Restless Earth

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Restless Earth
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Hurricanes, Storms, Tornadoes, Dust storms,
Floods
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Drought, Wild fires, Sinkholes
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Chiang Hung-Wei abstract
Sea Surface Temperature and Rainfall Responses in
Coral Skeletons with Constraints of Geochemical
Proxies Abstract Geochemical
records in coral skeletons have been widely used
to reconstruct paleo-environment. Due to the
clear and wide annual growth bandings as well as
relatively long life, massive Porites coral is
particularly favorite genus. Recent studies
showed that combination of Porites d18O and Sr/Ca
ratio is able to reconstruct sea surface
temperature (SST) and hydrological condition by
removing the Sr/Ca-inferred SST component from
the d18O signal. Climate in Taiwan is governed
by East Asian monsoon, characterized by warm-wet
summer and cool-dry winter seasons. In
additional, El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
is another well-known climatic forcing, probably
participating the climatic interaction around
Taiwan. The ENSO-related response on temperature
and precipitation, however, are both poorly
understood. To pursue the answers, longer
climatic data profiles are required. Coral is
believed as one of the relevant studies to
accomplish this mission.
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We collected a twenty-year-old living P. lobata
corals from the water intake pond of the third
nuclear power plant in southern tip of Taiwan on
1st of October, 2003. The coral was subsampled
by 0.8mm interval along maximum extension axis
with the resolution of 2-3 weeks. Each subsample
was firstly rinsed by HClO and followed by the
standard cleaning procedure, then wait for d13C,
d18O and Sr/Ca analysis. The external precision
of d13C and d18O is better than 0.02 and 0.08
respectively (1s), while that of Sr/Ca is 0.4
(1s). Our d18O results show a
characteristically cyclic fluctuation, which is
coincident with the annual alternating high-low
density banding. The studied duration, thus, was
estimated as 11yrs, 1993-2003, determining by
annual pattern of d18O showing maximum and
minimum SST in August and January respectively.
Sr/Ca-SST regression line derived from comparing
with real temperature measurements of 20022003
(after normalizing the seawater Sr/Ca of Nanwan
to Hawaii) show a similar relationship as
previously presented, i.e., Sr/Ca (mmole/mole)
- 0.0517SST (C) 10.316. By removing
SST-generated d18O proportions, the change
pattern of residual d18O from the beginning of
1999 to 2002 is qualitatively consistent with
that of independent precipitation records.
However, it is still not allowed establish a
quantitative relation, possibly due to the lag
response or other complicated interaction.
Lastly, the resulted d13C values are well
corresponding to locally ground-received solar
radiation and the maximum value is correlated to
the spawning season in late spring.
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Quiz 2 - Translation
??????????(Ocean ridges then there were three)
???????????????????????????????,???? ???????????
????????????????????????? ????????,???????????????
???????????? ???????????(?????)????,?????????????
????????12??????????????????????????? ???????,????
???????????????? (Articles, p. 405 News and
Views)
?? mechanism ???? sea-floor spreading ????
spreadomg rate ????? Arctic Ridge ??????
ultraslow spreading ridge ???? mantle
upwelling ??? co-existing ???? magmatic accretion
or addition ???? accretionary boundary
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?????????? New mechanism for the formation of
ocean ridges ???????????????????????????????,????
??????????????? Recent observations (or A recent
observation) in the most remote and least
accessible ocean floor may have (significantly)
changed the current viewpoint (or hypothesis) on
(about) the mechanism of sea-floor spreading.
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????????????????????? ????????,???????????????????
?? During the investigation (or excursion) in the
Southwest Indian Ocean and Arctic Ridges, (both
of) which are known for their very slow
spreading, (the) scientists have discovered
another type of ocean ridge which is not known
heretofore (before).
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?????????????????(?????)????,?????????????????????
12????????? With respect to the mechanism, the
formation of ultraslow spreading ridges is
completely different from that of the other two
(well-)known types - fast and slow spreading
ridges. The ultraslow spreading ridges were
produced (or formed) when the effective spreading
induced by the mantle upwelling was slowed down
to (a rate of) 12 mm/yr.
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?????????????????????????,???????????????????? The
se ultraslow spreading ridges comprise (or
contain, consist of, include) the two co-existing
components (or parts) of magmatic and
non-magmatic accretion. The latter is an
accretionary boundary structure (or complex)
which is unrecognized until the present.
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Complete translation
New mechanism for the formation of ocean
ridges Recent observations in the most remote
and least accessible ocean floor may have
significantly changed the current viewpoint on
the mechanism of sea-floor spreading. During the
investigation in the Southwest Indian Ocean and
Arctic Ridges, both of which are known for their
very slow spreading, scientists have discovered
another type of ocean ridge which is not known in
the past. With respect to the mechanism, the
formation of ultraslow spreading ridges is
completely different from that of the other two
known types - fast and slow spreading ridges. The
ultraslow spreading ridges were formed when the
effective spreading induced by the mantle
upwelling was slowed down to 12 mm/yr. These
ultraslow spreading ridges comprise the two
co-existing components of magmatic and
non-magmatic accretion. The latter is an
accretionary boundary structure which is
unrecognized until the present.