Modeled Nitrogen Loading to Narragansett Bay: 1850 to 2015

Nutrient loading to estuaries with heavily populated watersheds can have profound ecological consequences. In evaluating policy options for managing nitrogen (N), it is helpful to understand current and historic spatial loading patterns to the system. We modeled N inputs to Narragansett Bay from 1850 to 2000, using data on population, human waste disposal, livestock, fertilizer, and atmospheric deposition. We found that total N loading to the bay increased 250% from 1850 to 2000, and 80% from 1900 to 2000. Loading to the upper bay increased far more than that to the lower bay, and the most important source shifted from non-point animal waste to human waste concentrated at sewage treatment facilities. We also modeled future N loads in 2015 under four management scenarios. Planned improvements in sewage treatment would reduce N loads 9% below business-as-usual, to the 1990 loading rate. Greater reductions, to circa 1900 rates of loading, may be possible.     

Shale fissility: relation to bioturbation

Fissility in shales appears directly related to the parallel orientation of mineral grains in the rock fabric. In two shale sequences examined, fissility increases along a gradient of decreasing bioturbation. Normal marine mudrocks should be characterized by lack of fissility due to the randomized fabric produced by bioturbation, while azoic marine mudrocks should exhibit good fissility due to the lack of biogenic reworking and the preservation of an originally horizontal particle arrangement.     

Geologists: And their contribution to Australia

Abstract

Eight sets of stratigraphic layers and igneous rocks are the basis for the recognition of eight tectonic periods, TP1‐TP8, in the history of the New England and Yarrol Orogens from the Devonian to the opening of the Tasman Sea in the Late Cretaceous. The opening of the Tasman Sea caused the removal of an eastern section of the New England Orogen to form parts of the Lord Howe Rise and Norfolk Ridge. The Gwydir‐Calliope and Kuttung volcanic arc systems of TP1 and TP2 in the Devonian and Carboniferous were possibly W‐facing, and probably formed far to the NE of their present positions relative to the Lachlan Orogen. They moved SW as they developed, and in the latest Carboniferous or earliest Permian were cut obliquely by the Mooki Fault on which there was a dextral strike‐slip of about 500 km before the Kuttung volcanic arc became extinct. In the Late Carboniferous a narrow region on the E side of the Peel Fault was elevated to form the Campbell High which was intruded by the Bundarra Plutonic Suite and has probably remained elevated since then. Plutons of similar ages were intruded into a high to the E of the Bowen Basin (and the northern part of the Mooki Fault). The two highs and the intrusives in them divided the Yarrol Belt of the Yarrol Orogen from the Tamworth Belt of the New England Orogen, and the two belts have developed in different ways since the Visean. In Latest Carboniferous to Early Permian there was a major tectonic change and the Gympie‐Brook Street volcanic arc developed. The New England Orogen was in a back arc setting and broke into a mosaic of microplates, the relative motions between them being accompanied by deposition of diamictites, by metamorphism, by folding on W to NW trending axes, and by the intrusion of the Hillgrove Plutonic Suite. Further W, sediments of the Sydney, Gunnedah and Bowen basins were deposited above the Mooki Fault System and above the two segments of the Kuttung arc system that had been displaced along the Mooki Fault System.     

成矿预测:从二维到三维

随着矿产资源勘探方法以及计算机科学技术的不断发展,成矿预测的理论和方法已从定性发展至定量,从二维拓展到三维。近十年来,随着深部矿产资源勘探工作的推进,三维成矿预测研究得到了迅猛发展,相关理论与方法也已逐步走向成熟。本文总结了国内外二维成矿预测研究的现状,同时对近十年来国内外学者在三维地质建模技术、三维成矿预测方法等方面的主要成果和进展做了系统总结和分析。目前,国内外多个地区已相继开展了三维成矿预测工作,并成功圈定多个深部找矿靶区,相关成果为深部找矿勘探工作提供了新的方法和方向。在此基础上,本文对未来三维成矿预测的发展趋势进行展望,相较于传统的二维成矿预测,三维成矿预测往往受限于三维预测信息的缺乏。如何更好的挖掘二维数据在深度方向的指示能力,将二维数据推演至三维环境,利用数值模拟、机器学习等方法开展数据挖掘、充分发挥已有数据的内蕴信息将在未来推动三维成矿预测理论的深入发展,提高三维成矿预测的理论方法及应用实践水平。     

DECOVALEX Project: from 1992 to 2007

The DECOVALEX project is a unique international research collaboration, initiated in 1992, for advancing the understanding and mathematical modelling of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) and thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes in geological systems—subjects of importance for performance assessment of radioactive waste repositories in geological formations. From 1992 up to 2007, the project has made important progress and played a key role in the development of numerical modelling of coupled processes in fractured rocks and buffer/backfill materials. The project has been conducted by research teams supported by a large number of radioactive-waste-management organizations and regulatory authorities, including those of Canada, China, Finland, France, Japan, Germany, Spain, Sweden, UK, and the USA. Through this project, in-depth knowledge has been gained of coupled THM and THMC processes associated with nuclear waste repositories, as well as numerical simulation models for their quantitative analysis. The knowledge accumulated from this project, in the form of a large number of research reports and international journal and conference papers in the open literature, has been applied effectively in the implementation and review of national radioactive-waste-management programmes in the participating countries. This paper presents an overview of the project.     

A global approach to reactive transport: application to the MoMas benchmark

Water resource management involves numerical simulations in order to study contamination of groundwater by chemical species. Not only do the aqueous components move due to physical advection and dispersion processes, but they also react together and with fixed components. Therefore, the mass balance couples transport and chemistry, and reactive transport models are partial differential equations coupled with nonlinear algebraic equations. In this paper, we present a global method based on the method of lines and differential algebraic system (DAE) solvers. At each time step, nonlinear systems are solved by a Newton-LU method. We use this method to carry out numerical simulations for the reactive transport benchmark proposed by the MoMas research group. Although we study only 1D computations with a specific geochemical system, several difficulties arise. Numerical experiments show that our method can solve quite difficult problems, get accurate results and capture sharp fronts.     

Economic Hotspots: Visualizing Vulnerability to Flooding

We simulate a large-scale flooding in the province of South-Holland in the economic centre of the Netherlands. In traditional research, damage due to flooding is computed with a unit loss method coupling land use information to depth-damage functions. Normally only direct costs are incorporated as an estimate of damage to infrastructure, property and business disruption. We extend this damage concept with the indirect economic effects on the rest of the regional and national economy on basis of a bi-regional input output table.We broaden this damage estimation to the concept of vulnerability. Vulnerability is defined as a function of dependence, redundancy and susceptibility. Susceptibility is the probability and extent of flooding. Dependency is the degree to which an activity relates to other economic activities in the rest of the country. Input–output multipliers form representations of this dependency. Redundancy is the ability of an economic activity to respond to a disaster by deferring, using substitutes or relocating. We measure redundancy as the degree of centrality of an economic activity in a network. The more central an activity is, the less it encounters possibilities to transfer production and the more vulnerable it is for flooding. Vulnerability of economic activities is then visualized in a GIS. Kernel density estimation is applied to generalize point information on inundated firms to sectoral information in space. We apply spatial interpolation techniques for the whole of the province of South-Holland. Combining information of sectoral data on dependency and redundancy, we are able to create maps of economic hotspots. Our simulation of a flood in the centre of Holland reveals the vulnerability of a densely populated delta.     

I-Xe dating: From adolescence to maturity

The I-Xe chronometer is based upon decay of now-extinct ¹²⁹I where the ratio of accumulated daughter ¹²⁹Xe to stable ¹²⁷I reflects the iodine isotopic ratio at closure of the host mineral. Since none of the parent remains, I-Xe is by nature a relative chronometer but, when referenced by a standard mineral of known age, the I-Xe system becomes an absolute chronometer reflecting true closure times. Most iodine hosts are secondary minerals so the I-Xe system is unique in providing details of post-formational chronometry not readily available with other chronometers. The short half-life of ¹²⁹I gives it exceptional precision. However, the secondary nature of iodine host minerals, combined with the inherent precision of I-Xe, were responsible for a large database of “whole-rock” I-Xe ages that were not easily interpreted. As this problem evolved historically, doubts were cast upon the viability of the I-Xe system as a chronometer which persisted until it was tested against other chronometers in single-mineral systems. Properly calibrated, absolute I-Xe ages reflect the true closure time of the host minerals, and sequences of closure times in different hosts provide cooling rates for the parent object.     

古地磁:从地球到火星

古地磁学是一门典型的交叉学科,通过综合地质学、地球物理学、环境科学等学科相关方法,分析天然样品中记录的磁学信息,深入研究地磁场演化、地球动力学过程、古环境与古气候演化等.自20世纪中叶以来,古地磁学在各研究领域得到快速发展,通过进一步与其他学科交叉,衍生出诸多新兴方向.首先回顾了古地磁学的发展历史与基础研究领域.在此基础上,重点介绍了高精度卫星磁测与相关研究新领域、月球与火星磁学研究的新进展.同时,对古地磁学与高精度磁测等方法集成在地磁场演化、板块构造、深部结构、月球磁场演化、火星磁场及环境演化等方面的综合应用进行了讨论.最后,对古地磁学未来的潜在研究方向进行了展望.