated with the terrane boundary, control the displacement profile of the fault

Age-Based Dynamics of a Stable Circulating Cd8 T Cell Repertoire Component

T-cell memory to pathogens can be envisioned as a receptor-based imprint of the pathogenic environment on the naive repertoire of clonotypes. Recurrent exposures to a pathogen inform and reinforce memory, leading to a mature state. The complexity and temporal stability of this system in man is only beginning to be adequately described. We have been using a rank-frequency approach for quantitative analysis of CD8 T cell repertoires. Rank acts as a proxy for previous expansion, and rank-frequency, the number of clonotypes at a particular rank, as a proxy for abundance, with the relation of the two estimating the diversity of the system. Previous analyses of circulating antigen-experienced cytotoxic CD8 T-cell repertoires from adults have shown a complex two-component clonotype distribution. Here we show this is also the case for circulating CD8 T cells expressing the BV19 receptor chain from five adult subjects. When the repertoire characteristic of clonotype stability is added to the analysis, an inverse correlation between clonotype rank frequency and stability is observed. Clonotypes making up the second distributional component are stable; indicating that the circulation can be a depot of selected clonotypes. Temporal repertoire dynamics was further examined for influenza-specific T cells from children, middle-aged, and older adults. Taken together, these analyses describe a dynamic process of system development and aging, with increasing distributional complexity, leading to a stable circulating component, followed by loss of both complexity and stability

Asymptotics for turbulent flame speeds of the viscous G-equation enhanced by cellular and shear flows

G-equations are well-known front propagation models in turbulent combustion and describe the front motion law in the form of local normal velocity equal to a constant (laminar speed) plus the normal projection of fluid velocity. In level set formulation, G-equations are Hamilton-Jacobi equations with convex ($L^1$ type) but non-coercive Hamiltonians. Viscous G-equations arise from either numerical approximations or regularizations by small diffusion. The nonlinear eigenvalue $\bar H$ from the cell problem of the viscous G-equation can be viewed as an approximation of the inviscid turbulent flame speed $s_T$. An important problem in turbulent combustion theory is to study properties of $s_T$, in particular how $s_T$ depends on the flow amplitude $A$. In this paper, we will study the behavior of $\bar H=\bar H(A,d)$ as $A\to +\infty$ at any fixed diffusion constant $d > 0$. For the cellular flow, we show that $$\bar H(A,d)\leq O(\sqrt {\mathrm {log}A}) \quad \text{for all $d>0$}.$$ Compared with the inviscid G-equation ($d=0$), the diffusion dramatically slows down the front propagation. For the shear flow, the limit \nit $\lim_{A\to +\infty}{\bar H(A,d)\over A} = \lambda (d) >0$ where $\lambda (d)$ is strictly decreasing in $d$, and has zero derivative at $d=0$. The linear growth law is also valid for $s_T$ of the curvature dependent G-equation in shear flows.Comment: 27 pages. We improve the upper bound from no power growth to square root of log growt