Paleomagnetic Study of a Reversal of the Earth's Magnetic Field

A detailed record of a field reversal has been obtained from the natural remanent magnetization of the Tatoosh intrusion in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington. The reversal took place at 14.7 +/- 1 million years and is interpreted to be from reverse to normal. A decrease in the intensity of the field of about an order of magnitude occurs immediately before the reversal, while its orientation remains substantially unchanged. The onset of the reversal is marked by abrupt swinging of the virtual geomagnetic pole along an arc of a great circle. During the reversal the pole traces a path across the Pacific. In the last stage of the process recorded in the sections, the succession of virtual geomagnetic poles is very similar to those generated by secular variation in the recent past. Although the cooling rate of the intrusion is not sufficiently well known to permit a useful calculation of the duration of the reversal process, an estimate based on the length of the supposed secular variation cycles gives 1 to 4 x 103 years for the reversal of field direction and approximately 1 x 104 years for the time scale of the intensity changes.     

High geomagnetic intensity during the mid-Cretaceous from Thellier analyses of single plagioclase crystals

Recent numerical simulations have yielded the most efficient geodynamo, having the largest dipole intensity when reversal frequency is low. Reliable paleointensity data are limited but heretofore have suggested that reversal frequency and paleointensity are decoupled. We report data from 56 Thellier-Thellier experiments on plagioclase crystals separated from basalts of the Rajmahal Traps (113 to 116 million years old) of India that formed during the Cretaceous Normal Polarity Superchron. These data suggest a time-averaged paleomagnetic dipole moment of 12.5 +/- 1.4 x 10(22) amperes per square meter, three times greater than mean Cenozoic and Early Cretaceous-Late Jurassic dipole moments when geomagnetic reversals were frequent. This result supports a correlation between intervals of low reversal frequency and high geomagnetic field strength.     

Congruent paleomagnetic and archeomagnetic records from the Western United States: a.d. 750 to 1450

Two independently dated, high-resolution paleomagnetic records, one lacustrine and one archeological, record the passage across western North America of the same nondipole feature of the geomagnetic field during the time interval from A.D. 750 to 1450. Although these sequences indicate that correlation between paleomagnetic and archeomagnetic records is feasible under certain conditions, differences between the records underscore the difficulty of dating accurately an archeological site by correlation of a single archeomagnetic direction with a secular variation curve.     

Orbital influence on Earth's magnetic field: 100,000-year periodicity in inclination

A continuous record of the inclination and intensity of Earth's magnetic field, during the past 2.25 million years, was obtained from a marine sediment core of 42 meters in length. This record reveals the presence of 100,000-year periodicity in inclination and intensity, which suggests that the magnetic field is modulated by orbital eccentricity. The correlation between inclination and intensity shifted from antiphase to in-phase, corresponding to a magnetic polarity change from reversed to normal. To explain the observation, we propose a model in which the strength of the geocentric axial dipole field varies with 100,000-year periodicity, whereas persistent nondipole components do not.     

Adaptive plasticity in female mate choice dampens sexual selection on male ornaments in the lark bunting

Theory on the evolution of ornamental male traits by sexual selection assumes consistency in selection over time. Temporal variation in female choice could dampen sexual selection, but scant information exists on the degree to which individual female preferences are flexible. Here we show that in lark buntings sexual selection on male traits varied dramatically across years and, in some cases, exhibited reversals in the direction of selection for a single trait. We show that these shifts are probably because of flexibility in mate choice by individual females and that they parallel shifts in the male traits that predict female reproductive success in a given year. Plasticity in choice and concomitant reversals in mating patterns across time may weaken the strength of sexual selection and could maintain genetic variation underlying multiple sexual ornaments.     

Motions of the Earth's Core and Mantle, and Variations of the Main Geomagnetic Field

Theoretical work on the magnetohydrodynamics of the earth's liquid core indicates (a) that horizontal variations in the properties of the core-mantle interface that would escape detection by modern seismological methods might nevertheless produce measurable geomagnetic effects; (b) that the rate of drift, relative to the earth's surface, of nonaxisymmetric features of the main geomagnetic field might be much faster than the average zonal speed of hydrodynamic motion of core material relative to the surrounding mantle; and (c) why magnetic astronomical bodies usually rotate. Among the consequences of (a) and (b) are the possibilities that (i) the shortest interval of time that can be resolved in paleomagnetic studies of the geocentric axial dipole component of the earth's magnetic field might be very much longer than the value often assumed by many paleomagnetic workers, (ii) reversals in sign of the geomagnetic dipole might be expected to show some degree of correlation with processes due to motions in the mantle (for example, tectonic activity, polar wandering), and (iii) variations in the length of the day that have hitherto been tentatively attributed to core motions may be due to some other cause.     

Corrected Late Triassic latitudes for continents adjacent to the North Atlantic

We use a method based on a statistical geomagnetic field model to recognize and correct for inclination error in sedimentary rocks from early Mesozoic rift basins in North America, Greenland, and Europe. The congruence of the corrected sedimentary results and independent data from igneous rocks on a regional scale indicates that a geocentric axial dipole field operated in the Late Triassic. The corrected paleolatitudes indicate a faster poleward drift of approximately 0.6 degrees per million years for this part of Pangea and suggest that the equatorial humid belt in the Late Triassic was about as wide as it is today.     

Earth's core and the geodynamo

Earth's magnetic field is generated by fluid motion in the liquid iron core. Details of how this occurs are now emerging from numerical simulations that achieve a self-sustaining magnetic field. Early results predict a dominant dipole field outside the core, and some models even reproduce magnetic reversals. The simulations also show how different patterns of flow can produce similar external fields. Efforts to distinguish between the various possibilities appeal to observations of the time-dependent behavior of the field. Important constraints will come from geological records of the magnetic field in the past.     

Simple method for measuring heart vector of isolated animal hearts

The spatial dipole moment of a perfused animal heart suspended at the center of a fluid-filled sphere can be found in magnitude and direction to a good approximation by three sets of bipolar measurements. The method has been applied in finding the vectorcardiograms of turtle and rabbit hearts.     

巨桉人工林木材密度及其变异特性

以巨桉人工林为研究对象,探讨木材基本密度、气干密度和全干密度在株内径向和轴向上的变化趋势、变异特性,并分析各密度之间的相关关系。结果表明：在植株径向上巨桉木材密度基本保持平稳,髓心部分的木材密度相对较小;轴向上0～6 m处,密度随高度的上升呈现下降趋势;由变异系数分析可得,上端木材密度变异程度较小,可以推测随着植株高度的增加,密度的稳定性较好;分析密度之间的相关性,得出气干密度、全干密度与基本密度呈显著的线性相关关系,方程拟合良好,所建模型有效可靠。     

Polarity transition records and the geomagnetic dynamo

The Parker-Levy approach to reversals of the geomagnetic field predicts meridional transitional paths of the virtual geomagnetic pole (VGP) which pass either through the site of observation or through its antipode, depending upon the site location and the sense of the polarity transition. Comparison with the most detailed transitional VGP path records presently available gives some indication of the above behavior as predicted by the Parker-Levy model. Discrepancies may be due to complexities in the distribution of cyclonic convection cells in the core not considered in the formal mathematical treatment. The predicted variation in transitional field intensity experienced at any given site also is compatible with several reported transition records.     

Magmatically triggered slow slip at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii

We demonstrate that a recent dike intrusion probably triggered a slow fault-slip event (SSE) on Kilauea volcano's mobile south flank. Our analysis combined models of Advanced Land Observing Satellite interferometric dike-intrusion displacement maps with continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) displacement vectors to show that deformation nearly identical to four previous SSEs at Kilauea occurred at far-field sites shortly after the intrusion. We model stress changes because of both secular deformation and the intrusion and find that both would increase the Coulomb failure stress on possible SSE slip surfaces by roughly the same amount. These results, in concert with the observation that none of the previous SSEs at Kilauea was directly preceded by intrusions but rather occurred during times of normal background deformation, suggest that both extrinsic (intrusion-triggering) and intrinsic (secular fault creep) fault processes can lead to SSEs.     

Neuronal population coding of movement direction

Although individual neurons in the arm area of the primate motor cortex are only broadly tuned to a particular direction in three-dimensional space, the animal can very precisely control the movement of its arm. The direction of movement was found to be uniquely predicted by the action of a population of motor cortical neurons. When individual cells were represented as vectors that make weighted contributions along the axis of their preferred direction (according to changes in their activity during the movement under consideration) the resulting vector sum of all cell vectors (population vector) was in a direction congruent with the direction of movement. This population vector can be monitored during various tasks, and similar measures in other neuronal populations could be of heuristic value where there is a neural representation of variables with vectorial attributes.     

A Laboratory Model for Convection in Earth's Core Driven by a Thermally Heterogeneous Mantle

Thermal convection experiments in a rapidly rotating hemispherical shell suggest a model in which the convection in Earth's liquid outer core is controlled by a thermally heterogeneous mantle. Experiments show that heterogeneous boundary heating induces an eastward flow in the core, which, at a sufficiently large magnitude, develops into a large-scale spiral with a sharp front. The front separates the warm and cold regions in the core and includes a narrow jet flowing from the core-mantle boundary to the inner-core boundary. The existence of this front in the core may explain the Pacific quiet zone in the secular variation of the geomagnetic field and the longitudinally heterogeneous structure of the solid inner core.     

Magnetic Anomalies over the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge

Four magnetic profiles across the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge reveal magnetic anomalies that show trends parallel with the ridge axis and symmetry about the ridge axis. The distribution of bodies that could cause these anomalies supports the Vine and Matthews hypothesis for the generation of patterns of magnetic anomalies associated with the midocean ridge system. The geometry of the bodies accords with the known reversals of the geomagnetic field during the last 3.4 million years, indicating a spreading rate of the ocean floor of 4.5 centimeters per year. If one assume that the spreading rate within 500 kilometers of the ridge axis has been constant, reversals of the geomagnetic field during the last 10.0 million years can be determined. This new, detailed history of field reversals accords with observed anomalies over Reykjanes Ridge in the North Atlantic if a spreading rate of 1 centimeter per year is assumed there.     

光照强度对烟叶颜色特征向量的影响

烟叶颜色特征是用于烟叶等级判别的重要因子,影响烟叶图像质量和等级判别的重要因素是光照强度(简称光强)。为研究光强如何影响不同等级的烟叶颜色特征,设计烟叶图像采集系统,以人工分级所用光源光强为基准,在12个不同光强下分别采集不同等级烟叶图像,提取RGB、HIS及HSV模型的颜色分量,分析各等级的烟叶颜色分量在不同光强下的变化规律,研究不同等级各颜色分量对光强的敏感性,提出适合于烟叶等级判别的颜色分量和光强,为烟叶自动分级及光源选取提供科学依据。试验结果表明,对于R、V颜色分量,光强为2500 lx左右时,判别不同烟叶等级效果最佳。G、B、I和HSV模型中HHSV分量,光强为3200 lx左右时,判别不同烟叶等级效果最佳。     

Pacific geomagnetic secular variation

We have considered several different types of records of long-period geomagnetic secular variation: direct measurements made in geomagnetic observatories; paleomagnetic measurements on Hawaiian lava flows with accurately known ages in the interval 0 to 200 years; paleomagentic measurements on Hawaiian lava flows with loosely determined ages within the interval 200 to 10,000 years ago; and worldwide paleomagnetic measurements of the average geomagnetic angular dispersion recorded in lava flows that formed during the past 0.7 million years. All these magnetic records indicate that, during this time, the nondipole component of the earth's field was lower in the central Pacific than elsewhere, as it is today. This, in turn, indicates that there is some type of inhomogeneity in the lower mantle which is coupled to the earth's core in such a way as to suppress the generation of the nondipole field beneath the central Pacific. With the present incomplete state of knowledge about the processes that give rise to the earth's field, it is uncertain whether undulations in the core-mantle interface or lateral variations in the composition and physical state of the lower mantle are ultimately responsible for the pattern of secular variation seen at the earth's surface.     

红皮云杉冠层表面光能分布的理论探讨(Ⅰ)

文章通过建立一简单的电偶极子模型，从理论上研究和探讨红皮云杉冠层表面光的散射分布以及表面的光能分布。引入表面空隙度这一新概念，描述在冠层表面中介质（枝叶）分布状况。理论结果表明，冠层表面散射光强的影响很小，它的强度近似于原入射光强的０５％。因此，在单木冠层表面的各个侧面，每个侧面表面光能分布近似均匀的，并且各个侧面的光能分布不同，其中与光入射方向垂直的哪个侧面分布最强。     

Plasma observations near jupiter: initial results from voyager 2

The first of at least nine bow shock crossings observed on the inbound pass of Voyager 2 occurred at 98.8 Jupiter radii (R(J)) with final entry into the magnetosphere at 62 R(J). On both the inbound and outbound passes the plasma showed a tendency to move in the direction of corotation, as was observed on the inbound pass of Voyager 1. Positive ion densities and electron intensities observed by Voyager 2 are comparable within a factor of 2 to those seen by Voyager 1 at the same radial distance from Jupiter; the composition of the magnetospheric plasma is again dominated by heavy ions with a ratio of mass density relative to hydrogen of about 100/1. A series of dropouts of plasma intensity near Ganymede may be related to a complex interaction between Ganymede and the magnetospheric plasma. From the planetary spin modulation of the intensity of plasma electrons it is inferred that the plasma sheet is centered at the dipole magnetic equator out to a distance of 40 to 50 R(J) and deviates from it toward the rotational equator at larger distances. The longitudinal excursion of the plasma sheet lags behind the rotating dipole by a phase angle that increases with increasing radial distance.