Luminescence-dated aeolian deposits of late Quaternary age in the southern Tibetan Plateau and their implications for landscape history

Aeolian deposits are widely distributed in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau, and their chronology is poorly known. It is not yet clear whether they accumulated only after the last deglaciation, or over a longer time. We applied quartz OSL dating to aeolian samples from the Lhasa area with OSL ages ranging from 2.9 ± 0.2 to at least 118 ± 11 ka. The probability density frequency (PDF) distribution of 24 ages reveals age clusters at about 3, 8, 16–21, 33, and 79–83 ka, indicating enhanced sediment accumulation then. The results show that aeolian deposition occurred throughout most of the last 100 ka. This implies that: 1) an ice sheet covering the whole Tibetan Plateau during the last glacial maximum (LGM) could not have existed; and 2) erosion during the last deglaciation was not as strong as previously proposed, such that not all pre-Holocene loess was removed. The age distribution shown in the PDF indicates that aeolian accumulation is episodic. Sand-formation events revealed by age clusters at 3, 8, and 16–21 ka imply roughly synchronous environmental responses to corresponding global-scale arid events.     

Digital mapping of coastal boulders – high-resolution data acquisition to infer past and recent transport dynamics

Coastal boulder fields provide clues to long-term frequency-magnitude patterns of coastal flooding events and have the potential to play an important role in coastal hazard assessment. Mapping boulders in the field is time and labour-intensive, and work on intertidal reef platforms, as in the present study, is physically challenging. By addressing coastal scientists who are not specialists in remote sensing, this contribution reports on the possibilities and limitations of digital applications in boulder mapping in Eastern Samar, Philippines, where recent supertyphoons Haiyan and Hagupit induced high waves, coastal flooding and boulder transport. It is demonstrated how satellite imagery of sub-metre resolution (from Pléiades and WorldView-3 imagery) enables efficient analysis of transport vectors and distances of larger boulders, reflecting variation in latitudes of both typhoon tracks and approaching angles of typhoon-generated waves. During the investigated events, boulders with a-axes of up to 8 m were clearly identified to have been shifted for up to 32 m, mostly along the seaward margin of the boulder field. It is, however, hard to keep track of smaller boulders, and the length of a-axes and b-axes including their orientation is often impossible to map with sufficient accuracy. Orthophotographs and digital surface models created through the application of an unmanned aerial vehicle and the ‘Structure from Motion’ technique provide ultra-high-resolution data, and have the potential to not only improve the results of satellite image analysis, but also those from field mapping and may significantly reduce overall time in the field. Orthophotographs permit unequivocal mapping of a-axes and b-axes including their orientation, while precise values for c-axes can be derived from the respective digital surface models. Volume of boulders is best inferred from boulder-specific Structure from Motion-based three-dimensional models. Battery power, flight speed and altitude determine the limits of the area covered, while patches shielded by the boulders are difficult to resolve. For some tasks, field mapping remains mandatory and cannot be replaced by currently available remote sensing tools: for example, sampling for rock type, density and age dating, recording of lithological separation of boulders from the underlying geological unit and of geomorphic features on a millimetre to decimetre-scale, or documentation of fine-grained sediment transport in between the boulders in supratidal settings. In terms of future events, the digital products presented here will provide a valuable reference to track boulder transport on a centimetre to decimetre-scale and to better understand the hydrodynamics of extreme-wave events on a fringing reef coastline.     

地下闭式循环地热交换发电系统简介

为解决能源问题而提出了地下闭式循环地热交换发电系统.该系统地下部分通过全井下套管形成一个封闭系统,克服了传统地热发电和干热岩发电受地质条件制约、对环境造成危害等缺点,是一种新型的不依赖位置、环境友好的地热发电系统.采用大位移技术进行钻井,应用悬链线技术对井身剖面结构进行了优化,提出了地下连接技术要求,应用分支井和膨胀套管技术固井,设计了水泥配方并进行了相关试验,优化了载热流体,计算了有机工质朗肯循环(ORC)的发电效率.     

Multi-Scale Texture Modeling

Patterns of crystallographic preferred orientation are referred to as texture. The specific subject of texture analysis is the experimental determination and interpretation of the statistical distribution of orientations of crystals within a specimen of polycrystalline material, which could be metals or rocks. The objective is to relate an observed pattern of preferred orientation to its generating processes and vice versa. In geosciences, texture of minerals in rocks is used to infer constraints on their tectono-metamorphic history. Since most physical properties of crystals, such as elastic moduli, the coefficients of thermal expansion, or chemical resistance to etching depends on crystal symmetry and orientation, the presence of texture imparts directional properties to the polycrystalline material. A major issue of mathematical texture analysis is the resolution of the inverse problem to determine a reasonable orientation density function on SO(3) from measured pole intensities on , which relates to the inverse of the totally geodesic Radon transform. This communication introduces a wavelet approach into mathematical texture analysis. Wavelets on the two-dimensional sphere and on the rotational group SO(3) are discussed, and an algorithms for a wavelet decomposition on both domains following the ideas of Ta-Hsin Li is given. The relationship of these wavelets on both domains with respect to the totally geodesic Radon transform is investigated. In particular, it is shown that the Radon transform of these wavelets on SO(3) are again wavelets on . A novel algorithm for the inversion of experimental pole intensities to an orientation density function based on this relationship is developed.     

Late variscan tectonic evolution by thinning of earlier thickened crust. An Ar---Ar study of the Montagne Noire, southern Massif Central, France

⁴⁰Ar---³⁹Ar age determinations on samples selected on deformational criteria form the basis of a proposal of a new detailed tectonometamorphic history of the Montagne Noire (the southern part of the Massif Central, France).

This range is classically divided into a cover and an axial gneissic and migmatitic core which was metamorphosed under high T/medium P conditions. The basement is structurally overlain by epimetamorphic Paleozoic sediments in the north. In the south, equivalent rocks form a well-known pile of recumbent nappes. The Variscan history of this area comprises early shortening and thickening of the continental crust. The climax of this event took place around 320 Ma ago, as is shown by previous Rb---Sr data and by ⁴⁰Ar---³⁹Ar measurements. New developments in structural analyses have led to a better understanding of the late evolution of the area in terms of diapiric uplift of the core. South-southwestwards verging recumbent nappes have been emplaced and were weakly metamorphosed in their lower parts. This movement was accompanied and followed by dextral extensional wrenching of the Paleozoic cover along the northern and southern margins of the axial zone. Attendantly, ductile shear zones were formed.

In order to decipher the complex history, three structural levels have been dated with the ⁴⁰Ar---³⁹Ar method. These levels are: (1) The migmatitic and gneissic series in the axial core, where micas yield ages of c. 315 Ma; (2) Mylonites from the northern and southern shear zones where biotites and muscovites yield ages of c. 310 Ma; (3) Muscovites and biotites from the epimetamorphic nappe structures yielding ages of c. 297 Ma. The later ages may represent a younger thermal pulse. These data are compared and discussed in the light of previous radiometric studies of the area and precise biostratigraphic constraints. A detailed geodynamic evolution of the studied segment is proposed.     

Mineralogische Untersuchungen an drei Bodenprofilen: auf Zeehsteinletten,Unterem Buntsandstein und Zechsteindolomit

Zusammenfassung Drei Waldbodenprofile auf Zechsteinletten, Unterem Buntsandstein und Zechsteindolomit am südwestlichen Harzrand wurden mit Hilfe von Korngrößenanalysen, optischen und röntgenographischen Methoden auf ihren qualitativen und quantitativen Mineralbestand untersucht. Außerdem konnte anhand von Bodendünnschliffen ein Einblick in die Mikromorphologie der in ihrer Lagerung nicht gestörten Bodenhorizonte gewonnen werden. Dabei ließen sich mit dem Mikroskop nicht mehr auflösbare Strukturelemente auf röntgenographischem Wege aus dem Dünnschliff heraus identifizieren.     

Einige Probleme des Variszikums von Neo-Europa

The Periadriatic Lineament and its possible extension, the Balatonline, on the one hand and the Balcan-Dinaric Lineament and its continuation (?) the Zagreb-line, on the other hand, separate an outer-region, characterized by clastic, terrestrical Upper Carboniferous and Permian strata, from a marine Inner-region. This Inner-region includes the Southern Alps, the Dinarides, and the ?Igoler“-trough. The aforementioned lineaments were not evident during the Lower Paleozoic, whereas in the Upper Paleozoic (after the Variscan orogenese) a clear separation of the two areas can be seen. As a consequence of the overlapping of the marine sequence into the regions north of the Periadriatic lineaments during the Triassic, the contrast between outer- and inner-regions are agained wiped out. For a full understanding of these facts, significant details are still missing. Above all it is important to find a solution for several still unanswered questions: how far the outer region is still a part of the paleomagnetic “Stabile Europe”; how far the metamorphic development within the region of the Balcan Peninsula, the Pannonic Basin and the Karpates can be compared with the ideas (supported by isotopic-geological dates) of the metamorphic development on both sides of the Insubric line and also how far the Dinaric Ophiolite zones are remains of a Paleothetys. Only when these questions are answered will it be possible to insert the Variscan area into the discussion of plate-tectonics within the Neo-European region.