Stéphane Calmant

The effective elastic lithosphere under the Cook-Austral and Society islands

Abstract We have determined the elastic thicknessTe of the oceanic lithosphere along two volcanic chains of the South Central Pacific: Cook-Austral and Society islands. We used a three-dimensional spatial method to model the lithospheric flexure assuming a continuous elastic plate. The model was constrained by geoid height data from the SEASAT satellite. Along the Cook-Austral chain the elastic thickness increases westward, from 2–4 km at McDonald hot spot to ∼ 14 km at Rarotonga. At McDonald seamount, however, the data are better explained by a local compensation model. The observed trend shows an increase ofTe with age of plate at loading time. However, the elastic layer under the Cook-Austral appears systematically thinner by several kilometers than expected for “normal” seafloor, suggesting that substantial thermal thinning has taken place in this region. Considering the apparent thermal age of the plate instead of crustal age improves noticeably the results. Along the Society chainTe varies from 20 km under Tahiti to 13 km under Maupiti which is located ∼ 500 km westward. When plotting together the Society and Cook-AustralTe results versus age of load, we notice that within the first five million years after loading,Te decreases significantly while tending rapidly to an equilibrium value. This may be interpreted as the effect of initial stress relaxation which occurs just after loading inside the lower lithosphere and suggests that the presently measured elastic thickness under the very young Tahiti load (∼ 0.8 Ma) is not yet the equilibrium thickness.

Surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the Amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional drought

The Amazon river basin has been recently affected by extreme climatic events, such as the exceptional drought of 2005, with significant impacts on human activities and ecosystems. In spite of the importance of monitoring freshwater stored and moving in such large river basins, only scarce measurements of river stages and discharges are available and the signatures of extreme drought conditions on surface freshwater dynamics at the basin scale are still poorly known. Here we use continuous multisatellite observations of inundation extent and water levels between 2003 and 2007 to monitor monthly variations of surface water storage at the basin scale. During the 2005 drought, the amount of water stored in the river and floodplains of the Amazon basin was 130 km 3 ( 70%) below its 2003‐7 average. This represents almost a half of the anomaly of minimum terrestrial water stored in the basin as estimated using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data.

Comparing the role of absolute sea-level rise and vertical tectonic motions in coastal flooding, Torres Islands (Vanuatu)

Since the late 1990s, rising sea levels around the Torres Islands (north Vanuatu, southwest Pacific) have caused strong local and international concern. In 2002–2004, a village was displaced due to increasing sea incursions, and in 2005 a United Nations Environment Programme press release referred to the displaced village as perhaps the world’s first climate change “refugees.” We show here that vertical motions of the Torres Islands themselves dominate the apparent sea-level rise observed on the islands. From 1997 to 2009, the absolute sea level rose by 150 + /-20 mm. But GPS data reveal that the islands subsided by 117 + /-30 mm over the same time period, almost doubling the apparent gradual sea-level rise. Moreover, large earthquakes that occurred just before and after this period caused several hundreds of mm of sudden vertical motion, generating larger apparent sea-level changes than those observed during the entire intervening period. Our results show that vertical ground motions must be accounted for when evaluating sea-level change hazards in active tectonic regions. These data are needed to help communities and governments understand environmental changes and make the best decisions for their future.

Newly identified segments of the Pacific–Australia plate boundary along the North Fiji transform zone

Abstract The North Fiji transform zone, a 1500 km long and 200 km wide transform segment of the Pacific–Australia plate boundary, is one of the major transform fault systems of the Earth. New data collected during the ALAUFI cruise (March 2000) on board the R/V L’Atalante make it possible to define more accurately the geometry and kinematics of this transform plate boundary. Three spreading centers or extensional zones (the North Cikobia spreading center, the Futuna spreading center and the southeast Futuna volcanic zone) and a strike-slip fault zone (the Futuna transform fault) have been discovered over a distance of 500 km along the eastern North Fiji transform zone, from the north of the Fiji platform to the east of the Futuna archipelago. The Futuna transform fault oriented 100° has been mapped over a distance of 250 km. It must be considered to be an important tectonic element of the transform plate boundary. Pure strike-slip as well as transpression and transtension motions are responsible for the complex morphology of this feature. The uplifted Futuna–Alofi ridge represents a major compressional relay along the Futuna transform fault. The Futuna spreading center trending 20–30° is composed of a series of en echelon left-stepping spreading segments. It represents a 200 km long extensional relay between the Futuna transform fault and the western part of the North Fiji transform zone, the Fiji transform fault, which bounds the Fiji platform to the north. The opening rate at the Futuna spreading center is estimated at 4 cm/yr. Although the North Cikobia spreading center and the southeast Futuna volcanic zone have been only partly mapped, bathymetric and reflectivity data clearly reveal that active extension also takes place along these two features. A spreading rate of 2 cm/yr is inferred at the North Cikobia spreading center. Therefore, the North Fiji transform zone appears to be composed of two main overlapping transform segments relayed by parallel extensional zones. The three active extensional zones have an ENE–WSW to NNE–SSW orientation, while compressive features along the Futuna transform fault are NW–SE to NNW–SSE oriented, in accordance with the present-day left-lateral transform motion along this part of the Pacific–Australia plate boundary.

3-D modelling of seamount topography from satellite altimetry

We develop a complete set of algorithms to perform 3D modelling of seamount bathymery from satellite altimetry. The first stage of the data processing consists in gridding the geoid: to account for the long wavelength errors geoid heights are first bias-adjusted at cross-overs. Then a collocation on a regular grid is performed, accounting for the altimeter errors. In a second stage, geoid heights are converted into bathymetry. No simplifying assumption on the shape and location of the bathymetry highs is necessary. Bathymetric uncertainties due to the data sampling and the parameters of the mechanical and crustal models are evaluated.

Water level dynamics of Amazon wetlands at the watershed scale by satellite altimetry

In this study we used satellite altimetry to characterize the time and space variations in water stored in or circulating through rivers, floodplains, wetlands and lakes in the major sub-basins of the Amazon basin. Using a specific methodology to rigorously select original three-dimensional (3D) data from an Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT) mission, water level time series were calculated at the crossing path of the satellite tracks with the water bodies. We took advantage of the continuous sampling of the water level along the satellite track segments that cross the watershed to analyse both spatial and temporal relationships between: (i) the river and its floodplain and (ii) different basins. This work evidences in particular the existence of water leaking between the Negro and Solimões basins at the high water stage. It highlights that the phenomenon of a secondary flood peak occurring in the water level series in the Solimões basin at rising water, known as repiquete, is caused by the rain equatorial regime of the northern upstream tributaries of the Solimões River, but is disconnected from the same phenomenon occurring within the Rio Negro basin.

Validation of Jason-2 Altimeter Data by Waveform Retracking over California Coastal Ocean

We validated Jason-2 satellite altimeter Sensor Geophysical Data Records (SGDR) by retracking 20-Hz radar waveforms over the California coastal ocean using cycles 7–34, corresponding to September 2008–June 2009. The performance of the ocean, ice, threshold, and modified threshold retrackers are examined using a reference geoid based on Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM08). Over the shallow ocean (depth < 200 m), the modified threshold retracker, which is developed for noisy waveforms with preleading edge bump, outperforms the other retrackers. It is also shown that retracking can improve the precision of sea surface heights (SSHs) for areas beyond 2–5 km from the shore. Although the ocean retracker generally performs well over the deep ocean (depth > 200 m), the ocean-retracked SSHs from some of the cycles are found to be less precise when the waveforms do not conform to the Brown ocean model. We found that the retrackers developed for nonocean surfaces can improve the noisy ocean-retracked SSHs. Among the retrackers tested here, the ice retracker overall provides the most precise SSH estimates over the deep ocean in average using cycles 7–34 in the study region.

Absolute calibration of Jason radar altimeters from GPS kinematic campaigns over Lake Issykkul

This study presents results of calibration/validation (C/V) of Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellite altimeters over Lake Issykkul located in Kyrgyzstan, which was chosen as a dedicated radar altimetry C/V site in 2004. The objectives here are to estimate absolute altimeter biases and to quantify the altimetry instrument error budgets for lakes studies, including errors associated with the atmosphere media delay corrections of the radar signal, and with the different retracking mode used over “nonocean” surface. The C/V is conducted using various equipments, for example, GPS local network, moving GPS along the satellites tracks over the Lake Issykkul, in situ level gauges and weather stations. The absolute bias obtained for Jason-1 and Jason-2 from field campaigns conducted in 2008, 2009 and 2010 are 96 ± 40 mm and 162 ± 42 mm, respectively. The bias calculated for Jason-1 is in close agreement with estimates done at other dedicated C/V sites in the ocean, but the Jason-2 bias still differs by 1–2 cm with ocean C/V estimates. The relative bias (Jason-2 minus Jason-1) deduced from measurements during the tandem mission is estimated at 81 ± 10 mm. The accuracy of Jason-1 and Jason-2 for the determination of the lake level variations as compared to the historical in situ gauges of the Lake Issykkul is 33 and 31 mm RMS, respectively. The bias between the two modes of retracking available on Jason-2 Geophysical Data Records (GDRs) has been estimated over the two first years of Jason-2 data over the Lake Issykkul. We found an average value of 234 ± 40 mm, which is in good agreement with results obtained in a previous study on the Envisat satellite (Crétaux et al. 2009). Lake level studies using Jason-2 or Envisat must therefore take this relative bias into account if both retracked altimetry heights are used.

Geodetic measurements of convergence across the New Hebrides subduction zone

Between 1990 and 1994, geodetic measurements (GPS observations) have been conducted across the New Hebrides subduction zone where the Australia plate subducts under the New Hebrides Arc. This paper establishes convergence rate variations along the trench. In the South, at Tanna, the relative motion is oriented N244 ±4 and has a uniform rate of 11.7±0.8 cm/yr. The rate at Efate is 10.3±0.9 cm/yr, oriented N242 ±4. Both azimuths very well compare with slip vectors of the last major earthquakes. In the North, the rate at Santo is only 3.6 ±1.2 cm/yr, oriented N253 ± 26. The difference in the convergence rates between Santo on the one hand and Efate and Tanna in the other hand points to a right lateral shear zone between Santo and Efate. At Santo where the plate coupling is very high, the very low convergence rate might be related to the absence of recent strong earthquakes. No significant variations are detected for the baselines within the Australia plate.

Preliminary Assessment of SARAL/AltiKa Observations over the Ganges-Brahmaputra and Irrawaddy Rivers

Radar altimetry has demonstrated strong capabilities for the monitoring of water levels of lakes, rivers and wetlands over the last 20 years. The Indo-French SARAL/AltiKa mission, launched in February 2013, is the first satellite radar altimetry mission to carry onboard a Ka-band sensor. We propose here to evaluate the potential of this new instrument for land hydrology through comparisons with other altimetry-derived stages and discharges in the Ganges-Brahmaputra and Irrawaddy river basins using its first year of data. Due to the lack of concomitant in situ measurements for the current period, Jason-2 data, previously evaluated against in situ gauge records, were used as reference. Comparisons between Jason-2 and SARAL-derived water levels and discharges, and Jason-2 and Envisat (which flew the same orbit as SARAL from 2002 to 2010)-derived ones, was performed. Time-series of only one year of SARAL-derived water levels and discharges present better performances (lower RMSE and higher R, generally greater than 0.95) than the ones derived from Envisat when compared with Jason-2.