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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Monitoring Glacier Surface Seismicity In Time And Space Using Rayleigh Waves, T. D. Mikesell, K. Van Wijk, M. M. Haney, J. H, Bradford, H. P. Marshall, Joel T. Harper May 2012

Monitoring Glacier Surface Seismicity In Time And Space Using Rayleigh Waves, T. D. Mikesell, K. Van Wijk, M. M. Haney, J. H, Bradford, H. P. Marshall, Joel T. Harper

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Sliding glaciers and brittle ice failure generate seismic body and surface wave energy characteristic to the source mechanism. Here we analyze continuous seismic recordings from an array of nine short-period passive seismometers located on Bench Glacier, Alaska (USA) (61.033N, 145.687W). We focus on the arrival-time and amplitude information of the dominant Rayleigh wave phase. Over a 46-hour period we detect thousands of events using a cross-correlation based event identification method. Travel-time inversion of a subset of events (7% of the total) defines an active crevasse, propagating more than 200 meters in three hours. From the Rayleigh wave amplitudes, we estimate …


Road Dust Lead (Pb) In Two Neighborhoods Of Urban Atlanta, (Ga, Usa), Daniel Deocampo Ph.D, Phillip Jack Reed, Alexander P. Kalenuik May 2012

Road Dust Lead (Pb) In Two Neighborhoods Of Urban Atlanta, (Ga, Usa), Daniel Deocampo Ph.D, Phillip Jack Reed, Alexander P. Kalenuik

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Road dust continues to be a major potential reservoir of Pb in the urban environment, and an important potential component of child Pb exposure. This study presents ICP-AES analyses of metals in 72 samples of road dust (<250 μm) collected in the urban core of Atlanta, Georgia. In the Downtown area, median Pb concentrations are ~63 mg/kg Pb, with high values of 278 mg/kg. For comparison, median Pb values in a nearby residential neighborhood (also in the urban core) were ~93 mg/kg, with a high of 972 mg/kg. Geospatial variability is high, with significant variation observed over tens to hundreds of meters. Spearman Rank Correlation tests suggest that Pb and other metals (Cu, Ni, V, Zn) are associated with iron and manganese oxide phases in the residential area, as reported in other cities. However, Pb in the Downtown area is not correlated with the others, suggesting a difference in source or transport history. Given these complexities and the expected differences between road dust and soil Pb, future efforts to assess exposure risk should therefore be based on spatially distributed sampling at very high spatial resolution.


Thermal Tracking Of Meltwater Retention In Greenland’S Accumulation Area, Neil F. Humphrey, Joel T. Harper, W. Tad Pfeffer Jan 2012

Thermal Tracking Of Meltwater Retention In Greenland’S Accumulation Area, Neil F. Humphrey, Joel T. Harper, W. Tad Pfeffer

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Poorly understood processes controlling retention of meltwater in snow and firn have important implications for Greenland Ice Sheet’s mass balance and flow dynamics. Here we present results from a 3 year (2007-2009) field campaign studying firn thermal profiles and density structure along an 85 km transect of the percolation zone of west Greenland. We installed one or two thermistor strings at 14 study sites, each string having 32 sensors spaced between 0 and 10 m depth. Data from our network of over 500 sensors were collected at 15-60 min intervals for 1-2 years, thereby recording the thermal signature of meltwater …


Georadar-Derived Estimates Of Firn Density In The Percolation Zone, Western Greenland Ice Sheet, Joel Brown, John Bradford, Joel T. Harper, W. Tad Pfeffer, Neil Humphrey, Ellen Mosley-Thompson Jan 2012

Georadar-Derived Estimates Of Firn Density In The Percolation Zone, Western Greenland Ice Sheet, Joel Brown, John Bradford, Joel T. Harper, W. Tad Pfeffer, Neil Humphrey, Ellen Mosley-Thompson

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Greater understanding of variations in firn densification is needed to distinguish between dynamic and melt-driven elevation changes on the Greenland ice sheet. This is especially true in Greenland’s percolation zone, where firn density profiles are poorly documented because few ice cores are extracted in regions with surface melt.We used geoader to investigate firn density variations with depth along an about 70 km transect through a portion of the accumulation area in western Greenland that partially melts. We estimated electromagnetic wave velocity by inverting reflection travel times picked from common midpoint gathers. We followed a procedure designed to find the simplest …