Hydrogeochemistry and geothermometry of thermal springs from the Guelma region,Algeria

This paper reports the results of our studies, the chemical analysis of thermal spring’s waters and their geological settings, the use of different statistical methods to evaluate the origin of the dissolved constituents of spring waters and the estimation of the reservoir temperature of the associated geothermal fields of the Guelma region, Algeria. A major component in 13 spring water samples was analyzed using various techniques. The waters of the thermal springs at Guelma basin vary in temperature between 20 and 94oC. Q-mode hierarchical cluster analysis suggests three groups. The water springs were classified as low, moderate and high salinity. Mineral saturation indices (SI) calculated from major ions indicate the spring waters are supersaturated with the most of the carbonate minerals, and all of the spring water samples are under-saturated with evaporite minerals. The thermal spring waters have a meteoric origin, and all samples are immature with strong mixing between warm and shallow waters, where the temperatures of reservoirs to which the thermal waters are related ranged between 64° and 124°C. The deep circulation of meteoric waters in the study area is supplied by the high geothermal gradient around 4.5°C per 100 m and reaches a high temperature before rising to the surface. The estimated circulation depths ranged from 1425 and 3542 m.     

Southernmost outcrops of marine lower Tertiary carbonate rocks in NE-Africa (Gebel Abyad,Sudan)

Early Tertiary carbonates (Gebel Abyad Formation) are described from an isolated limestone plateau from the northwestern Sudan. They represent the southernmost outskirts of marine, Tertiary sediments in northeast Africa, which can be connected with transgressive/regressive cycles of the Tethys onto the African craton. Microfacies studies of the carbonates yielded exclusively shallow marine sediments which dried up temporarily, and with changing rates of terrigenous input. They contain a low diverse fauna and flora, poor in individuals. The paleogeographic reconstruction of this isolated occurrence was possible by comparing sediments from southern Egypt.

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Zusammenfassung Aus dem nordwestlichen Sudan werden alttertiäre Karbonate (Gebel Abyad Formation) beschrieben, die ein isoliertes Vorkommen darstellen. Diese repräsentieren die südlichsten marinen tertiären Ablagerungen in Nordost-Afrika, die mit transgressiv/regressiven Zyklen der Tethys auf den afrikanischen Kraton in Verbindung gebracht werden können. Die mikrofaziell bearbeiteten Kalke stellen ausschlie\lich flachmarine Ablagerungen dar, mit Anzeichen für zeitweiliges Trockenfallen, und wechselnden Anteilen terrigener Zufuhr. Sie enthalten eine gering-diverse, individuenarme Fauna und Flora. Faziell vergleichbare Ablagerungen in Südägypten lassen eine Rekonstruktion dieses isolierten Kalkvorkommens zu einem paläogeographischen Modell zu.

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Résumé Cette note décrit des roches carbonatées d'âge tertiaire inférieur (formation du Jebel Abyad) qui font partie d'un plateau isolé dans le nord-ouest du Soudan. Elles représentent l'extension méridionale maximale de la sédimentation marine tertiaire dans le nord-est de l'Afrique, sédimentation qui peut Être reliée aux cycles de transgressionsrégressions de la Téthys sur le bloc continental africain. L'étude des microfacies amène à les identifier comme des dépÔts marins de faible profondeur, temporairement asséchés et mÊlés d'apports terrigènes en quantité variable. Ils renferment une flore et une faune pauvres en espèces et en individus. La comparaison avec des sédiments du Sud égyptien permet de les intégrer dans un modèle paléogéographique.

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Diagenesis and reservoir quality analysis in the Lower Cretaceous Qishn sandstones from Masila oilfields in the Sayun–Masila Basin,eastern Yemen

Lower Cretaceous sandstones of the Qishn Formation have been studied by integrating sedimentological, petrological and petrophysical analyses from wells in the Masila oilfields of eastern Yemen. These analyses were used to define the origin, type of diagenesis and its relation to reservoir quality. The sandstones of the Qishn Formation are predominately quartz arenite to subarkose arenite with sublitharenite and quartz wackes displaying a range of porosities, averaging 22.33%. Permeability is likewise variable with an average of 2844.2 mD. Cementation coupled with compaction had an important effect on porosity destruction after sedimentation and burial. The widespread occurrence of early calcite cement suggests that the sandstones of the Qishn Formation lost significant primary porosity at an early stage of its diagenetic history. In addition to poikilotopic calcite, several different cements including kaolinite, illite, chlorite and minor illite–smectite occur as pore‐filling and pore‐lining cements, which were either accompanied by or followed the development of the early calcite cement. Secondary porosity development occurred due to partial to complete dissolution of early calcite cements and feldspar grains. The new data presented in this paper suggest the reservoir quality of Qishn sandstones is strongly linked to their diagenetic history; hence, the reservoir quality is reduced by clay minerals, calcite and silica cements but is enhanced by the dissolution of the unstable grains, in addition to partial or complete dissolution of calcite cements and unstable grains. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

青藏高原多年冻土区天然气水合物形成条件模拟研究

基于野外气体地球化学调查研究,以及前人有关冻土表层温度、冻土层内地温梯度、冻土层下地温梯度等的资料,对青藏高原多年冻土区天然气水合物的形成条件开展了模拟研究. 结果显示：研究区冻土条件能够满足天然气水合物形成的基本要求;气体组成、冻土特征（如冻土厚度或冻土表层温度、冻土层内地温梯度、冻土层下地温梯度等）是影响研究区天然气水合物稳定带厚度的最重要因素,其在不同点位上的差异性可能导致天然气水合物分布的不均匀性的主要原因;研究区最可能的天然气水合物为甲烷与重烃（乙烷和丙烷）的混合气体型天然气水合物;在天然气水合物分布的区域,其产出的上临界点深度在几十至一百多米间,下临界点深度在几百至近一千米间,厚度可达到几百米. 与Canadian Mallik三角洲多年冻土区相比,青藏高原多年冻土区除了冻土厚度小些外,其他条件,如冻土层内地温梯度、冻土层下地温梯度、气体组成等条件较为相近,具有一定的可比性,预示着良好的天然气水合物潜力.     

Evaluation of the Risk of Marine Slope Instability: A Pseudo-3D Approach for Application to Large Areas

Abstract

This article presents a methodology developed to evaluate the instability of submarine slopes that extend over a large area. Special attention was paid to (1) the complex geometry (bathymetry) and the expanse of the slope, (2) the heterogeneity of the sediment, and (3) the distribution of the pore pressure. The safety factor was considered as a spatially varying quantity. The General Formulation (GLE, Fredlund and Krahn 1977), which fully satisfies equilibrium conditions, was used for evaluating the stability of the marine slope. The submarine slope failure, which occurred on 16 October 1979 during the construction of the new Nice airport, was studied in order to test the developed model. Geotechnical parameters were taken from experimental tests carried out by IFREMER on 19 cores extracted at different depths (from 27 m to 1300 m) (Cochonat, Bourillet, and Savoye, 1993; Mulder et al., 1994). Many scenarios were proposed in order to explain the cause of the Nice slope failure (Habib, 1994). In this article, two of those scenarios were tested. Simulation results are presented and discussed.     

The role of gender and age in fracture distribution following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

This study explored demographic variations among victims injured in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. The study analyzed records of 2,148 patients who were hospitalized with earthquake-related injuries in 14 hospitals between May 12 and May 21 of 2008. We tested the effects of gender and age on the incidence of fractures and amputations. Although more women than men were hospitalized as earthquake victims, the results indicated that a higher incidence of pelvic fracture in women was the only statistically significant injury with regard to gender. Age had a more complex effect on the rate and pattern of fractures. Children younger than 15 years old were the most likely to sustain skull fractures and amputations. The elderly were the most likely to be associated with limb fractures. Adult men were the most likely to suffer spine fractures and adult women rib fractures. The paper concludes with an interpretation of the results in the context of China’s rural conditions and discusses implications for post-disaster emergency operations and planning.     

Examining the rainfall–topography relationship using non-stationary modelling technique in semi-arid Aseer region,Saudi Arabia

The mountainous region of Aseer, corresponding to the Afromontane phytogeographic region, is an eco-sensitive zone and has complex relationship between topography and rainfall. The region is located inland of the red sea escarpment edge in the west. Therefore, rainfall can occur during any month of the year in the mountain of the high Aseer region when moist air forces up the escarpment from the red sea. Monitoring the rainfall data and its topographical elevation variable in Aseer region is an essential requirement for feasible and accurate rainfall-based data for different applications, such as hydrological and ecological resource management in rugged terrain and remote areas. The relationship of elevation and rainfall are spatially non-stationary, non-linear, scale dependent, and often modelled by conventional regression models. Therefore, a local modelling technique, geographically weighted regression (GWR), was applied to deal with non-stationary, non-linear, scale-dependent problems. The GWR using topoclimatic data (elevation and rainfall) to analyse the cumulative rainfall data for rainy months (March to June) of the 4 years estimated from CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations) product for Aseer region. The bandwidth (scale-size) of the Aseer region rainfall–elevation relationship has stabilised at round off 12 km. By selecting the suitable bandwidth, the spatial pattern of the rainfall–elevation relationship was significantly enhanced by using the GWR than the traditional ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model. GWR local modelling techniques estimated well in terms of accuracy, predictive power and decreased residual autocorrelation. Additionally, GWR assesses the significance of local statistic at each location and identified the location of spatial clusters with local regression coefficients significantly improved as compared with global OLS model, thereby highlighting local variations. Therefore, the GWR, local modelling approach managed to produce more accurate estimates by taking into account local characteristics.     

Identifying threshold storm events and quantifying potential impacts of climate change on sediment yield in a small upland agricultural watershed of Ontario

Agricultural zones are significant sediment sources, but it is crucial to identify critical source areas (CSAs) of sediment yield within these zones where best management practices (BMPs) can be applied to the best effect in reducing sediment delivery to receiving water bodies rather than the economically nonviable alternative of randomly or sweepingly implementing BMPs. A storm event of a specific magnitude and hyetograph profile may, at different times, generate a greater or lesser sediment yield. The widely used agricultural nonpoint source (AGNPS) model was used to identify CSAs for sediment losses in Southwestern Ontario's agriculture‐dominated 374‐ha Holtby watershed. A storm threshold approach was adopted to identify critical periods for higher sediment losses. An AGNPS model for the Holtby watershed was set up, calibrated, and validated for run‐off volume, peak flow rate, and sediment yield for several storms. The calibrated and validated model was run for storms of increasing return periods to identify threshold storm events that would generate sediment yield greater than an acceptable value for early and late spring, summer, and fall seasons. Finally, to evaluate the potential impacts of climate change, we shifted shorter duration summer storms into spring conditions and quantified the changes in sediment yield dynamics. A 6‐hr, 7.5‐year early spring storm would generate sediment losses exceeding the acceptable limit of 0.34 t ha^?1 for the season. However, summer storms (2 hr, up to 100 years) tended to generate sediment yields below those of an identifiable threshold storm. If such shorter duration summer storms occurred in spring, the sediment yield would increase by more than fivefold. A 5‐year future storm would generate an equivalent effect of a 100‐year current spring event. The high sediment delivery to be expected will have significant implications regarding the future management of water quality of receiving waters. Appropriate placement of BMPs at CSAs will thus be needed to reduce such high sediment delivery to receiving waters.     

Modeling soil collapse by artificial neural networks

The feasibility of using neural networks to model the complex relationship between soil parameters, loading conditions, and the collapse potential is investigated in this paper. A back propagation neural network process was used in this study. The neural network was trained using experimental data. The experimental program involved the assessment of the collapse potential using the one-dimensional oedometer apparatus. To cover the broadest possible scope of data, a total of eight types of soils were selected covering a wide range of gradation. Various conditions of water content, unit weights and applied pressures were imposed on the soils. For each placement condition, three samples were prepared and tested with the measured collapse potential values averaged to obtain a representative data point. This resulted in 414 collapse tests with 138 average test values, which were divided into two groups. Group I, consisting of 82 data points, was used to train the neural networks for a specific paradigm. Training was carried out until the mean sum squared error (MSSE) was minimized. The model consisting of eight hidden nodes and six variables was the most successful. These variables were: soil coefficient of uniformity, initial water content, compaction unit weight, applied pressure at wetting, percent sand and percent clay. Once the neural networks have been deemed fully trained its accuracy in predicting collapse potential was tested using group II of the experimental data. The model was further validated using information available in the literature. The data used in both the testing and validation phases were not included in the training phase. The results proved that neural networks are very efficient in assessing the complex behavior of collapsible soils using minimal processing of data. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A photometric study of the contact binary XY Boo

The contact binary XY Boo is observed photoelectrically, and variations of the orbital period and the light curves are indicated. NewBV light curves and those of Binnendijk (1971) and Winkler (1977) are analysed by used of the light curve synthesis method. Combining the derived photometric elements with the spectroscopic elements of McLean and Hilditch (1983), we obtain values of the masses and the radii of the components of the system.