Tectonic implications of magnetic fabrics and remanence in the Cooper Mountain pluton, North Cascade Mountains, Washington

2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 1335-1356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy C Fawcett ◽  
Russell F Burmester ◽  
Bernard A Housen ◽  
Alexander Iriondo

Documenting the timing and kinematics of deformation in orogens is critical to unraveling their history. Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility defines the orientation of magnetic fabrics in the Eocene Cooper Mountain pluton in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington. The magnetic foliation typically has a steep dip and a northwest strike; the magnetic lineation plunges moderately to shallowly northwest or southeast. The remanent magnetization was measured to determine if the Cooper Mountain pluton has been tilted following emplacement. The remanence has two components. The characteristic remanence typically unblocks at 370 °C in most specimens, but at 580 °C in others. The two components are carried by pyrrhotite and magnetite. Mean directions of these components are indistinguishable from each other and from the North American expected Eocene direction. The paleomagnetic results and ~ 47 Ma 40Ar–39Ar total fusion ages from biotite suggest that there has been no remagnetization or significant reorientation of the pluton since emplacement. Therefore, the in situ magnetic fabrics from the pluton can be used to understand the kinematics. Discordance of the fabrics with the pluton margin and near concordance with regional structures suggests that they have a tectonic origin. Thus the Cooper Mountain pluton is syntectonic rather than posttectonic. The magmatic fabric is slightly oblique to the length of the Cascade orogen, which can be explained if it formed as a consequence of regional dextral shear during transpression.

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Richard D. Ray ◽  
Kristine M. Larson ◽  
Bruce J. Haines

Abstract New determinations of ocean tides are extracted from high-rate Global Positioning System (GPS) solutions at nine stations sitting on the Ross Ice Shelf. Five are multi-year time series. Three older time series are only 2–3 weeks long. These are not ideal, but they are still useful because they provide the only in situ tide observations in that sector of the ice shelf. The long tide-gauge observations from Scott Base and Cape Roberts are also reanalysed. They allow determination of some previously neglected tidal phenomena in this region, such as third-degree tides, and they provide context for analysis of the shorter datasets. The semidiurnal tides are small at all sites, yet M2 undergoes a clear seasonal cycle, which was first noted by Sir George Darwin while studying measurements from the Discovery expedition. Darwin saw a much larger modulation than we observe, and we consider possible explanations - instrumental or climatic - for this difference.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Edwards ◽  
Pierre Hélaouët ◽  
Eric Goberville ◽  
Alistair Lindley ◽  
Geraint A. Tarling ◽  
...  

AbstractIn the North Atlantic, euphausiids (krill) form a major link between primary production and predators including commercially exploited fish. This basin is warming very rapidly, with species expected to shift northwards following their thermal tolerances. Here we show, however, that there has been a 50% decline in surface krill abundance over the last 60 years that occurred in situ, with no associated range shift. While we relate these changes to the warming climate, our study is the first to document an in situ squeeze on living space within this system. The warmer isotherms are shifting measurably northwards but cooler isotherms have remained relatively static, stalled by the subpolar fronts in the NW Atlantic. Consequently the two temperatures defining the core of krill distribution (7–13 °C) were 8° of latitude apart 60 years ago but are presently only 4° apart. Over the 60 year period the core latitudinal distribution of euphausiids has remained relatively stable so a ‘habitat squeeze’, with loss of 4° of latitude in living space, could explain the decline in krill. This highlights that, as the temperature warms, not all species can track isotherms and shift northward at the same rate with both losers and winners emerging under the ‘Atlantification’ of the sub-Arctic.


2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (60) ◽  
pp. 257-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Rignot ◽  
I. Fenty ◽  
D. Menemenlis ◽  
Y. Xu

AbstractWe examine the pattern of spreading of warm subtropical-origin waters around Greenland for the years 1992–2009 using a high-resolution (4km horizontal grid) coupled ocean and sea-ice simulation. The simulation, provided by the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2) project, qualitatively reproduces the observed warming of subsurface waters in the subpolar gyre associated with changes of the North Atlantic atmospheric state that occurred in the mid-1990s. The modeled subsurface ocean temperature warmed by 1.5˚C in southeast and southwest Greenland during 1994–2005 and subsequently cooled by 0.5˚C; modeled subsurface ocean temperature increased by 2–2.5˚C in central and then northwest Greenland during 1997–2005 and stabilized thereafter, while it increased after 2005 by <0.5˚C in north Greenland. Comparisons with in situ measurements off the continental shelf in the Labrador and Irminger Seas indicate that the model initial conditions were 0.4˚C too warm in the south but the simulated warming is correctly reproduced; while measurements from eastern Baffin Bay reveal that the model initial conditions were 1.0˚C too cold in the northwest but the simulated ocean warming brought modeled temperature closer to observations, i.e. the simulated warming is 1.0˚C too large. At several key locations, the modeled oceanic changes off the shelf and below the seasonal mixed layer were rapidly transmitted to the shelf within troughs towards (model-unresolved) fjords. Unless blocked in the fjords by shallow sills, these warm subsurface waters had potential to propagate down the fjords and melt the glacier fronts. Based on model sensitivity simulations from an independent study (Xu and others, 2012), we show that the oceanic changes have very likely increased the subaqueous melt rates of the glacier fronts, and in turn impacted the rates of glacier flow.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léa Olivier ◽  
Jacqueline Boutin ◽  
Nathalie Lefèvre ◽  
Gilles Reverdin ◽  
Peter Landschützer ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Large oceanic eddies are formed by the retroflection of the North Brazil Current (NBC) near 8&amp;#176;N in the western tropical Atlantic. The EUREC&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;A-OA/Atomic cruise took place in January - February 2020, and extensively documented two NBC rings. The NBC flows northward across the Equator and pass the mouth of the Amazon River, entraining fresh and nutrient-rich water along its nearshore edge. From December to March, the Amazon river discharge is low but a freshwater filament stirred by a NBC ring was nevertheless observed. The strong salinity gradient can be used to delineate the NBC ring during its initial phase and its westward propagation. Using satellite sea surface salinity and ocean color associated to in-situ measurements of salinity, temperature, dissolved inorganic carbon, alkalinity and fugacity of CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; we characterize the salinity and biogeochemical signature of NBC rings.&lt;/p&gt;


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (17) ◽  
pp. 10087-10092 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Kattner ◽  
B. Mathieu-Üffing ◽  
J. P. Burrows ◽  
A. Richter ◽  
S. Schmolke ◽  
...  

Abstract. In 1997 the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) adopted MARPOL Annex VI to prevent air pollution by shipping emissions. It regulates, among other issues, the sulfur content in shipping fuels, which is transformed into the air pollutant sulfur dioxide (SO2) during combustion. Within designated Sulfur Emission Control Areas (SECA), the sulfur content was limited to 1 %, and on 1 January 2015, this limit was further reduced to 0.1 %. Here we present the set-up and measurement results of a permanent ship emission monitoring site near Hamburg harbour in the North Sea SECA. Trace gas measurements are conducted with in situ instruments and a data set from September 2014 to January 2015 is presented. By combining measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) and SO2 with ship position data, it is possible to deduce the sulfur fuel content of individual ships passing the measurement station, thus facilitating the monitoring of compliance of ships with the IMO regulations. While compliance is almost 100 % for the 2014 data, it decreases only very little in 2015 to 95.4 % despite the much stricter limit. We analysed more than 1400 ship plumes in total and for months with favourable conditions, up to 40 % of all ships entering and leaving Hamburg harbour could be checked for their sulfur fuel content.


Author(s):  
Tobias Orlander ◽  
Katrine Alling Andreassen ◽  
Ida Lykke Fabricius

Abstract Development of high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) petroleum reservoirs situated at depths exceeding 5 km and in situ temperature of 170 °C increases the demand for theories and supporting experimental data capable of describing temperature effects on rock stiffness. With the intention of experimentally investigating temperature effects on stiffness properties, we investigated three sandstones from the deep North Sea Basin. As the North Sea Basin is presently undergoing substantial subsidence, we assumed that studied reservoir sandstones have never experienced higher temperature than in situ. We measured ultrasonic velocities in a low- and high-stress regime, and used mass density and stress–strain curves to derive, respectively, dynamic and static elastic moduli. We found that in both regimes, the dry sandstones stiffens with increasing testing temperature and assign expansion of minerals as a controlling mechanism. In the low-stress regime with only partial microcrack closure, we propose closure of microcracks as the stiffening mechanism. In the high-stress regime, we propose that thermal expansion of constituting minerals increases stress in grain contacts when the applied stress is high enough for conversion of thermal strain to thermal stress, thus leading to higher stiffness at in situ temperature. We then applied an extension of Biot’s effective stress equation including a non-isothermal term from thermoelastic theory and explain test results by adding boundary conditions to the equations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1419-1444 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Ford ◽  
Johan van der Molen ◽  
Kieran Hyder ◽  
John Bacon ◽  
Rosa Barciela ◽  
...  

Abstract. Phytoplankton form the base of the marine food chain, and knowledge of phytoplankton community structure is fundamental when assessing marine biodiversity. Policy makers and other users require information on marine biodiversity and other aspects of the marine environment for the North Sea, a highly productive European shelf sea. This information must come from a combination of observations and models, but currently the coastal ocean is greatly under-sampled for phytoplankton data, and outputs of phytoplankton community structure from models are therefore not yet frequently validated. This study presents a novel set of in situ observations of phytoplankton community structure for the North Sea using accessory pigment analysis. The observations allow a good understanding of the patterns of surface phytoplankton biomass and community structure in the North Sea for the observed months of August 2010 and 2011. Two physical–biogeochemical ocean models, the biogeochemical components of which are different variants of the widely used European Regional Seas Ecosystem Model (ERSEM), were then validated against these and other observations. Both models were a good match for sea surface temperature observations, and a reasonable match for remotely sensed ocean colour observations. However, the two models displayed very different phytoplankton community structures, with one better matching the in situ observations than the other. Nonetheless, both models shared some similarities with the observations in terms of spatial features and inter-annual variability. An initial comparison of the formulations and parameterizations of the two models suggests that diversity between the parameter settings of model phytoplankton functional types, along with formulations which promote a greater sensitivity to changes in light and nutrients, is key to capturing the observed phytoplankton community structure. These findings will help inform future model development, which should be coupled with detailed validation studies, in order to help facilitate the wider application of marine biogeochemical modelling to user and policy needs.


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