Surface-Based 3D Modeling of Geological Structures

Building a 3D geological model from field and subsurface data is a typical task in geological studies involving natural resource evaluation and hazard assessment. However, there is quite often a gap between research papers presenting case studies or specific innovations in 3D modeling and the objectives of a typical class in 3D structural modeling, as more and more is implemented at universities. In this paper, we present general procedures and guidelines to effectively build a structural model made of faults and horizons from typical sparse data. Then we describe a typical 3D structural modeling workflow based on triangulated surfaces. Our goal is not to replace software user guides, but to provide key concepts, principles, and procedures to be applied during geomodeling tasks, with a specific focus on quality control.     

从西南天山超高压变质带多期构造变形看天山古生代构造演化

通过对西南天山阿克雅孜和木扎尔特地区高压-超高压变质带构造几何学和岩石变形相关运动学的详细剖析,厘定出高压-超高压变质岩石及其相关围岩的构造单元。详细研究表明,研究区可划分为三个构造单元:北部单元、中部单元和南部单元。确定了每个构造单元的构造几何学特征及各个构造单元之间的相互关系。通过分析岩石变形特征和叠加关系,确定了岩石所记录多期变形的运动学特征。根据研究区的多期构造变形特点,建立了阿克雅孜和木扎尔特河地区构造演化序列。共划分出四期构造可识别的事件(E1-E4),分别代表了E1:高压-超高压岩石折返过程;E2:高压-超高压岩石造山带的早期改造过程;E3:北部构造事件对高压-超高压造山带影响;E4:走滑构造对高压-超高压造山带的叠加。沿造山带系列构造分析表明,西南天山高压-超高压带中发育的四期构造事件沿中天山北缘具有很好的一致性,各期构造事件也有一定的横向可对比性。在此基础上通过对多期变形事件的构造背景的探讨,建立了整个天山在古生代的构造拼合过程,揭示我国西部洋壳相关的深俯冲造山带形成过程和参与深俯冲作用(超)高压变质岩的变形变质历史。     

Upscaling: Effective Medium Theory, Numerical Methods and the Fractal Dream

Upscaling is a major issue regarding mechanical and transport properties of rocks. This paper examines three issues relative to upscaling. The first one is a brief overview of Effective Medium Theory (EMT), which is a key tool to predict average rock properties at a macroscopic scale in the case of a statistically homogeneous medium. EMT is of particular interest in the calculation of elastic properties. As discussed in this paper, EMT can thus provide a possible way to perform upscaling, although it is by no means the only one, and in particular it is irrelevant if the medium does not adhere to statistical homogeneity. This last circumstance is examined in part two of the paper. We focus on the example of constructing a hydrocarbon reservoir model. Such a construction is a required step in the process of making reasonable predictions for oil production. Taking into account rock permeability, lithological units and various structural discontinuities at different scales is part of this construction. The result is that stochastic reservoir models are built that rely on various numerical upscaling methods. These methods are reviewed. They provide techniques which make it possible to deal with upscaling on a general basis. Finally, a last case in which upscaling is trivial is considered in the third part of the paper. This is the fractal case. Fractal models have become popular precisely because they are free of the assumption of statistical homogeneity and yet do not involve numerical methods. It is suggested that using a physical criterion as a means to discriminate whether fractality is a dream or reality would be more satisfactory than relying on a limited data set alone.     

Floodplain hydrology of the Mekong Delta,Vietnam

The Mekong Delta is one of the largest and most intensively used estuaries in the world. Each year it witnesses widespread flooding which is both the basis of the livelihood for more than 17 million people but also the major hazard. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the hydrologic and hydraulic features is urgently required for various planning purposes. While the general causes and characteristics of the annual floods are understood, the inundation dynamics in the floodplains in Vietnam which are highly controlled by dikes and other control structures have not been investigated in depth. Especially, quantitative analyses are lacking, mainly due to scarce data about the inundation processes in the floodplains. Therefore, a comprehensive monitoring scheme for channel and floodplain inundation was established in a study area in the Plain of Reeds in the northeastern part of the Vietnamese Delta. This in situ data collection was complemented by a series of high‐resolution inundation maps derived from the TerraSAR‐X satellite for the flood seasons 2008 and 2009. Hence, the inundation dynamics in the channels and floodplains, and the interaction between channels and floodplains, could be quantified for the first time. The study identifies the strong human interference which is governed by flood protection levels, cropping patterns and communal water management. In addition, we examine the tidal influence on the inundation in various parts of the Delta, since it is expected that climate change‐induced sea level rise will increase the tidal contribution to floodplain inundation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

从洋壳俯冲到陆壳俯冲和碰撞：来自羌塘中西部地区榴辉岩和蓝片岩地球化学的证据

羌塘中部晚三叠世低温/高压变质带是目前青藏高原内部延伸规模最大的高压变质带,但大量关键高压变质岩石出露地区地球化学资料匮乏,严重制约了对高压变质带原岩建造以及构造演化的全面认识。本文以羌塘中西部地区尚无地球化学资料的果干加年山榴辉岩和红脊山蓝片岩为研究对象,进行了系统的地球化学以及原岩恢复工作。研究表明,果干加年山榴辉岩呈透镜状产于围岩石榴石多硅白云母片岩和少量大理岩中,其原岩为亚碱性玄武岩,具有较低的稀土总量(∑REE=51.19×10-6~59.43×10-6)和轻稀土亏损的特征[(La/Yb)N=0.59~0.70],不具有Nb、Ta、Ti的亏损,与典型的N-MORB特征一致,暗示其原岩可能来源于亏损的地幔源区,形成于洋中脊环境。红脊山地区基性蓝片岩的原岩为碱性玄武岩-亚碱性玄武岩,具有高的TiO2(2.97%~4.14%)和P2O5(0.29%~0.48%)含量,富集轻稀土元素[(La/Yb)N=6.10~11.6]和高场强元素,地球化学特征类似于OIB。但是这些基性蓝片岩与大量的陆源碎屑岩伴生产出,且具有明显的硅铝质上地壳物质混染的特征,与南羌塘地区二叠纪大陆板内基性岩墙的产出特征以及地壳混染特征一致,可能是其俯冲消减的产物。通过本文研究结果并结合区域内已识别出的E-MORB型洋壳和洋岛/海山物质深俯冲的证据,我们认为羌塘中部晚三叠世高压变质带以洋壳物质深俯冲为主,同时亦保留了部分陆壳物质俯冲的证据,暗示大洋向北俯冲消减结束之后,又牵引至少一部分南羌塘北缘陆壳物质经历了随后的俯冲过程。     

青海湖沉积物中的粘土矿物

本文对青海湖沉积物中的粘土矿物和沉积环境进行了初步研究。沉积物的粒度成分一般以粉砂级为主,湖周沉积物较粗,湖内沉积物较细。湖中粘土矿物以伊利石-绿泥石为主,含少量蒙脱石和高岭石等。沉积物表层未见蒙脱石,粘土中Al₂O₃、K₂O和MgO的相对百分含量的特征与海粘土的化学成分特征相似。     

Incorporating GIS Building Data and Census Housing Statistics for Sub-Block-Level Population Estimation

This article presents a deterministic model for sub-block-level population estimation based on the total building volumes derived from geographic information system (GIS) building data and three census block-level housing statistics. To assess the model, we generated artificial blocks by aggregating census block areas and calculating the respective housing statistics. We then applied the model to estimate populations for sub-artificial-block areas and assessed the estimates with census populations of the areas. Our analyses indicate that the average percent error of population estimation for sub-artificial-block areas is comparable to those for sub-census-block areas of the same size relative to associated blocks. The smaller the sub-block-level areas, the higher the population estimation errors. For example, the average percent error for residential areas is approximately 0.11 percent for 100 percent block areas and 35 percent for 5 percent block areas.     

Slow and Fast Rotating Coronal Holes from Geomagnetic Indices

The evolution of the 27-day recurrence in the series of two solar indices (Wolf number WN and 10.7 cm radio flux F) and two geomagnetic indices (Dst and ζ, variance of the geomagnetic field recorded at a magnetic observatory) have been studied over the 1957 – 2007 time span. Spectral energies contained in two period domains (25 – 27.3 and 27.3 – 31 days), designated as E ₁ and E ₂, have been computed. Whereas the evolution of E ₁ is the same for the four indices, that of E ₂ is essentially different for WN and F on the one hand, Dst and ζ on the other hand. Some general conclusions on the dynamics of the solar outer layers are inferred from these results. First the solar activity, as measured by WN, and when averaged over a few years, evolves in the same way whatever the latitude. Second, two families of coronal holes (CHs) are identified; the rapidly and the slowly rotating CHs evolve quite differently.     

The Stanley unconformity in Lake Huron basin: evidence for a climate-driven closed lowstand about 7900 <Superscript>14</Superscript>C BP,with similar implications for the Chippewa lowstand in Lake Michigan basin

J.L. Hough in 1962 recognized an erosional unconformity in the upper section of early postglacial lake sediments in northwestern Lake Huron. Low-level Lake Stanley was defined at 70 m below present water surface on the basis of this observation, and was inferred to follow the Main Algonquin highstand and Post-Algonquin lake phases about 10 ¹⁴C ka, a seminal contribution to the understanding of Great Lakes history. Lake Stanley was thought to have overflowed from the Huron basin through the Georgian Bay basin and the glacio-isostatically depressed North Bay outlet to Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers. For this overflow to have occurred, Hough assumed that post-Algonquin glacial rebound was delayed until after the Lake Stanley phase. A re-examination of sediment stratigraphy in northwestern Lake Huron using seismic reflection and new core data corroborates the sedimentological evidence of Hough’s Stanley unconformity, but not its inferred chronology or the level of the associated lowstand. Erosion of previously deposited sediment, causing the gap in the sediment sequence down to 70 m present depth, is attributed to wave erosion in the shoreface of the Lake Stanley lowstand. Allowing for non-deposition of muddy sediment in the upper 20 m approximately of water depth as occurs in the present Great Lakes, the inferred water level of the Stanley lowstand is repositioned at 50 m below present in northwestern Lake Huron. The age of this lowstand is about 7.9 ± 0.3¹⁴C ka, determined from the inferred ¹⁴C age of the unconformity by radiocarbon-dated geomagnetic secular variation in six new cores. This relatively young age shows that the lowstand defined by Hough’s Stanley unconformity is the late Lake Stanley phase of the northern Huron basin, youngest of three lowstands following the Algonquin lake phases. Reconstruction of uplift histories for lake level and outlets shows that late Lake Stanley was about 25–30 m below the North Bay outlet, and about 10 m below the sill of the Huron basin. The late Stanley lowstand was hydrologically closed, consistent with independent evidence for dry regional climate at this time. A similar analysis of the Chippewa unconformity shows that the Lake Michigan basin also hosted a hydrologically closed lowstand, late Lake Chippewa. This phase of closed lowstands is new to the geological history of the Great Lakes. This is the ninth in a series of ten papers published in this special issue of Journal of Paleolimnology. These papers were presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (2004), held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. P.F. Karrow and C.F.M Lewis were guest editors of this special issue.