Compositions and sources of extractable organic matter in Mesopotamian marshland surface sediments of Iraq: II. Polar compounds

The concentrations of polar organic compounds including n-alkanoic acids, n-alkanols, steroids and triterpenoids were determined in extracts of shallow sediments from the Mesopotamian marshlands of Iraq. The sediments were collected by a stainless steel sediment corer, extracted with a dichloromethane and methanol mixture (3:1 v:v) by ultrasonic agitation and then analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometric (GC–MS). The analysis results showed that the n-alkanoic acids ranged from C₈ to C₂₀ with concentrations of 7.8 ± 1.2 μg/g sample, whereas the concentrations of n-alkanols, which ranged from C₁₂ to C₃₉ were from 28.6 ± 4.3 to 121.7 ± 18.3 μg/g sample. The steroids and triterpenoids included stenols, stanols, stenones, stanones, tetrahymanol, tetrahymanone and extended ββ-hopanes. The total concentrations of steroids and triterpenoids ranged from 26.8 ± 4.1 to 174.6 ± 26.2 μg/g and from 0.74 ± 0.11 to 11.2 ± 1.7 μg/g sample, respectively. The major sources of these lipids were from natural vegetation, microbial (plankton) residues and bacteria in the sediments, with some contribution from anthropogenic sources (livestock, sewage and petroleum). Further studies of these wetlands are needed to characterize the input rate, transformation and diagenesis of the organic matter and to assess its various sources.     

Hydrochemical investigation of water from the Pleistocene wells and springs, Jericho area, Palestine

Rising salinity levels is one of the significant signs of water-quality degradation in groundwater. The alluvial Pleistocene wells in the Jericho area, Palestine show high salinity and a high susceptibility to contamination. Future exploitation and management of the water resources under these conditions will require an in-depth understanding of the sources and mechanisms of contamination. The Jericho area is located in the basin of the Jordan Valley. The basin is underlain by alluvial deposits of soil, sand and gravel of Quaternary units Q1 and Q2, and marl clay and evaporites of the upper part of unit Q2. This paper deals with the source of salinity in the wells penetrating these units, using hydrochemical tracers. The study reveals three main zones of different salinity by using different diagnostic hydrochemical fingerprinting as tracers for elucidating the sources of salinity. It was concluded that the most probable sources of salinity are (1) the geological formations of the region, which form inter-fingering layers of both the Samara and Lisan formations of Pleistocene age, where the eastern Arab Project aquifers show the highest amount of sulphate. The location and geological formation of these wells within the Lisan suggested that the source of high sulphate content is the dissociation of gypsum. (2) The NaCl water within the same area may also be upwelling from a deep brine aquifer or from a fresh-water aquifer which contains salt-bearing rocks with particles becoming finer from west to east. This noticeable high TDS to the east should be affected by the rate of pumping from the upper shallow aquifer, especially in the wells of the Arab Project which are in continuous pumping during the year. (3) The third possible source of salinity is from anthropogenic influences. This can be easily shown by the increment of nitrate, bromide and sulphate, depending on whether the location of the well is coincident with urban or agricultural areas. This reflects the addition of agricultural chemical effluents or sewer pollution from adjacent septic tanks which are mainly constructed in top gravel in the Samara layer. Further studies are required, using different geochemical and isotopic techniques, to confirm these suggested salinity sources.The revised version was published online in March 2005 with corrections to the order of the authors.     

Compositions and sources of extractable organic matter in Mesopotamian marshland surface sediments of Iraq. I: aliphatic lipids

Shallow surface sediment samples from the Mesopotamian marshlands of Iraq were collected and analyzed to determine the distribution, concentrations and sources of aliphatic lipid compounds (n-alkanes, n-alkanols, n-alkanoic acids, and methyl n-alkanoates) and molecular markers of petroleum in these wetlands. The sediments were collected using a stainless steel sediment corer, dried, extracted with a dichloromethane/methanol mixture and then analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The aliphatic lipid compounds included n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids, n-alkanols and methyl n-alkanoates with concentrations ranged from 6.8 to 31.1 μg/g, 4.1 to 5.0 μg/g, 5.9 to 7.7 μg/g and from 0.3 to 5.9 μg/g, respectively. The major sources of aliphatic lipids were natural from waxes of higher plants (24–30%) and microbial residues (42–30%), with a significant contribution from anthropogenic sources (27–30%, petroleum), based on the organic geochemical parameters and indices. Further studies are needed to characterize the rate, accumulation and transformation of various organic matter sources before and after re-flooding of these wetlands.     

A stable isotope and fluid inclusion study of the Qaleh-ZariCu–Au–Ag deposit, Khorasan Province, Iran

The Qaleh-Zari copper deposit, located in South Khorasan in the Central Lut region of Iran, is a polymetallic vein deposit with major amounts of Cu, Au, Ag and minor amounts of Pb, Zn and Bi. Mineralization occurs in a series of NW–SE trending fault planes and breccia zones in Paleogene andesitic to basaltic volcanic rocks. Argillization, sericitization and propylitization characterize alteration halos bordering mineral veins. The main ore minerals are chalcopyrite, pyrite, galena and sphalerite, with quartz, calcite and minor chlorite as the main gangue phases. Microthermometric measurements of fluid inclusions in cogenetic quartz indicate homogenization temperatures between 160 and 300 °C and salinities from 1 to 4 wt% NaCl equiv. Boiling occurred in the mineralising fluids at 160–1000 m below the paleo-water table at pressures of approximately 15−80 bar at various stages in the formation of the ore body. The wide range of pressures and temperatures reflects the multi-stage nature of the mineralization at Qaleh-Zari. The δ¹⁸O values in quartz (relative to SMOW) and δ³⁴S values in chalcopyrite and galena (relative to CDT) range from 6.5 to 7.5‰ and 0.0–1.5‰ (mean: 7.0‰), respectively. At 300 °C, calculated fluid δ¹⁸O values are close to 0‰. These data suggest a magmatic origin for sulfur and a surficial origin for the mineralizing fluid. Mineralization at Qaleh-Zari is interpreted as epithermal and low-sulfidation in style and was probably related to a deep-seated magmatic system. Ore deposition was the result of boiling, cooling and pressure reduction.     

Genotypic and environmental interaction in advanced lines of rice under salt-affected soils of Punjab

Sixteen genotypes developed through hybridization and mutation breeding techniques were evaluated during the year 2003–04 on nine locations covering most of the area of Punjab province including Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh and Jhang. NIAB-IRRI-9, Jhona-379 salt tolerant genotypes and super Basmati, a salt sensitive variety were included as standard checks. The tested material (six genotypes) was generated by crossing fine varieties of rice viz. Basmati-370 and Basmati-385 with three coarse varieties of rice viz. NIAB-IRRI-9, Jhona-349 and NIAB-Rice-1. The mutants (seven mutants) were derived by gamma irradiation of rice varieties, Basmati-370 and Basmati-385. The nine sets of experiments were conducted in the naturally high saline sodic soils having EC range of 9.2–18.13 d/Sm pH=8.65–9.50, and SAR=20.7–37.15. The seed yield data collected at maturity and stability parameters were computed to know genotypic x environment interaction and varietals performance. The combined analysis of variance showed highly significant variance in case of varieties, locations and varieties x locations interaction. Varieties and varieties x Environment (Lin) also showed highly significant differences. It means that genotypes exhibited different behavior in different locations / environments which is due to their different genetic make up. The behavior may be cross over (in which significant change in ranking occurs from one environment to another) or cross over nature (in which case the ranking of genotype remains constant across environments and the interaction is significant because of change in the magnitude of response) depending upon the ranking order of genotypes performance under different environment. In our study, only super Basmati behavior was of almost non cross over nature, while others had cross over type of interaction. Based on overall mean seed performance, mutant NIAB-Rice-4 and DM-38/88 produced significantly the highest grain yield (5.6 t/ha) followed by mutant line NIAB-Rice-5 (5.4 t/ha) and NIAB-rice-2 (5.3 t/ha). The lowest performing genotype was super Basmati (3.0 t/ha). The coarse variety Jhona-349 produced (4.8 t/ha) grain yield. Mutant line DM-38/88 showed significant regression co-efficient differences from unity while mutant line NIAB-Rice-4 showed non significant difference of regression co-efficient from unity. Mutant line, NIAB-Rice-4 also showed non significant difference of standard deviation to regression co-efficient from zero. All the three parameters of stability i.e. overall mean seed yield, regression co-efficient and standard deviation to regression, provided clear evidence that mutant line NIAB-Rice-4 produced maximum stable yield compared to super Basmati.     

Compressibility of porous rocks: Part I. Measurements of Hungarian reservoir rock samples

Pore volume compressibility is one of the physical properties of a reservoir that must be specified in many reservoir-engineering calculations. In the presented research, the effect of compact pressure, temperature and porosity on compressibility was investigated. A total of twenty-two different cores were tested: five limestone, one friable sandstone, fourteen medium to hard sandstone, and two very dense sandstone. Core samples were placed in the test cell and subject to compacting pressure up to 10,000 psi. Runs were made at room temperature and at 52°C for limestone samples. Although there were some publications concerning measurement and study of the effect of pressure and temperature on pore volume compressibility of reservoir rocks, nothing has been published about compressibility of Hungarian reservoir rocks, except of the work of Tóth and Bauer (1988). The present study showed pore volume compressibility data for different Hungarian fields. The result of the study at high temperature (52°C) shows that pore compressibility increases with increasing temperature.     

Another look at the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes from the analysis of teleseismic waveforms

In this work we estimated the source process and the source parameters of the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes. To investigate the source process of both events, we inverted the teleseismic P- and SH-waveform data using an iterative technique in which the rupture is modeled as a series of point source subevents with varying mechanisms. The main source process of the 1993 event can be explained by two subevents with essentially the same mechanism. These two subevents had different focal depths. The second subevent was about 5 s later than the first one and about 70% of the moment rate released with the second one. The total rupture duration time was about 12 s. Our solution for the 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake indicated that the event consists of three subevents with various fault geometries and about 60% of the moment released by the second subevent. The first subevent occurred at a depth of 13 km, and was followed after 9 s by the second one at a depth of 11 km; the third subevent, at a depth of 9 km occurred 19 s after the second one. The total duration of the earthquake rupture process was about 18.7 s. The obtained mechanisms for the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes are well correlated with the structural setting of the Gulf of Aqaba.     

Recent crustal deformation of İzmir, Western Anatolia and surrounding regions as deduced from repeated GPS measurements and strain field

To investigate contemporary neotectonic deformation in İzmir, Western Anatolia and in its neighborhood, a relatively dense Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring network was established in 2001. Combination of three spatially dense GPS campaigns in 2001, 2003 and 2004 with temporally dense campaigns between 1992 and 2004 resulted in a combined velocity field representing active deformation rate in the region. We computed horizontal and vertical velocity fields with respect to Earth-centered, Earth-fixed ITRF2000, to Eurasia and to Anatolia as well.The rates of principal and shear strains along with rigid-body rotation rates were derived from velocity field. Results show east–west shortening between Karaburun Peninsula and northern part of İzmir Bay together with the extension of İzmir Bay in accordance with general extension regime of Western Anatolia and Eastern Agea. East–west shortening and north–south extension of Karaburun Peninsula are closely related to right-lateral faulting and a clockwise rotation. There exists a block in the middle of the peninsula with a differential motion at a rate of 3–5 ± 1 mm/year and 5–6 ± 1 mm/year to the east and south, respectively.As is in Western Anatolia, north–south extension is dominant in almost all parts of the region despite the fact that they exhibit significantly higher rates in the middle of the peninsula. Extensional rates along Tuzla Fault lying nearly perpendicular to İzmir Bay and in its west are maximum in the region with an extension rate of 300–500 ± 80–100 nanostrain/year and confirm its active state. Extensional rates in other parts of the region are at level of 50–150 nanostrain/year as expected in the other parts of Western Anatolia.     

Single piles under horizontal loads in sand: determination of <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>–<Emphasis Type="Italic">Y</Emphasis> curves from the prebored pressuremeter test

Lateral load-deflection behaviour of single piles is often analysed in practice on the basis of methods of load-transfer P–Y curves. The paper is aimed at presenting the results of the interpretation of five full-scale horizontal loading tests of single instrumented piles in two sandy soils, in order to define the parameters of P–Y curves, namely the initial lateral reaction modulus and the lateral soil resistance, in correlation with the pressuremeter test parameters. P–Y curve parameters were found varying as a power of lateral pile/soil stiffness, on the basis of which hyperbolic P–Y curves in sand were proposed. The predictive capabilities of the proposed P–Y curves were assessed by predicting the soil/pile response in full-scale tests as well as in centrifuge tests and a very good agreement was found between the computed deflections and bending moments, and the measured ones. Small-sized database of full-scale pile loading tests in sand was built and a comparative study of some commonly used P–Y curve methods was undertaken. Moreover, it was shown that the load-deflection curves of these test piles may be normalised in a practical form for an approximate evaluation of pile deflection in a preliminary stage of pile design. At last, a parametric study undertaken on the basis of the proposed P–Y curves showed the significant influence of the lateral pile/soil stiffness on the non-linear load-deflection response.