Field technique of permeability tests in highly fissured limestone strata

A design of a dewatering system is necessary for site improvement prior to the construction of some structures. The design of an efficient dewatering system requires estimating the value of the in-situ coefficient of permeability. The available relationships for estimating the permeability coefficient were developed based on limited field measurements and conditions, and their predictions vary by several orders of magnitudes. Therefore, it was necessary to conduct field measurements of permeability and determine the relationship that best fits these measurements prior to the design of a dewatering system for specific geological and site conditions. This paper presents field measurements of permeability in complex chaotic and diagenetic limestone strata. It also offers comparative analysis of several relationships available in the literature for predicting the in-situ coefficient of permeability. The analysis is conducted for both steady and nonsteady conditions. The results show that the coefficient of permeability value is dependent on the water table level, which is affected by the tidal condition. The US Navy equation is shown to give the best correlation with field measurements. Electronic Publication     

The Investigation of Mass Transfer in the Karasu Karstic Aquifer, Konya, Turkey

In this study, the changes in the chemical composition of the groundwater along a flow path were examined by using the water samples collected from unconfined, semi-confined and confined parts of the Karasu karstic aquifer. It was determined that transport of bicarbonate, calcium, and magnesium was dominant in unconfined and semi-confined parts of the aquifer, whereas calcite and dolomite precipitate in the confined parts. On the other hand, gypsum dissolution is present in all parts of the aquifer. In addition, the computed saturation indices explain the occurrences and precipitation of travertines in the Goksu Valley, which is the discharge area for the aquifer. Electronic Publication     

Development of faults as zones of deformation bands and as slip surfaces in sandstone

Three forms of fault are recognized in Entrada and Navajo Sandstones in the San Rafael Desert, southeastern Utah; deformation bands, zones of deformation bands, and slip surfaces. Small faults occur asdeformation bands, about one millimeter thick, in which pores collapse and sand grains fracture, and along which there are shear displacements on the order of a few millimeters or centimeters. Two or more deformation bands adjacent to each other, which share the same average strike and dip, form azone of deformation bands. A zone becomes thicker by addition of new bands, side by side. Displacement across a zone is the sum of displacements on each individual band. The thickest zones are about 0.5 m and total displacement across a thick zone rarely exceeds 30 cm. Finally,slip surfaces, which are through-going surfaces of discontinuity in displacement, form at either edge of zones of highly concentrated deformation bands. In contrast with individual deformation bands and zones of deformation bands, slip surfaces accommodate large displacements, on the order of several meters in the San Rafael Desert.The sequence of development is from individual deformation bands, to zones, to slip surfaces, and each type of faulting apparently is controlled by somewhat different processes. The formation of zones apparently involves strain hardening, whereas the formation of slip surfaces probably involves strain softening of crushed sandstone.     

Small faults formed as deformation bands in sandstone

Small faults with displacements of a few millimeters or centimeters are abundant in the Entrada and Navajo Sandstones, in the San Rafael Desert, Utah, where they are important primary structures, preceding the development of large faults with displacements of several meters or tens of meters. The small faults contain no surfaces of discontinuity, rather they occur asdeformation bands about one millimeter and tens or hundreds of meters long, and across which the displacements are distributed. Two zones with different modes of deformation can be distinguished within a deformation band: an outer zone where the matrix, including pores and matrix material, deforms; and an inner zone, about 0.5 mm thick, where the sand grains fracture and further consolidation takes place. Fracturing of the grains is controlled by contact geometry; the grains tend to split into subgrains along lines connecting contact points between the grains. Then the angular subgrains, which are readily fractured, are further granulated and mixed with the matrix. The final product is the deformation band, with much smaller grain size, poorer sorting, and lower porosity than the original parent sandstone. The sandstone on either side of a deformation band is almost undisturbed-fractures are rare there — so that deformation is highly localized within the band. The material within a deformation band apparently strain hardens as a result of the deformation; perhaps this is why the shear displacement across a deformation band is at most a few centimeters.     

A geotechnical investigation of the retrogressive Yaka Landslide and the debris flow threatening the town of Yaka (Isparta,SW Turkey)

In this study the factors affecting the retrogressive Yaka Landslide, its mechanism and the hazard of debris flow on the town of Yaka are investigated. In the landslide area, the first landslide was small and occurred in March 2006 on the lower part of the Alaard?ç Slope near the Gelendost District town of Yaka (Isparta, SW Turkey). The second, the Yaka Landslide, was large and occurred on 19 February 2007 in the soil-like marl on the central part of Alaard?ç Slope. The geometry of the failure surface was circular and the depth of the failure surface was about 3 m. Following the landslide, a 85,800 m³ of displaced material transformed to a debris flow. Then, the debris flow moved down the Eglence Valley, traveling a total distance of about 750 m. The town of Yaka is located 1,600 m downstream of Eglence Creek and hence poses a considerable risk of debris flow, should the creek be temporarily dammed as a result of further mass movement. Material from the debris accumulation has been deposited on the base of Eglence Valley and has formed a debris-dam lake behind a debris dam. Trees, agricultural areas, and weirs in the Eglence Creek have seen serious damage resulting from the debris flow. The slope angle, slope aspect and elevation of the area in this study were generated using a GIS-based digital elevation model (DEM). The stability of the Alaard?ç Slope was assessed using limit equilibrium analysis with undrained peak and residual shear strength parameters. In the stability analyses, laboratory test results performed on the soil-like marls were used. It was determined that the Alaard?ç Slope is found to be stable under dry conditions and unstable under completely saturated conditions. The Alaard?ç Slope and its vicinity is a paleolandslide area, and there the factor of safety for sliding was found to be about 1.0 under saturated conditions. The Alaard?ç Slope and the deposited earthen materials in Eglence Creek could easily be triggered into movement by any factors or combination of factors, such as prolonged or heavy rainfall, snowmelt or an earthquake. It was established that the depth of the debris flow initiated on the Yaka Landslide reached up to 8 m in Eglence Creek at the point it is 20 m wide. If this deposited material in Eglence Creek is set into motion, the canal that passes through Yaka, with its respective width and depth of 7 and 1.45 m, could not possibly discharge the flow. The destruction or spillover of this canal in Yaka could bring catastrophic loss to residents which are located within 3–5 m of the bank of the canal. Furthermore, if material present in the landslide source area slides and this displaced material puts pressure on the unstable deposited material in Eglence Creek, even more catastrophic loss would occur to the town of Yaka. In this study, it was determined that debris flows are still a major hazard to Yaka and its population of 3,000. The results provided in this study could help citizens, planners, and engineers to reduce losses caused by existing and future landslides and debris flow in rainfall and snowmelt conditions by means of prevention and mitigation.     

The origin of oriented lakes in the Andean foreland, Parque Nacional Torres del Paine (Chilean Patagonia)

The Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine and surrounding area in the Magallanes foreland basin in Chilean Patagonia is the site for numerous lakes fed by glaciers and rivers in the Andean highlands to the west. The lakes are elongate and have conspicuously systematic orientations. We hypothesize that the origin of the oriented lakes lies in the fault system, composed of a right-lateral strike-slip fault set oriented 58° from north, a left-lateral strike-slip set oriented 87°, and a thrust fault set oriented 167°, that exists within the underlying rocks. To test this hypothesis quantitatively, we determined the shape and orientation of the lakes by fitting each lake with an ellipse of appropriate aspect ratio, and later with multiple ellipses consistent with the composite geometry of some lakes. We then examined the faults in the area in terms of their kinematics, orientation and distribution. The distribution of lake orientations showed three distinct groups which appear to correspond to the three main fault groups. For lakes fitted with multiple ellipses, the difference in means between the right-lateral, left-lateral, and thrust faults and their corresponding groups of lakes are 3.05°, 1.57°, and 5.17°. Using a Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K–S) statistical test to compare the orientations of faults with respect to the lakes suggests that there is not a strongly significant difference between the fault orientations and the corresponding lake groups. These results indicate that the faults have a profound control on the orientation, shape, and distribution of the lakes. We attribute this to faults and their damage zones being weaker and therefore prone to a faster rate of erosion, and to stress perturbations associated with discontinuous faults resulting in localized high density fracturing and surface subsidence. These results have implications for lake and drainage system morphologies in other foreland basins along the Andes and other similar settings.     

Chromatographic Separation and Analytic Procedure for Priority Organic Pollutants in Urban Air

A separation procedure was developed for analysis of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in urban air, while simultaneously eliminating the interfering compounds. This was carried out by optimization of a column chromatograph with regard to the eluent type (n‐hexane and n‐pentane), volume of eluent, type of sorbent material (silica gel and florisil) and activation level of the sorbent material. The determination of the level of PCBs and PAHs was carried out using gas chromatography (GC) equipped with a mass selective detector (MSD), while determination of the OCPs was carried out by GC equipped with an electron capture detector (μ‐ECD). The use of a silica gel column (10 g, 5% deactivated with H₂O) with 70 mL of n‐hexane gave satisfactory separation of PCBs from PAHs and OCPs. After collecting the PCBs with 70 mL of n‐hexane, 3·20 mL of n‐hexane:ethyl acetate, (1:1, v:v) was adequate for elution of the PAHs and OCPs from the column. The primary aim of this study was to develop a multimethod for analyses of PCBs, PAHs, and OCPs in urban air as well as reducing solvent and sorbent consumption and analysis time during the clean‐up procedure compared to the US EPA standard methods (EPA methods TO‐13A for PAHs and TO‐4A for both PCBs and OCPs).     

地球介质的非定常参数黏弹模型

用开尔文黏弹模型对实验蠕变曲线和冰后期地面抬升观测曲线进行反演,得到相关的黏弹参数,发现所有的黏弹参数都随实验（或观测）时间长度发生有规律的变化, 表明黏弹参数是实验(或观测)时间的函数.在此基础上提出非定常参数的黏弹模型,将通常采用的剪切模量μ₂、弛豫时间τ 和黏度η 相应地从常数修正为时间的函数μ₂(t)、τ(t) 和η（t）,检验表明修正后的开尔文模型可以更好地符合实测蠕变曲线.用修正后的μ₂(t)对软流层的黏度进行估算,其值约为4.6×10²⁰ Pa·s.     

The Effect of Regional Borders when Using the Gutenberg-Richter Model, Case Study: Western Anatolia

A probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) for Western Anatolia is presented using the Gutenberg-Richter (G-R) frequency-magnitude relation. Since the modeling is sensitive to the location of seismotectonics boundaries, to use the information content of the observed earthquake data, as a general rule the borders of the affected area are extended. In this study, the effect of the region’s definition on the G-R model is debated on the Western Anatolian region, which is one of the most seismically active and rapidly deforming regions of the world throughout the ages. Calculations are carried out for two subregions and one combined region as a whole using the seismic catalog from 1900 to 2005. The data sets are determined by the region’s borders with the parameters computed according to these data sets by the least-squares and maximum likelihood methods, and then future predictions are estimated via these parameters. Comparing the results with historical earthquake records, most appropriate regional borders for Western Anatolia are defined, and for this new region G-R model parameters are obtained.     

Assessment of Petrophysical Surface Data of the Har?it Granitoid in Trabzon, in Northeastern Turkey

The Har?it granitoid in northeastern Turkey, comprises four separate granite units that are apparently unfoliated. The Har?it granitoid was investigated here by using microstructural, petrofabric and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) data. The structural data of the granitoid were found to be highly compatible with the zonation recognized from AMS measurements. The orientation of magnetic fabrics within the granite units indicates that tectonic deformation might have occurred coevally with the magmatic emplacement of the intrusion. When we evaluated the manners on the scale of the pluton that the disruption took place in the form of uplifting, probably related to a rapid migration of the volcanic front and the documented change from deep sea sedimentation predominant until late Cretaceous to shallower environments during the Paleocene. The possible tectonic control of fault systems on the ascent and emplacement of the granitic magma in the study area, however, cannot be completely ruled out because the Har?it granitoid is situated at or very near the NAF systems in northern Anatolia. In any case, the intrusion is clearly discordant to the regional deformational features formed during the collisional events between the Eurasia and Anatolia plates in northern Turkey.