Post-disaster recovery in the cyclone Aila affected coastline of Bangladesh: women’s role,challenges and opportunities

Natural Hazards - The present study deals with the gender aspects of water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) situation in post-cyclone Aila period in Bangladesh. Data were collected using...     

Diamond exploitation in Sierra Leone 1930 to 2010: a resource curse?

This paper uses the resource curse hypothesis to explore diamond exploitation in Sierra Leone during the period 1930–2010. Focusing on national and local level analysis, it examines whether the net impact of diamond exploitation was a ‘resource curse’ or ‘blessing’ during four time periods: colonial and early post-independence era, the APC era, the civil war period, and post-war era. The paper argues that the net impact of diamond exploitation in Sierra Leone has not been constant; rather it has changed between resource blessing and curse over different major periods of Sierra Leone’s history and at local and national scales since inception of diamond exploitation. This paper illustrates that during the period 1968–1992 patrimonial politics undermined official diamond exploitation and significantly contributed to a pendulum shift in the net effects of diamond exploitation from resource blessing to curse. The study shows that the net effect of diamond exploitation was: a resource blessing (especially at the national level) prior to 1968; more of a resource curse during the APC era; a full blown manifestation of the curse during the civil war period; and that governance of the diamond sector has improved sufficiently in post-civil war Sierra Leone to start the gradual transformation of diamonds to resource blessing, at national and local levels.     

Climate change impacts on groundwater recharge- uncertainty, shortcomings, and the way forward?

An integrated approach to assessing the regional impacts of climate and socio-economic change on groundwater recharge is described from East Anglia, UK. Many factors affect future groundwater recharge including changed precipitation and temperature regimes, coastal flooding, urbanization, woodland establishment, and changes in cropping and rotations.Important sources of uncertainty and shortcomings in recharge estimation are discussed in the light of the results. The uncertainty in, and importance of, socio-economic scenarios in exploring the consequences of unknown future changes are highlighted. Changes to soil properties are occurring over a range of time scales, such that the soils of the future may not have the same infiltration properties as existing soils. The potential implications involved in assuming unchanging soil properties are described.To focus on the direct impacts of climate change is to neglect the potentially important role of policy, societal values and economic processes in shaping the landscape above aquifers. If the likely consequences of future changes of groundwater recharge, resulting from both climate and socio-economic change, are to be assessed, hydrogeologists must increasingly work with researchers from other disciplines, such as socio-economists, agricultural modellers and soil scientists.

Theoretical issues in the ‘food desert’ debate and ways forward

Food is essential to life—yet the spatial and economic configuration of the conventional food system does not meet nutritional needs and exacerbates issues of food insecurity. Relevant options for policy change have been explored in light of evaluations of geographic disparities in food access, but the dominant ‘food desert’ discourse often focuses uncritically on insufficient conceptions of access. Understanding the complexity of food deserts is important for moving into meaningful policy action. We present a theoretical position to inspire future empirical research. The ecological model recognizes both endogenous and built environment factors in shaping health. Interventions in the food environment, however, often concentrate exclusively on structural determinants of health (e.g. retail-based initiatives). Yet retail-based interventions are difficult to implement due to governance systems which limit the ability of government bodies to influence private retail development. As well, recognizing the complexity of debates over the influence of structure and agency, we apply structuration theory to food deserts. Behavioral economics further informs both structural and behavioral determinants of health. This approach sidesteps the issue of victim-blaming, as all consumers are viewed as ‘predictably irrational’ in decision-making. In combining these theories, we challenge methodological and theoretical assumptions by showing the complexity of food desert interventions. Policy recommendations focus on behavioral determinants of health and the opportunities for empowerment through local food systems. These recommendations recognize the limits of translating research into policy and in devising effective food based interventions, and are sensitive to social, economic, and political constraints uncovered throughout the paper.     

Splendid isolation: ‘Philosopher’s islands’ and the reimagination of space

This paper argues that the metaphorical figure of the island plays an important but profoundly ambiguous role in the imagination of social space. The paper argues that ‘utopic’ islands have historically provided a fictional domain of experimentation that has informed the constitution of ‘real’ state spaces. From the 16th to 20th centuries this took the form of an increasingly consolidated and ‘global’ endotopia: a world, exemplified by the ‘political’ map, full of state spaces constituted as interiors. More recently, islands have served a very different metaphoric function, being used to create and legitimise spaces of exteriority – ‘xenospaces’ such as the online worlds of the ‘metaverse’ and the arcane legal/financial spaces of offshore – which in combination constitute an emergent xenotopia. The ‘philosopher’s island’ (Mackay, 2010), therefore, represents a complex and polyvalent spatial form that serves to continuously and expediently redefine the nature of social space.     

Magmatic evolution of the material of the Earth’s lower mantle: Stishovite paradox and origin of superdeep diamonds (Experiments at 24–26 GPa)

The ultrabasic–basic magmatic evolution of the lower mantle material includes important physicochemical phenomena, such as the stishovite paradox and the genesis of superdeep diamonds. Stishovite SiO₂ and periclase–wüstite solid solutions, (MgO · FeO)_ss, associate paradoxically in primary inclusions of superdeep lower mantle diamonds. Under the conditions of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle, such oxide assemblages are chemically impossible (forbidden), because the oxides MgO and FeO and SiO₂ react to produce intermediate silicate compounds, enstatite and ferrosilite. Experimental and physicochemical investigations of melting phase relations in the MgO–FeO–SiO₂–CaSiO₃ system at 24 GPa revealed a peritectic mechanism of the stishovite paradox, (Mg, Fe)SiO₃ (bridgmanite) + L = SiO₂ + (Mg, Fe)O during the ultrabasic–basic magmatic evolution of the primitive oxide–silicate lower mantle material. Experiments at 26 GPa with oxide–silicate–carbonate–carbon melts, parental for diamonds and primary inclusions in them, demonstrated the equilibrium formation of superdeep diamonds in association with ultrabasic, (Mg, Fe)SiO₃ (bridgmanite) + (MgO · FeO)_ss (ferropericlase), and basic minerals, (FeO · MgO)_ss (magnesiowüstite) + SiO₂ (stishovite). This leads to the conclusion that a peritectic mechanism, similar to that responsible for the stishovite paradox in the pristine lower mantle material, operates also in the parental media of superdeep diamonds. Thus, this mechanism promotes both the ultrabasic–basic evolution of primitive oxide–silicate magmas in the lower mantle and oxide–silicate–carbonate melts parental for superdeep diamonds and their paradoxical primary inclusions.     

Making a new area in Xiong’an: Incentives and challenges of China’s “Millennium Plan”

On April 1, 2017, China announced to initiate the Xiong’an New Area (XNA) plan, which is a national-level strategy aimed at alleviating the pressures felt by Beijing and promoting the integration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) city-region. In China, a city-region can be viewed as an outcome of state spatial selectivity that aims to manage crises and maintain governance through strong state involvement. This paper attempts to provide a broad view of the XNA plan by examining it in the context of China’s long-term efforts to coordinate the BTH region, explaining the incentives associated with choosing Xiong’an, and analyzing the challenges the plan has faced. Considering that theoretical insights based on Western experience may not be applicable to China, this paper can contribute to the debate revealing the logics of city-region building in different contexts.     

Variolitic lavas in the axial rift of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and their origin (Sierra Leone area, 6°18′N)

Altered variolites described for the first time in the axial zone of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge are represented by rounded globules of andesite (icelandite) composition with light trachyandesite rim embedded in a picrobasaltic matrix. The globules were transferred with picrobasaltic melt and then floated to the surface of lava flow, while formation of leucocratic rims was presumably related to thermodiffusion (Soret effect) in a cooling heterogeneous melt. This heterogeneous melt was formed by penetration of ascending column of picrobasaltic magma in already existing small intracructsal magmatic chamber filled with residual icelanditetype andesite melt and involvement of the latter into a general upward movement. The rapid ascent of the melts in the oceanic spreading zones by means of turbulent flowing caused dispersion of the extragenous melt into small drops in a jet of picrobasaltic magma, without their interaction. Variolites were formed during cooling of such heterogeneous lava flow. No signs of liquid immiscibility were found in the studied variolites.     

Gender myth and the mind-city composite: from Plato’s Atlantis to Walter Benjamin’s philosophical urbanism

In the early twentieth century Walter Benjamin introduced the idea of epochal and ongoing progression in interaction between mind and the built environment. Since early antiquity, the present study suggests, Benjamin’s notion has been manifest in metaphors of gender in city-form, whereby edifices and urban voids have represented masculinity and femininity, respectively. At the onset of interaction between mind and the built environment are prehistoric myths related to the human body and to the sky. During antiquity gender projection can be detected in western perceptions linking natural and built environments, commencing with Plato’s Atlantis and his Myth of Er, and later as a likely import of the Chinese yin-yang mythology. Culminating with the Age of Discovery, alongside advances in experiential awareness of the Earth’s sphericity, respective feminine and masculine earmarks can be detected in early modern perspicacity of the Earth’s southern and northern hemispheres. Our conceptions of natural and built environments inherently continue to contain gender traits. Yet urban voids, as the feminine face of city-form, have been severely understated in the built environment. Through design and configuration of urban voids, allegories of femininity in city-form ought to be celebrated, not discarded.     

Understanding the challenges for the governance of China’s “sponge cities” initiative to sustainably manage urban stormwater and flooding

Natural Hazards - China is a country with severe water problems. In recent years, urban flooding has become even more frequent, pervasive and severe, threatening China’s development. To...     

Development and Utilization of the World’s and China’s Bulk Mineral Resources and their Supply and Demand Situation in the Next Twenty Years

Bulk mineral resources of iron ores, copper ores, bauxite, lead ores, zinc ores and potassium salt play a pivotal role on the world’s and China’s economic development. This study analyzed and predicted their resources base and potential, development and utilization and their world’s and China’s supply and demand situation in the future 20 years. The supply and demand of these six bulk mineral products are generally balanced, with a slight surplus, which will guarantee the stability of the international mineral commodity market supply. The six mineral resources(especially iron ores and copper ores) are abundant and have a great potential, and their development and utilization scale will gradually increase. Till the end of 2014, the reserveproduction ratio of iron, copper, bauxite, lead, zinc ores and potassium salt was 95 years, 42 years, 100 years, 17 years, 37 years and 170 years, respectively. Except lead ores, the other five types all have reserve-production ratio exceeding 20 years, indicative of a high resources guarantee degree. If the utilization of recycled metals is counted in, the supply of the world’s six mineral products will exceed the demand in the future twenty years. In 2015–2035, the supply of iron ores, refined copper, primary aluminum, refined lead, zinc and potassium salt will exceed their demand by 0.4–0.7 billion tons(Gt), 5.0–6.0 million tons(Mt), 1.1–8.9 Mt, 1.0–2.0 Mt, 1.2–2.0 Mt and 4.8–5.6 Mt, respectively. It is predicted that there is no problem with the supply side of bulk mineral products such as iron ores, but local or structural shortage may occur because of geopolitics, monopoly control, resources nationalism and trade friction. Affected by China’s compressed industrialized development model, the demand of iron ores(crude steel), potassium salt, refined lead, refined copper, bauxite(primary aluminum) and zinc will gradually reach their peak in advance. The demand peak of iron ores(crude steel) will reach around 2015, 2016 for potassium salt, 2020 for refined lead, 2021 for bauxite(primary aluminum), 2022 for refined copper and 2023 for zinc. China’s demand for iron ores(crude steel), bauxite(primary aluminum) and zinc in the future 20 years will decline among the world’s demand, while that for refined copper, refined lead and potassium salt will slightly increase. The demand for bulk mineral products still remains high. In 2015–2035, China’s accumulative demand for iron ores(crude steel) will be 20.313 Gt(13.429 Gt), 0.304 Gt for refined copper, 2.466 Gt(0.616 Gt) of bauxite(primary aluminum), 0.102 Gt of refined lead, 0.138 Gt of zinc and 0.157 Gt of potassium salt, and they account for the world’s YOY(YOY) accumulative demand of 35.17%, 51.09%, 48.47%, 46.62%, 43.95% and 21.84%, respectively. This proportion is 49.40%, 102.52%, 87.44%, 105.65%, 93.62% and 106.49% of that in 2014, respectively. From the supply side of China’s bulk mineral resources, it is forecasted that the accumulative supply of primary(mine) mineral products in 2015–2035 is 4.046 Gt of iron ores, 0.591 Gt of copper,1.129 Gt of bauxite, 63.661 Mt of(mine) lead, 0.109 Gt of(mine) zinc and 0.128 Gt of potassium salt, which accounts for 8.82%, 13.92%, 26.67%, 47.09%, 33.04% and 15.56% of the world’s predicted YOY production, respectively. With the rapid increase in the smelting capacity of iron and steel and alumina, the rate of capacity utilization for crude steel, refined copper, alumina, primary aluminum and refined lead in 2014 was 72.13%, 83.63%, 74.45%, 70.76% and 72.22%, respectively. During 2000–2014, the rate of capacity utilization for China’s crude steel and refined copper showed a generally fluctuating decrease, which leads to an insufficient supply of primary mineral products. It is forecasted that the supply insufficiency of iron ores in 2015–2035 is 17.44 Gt, 0.245 Gt of copper in copper concentrates, 1.337 Gt of bauxite, 38.44 Mt of lead in lead concentrates and 29.19 Mt of zinc in zinc concentrates. China has gradually raised the utilization of recycled metals, which has mitigated the insufficient supply of primary metal products to some extent. It is forecasted that in 2015–2035 the accumulative utilization amount of steel scrap(iron ores) is 3.27 Gt(5.08 Gt), 70.312 Mt of recycled copper, 0.2 Gt of recycled aluminum, 48 Mt of recycled lead and 7.7 Mt of recycled zinc. The analysis on the supply and demand situation of China’s bulk mineral resources in 2015–2035 suggests that the supply-demand contradiction for these six types of mineral products will decrease, indicative of a generally declining external dependency. If the use of recycled metal amount is counted in, the external dependency of China’s iron, copper, bauxite, lead, zinc and potassium salt will be 79%, 65%, 26%, 8%, 16% and 18% in 2014, respectively. It is predicted that this external dependency will decrease to 62%, 64%, 20%,-0.93%, 16% and 14% in 2020, respectively, showing an overall decreasing trend. We propose the following suggestions correspondingly.(1) The demand peak of China’s crude steel and potassium salt will reach during 2015–2023 in succession. Mining transformation should be planned and deployed in advance to deal with the arrival of this demand peak.(2) The supply-demand contradiction of China’s bulk mineral resources will mitigate in the future 20 years, and the external dependency will decrease accordingly. It is suggested to adjust the mineral resources management policies according to different minerals and regions, and regulate the exploration and development activities.(3) China should further establish and improve the forced mechanism of resolving the smelting overcapacity of steel, refined copper, primary aluminum, lead and zinc to really achieve the goal of "reducing excess production capacity".(4) In accordance with the national strategic deployment of "One Belt One Road", China should encourage the excess capacity of steel, copper, alumina and primary aluminum enterprises to transfer to those countries or areas with abundant resources, high energy matching degree and relatively excellent infrastructure. Based on the national conditions, mining condition and geopolitics of the resources countries, we will gradually build steel, copper, aluminum and lead-zinc smelting bases, and potash processing and production bases, which will promote the excess capacity to transfer to the overseas orderly.(5) It is proposed to strengthen the planning and management of renewable resources recycling and to construct industrial base of renewable metal recycling.(6) China should promote the comprehensive development and utilization of paragenetic and associated mineral species to further improve the comprehensive utilization of bulk mineral resources.     

Pillow lavas of the Sierra Leone test site,Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 5°–7°N: Sr-Nd isotope systematics,geochemistry, and petrology

Based on detailed petrological, geochemical, and isotope-geochemical study, fragments of fresh pillow lavas with chilled glass margins dredged at the Sierra-Leone test site in the axial MAR rift zone between 5° and 7°N correspond to MORB tholeiites, which are not primitive mantle melts but were differentiated in intermediate magmatic (intrusive) chambers. Small-scale geochemical and Sr-Nd isotope heterogeneities were established for the first time in the basalts and their glasses. It was shown that some samples show significant nonsystematic differences in the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio between the basalts and their chilled glasses and less significant difference in ?_Nd; higher Sr ratios can be observed both in the glasses and basalts of the same lava fragments. No significant correlation is observed between the isotope characteristics of the samples and their geochemistry; it was also shown that seawater did not affect the Sr and Nd isotope composition of the chilled glasses of the studied pillow lavas. It is suggested that such differences in isotope ratios are related to a small-scale heterogeneity of the melts owing to incomplete homogenization during their rapid ascent to the surface. The heterogeneity of the basaltic melts is explained by their partial contamination by the older plutonic rocks (especially gabbroids) of the lower oceanic crust, through which they ascended to the ocean floor surface. The wider scatter of the Sr isotopic ratios relative to Nd is related to the presence of xenocrysts of calcic plagioclase; correspondingly, the absence of a Nd mineral carrier in the rocks results in less distinct Nd isotope variations. It was shown that all of the studied basalts define a single trend along the mantle correlation array in the Sr-Nd isotope diagram. The causes of this phenomenon remain unclear.     

Lunar-Based Measurements of the Moon’s Physical Libration: Methods and Accuracy Estimates

Astronomy Reports - Computer simulation results are reported for planned lunar-based observations to be conducted using an automated zenith telescope that can be placed at any lunar latitude....     

A Mesozoic Pompeii: History of the Jehol Biota’s Rise and Fall

The Jehol fauna was initially represented by a bony fish, concostracan and an insect, as a Lycoptera davidi–Eosestheria–Ephemeropsis trisetalis association, but since the researches of recent decades, the Jehol Biota is now completely different from the past low-diversity, and encompasses a native terrestrial biota that includes many well-preserved vertebrates, invertebrates and plants. There are more than 20 important biological categories, thousands of taphonomically unusual fossils, especially noted for the wide variety of biological tissues. The Jehol Biota has caused a sensation in the world with its wide distribution, large quantity, great variety, fine preservation and detailed information, which records the rise and fall of the numerous taxa, and provides significant evidence for three origins: of birds, eutherian mammals, and angiosperms. The Jehol Biota is a highlight of basic scientific research in China, and we honor it as a world–class fossil treasury and “a Mesozoic Pompeii”.     

Structural Seismology: Exploring the Correspondence between Surface Geological Features and Heterogeneities in the Earth’s Crust and Mantle

The North Qaidam is an Early Paleozoic UHP metamorphic belt located at the north margin of the Tibet plateau. Eclogites in this belt contain both continental‐and oceanic‐type ones. In which, the continental‐type eclogites have protolith ages of 750–850 Ma and WPB or CFB geochemical signatures and are believed to have formed in a continental rift or an incipient oceanic basin setting related to the breakup of the Rodinia supercontinent, their metamorphic ages (421–458 Ma) and P–T paths are comparable to their host gneisses; oceanic‐type eclogites have cumulate gabbro or E‐MORB geochemical signatures, their protolith and metamorphic ages are 510–516 Ma and 425–450 Ma, respectively(Zhang et al., 2008). Therefore, the North Qaidam UHP belt was thought to record the whole Neoprotoerozoic–Paleozoic Wilson cycle (Song et al., 2014). In this study, we reported three new kinds of eclogites: kyanite‐bearing eclogite, lawsonite pseudomorph‐bearing eclogite and double mineral eclogite. They occur as big lentoid blocks in regional granitic gneiss in the western part of the belt. Phase equilibrium modelling and zircon LA‐ICPMS U‐Pb dating show that all these three eclogites experienced a clockwise P–T path with peak metamorphic conditions close to or fall in the coesite stability field, and their peak metamorphic age were around 436‐439 Ma, similar to those continental‐type eclogites in this belt. But their protolith ages are between 1273 and 1070 Ma, and some of them recorded an amphibolite facies metamorphic age of 927 Ma, and geochemical data and zircon Lu‐Hf and O isotope analysis indicate these eclogites have features of present day N‐MORB. Combined with the existing results, we propose that the North Qaidam is a polycyclic composite orogenwhich recorded tectonic evolution of Mesoproterozoic ocean floor spreading, assembly and breakup of Rodinia supercontinent, Early Paleozoic oceanic deep subduction and subsequently continental deep subduction.