Military geology of Antietam battlefield, Maryland, USA—geology, terrain, and casualties

The geology of a battlefield, or that which underlies the area in which a military campaign occurs, rarely truly affects the outcome of battle. Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Maryland campaign and the Battle of Antietam fought against Union General George B. McClellan in 1862 during the American Civil War, are however, major exceptions to this rule. Lee used the geology and structure of the area in choosing the invasion route, in a major delaying tactic prior to the battle, and in the battle itself. In this article, we show the affects of geology on the battle by using standard morphometric measures to quantify terrain variables and relate these data to the numbers of killed and wounded during the battle. We also include a field guide to various locations on the battlefield where the relations between geology, terrain, and casualties can easily be seen.     

现代战争特点及军事地质调查

作为地质学研究对象的地形、地貌、工程地质和地质灾害在传统的接触式战争中发挥过重要的作用,创造了许多战争奇迹,但在以精确全球打击,前线与后方界线模糊、陆军作战作用弱化的现代战争,地质对战争是否还有影响?本文围绕这一问题,通过对战争阶段演化及地质应用历史分析,从现代战争特点和对军事地质需求分析人手,利用军事学思维,讨论了地质学的地质体力学性质、地球化学性质、地球物理性质和地质灾害等内容在现代战争中的作用,主要包括精确打击和重点防御目标的优选、打击地面工事的武器选配、目标侦测和靶区选择、海洋战争环境建设和战争评估、地面临时机动路线规划和工事选址等方面;探讨了军事地质调查的重点区域、方法手段、比例尺选择问题,以及在区域地质、工程地质、水文地质、灾害地质、地球物理调查基础上开展军事地质调查的工作流程及成果表达问题,分析了未来军事地质重点研究发展方向,为地质学在现代战争中的应用提供思路。     

李四光和卡尔宾斯基金质奖章

中国地质学家李四光与当时苏联地学界来往交流紧密,他对地质学的贡献得到了苏联地质学家的高度评价。1958年,苏联科学院全体大会选举李四光为苏联科学院院士,并授予卡尔宾斯基金质奖章;该奖章是1947年由当时的苏联科学院和俄罗斯科学院共同发起的、对地质科学有突出贡献的科学家最高单人奖励,李四光是第六位获奖人,也是至2017年止唯一获此殊荣的外籍地质学家,他的获奖理由是:在地质、古生物、地层和矿产研究工作的综合贡献。李四光有两部著作在苏联被译成俄文出版,分别是1952年的《中国地质学》和1958年的《中国西北部的旋卷构造》,这两部译作对当时的苏联地质界产生了很大影响,极大地推动了李四光学术思想的广泛认知;"地质无国界",中国地调百年的发展历程也有着俄罗斯地学理论、规范、方法实践的烙印,在新的"一带一路"合作倡议和李四光学术精神传承下,中俄、中国与中亚在地学领域的交流合作将不断深化,硕果累累。      

Embracing cultural geography: an army imperative

As an instrument of national strategy, the United States Army has served the American people well for more than two centuries. Its fundamental mission has always been to fight and win America's Wars. As we have moved from the bi-polar nature of world dynamics to that of the new global neighborhood, the American Army has seen an increase in missions related to peacekeeping, disaster relief, and humanitarian actions. From a geography perspective, the Army must operate in numerous countries simultaneously. To succeed, the Army must go beyond physical accomplishments: it must interact and communicate with nations at a level of shared understanding and enthusiasm of each others culture. The American soldier must understand the cultural nature of geography as well as the physical. The hypothesis of this paper is: There is an urgent need for the men and women of the Unites States Army to have a firm conviction that people of other cultures have beliefs, value systems, and customs that result in behaviors and perceptions that may be vastly different than ours. . .and that those differences are legitimate. Beginning with mistakes made during the Vietnam war, the authors give examples, current as well as past, of cultural illiteracy on the part of the military. The role of the Army in the new world order is then addressed with emphasis on the types of missions to be expected in the 21^st Century. The authors point out that significant efforts to grasp customs of foreign countries to which Army units are deployed have been made during recent years; however, much remains to be accomplished. The solution to a lack of cultural awareness is given in the form of improvements to the Army military education system. An overview of the current training environment, with its strengths and weaknesses, is provided as a precursor to recommendations for future training. A multitiered education system is proposed in which cultural awareness education is provided at all levels of authority, from the basic training recruit to senior officers. Given that programs of instruction are already full, it will take a combination of command emphasis and innovation to accomplish the goal of inculcating cultural awareness in the American Army. The paper concludes with the position that the only way the Army can accomplish its changed global missions is by first winning its own war against cultural illiteracy.     

Armageddon's Earthquakes

Although the effects of earthquakes in destruction found in archaeological excavations have been recognized for decades, their importance remains controversial. New measurements of motions and analysis of earthquakes on active geological faults substantially improve the explanation of often-observed, but rarely understood, repeated destruction revealed by these excavations. Ancient Armageddon (Megiddo), the single most excavated archaeological site in Israel, is a fascinating example of this. It is situated next to the Mt. Carmel-Gilboa fault system, which, according to recent geophysical measurements, is seismically active. Its past activity: (a) has created, over time, the topography that made Megiddo strategically so important; and (b) through episodic earthquakes destroyed Megiddo's walls and buildings repeatedly.

The accumulated fault motion created the Nahal Iron Pass, which controlled ancient traffic between Syria and Egypt. Megiddo's strategic location at this pass led to some of the greatest ancient battles fought in this region and was the reason for the maintenance of its fortifications. The recurrence of damaging earthquakes, possibly 3 to 4 per millennium, however, explains the repeated destruction of Megiddo–sometimes attributed, for lack of a better explanation, to unproved battles: e.g., King David's often assumed conquest and mindless destruction of Megiddo was actually a destructive earthquake in northern Israel that occurred at ～1000 B.C. Another earthquake at ～1400 B.C., which damaged many parts of the country, also destroyed Megiddo at that earlier time. Finally, the earthquake during the battle of the Apocalypse at Armageddon (Revelations 17:8-18) may well be a simple retrospective prophecy.     

Discovery of Late Jurassic fossils inside modern sediments at Gorringe Bank (Eastern Atlantic Ocean) and some geological implications.

During a recent expedition at the Gorringe Bank (eastern Atlantic, 150 miles SW off Portugal), one of the rare sites in the ocean where mantle rocks crop out at very shallow depths (? 30 m), the Gettysburg and Ormonde seamounts, the two summits on the Gorringe Bank, were surveyed in detail. At Gettysburg seamount, within the modern bioclastic material, which is continually produced on the summit and exported to deep water, several examples of Mesozoic cephalopods were found. These fossils, reworked ‘in situ’, gave an age spanning from Kimmeridgian–Tithonian to Hauterivian (145–155 Ma) and recall some condensed Jurassic sequences of the Thetyan region compatible with shallow water (< 200 m). The serendipitous discovery of such ancient faunas within modern sediments suggests that Gorringe Bank was a seamount at the early opening of the Atlantic Ocean and requires us to reassess the age of rifting along the Iberian margin and the importance of vertical tectonics for non‐volcanic, mantle‐rooted seamounts.     

斯特列利措夫矿田一个大型-超大型铀矿床群在苏联时期是怎样被发现和被勘探的

斯特列利措夫（简称Str）矿田是一个主要由大型-超大型钼铀矿床构成的矿床群,它位于南滨额尔古纳地区,铀的总储量在25万t以上,平均品位0.20%。该矿田在苏联解体以来的很长时间内几乎是俄罗斯唯一的天然铀来源。该区找铀的工作历程漫长而曲折,并颇具传奇色彩。早在1948年苏联地质部第一局松林大队在南滨额尔古纳地区开始了找铀工作。但因区内几乎所有矿床均属盲矿,而且多埋深较大,1962年之前找铀无果,1962年春已决定放弃在该区进行的找铀工作。1962年夏天高级地质师Л П伊舒科娃参观了哈萨克斯坦产在酸性火山岩中2个规模不大的铀矿床（波统-布鲁姆和克泽尔-萨伊）,注意到斯特列利措夫萤石脉围岩霏细岩的蚀变与哈萨克斯坦2个规模不大的铀矿床相似。归来之后,她上书领导力主恢复本区找矿工作并获得了再去做最后一试的机会。1963年5月,伊舒科娃所设计的钻孔一箭中的,发现了首个Str超大型铀矿床,整个局面立刻出现大转折,加速矿田开发成了所有工作的总方针。矿床的普查勘探工作和对矿床的地质研究工作平行加速进行,两者互相促进。不到10年,矿田的大部分矿床被一一发现;到1966年底,Str等矿床的初勘成果已经成为1970年代初组建全苏最大铀矿山的充分依据。到1980年底,矿田已有17个钼铀矿床完成勘探。1992年底19个矿床勘探完成。新一轮找矿采用的方略：首先合理综合运用地质、放射性及传统地球物理和地球化学方法,并合理综合使用深度普查自动装置射孔和钻探手段,进行不同比例尺的立体地质-构造填图;然后在其成果的基础上用钻孔去发现矿体。勘探工作所面对的基本事实：矿床构成的多重复杂性为Str矿田内所有矿床的共同特征;每个矿床的特点各异,其勘探过程不尽相同。初勘使用地表钻探进行,基本网度200 m×100 m~400 m×100 m。详勘使用坑探工程与钻探相结合的手段,采用水平与垂直断面联合的勘探系统,基本网度50 m×20 m~50 m×25 m。所有矿床的勘探成果完全被开采工程证实,并有10%的储量增长。Str铀矿床形成于晚中生代,为区域构造-岩浆活化作用晚阶段的陆相火山作用地区的岩浆热液矿床,受断裂构造控制是其基本特征之一。铀矿床在矿田内空间定位的重要规律：Str及其他绝大多数铀矿床均受控于南北向、北西向或东西向断裂与北东向额尔古纳隐伏深断裂带交汇。"斯特列利措夫效应"曾迅速地在我国铀矿地质勘查工作中传播,期待在我国,尤其在呼伦贝尔,乃至大兴安岭-燕山山脉中生代构造-岩浆带地区继续发酵,取得更多和更大的成果。     

An overview of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway

When the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway of Mississippi and Alabama opened to commercial and recreational traffic on January 16, 1985—some 21 months ahead of schedule—it signaled the completion of the largest Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works project ever undertaken, and perhaps the last of its kind After more than a century of studies and re-studies and major funding battles in Congress, the Tennessee-Tombigbee construction faced, predictably, great opposition on environmental grounds The first major project to be completed under the National Environmental Policy Act, it brought environmental design to the same level of prominence as engineering design.     

中国地质科学50年的简要回顾

在世界之效科学技术大发展的现阶段,中国地质科学必将发展,因为它具箅了社会需求、科学问题和社会基础技术三个科学发展的条件。由于中国地质学奠基者的远见卓识,中国地质学在本世纪２０～３０年代已建立了世界声誉。新中国建立后,５０～７０年代中国地质科学取得迅速工。自７０年代珂至今的改革开放时期更取得了全面的发展。随着地球系统科学的新概念为广大地质学者所接受,地质学各分支学科必将走向互相交驻融合,形成综合的和     

Geology and the war on the Western Front, 1914–1918

The First World War started a hundred years ago this year. On 4 August 2014 the United Kingdom marked the anniversary of involvement in this war with a remembrance event at Mons, and over the next four years there will be new museums and exhibitions, services and events, conferences and colloquia world‐wide. The aim of this collective recognition of a major event in world history is to pick over the impact and effects, innovations and consequences of a war that claimed the lives of at least 16 million people and left the world with geopolitical issues that still reverberate today. One of its notable innovations was the use of geology in warfare. As is well known, compared with the open war fought against the Russians on the eastern front, the war in the west very quickly became positional, with opposing trench lines locked into a position that would dictate the war's approach. And with trench warfare, came the need to understand the geology of the land over which the men were fighting.     

Military surprise and the environment

Surprise is a phenomenon that can have startling effects on individuals, politics, commerce and science. The focus, however, is on military surprise, which is differentiated from military shock. The types, causes and categories of military surprise are also shown, in the context of the land battle, where surprise occurs in a majority of tactical actions, progressively more so at the operational level and, at the strategic level, nine out of ten wars start with surprise. It acts as a force multipler, increases the probability of success, and reduces the surpriser's casualties. Battlefield surprise is usually caused by the combatants, but can be generated by terrain and weather factors, including,inter alia, difficult terrain, direction, gradient, avalanches, earthquakes, dust, heat haze, fire, water, flooding, ice, mud, the seashore, mist, snow, wind, the sun, and weather forecasting. Analysis of 120 historical battles where environmental factors led to surprise found that in a majority of cases those factors were manmade, and many of the reminder were in any event planned for and exploited by military commanders. Antidotes to military surprise are briefly considered.     

Trans-South Atlantic air link in World War II

German-Italian military successes and the fame of General Rommel's Afrika Korps in 1941 spelled disaster for the British war effort in Libya-Egypt. American military assistance was requested and freely given; this was several months before the United States entered the war! Pan American World Airways was the chosen instrument for building a series of airfields in Africa capable of receiving the planes ferried across the ocean from Recife, Brazil.Besides its reputation as the world's leading airline, Pan Am already had a major aircraft servicing facility at Recife. Liberia, because of its proximity to South America, became the first major West African bridgehead for this South Atlantic ferry route. A few existing and numerous newly constructed airfields between Liberia and Khartoum served as the emergency landing, refueling, maintenance and housing sites. The Nile was followed downstream from Khartoum; American-supplied warplanes played an important role in the pivotal Egyptian battle of El-Alemain in October, 1942. Once the threat to Egypt had subsided, the Brazil — West Africa air link was expanded to include a route through Central Africa, primarily to tap a supply of uranium from what was then the Belgian Congo (now Zaire). Khartoum served a new air ferry route to British India via Aden and Karachi. Transport aircraft used in the China-Burma-India theatre of operations were supplied over this ever-expanding air link. A spur to Basra (Iraq) and Tehran provided a secret diplomatic connection to the Soviet Union before the epic struggle at Stalingrad began in earnest. General Doolittle's surviving Tokyo raiders returned to the United States over segments of this long air route. Most of the airfields lost their locational significance after the war. A few, however, were to become their countries' international airports.More correctly, the Trans-South Atlantic Transport and Ferry Service. The author appreciates the fact that except for a secondary route through Central Africa, this wartime air connection was to the North of the Equator and technically, in the North Atlantic. Use of terminology then as now is to differentiate this particular route from the important Newfoundland to Prestwick (Scotland) air bridge.     

军事地质及其在现代战争中的作用

军事地质及其相关知识在人类战争历史中发挥着重要的作用,创造了许多战争奇迹。在以深地、深海、深空为特点的"三深"现代化信息战争中,战场环境的利用与评估、打击防御目标的优选排序、战争对人类生存环境影响评估等方面的需求凸显出来,以上都需要与地质密切相关的知识来协助解决。通过梳理与地质密切相关的专业知识在军事上的运用,结合现代战争特点与需求,系统厘定军事地质定义、内容和方向,以及各专业在军事上应用的联系与区别,提出了军民融合地质与军事的三种形式,即"民为军用"、"军为民用"和"军民联合",为现代战争中军事地质研究及基础地质的军民融合提供思路。     

The Valley and Ridge Province of eastern Pennsylvania—stratigraphic and sedimentologic contributions and problems

Many contributions that have led to a better understanding of Appalachian geology have resulted directly from work in the folded Appalachian Mountain and Great Valley sections of the Valley and Ridge physiographic province of eastern Pennsylvania. Disagreements have been common since H.D. Rogers first described the geology of the area in 1858. Many differing opinions still exist regarding the stratigraphy, structural geology, geomorphology, and glacial geology. The rocks in the area, which range from Middle Ordovician to Late Devonian in age, are more than 25000 feet (7620 m) thick. This diversified group of sedimentary rocks was deposited in many different environments, ranging from deep sea, through neritic and tidal, to alluvial. In general, the Middle Ordovician through Lower Devonian strata are a sedimentary cycle related to the waxing and waning of Taconic tectonism. The sequence began with a greywacke-argillite suite (Martinsburg Formation) representing synorogenic basin deepening. This was followed by basin filling and pro-gradation of a sandstone-shale clastic wedge (Shawangunk Formation and Bloomsburg Red Beds) derived from the erosion of the mountains that were uplifted during the Taconic orogeny. The sequence ended with deposition of many thin units of carbonate, sandstone, and shale on a shelf marginal to a land area of low relief. Another tectonic-sedimentary cycle, related to the Acadian orogeny, began with deposition of Middle Devonian rocks. Deep-water shales (Marcellus Shale) preceded shoaling (Mahantango Formation) and turbidite sedimentation (Trimmers Rock Formation) followed by another molasse (Catskill Formation).     

Petrology and mineralogy of dredged gabbro from Gettysburg Bank,eastern Atlantic

Gabbros have been dredged from Gettysburg Bank, 110 km west of Portugal on the Azores/Gibraltar fracture zone. Primary minerals in olivine, pyroxene and brown hornblende gabbros are partially replaced by metamorphic minerals. Igneous textures are inhomogeneously overprinted by a granular polyhedral deformation and a cataclastic deformation. Amphiboles show characteristics which indicate a transition from crystallisation in a magma chamber to formation of amphibole in solid gabbro under metasomatic conditions. Of the amphiboles analysed, chlorine was present in the green amphiboles but below 0.05% in the brown suggesting the penetration of sea water after the formation of the brown amphibole but during the formation of the green.     

Reconstruction of a Civil War landscape: Little Folly Island,South Carolina

The inlet dividing Little Folly Island and Big Folly Island was relocated through the use of Union Navy and Army maps and a global positioning system device. Identification of the inlet was confirmed through foraminiferal analysis of marsh sediments retrieved with gouge‐auger cores. The inlet was 1.8 km closer to Confederate batteries on Morris Island than previously believed. In addition to identifying the inlet, sedimentary structures were used to differentiate anthropogenic and natural sand mounds and dunes, resulting in the identification of four previously undocumented Union gun parapets. The results of this study suggest foraminifers are a useful tool for reconstructing coastal military landscapes from the Civil War and potentially earlier conflicts. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

国外军事地质工作现状与发展趋势

军事地质伴随着军事活动而生,并伴随军事活动和地质科学的发展而发展。通过对国外军事地质的发展历史和现状进行系统的研究,将国外军事地质分为早期孕育期、快速发展期和稳定发展期3个阶段,介绍了国外在军事工程地质、军事水文地质、军事矿产地质、军事海洋地质、军事地球物理和军事遥感地质六大研究方向取得的进展,总结了国外军事地质工作的3个特点,分别为军民共同推进军事地质工作、地质工作与国防建设统筹部署,及军民联合攻关技术成果双向转化应用。提出了未来军事地质的三大趋势,大数据和云计算将成为军事地质工作的重要支撑技术、军事地质将由资源保障走向空间拓展、现代军事地质的保障工作由国内(局部)扩展到全球(全时域),为中国国内军事地质工作发展提供借鉴和参考。     

Emigration and emigrants from Croatia between 1880 and 1980

Croatia ranks among those parts of Europe which have taken very high part in all forms of emigration flows in almost all periods of the last few centuries. The emigration from Croatia was caused by different reasons, such as historical, political, national, religious, social and other. It started in the 16th century and has been going on more or less intensively in different historical periods up to now. The first emigrations were caused by Turkish invasion, and those from the later periods came as a result of economical, social and political circumstances in which population of Croatia lived at the time. About 500,000 people had emigrated from Croatia in the period from the end of the century up to World War I. Most of them went to the USA. World War I had made a break in the mass emigration. After the war the emigrant problem came up again, but with some essential changes which were the consequences of the war. World War II stimulated a greatwave of emigration from Croatia. Emigration occurred either voluntarily or involuntarily. For the entire period 1948–1981, statistics show that modern overseas emigration from Croatia totalled roughly 140,000 persons. Finally, we would like to emphasize that the problem of emigration was and is still actual for the Croatian nation, especially in view of the fact that emigration from Croatia did not stop and continues up to this day. As a result today two million and half Croatian immigrants and their descendants live abroad.