Northward Course Research Articles

Spatial and temporal shoreline changes of the southern Yellow River (Huanghe) Delta in 1976–2016

In this study, 364 Landsat satellite images were utilized to study the spatial and temporal shoreline changes of the southern Yellow River Delta in 1976–2016, and a new method revised and improved after Zhang et al. (2016) was proposed. By employing that method, the calculated sea levels calculated from simulated tidal heights and instantaneous shoreline positions rather than simulated tidal heights were used to correct fluctuations in instantaneous shoreline positions caused by tidal height and seasonal sea level changes and other random sea level fluctuations. When calculating the shoreline erosion rates and beach slopes, a statistical analysis of a large number of corrected shoreline positions was used to reduce the influence of random errors that were mainly caused by waves and other casual factors. The shoreline erosion rates and beach slopes presented in this paper are therefore more precise and reliable than those derived in previous studies, which only used two satellite images.The results of this study show that the shoreline of the southern Yellow River Delta primarily experienced gradual erosion during 1976–2016, with an average erosion rate of 26.9m/year. The average shoreline erosion rate increased from 24.9m/year in 1976–1996 to 34.9m/year in 1996–2016—an increase of 40%—probably due to the reduction in sediment discharge and shifting northward course of the Yellow River after 1996. The shoreline erosion rate of the central coast decreased from 50.2m/year in 1976–1996 to 27.1m/year in 1996–2016—a decrease of 46%—probably due to the protection offered by coastal hard structures. The average shoreline erosion rate caused by relative sea level rise was 8.5m/year or 32% of the total average shoreline erosion rate. Relative sea level rise plays an important role in the erosion of the southern Yellow River Delta due to its flat beach. The beach slope of the southern Yellow River Delta was flat and stable in 1976–2016, and the average slope over most of the beach was 0.043%.

Changing with the Yellow River: An Environmental History of Hebei, 1048-1128

Ling Zhang explores the environmental consequences of a sequence of disastrous floods that started in 1048, when the lower reach of the Yellow River broke its northern bank, scouring a northward course throughout central Hebei. After examining the changing pattern of the Yellow River's floods during the Northern Song period, Zhang shows how these floods disrupted the local water systems of Hebei. The programs to repair the river ruptures consumed vast amounts of local materials, expediting deforestation; and the quality of Hebei's soil gravely deteriorated, becoming salinized and sandized. At once taking an environmental perspective and examining the efforts of hydraulic specialists, Ling Zhang illuminates Hebei's social and economic history during the Tang-Song transition, especially the degradation of population and agriculture in the eleventh century.

Evolution of the great river systems of southern Asia during the Cenozoic India–Asia collision: Rivers draining north from the Pamir syntaxis

Abstract During uplift of the Tibetan plateau and surrounding ranges, tectonic processes have interacted with climatic change and with local random effects (such as landslides) to determine the development of the major river systems of Asia. Rivers draining northward from the Pamir syntaxis have three distinctive patterns that are controlled by different tectonic and climatic regimes. West of the Pamir, the rivers have moderate but irregular gradients and drain northwards to disappear into arid depressions. Relatively steady uplift of the Hindu Kush in northern Afghanistan allowed rivers to cut across the rising ranges, modified by the shear along the Harirud fault zone, local faulting, and by increasing rain-shadow effects from the rising Makran. In the transition to the Pamir the rivers have steeper but more even gradients suggesting more even flow and downcutting during uplift, possibly related to larger glacial sources. In the central Pamir, only one antecedent river, the Pyandzh appears to have kept its northward course with compression and uplift of the indenter, and its course strangely corresponds with a major geophysical boundary (a distorted subducted slab) but not a geological boundary: the other rivers are subsequent rivers developed along deformation fronts during development and northward displacements of the Pamir structural units. The above areas have sources north of the Cretaceous Karakorum–South Pamir Andean margin. On the eastern flank of the Pamir, in the Kunlun and northern Tibetan plateau, the rivers rise similarly north of the Cretaceous Andean margin of southern Tibet, but then flow with low gradients across the plateau, before cutting and plunging steeply down across the Kunlun to disappear into the arid Tarim. These steep profiles are the result of late Neogene uplift of the northern Tibetan plateau and Kunlun possibly modified by glacial diversion and river capture. The drainage history of the Pamir indenter can be reconstructed by restoring the gross movements of the plates and the tectonic displacements, uplift, and erosion of individual tectonic units. Most important changes in drainage took place in the last 10 million years, late Miocene to Quaternary times, as the Pamir syntaxis developed.

Weddell Sea iceberg drift: Five years of observations

The drift of 52 icebergs tagged with GPS buoys in the Weddell Sea since 1999 has been investigated with respect to prevalent drift tracks, sea ice/iceberg interaction, and freshwater fluxes. Buoys were deployed on small‐ to medium‐sized icebergs (edge lengths ≤ 5 km) in the southwestern and eastern Weddell Sea. The basin‐scale iceberg drift of this size class was established. In the western Weddell Sea, icebergs followed a northward course with little deviation and mean daily drift rates up to 9.5 ± 7.3 km d−1. To the west of 40°W the drift of iceberg and sea ice was coherent. In the highly consolidated perennial sea ice cover of 95% the sea ice exerted a steering influence on the icebergs and was thus responsible for the coherence of the drift tracks. The northward drift of buoys to the east of 40°W was interrupted by large deviations due to the passage of low‐pressure systems. Mean daily drift rates in this area were 11.5 ± 7.2 km d−1. A lower threshold of 86% sea ice concentration for coherent sea ice/iceberg movement was determined by examining the sea ice concentration derived from Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR‐E) satellite data. The length scale of coherent movement was estimated to be at least 200 km, about half the value found for the Arctic Ocean but twice as large as previously suggested. The freshwater fluxes estimated from three iceberg export scenarios deduced from the iceberg drift pattern were highly variable. Assuming a transit time in the Weddell Sea of 1 year, the iceberg meltwater input of 31 Gt which is about a third of the basal meltwater input from the Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf but spreads across the entire Weddell Sea. Iceberg meltwater export of 14.2 × 103 m3 s−1, if all icebergs are exported, is in the lower range of freshwater export by sea ice.

The CSS Tallahassee : A Factor in Anglo-American Relations, 1864-1866

THECSS TALLAHASSEE: A Factor in Anglo-American Relations, 1864-1866 Mary Elizabeth Thomas It was August 1864, the fourth year of the War Between the States. Neutral nations which had granted belligerent status to the Confederate States of America were now questioning its ability to survive. Federal troops had advanced far into the Confederacy; the USS Kearsarge had recendy sunk the CSS Alabama; and United States ships were tightening the blockade of Confederate ports. Such was the situation when on the night of August 6 a new Confederate raider slipped past the United States ships at Wilmington, North Carolina and took a northward course. Not for long was it unnoticed. The Tattahassee, as the new ship was named, made a sudden and spectacular entrance on the war scene on August 11. Boldly operating off New York harbor, it inflicted damage so extensive as to create near havoc with the shipping of the area. Ships still in port were detained in order to avoid a probable encounter with this new and fast Confederate raider operating somewhere off Sandyhook. Estimates as to the number of ships actually captured, destroyed, or damaged by the Tallahassee within six days ranged at that time from thirtytwo to fifty-four, indicating perhaps the tremendous tension which it had created.' The location of the Tallahassee did not become known until August 18, when it arrived at the British colony of Nova Scotia, and the United States Consul at Halifax reported to Washington its presence in that harbor.2 Thereupon the Tallahassee became an object of international interest. Throughout the Civil War in North America, Great Britain had undertaken officially to maintain the strictest neutrality, a position sometimes made difficult by the belligerents' ships of war. Although overshadowed in history by the famous Alabama, this new Confederate, during its brief career late in the war, troubled Anglo-American relations, and raised questions in Britain as to obligations of a neutral nation and its colonies. 1 Official records give the following credits to the Talfohassee for the period Aug. 11-24: ships burned, 16; ships scuttled, 10; ships bonded, 5; ships released, 2: total, 33. OH, Ser. I, III, 703-704. 2 Lord Lyons to Earl Russell, no. 611, Washington, Aug. 19, 1864, Foreign Office 5/1094. 148 When Lord Lyons, the British Minister in Washington, sent his government an account of this new Confederate raider, he emphasized that within less than one week it supposedly had put fifty-four ships out of action. Moreover, according to United States newspapers, it was then in a British colonial port, Halifax, and coaling, presumably in order to continue its depredations on northern shipping. The people of the United States, wrote Lyons, were shocked by the success of the TaUahassee and had reacted vehemently against the inefficiency of their navy department. More important from the British point of view were the resentment and reproaches against Great Britain, regarded as sympathetic with the Confederate States. In fact, Secretary of State William H. Seward made plain to Lyons his displeasure because the TaUahassee had been permitted to call at Halifax, especially as a merchant there, a Mr. Keith, had recently ordered from New York a compass and some 3,000 barrels of pork—supplies Seward believed could be intended for no place except the Confederacy. Lyons found Seward convinced of Keith's role as a Confederate agent, and insistent upon the urgency of so warning officials in Nova Scotia. Lyons finally yielded to the pressure, and by coded telegram conveyed to the Nova Scotia executive Seward's information about Keith's purchases. In doing so, Lyons also observed to the colonial official that the United States government appeared to be quite disturbed by the visit of the TaUahassee to Halifax, a port which could serve as a coaling station for the raider.3 The arrival of the TaUahassee in the Nova Scotian port placed the executive of that British colony directly between the two North American belligerents. Shortly after the arrival of the Confederate ship, its captain, John Taylor Wood, called upon Lieutenant Governor Richard Graves MacDonnell who granted permission for the TaUahassee to take on a "reasonable" quantity of coal within the twenty...

Exploring the Northwest Territory: Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s Journal of a Voyage by Bark Canoe from Lake Athabasca to The Pacific Ocean in the Summer of 1789 ed. by T. H. McDonald

Reviews 163 known,” men flocked into the future state of Victoria and repeated the scenes so familiar to collectors of Western Americana. Mr. Monaghan retells in brisk narrative the story of the skirmish at the Eureka Stockade, which has been termed “Australia’s Bunker Hill.” He shows that although few Americans were involved in the brief struggle between diggers and redcoats (only one American, a grinning Southern Negro, was tried and at once proceeded to make a burlesque of the court), American slogans were echoed at the time the Southern Cross flag was first raised. The new book also gives a chapter to the escape frotti servitude of the “Irish Patriots of ’48,” made easier when shipping became livelier during the rush from America to Australia. Charles Bateson’s excellent volume Gold Fleets for California (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1963), which Mr. Monaghan uses as one of his dozens of docu­ mentary sources, is not a substitute for Australians and the Gold Rush, since it covers only a fraction of the broader Monaghan canvas. The new volume contains a score of pictures, complete notes, and several pages of sources, as well as a good index. Mr. Monaghan’s skillful selection and vivid style recreate the days of the gold-finders in a way that makes reading his book an adventure in itself. Australians and the Gold Rush is the result of years of research and mel­ low writing. I first met the Monaghans early in 1955 among the files of the Mitchell Library in Sydney, that paradise of researchers in Pacific history, and as fellow Fulbright scholars we frequently discussed his projected book. The volume is at last available and is strongly recommended. A. G ro v e D a y , University of Hawaii Exploring the Northwest Territory: Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s Journal of a Voyage by Bark Canoe from Lake Athabasca to The Pacific Ocean in the Summer of 1789. Edited by T. H. McDonald. (Norman: University of Okla­ homa Press, 1967. Volume 50, The American Exploration And Travel Series, 133 pages, $4.95.) The original edition of Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s journals of his ex­ plorations in the Canadian Northwest was published in 1801 in London and Edinburgh. Included in this edition was Mackenzie’s journal of his first im- 164 Western American Literature portant but unsuccessful exploration in his attempt to discover a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Making this exploration during the summer of 1789, Mackenzie left Old Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca, proceeded to the river which was later to be given his name, followed it in its northward course, and eventually reached the Arctic Ocean. Exploring the Northwest Territory, edited by T. H. McDonald, is a new edition of Mackenzie’s journal record of this exploring expedition. Among the several editions of Mackenzie’s journals, Exploring the North­ west Territory is unique because, unlike the others, it is a transcription of the manuscript journal, now in the possession of the British Museum, as it was prepared and left by Mackenzie. It is generally believed that the 1801 edition was prepared for publication not by Mackenzie himself but by William Combe, a man of greater professional experience in the field of writing than Mackenzie. Combe in preparing the journal for publication made many changes, pre­ sumably in the interest of style and general appeal. Mr. McDonald in the present edition makes available the journal as it was written by Mackenzie. The discrepancies in the 1801 text and the manuscript journal, says Mr. Mc­ Donald, “make it important that at long last the general public should have access to Mackenzie’s own version.” The textual variations are pointed out in footnotes so that the reader may readily see their nature. Discrepancies in mileage travelled, distances between landmarks and points, directions, names of trees and wildlife are among those most frequently encountered. During the summer of 1965, Mr. McDonald, accompanied by his wife and son, traversed the route of Mackenzie on this exploring expedition, using the journal as a guide. Thus he was able to experience what Mackenzie experienced, to note the directions and distances as recorded, and to test the accuracy of Mackenzie’s observations. He concluded...

Geology of Parapeti Area of Bolivian Chaco: ABSTRACT

The Chaco is a vast, very gently southeastward sloping flat plain with a dense cover of semi-arid low brush and small trees which extends from the foot of the Andes Mountains eastward to the Rio Paraguay and from the 18° parallel south into Argentina. It is underlain by Tertiary and Quaternary continental sandstones and conglomerates which bury a pre-Tertiary topography. The only relief features that break the extremely flat surface of the Chaco are occasional isolated hills of pre-Tertiary rocks which project through the Tertiary and Quaternary blanket. In Bolivia only Gondwana and younger rocks are exposed in these hills; in Paraguay, Devonian and older rocks are found. The Parapeti River comes out of the Andes Mountains at the 20 degree parallel and swings northward across the Bolivian part of the Chaco to disappear in the Izozog swamps at parallel 19. Near the mountains it crosses a major syncline in which over 8,000 feet of Tertiary and Quaternary rocks are preserved. Its northward course runs along the east limb of that syncline and just west of a major east-west trending structural high in the pre-Tertiary rocks which projects into Bolivia from northern Paraguay. This high has been active through geologic time as evidenced by the fact that the basal Gondwana unconformity cuts down into the Devonian rocks eastward onto the high and the unconformity at the base of the Tertiary also truncates the Gondwana progressively deeper toward the east. Along a line just east of the Parapeti, the Tertiary unconformity cuts all the way through the Cretaceous and Gondwana rocks, placing the Tertiary directly on the Devonian. In Bolivia, all oil production to date is located in the extreme eastern fringe of the Andes Mountains in Devonian and Lower Gondwana sandstones. The Gondwana production is concentrated in the south of the country where suitable Devonian reservoir sands are not developed and where a thick section of impermeable gritty shales is present in the top of the Lower Gondwana. Various possibilities for production in the Parapeti area exist. Except in the very axis of the frontal syncline, the Devonian is within economic reach of the drill. Closed structures are present in the area and are especially attractive east of the Parapeti River where the Devonian lies within 1,000 feet of the surface. There is also the chance of updip pinch-outs and accumulations against the Gondwana unconformity. In the Gondwana, oil may be present in local structural traps within the major syncline, in updip sand pinch-outs or updip against the overlying unconformity. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1259------------

Human trichostrongylosis and its relationship to ancylostomiasis in southern Iraq, with comments on world incidence.

An investigation of the occurrence of helminthic intestinal parasites in the population of central and southern Iraq led to the discovery that human trichostrongylosis is relatively common in man along the banks of the Shatt-al-Arab and the lower course of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In the Basrah area the incidence is 25·4% and at Nasriyah 14·2% but it falls rapidly along the northward course of the rivers and is absent in the centre and north of the country. This is correlated with the occurrence of heavy shade cast by palm forest, high humidity due to the presence of perennial swamps, and the occurrence of grass and other carpet plants in the south; which jointly provide the conditions necessary for the development and survival of the free-living stages ofTrichostrongylus.Hookworm (Ancylostoma duodenale) is more evenly distributed over the area and is common farther north where conditions are more arid; owing to the fact that the free-living stages can develop under much drier conditions than those ofTrichostrongylus, probably mainly on moist defaecation sites near irrigation channels.The species ofTrichostrongylusinvolved is not known but is probablyT. colubriformiswhich is common locally in sheep and has been found in man at Abadan by Marsh (1949). Infection is presumably contracted by ingestion of greenstuff carrying infective juveniles.Since infections are light, symptoms minimal and treatment ineffective care should be taken to differentiate trichostrongylosis from ancylostomiasis in order that no unnecessary medication be undertaken.The world incidence of human trichostrongylosis is higher than was formerly believed. The available reports are reviewed, and it is concluded that not less than fifty million persons harbour this worm throughout the globe.

Iceland, Greenland and the United States

THE consciousness that the far north is an area of great strategic importance to the United States is no longer limited to the small group of men who began to listen to Vilhjalmur Stefansson's gospel of the northward course more than twenty years ago. These men did not then pretend to be advancing thoughts which were entirely new. They aimed at a rebirth of the visions which led William Henry Seward to pur chase Alaska in the middle of the nineteenth century and made him wish to secure America's position in the North Atlantic through the purchase of Iceland and Greenland from Denmark. For a long time the concept of the American Far North had little effect on our foreign policy. But airmindedness has brought about a revival of Seward's ideas and has given them wide popularity and a new meaning. It is no longer necessary to deplore the lack of a national awareness of the north, but rather to warn against over-enthusiastic generalizations which threaten to cloud realities. The strategy of this war has accelerated the pace of Arctic prog ress, but there are certain barriers raised by nature against the development of this area; and political realities set limits to the possibilities of an American march northward. Iceland is today an outpost of our strategic system as a result of agreements which are clearly understood as having only temporary validity. There is no warrant for our looking upon her bastions as an automatic part of our permanent defense position. The relationship of Greenland with the United States creates a comparable situation there. What, then, are the specific condi tions in these zones with which our need for military security in the northern sector and for the development of commercial air transportation in the north must be harmonized ?

REVIEWS

REVIEWS

The Northward Course of Empire

The Northward Course of Empire

The Northward Course of Empire

MR. STEFANSSON shows, with characteristic force of expression and wealth of example, that every effort to colonise the frontiers of the familiar world has been retarded by fear bred of ignorance. He regards the popular repute of the Arctic regions as a survival of the ancient shrinking of the Mediterranean peoples from cold and darkness, intensified by tales of the sufferings of explorers, which he holds to have been partly unnecessary and partly exaggerated. On the other hand, he shows that throughout the whole history of civilisation the centres of political power of the most advanced races have undergone a steady displacement northward from the neighbourhood of the tropic. He holds that this migration of the dominant races is accompanied by an increase in physical and mental vigour, and he would perhaps be inclined to agree with Richard Chenevix's bold generalisation of ninety years ago, that character is expressible as a mathematical function of latitude. The Northward Course of Empire. By Vilhjalmar Stefansson. Pp. xx + 274 + 8 plates. (London and Sydney: G. G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1922.) 7s. 6d. net.

The Northward Course of Empire.

The Northward Course of Empire.

Highwood mountains of Montana

Part I.—Geology of the Highwood Mountains. SITUATION. The group of mountains of which a brief account is given in this paper form one of the detached mountain groups lying east of the Rocky Mountain Cordilleras and rising abruptly from the level plains of central Montana. A glance at the map of the state shows the Missouri river, born of the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin, in the mountain-encircled Gallatin valley, cutting its way in a general northward course through the outer ranges of the Rocky mountains until it debouches on the great open plains of the northwest. From here it turns in a rude arc, flowing eastward over the cataracts which have given rise and name to the city of Great Falls, and past Fort Benton, the head of steamboat navigation. In this arc, between the Missouri and the Little Belts, a front range of the Rocky mountains, the Highwood . . .