Wind erosion from military training lands in the Mojave Desert, California, U.S.A.

Military training activities reduce vegetation cover, disturb crusts, and degrade soil aggregates, making the land more vulnerable to wind erosion. The objective of this study was to quantify wind erosion rates for typical conditions at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, CA, U.S.A. Five Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) sampler stations were installed at each of five sites. Each BSNE station consisted of five BSNE samplers with the lowest sampler at 0·05 m and the highest sampler at 1·0 m above the soil surface. Once a month, sediment was collected from the samplers for analysis. Occurrence of saltating soil aggregates was recorded every hour using Sensits, one at each site. The site with the most erosion had a sediment discharge of 311 kg m⁻¹ over a period of 17 months. Other sites eroded much less because of significant rock cover or the presence of a crust. Hourly sediment discharge was estimated combining hourly Sensit count and monthly sediment discharge measured using BSNE samplers. More simultaneously measured data are needed to better characterize the relationship between these two and reconstruct a detailed time-series of wind erosion. This measured time-series can then be used for comparison with simulation results from process-based wind erosion models such as the Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS), once it has been adapted to the unique aspects of military lands.     

含矿流体混合反应与成矿作用的动力平衡模拟研究

本文在约定热液体系中成矿元素成矿速率(成矿过程中单位时间内单位体积所合成矿元素重量的变化)的基础上。借助于物质-热-化学-成矿四重全耦合的研究思路，构建了均匀热液体系、层状热液体系、岩浆侵入热液体系下成矿元素的迁移、富集、溶解与沉淀作用数值模型。模拟结果表明；(1)硫化物(H2S)和硫酸盐(SO42-)流体的混合反应是成矿热液体系中铅、锌、铁成矿元素成矿的重要控制因素；(2)均匀介质、岩浆侵入或地质构造的存在，对成矿元素在成矿流体运移的速度、流线、温度分布和成矿元素的溶解与沉淀分布都有着各自的特征．不同的成矿环境或成矿背景制约了成矿元素的迁移与富集以及矿体的产出定位。暗示成矿环境及成矿速率对热液体系中成矿元素的沉淀与溶解具重要作用；成矿流体的混合反应是成矿作用发生的重要机制之一。在成矿理论研究中必须充分考虑不同地质构造因素的约束。     

长江河源区的河水主要元素与Sr同位素来源

长江源区河水化学成分来自雨雪、蒸发盐岩、碳酸盐岩和硅酸盐岩。主要支流楚玛尔河、北麓河的主要阳离子为Na 、Ca2 和Mg2 ,占阳离子总量的97%以上.Ca Na,Mg Na,K Na的比值较低,87Sr 86Sr为0 709180±20～0 710280±11,河水成分以蒸发岩类溶解为主。发源于唐古拉山北坡的长江源头,及其支流主要阳离子为Ca2 ,Mg2 ,Na 占阳离子总量的97%以上,Ca Na,Mg Na,K Na的比值较楚玛尔河等河流高,87Sr 86Sr为0 708954±20～0 710455±18,表现为以碳酸盐岩和硅酸盐岩的溶解为主。计算表明,长江河源区河水中主要化学成分来自蒸发岩中Na 和Cl-,在河流水化学成分中占比例最大,长江河水中Cl-含量从河源区向下游明显逐渐减小,反应出河源区高寒干旱环境下河流蒸发岩的化学侵蚀作用较强的特征。     

DEVELOPMENT OF A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR MANAGING PESTICIDE LOSSES IN AGRICULTURAL WATERSHEDS

1 INTRODUCTION Agricultural use of pesticides has been recognized as one of the important non-point pollution sources in the world, and the pesticide application to agricultural lands has led to large amounts of residues discharged into surface water through runoff (Leonard, 1990). There have been growing concerns about the fate and transport of pesticides in agricultural lands, due to the associated adverse impacts on water environment and human health (Agassi et al., 1995; Ng and Clegg…     

Borehole Breakouts in Berea Sandstone Reveal a New Fracture Mechanism

— Vertical drilling experiments in high-porosity (22% and 25%) Berea sandstone subjected to critical true triaxial far-field stresses, in which σ _H (maximum horizontal stress) >σ _v (vertical stress) >σ _h (least horizontal stress), revealed a new and non-dilatant failure mechanism that results in thin and very long tabular borehole breakouts that have the appearance of fractures, and which counterintuitively develop orthogonally to σ _H . These breakouts are fundamentally different from those induced in crystalline rocks, as well as limestones and medium-porosity Berea sandstone. Breakouts in these rocks are typically dog-eared in shape, a result of dilatant multi-cracking tangential to the hole and subparallel to the maximum far-field horizontal stress σ _H , followed by progressive buckling and shearing of detached rock flakes created by the cracks. In the high-porosity sandstone a narrow layer of grains compacted normal to σ _H is observed just ahead of the breakout tip. This layer is nearly identical to “compaction bands” observed in the field. It is suggested that when a critical tangential stress concentration is reached along the σ _h spring line at the borehole wall, grain bonding breaks down and a compaction band is formed normal to σ _H . Debonded loose grains are expelled into the borehole, assisted by the circulating drilling fluid. As the breakout tip advances, the stress concentration ahead of it persists or may even increase, extending the compaction band, which in turn leads to breakout lengthening.     

Permeability-porosity Relationships in Rocks Subjected to Various Evolution Processes

— It is well known that there is no “universal” permeability-porosity relationship valid in all porous media. However, the evolution of permeability and porosity in rocks can be constrained provided that the processes changing the pore space are known. In this paper, we review observations of the relationship between permeability and porosity during rock evolution and interpret them in terms of creation/destruction of effectively and non-effectively conducting pore space. We focus on laboratory processes, namely, plastic compaction of aggregates, elastic-brittle deformation of granular rocks, dilatant and thermal microcracking of dense rocks, chemically driven processes, as a way to approach naturally occurring geological processes. In particular, the chemically driven processes and their corresponding evolution permeability-porosity relationships are discussed in relation to sedimentary rocks diagenesis.     

The Effect of the Development of Groundwater Deposits on Its Fluorine Content

Synthesis of regime observations of groundwater quality at deposits under operation and thermodynamic modeling of the geochemical interaction processes that govern the groundwater chemistry were used to recognize the geochemical causes and processes that bring about an increase in the groundwater fluorine content during water withdrawal accompanied by groundwater level drop and partial drying of the aquifer. The causes of the invalidity of previous forecasts are established.     

Analytical Model for Permeability Evolution in Microcracking Rock

— Analytical expressions to predict the enhancement of permeability due to stress-induced microcracking in initially low porosity rock are presented. A fracture mechanical microcrack model is employed to derive integrated effective hydraulic variables as a function of stress, which are then used to calculate the evolution of permeability using the statistically-based Dienes model. The model enables determination of permeability enhancement as a function of two loading parameters and three material parameters. Results are in reasonable agreement with experimental measurements and indicate that appreciable increases in permeability can be anticipated during brittle failure. The analytical nature of the model makes it easily incorporatable into numerical models that require quantification of the permeability evolution as a function of stress, for which there is currently no law.     

Extracting flow structures from tracer data

A method of visualizing structures in closed chaotic flows out of homogenous particle distributions is presented in the example of models of a meandering jet. To this end, the system will be leaked or opened up by defining a region of the flow, so that a particle is considered to be escaped if it leaves this region. By applying this method to an ensemble of nonescaped tracers, we are able to characterize mixing processes by visualizing the converging and stretching filamentations (stable and unstable manifolds) in the flow without using additional mathematical tools. The possibility of applying the algorithm to analyze buoy data, and a comparison with the finite time manifolds are discussed.     

U–Pb zircon chronostratigraphy of early-Pliocene ignimbrites from La Pacana, north Chile: implications for the formation of stratified magma chambers

High spatial resolution U–Pb dates of zircons from two consanguineous ignimbrites of contrasting composition, the high-silica rhyolitic Toconao and the overlying dacitic Atana ignimbrites, erupted from La Pacana caldera, north Chile, are presented in this study. Zircons from Atana and Toconao pumice clasts yield apparent ²³⁸U/²⁰⁶Pb ages of 4.11±0.20 Ma and 4.65±0.13 Ma (2σ), respectively. These data combined with previously published geochemical and stratigraphic data, reveal that the two ignimbrites were erupted from a stratified magma chamber. The Atana zircon U–Pb ages closely agree with the eruption age of Atana previously determined by K–Ar dating (4.0±0.1 Ma) and do not support long (>1 Ma) residence times. Xenocrystic zircons were found only in the Toconao bulk ignimbrite, which were probably entrained during eruption and transport. Apparent ²³⁸U/²⁰⁶Pb zircon ages of 13 Ma in these xenocrysts provide the first evidence that the onset of felsic magmatism within the Altiplano–Puna ignimbrite province occurred approximately 3 Myr earlier than previously documented.