LOQUAT: an open-source GPU-accelerated SPH solver for geotechnical modeling

Acta Geotechnica - Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is a meshless method gaining popularity recently in geotechnical modeling. It is suitable to solve problems involving large deformation,...     

四川地区部分台站大地电场优势方位角震前异常特征分析

使用大地电场优势方位角方法对四川江油台、盐源台和成都台地电场数据进行计算,对方位角变化进行异常特征分析和震例研究,发现:(1)江油台自2019年4月6日开始,3个测向出现显著异常变化,其中2个测向的优势方位角变化范围(Δα)逐渐缩小,1个测向的Δα范围增大;(2)盐源台自2021年8月1日开始,5个测向的Δα范围逐渐缩小;(3)成都台自2021年3月1日开始,5个测向的Δα范围出现了明显变化,其中,4个测向的Δα范围逐渐缩小,1个测向的Δα范围逐渐增大;(4)震例研究显示,台站优势方位角异常对台站周围250 km范围内的中强地震有一定的指示意义,3个台站均呈现出优势方位角Δα范围变小的异常特征,且地震发生在异常出现后约5个月甚至更长时间,因此大地电场优势方位角方法在研究区可能呈现出中长期的指示能力;(5)3个台站在震前出现的异常变化反映了场地附近岩体裂隙的变化,即随着区域构造应力增大,台站附近岩体裂隙发育并呈现出有序排列的结构变异。     

典型自然源气溶胶沉降引起的海洋初级生产响应

大气沉降是陆源物质向海洋输入营养盐的重要方式,沙尘、野火和火山喷发均能够产生气溶胶,这些典型的自然源气溶胶在风场的作用下,能够进行远距离的输运,期间由于沉降作用进入海洋,为上层海洋提供限制性营养盐促进海洋浮游植物生长,提升海洋的初级生产力,促进碳循环过程。以海表叶绿素浓度作为海洋初级生产力的重要指标,通过海表叶绿素浓度的响应,探究沙尘、野火和火山这三种典型自然源气溶胶的传输路径及其沉降对海洋初级生产的影响。结果显示,海洋初级生产对气溶胶沉降的响应不仅与气溶胶排放类型有关,也与温度、动力过程、光合有效辐射等海域初级生产影响因素有关,体现了海洋初级生产对自然源气溶胶的敏感性,自然源气溶胶沉降所驱动的海洋初级生产在全球碳循环中具有重要的潜在影响。     

广利河口拦门沙发育动态和河口航道的选择

根据现场调查和历史资料,获取了广利河口拦门沙水动力特征、海底地形和底质特征,对拦门沙的动态发育和波浪作用下拦门沙运动状态进行了分析,探讨了广利河口的航道选择方案。分析结果认为,广利河槽外航道宜从东偏南向入海。     

Geological and archaeological chronology of a late Holocene coastal enclosure: The Sanguinet lake (SW France)

Sanguinet lake is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a wide Holocene coastal dunes system in SW France. The present day lake level is 21 m above mean sea level (msl). It formed when aeolian sand closed the mouth of the small La Gourgue river which gradually became a lagoon and then a lake. Dated sub‐lacustrine archaeological remains (human settlements, canoes, and wooden architectural structures), as well as paleoenvironmental evidence (drowned tree stumps and lagoonal deposits exposed on the beach) are used to interpret the formation and chronology of lake level rise during the past 4000 years. Around 2000–1650 B.C., the river flowed into a lagoon or an estuary which connected with the ocean west of the present Sanguinet Lake. Its level was affected by the tide, which ranged between 2 m below and 3 m above msl. The accumulation of aeolian sand before 1500–1000 B.C. began to close the connection with the sea. At this time, the elevation of the surface of the lake water was approximately 5 m above msl, but it still remained connected to the ocean. Around 1000 B.C., the lake level rose quickly by 1 to 2 m during a period of renewed mobility of the coastal aeolian sand, and continued to rise slowly until about 100 A.D. when there was a gradual closure of the lake outlet. This rise forced people who were living on the lake shore and along the rivers to move to higher land along the valley. The nearby Gallo‐Roman site of Losa was settled at the end of the 1st century B.C.; then the final blocking of the outlet occurred because of spit growth as a result of north‐south littoral drift accompanied by the deposit of aeolian sand. This led to the lake level rising rapidly. Consequently, Losa was abandoned in the 3rd century A.D. and ruins of its temple (at 17 m above msl) were submerged in the 6th century. Further oscillations of the lake level probably correspond to water table fluctuations before it became stable at around 1000 A.D. The highest lake level (23.35 m) was reached during the 18th century as a consequence of modern dune formation, and thus was artificially reduced to 21 m in 1840 by construction of an overflow channel. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Late Bronze Age paleogeography along the ancient Ways of Horus in Northwest Sinai,Egypt

The northwest Sinai contained the eastern frontier of New Kingdom Egypt during the Late Bronze Age. The ancient Pelusaic branch of the Nile Delta influenced the environmental setting of this region at that time. Fortresses were built along the coastal byway through the study area known as the Ways of Horus to protect Egyptian‐held territory from immigrants and intruders from Canaan and the Mediterranean Sea. Building on previous geomorphic studies in the region, this paper presents the results of field investigations of Holocene sedimentary deposits, aided by satellite photography, used to create a paleogeographic map that places archaeological sites in their proper environmental context. CORONA satellite photographs from the late 1960s reveal surface features that have been obscured by more recent agricultural development in the region. Canals dug for an agricultural project provided easy access to the shallow subsurface for mapping the extent of Holocene sediments representing barrier coast, lagoon, estuarine, fluvial, and marsh depositional environments. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Holocene vegetation dynamics and hydrological variability in forested peatlands of the Clay Belt,eastern Canada,reconstructed using a palaeoecological approach

Forested peatlands are widespread in boreal regions of Canada, and these ecosystems, which are major terrestrial carbon sinks, are undergoing significant transformations linked to climate change, fires and human activities. This study targets millennial‐scale vegetation dynamics and related hydrological variability in forested peatlands of the Clay Belt south of James Bay, eastern Canada, using palaeoecological data. Changes in peatland vegetation communities were reconstructed using plant macrofossil analyses, and variations in water‐table depths were inferred using testate amoeba analyses. High‐resolution analyses of macroscopic charcoal >0.5 mm were used to reconstruct local fire history. Our data showed two successional pathways towards the development of present‐day forested peatlands influenced by autogenic processes such as vertical peat growth and related drying, and allogenic factors such as the occurrence of local fires. The oldest documented peatland initiated in a wet rich fen around 8000 cal. a BP shortly after land emergence and transformed into a drier forested bog rapidly after peat inception that persisted over millennia. In the second site, peat started to accumulate from ~5200 cal. a BP over a mesic coniferous forest that shifted into a wet forested peatland following a fire that partially consumed the organic layer ~4600 cal. a BP. The charcoal records show that fires rarely occurred in these peatlands, but they have favoured the process of forest paludification and influenced successional trajectories over millennia. The macrofossil data suggest that Picea mariana (black spruce) persisted on the peatlands throughout their development, although there were periods of more open canopy due to local fires in some cases. This study brings new understanding on the natural variability of boreal forested peatlands which may help predict their response to future changes in climate, fire regimes and anthropogenic disturbances.     

High‐resolution quantification of earthworm calcite granules from western European loess sequences reveals stadial–interstadial climatic variability during the Last Glacial

High concentrations of calcite fossil granules produced by earthworms (ECG) have been identified in most of the stratigraphical units along the loess‐palaeosol reference sequence of Nussloch (Germany). They are particularly abundant in interstadial brown soils and in tundra gley horizons, the latter reflecting short‐term phases of aggradation then degradation of permafrost. These granules are characterized by a radial crystalline structure produced in the earthworms by specific bio‐mineralization processes. In our study, we used this biological indicator combined with ¹⁴C and OSL dating, and sedimentological parameters to characterize millennial‐time scale climatic variations recorded in loess sequences. The approach is based on high‐resolution counts of ECG throughout a 17‐m‐thick loess sequence (332 samples). Strong increases in granule and mollusc concentrations suggest warmer climate conditions during palaeosol formation phases, associated with increasing biodiversity, biological activity and vegetation cover. Decreased granule concentrations occur within primary loess deposits, indicating a strong correlation with palaeoenvironmental conditions and demonstrating the reliability of ECG concentration variations as a new palaeoenvironmental proxy. Finally, this pattern is also recorded in loess sequences located about 600 km westward in northern France demonstrating the large‐scale validity of this new palaeoclimatic proxy.     

Single subduction zone for the generation of Devonian ophiolites and high‐P metamorphic belts of the Variscan Orogen (NW Iberia)

Within the Variscan Orogen, Early Devonian and Late Devonian high‐P belts separated by mid‐Devonian ophiolites can be interpreted as having formed in a single subduction zone. Early Devonian convergence nucleated a Laurussia‐dipping subduction zone from an inherited lithospheric neck (peri‐Gondwanan Cambrian back‐arc). Slab‐retreat induced upper plate extension, mantle incursion and lower plate thermal softening, favouring slab‐detachment within the lower plate and diapiric exhumation of deep‐seated rocks through the overlying mantle up to relaminate the upper plate. Upper plate extension produced mid‐Devonian suprasubduction ocean floor spreading (Devonian ophiolites), while further convergence resulted in plate coupling and intraoceanic ophiolite imbrication. Accretion of the remaining Cambrian ocean heralded Late Devonian subduction of inner sections of Gondwana across the same subduction zone and the underthrusting of mainland Gondwana (culmination of NW Iberian allochthonous pile). Oblique convergence favoured lateral plate sliding, and explained the different lateral positions along Gondwana of terranes separated by Palaeozoic ophiolites.     

Pembrokeshire,South Wales

Unravelling the geology of Pembrokeshire (southwest Wales) has been a rite of passage for British undergraduate students for generations. A favourite destination for an Easter fieldtrip, this complex region contains diverse geology of late Precambrian to Carboniferous age. In the course of a five‐day excursion, a student can uncover evidence for two plate tectonic cycles: the birth of the early Palaeozoic Iapetus Ocean and its death in the Caledonian Orogen, and the reworking of the late Palaeozoic Rheic back‐arc basins on the northern margins of the Variscides. In doing so, there is an opportunity to examine highly variable palaeoenvironments including the deposits of alluvial fans, flood plains, deltas, estuaries, carbonate shelves and deeper marine settings, as well as developing fundamental field skills in geological mapping, structural analysis and sedimentary logging. In this article, I introduce the fascinating story of the geological evolution of Pembrokeshire and describe some of the classic localities useful for basic geological training.