Dust supply from river floodplains: the case of the lower Huang He (Yellow River) recorded in a loess–palaeosol sequence from the Mangshan Plateau

The Mangshan Plateau is located on the south bank of the Huang He (Yellow River) just west of the city of Zhengzhou, well outside the Loess Plateau in central China. Mixing models of the grain‐size data indicate that the loess deposits are mixtures of three loess components. Comparison of the mixing model with existing models established for a series of loess–palaeosol sequences from the Loess Plateau indicates that the Mangshan loess has been supplied from a proximal dust source, the Huang He floodplain, during major dust outbreaks. The high accumulation rates, the composition of the loess components, and especially the high proportions of a sandy loess component support this. Owing to the exceptionally high accumulation rates, the Mangshan grain size, magnetic susceptibility and carbonate records provide a high‐resolution archive of environmental and climate change. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palaeotemperature reconstructions of the European permafrost zone during marine oxygen isotope Stage 3 compared with climate model results

A palaeotemperature reconstruction based on periglacial phenomena in Europe north of approximately 51 °N, is compared with high‐resolution regional climate model simulations of the marine oxygen isotope Stage 3 (Stage 3) palaeoclimate. The experiments represent Stage 3 warm (interstadial), Stage 3 cold (stadial) and Last Glacial Maximum climatic conditions. The palaeotemperature reconstruction deviates considerably for the Stage 3 cold climate experiments, with mismatches up to 11 °C for the mean annual air temperature and up to 15 °C for the winter temperature. However, in this reconstruction various factors linking climate and permafrost have not been taken into account. In particular a relatively thin snow cover and high climatic variability of the glacial climate could have influenced temperature limits for ice‐wedge growth. Based on modelling the 0 °C mean annual ground temperature proves to be an appropriate upper temperature limit. Using this limit, mismatches with the Stage 3 cold climate experiments have been reduced but still remain. We therefore assume that the Stage 3 ice wedges were generated during short (decadal time‐scale) intervals of extreme cold climate, below the mean temperatures indicated by the Stage 3 cold climate model simulations. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic data integration for structural modeling: model screening approach using a distance-based model parameterization

This paper proposes a novel history-matching method where reservoir structure is inverted from dynamic fluid flow response. The proposed workflow consists of searching for models that match production history from a large set of prior structural model realizations. This prior set represents the reservoir structural uncertainty because of interpretation uncertainty on seismic sections. To make such a search effective, we introduce a parameter space defined with a “similarity distance” for accommodating this large set of realizations. The inverse solutions are found using a stochastic search method. Realistic reservoir examples are presented to prove the applicability of the proposed method.     

Al hematites prepared by homogeneous precipitation of oxinates: material characterization and determination of the Morin transition

A novel method for synthesis of aluminium hematites, based upon the homogeneous precipitation of Fe and Al oxinates in various proportions, is presented. The precursor precipitates are heated in air at 700?°C. X-ray diffraction, thermal analyses, BET, FTIR, optical reflection analysis, TEM and Mössbauer spectroscopy at room temperature and 80?K of the resulting products indicate that single-phase hematites are formed with structural Al substitution of up to 10 at%. Interestingly, the particle size (>100?nm) is not substantially reduced by the Al content. Although it remains difficult to obtain a homogeneously distributed Al substitution in the final hematite, this processing line offers a unique opportunity to separate the effects of grain size and Al substitution on the Morin transition temperature (T _M) of Al hematite. From the comparison between the present hematites and a series of Al-substituted hematites with lepidocrocite as precursor, it could be shown that the effect on T _M, associated with a change of a factor 10 in grain size, is about 1/3 of the effect caused by a change of 10 in the degree of substitution. Finally, it is suggested that proper thermal treatments under different conditions of the same precursors are likely to produce spinel phases.     

内蒙古鄂尔多斯高原古冰缘遗迹科学考察研究进展

冰缘遗迹(特别是冷生楔形构造及融冻褶皱)是重建古气候及第四纪晚期多年冻土环境的重要证据.内蒙古鄂尔多斯高原是我国北方地区冰缘现象最为发育的地区之一.为准确了解鄂尔多斯高原冰缘遗迹类型及其分布特征、区域冻土演化历史等,中国科学院西北生态环境资源研究院和荷兰自由大学共同组成科研小组,于2018年5—6月组织了"鄂尔多斯高原...     

Geomorphological evolution of a Lowland valley system during the Weichselian

Weichselian geomorphological and fluvial evolution has been recorded in the valley fill of the Reusel, a small tributary of the lower Maas river. It has been studied by means of borehole sections. A first deep incision into the substratum occurred during the Early Weichselian-Lower Pleniglacial. This was followed by aggradation, at first by a braided river, at a later date by a meandering river, dating respectively from the Lower and Middle Pleniglacial. The Upper Pleniglacial aggradation again points to a braided river system. The end of the Pleniglacial is characterized by aeolian infilling of the valley and decreasing carrying capacity of the river.     

Hybridization of the probability perturbation method with gradient information

Geostatistically based history-matching methods make it possible to devise history-matching strategies that will honor geologic knowledge about the reservoir. However, the performance of these methods is known to be impeded by slow convergence rates resulting from the stochastic nature of the algorithm. It is the purpose of this paper to introduce a method that integrates qualitative gradient information into the probability perturbation method to improve convergence. The potential of the proposed method is demonstrated on a synthetic history-matching example. The results indicate that inclusion of qualitative gradient information improves the performance of the probability perturbation method.     

Cave volume computed on the behaviour of a blowing well (Tournai basin, W. Belgium)

It is difficult to measure karst volume but important to do so to assess risk of sinkhole formation. Measurements of airflow and atmospheric pressure pattern on a water well in buried karst of the overexploited Tournai hydrogeological basin (Belgium) show that inflow and outflow are highly correlated to atmospheric pressure and the differences of external and internal air densities. The volume of natural voids in connection with the well within the vadose zone can best be estimated by a calculation based on outflow under constant atmospheric pressure, which suggests a possible cavity volume of 700 000 m³ indicating likelihood of sinkhole formation.     

Extrinsic and intrinsic forcing of fluvial development: understanding natural and anthropogenic influences

This paper introduces a special issue arising from the biennial meeting of the Fluvial Archives Group (FLAG) that took place in September 2008 in Budapest, Hungary. Combining a two-day conference and three-day field excursion, this meeting provided an excellent opportunity for presentation and discussion of recent advances in research on fluvial evolution from the Plio-Pleistocene to the historical period. This editorial seeks to place these advances within the contexts both of long-term geomorphological research and the achievements of FLAG. It thus highlights progress towards a better understanding of fluvial responses to internal and external (including anthropogenic) forcing. It also points out some of the main obstacles, which can be targeted as goals for further research. Typically these relate to observed discrepancies in fluvial system responses, such as in patterns of lateral erosion and the timing of terrace incision, despite apparently similar fluvial parameters. Possible explanations for these discrepancies are mentioned, and the potential of new methods (especially in geochronology and modelling) to clarify such discrepancies is underlined. Finally the editorial provides brief reviews of the ten papers in this special issue (many of them developed from presentations in Budapest), which cover various areas in Europe (Hungary, England, Germany, Portugal, Russia), Asia (India) and South America (Bolivian Andes), placing them, in turn, within the context of this wider review of fluvial research.     

Distribution and Forming Model of Fluvial Terrace in the Huangshui Catchment and its Tectonic Indication

<正>The Huang Shui River,a main tributary of the Yellow River,crosses a series of tectonically subsided and uplifted areas that show different patterns of terrace formation.The distribution of fluvial terrace of the Huang Shui River is studied through topographic and sedimentologic terrace mapping.Three terraces in the Haiyan Basin,four terraces in the Huangyuan Basin,19 terraces in the Xi'ning Basin(the four high terraces may belong to another river),nine terraces in the Ping'an Basin, five terraces in the Ledu Basin and 12 terraces in the Minhe Basin are recognized.Sedimentology research shows that the geomorphologic and sedimentological pattern of the Huang Shui River,which is located at the margin of Tibet,are different from that of the rivers at other regions.The formation process of the terrace is more complicated at the Huang Shui catchment:both accumulation terrace and erosion terrace were formed in each basin and accumulation terraces were developed in some basins when erosion terraces were formed in other basins,indicating fluvial aggradation may occur in some basins simultaneously with river incision in other basins.A conceptual model of the formation process of these two kinds of fluvial terraces at Huang Shui catchment is brought forward in this paper.First,the equilibrium state of the river is broken because of climatic change and/or tectonic movement,and the river incises in all basins in the whole catchment until reaching a new equilibrium state.Then,the downstream basin subsides quickly and the equilibrium state is broken again,and the river incises at upstream basins while the river accumulates at the subsidence basin quickly until approaching a new equilibrium state again.Finally,the river incises in the whole catchment because of climatic change and/or tectonic movement and the accumulation terrace is formed at the subsidence basin while the erosion terrace is formed at other basins.The existence of the accumulation terrace implied the tectonic subsidence in the sub-basins in Huang Shui catchment.These tectonic subsidence movements gradually developed from the downstream Minhe Basin to the upstream Huangyuan Basin.Dating the terrace sequence has potential to uncover the relationship between the subsidence in the catchment and the regional tectonic at the northeastern Tibetan Plateau.