Sensitivity study of the seasonal mean circulation in the northern South China Sea

A study of the circulation in the northern South China Sea （SCS） is carried out with the aid of a three-dimensional, high-resolution regional ocean model. One control and two sensitivity experiments are performed to qualitatively investigate the effects of surface wind forcing, Kuroshio intrusion, and bottom topographic influence on the circulation in the northern SCS. The model results show that a branch of the Kuroshio in the upper layer can intrude into the SCS and have direct influence on the circulation over the continental shelf break in the northern SCS. There are strong southward pressure gradients along a zonal belt largely seaward of the continental slope. The pressure gradients are opposite in the southern and northern parts of the Luzon Strait, indicating inflow and outflow through the strait, respectively. The sensitivity experiments suggest that the Kuroshio intrusion is responsible for generating the imposed pressure head along the shelf break and has no obvious seasonal variations. The lateral forcing through the Luzon Strait and Taiwan Strait can induce the southwestward slope current and the northeastward SCS Warm Current in the northern SCS. Without the lateral forcing, there is the continental slope. The wind forcing mainly causes the The wind-induced water pile-up results in the southward no high-pressure-gradient zonal belt seaward of seasonal variation of the circulation in the SCS. high pressure gradient along the northwestern boundary of the basin. Without the blocking of the plateau around Dongsha Islands, the intruded Kuroshio tends to extend northwest and the SCS branch of the Kuroshio becomes wider and stronger. The analyses presented here are qualitative in nature but should lead to a better understanding of the oceanic responses in the northern SCS to these external influence factors.     

The buckling of plastic oblate hemi-ellipsoidal dome shells under external hydrostatic pressure

The paper presents a theoretical and an experimental investigation into the buckling of seven oblate hemi-ellipsoidal dome shells under external hydrostatic pressure. Four of the shells were made in glass reinforced plastic and three were made from a thermosetting plastic called solid urethane plastic. All the vessels were tested to destruction. The theoretical study was made with the aid of a non-linear finite element solution, where both geometrical and material non-linearity were allowed for. Good agreement was found between experiment and theory for all the vessels. The very oblate domes failed axisymmetrically. Theoretical convergence was good for the more oblate domes but it was not as good as for the less oblate domes. This may have been because the less oblate domes did not fail in a classical axisymmetric manner as was expected. This work is of much importance in ocean engineering.     

Magma yield stress and permeability: Insights from multiphase percolation theory

Magmas often contain multiple interacting phases of embedded solid and gas inclusions. Multiphase percolation theory provides a means of modeling assemblies of these different classes of magmatic inclusions in a simple, yet powerful way. Like its single phase counterpart, multiphase percolation theory describes the connectivity of discrete inclusion assemblies as a function of phase topology. In addition, multiphase percolation employs basic laws to distinguish separate classes of objects and is characterized by its dependency on the order in which the different phases appear. This paper examines two applications of multiphase percolation theory: the first considers how the presence of bubble inclusions influences yield stress onset and growth in a magma's crystal network; the second examines the effect of bi-modal bubble-size distributions on magma permeability. We find that the presence of bubbles induces crystal clustering, thereby 1) reducing the percolation threshold, or critical crystal volume fraction, ?_c, at which the crystals form a space-spanning network providing a minimum yield stress, and 2) resulting in a larger yield stress for a given crystal volume fraction above ?_c. This increase in the yield stress of the crystal network may also occur when crystal clusters are formed due to processes other than bubble formation, such as heterogeneous crystallization, synneusis, and heterogeneity due to deformation or flow. Further, we find that bimodal bubble size distributions can significantly affect the permeability of the system beyond the percolation threshold. This study thus demonstrates that larger-scale structures and topologies, as well as the order in which different phases appear, can have significant effects on macroscopic properties in multiphase materials.     

Black carbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediments of China’s marginal seas

This study investigates the distribution of black carbon (BC) and its correlation with total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (ΣPAH) in the surface sediments of China’s marginal seas. BC content ranges from <0.10 to 2.45 mg/g dw (grams dry weight) in the sediments studied, and varied among the different coastal regions. The Bohai Bay sediments had the highest BC contents (average 2.18 mg/g dw), which comprises a significant fraction (27%–41%) of the total organic carbon (TOC) preserved in the sediments. In ...     

Outburst risk of barrier lakes in Sichuan,China

34 barrier lakes induced by earthquake have been formed by wedged debris on the river channels after a massive earthquake happening on May 12 in Sichuan, China. Among them, the Tangjiashan Barrier Lake is the largest one. It faces very urgent risk of dam breaking when water level reaches the top and begins overflow in case of storm rainfalls and continually aftershocks, threatening already devastated cities and villages with about 1.5 million people downstream. The outburst of a similar barrier lake occurred in the Minjiang River in 1933, causing a catastrophic flood. Risk analysis indicates that not all barrier lakes are highly dangerous. Only those lakes with very high dams and water to be filled up in short period need to be dealt with immediately.     

Physical sedimentology experiments with sulfuric acid solutions: Implications for Mars?

Physical sedimentology experiments have shown that sulfuric acid solutions may have formed some surface features seen on Mars. Recent data returned from Mars show the presence of jarosite, sulfate salts, hematite, phyllosilicates, and opaline silica, all of which precipitate from some terrestrial sulfuric acid solutions. There is a plethora of geochemical, mineralogical, and sedimentological data indicative of past sulfuric acid systems on Mars, but there has never been a comprehensive study published regarding sulfuric acid as a physical sedimentological agent. In the laboratory, we ran liquids of various compositions over sediments in order to test how these liquids entrain, transport, and deposit sediments. Pure water and concentrated sulfuric acid solutions produced the same general features, such as channels, gullies, and alluvial fans. However, sulfuric acid solutions yielded some distinct sedimentary features not produced by pure water runs. These features, narrow, deeply incised channels of consistent widths, rounded discrete fans, and air bubble “craters”, are similar to some Martian landscape features. These experimental results indicate that acid solutions should be considered a possible sedimentological agent on Mars.     

Integration of remote sensing data into hydrological models for reservoir management

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the methodology set up to derive catchment soil moisture from Earth Observation (EO) data using microwave spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from ERS satellites and to study the improvements brought about by an assimilation of this information into hydrological models. The methodology used to derive EO data is based on the appropriate selection of land cover types for which the radar signal is mainly sensitive to soil moisture variations. Then a hydrological model is chosen, which can take advantage of the new information brought by remote sensing. The assimilation of soil moisture deduced from EO data into hydrological models is based principally on model parameter updating. The main assumption of this method is that the better the model simulates the current hydrological system, the better the following forecast will be. Another methodology used is a sequential one based on Kalman filtering. These methods have been put forward for use in the European AIMWATER project on the Seine catchment upstream of Paris (France) where dams are operated to alleviate floods in the Paris area.     

1D and 2D site amplification effects at Tarcento (Friuli,NE Italy), 30 years later

A temporary accelerometer network has been installed in Tarcento (Friuli, NE Italy), a small town heavily hit by the 1976–1977 Friuli earthquake sequence, as a part of an ongoing research project aimed at ground motion simulation and generation of shakemaps in the near-field of an earthquake. The network operated from October 2008 to April 2010 and consisted of three K2 accelerographs with internal Episensor, distributed over a linear array of about 1.5 km length. Tarcento town had been chosen, at the end of the 1970s, as the ideal site for a pilot microzonation study, the first of this kind in Italy, in which a substantial number of field (and laboratory) tests were carried out in order to assess the mechanical properties of local alluvium deposits and their complex (3D) geometrical configuration. The data from the temporary network, illustrated herein, allow for proper verification and review of some of the quantitative predictions formulated in the 1980 study. As argued in the discussion section, we also believe that the data are apt to provide valuable information of more general interest on the complex seismic response of alluvium-filled valleys, and we show therein how the observations can be interpreted in the light of presently available parametric simulation studies and simplified criteria for handling basin amplification effects.     

Thallium isotope variations in an ore-bearing continental igneous setting: Collahuasi Formation, northern Chile

Thallium is a highly incompatible element and a large fraction of the bulk silicate Earth Tl budget is, therefore, expected to reside in the continental crust. Nonetheless, the Tl isotope systematics of continental rocks are essentially unexplored at present. Here, we present new Tl isotope composition and concentration data for a suite of 36 intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks from the vicinity of porphyry Cu deposits in the Collahuasi Formation of the Central Andes in northern Chile. The igneous lithologies of the rocks are variably affected by the hydrothermal alteration that accompanied the formation of the Cu deposits.The samples display Tl concentrations that vary by more than an order of magnitude, from 0.1 to 3.2 μg/g, whilst ε²⁰⁵Tl ranges between −5.1 and +0.1 (ε²⁰⁵Tl is the deviation of the ²⁰⁵Tl/²⁰³Tl isotope ratio of a sample from a standard in parts per 10⁴). These variations are primarily thought to be a consequence of hydrothermal alteration processes, including metasomatic transport of Tl, and formation/breakdown of Tl-bearing minerals, which are associated with small but significant Tl isotope effects. The Tl abundances show excellent correlations with both K and Rb concentrations but no co-variation with Cu. This demonstrates that Tl displays only limited chalcophile affinity in the continental crust of the Collahuasi Formation, but behaves as a lithophile element with a distribution that is primarily governed by partitioning of Tl⁺ into K⁺-bearing phases. Collahuasi samples with propylitic alteration features, which are derived from the marginal parts of the hydrothermal systems, have, on average, slightly lighter Tl isotope compositions than rocks from the more central sericitic and argillic alteration zones. This small but statistically significant difference most likely reflects preferential retention of isotopically heavy Tl in alteration phases, such as white micas and clays, which formed during sericitic and argillic alteration.     

Pile reinforcement mechanism of soil slopes

Stabilizing piles are widely used as an effective and economic reinforcement approach for slopes. Reasonable designs of pile reinforcement depend on the understanding of reinforcement mechanism of slopes. A series of centrifuge model tests were conducted on the pile-reinforced slopes and corresponding unreinforced slopes under self-weight and vertical loading conditions. The deformation of the slope was measured using image-based analysis and employed to investigate the pile reinforcement mechanism. The test results showed that the piles significantly reduced the deformation and changed the deformation distribution of the slope, and prevented the failure occurred in the unreinforced slope. The pile influence zone was determined according to the inflection points on the distribution curves of horizontal displacement, which comprehensively described the features of the pile–slope interaction and the characteristics of reinforced slopes. The concepts of anti-shear effect and compression effect were proposed to quantitatively describe the restriction features of the piles on the deformation of the slope, namely the reduction in the shear deformation and the increase in the compression deformation, respectively. The pile reinforcement effect mainly occurred in the pile influence zone and decreased with increasing distance from the piles. There was a dominated compression effect in the vicinities of the piles. The compression effect developed upwards in the slope with a transmission to the anti-shear effect. The anti-shear effect became significantly dominated near the slip surface and prevented the failure that occurred in the unreinforced slope.