Hypsometry, Volume and Physiography of the Arctic Ocean and Their Paleoceanographic Implications

Recent analyses of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) grid model include: Hypsometry (the distribution of surface area at various depths); ocean volume distribution; and physiographic provinces [Jakobsson 2002; Jakobsson et al., in press]. The present paper summarizes the main results from these recent studies and expands on the paleoceanographic implications for the Arctic Ocean, which in this work is defined as the broad continental shelves of the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi Seas, the White Sea and the narrow continental shelves of the Beaufort Sea, the Arctic continental margins off the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and northern Greenland. This, the Worlds smallest ocean, is a virtually land-locked ocean that makes up merely 2.6 % of the area, and 1.0 % of the volume, of the entire World Ocean. The continental shelf area, from the coastline out to the shelf break, comprises as much as 52.9 % of the total area in the Arctic Ocean, which is significantly larger in comparison to the rest of the world oceans where the proportion of shelves, from the coastline out to the foot of the continental slope, only ranges between about 9.1 % and 17.7 %. In Jakobsson [2002], the seafloor area and water volume were calculated for different depths starting from the present sea level and progressing in increments of 10 m to a depth of 500 m, and in increments of 50 m from 550 m down to the deepest depth within each of the analyzed Arctic Ocean seas. Hypsometric curves expressed as simple histograms of the frequencies in different depth bins were presented, along with depth plotted against cumulative area for each of the analyzed seas. The derived hypsometric curves show that most of the Arctic Ocean shelf seas besides the Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea and the shelf off northern Greenland have a similar shape with the largest seafloor area between 0 and 50 m. The East Siberian and Laptev seas, in particular, show area distributions concentrated in this shallow depth range, and together with the Chukchi Sea they form a large flat shallow shelf province comprising as much as 22 Besides being the world’s smallest ocean with the by far largest shelf area in proportion to its size, the Arctic Ocean is unique in terms of its physiographic setting. The Fram Strait is the only real break in the barrier of vast continental shelves enclosing the Arctic Ocean. The second largest physiographic province after the continental shelves consists of ridges, which is in contrast to the rest of the World’s oceans where abyssal plains dominate. As much as 15.8 % of the area is underlain by ridges indicating the profound effect they have on ocean circulation

Arctic Ocean Physiography

The first order physiographic provinces of the Arctic Ocean has been defined using the recently updated International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) grid model as the main database and a semi-quantitative approach. The first step in our classification of physiographic provinces is an evaluation of seafloor gradients contained in a slope model that was derived from the IBCAO grid. The slope information reveals certain seafloor process-related features, which add to the bathymetric information. Using interactive 3D-visualization, the slope and bathymetric information were simultaneously analyzed and certain slope intervals of the Arctic Ocean seafloor were found to generally characterize major physiographic provinces. This information was used for the initial classification, although in certain locations gradual changes in bottom inclination made it difficult to detect transitions between some physiographic provinces, as for example, the transition between continental rise and slope, as well as between the rise and abyssal plain. In these cases some manual intervention was required guided by generated bathymetric profiles. The areas of the provinces we classified are individually calculated, and their morphologies are subsequently discussed in the context of the geologic evolution of the Arctic Ocean Basin as described in the published literature. In summary, our study: provides a physiographic classification of the Arctic Ocean sea floor according to the most up-to-date bathymetric model and addresses the geologic origin of the prominent features as well as provides areal computations of the defined first order physiographic provinces and of the most prominent second-order features

Corporate Social performance and Financial Characteristics

Whereas firms traditionally have been evaluated solely on financial criteria, contemporary firms are also evaluated on various non-financial criteria, including Corporate Social Performance (CSP). Such data is useful in the pursuit of evidence of a relationship between CSP and various financial characteristics, including financial performance. Evidence on such relationships is valuable from many perspectives. It is valuable to managers who seek to improve their understanding of the ways in which CSP interacts with firm characteristics, it is valuable to investors who seek to improve their understanding of how CSP relates to financial asset characteristics, and ultimately it is valuable to regulators who seek to improve their understanding of the firms financial incentive to self-regulate on corporate social responsibility issues. This paper presents a cross-sectional analysis comparing environmental, social and corporate governance performance with financial characteristics of 237 Australian firms over the August 1997 to July 2003 period. The analysis allows for some heterogeneity in CSP-financial characteristics relationships related to company size, trading history and industry, which provides valuable additional information on such relationships. Findings indicate that the financial incentive to self-regulate on environmental criteria is weak and contingent on industry. The financial incentive to self-regulate on social criteria is marginally stronger and less contingent on industry. The financial incentive to self-regulate on governance criteria is very strong across the board, though it is particularly strong within the banking, diversified financials, insurance and telecommunications industries. This is indicated both by a significant positive association between governance and financial performance and very strong significant negative association between governance and risk. Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to Corporate Monitor and the Securities Industry Research Centre of Asia-Pacific (SIRCA) for supplying data and support.Corporate environmental performance, corporate social performance, corporate governance performance

Conference Report on the Economics of Commodity Prices and Exchange Rates

This report contains information about the sessions, papers, speakers and participants in the conference on the Economics of Commodity Prices and Exchange Rates held at the University Club at UWA on 9 June, 2006.

Soldiers or saints?: Norwegian civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) in Afghanistan

Since the end of the Cold War a more complex civil-military interface has emerged, and with it a variety of doctrines and policies concerning civil-military cooperation and coordination. This study focuses on the NATO concept Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC), and the Norwegian CIMIC capability. Norwegian CIMIC aspires to follow the CIMIC doctrine of NATO. Yet, in this study Lene Kristoffersen argues that the Norwegian approach in Afghanistan did not wholly concur with NATO’s doctrine. On these grounds, she questions whether different operational realities require an elastic NATO CIMIC concept? And if so, how can it be combined with the goal of achieving unity of effort and a common understanding of the concept in the operational theatre? How can the thin line between the military and civilian spheres be demarcated? Are NATO CIMIC officers supposed to act like soldiers or saints

Om palataler, men fra en fonologisk synsvinkel

Artikkelen er en diskusjon i hvilken grad settet av palatale segmenter som finnes i ulike norske dialekter lar seg gjøre rede for innenfor de ulike måtene å representere palatale segmenter på vi finner innenfor generativ fonolog