534 research outputs found
Harrison Forman Diary China, January-May 1942
No full textThis diary written by Harrison Forman begins on January 10, 1942, just one month after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in the United States, meanwhile, the Second Sino-Japanese War continues in China. On horseback, Forman rides through the deserted streets of Changsha (capital of Hunan province, southeastern China) and reports civilians returning home as the Japanese retreat to the north. Forman travels to Hongshan where he witnessed the cremated remains of Japanese soldiers. On January 11, 1942, Forman interviews Jsueh Yueh (Xue Yue), the Chinese Nationalist General and Commander-in-Chief responsible for the victories over the Japanese at the Second and Third Battles for Changsha. General Xue Yue explained the tactics which contributed to success. Forman then travels the Hsiang River by boat, then by train to Hengyang (south central Hunan province, 110 miles south of Changsha, seat of the Nationalist Party military government) and Kwielin (now Guilin) in the northeastern Zhuang Autonomous region of Guangxi southern China. Forman describes supply trucks arriving from Linchow (now Lanzhou) delivering goods for soldiers and civilians. According to Forman, merchants had begun to stockpile goods after the fall of I-ch’ang (now Yichang, an area heavily bombed and taken by the Japanese Army in 1940) and in fear of fighting in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)). Forman mentions Kunming in southwestern China, where the U.S. Major General Claire L. Chennault, founder of the volunteer air squadron the Flying Tigers, were guarding against the Japanese forces. Chinese Nationalist Government officials are mentioned, such as T.S. Tsiang (Tsiang Tingfu, historian and diplomat), Wang Wen-hao (Weng Wen-ho, geologist, educator, and Minister of Economy, 1938-1947), and Wu Ting-chang (Wu Dingchang, Minister of Economic Affairs, 1935). Other notable figures mentioned are, Feng Yachsiang (Feng Yuxiang, Christian General and Chiang Kai-shek supporter), Quo Tai-chi (Dr. Quo Tai-chi, first Chinese representative to Britain, 1932-1940; named foreign minister by Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, 1941), Kenji Doihara (“Lawrence of Manchuria,” general of Imperial Japanese Army who invaded Manchuria), Emily “Mickey” Hahn (journalist and author), and Charles Boxer (local head of the British Army Intelligence). Forman follows Wendell L. Willkie, U.S. Republican presidential candidate (opposition to Franklin D. Roosevelt), on his trip to China and mentions a list of notable figures, such as Chu Shao-liang (Zhu Shaoliang, general in the National Revolution Army of the Republic of China), Hu Tsung-nan (Hu Zongnan, trusted general of Chiang Kai-shek), Captain Chiang Wei-kuo, Generals Shi Liang-yu, Li Chen-shen, Chang Tso-lin (Zhang Zuolin, warlord of Manchuria, defeated by the Nationalist Kuomintang in 1928), and Hsu Liang-yo. Forman ends his diary at the close of Willkie’s visit, writing about his press colleagues, Francis Lee and Peter Kiang. He tells of the story “Phanton Legions” in the London Daily Express, written by Tommy Chao.The diaries are part of the Harrison Forman Papers 1931-1974 housed at the Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. UWM Libraries received the dairies on a loan from the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Oregon Libraries and digitized them to accompany the digital collection of Forman's photographs. The diaries were digitized to provide research materials for the Forman’s negatives scanned as part of the NEH grant project "Saving and Sharing the AGS Library's Historic Nitrate Negative Images.
Geomorphology and chronology of Late Quaternary dune fields of western Argentina
No full textStabilized dune fields are common in western Argentina and potentially reflect drought variability in the Late Quaternary. This study focussed on deciphering geomorphic and stratigraphic record of three vegetated dune fields from east to west, San Luis, Médanos Negros and Médanos Grandes, with a mean annual precipitation from ∼ 700 to 91 mm. Optically stimulated luminescence single-aliquot regeneration protocols yield ages on eolian quartz grains, constraining depositional events. The San Luis dune field, the wettest area, exhibits evidence for repeated activation during the last glaciation, ca. 33-20 ka, generally coincident with regional loess deposition These dunes were locally reformed in the past 100 years which is apparently coincident with intensified agrarian use and drying in the late 19th and early 20th century. The two driest and western-most dune fields, Médanos Negros and Médanos Grandes, show reactivation at ca. 2.5 ka 0.9 and 0.5 ka; and ca. 4.3-4, 2.1 and 0.6-0.4 ka, respectively. Eolian depositional events at ca. 2.5-2.1 ka and 0.6-0.4 ka may be coeval for Médanos Grandes and Negros dune fields. Sustained drought conditions conducive for eolian activity is associated with warmer sea surface temperatures in the South Atlantic, a weakened South American Convergent Zone and a dispersed and southeasterly flow of tropical moisture from the Low Level Chaco Jet. This nascent analysis indicates drought variability beyond historic observations with potentially at least four dune reactivation events in the past ca. 4.5 ka.Fil: Tripaldi, Alfonsina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Forman, Steven L.. University of Illinois; Estados Unido
Eolian depositional phases during the past 50 ka and inferred climate variability for the Pampean Sand Sea, western Pampas, Argentina
No full textThe Pampean Sand Sea, which occurs from the Argentinian Pampas to the eastern Andean piedmont, hosts presently stabilized dune fields spanning the late Quaternary. This study integrates previous results and presents new geomorphic, stratigraphic, sedimentological, and chronologic data for nineteen >2 m-thick eolian successions for the San Luis paleo-dune field, western Pampas, to better constrain the depositional history. Six eolian depositional phases are identified spanning the past 50 ka, interposed with paleosols and/or bounded by erosive surfaces. Age control was from 61 OSL ages of small aliquots of quartz grains from eolian stratigraphic units. The inferred timing of eolian phases are at ca. 70 ± 10 yr, 190 ± 20 yr, 12 to 1 ka, 22 to 17 ka, 29 to 24 ka, and 40 to 32 ka. A maximum span for periods of pedogenesis at ca. 12 to 17 ka, 22 to 24 ka, and 29 to 32 ka was provided by bounding OSL ages, which broadly overlap with high stands of pluvial lakes and glacier advances in the central Andes. We infer that the added precipitation may reflect expansion of the Southern Hemisphere monsoon, associated with Northern Hemisphere Heinrich events, leading to episodes of significantly wetter conditions (>350 mm MAP) to at least 35° S. Most of the Holocene (12 ka to 0.8 ka) was characterized by sand sheet deposit under drier than present conditions (100–450 mm MAP), associated with Monte-type vegetation (shrub steppe). The latest two eolian depositional phases, occurred at ca. 190 and 70 yr ago, during the historic period with European settlement and are related to anthropogenic landscape disturbance, though the youngest phase was concomitant with 1930s drought. Wet conditions dominated since ca. AD 1970 with new lakes and rivers forming across this eolian terrain; an incongruous environmental response in reference to drier conditions for most of the Holocene.Fil: Tripaldi, Alfonsina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Forman, Steven L.. Baylor University; Estados Unido
Confronting Mass Incarceration
No full textPulitzer Prize winning author and Yale law professor James Forman, Jr delivered the Tucker Lecture at W&L Law at noon on March 3, 2021 via Zoom. Forman’s lecture, entitled “Confronting Mass Incarceration,” contemplates how the United States came to lock up more of its citizens than any other nation on earth and what we can do to change that. Professor Forman diagnoses America’s criminal justice crisis with both data and human stories. He draws on his life experience as the child of a civil rights leader, public defender, and law professor
Was there a Northern Dust Bowl? : evidence for heightened wind erosion and dust sources during the 1930s in the Northern Great Plains, USA.
No full textThe 1930s Dust Bowl Drought was a catastrophic event that caused widespread soil erosion and dust storms in the United States Southern Great Plains (SGP). Despite evidence for similar drought conditions and enhanced erosion, the Northern Great Plains (NGP) has been largely overlooked as a region affected by the Dust Bowl. This study compiles climatic data, dust storm reports, and dust flux data in South Dakota during the 1930s to underscore the intensity of drought conditions in the NGP. A fundamental reorganization of North American climatology drove extreme drought conditions and dust storm occurrences in South Dakota. Heightened dust activity and erosion indicate Dust-Bowllike conditions in the NGP, whereas PM10 flux data from analogous soils emphasize the susceptibility of NGP soils to erosion based on recorded windspeeds during dust storms. This evidence suggests a "Northern Dust Bowl" occurred as a separate landscape-scale response to that of the SGP Dust Bowl
Was there a Northern Dust Bowl? Evidence for heightened wind erosion and dust sources during the 1930s in the Northern Great Plains, USA.
No full textThe 1930s Dust Bowl Drought was a catastrophic event that caused widespread soil erosion and dust storms in the United States Southern Great Plains (SGP). Despite evidence for similar drought conditions and enhanced erosion, the Northern Great Plains (NGP) has been largely overlooked as a region affected by the Dust Bowl. This study compiles climatic data, dust storm reports, and dust flux data in South Dakota during the 1930s to underscore the intensity of drought conditions in the NGP. A fundamental reorganization of North American climatology drove extreme drought conditions and dust storm occurrences in South Dakota. Heightened dust activity and erosion indicate Dust-Bowllike conditions in the NGP, whereas PM10 flux data from analogous soils emphasize the susceptibility of NGP soils to erosion based on recorded windspeeds during dust storms. This evidence suggests a “Northern Dust Bowl” occurred as a separate landscape-scale response to that of the SGP Dust Bowl
Eolian sand sheet deposition in the San Luis paleodune field, western Argentina as an indicator of a semi-arid environment through the Holocene
No full textEolian deposits are common in the western Pampas of Argentina, and most are assumed to be associated with glacial conditions. Stratigraphic and sedimentologic studies coupled with OSL dating in San Luis Province document for the first time a nearly continuous sequence of eolian sand sheet deposits that span most of the Holocene. Petrology and geochemical analyses indicate that the source of the sand is from pre-existing Pleistocene eolian sediments. Sand sheet deposition between ca. 12 and 1 ka is associated with sparse, Monte-type vegetation that occurs with drier conditions (MAP 450–100 mm) than the late 20th century (~ 700 mm). This paleoenvironmental inference is consistent with nearby pollen and lake level records. A persistent semi-arid environment in western Argentina during the Holocene may reflect sustained warm SSTs in the western equatorial Atlantic Ocean, which may have suppressed the pressure gradient between the South Atlantic Anticyclone and Chaco Low and thus, the flux of summer moisture to western Argentina. There appears to be a paleoclimatic “dipole” response between a dry western Argentina and a wet southeastern Brazil, which is consistent with the increasing strength of the South American Monsoon through the Holocene. Sand sheet accretion appears to cease by 800 to 200 years ago with wetter conditions and succession to Espinal vegetation prior to European contact.Fil: Forman, Steven L.. Baylor University; Estados UnidosFil: Tripaldi, Alfonsina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Ciccioli, Patricia Lucia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Basicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; Argentin
Editorial: Reaching New Heights: Recent Progress in Paleotopography
No full textAlthough mountain belts and orogenic plateaus occupy only a limited portion of the Earth's surface (about 4% above 2 km in elevation), they are among the most prominent landscape features with global implications for tectonic deformation, climate, hydrology, and biodiversity. Topographic growth locally modifies the crustal stress field and the locus of active deformation; it re-arranges fluvial networks and atmospheric circulation patterns; it generates highly asymmetric precipitation and marked temperature gradients, and favors the development of diverse ecosystems over geographically limited areas; it thus dramatically impacts biodiversity and the evolution of flora and fauna over geological scales.
In recent years, a growing number of studies have tried to investigate the chronology and amplitude of topographic growth in deep time (millions of years), using various field-, laboratory-, and computer-based approaches from a wide range of scientific disciplines. The accuracy and uncertainty associated with these approaches are still being discussed, and studies providing quantitative paleoaltimetry estimates remain rare despite their relevance. Moreover, most quantitative studies so far have concentrated on the youngest and most extensive mountain ranges such as the Himalayas or the American Cordilleras, while the topographic evolution of smaller or much older orogens remain virtually undocumented.
This Research Topic contains 11 articles covering a wide range of paleotopography research, from short reviews and perspectives of either established or innovative paleo-topographic approaches, new datasets and syntheses of topographic uplift in well-known and understudied areas, and outlooks on the future development and improvement of paleoaltimetry.
Botsyun and Ehlers present recent advances and caveats in high-resolution isotope-based general circulation models (iGCMs) to calibrate stable isotope paleoaltimetry approaches, a growing and dynamic direction for paleotopographic reconstructions. Hren and Ouimet propose a new method to quantify paleotopography based on the isotopic signature of organic molecular biomarkers integrated over river catchments. Following the recent development of triple oxygen analysis, Chamberlain et al. review the application of this method to crystalline rocks and their high potential for paleoaltimetry on the crystalline cores of mountain belts. Ibarra et al. propose to use triple oxygen on lacustrine sediment as a paleoaltimetry tool, which they combine with carbonate clumped isotope data to reconstruct the paleoelevation of Eocene Nevadaplano rocks (North American Cordillera).
Gébelin et al. report present-day stream water isotopic lapse rates from the west facing slopes of the equatorial Andes in Ecuador, underscoring that tropical regions can be targeted for future paleoaltimetry studies. Ingalls and Snell provide an exhaustive review of state-of-the-art and emerging tools to investigate the diagenetic alteration of carbonates, a crucial step in stable isotope paleoaltimetry, with an illustration of their impact on Tibetan paleoelevation estimates. McLean and Bershaw investigate the isotopic composition of carbonates while Kukla et al. focus on authigenic clays in paleosols from the John Day Formation (Eocene to Miocene), United States, in the rainshadow of the modern Oregon Cascades, with contrasting interpretations regarding the evolution of regional topography.
Beyond stable isotope paleoaltimetry, Montes et al. combine field mapping and detrital zircon geochronology to show that the northern and central Andes were separated between ca. 13–4 Ma by lowlands that connected this region with western Amazonia at ca. 3°N, providing a pathway for biotic exchange. Fox et al. examine the role of fluvial reorganization in the formation of elevated landscapes that resemble uplifted formerly contiguous low-relief landscapes. Taking the southeastern Tibetan highlands as an example, they propose that an interpolated paleosurface across low-relief remnants cannot be used to robustly measure geodynamic processes in space and time. Finally, Heitmann et al. review the recent paleoaltimetry work from the Colorado Plateau and propose several test studies to fill the gap in its uplift history.
In summary, this research topic presents new ideas, tools, and results on a wide range of aspects of the paleotopography of mountain and plateau regions around the world. It emphasizes that the future of paleoaltimetry has to be interdisciplinary and combine multiple proxies, considering the numerous uncertainties of individual tools. To increase their robustness and accuracy, the next generation of paleotopography studies will have to incorporate results from a variety of approaches, which is well-illustrated by the array of methods and applications in the eleven articles of this research topic
Late Quaternary stratigraphy and chronology by thermal-transfer optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz grains for the Monahans eolian system, Winkler County, Texas.
No full textThe Monahan's eolian system in west Texas is studied using sixteen Geoprobe cores, >5 m-long, providing a new stratigraphic record for the past 500 ka. The oldest part of the record >100 ka was dated using the novel thermal-transfer optically stimulated luminescence (TT-OSL) method. The TT-OSL emissions show sensitivity to solar resetting, with >90% diminution of signal in 48 hr. Several quartz separates were dated using both TT-OSL and OSL-SAR methods within the age range of 60 to 250 ka and there was concordance at two sigma errors between these optical dating methods. Pedosedimentary analysis of the cores in combination with strategic luminescence dating reveals nine Eolian Depositional Phases (EDP) spanning 80 yr to 515 ka. Among the six older EDP (>70 ka), there appears to be more subsequent pedogenesis forming indurated Bk soils, while the three younger (<60 ka) EDP exhibit mostly weak soil development
Thermoregulation and Dental Isotopes Reveal the Behavior and Environment of Pleistocene Megafauna at Waco Mammoth National Monument
No full textWaco Mammoth National Monument (WMNM) in central Texas is a significant Pleistocene paleontological site, containing at least 16 Columbian mammoths and specimens of 12 other vertebrate taxa. Interpreting this site, however, is contingent on understanding the environment Pleistocene animals lived in and how they interacted with that environment behaviorally. Actualistic studies of modern analogs can be used to better understand the behavior and geographic range of a Pleistocene animal and thus increase their usefulness as paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental indicators. Mass and thermal modeling studies done on modern tortoises have been used to determine the temperature tolerance of the giant tortoise species of central Texas, constraining the climate present at WMNM during its formation. Understanding the long-term movements of a fossil organism can reflect the environment it lives in. Strontium isotope ratio analysis of megafaunal teeth from WMNM have shown that not all of the mammoths at the site shared a geographic origin. The behavior revealed–mammoths congregated at WMNM from a wide area–necessitated a reconsideration of the long-standing mechanism of death for the megafauna there. Serial analysis of carbon and oxygen isotopes from the same teeth revealed that while the animals at WMNM shared a diet, some may have had distinct sources of drinking water. They also reveal that the WMNM megafauna lived in a drier, more drought-prone world that previously thought. Taking a multi-proxy approach to better understand interactions between Pleistocene megafauna and the environmental changes they experienced should inform our attempts to conserve our remaining megafauna
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