Bedload transport of mud as pedogenic aggregates in modern and ancient rivers

Abundant sand-sized mud aggregates in the Cooper and Diamantina Rivers, Lake Eyre Basin, Australia are attributed to bedload transport of aggregates formed in deeply-cracked floodplain soils. The conditions required for formation of pedogenic mud aggregates are: (i) abundant clay containing at least minor swelling clay, and (ii) a climate with at least seasonally hot dry periods. The worldwide distribution of these soils (Vertisols) suggests that a significant amount of mud is transported as pedogenic aggregates by modern rivers. Ancient analogues in which mud aggregates and Vertisol profiles have been recognized are the Jurassic East Berlin Formation (Connecticut, USA) and the Carboniferous Maringouin Formation (New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada). The dominant red mudstones of these formations are interpreted as mainly bedload sediments deposited by sheet floods in semi-arid palaeoclimates. The Triassic Hawkesbury Sandstone (NSW, Australia) also contains sand-sized mudstone aggregates, thought to be pedogenic, but its paleosol and other facies point to formation in a wetter palaeoclimate. The indications are that bedload transport of mud as pedogenic aggregates was as significant a process in ancient rivers as it is at present.     

Selective transport of heavy minerals by shoaling waves

A model to account for the occurrence of heavy mineral concentrations as discrete lamina on beaches is presented. The model is based on the shoreward variation in the distribution of bottom fluid velocities due to shoaling, progressive, gravity, water waves. This variation causes certain portions of the sediment population to be transported shoreward at a faster rate than other portions. On moderate energy shorelines composed of sand-sized sediment the selectively transported portion may include the relatively hard-to-move heavy mineral fraction. Wave tank experiments with artificially prepared sediment populations provide empirical support for the proposed model. Under certain wave conditions it was found that the heavy mineral fraction of the sediment population moved shoreward at a faster rate than did the light mineral fraction.     

Investigations of clay colloid aggregates by scanning transmission X-ray microspectroscopy of suspensions

The environmental behaviour of colloidal clay in aquatic systems is linked to the properties of their aggregates. Earlier investigations of clay colloids were performed with electron microscope techniques which caused de-hydration of the particles. Information on the structure of colloid aggregates is needed for understanding their sedimentation behaviour, as well as colloid contaminant transport properties in natural systems. Scanning transmission X-ray microspectroscopy successfully produced images of montmorillonite colloid aggregates in a pseudo-equilibrium state in 1 mM NaCl suspensions equilibrated for more than a year. These clay aggregates were revealed at photon energies below the O absorption edges of clay and water. They were spherical or ellipsoidal with diameters of the order of 100–800 nm. The aggregates are porous and gel like with lower densities than the clay mineral. These investigations are important for modelling the occurrence of clay aggregates in aqueous environments.     

Support Vector Machines for Classification of Aggregates by Means of IR-Spectra

The increasing physical and technical demands placed on construction materials, especially as they are being used more and more up to the limits of their mechanical strength, has led the aggregates industry to search for more efficient methods of quality control. Information from theoretical work on rock spectra in near-infrared and mid-infrared light as well as achievements gained in signal processing can all be used to improve quality control in an economically acceptable manner. As engineering properties of aggregates are to a great extent determined by the petrological composition of the rock aggregates, the question is, whether a statistical classification rule for identification of rock aggregates can be developed. However, the classification of rocks is complicated by the fact that the optical behavior of minerals forming the rock often appears muted. In addition, minor constituents may dominate the spectrum. Furthermore, the relevant spectra form high dimensional data that are extremely difficult to analyze statistically, especially when curves are very similar. In this paper, support vector machines for classification of rock spectra are investigated, since they are appropriate in classifying highly dimensional data such as spectra.     

Support Vector Machines for Classification of?Aggregates by Means of IR-Spectra

The increasing physical and technical demands placed on construction materials, especially as they are being used more and more up to the limits of their mechanical strength, has led the aggregates industry to search for more efficient methods of quality control. Information from theoretical work on rock spectra in near-infrared and mid-infrared light as well as achievements gained in signal processing can all be used to improve quality control in an economically acceptable manner. As engineering properties of aggregates are to a great extent determined by the petrological composition of the rock aggregates, the question is, whether a statistical classification rule for identification of rock aggregates can be developed. However, the classification of rocks is complicated by the fact that the optical behavior of minerals forming the rock often appears muted. In addition, minor constituents may dominate the spectrum. Furthermore, the relevant spectra form high dimensional data that are extremely difficult to analyze statistically, especially when curves are very similar. In this paper, support vector machines for classification of rock spectra are investigated, since they are appropriate in classifying highly dimensional data such as spectra.     

Clay Dunes: Their occurrence,formation and environmental significance

Dunes which contain a large percentage of clay develop under restricted environmental conditions forming aceolian accumulation with distinctive sedimentary and morphologic characteristics. Along the margins of drying salt flats, sand-sized aggregates of clay minerals are formed by the efflorescence of salts or by the mechanical disintegration of mud curls. The resultant pellets, when blown to the vegetated margin, may be trapped and accumulate into a dune. With the onset of cool or moist conditions, the clays hygroscopically absorb moisture; the seasonal increment of pellets is thereby stabilised. This results in a low-angle, layer-by-layer addition over the dune surface producing parallel bedding different from that in more common aeolian deposits. The pellets travel on to the dune as a thin rippled layer; sand-slip faces rarely develop and so avalanche and cross-set bedding are usually absent. Topographically, clay dunes possess low-angle slopes (rarely exceeding 15°) the steeper of which usually forms the windward side. Because of rapid stabilisation, they do not migrate from the source but form transverse ridges following the salt-flat margin.Active clay dunes occur on the margins of coastal lagoons in Texas and on the west coast of Africa in Senegal, while inland occurrences are recorded from sebkha margins in Algeria. Inactive dunes occur widely throughout southern Australia on the eastern margins of Pleistocene lake basins. Their formation requires a combination of factors including; (1) the presence of a shallow saline water body with seasonally exposed marginal mud flats, and; (2) strong and preferably unidirectional winds coinciding with a hot dry season. Because these various factors must have coincided to permit their formation, relic clay dunes provide important evidence for reconstructing palaeo-environments.     

Experimental studies relating to microfracture in sandstone

A fundamental understanding of the relation between stress concentrations at grain contacts and microfractures in granular aggregates is obtained through two-dimensional photomechanical model studies and is tested through observational studies of experimentally deformed sandstone discs, glass beads, and quartz sand.In uncemented aggregates, the state of stress in each grain is controlled by the manner in which the applied load is transmitted across grain contacts. The angles between lines connecting pairs of contacts and the axis of the principal load acting at the boundaries of the aggregate determine which of all contacts will be most highly stressed or “critical”. Microfractures follow that maximum principal stress trajectory which connects critical contacts, and they propagate through those points where the magnitude of the local maximum stress difference is the greatest. Microfractures, therefore, are extension fractures. It then follows that both the locations and orientations of fractures can be predicted if the state of stress in the grains is known.Positioning of critical contacts depends primarily on sorting, packing, grain shapes, and the boundary load conditions applied to the aggregate. Some critical contacts and, therefore, microfractures tend to join together in a series or “chain”. Orientations of chains are most strongly influenced by the direction of the maximum compressive load at the boundary of the aggregate. A hydrostatic load applied on the boundaries of an aggregate can cause microfracturing within grains. Orientations for microfractures and contact lines are random in poorly sorted aggregates, but they are influenced by packing in well sorted aggregates.Grains of cemented aggregates are more highly stressed at their centers than at contacts. By analogy, microfracture orientations depend strongly on the position of the greatest load axis and only slightly on the low-magnitude stress concentrations at contacts. These microfractures parallel the greatest principal stress trajectory in regions where the magnitude of the maximum stress difference is greatest. These observations lead to the conclusion that fractures in grains of cemented aggregates are also extension fractures and should exhibit a higher degree of preferred orientation than in uncemented counterparts.These conclusions hold when cementing materials have about the same elastic moduli as the grains. Cements may be so weak that the aggregate behaves as if it were uncemented in terms of microfracture fabric, or so stiff that the major part of the load is transmitted by the cement, and the composite is no longer an aggregate in the mechanical sense.     

Lithofacies and stratigraphy of the Ordovician Guniutan Formation in its type area,China

The Lower to Middle Ordovician Guniutan (Kuniutan) Formation in the eastern Yangtze Gorges, China has been demonstrated to be similar to the ‘Orthoceratite Limestone’ in Baltoscandia with respect to facies, stratigraphic development and conodont biostratigraphy. Thus the ‘Orthoceratite Limestone’ appears to be a much more widely distributed and characteristically Ordovician facies than has hitherto been assumed. Five lithostratigraphic subdivisions of the Guniutan Formation are here defined in ascending order as the Nanya, Puxi, Wuguixi, Daping and Niangjiafang members. It is shown that these members, which represent considerable spans of time as indicated by their conodont stratigraphy, may be fairly thin but nevertheless regionally extensive. A new conodont zone, with Eoplacognathus crassus as the zonal fossil, is established to accommodate the precise dating of the Wuguixi and Puxi members. Microfacies data from the Guniutan Formation, available for the first time, show that its dominant component particles are sand-sized echinoderm and arthropod debris, as in the Baltoscandian ‘Orthoceratite Limestone’.     

海水痕量元素——有机配体的配分特征与影响因素研究进展

在痕量元素的海洋生物地球化学循环过程中,有机配体直接控制痕量元素在不同形态及粒径范围内的分配,进而影响痕量元素的迁移转化过程和生物可利用性。深入研究海水中痕量元素-有机配体的配分特征及影响因素,明确有机配体分子量组分及其对痕量元素的配合作用差异,对于了解痕量元素的生物地球化学行为,评估痕量元素的生物可利用性和毒性效应均具有十分重要的意义。对海水中痕量元素-有机配体的分布规律、配分特征及盐度、pH、氧化还原条件和生物活动对配体的影响进行了系统总结。海水中的有机配体一般以低分子量部分为主体,配合能力因元素性质差异存在随分子量增加而提高或降低的不同趋势。除此之外,有机配体的结构、配合能力及分子量分布随水体各物理化学参数的变化而改变。盐度的增加会降低有机配体相邻官能团的静电排斥力从而降低配体的配合能力,还会导致高分子量金属有机配合物发生絮凝和降解而去除。pH的增加不仅可以促使有机配体离子化,还能促进部分痕量元素水解为与有机配体亲和力更高的形式,提高有机配体配合率。氧化还原环境同时影响了痕量元素的价态和有机配体的浓度,间接影响痕量元素-有机配体的配合率。浮游植物利用及微生物分解可以增加低分子量有机配体的比例,从而提高其配合能力,但当生物遭受过量金属离子的毒性胁迫时,其细胞内会释放胞内配体,将致毒元素转化为配合物并排出体外,从而增加水体中痕量元素高分子量有机配体的浓度。未来应结合有机物结构分析技术及痕量元素分离检测技术,系统研究海洋环境中不同分子量有机配体的结构及与痕量元素配合强度的相互关系,进一步揭示痕量元素的迁移转化过程与生态学意义。     

The Distribution of Trace Elements-Organic Ligands in Seawater and Factors Influencing Their Complexation

Organic metal-binding ligands represent an essential role in the bioavailability of trace elements since they govern the species and sizes of those elements in seawater. The distribution and properties of organic ligands in seawater as well as the factors influencing their complexation abilities were summarized in this paper. Most organic ligands exist in the low molecular weight fraction, and their concentration nearshore is often higher than that of open ocean while the vertical distribution varies in different areas. The complexation of trace elements and organic ligands is influenced by several factors such as molecular weight of organic ligands, salinity, pH, biological activities and redox conditions. Ligand with a lower molecular weight usually represents stronger complexation ability, whereas the opposite seems to be true sometimes due to the specific affinity between some elements and ligands. Increasing salinity lowers the electrostatic repulsion among adjacent functional groups of ligands and thus decreases their complexing rate, yet increasing pH promotes the ionization of organic ligands and results in the formation of more complexes. The utilization of phytoplankton and degradation of microorganism release more low molecular weight organic ligands while more high molecular weight ligands are released from marine organisms under heavy metal stress. Therefore, sufficient significance should be attached to characterizing the structure and molecular weight of organic ligands and exploring the interaction between trace elements and organic ligands and the influence of related marine factors on their behaviors, which will certainly help us to understand the global biogeochemical cycles and ecological significance of trace elements.     

Geomechanical evaluation of Pliocene natural aggregates as pavement materials

Asphaltic roads and constructions in Egypt annually consume a huge amount of aggregates. The physical and geomechanical properties of these aggregates have controlled their performance in which they are used. All road pavements require the efficient use of locally available materials if economically constructed roads are to be built. More than 650 million m³ of fine and coarse aggregates are herein selected to be the tonnage of the present study. The studied Pliocene aggregates have smoothed grading curves and neither a deficiency nor excess of any one particle size, generally produce good mixtures with fewer voids between particles. The litho-particles of coarse aggregates are composed mainly of granites, gneisses, granodiorite, gabbro, and quartz particles. The sand equivalent value of fine aggregates varies from 95 to 97 %. The specific gravity values of the studied aggregates vary from 2.72 to 2.74 gm/cm³ for coarse aggregate and range from 2.51 to 2.54 gm/cm³ for fine aggregate. The Los Angles abrasion value varies from 19 to 24 %. Both coarse and fine aggregates meet the international standards which are suitable for usage as subbase and surface course aggregates, respectively.     

Silt-sized quartz particles: a proposed source

The origin of quartz-silt particles is attributed especially to the development and the breakdown of the cracked, marginal parts of sand-sized grains and particles. Generally the breakdown of these cracked grain parts will take place subsequently to their genesis, but these processes may partly overlap one another. This breakdown may succesfully occur in glacial, but likewise in other environments.     

海安凹陷南部断裂活动对油气运聚作用的探讨

海安凹陷断裂较发育，断裂形成、活动的时期不同，对构造圈闭、油气侧向及纵向上运移起控制作用。断裂活动与烃源岩生、排烃期的时空配置关系是构造捕获油气并成为有利圈闭的重要因素之一。深入研究断裂的性质与特征，确定油气运聚的主要部位，可大大提高该区的勘探效率。     

Bedload transport of aggregated muddy alluvium from Cooper Creek, central Australia: a flume study

The ability of mud aggregates to form depositional bedforms is of considerable sedimentological importance for explaining the geomorphology of the Channel Country of central Australia as well as for understanding the depositional environment of certain argillaceous fluvial sequences in the rock record. The sediment transport and bedform development of mud aggregates from the floodplain of Cooper Creek, central Australia, was examined in a laboratory flume over a range of flow conditions. The aggregates were found to be clay-rich (>60% clay), nonsaline (<0·02%), fine sand-sized (mean d₅₀=0·13 mm), low density (2300 kg m^?3) and water-stable. Three wetting rates were applied to the sediment in the laboratory prior to wet sieving to replicate various field conditions and results in three mean aggregate sizes. Immersion wetting (no tension) represents inundation of the sediment by overland flow and results in aggregates of 0·13 mm. Tension wetting at 20 and 50 mm corresponds to high- and low-intensity rainfall and results in mean d₅₀ sizes of 0·75 and 0·70 mm, respectively. Immersion wetting is the most applicable wetting mode for hydraulic transport of aggregated sediment on the Cooper Creek floodplain. Considerable variability in sediment transport rates in the field could result from differences in pre-wetting of the aggregated sediment. The dominance of smectite in the clay mineralogy of the sediment is an important factor in the development of the aggregates; disaggregated sediment reaggregated in a laboratory after 2–3 wetting/drying cycles. In flume experiments, bedforms of aggregated mud ranging from lower-regime plane beds to upper-regime antidunes were observed. The aggregates moved predominantly as bedload with measured peak bedload concentrations being high compared with other flume studies. The highly mobile nature of this sediment in the field is due to the ready entrainment of low-density aggregates in the form of self-mulching vertisols across extensive floodplains. The occurrence of low-sinuosity braid-like channels on this extensive low-gradient semi-arid floodplain can be attributed to: (a) the passage of floodwaters across a floodplain with steeper gradients than adjacent more sinuous anastomosing channels; (b) the highly mobile nature of the low-density sediment aggregates; (c) the ability of the aggregates to be transported as bedload; and (d) their durable nature during transport.     

Towards understanding the behaviour of naturally-occurring road construction materials

Summary Naturally-occurring road construction materials generally contain a greater amount of fines, and the fines have a higher plasticity than traditional materials such as a crushed rock aggregates. This makes their behaviour more difficult to understand and predict since soil suction and fabric become important controlling factors. The concepts of suction and fabric are outlined, and their role in controlling the behaviour of road construction materials is illustrated by a fundamental laboratory study of a lateritic gravel and two calcrete gravels. These materials have successfully been used as road base construction materials in low-volume bituminous-surfaced roads in Kenya and Botswana. It is concluded that the presence of fines can be an advantage, since they allow significant suctions to develop and also reduce the permeability.     

Interplanetary dust in the transmission electron microscope: diverse materials from the early solar system

An analytical electron microscope study of dispersed interplanetary dust aggregates collected in the earth's stratosphere shows that, in spite of their similarities, the aggregates exhibit significant differences in composition, internal morphology, and mineralogy. Of 11 chondritic particles examined, two consist mostly of a noncrystalline chondritic material with atomic $\text{(}\text{S}\text{Fe}\text{) ≥ 2}$ in places, one consists of submicron metal and reduced silicate ‘microchondrules’ and sulfide grains embedded in a carbonaceous matrix, and another consists of submicron magnetite-decorated unequilibrated silicate and sulfide grains with thick low-Z coatings. Although the particles are unmetamorphosed by criteria commonly applied for chondritic meteorites, the presence of reduced chemistries and the ubiquity of mafic, instead of hydrated, silicates confirm that they are not simply C1 or C2 chondrite matrix material. The observations indicate that portions of some particles have not been significantly altered by thermal or radiation processes since their assembly, and that the particles probably contain fine debris from diverse processes in the early solar system.     

Anastomosing river sedimentation in the Channel Country of central Australia

Anastomosing river plains of the Channel Country, central Australia, have aggraded slowly over the past 100 ka. Channel sediments accumulate mainly as accretionary benches of mud and sand, sandy channel-base sheets and vegetation-shadow deposits. The channels are laterally stable and the sediments have aggraded locally against erosional banks of tough floodplain muds. Channel sediments are profoundly affected by desiccation during dry periods and by bioturbation caused by within-channel trees and burrowing invertebrates, especially crayfish. Excavations show that mud-dominated channel bodies of low width:thickness ratio are generated by a combination of vertical and lateral accretion. Levees and braided surfaces, composed mainly of mud aggregates, border the channels and are activated during valley-wide floods which lay down distal mud sheets. Floodplain muds are converted to vertisols with gilgai, deep desiccation cracks, and impregnations of carbonate and gypsum. A fixed-channel facies model is applicable to the Channel Country river deposits. Anastomosis apparently results from the need for the system to move large volumes of water and moderate sediment loads across low-gradient interior basins.
Channels distant from upland source areas receive an abundant supply of pedogenic, sand-sized mud aggregates generated on adjacent floodplains and reworked into braid bars during valley-wide floods. Some quartz sand is provided from excavation of subsurface Pleistocene sands in deep channels and waterholes and from aeolian dunes on the floodplains. Adjacent gibber plains supply some gravel to the system.     

华南碳硅泥岩型铀矿床与断陷带倾伏地段的关系

文章以产于不同地质背景及不同层位的五个碳硅泥岩型铀矿床为例,说明该类型铀矿床常分布于断陷带的倾伏地段。初步探讨了该类型铀矿床产于断陷带倾伏地段的原因:富铀地层是成矿的物质基础和前提,经干旱气候条件下地下水的淋积造矿作用成为工业富集,成矿期都在气候干旱的中、新生代;断陷带的倾伏地段比扬起段汇水条件好,易形成铀矿床;在新构造运动上升区,保矿条件是控矿诸因素中最关键的条件,倾伏地段最有利于保矿。文章指出了识别断陷带倾伏地段的标志,对该类型锚矿床找矿勘探有实际意义。