Mapping potential areas for groundwater storage in the High Guir Basin(Morocco): Contribution of remote sensing and geographic information system

Identification of water potential areas in arid regions is a crucial element for the enhancement of their water resources and socio-economic development. In fact, water resources system-planning can be used to make various decisions and implement manage- ment of water resources policies. The purpose of this study is to identify groundwater sto- rage areas in the high Guir Basin by implementing Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing methods. The required data for this study can be summarized into five critical factors: Topography (slope), lithology, rainfall, rock fracture and drainage. These critical factors have been converted by the GIS into thematic maps. For each cri- tical parameter, a coefficient with weight was attributed according to its importance. The map of potential groundwater storage areas is obtained by adding the products (coeffi- cient × weight) of the five parameters. The results show that 50% to 64% of the total area of the High Guir Basin is potentially rich in groundwater, where most of fracture systems are intensely developed. The obtained results are validated with specific yield of the aqui- fer in the study area. It is noted that there is a strong positive correlation between excel- lent groundwater potential zones with high flows of water points and it diminishes with low specific yield with poor potential zones.     

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987111000831

The IAPWS-95 formulation explicit in Helmholtz free energy proposed by Wagner and Proβ(2002) is the best equation of state of water,from which all thermodynamic properties can be obtained over a wide T—p range from 273.16 to 1273 K and from 0 to 1000 MPa with experimental accuracy.This paper reports the applications of the IAPWS-95 formulation in fluid inclusion and mineral-water phase equilibria. A reliable and highly efficient calculation method is presented for the saturated properties of water so that the formulation can be conveniently applied in the study of fluid inclusion,such as calculating homogenization pressures,homogenization densities(or molar volumes),volume fractions and isochores.Meanwhile,the univariant curves of some mineral-dehydration reactions are calculated based on the IAPWS-95 formulation.The computer code of the IAPWS-95 formulation can be obtained from the corresponding author.     

Modeling the effect of wetting on the mechanical behavior of crushable granular materials

It is well known that the compressibility of crushable granular materials increases with the moisture content,due to the decrease of particle strength in a humid environment.An existing approach to take into account the effect of grain breakage in constitutive modeling consists in linking the evolution of the grain size distribution to the plastic work.But how the material humidity can affect this relationship is not clear,and experimental evidence is quite scarce.Based on compression tests on dry and saturated crushable sand recently reported by the present authors,a new non-linear relationship is proposed between the amount of particle breakage and the plastic work.The expression contains two parameters:(1)a material constant dependent on the grain characteristics and(2)a constant depending on the wetting condition(in this study,dry or saturated).A key finding is that the relationship does not depend on the stress path and,for a given wetting condition,only one set of parameters is necessary to reproduce the results of isotropic,oedometric,and triaxial compression tests.The relationship has been introduced into an elastoplastic constitutive model based on the critical state concept with a double yield surface for plastic sliding and compression.The breakage ratio is introduced into the expression of the elastic stiffness,the critical state line and the hardening compression pressure.Incremental stress-strain computations with the model allow the plastic work to be calculated and,therefore,the evolution of particle crushing can be predicted through the proposed non-linear relationship and reintroduced into the constitutive equations.Accurate predictions of the experimental results in terms of both stress-strain relationships and breakage ratio were obtained.     

Stochastic seismic slope stability assessment using polynomial chaos expansions combined with relevance vector machine

This paper presents probabilistic assessment of seismically-induced slope displacements considering uncertainties of seismic ground motions and soil properties.A stochastic ground motion model representing both the temporal and spectral non-stationarity of earthquake shakings and a three-dimensional rotational failure mechanism are integrated to assess Newmark-type slope displacements.A new probabilistic approach that incorporates machine learning in metamodeling technique is proposed,by combining relevance vector machine with polynomial chaos expansions(RVM-PCE).Compared with other PCE methods,the proposed RVM-PCE is shown to be more effective in estimating failure probabilities.The sensitivity and relative influence of each random input parameter to the slope displacements are discussed.Finally,the fragility curves for slope displacements are established for sitespecific soil conditions and earthquake hazard levels.The results indicate that the slope displacement is more sensitive to the intensities and strong shaking durations of seismic ground motions than the frequency contents,and a critical Arias intensity that leads to the maximum annual failure probabilities can be identified by the proposed approach.     

Critical Loads of Heavy Metals in a Highly Polluted Catchment Area in Egypt

Heavy metals in different environmental compartments can be hazardous to ecosystems. Budgets of Cd, Pb and Zn in small ecosystems of the Shubra E1-Kheima area in Egypt are presented. The budgets are not in steady state because they change with time. So the concentrations of the metals are a function of time. The critical loads of heavy metals to soils can be calculated from an inventory of inputs and outputs of the trace components in the catchment area.Critical time is an important parameter for critical load evaluation because it can indicate which of the heavy metals may be the most acute threat to the soils. Egyptian soil in the Shubra ElKheima area seems to be in danger of heavy metal pollution by Zn, Cd and Pb. The calculated critical loads and their exceedances are approximate indicators of the hazards in the soil system.The critical time is a warning signal to initiate an environmental evaluation of possible pollution hazards.     

Groundwater Behaviour in Layered Slope Rock Mass And Finite Element Simulation

The paper deals with the relatively weak permeable layer in a layered structure of a slope rock mass and itseffect on groundwater behaviour in the rock mass. When the whole groundwater table is declined in such typeof slope rock mass, the permeability of the relatively weak permeable layer in the middle will be several timeslower than that of the upper and lower permeable layers and consequently the water level in layers of differentpermeability will fall in different rates which will lead to a discontinuous phenomenon of the water body. Amethod of finite element simulation on a vertical two-dimensional profile is suggested for the study of the phe-nomenon and its application to practical situation is described. The calculation result shows that the existingweak permeable layer in a layered slope rock mass exerts unnegligible influence on the variation of water levelin the rock mass of a slope. The result also proves the applicability of the finite element simulation method.     

A Simple Monte Carlo Method for Locating the Three-dimensional Critical Slip Surface of a Slope

Based on the assumption of the plain-strain problem, various optimization or random search methods have been developed for locating the critical slip surfaces in slope-stability analysis, but none of such methods is applicable to the 3D case. In this paper, a simple Monte Carlo random simulation method is proposed to identify the 3D critical slip surface. Assuming the initial slip to be the lower part of a slip ellipsoid, the 3D critical slip surface is located by means of a minimized 3D safety factor. A column-based 3D slope stability analysis model is used to calculate this factor. In this study, some practical cases of known minimum safety factors and critical slip surfaces in 2D analysis are extended to 3D slope problems to locate the critical slip surfaces. Compared with the 2D result, the resulting 3D critical slip surface has no apparent difference in terms of only cross section, but the associated 3D safety factor is definitely higher.     

Redox Evolution of the Lithospheric Mantle beneath the North China Craton

正Objective The North China Craton(NCC)is a large Archean craton with a long geological history,yet very few studies have been carried out on the evolution of the redox conditions of its underlying mantle.Oxidation state of the mantle is critical in controlling the formation of metallic mineral deposits because metals can be readily released from the mantle to partial melt under oxidized conditions.     

Influence of rock property correlation on reliability analysis of rock slope stability: From property characterization to reliability analysis

Cohesion(c) and friction angle(φ) of rock are important parameters required for reliability analysis of rock slope stability. There is correlation between c and φ which affects results of reliability analysis of rock slope stability. However, the characterization of joint probability distribution of c and φ through which their correlation can be estimated requires a large amount of rock property data, which are often not available for most rock engineering projects. As a result, the correlation between c and φ is often ignored or simply assumed during reliability studies, which may lead to bias estimation of failure probability. In probabilistic rock slope stability analysis, the influence of ignoring or simply assuming the correlation of the rock strength parameters(i.e., c and φ) on the reliability of rock slopes has not been fully investigated. In this study, a Bayesian approach is developed to characterize the correlation between c and φ, and an expanded reliability-based design(RBD) approach is developed to assess the influence of correlation between c and φ on reliability of a rock slope. The Bayesian approach characterizes the sitespecific joint probability distribution of c and φ, and quantifies the correlation between c and φ using available limited data pairs of c and φ from a rock project. The expanded RBD approach uses the joint probability distribution of c and φ obtained through the Bayesian approach as inputs, to determine the reliability of a rock slope. The approach gives insight into the propagation of the correlation between c and φ through their joint probability into the reliability analysis, and their influence on the calculated reliability of the rock slope. The approaches may be applied in practice with little additional effort from a conventional analysis. The proposed approaches are illustrated using real c and φ data pairs obtained from laboratory tests of fractured rock at Forsmark, Sweden.     

Fractal and Multifractal Propertiesof the Spatial Distribution of Natural Fractures——Analyses and Applications

The Cantor's dust theory is applied to investigate the scaling properties of the spatial distribution of natural fractures obtained from detailed scanline surveys of 27 field sites in the Appalachian Plateau of western New York, USA. The results obtained in this study indicate: 1) fracture spacing is characterized by fractal and multifractal properties. On small scales analyses yield an average fractal dimension of 0.15, which suggests a very high degree of clustering. In contrast, on large scales, fractures tend to be more regular and evenly distributed with an average fracture dimension of 0.52; 2) fractal dimension varies with different sets in different orientations, which can be attributed to interactions between pre-existing fractures and younger ones, as well as variations of the intensity of the stresses under which the fractures were formed; 3) a time sequence of fracture set formation can be proposed based on fractal and multifractal analyses, which consists of (from old to young): N-S, NW, EN     

Advanced prediction of tunnel boring machine performance based on big data

Predicting the performance of a tunneling boring machine is vitally important to avoid any possible accidents during tunneling boring.The prediction is not straightforward due to the uncertain geological conditions and the complex rock-machine interactions.Based on the big data obtained from the 72.1 km long tunnel in the Yin-Song Diversion Project in China,this study developed a machine learning model to predict the TBM performance in a real-time manner.The total thrust and the cutterhead torque during a stable period in a boring cycle was predicted in advance by using the machine-returned parameters in the rising period.A long short-term memory model was developed and its accuracy was evaluated.The results show that the variation in the total thrust and cutterhead torque with various geological conditions can be well reflected by the proposed model.This real-time predication shows superior performance than the classical theoretical model in which only a single value can be obtained based on the single measurement of the rock properties.To improve the accuracy of the model a filtering process was proposed.Results indicate that filtering the unnecessary parameters can enhance both the accuracy and the computational efficiency.Finally,the data deficiency was discussed by assuming a parameter was missing.It is found that the missing of a key parameter can significantly reduce the accuracy of the model,while the supplement of a parameter that highly-correlated with the missing one can improve the prediction.     

Lower Jurassic Sequence Stratigraphy and Sedimentary Facies on the North Slope of Mount Qomolangma

The Lower Jurassic is subdivided in ascending order into the Wulong, Kangdui and Yongjia Formations on the north slope of Mount Qomolangma, with a total thickness of 1362 m. They are thought to have been deposited respectively in the environments of the carbonate ramp fault-bounded basins and carbonate platform, with six sedimentary facies and six sub-facies. During the Early Jurassic, the Qomolangma area experienced strong faulting and subsidence, and was of a matured rift basin. The Lower Jurassic consists of eleven 3rd-order sequences, which can be grouped into three 2nd-order sequences and form a large transgressive-regressive cycle. The 3rd-order sequences and the corresponding sea-level changes recognized in the area can be correlated quite well with those set up in the western Tethys, and may have been caused by the eustatic fluctuations, while the 2nd-order sequences seem to be more closely related to the basement subsidence and the variation in sedimentary influx, indicating the evolution of th     

矿石光片抛光新法——橡胶盘抛光法

Polishing is carried out on a rotating rubber disc in this method. Rubber of high quality with good elasticity is required and the rubber disc is grooved for holding polishing abrasives. Rough and fine polishing can be achieved depending on the grain size of abrasives used: The quality of polishing is supperior to that by traditional polishing on felt. Exeellant polished sections can be obtained after very short time of polishing regardless of the physical properties such as hardness and brittleness of a mineral. By choosing su{table abrasive, structure polishing can also be conducted, i.e., the micro-structure will be revealed just by polishing without etching by any chemical agents.     

An Effective Method for Free Vibration of Plate on Elastic Half Space

The vibration analysis of a plate on an elastic foundation is an important problem in engineering. It is the interaction of a plate with the three-dimensional half space and the plate is usually loaded from both the upper and lower surfaces. The contact pressure from the soil can not be predefined. According to Lambs solution for a single oscillating force acting on a point on the surface of an elastic half space, and the relevant approximation formulae, a relation between the local pressure and the deflection of the plate has been proposed. Based on this analysis, the reaction of the soil can be represented as the deformation of the plate. Therefore, the plate can be separated from the soil and only needs to be divided by a number of elements in the analysis. The following procedure is the same as the standard finite element method. This is a semi-analytical and semi-numerical method. It has been applied to the dynamic analysis of circular or rectangular plates on the elastic half space, at low or high frequency vibration, and on rigid, soft or flexible foundations. The results show that this method is versatile and highly accurate.     

Permeability Heterogeneity in a Fractured Sandstone–Mudstone Rock Mass in Xiaolangdi Dam Site, Central China

Abstract: Heterogeneity of permeability in fractured media is a hot research topic in hydrogeology. Numerous approaches have been proposed to characterize heterogeneity in the last several decades. However, little attention has been paid to correlate permeability heterogeneity with geological information. In the present study, several causes of permeability heterogeneity, that is, lithology, tectonism, and depth, are identified. The unit absorption values (denoted as ω), which are results obtained from the packer test, are employed to represent permeability. The variability of permeability in sandstone–mudstone is so significant that the value of unit absorptions span 3–4 orders of magnitude at any depth with several test sections. By declustering, it has been found that under a similar tectonic history, the means of permeability differ greatly at different formations as a result of different mudrock contents. It has also been found that in the same formation, permeability can be significantly increased as a result of faulting. The well-known phenomenon, the decrease in permeability with depth, is found to be caused by the fractures in the rock mass, and the relationship between permeability and depth can be established in the form of logω–logd. After subtracting the trend of ω with absolute depth, the mean of the residual value at each relative depth can be well correlated with the distribution of mudstone. The methods proposed in this paper can be utilized to research in similar study areas.     

Haphazard Packing of Unequal Spheres

Haphazard packing of equal and unequal spheres can be performed for the spheres of molecular sieve material with a density of 1.80.The packing of such spheres in air is equivalent to that of nat-ural grains in water.Packing concentrations of equal spheres have been obtained for different pac-king intensities.Unequal spheres can be regarded as equal ones in a wide range of diameter ratios,so far as the packing concentration is concerned.A threshold of diameter ratio exists at 0.70,be-low which the packing concentration is expected to increase.The variation curves of concentration vs.diameter ratio were established in the experiment.The result will help us to understand the process of sedimentation and the concentration of voids in sedimentary rocks.     

β—Correction Spectrophotometric Determination of Cadmium with Cadion

Cadmium has been determined by β-correction spectrophotometry with cadion,p-nitrobenzenediazoaminoaz-obenzone,and a non-ionic surfactant,tuiton X-100.The real absorbance of a Cd-cadion chelate in the colored solution can be accurately determined and the complex-ratio of cadion with Cd(II) has been worked out to be 2.Beer‘s law is obeyed over the concentration range of 0-0.20mg/1 cadmium and the detec-tion limit for cadmium is only 0.003mg/1.Satisfactory experimental results are presented with respect to the determination of trace cadmium in wastewaters.     

莱河矿稳定性的热力学分析

Laihunite, a mineral of ferric and ferrous iron silicate discovered in China in recent years, occurs in high grade metamorphic BIF coexisting with magnetite, quartz,fayaiite, ferrosilite and almandine. Complete nets based on Sehreinemakers bundles and partial nets with maximum closure after the method described by H. W. Day have been constructed by taking into account the existance of this minertl in order to illustrate phase relations for the (n 3) multisystem in the system of Fe2O3-FeO-SiO2. Judging from Lindsley‘s experimental data on ferrosilits, laihunite is expected to be stable at pressures probably higher than 15 Kb. Two-pyroxene and olivine-clinopyroxene geothermometere give temperatures of formation between 600--700℃. Free energy of laihunite calcultted according to the method of Chert and estimated values of heat capacity allow oxygen fugacity to be plotted against temperature at different total pressures with respect to a number of univariant reactions in which lailunite is involved. The log fo2 -T diagram demonstrates that to a first approximation the stability flels of laihunite overlaps the upper part of the magnetite field, but its upper limit is a little beyond the hematite-magnetite equilibrium. The three major requirements for laihunite stability, i.e., an unusual high pressure, a temperature in the order of 600--700℃ and a relatively higher oxygen fugacity are mutually, exclusive in common geological environment, which may probably account for the rare occurrence of this mineral in nature. For the BIF in which laihunite occurs, the pressure caused by the weight of overlying strata is not high enough to give rise to its formation even in the extreme case of geothermal gradient.So it is suggested that additional tectonic pressure in response to plate activity might have been involved.     

Geochemistry of sedimentary rocks and its relation to crustal evolution and mineralization in Southwest Yangtze Massif, China

Through a systematic study on trace elements and REE geochemistry of mudstone deposited in the basin and lower slope environments during Upper Proterozoic to Triassic in the Southwest Yangtze Mssif,three geochemical abnormal horizons of which the geochemical characteristics are quite different from those of other horizons have been established for the first time.They are the Lower Cambrian,the Upper Devonian and the Upper Permian,As compared with the crustal evolution in this area.these three geochemical abnormal horizons are corresponding to the pulling-apart periods of geotectonic cycles.which illustrates that uncommon depositional sources puring into the basin from the earth‘s interior may be one of the most important causes to originate the geochemical anomalies in these lhrizons.Thus it can be realized that the geochemistry of post-Archean sedimentary rocks has a great deal to do with the crustal evolution and it can be used as a tracer to analyze the crustal evolution.The elements in this area are mainly concentrated in these geochemical abnormal horizons,and the degree of enrichment and deficiency of trace elements in other horizons is very limited.A series of research on mineralization indicates that the main strata-bound ore deposits discovered in the Southwest Yangtze Massif occur in the Cambrian,Devonian and Permian-Trassic strata.The results of isotope tracer resarch have also proved that most of the metallogenic elements in these ore deposits came from the host strata.which illustrates that the geochemical abnormal horizons may have made great contributions to these ore-forming processes.Thus it can be concluded that it is only the particular horizons corresponding to the particular periode of earth‘s evolution that can they be the significant source beds because only in these uncommon horizons there can be highly enriched metallogeinc elements.which may be one of the most important reasons for explaining the time-bound nature of mineralization.