ALBERT

Beschreibung: SUMMARY Displacement time-series recorded by Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers are a new type of near-field waveform observation of the seismic source. We have developed an inversion method which enables the recovery of an earthquake’s mechanism and centroid coordinates from such data. Our approach is identical to that of the ‘classical’ Centroid–Moment Tensor (CMT) algorithm, except that we forward model the seismic wavefield using a method that is amenable to the efficient computation of synthetic GPS seismograms and their partial derivatives. We demonstrate the validity of our approach by calculating CMT solutions using 1 Hz GPS data for two recent earthquakes in Japan. These results are in good agreement with independently determined source models of these events. With wider availability of data, we envisage the CMT algorithm providing a tool for the systematic inversion of GPS waveforms, as is already the case for teleseismic data. Furthermore, this general inversion method could equally be applied to other near-field earthquake observations such as those made using accelerometers.

Beschreibung: SUMMARY We present a new method for calculating dynamic and static displacements arising from a buried point source in a plane layered, isotropic, elastic half-space. We avoid the problem of the loss of precision in solutions for P - SV wave motion by integrating a system of minor vector equations with solutions constructed from pairs of solutions to the equations of motion in the frequency–wavenumber domain. The resulting algorithm is efficient, and numerically stable at zero frequency and at high frequencies, and thus can be used to compute complete synthetic seismograms that include the static offset. For the special case of the static deformation of a homogeneous half-space, we show that our results are equivalent to formulae that are often currently used in the geodetic community. An advantage of our method is that a single algorithm can be used to model both seismological and geodetic measurements of ground motion. We illustrate one seismological application of our method using continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) data obtained for a recent earthquake; seismograms calculated in a realistic layered crustal model emulate the observed dynamic and static displacements well. If the calculation is only carried out at 0 Hz, we obtain an image of the static surface deformation, and thus our method also has potential applications in the modelling of coseismic surface displacements measured with, for example, Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry.

Beschreibung: Nature Geoscience 9, 375 (2016). doi:10.1038/ngeo2688 Authors: David C. Lang, Ian Bailey, Paul A. Wilson, Thomas B. Chalk, Gavin L. Foster & Marcus Gutjahr The circulation and internal structure of the oceans exert a strong influence on Earth’s climate because they control latitudinal heat transport and the segregation of carbon between the atmosphere and the abyss. Circulation change, particularly in the Atlantic Ocean, is widely suggested to have been instrumental in the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation when large ice sheets first developed on North America and Eurasia during the late Pliocene, approximately 2.7 million years ago. Yet the mechanistic link and cause/effect relationship between ocean circulation and glaciation are debated. Here we present new records of North Atlantic Ocean structure using the carbon and neodymium isotopic composition of marine sediments recording deep water for both the Last Glacial to Holocene (35–5 thousand years ago) and the late Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene (3.3–2.4 million years ago). Our data show no secular change. Instead we document major southern-sourced water incursions into the deep North Atlantic during prominent glacials from 2.7 million years ago. Our results suggest that Atlantic circulation acts as a positive feedback rather than as an underlying cause of late Pliocene Northern Hemisphere glaciation. We propose that, once surface Southern Ocean stratification and/or extensive sea-ice cover was established, cold-stage expansions of southern-sourced water such as those documented here enhanced carbon dioxide storage in the deep ocean, helping to increase the amplitude of glacial cycles.

Beschreibung: The wetness of a watershed determines its response to precipitation, leading to variability in flood generation. The importance of total water storage - which includes snow, surface water, soil moisture and groundwater - for the predisposition of a region to flooding is less clear, in part because such comprehensive observations are rarely available. Here we demonstrate that basin-scale estimates of water storage derived from satellite observations of time-variable gravity can be used to characterize regional flood potential and may ultimately result in longer lead times in flood warnings. We use a case study of the catastrophic 2011 Missouri River floods to establish a relationship between river discharge, as measured by gauge stations, and basin-wide water storage, as measured remotely by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. Applying a time-lagged autoregressive model of river discharge, we show that the inclusion of GRACE-based total water storage information allows us to assess the predisposition of a river basin to flooding as much as 5-11 months in advance. Additional case studies of flood events in the Columbia River and Indus River basins further illustrate that longer lead-time flood prediction requires accurate information on the complete hydrologic state of a river basin. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited.

Beschreibung: The circulation and internal structure of the oceans exert a strong influence on Earth's climate because they control latitudinal heat transport and the segregation of carbon between the atmosphere and the abyss. Circulation change, particularly in the Atlantic Ocean, is widely suggested to have been instrumental in the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation when large ice sheets first developed on North America and Eurasia during the late Pliocene, approximately 2.7 million years ago. Yet the mechanistic link and cause/effect relationship between ocean circulation and glaciation are debated. Here we present new records of North Atlantic Ocean structure using the carbon and neodymium isotopic composition of marine sediments recording deep water for both the Last Glacial to Holocene (35-5 thousand years ago) and the late Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene (3.3-2.4 million years ago). Our data show no secular change. Instead we document major southern-sourced water incursions into the deep North Atlantic during prominent glacials from 2.7 million years ago. Our results suggest that Atlantic circulation acts as a positive feedback rather than as an underlying cause of late Pliocene Northern Hemisphere glaciation. We propose that, once surface Southern Ocean stratification and/or extensive sea-ice cover was established, cold-stage expansions of southern-sourced water such as those documented here enhanced carbon dioxide storage in the deep ocean, helping to increase the amplitude of glacial cycles. © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.