Comparison Between Shear Behaviors of Overconsolidated Nakdong River Sandy Silt and Silty Sand

From this research, overconsolidated undrained and drained behaviors of specimens with high sand content were highly dilatant. According to the comparison results of laboratory tests, the deviator stresses of silty sand were greater than sandy silt due to high sand content under increasing OCRs, and both silty sand and sandy silt were presented strain softening tendency after failure under undrained loading. The pore water pressure increased with increasing fines content under increasing OCRs. Silty sand exhibited more dilatancy and increasing shear strength than sandy silt because pore water pressures of silty sand were lower than sandy silt under higher OCRs. In overconsolidated drained tests, silty sand is higher strength than sandy silt because silty sand has a lower volumetric strain and higher deviator stress than sandy silt under increasing OCRs. As the degree of overconsolidation increased, similar behaviors of silty sand and sandy silt observed that volumetric strain decreased to negative values due to dilatancy effect and low-cohesion under current effective confining pressures.     

Distinctive features of Late Palaeozoic massive sulphide deposits in South China

More than 20 sediment-hosted massive sulphide deposits occur in Late Palaeozoic basins in South China. These deposits are accompanied by a certain amount of volcanic rocks in the host sequence and are economically important for their Cu, Pb, Zn, Au and Ag reserves. The deposits and their host strata were commonly intruded by Mesozoic granitoids. Remobilisation of sedimentary ores and magmatic hydrothermal overprinting processes resulted in the coexistence of massive sulphides with vein-, skarn- and porphyry-type orebodies in the same region or within a single deposit. The ore-containing basins occur in different tectonic settings. The Lower Yangtze basin occurs on a passive continental margin, where the deposits are high in Cu and Au with minor Pb and Zn and recoverable Ag, Co and Mo. The ores have a lower concentration of radiogenic lead, and δ³⁴S values close to zero. Fluid inclusions are highly saline and Na-rich. Fluids and metals of the Lower Yangtze Region are interpreted to have been derived essentially from deep sources including the Precambrian basement. By contrast, basins of the Nanling Region formed in an intracontinental setting developed on a folded Caledonian basement. These deposits are higher in Pb, Zn, Sn and W, as well as Cu, with recoverable Ag, Sb, Hg, U, Bi, Tl and Mo. The ores are characterised by a higher concentration of radiogenic lead and a wide variation of δ³⁴S composition. Fluid inclusions have lower salinities and higher K⁺/Na⁺ ratios. Fluids are considered to have been sourced substantially from seawater by convection. Metals for the Nanling deposits were essentially derived from the Caledonian basement by leaching. The contrast in ore composition between these two regions appears to have been controlled by differences in basement composition of the ore-forming basins.     

Modern and historical tropical cyclone and tsunami deposits at the coast of Myanmar: Implications for their identification and preservation in the geological record

The catastrophic storm surge of tropical cyclone Nargis in May 2008 demonstrated Myanmar's exposure to coastal flooding. The investigation of sediments left by tropical cyclone Nargis and its predecessors is an important contribution to prepare for the impact of future tropical cyclones and tsunamis in the region, because they may extend the database for long-term hazard assessment beyond the relatively short instrumental and historical record. This study, for the first time, presents deposits of modern and historical tropical cyclones and tsunamis from the coast of Myanmar. The aim is to establish regional sedimentary characteristics that may help to identify and discriminate cyclones and tsunamis in the geological record, and to document post-depositional changes due to tropical weathering in the first years after deposition. These findings if used to interpret older deposits will extend the existing instrumental record of flooding events in Myanmar. Evaluating deposits that can be related to specific events, such as the 2006 tropical cyclone Mala and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, indicates similar sedimentary characteristics for both types of sediments. Landward thinning and fining trends, littoral sediment sources and sharp lower contacts allow for the differentiation from underlying deposits, while discrimination between tropical cyclone and tsunami origin is challenging based on the applied methods. The modern analogues also demonstrate a rather low preservation potential of the sand sheets due to carbonate dissolution, formation of organic top soils, and coastal erosion. However, in coastal depressions sand sheets of sufficient thickness (>10 cm) may be preserved where the shoreline is prograding or stable. In the most seaward swale of a beach-ridge plain at the Rakhine coast, two sand sheets have been identified in addition to the deposits of 2006 tropical cyclone Mala. Based on a combination of optically stimulated luminescence, radiocarbon and ¹³⁷Cs dating, the younger sand layer is related to 1982 tropical cyclone Gwa, while the older sand layer is most probably the result of an event that took place prior to 1950. Comparison with historical records indicates that the archive is only sensitive to tropical cyclones of category 4 (or higher) with landfall directly in or a few tens of kilometres north of the study area. While the presented tropical cyclone records are restricted to the last 100 years, optically stimulated luminescence ages of the beach ridges indicate that the swales landward of the one investigated in this study might provide tropical cyclone information for at least the past 700 years.