Military geology and the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863

Gettysburg – the most costly of all battles of the American Civil War, and one of the most significant battles ever fought. Contested in rural Pennsylvania, the Battle of Gettysburg took place after a chance encounter by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (General Robert E. Lee) with the Union Army of the Potomac (Major-General George Meade). It was to prove the turning point in the war, the so-called 'high tide' of the Confederacy, as after Gettysburg the fortunes of war turned in favour of the Union. Fought over three days in early July 1863, the battle continues to be analyzed and re-analyzed from all perspectives. Significantly, it was the first battle to be re-interpreted from the perspective of its geology, by Andrew Brown of the Pennsylvania State Survey in the early 1960s. It continues to fascinate geologists interested in the overall impact of geology and terrain in determining the outcome of battle. This article examines why Gettysburg has been so influential in shaping our understanding of geology in warfare.     

国外军事地质学热点问题

近年来以美国为代表的西方军事强国在军事地质学领域已取得了很大进展,尤其在应对未来战争方面作了许多准备。通过系统搜集国际军事地球科学会议(ICMG)和美国地质学会(GSA)有关军事地质学的最新专题研讨会论文与其他公开出版资料,梳理了当前国外军事地质学研究的热点问题并阐述了其新进展,其中作战领域包括地形情报研究、军事基地选址、潜在特殊战场环境调查、地下重要设施评价、非常规作战环境调查;非作战领域则包括抢险救灾、生态环境保护和环境安全评价等。最后分析了当前军事地质学研究存在的问题,并指出了其未来发展趋势。     

Karl von Raumer: a pioneer of German military geology

Napoleon Bonaparte was in 1798 the first general to involve geologists as such in a military campaign. But geologists were attached to his army as civilians, without military rank or command function. In contrast, the Prussian general (later Field Marshal) Gebhard von Blücher has generally been credited with first making use of a geologist in military uniform: Professor Karl von Raumer, during the 1813–14 war of German liberation from French Napoleonic domination. Authors have claimed that Blücher consulted Raumer for information on the terrain of Silesia before triumphing over the French at the Battle of the Katzbach in 1813, and that Raumer was therefore the first geologist to help plan a military operation. But is this true? Did Raumer in effect initiate German military use of geology – pioneering the widespread use of geologists, many of them professors, in the 20th century German army?     

Effect of geology and geomorphology on landuse/landcover in Himalayan foothill, Dehradun

A detailed geological, geomorphological and landuse/landcover study has been carried in a small watershed of Himalaya by visual interpretation of FCC prepared from band 123 of ASTER satellite imagery. On the basis of interpretation and field check, major litounits identified in the study area include Lesser Himalaya conglomerate consisting of quartzite, granite, phyllite boulder and pebble, Middle Siwalik sandstone and Upper Siwalik boulder beds and valley fill with Doon gravel of Holocene age. Geomorphologically the study area is characterized by typical Himalayan topography with rugged terrain. Various landforms identified and recognized include, Doon Fan Gravel Terrace, Doon Fan Gravel Dissected hill, Sub Recent Fan Terrace, Moderately Dissected Structural Hill, Piedmont Dissected Slope, River Terrace, Channel Bar and River channel. Supervised classification of ASTER False Colour Composite (FCC) (123) shows that the major landuse category in the study area is agriculture while major landcover class is forest covered land. The study shows the effect of geology and geomorphology on the type of landuse and landcover in an active tectonic zone of the study area.     

军事遥感地质编图方法

军事地质成果产品体系是军事地质工作展示应用业绩的重要平台,而军事遥感地质调查成果图件是军事遥感地质调查的核心成果,其编图方法尤为重要。为了满足特殊遥感地质调查需求及规范成果图件编图标准,提出了军事遥感地质编图方法,并对其精度要求、图形编辑方法以及制图工作技术流程进行了初步探讨。通过对编图方法的规范,提高军事遥感地质图件的专业性与适用性,从而为战场建设、军事行动保障和非战争行动等方面提供信息支撑。     

新构造、活动构造与地震地质

新构造、活动构造和地震地质研究都是开展地震危险性评价的重要基础性地质工作。在综述新构造、活动构造和地震地质的基本含义、相互联系与区别、主要工作内容及方法的基础上,简要回顾了国内外在相关研究领域的主要进展,提出了中国活动构造与地震地质工作中应注意的主要问题和对未来工作的几点建议。最后,重点介绍了青藏高原东南缘开展活动构造体系和玉树地区活动断裂与地震地质调查研究工作所取得的主要进展与成果。     

Ecological geology,environmental geology,geoecology: Contents and relations

The contents and relationships of environmental geology, ecological geology, and geoecology are discussed. It is shown that they differ in their subjects, directions and objects of investigation, as well as their scientific and practical tasks. Hence, these concepts and the spheres of knowledge they determine can be neither identified with nor substituted for each other because this inevitably causes terminological confusion and hampers the development of ecological problems, and not only in geology. Environmental geology, by its content, is a collection of data obtained by traditional geological sciences and has no specially developed conceptual base. It is an anthropocentrically oriented field of geological knowledge, unlike ecological geology, which is oriented biocentrically and has a wider volume. Geoecology is an interdisciplinary science studying the effect of all abiotic spheres of living matter. Ecologically oriented geological sciences are intended to provide information on only one of these spheres—the lithosphere.     

Observations on the geology of the country around Chalfont St Giles,Buckinghamshire

This paper presents new field observations from the area around Chalfont St Giles and relates them to existing information from the wider Chiltern Hills region on lithostratigraphy, structural geology, geomorphological and karstic features, and landscape development. In this area the NW-SE aligned valley of the River Misbourne, an internationally rare chalk stream, and flanking interfluve plateaus form a transition zone on the chalk dipslope between the lowest elevations of outcropping chalk around Denham and the characteristic chalk valleys and clay-with-flints capped upland present from Amersham northwards. The area straddles the northernmost extent of both the Paleogene strata, represented by Lambeth Group outliers, and SW–NE aligned pre-Anglian palaeo-Thames River Terrace deposits, and contains an anomalous Lambeth Group, Quarrendon Gap, mid-slope platform. Ground investigations carried out for HS2 have helped substantiate other evidence for significant faulting across the area, with intermittent movement episodes dating from the Mid- to Late Cretaceous onwards, which have affected both the Chalk and Paleogene strata and had a major influence on shaping the valley network and wider landscape. Karstic features are widespread, including contemporary interfluve plateau level streams sinks around the Lambeth Group outliers forming active dolines, together with many concealed chalk dissolution related features. There are numerous, generally small scale, clay, chalk, sand and gravel workings most of which are long abandoned but still provide useful insights into the near surface geology.     

现代战争特点及军事地质调查

作为地质学研究对象的地形、地貌、工程地质和地质灾害在传统的接触式战争中发挥过重要的作用,创造了许多战争奇迹,但在以精确全球打击,前线与后方界线模糊、陆军作战作用弱化的现代战争,地质对战争是否还有影响?本文围绕这一问题,通过对战争阶段演化及地质应用历史分析,从现代战争特点和对军事地质需求分析人手,利用军事学思维,讨论了地质学的地质体力学性质、地球化学性质、地球物理性质和地质灾害等内容在现代战争中的作用,主要包括精确打击和重点防御目标的优选、打击地面工事的武器选配、目标侦测和靶区选择、海洋战争环境建设和战争评估、地面临时机动路线规划和工事选址等方面;探讨了军事地质调查的重点区域、方法手段、比例尺选择问题,以及在区域地质、工程地质、水文地质、灾害地质、地球物理调查基础上开展军事地质调查的工作流程及成果表达问题,分析了未来军事地质重点研究发展方向,为地质学在现代战争中的应用提供思路。     

Late Cainozoic geology,soils, and landscape evolution of the Torrens Creek area,North Queensland

The major features of the geology and geomorphology of the semi‐arid, tropical Torrens Creek area of North Queensland are described. The evolution of the landscape through the late Cainozoic is discussed with reference to three phases of landscape instability and erosion, each separated by phases of stability during which weathering and soil formation proceeded. These erosional periods were probably initiated by episodic uplift of the Great Divide region. Tentative correlations with landscape events in the nearby Nulla Basalt Province suggest that soil profile development probably occurred during late Pliocene (2.3–2.0 m.y. ago), mid‐Pleistocene (1.3–1.1 m.y. ago), and in Quaternary (less than 0.1 m.y. ago) times.     

Quaternary geology in Zanskar,NW Indian Himalaya: evidence for restricted glaciation and preglacial topography

Research into the Quaternary geology of the NW Himalaya has concentrated on the elucidation of the glacial sequence. However, whilst the main ranges of the Himalaya have been subjected to numerous glaciations and are now an obvious alpine glaciated terrain, much of the landscape in Zanskar and Ladakh is more equivocal and does not appear to have been glaciated during this time. These landscape facets may therefore have a much older origin and relate to preglacial events.In Zanskar, the main ice source in all glaciations was the strongly glaciated and still glacierized north slope of the main Himalaya. This ice then flowed generally northwards in the valleys of the Zanskar river and its tributaries leaving between them a landscape supporting only a few and scattered minor local glaciers. Evidence of early glaciation has been found on isolated valley-side remnants >200 m above the present rivers. Reconstruction of these preglacial valley cross profiles show them to be generally broad and shallow, with gentle slopes. This is in distinct contrast to the present major valley systems which can usually be divided into two parts—a lower unglaciated fluvially eroded section, such as the Lungnak (Tsarap Lingti Chu) Gorge and an upper broad glacial section, such as the Stod (Doda) valley.Down-valley extent of glaciation is defined by the upper ends of unglaciated fluvial gorges. Laterally, the glaciers were confined progressively to their valleys. Inevitably there is only evidence of successively smaller subsequent glaciations, but the tectonic uplift of the southern ranges may have been a factor in this forming an increasing barrier to the snow-bearing monsoon winds.     

Hazardous geology zoning and influence factors in the near-shore shallow strata and seabed surface of the modern Yellow River Delta,China

In this study, on the basis of 3,200 km shallow stratigraphic section and side-scan sonar data of the coastal area of the Yellow River Delta, we delineated and interpreted a total of seven types of typical hazardous geologies, including the hazardous geology in the shallow strata (buried ancient channel and strata disturbance) and hazardous geology in the seabed surface strata (pit, erosive residual body, sand patch, sand wave and scour channel). We selected eight parameters representing the development scale of the hazardous geology as the zoning indexes, including the number of hazardous geology types, pit depth, height of erosive residual body, length of scour channel, area of sand patch, length of sand wave, width of the buried ancient channel and depth of strata disturbance, and implemented the grid processing of the research area to calculate the arithmetic sum of the zoning indexes of each unit grid one by one. We then adopted the clustering analysis method to divide the near-shore waters of the Yellow River Delta into five hazardous geology areas, namely the serious erosion disaster area controlled by Diaokou lobe waves, hazardous geology area of multi-disasters under the combined action of the Shenxiangou lobe river wave flow, accumulation type hazardous geology area controlled by the current estuary river, hazardous geology area of single disaster in the deep water area and potential hazardous geology area of the Chengdao Oilfield. All four of the main factors affecting the development of hazardous geology, namely the diffusion and movement of sediment flux of the Yellow River water entering the sea, seabed stability, bottom sediment type and distribution, as well as the marine hydrodynamic characteristics, show significant regional differentiation characteristics and laws. These characteristics and laws are consistent with the above-mentioned zoning results, in which the distribution, scale and genetic mechanism of hazardous geology are considered comprehensively. This indicates that the hazardous geology zoning based on the cluster analysis is a new attempt in research regarding the hazardous geology zoning of the near-shore waters of the modern Yellow River Delta and that this type of zoning has a high level of reasonability.     

构造地质与工程地质的基本关系

构造地质学是研究各种地质构造及其成生演化的基础地质学 ,工程地质学主要是应用地质学理论尤其是构造地质学理论解决人类工程建设活动中与构造现象和构造活动有密切关系的地质问题的应用地质学。二者的研究目的虽然不同 ,但所研究的主要对象是相同的 ,即都是地质构造 ,所研究的又都是地球变化过程中的构造变动及其各类效应。文中讨论了构造地质学与工程地质学之间的基本关系 ,主要包括地质构造对工程地质环境和工程地质条件的控制作用 ;深部构造、浅部构造以及表层构造动力学特征与区域地壳稳定性之间的关系 ;构造结构面、构造应力场与岩土体稳定性的关系 ;活动构造与工程建筑安全性的关系以及地质构造与崩滑流、地裂缝、地面沉降等地质灾害的关系等问题。     

我国西南地区铀矿地质实验室退役工程环境评价

我国西南地区现有7个铀矿地质实验室，历年集有大量可能对环境产生污染的样品。本文在对铀矿地质实验室现状进行调查的基础上，介绍了铀矿地质实验室的退役治理方法，并对退役治理后的环境进行了环境放射性水平评价。结果表明，所有污染及危害因素被全部清除，恢复了环境质量。     

山东巨野矿区环境地质背景

山东巨野矿区的全面开发,将使该区长期稳定的地质环境遭受严重影响甚至发生永久性改变。为进一步丰富矿区环境规划与修复治理的参照依据,文章以近期部分调查资料为基础,选取不同指标或环境要素,采用不同方法分别对矿区的地下水环境质量、土壤环境质量、工程地质环境质量以及综合地质环境质量进行了定量评价,同时对各类型环境质量区进行了划分,较全面地展示了矿区及各井田的环境地质背景特征。     

关于矿床学创新问题的探讨

为保证矿产资源的持续供应和国家资源安全,需要加强矿床研究以指导矿产勘查的重大突破。在简要回顾矿床学百年发展历史的基础上,初步概括了矿床学开拓创新的基本条件,包括:①矿业发展是推动矿床学发展的原动力;②地学的整体发展为矿床研究提供了基础;③新技术装备提高了发现和创新的能力;④科学的思维方法;⑤个人创造和几代人的共同努力。针对国家需求、学科发展前缘和中国矿床特色相结合的原则,提出了重大地质事件与大规模成矿,深部过程、浅表环境与成矿作用等需要深入研究的10个矿床学科学问题。最后提出了改进矿床学研究的6点意见和建议,强调矿床研究要主动服务于矿产勘查,要深入野外一线并将继承与开创很好地结合。     

Radio geology

BBC Education has produced a series of six radio programmes on geology, to be broadcast in March 1988 on Radio 4 VHF. The programmes are supported by 117 slides (two of which are used - in black-and-white form-to illustrate this article) and three computer programs.     

南四湖地区煤炭开发环境地质效应的初步探讨

从煤炭资源开发的角度分析采矿活动引起的环境地质效应问题。研究认为本区主要环境影响因素为采矿引起的地面沉陷。采矿地面沉陷对于航运,南水北调东线工程、延长南四湖存在年限均有积极影响。      

福建省煤田地质工作回顾

从福建省50多年来承担煤田勘查的队伍演化、煤田地质勘查发展历程、五大煤炭基地勘查简介、煤田地质勘查及研究主要成果等方面进行回顾,总结了福建煤田地质勘查的基本经验和体会,对今后煤田地质工作提出了相关的建议。