Pervasive wetland flooding in the glacial drift prairie of North Dakota (USA)

This article describes a unique flood hazard, produced by the dramatic expansion of wetlands in Nelson County, located within the North American Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA. There has been an unprecedented increase in the number, average size, and permanence of prairie wetlands, and a significant increase in the size of a closed lake (Stump Lake) due to a decade-long wet spell that began in 1993 following a prolonged drying trend. Base-line land cover information from the 1992 USGS National Land Cover Characterization dataset, and a Landsat TM scene acquired 9 July 2001 are used to assess the growth of the closed lake and wetland pond surface areas, and to analyze the type and area of various land cover classes inundated between 1992 and 2001. The open water profile in Nelson County changed from one marked by relatively comparable coverage of closed lake and wetland pond areas in 1992, to one in which wetland open water accounted for the vast majority of total open water in 2001. The bulk of the wetland pond area expansion occurred by displacing existing wetland vegetation and agricultural cropland. Producers responded to the flood hazard by filing Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) claims and enrolling cropland in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a federal land retirement program. Land taken out of agricultural production has had an enormous impact upon the agricultural sector that forms the economic base of the rural economy. In 2001 the land taken out of production due to CRP enrollment and preventive planting claims represented nearly 42% of Nelson County’s 205.2 K ha base agricultural land. The patterns obtained from this detailed study of Nelson County are likely to be the representative of the more publicized flood disaster occurring within the Devils Lake Basin of North Dakota.     

Three-dimensional Layer-integrated Modelling of Estuarine Flows with Flooding and Drying

Details are given of the refinement and application of a thee-dimensional (3-D) layer-integrated numerical model of tidal circulation, with the aim of simulating severe tidal conditions for practical engineering applications. The mode splitting strategy has been used in the model. A set of depth-integrated 2-D equations are first solved to give the pressure gradient, and the layer-integrated 3-D equations are then solved to obtain the vertical distributions of the flow velocities. Attention has been given to maintaining consistency of the physical quantities derived from the 2-D and 3-D equations. A TWO=layer mixing length turbulence model for the vertical shear stress distribution has been included in the model. Emphasis has been focused on applying the model to a real estuary, which is geometrically complicated and has large tidal ranges giving rise to extensive flooding and drying. The model has been applied to three examples, including: wind-driven flow in a rectangular lake, tidal circulation in a model rectangular harbour, and tidal circulation in a large estuary. Favourable results have been obtained for both the simple and complex flow beds.     

Chrysophyte stomatocyst taxonomy — classification of snowflakes?

The utility of classifying chrysophyte stomatocysts by their characteristic honeycomb and ridge patterns is questioned, because a strikingly similar expanding pattern appears on the surface of ionized polymer gels during osmotical swelling as a result of simple physical forces. The rapid accumulation of silicate into a spherical cyst inside a chrysophyte cell appears to be as a physical process sufficiently similar to result in an analogous pattern in microscopic scale. Chrysophyte stomatocysts that possess honeycomb or ridge patterns could be regarded as frozen moments of the pattern evolution during the silicate gel phase. As a consequence, such structures should have little taxonomical value.     

Ordovician Graptolite Rhabdosome Complication and Its Implications on Sea Level Changes

A total of four times of rhabdosome complication events, i.e., the lateral branching of graptolite stipes during the Late Middle Ordovician, the secondary branching of graptolite stipes at the earliest Upper Ordovician, the early Qiantangjiangian of Upper Ordovician and the middle Qiantangjiangian, respectively, is discussed in this paper. These events and other adaptation events demonstrate close relationships between a diverse graptolite fauna and sea level changes, and consequently can be employed to study sea level fluctuations. It is safe to conclude that the complication of rhabdosome started at the maximum flooding surface (MFS) and terminated at the beginning of regression.     

由膨润土提铝残渣直接合成五配位体有机硅化合物

研究了以膨润土提铝残渣为原料，采用低温加热法直接合成有机硅化合物新方法。由实验确定了最佳的合成条件。用红外光谱法和X射线衍射法分析了合成产物的结构。结果表明，当以碱金属氢氧化物为介质时，合成的产物为五配位体有机硅化合物；在最佳合成条件下，钠盐和锂盐的收率分别为63．0％和44．9％。     

污水渗滤土地处理系统中的复氧方式及效果

复氧是困扰人工快渗、构造湿地等污水渗滤土地处理系统已久的问题。国际上目前采用的方法主要有3种：一是采用干湿交替的工作方式进行系统复氧，一是设置通气管对系统内部进行复氧，再一是利用植物的根系对系统内部进行复氧。研究结果表明，干湿交替的工作方式对系统的复氧条件有明显改善，而小水力负荷周期的工作方式对系统的复氧更为有效。通气管的设置通常与间歇性布水工作方式相结合，其效果通常要明显好于单纯采用干湿交替的工作方式。植物根系对系统的复氧，常因植物不同类型面具有不同的氧传输能力，植物根茎所能到达的范围往往决定了系统有效处理部位的大小。     

Flood Management in India

In this paper, flood problems in India, regional variabilityof the problem, present status of the ongoing management measures, their effectiveness and futureneeds in flood management are covered. Flood problems in India are presented by four zonesof flooding, viz. (a) Brahmaputra River Basin, (b) Ganga River Basin, (c) North-WestRivers Basin, and (d) Central India and Deccan Rivers Basin. Some special problems,related to floods like dam break flow, and water logging in Tal areas, are also mentioned.Progress of various flood management measures, both structural and non-structural, arediscussed. In addition, future needs to achieve efficient and successful flood managementmeasures in India are also pointed out.     

Architecture of coastal and alluvial deposits in an extensional basin: the Carboniferous Joggins Formation of eastern Canada

Abstract The Joggins Formation was deposited in the Cumberland Basin, which experienced rapid mid‐Carboniferous subsidence on bounding faults. A 600 m measured section of coastal and alluvial plain strata comprises cycles tens to hundreds of metres thick. The cycles commence with coal and fossiliferous limestone/siltstone intervals, interpreted as widespread flooding events. These intervals are overlain by coarsening‐upward successions capped by planar‐based sandstone mounds, up to 100 m in width that represent the progradation of small, river‐generated delta lobes into a standing body of open water developed during transgression. The overlying strata contain sand‐rich heterolithic packages, 1–8 m thick, that are associated with channel bodies 2–3 m thick and 10–50 m wide. Drifted plant debris, Calamites groves and erect lycopsid trees are preserved within these predominantly green‐grey heterolithic sediments, which were deposited on a coastal wetland or deltaic plain traversed by channel systems. The cycles conclude with red siltstones, containing calcareous nodules, that are interbedded with thin sandstones and associated with both single‐storey channel bodies (1–1·5 m thick and 2–3 m wide) and larger, multistorey channels (3–6 m thick) with incised margins. Numerous channel bodies at the same level suggest that multiple‐channel, anastomosed river systems were developed on a well‐drained floodplain. Many minor flooding surfaces divide the strata into parasequences with dominantly progradational and aggradational stacking patterns. Multistorey channel bodies are relatively thin, fine grained and modestly incised, and palaeosols are immature and cumulative. The abundance and prominence of flooding surfaces suggests that base‐level rise was enhanced, whereas the lack of evidence for abrupt basinward stepping of facies belts, coupled with the absence of strong fluvial incision and mature palaeosols, suggests that base‐level fall was suppressed. These architectural features are considered to reflect a tectonic architectural signature, in accordance with the high‐subsidence basinal setting. Evidence for restricted marine influence and variation in floral assemblages suggests modulation by eustatic and climatic effects, although their relative importance is uncertain.     

地震视应力用于震后趋势快速判定的可能性

对多次强震的地震视应力进行了计算，将各次强震的地震视应力的高低与强震发生后的后续地震的强度进行联系，探索它们之间的关系，进而提出将地震视应力用于强震震后趋势预测的可能性。对多次强震的地震视应力与其后续地震强度的关系的分析结果表明，低视应力的强震的后续地震的强度一般较低，即低视应力的强震发生后，震区发生较强的后续地震的可能性较小。     

Partial melting during tectonic exhumation of a granulite terrane: an example from the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica

Anatectic migmatites in medium- to low-pressure granulite facies metasediments exposed in the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica, contain leucosomes with abundant quartz and plagioclase and minor interstitial K-feldspar, and assemblages of garnet–cordierite–spinel–ilmenite–sillimanite. Qualitative modelling in the system K₂O–FeO–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O–TiO₂–O₂, in conjunction with various P–T calculations indicate that the high-grade retrograde evolution of the terrane was dominated by decompression from peak conditions of c. 7 kbar at c. 800 °C to 4–5 kbar at c. 750 °C. Extensive partial melting during decompression involved the replacement of biotite by the assemblage cordierite–garnet–spinel within the leucosomes. These leucosomes represent the site of partial melt generation, the cordierite–garnet–spinel–ilmenite assemblage representing the solid products and excess reactants from the melting reaction. The extraction and accumulation of this decompression-generated melt led to the formation of syntectonic pegmatites and extensive granitic plutons. Leucosome development and terrane decompression proceeded during crustal transpression, synchronous with upper crustal extension, during a progressive Early Palaeozoic collisional event. Subsequent retrograde evolution was characterized by cooling, as indicated by the growth of biotite replacing spinel and garnet, thin mantles of cordierite replacing spinel and quartz within metapelites, and garnet replacing orthopyroxene and hornblende within metabasites. P–T calculations on late mylonites indicate lower grade conditions of formation of c. 3.5 kbar at c. 650 °C, consistent with the development of late cooling textures.