GNS Science

About: GNS Science is a facility organization based out in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Subduction & Fault (geology). The organization has 1061 authors who have published 3833 publications receiving 122343 citations. The organization is also known as: Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences.

The magnetotelluric phase tensor

Abstract: SUMMARY The phase relationships contained in the magnetotelluric (MT) impedance tensor are shown to be a second-rank tensor. This tensor expresses how the phase relationships change with polarization in the general case where the conductivity structure is 3-D. Where galvanic effects produced by heterogeneities in near-surface conductivity distort the regional MT response the phase tensor preserves the regional phase information. Calculation of the phase tensor requires no assumption about the dimensionality of the underlying conductivity distribution and is applicable where both the heterogeneity and regional structure are 3-D. For 1-D regional conductivity structures, the phase tensor is characterized by a single coordinate invariant phase equal to the 1-D impedance tensor phase. If the regional conductivity structure is 2-D, the phase tensor is symmetric with one of its principal axes aligned parallel to the strike axis of the regional structure. In the 2-D case, the principal values (coordinate invariants) of the phase tensor are the transverse electric and magnetic polarization phases. The orientation of the phase tensor’s principal axes can be determined directly from the impedance tensor components in both 2-D and 3-D situations. In the 3-D case, the phase tensor is nonsymmetric and has a third coordinate invariant that is a distortion-free measure of the asymmetry of the regional MT response. The phase tensor can be depicted graphically as an ellipse, the major and minor axes representing the principal axes of the tensor. 3-D model studies show that the orientations of the phase tensor principal axes reflect lateral variations (gradients) in the underlying regional conductivity structure. Maps of the phase tensor ellipses provide a method of visualizing this variation.

Asgard archaea illuminate the origin of eukaryotic cellular complexity

Abstract: The origin and cellular complexity of eukaryotes represent a major enigma in biology. Current data support scenarios in which an archaeal host cell and an alphaproteobacterial (mitochondrial) endosymbiont merged together, resulting in the first eukaryotic cell. The host cell is related to Lokiarchaeota, an archaeal phylum with many eukaryotic features. The emergence of the structural complexity that characterizes eukaryotic cells remains unclear. Here we describe the 'Asgard' superphylum, a group of uncultivated archaea that, as well as Lokiarchaeota, includes Thor-, Odin- and Heimdallarchaeota. Asgard archaea affiliate with eukaryotes in phylogenomic analyses, and their genomes are enriched for proteins formerly considered specific to eukaryotes. Notably, thorarchaeal genomes encode several homologues of eukaryotic membrane-trafficking machinery components, including Sec23/24 and TRAPP domains. Furthermore, we identify thorarchaeal proteins with similar features to eukaryotic coat proteins involved in vesicle biogenesis. Our results expand the known repertoire of 'eukaryote-specific' proteins in Archaea, indicating that the archaeal host cell already contained many key components that govern eukaryotic cellular complexity.

Attenuation Relations of Strong Ground Motion in Japan Using Site Classification Based on Predominant Period

Abstract: A spectral acceleration attenuation model for Japan is presented in the present study. The data set includes a very large number of strong ground-motion records up to the 2003 Off Tokach main and aftershocks. Site class terms, instead of individual site correction terms, are used. The site classes of recording stations are from a recent study on site classification for strong-motion recording stations in Japan according to a classification scheme that has been used in Japanese engineering design. The use of site class terms enables tectonic source-type effects to be identified and accounted for in the present model. The effects of a faulting mechanism for crustal earthquakes also are accounted for. For crustal and interface earthquakes, a simple form of an attenuation model (with respect to distance) is able to capture the main strong-motion characteristics and achieves unbiased estimates. For subduction slab events, a simple distance modification factor is employed to achieve plausible and unbiased predictions. The effects of source depth, tectonic source type, and faulting mechanism of crustal earthquakes are significant. The need for magnitude- squared terms is evaluated, and the use of magnitude-squared terms reduces the interevent error further.

Obliquity-paced Pliocene West Antarctic ice sheet oscillations

Abstract: Thirty years after oxygen isotope records from microfossils deposited in ocean sediments confirmed the hypothesis that variations in the Earth's orbital geometry control the ice ages, fundamental questions remain over the response of the Antarctic ice sheets to orbital cycles. Furthermore, an understanding of the behaviour of the marine-based West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) during the 'warmer-than-present' early-Pliocene epoch ( approximately 5-3 Myr ago) is needed to better constrain the possible range of ice-sheet behaviour in the context of future global warming. Here we present a marine glacial record from the upper 600 m of the AND-1B sediment core recovered from beneath the northwest part of the Ross ice shelf by the ANDRILL programme and demonstrate well-dated, approximately 40-kyr cyclic variations in ice-sheet extent linked to cycles in insolation influenced by changes in the Earth's axial tilt (obliquity) during the Pliocene. Our data provide direct evidence for orbitally induced oscillations in the WAIS, which periodically collapsed, resulting in a switch from grounded ice, or ice shelves, to open waters in the Ross embayment when planetary temperatures were up to approximately 3 degrees C warmer than today and atmospheric CO(2) concentration was as high as approximately 400 p.p.m.v. (refs 5, 6). The evidence is consistent with a new ice-sheet/ice-shelf model that simulates fluctuations in Antarctic ice volume of up to +7 m in equivalent sea level associated with the loss of the WAIS and up to +3 m in equivalent sea level from the East Antarctic ice sheet, in response to ocean-induced melting paced by obliquity. During interglacial times, diatomaceous sediments indicate high surface-water productivity, minimal summer sea ice and air temperatures above freezing, suggesting an additional influence of surface melt under conditions of elevated CO(2).