Provenance, tectonics and source weathering of modern fluvial sediments of the Brahmaputra–Jamuna River, Bangladesh: Inference from geochemistry

This present study describes the elemental geochemistry of fluvial sediments in the Kurigram (upstream) to Sirajganj–Tangail (downstream) section of the Brahmaputra–Jamuna River, Bangladesh, with the aim of evaluating their provenance, weathering and tectonic setting. Petrographically, the sediments are rich in quartz (68%), followed by feldspars (8.5%) and lithic grains (7%). The bulk sediment chemistry is influenced by grain size. Concentrations of TiO₂, Fe₂O₃, MgO, K₂O, P₂O₅, Rb, Nb, Cr, V, Y, and, Ce, Th and Ga slightly decrease with increasing SiO₂/Al₂O₃ and grain size, suggesting clay matrix control. In contrast, concentrations of CaO, Na₂O, Sr and Pb increase with increasing SiO₂/Al₂O₃ and grain size, suggesting residence of these substances in feldspar. Decrease in Zr as grain size increases is likely controlled both by clay matrix and heavy minerals. In addition, heavy minerals' sorting also influences Ce, Th, Y and Cr abundances in some samples. The sediments are predominantly quartzose in composition with abundant low-grade metamorphic and sedimentary lithics, low feldspars and trace volcanic detritus, indicating a quartzose recycled orogen province as a source of the sediments. Discriminant diagrams together with immobile element ratio plots show that, the Brahmaputra–Jamuna River sediments are mostly derived from rocks formed in an active continental margin. Moreover, the rare earth element ratios as well as chondrite-normalized REE patterns with flat HREE, LREE enrichment, and negative Eu anomalies indicate derivation of the sediments of Brahmaputra–Jamuna River from felsic rock sources of upper continental crust (UCC). The chemical indices of alteration suggest that Brahmaputra–Jamuna River sediments are chemically immature and experienced low chemical weathering effects. In the A–CN–K ternary diagram, most of the samples close to the plagioclase–K-feldspar join line and to the UCC plot, and in the field of various lithologies of Higher Himalayan Crystalline Series, suggesting that rocks in these series are likely source rocks. Therefore, the elemental geochemistry of the Brahmaputra–Jamuna River sediments is controlled mostly by mechanical breakdown of lithic fragments and subsequent preferential attrition of muscovite > albite > quartz.     

Analysis of Pore Pressure and Stress Distribution around a Wellbore Drilled in Chemically Active Elastoplastic Formations

Drilling in low-permeable reactive shale formations with water-based drilling mud presents significant challenges, particularly in high-pressure and high-temperature environments. In previous studies, several models were proposed to describe the thermodynamic behaviour of shale. Most shale formations under high pressure are expected to undergo plastic deformation. An innovative algorithm including work hardening is proposed in the framework of thermo-chemo-poroelasticity to investigate the effect of plasticity on stresses around the wellbore. For this purpose a finite-element model of coupled thermo-chemo-poro-elastoplasticity is developed. The governing equations are based on the concept of thermodynamics of irreversible processes in discontinuous systems. In order to solve the plastic problem, a single-step backward Euler algorithm containing a yield surface-correction scheme is used to integrate the plastic stress–strain relation. An initial stress method is employed to solve the non-linearity of the plastic equation. In addition, super convergent patch recovery is used to accurately evaluate the time-dependent stress tensor from nodal displacement. The results of this study reveal that thermal and chemical osmosis can significantly affect the fluid flow in low-permeable shale formations. When the salinity of drilling mud is higher than that of pore fluid, fluid is pulled out of the formation by chemical osmotic back flow. Similar results are observed when the temperature of drilling mud is lower than that of the formation fluid. It is found that linear elastic approaches to wellbore stability analysis appear to overestimate the tangential stress around the wellbore and produce more conservative stresses compared to the results of field observation. Therefore, the drilling mud properties obtained from the elastoplastic wellbore stability in shales provide a safer mud weight window and reduce drilling cost.     

A Fully Coupled Chemo-Poroelastic Analysis of Pore Pressure and Stress Distribution around a Wellbore in Water Active Rocks

Water active rocks consist of minerals that hold water in their crystalline structure and in pore spaces. Free water from drilling fluid can be attracted by the formation depending on the potential differences between pore space and drilling fluid. The fluid movement into the formation or out of the formation can lead to a change in effective stress, thus causing wellbore failures. In all previous studies it is found that the solute transport from or to the formation is primarily controlled by diffusion process and the effect of advection on solute transfer is negligible for a range of very low permeable shale formations (>10⁻⁵ mD). In this study a range of permeable shale formations (10⁻⁵ to 10⁻³ mD) commonly encountered in drilling oil and gas wells are considered to investigate the solute transfer between drilling fluid and formation due to advection. For this purpose a finite element model of fully coupled chemo-hydro-mechanical processes was developed. Results of this study revealed that the solute transfer between the drilling fluid and the shale formation is controlled primarily by permeability of the shale formations. For the range of shale formations studied here, there exists a threshold permeability below which the solute transfer is dominated by diffusion process and above which by fluid in motion (fluid flow). Results from the numerical experiments have shown that when the permeability of shales is greater than this threshold permeability, the chemical potential gradient between the pore fluid and drilling fluid reaches equilibrium faster than that when the permeability of shales is below this threshold value. Also it has been found that when advection is taken into account, effective radial and tangential stresses decrease around the wellbore, particularly near the wellbore wall where the solute concentration has reached near equilibrium.     

Equivalent granular state parameter and undrained behaviour of sand�Cfines mixtures

State parameter defined using void ratio, e, and the steady-state line has been shown to be effective in predicting the undrained behaviour of sand. However, steady-state line for sand with fines is dependent on fines content. To overcome this problem, the concept of equivalent granular void ratio, e*, has been well investigated. However, the conversion from e to e* has been essentially a back-analysis process. A methodology for converting e to e* without the need of a back-analysis process was first presented. The concept of equivalent granular state parameter, ψ*, defined in terms of e*, and equivalent granular steady-state line was then developed. An extensive experimental study was conducted to investigate whether ψ* can capture the effects of fines content, and thus can be used to correlate undrained behaviour of sand–fines mixtures without the need of separately considering the effects of fines content. This study suggested that the effective stress path and deviatoric stress–strain responses in undrained shearing can be correlated with the ψ* value at the start of undrained shearing irrespective of fines content.     

Transport properties and model-based dynamical properties of Omani crude oils

We have measured the density and viscosity of five crude oil samples, collected from various hydrocarbon reservoirs in Oman, as functions of temperature. The measured quantities are expressed in terms of fitted formulae allowing their easy usage for different computational and simulation works. As an application, these thermo-physical data have been utilized to investigate the flow dynamics of hydrocarbon films under gravity at various temperatures. We have modeled the flow of these crude oils to study the dynamics of falling films in an open-top rectangular pipe set at various angular alignments under the assumption of Newtonian fluid describing a laminar flow. The adopted model of the investigation is not entirely novel, but the calculations aim to apply the model to various Omani crude oil samples with various American Petroleum Institute (API) values; the calculated results shed light on the dynamics of these crude oil films, which might be correlated to crude oil purification mechanism and open-top transportation.     

Waves in general relativistic two-fluid plasma around a Schwarzschild black hole

Waves propagating in the relativistic electron-positron or ions plasma are investigated in a frame of two-fluid equations using the 3+1 formalism of general relativity developed by Thorne, Price and Macdonald (TPM). The plasma is assumed to be freefalling in the radial direction toward the event horizon due to the strong gravitational field of a Schwarzschild black hole. The local dispersion relations for transverse and longitudinal waves have been derived, in analogy with the special relativistic formulation as explained in an earlier paper, to take account of relativistic effects due to the event horizon using WKB approximation.     

Groundwater arsenic contamination in Ganga–Meghna–Brahmaputra plain, its health effects and an approach for mitigation

The authors’ survey of the Ganga–Meghna–Brahmaputra (GMB) plain (area 569,749 km²; population >500 million) over the past 20 years and analysis of more than 220,000 hand tube-well water samples revealed groundwater arsenic contamination in the floodplains of the Ganga–Brahmaputra river (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Assam) in India and the Padma–Meghna–Brahmaputra river in Bangladesh. On average, 50 % of the water samples contain arsenic above the World Health Organization guideline value of 10 μg/L in India and Bangladesh. More than 100 million people in the GMB plain are potentially at risk. The authors’ medical team screened around 155,000 people from the affected villages and registered 16,000 patients with different types of arsenical skin lesions. Arsenic neuropathy and adverse pregnancy outcomes have been recorded. Infants and children drinking arsenic-contaminated water are believed to be at high risk. About 45,000 biological samples analyzed from arsenic-affected villages of the GMB plain revealed an elevated level of arsenic present in patients as well as non-patients, indicating that many are sub-clinically affected. In West Bengal and Bangladesh, there are huge surface water in rivers, wetlands, and flooded river basins. In the arsenic-affected GMB plain, the crisis is not over water scarcity but about managing the available water resources.     

Chemical oxidation of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide by sulfate radical-based oxidation: kinetics and mechanism of degradation

A study was undertaken in order to understand the kinetics and mechanism of the chemical oxidation of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide, an insect repellent, by sulfate radical. In this experiment, sulfate radical was generated using peroxymonosulfate with iron(II) and cobalt(II) as activator. The second-order rate constant for the reaction of the sulfate radical with N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide was found to be (1.9 ± 0.1) × 10⁹ M^?1 s^?1 at pH 7 and a temperature of 25 °C. Experiments for the chemical oxidation of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide in river water and secondary wastewater revealed that the percentage of the removal of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide was slightly influenced by the water matrices. However, the selected oxidation systems are not effective for the removal of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide in seawater. Transformation by-products of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide generated using peroxymonosulfate/iron(II) sulfate, peroxymonosulfate/iron(II) chloride, peroxymonosulfate/cobalt(II) sulfate and peroxymonosulfate/cobalt(II) chloride systems were identified. The results indicated that there are slight differences in the distributions of the transformation by-products detected depending on the activator. The common transformation by-products detected in all selected oxidation systems are N,N-diethylbenzamide, N-ethyl-m-toluamide, N,N-dimethyl-m-toluamide, N-ethyl-N-acetyl-m-toluamide, 2-(diethylamino)-1-m-tolylethanone, monohydroxylated N-ethyl-m-toluamide, and dihydroxylated N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide. Monohydroxylated N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide were detected only when the peroxymonosulfate/iron(II) system was applied. For the peroxymonosulfate/cobalt(II) systems, additional isomers of monohydroxylated N-ethyl-m-toluamide were detected. Peroxymonosulfate/cobalt(II) also transformed 2-(diethylamino)-1-m-tolylethanone into N-ethyl-N-(2-oxo-2-m-tolylethyl)acetamide and monohydroxylated 2-(ethyl(vinyl)amino)-1-m-tolylethanone as transformation by-products.     

Flux of nutrients and heavy metals from the Melai River sub-catchment into Lake Chini, Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia

This study was carried out to determine the flux of nutrients and heavy metals from the Melai sub-catchment into Lake Chini through the process of erosion. Melai River is one of the seven feeder rivers that contributed to the present water level of Lake Chini. Three properties of soils, such as particle size, organic matter content, and soil hydraulic conductivity and three chemical soil properties, such as available nutrients, dissolved nutrients, and heavy metals, were analyzed and interpreted. Potential soil loss was estimated using the revised universal soil loss equation model. The results show that the soil textures in the study area consist of clay, silty clay, clay loam, and sandy silt loam. The organic matter content ranges from 3.40 to 9.92 %, while the hydraulic conductivity ranges from 5.2 to 25.3 cm/h. Mean values of available P, K, and Mg amount was 8.5 ± 3.7 μg/g, 24.5 ± 3.4 μg/g, and 20.7 ± 18.6 μg/g, respectively. The highest concentration of soluble nutrients was SO ₄ ^?2 (815.8 ± 624.1 μg/g), followed by NO₃ ^?-N (295.5 ± 372.7 μg/g), NH₄ ⁺-N (24.5 ± 22.1 μg/g) and PO₄ ^3? (2.0 ± 0.8 μg/g). The rainfall erosivity value was 1658.7 MJ mm/ha/h/year. The soil erodibility and slope factor ranges from 0.06 to 0.26 ton h/MJ/mm and 7.63 to 18.33, respectively. The rate of soil loss from the Melai sub-catchment in the present condition is very low (0.0028 ton/ha/year) to low (18.93 ton/ha/year), and low level flow of nutrients and heavy metals, indicating that the Melai River was not the contaminant source of sediments, nutrients, and heavy metals to the lake.