On the stability of geotechnical systems and its fractal progressive loss

Geotechnical systems, consisting of soil and embedded solid structures, are practically stable if inevitable actions cause at most harmless redistributions. This kind of robustness can often be achieved with limit state design, i.e. by assuming representative snapshots of worst cases. Changes in configuration and state due to changing boundary conditions can be better judged with quasi-static numerical simulations using validated constitutive relations. The ever-present fractality of the ground may be neglected as long as the system is stable, whereas it gets dominant during a progressive loss of stability with jerky critical phenomena which elude mathematical treatment until present. In this sense geotechnical systems can be or get sensitive, i.e. further actions can trigger detrimental chain reactions with seismogeneous collapse of the soil fabric, pore pressure increase up to liquefaction, erosion, cracking of ground and structural parts and/or tilting. The geotechnical risk can be better mitigated by taking into account chain reactions with wild randomness. It can be further reduced by monitoring the seismic emission in addition to mass flows, structural deformations and pore pressures. The paper is to clarify notions and concepts.     

长江中游洪水沉积特征与标志初步研究

洪水记录是研究洪水规律的重要依据。通过对1998、1999、2002年长江中游洪水沉积物的系统观察、对比和研究,结果表明,长江中游洪泛沉积在沉积体形状、沉积结构和沉积物成分等方面,具有与正常河道沉积明显不同的特点,可为古洪水事件确定提供可能和依据。根据沉积环境的不同,长江中游洪泛沉积大致可分为3种类型:溃口洪水事件的沉积、滨岸带的洪水沉积和洪水漫滩沉积。进而对各种类型的沉积学特征进行了分析、归纳和总结,初步建立了其识别标志。     

The variability of the natural abundance of U

The possibility that the atomic ratio ²³⁵u/²³⁸U may be slightly variable due to natural nuclear chain reactions such as have been identified in Gabon, West Africa, has prompted a re-examination of very precise gas mass spectrometric isotopic ratio data from a number of laboratories. Two modal values of the isotopic ratio exist in the data. Their relative difference, 0.03%, is statistically significant. The lower mode is due principally to ores from the Colorado Plateau. This difference was recognized in 1963 by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission but the substantiating data have not been openly published. Insufficient data presently exist to attribute this difference to chemical differentiation of the uranium isotopes, presumably in the ‘sandstone’ type deposits of the Colorado Plateau, or to dilution with Precambrian ore deposits, depleted in ²³⁵U by nuclear reactions.     

The incised valley of Baffin Bay,Texas: a tale of two climates

Baffin Bay, Texas is the flooded Last Glacial Maximum incised valley of the Los Olmos, San Fernando and Petronila Creeks along the north‐western Gulf of Mexico. Cores up to 17 m in length and high‐resolution seismic profiles were used to study the history of Baffin Bay over the last 10 kyr and to document the unusual depositional environments within the valley fill. The deposits of the Baffin Bay incised valley record two major and two minor events. Around 8·0 ka, the estuarine environments backstepped more than 15 km in response to an increase in the rate of sea‐level rise. Around 5·5 ka, these estuarine environments changed from environments similar to other estuaries of the northern Gulf of Mexico to the unusual suite of environments found today. Another minor flooding event occurred around 4·8 ka in which several internal spits were flooded. Some time after 4·0 ka, the upper‐bay mud‐flats experienced a progradational event. Because of its semi‐arid climate and isolation from the Gulf of Mexico, five depositional environments not found in the other incised‐valley fills of the northern Gulf of Mexico are found today within Baffin Bay. These deposits include well‐laminated carbonate and siliciclastic open‐bay muds, ooid beaches, shelly internal spits and barrier islands, serpulid worm‐tube reefs and prograding upper‐bay mud‐flats. Based on these unusual deposits, and other characteristics of Baffin Bay, five criteria are suggested to help identify incised valleys that filled in arid and semi‐arid climates. These criteria include the presence of: (i) hypersaline‐tolerant fauna; (ii) aeolian deposits; and (iii) carbonate and/or evaporite deposits; and the absence of: (iv) peat or other organic‐rich deposits in the upper bay and bay‐margin areas; and (v) well‐developed fluvially dominated bayhead deltas.     

变质作用矿床概述

近代矿床学研究已初步摆脱经典和相对立的内生及外生作用矿床的研究范围,走向一个以整体地质环境为背景,以各种地质作用相互联系为基础的动力学研究方向,并从矿床的源区和源岩出发,在不同的地质作用下特别是与挥发组分的参与相结合,追溯其矿床的形成过程。变质作用矿床是一类中间型的矿床,属于近源迁移型。在原有地壳中含矿建造和矿源层的基础上,经历了变质作用和它的后期混合岩作用过程,并通过变质作用传导体制的不同阶段中出现的流体的参与,形成一系列由前变质矿床直至混合岩化期后矿床。文中对影响变质作用矿床的控制因素及其地位作了扼要的叙述,进行了变质作用分类的探讨,并从其传导体制中出现的热流及其形成环境上,与岩浆型花岗岩期后热液型进行对比和讨论。     

The Fort Drum Crystal Mine, Florida, USA

The Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of South Florida contain a spectacularly rich fossil record and chronicle several cycles of marine inundation and freshwater lake formation. The Pinecrest, Tamiami, Caloosahatchee and Bermont formations are famed for the variety and preservation of their molluscan faunas. It is therefore sad that good exposures are ephemeral and where they do exist it is very difficult to gain access. In addition, the large commercial pits that exploit the sediments for landfill and aggregate are rarely pumped dry, the material being extracted by draglines from the flooded pit, thereby rendering it impossible to study the stratigraphy.     

Belt zoning of sedimentation in the Angara cascade reservoirs

Analysis of genetic and compositional types of bottom deposits, rates of their sedimentation and accumulation, and thickness of sedimentary bed in the Angara cascade reservoirs made it possible to reveal for the first time the vertical belt zoning in one of the largest cascades of the artificial reservoirs. The belt zoning is determined by sedimentation conditions, including petrographic and lithological-geochemical composition of the rocks of the water drainage area, hydrodynamic parameters, and bottom topography of the cascade reservoirs. The vertical zonal distribution in the Angara cascade reservoirs consists in the relation of grain-size sedimentary fractions, their constituent minerals, and geochemical fields to definite elements of bottom topography: morphodynamic belts, main of which are coastal bank, underwater slope of coastal bank, flooded terraces, and flooded Angara River bed.     

Deposition and provenance of the Early Pleistocene Siliceous Member in Westbury Cave,Somerset, England

The Early Pleistocene is an important interval in the Quaternary period as a time not only of climatic and environmental change, but also of key events in human evolution. However, knowledge of this period in northwest Europe is hampered by the limited extent of deposits of this age. Westbury Cave in the Mendip Hills of Somerset preserves an understudied example of fossil-bearing Early Pleistocene sediments, with rare potential to inform our understanding of British Early Pleistocene stratigraphy and landscape evolution outside the East Anglian Crag Basin. This study identifies the processes responsible for deposition of the Early Pleistocene Siliceous Member in Westbury Cave, thereby aiding taphonomic and palaeoenvironmental interpretations of associated fossil assemblages. New excavations revealed over ten metres of Siliceous Member stratigraphy, dominated by fine-grained silts/clays with interbedded sands and gravels, interpreted as being deposited within a subterranean lake or flooded conduit with fluvial input. All sediments sampled were reversely magnetised and are assigned to the Matuyama Reversed Chron. Lithological analysis of gravel clasts revealed variable components of durable non-local and non-durable local clasts. Gravels containing the latter are interpreted as distal talus slope deposits, and those lacking non-durable lithologies as stream or flood deposits. However, it remains unclear from available data whether apparently non-local clasts were sourced from long distance or stem from a more local, now denuded catchment. Siliceous Member bio- and magnetostratigraphy suggest that deposition occurred late in the Early Pleistocene, a period apparently otherwise unrepresented in the UK.     

鄂尔多斯盆地及周缘地区上二叠统沉积特征

基于野外地质露头观察、岩心描述、薄片鉴定和地球化学等分析测试资料的综合分析,对鄂尔多斯盆地及周缘地区上二叠统石千峰组沉积岩石类型、沉积构造、沉积相类型及沉积体系空间展布等方面开展研究。结果表明,石千峰组主要发育冲积平原、三角洲平原、三角洲前缘、浅湖和南部海陆过渡的潟湖、沙坝等沉积环境,石千峰期,古气候干燥炎热,沉积古地形相对平缓,物源供给充足,形成了一套紫红色、棕红色泥岩和浅灰色中粗粒长石岩屑砂岩、岩屑长石砂岩、长石砂岩为主的地层。盆地北部三角洲规模大,以辫状河道发育沉积特征为主,砂体厚度大、横向分布稳定,而盆地南部三角洲规模相对较小。石千峰期,海水可能多次入侵盆地南部麟游-韩城-乡宁一带,发育海相夹层和沙坝沉积,一定程度上影响了南部的沉积环境和砂体展布。     

鄂尔多斯盆地及周缘地区上二叠统沉积特征*

基于野外地质露头观察、岩心描述、薄片鉴定和地球化学等分析测试资料的综合分析,对鄂尔多斯盆地及周缘地区上二叠统石千峰组沉积岩石类型、沉积构造、沉积相类型及沉积体系空间展布等方面开展研究。结果表明,石千峰组主要发育冲积平原、三角洲平原、三角洲前缘、浅湖和南部海陆过渡的潟湖、沙坝等沉积环境,石千峰期,古气候干燥炎热,沉积古地形相对平缓,物源供给充足,形成了一套紫红色、棕红色泥岩和浅灰色中粗粒长石岩屑砂岩、岩屑长石砂岩、长石砂岩为主的地层。盆地北部三角洲规模大,以辫状河道发育沉积特征为主,砂体厚度大、横向分布稳定,而盆地南部三角洲规模相对较小。石千峰期,海水可能多次入侵盆地南部麟游—韩城—乡宁一带,发育海相夹层和沙坝沉积,一定程度上影响了南部的沉积环境和砂体展布。     

Lithofacies and environments of Bed I,Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania

Bed I in Olduvai Gorge spans the interval from about 1.7 to 2.0 m.y.a., and all evidences of hominid activity at Olduvai are within the latter half of this period. Bed I was deposited in a closed basin approximately 25 km in average diameter, and it can be subdivided into five lithologically different but partly time-equivalent rock assemblages, or lithologic facies, each of which was deposited in the same geographic environment or closely related series of environments. These lithofacies comprise lake deposits, lake-margin deposits, alluvial-fan deposits, alluvial-plain deposits, and lava flows.Alluvial-plain deposits form the lowermost part of Bed I, and they presumably interfinger northeastward with lake deposits in an area not now exposed. Discharge of the lavas diplaced the lake westward to a position it occupied through the latter half of the deposition of Bed I. The lake fluctuated greatly in salinity, level, and extent, and at times of low level it was highly saline and generally ranged between 7 and 10 km in average diameter. At times of high level it was as much as 15 km in diameter and was relatively fresh, at least along its southeastern margin. The lake-margin deposits accumulated on the zone of relatively flat terrain that was flooded at times of high level. Lake-margin deposits interfinger eastward with deposits of an alluvial fan of pyroclastic materials produced in an explosive phase of the volcano Olmoti. The climate at the time of Bed I was relatively dry although somewhat wetter than the present climate in the same region today.     

琼东南盆地崖南凹陷海湾扇三角洲体系沉积构成及演化模式

本文以琼东南盆地崖南凹陷陵水组三段扇三角洲体系为例，详细讨论了进积于海湾背景环境下扇三角洲体系的岩性相、成因相及其空间配置关系。研究区海湾扇三角洲体系自下而上潮汐作用越来越强，其垂向演化可划分为三个阶段，早期为以河流作用占优势阶段，中期为河流和潮汐混合作用阶段，晚期为以潮汐作用占优势逐渐过渡为以潮汐作用占优势。     

泰国—老挝呵叻高原钾盐矿床研究现状及展望

泰国—老挝境内的呵叻高原马哈萨拉堪组钾盐矿床是世界上最大的钾盐矿床之一。综合研究表明,马哈萨拉堪组赋钾蒸发岩形成于晚白垩世,其成盐物质来自海水。该含盐建造很可能形成于陆相环境中,为"海源陆相"沉积。在蒸发岩沉积过程中及沉积后,一直伴随着水—岩(盐)作用的发生,钾盐沉积之后往往受到该作用的改造。溢晶石的出现是该地区"异常"蒸发岩的表现特征之一,它的形成很可能与海水的变质作用有关,但其形成机制尚未得到合理解释。兰坪—思茅盆地勐野井组与呵叻高原马哈萨拉堪组联系密切且具有共同之处,但二者在时代、成盐期次对比等问题上存在较大争议。最后,针对今后该地区钾盐研究提出了一些新的研究思路与方法。     

Geochemical compositional changes at the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition in fluviodeltaic deposits in the Tegelen-Reuver area (southeastern Netherlands)

2 O contents, which can be attributed to the Alpine source supplying fresh, sodic plagioclase-rich material instead of the local, strongly weathered sediments. Increasing K₂O/Al₂O₃ can be attributed to a similar decrease in degree of weathering. However, this trend is disturbed by the loss of K from clay minerals during weathering in organic-rich layers. Local high TiO₂ anomalies, caused by preferential sorting and concentration, are found in most Pliocene sections, but they are absent in the Upper Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene Alpine-derived deposits. This change is probably due to a change in the energy of the fluvial system. Finally, (pyrite-) S contents drop (siderite-) Fe contents rise. Micromorphological observations indicate that the Pliocene pyrite was formed when freshwater deposits were flooded with seawater during short-term events. The decrease in S, and the increase in siderite-Fe, can be attributed to decreasing marine influence, as a result of the marine regression at the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition. Received: 28 August 1999 / Accepted: 2 November 1999     

A classification of gem corundum deposits aimed towards gem exploration

This classification of gem corundum (ruby and sapphire) deposits takes into consideration petrographic data, and the mode of genesis of the deposits. It is aimed at being practical and useful in the field, particularly for prospecting purposes.Deposits are classified into primary and secondary deposits. Primary deposits include igneous and metamorphic deposits. Igneous gem corundum deposits are rare and include sapphire-bearing syenites from Kenya. Emphasis is put on metamorphic deposits, that are subdivided into metamorphic s.s., metasomatic, and anatectic deposits. Many gem corundum deposits result from metasomatic processes. Small-scale metasomatism mostly involves desilication reactions between silico-aluminous rocks (pegmatites, gneisses, etc) and silica-poor rocks (ultramafites, meta-carbonates), and leads to the formation of limited-size deposits. Large-scale (diffuse) metasomatism is usually more difficult to characterize, and therefore is not separated from isochemical metamorphism in this classification. In metamorphic deposits, gem corundum results from transformation of an Al-rich and/or Si-poor protolith. Such deposits include ruby-bearing mafic granulites, ruby-bearing meta-limestones, and ruby/sapphire-bearing gneisses and granulites. An intermediate category includes anatectic deposits. Secondary deposits encompass sedimentary and volcanic (xenoclastic) occurrences. In sedimentary deposits, gem corundum occurs as clasts originating from other lithologies. In volcanic deposits, gem corundums are xenocrysts that have a range of origins.The proposed classification outlines geological environments favorable to the crystallization and distribution of gem corundum, thus facilitating prospecting and mining of this gemstone.     

Sedimentary indications and absolute chronology of Holocene relative sea‐level changes retrieved from coastal lagoon deposits on Samsø, Denmark

Coastal lagoons are a typical feature of the landscape in central Denmark. The lagoons formed when basins within the inherited glacial topography were flooded by the mid‐Holocene sea‐level rise. The transgression initiated coastal geomorphological processes and prompted marine sedimentation in the inundated areas. Despite their common occurrence and wide distribution in the area, coastal lagoons and their deposits have rarely been studied as sedimentary archives. The absolute chronology established for the basal marine deposits in sediment cores retrieved from coastal lagoons on the island of Samsø, southern Kattegat Sea, central Denmark, is evidence of a nearly synchronous onset of marine sedimentation at different elevations. This is interpreted as a new indication of a period of very rapid relative sea‐level (RSL) rise between 7.6 and 7.2 ka BP. Following a period of RSL highstand, a marked facies change in the deposits from an inactive lagoon yields consistent ages of around 4.1 ka BP and may be an indication of a marked RSL fall. This study illustrates the potential of coastal lagoons as sedimentary archives for the reconstruction of RSL in SW Scandinavia and in similar coastal environments elsewhere.     

Application of electromagnetic techniques in survey of contaminated groundwater at an abandoned mine complex in southwestern Indiana,U.S.A.

In part of a large abandoned mining complex, electromagnetic geophysical surveys were used along with data derived from cores and monitoring wells to infer sources of contamination and subsurface hydrologic connections between acidic refuse deposits and adjacent undisturbed geologic materials.Electrical resistivity increases sharply along the boundary of an elevated deposit of pyritic coarse refuse, which is highly contaminated and electrically conductive, indicating poor subsurface hydrologic connections with surrounding deposits of fine refuse and undisturbed glacial material. Groundwater chemistry, as reflected in values of specific conductance, also differs markedly across the deposit's boundary, indicating that a widespread contaminant plume has not developed around the coarse refuse in more than 40 yr since the deposit was created. Most acidic drainage from the coarse refuse is by surface runoff and is concentrated around stream channels.Although most of the contaminated groundwater within the study area is concentrated within the surficial refuse deposits, transects of apparent resistivity and phase angle indicate the existence of an anomalous conductive layer at depth (>4 m) in thick alluvial sediments along the northern boundary of the mining complex. Based on knowledge of local geology, the anomaly is interpreted to represent a subsurface connection between the alluvium and a flooded abandoned underground mine.     

Vein graphite deposits: geological settings,origin, and economic significance

Graphite deposits result from the metamorphism of sedimentary rocks rich in carbonaceous matter or from precipitation from carbon-bearing fluids (or melts). The latter process forms vein deposits which are structurally controlled and usually occur in granulites or igneous rocks. The origin of carbon, the mechanisms of transport, and the factors controlling graphite deposition are discussed in relation to their geological settings. Carbon in granulite-hosted graphite veins derives from sublithospheric sources or from decarbonation reactions of carbonate-bearing lithologies, and it is transported mainly in CO₂-rich fluids from which it can precipitate. Graphite precipitation can occur by cooling, water removal by retrograde hydration reactions, or reduction when the CO₂-rich fluid passes through relatively low-fO₂ rocks. In igneous settings, carbon is derived from assimilation of crustal materials rich in organic matter, which causes immiscibility and the formation of carbon-rich fluids or melts. Carbon in these igneous-hosted deposits is transported as CO₂ and/or CH₄ and eventually precipitates as graphite by cooling and/or by hydration reactions affecting the host rock. Independently of the geological setting, vein graphite is characterized by its high purity and crystallinity, which are required for applications in advanced technologies. In addition, recent discovery of highly crystalline graphite precipitation from carbon-bearing fluids at moderate temperatures in vein deposits might provide an alternative method for the manufacture of synthetic graphite suitable for these new applications.     

A new chronological framework for Middle and Upper Pleistocene landscape evolution in the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Corridor, UK

The unique Middle and Late Pleistocene sedimentary record preserved along the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Corridor between Romsey and Brighton contains a wealth of deposits including highstand marine sediments associated with a variety of different aged beaches, fluvial sediments associated with rivers crossing the coastal plain and cold stage deposits accumulating above the marine and fluvial sediments. Although quarrying activity has been extensive across much of the area it has been undertaken in flooded workings due to the high level of the watertable. Consequently little is known in detail about the sequences except where they outcrop on the foreshore around the coast. This paper examines recent work from the lower coastal plain using a multi-disciplinary approach these deposits to elucidate the age of the sequences and their associated environments of deposition.OSL dates from two of the beaches, the Aldingbourne and Brighton/Norton Beaches, place both within MIS 7. Although these OSL dates cannot differentiate between sub-stages within MIS 7, coupling these results with inferences from local geography, lithology and contained microfossils it is clear that the beaches belong to two different phases within MIS 7. These two beaches are clearly divided by a major phase of erosion and downcutting associated with a fall in sea-level. Fluvial sediments from Solent Terrace 2 and Arun Terrace 4 also date within MIS 7 and are tentatively ascribed to the downcutting event between the beaches. Together this information allows us to propose, for the first time, a robust independently dated framework for the lower parts of the coastal plain integrating for the first time the marine and terrestrial record.     

水热成矿流体中的短链羧酸

文中简述了天然水流体中的短链羧酸产出状况。短链羧酸地球化学的研究目前集中于沉积盆地和表生环境。根据C H O体系中某些C H O化合物的化学关系和热力学分析 ,推测深部水热流体中有可能存在短链羧酸。研究高温热液矿床矿物流体包裹体的水溶有机组分可能是检验这一推测的突破口。某些石英脉型热液矿床的矿物流体包裹体压碎浸取和离子色谱分析确定 ,成矿流体中存在少量短链羧酸 ,而且甲酸是优势物种。文章讨论了矿物包裹体浸取实验结果需要进一步探讨的问题 ,认为研究水热成矿流体短链羧酸地球化学具有重要的理论意义。