Assessment of magnetite as a magnetic tracer for sediments in the study of ephemeral gully erosion: Conditioning factors of magnetic susceptibility

In gully erosion, the detached soil can be transported over long distances along the landscape. The eroded material can be redistributed and/or deposited on the soil surface along the landscape and then eventually be buried by newly eroded and deposited sediment. There can be significant variability of the soil conditions (e.g., texture and moisture content) over which the eroded material travels. The eroded material can be detected through the use of magnetic tracers attached to or mixed with the eroded soil. In this study we evaluated the degree to which the magnetic signal of the magnetite is conditioned by (i) burial depth of tracer, (ii) condition of soil covering the tracer and (iii) tracer concentration. In the laboratory containers were filled with a specific soil. In the filling process, a 0.5-cm layer of a soil–magnetite mixture was interspersed in the soil profile at a certain depth. Experiments encompassed three different soil–tracer concentrations (1000:1, 200:1, 100:1), four burial depths of tracer (0 cm, 3 cm, 5 cm and 10 cm from soil surface), and two different soils. In each case, the magnetic susceptibility was measured with a susceptometer. Experiments were repeated with different soil moisture contents. If the tracer is located under the soil surface, a minimum soil–tracer concentration of 200:1 is required for its correct detection. The intensity of the magnetic signal decreases dramatically with the vertical distance of the tracer from the soil surface. The maximum detection depth for the tracer's magnetic signal is strongly dependent on the natural magnetic susceptibility of the soil, which masks the tracer's signal. Variation in soil moisture content does not significantly affect the magnetic signal. For extensive field studies, the soil–tracer volume to be handled would be very high and therefore, it is necessary to explore new tracer application techniques.     

Water masses in the Caribbean Sea and sub-annual variability in the Guajira upwelling region

The study of water masses is important as they transport water properties affecting the biosphere and ocean dynamics. In this study, we revisit water masses in the Caribbean Sea using climatology and 11 months of observations at different depths from 3 moorings placed in the Guajira upwelling region, providing some new findings. The Caribbean Surface Water (CSW) seasonal variability is studied at the mixed layer depth. Salinity differences between CSW and the saltier North Atlantic Subtropical Underwater (SUW) determine static stability spatial and temporal variations, with implications for regional ocean dynamics. Besides, we assess the climatologic distribution of water masses below the salinity maximum using the optimum multiparameter analysis and the Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater 2010, defining their source water indices when entering the Caribbean Sea. The SUW, with its core at ~ 150 m depth, occupies 16% of the Caribbean Sea volume, complemented by 38% of Antarctic Intermediate Water, with its core at ~ 700 m depth and North Atlantic Deep Water, which as bottom water occupies 46% of the volume. Hydrographic observations do not differ from climatology, regardless of their large sub-annual variations decreasing with depth. Daily time series of dominant water fractions at different depths correlate at each mooring, indicating a common forcing. Besides, rotated wind stress, which is an indicator of the Guajira upwelling, correlates regularly with water mass fractions down to 700 m depth. However, during strong wind shifts, upwelling seems to affect them down to 1450 m depth.

     

Natural metastable reactions involving garnet, staurolite and cordierite: implications for petrogenetic grids and the extensional collapse of the Betic-Rif Belt

Medium grade metapelites of the Torrox unit (Betic-Rif Belt, S Spain) contain mineral assemblages consisting of garnet (Grt), staurolite (St), cordierite (Crd), biotite, kyanite, sillimanite, andalusite, muscovite (Ms) and quartz (Qtz) and record complex reaction processes of cordierite growth through garnet and staurolite decomposition. The reaction textures, the chemical composition of the reactant and product phases, including Fe-Mg-Mn partitioning, and the results of equilibrium thermodynamic calculations indicate that these cordierite-bearing assemblages are largely deviated from equilibrium. Furthermore, the actual cordierite-forming reactions, as estimated from the assemblage and associated textures, conflict with the predictions of thermodynamically based petrogenetic grids for the model pelite system KFMASH, either those that predict the stable coexistence of cordierite + muscovite plus garnet or staurolite or those that do not foresee a field of stability for these types of assemblages. This conflict is explained in terms of cordierite growth (at ca. 575 °C and 2.5 kbar) through metastable reactions whose operation was conditioned by the relict persistence of higher pressure phases (garnet and staurolite) and phase compositions (e.g. muscovite and biotite) after fast decompression. This interpretation militates against the existence of a wide P-T range of stable coexistence at low P of Crd + Ms + Qtz ± Grt ± St in medium grade metapelites of normal composition (i.e. poor in Zn and/or Mn). The triggering of metastable cordierite-forming reactions and the preservation of even subtle disequilibrium features associated to them indicate that the rocks underwent fast near-isothermal decompression from ca. 12 kbar down to 2–3 kbar, then rapid cooling. These inferences agree with independent evidence indicating that termination of alpine metamorphism in the western Betic-Rif Belt was related to the extensional collapse of thickened crust and that the latter had consisted of a single, continuous event. Received: 6 August 1998 / Accepted: 9 February 1999     

三轴试验中砂土刚度的统计和回归分析及应用

砂土的密度和应力状态对其刚度有很大的影响。计算岩土工程中许多硬化土体模型都是基于邓肯−张模型得出的,没有考虑到密度对砂土刚度的影响。而在极致密或松散的砂土的三轴压缩过程中,剪切应变的上升会引起密度的显著变化。为了评估粒径分布、密度及应力状态对砂土刚度的影响,使用统计和回归方法对来自莫斯科和明斯克的15个建筑工地的962个土壤样本的各向同性三轴试验数据进行分析。基于密度和应力状态参数的影响,提出了评估不同粒径砂土刚度的经验方程。对来自欧洲、印度和美国的冲积土和陆地土试验的比较分析表明,其砂土的刚度与莫斯科和明斯克的砂土在同一范围。所提出的方程可用于初步估计有限元法计算里的刚度参数,也可应用于岩土工程模型（允许考虑刚度的变化、水平和垂直分布）。此外,还提出了基于邓肯−张模型的半经验关系。当密度的变化影响土的刚度时,该半经验关系可为受到大变形和（或）复杂加载路径影响的松散和非常致密的砂土提供更为真实的结果。一般来说,岩土工程师可将获得的结果应用于更为复杂的土体模型设计中。     

The iron-coating role on the oxidation kinetics of a pyritic sludge doped with fly ash

The present study examines the processes that control the oxidation attenuation of a pyrite-rich sludge (72 wt% pyrite) from the Iberian Pyrite Belt by the buffer capacity of a fly ash from Los Barrios power station (S Spain), using saturated column experiments. In addition, in order to understand the behaviour of both materials inside these experiments, a fly-ash leaching test and flow-through experiments with pyritic sludge were carried out. The fly-ash leaching test showed that after leaching this material with a slightly acid solution (Millipore MQ water; pH 5.6) the pH raised up to 10.2 and that the metals released by the fly-ash dissolution did not increase significantly the metal concentrations in the output solutions. The flow-through experiments with the pyritic sludge were performed at pH 9, 22 °C and O₂ partial pressure of 0.21 atm, to calculate the dissolution rate of this residue simulating the fly-ash addition. In the experiments Fe bearing oxyhydroxides precipitated as the sludge dissolved. In two non-stirred experiments the iron precipitates formed Fe-coatings on the pyrite surfaces preventing the interaction between the oxidizing agents and the pyrite grains, halting pyrite oxidation (this process is known as pyrite microencapsulation), whereas in two stirred experiments, stirring hindered the iron precipitates to coat the pyrite grains. Thus, based on the release of S (aqueous sulphate) the steady-state pyritic sludge dissolution rate obtained was 9.0 ± 0.2 × ⁻¹¹ mol m⁻² s⁻¹.In the saturated column experiments, the sludge dissolution was examined at acidic and basic pH at 22 °C and oxygen-saturated atmosphere. In a saturated column experiment filled with the pyritic sludge, pyrite oxidation occurred favourably at pH approx. 3.7. As the leachates of the fly ash yielded high basic pH, in another saturated column, consisting of an initial thick layer of fly-ash material and a layer of pyritic sludge, the pyrite dissolution took place at pH approx. 10.45. In this experiment, iron was depleted completely from the solution and attenuation of the sludge oxidation was produced in this conditions. The attenuation was likely promoted by precipitation of iron-bearing phases upon the pyritic surface forming Fe-coatings (of ferrihydrite and/or Fe(III) amorphous phases) that halted the pyrite oxidation (as in non-stirred flow-through experiments). Results suggest that buffering capacity of fly ash can be used to attenuate the pyrite-rich sludge oxidation.     

Siltstone from Southern Patagonia: Its Source and Archaeological Artifact Distribution in Santa Cruz Province,Argentina

Hunter‐gatherer mobility and spheres of interaction are important characteristics worthy of investigation in Patagonian archaeology. One way to approach these is by studying the distribution of lithic archaeological materials. Siltstone (limolite) artifacts are found along the western strip of southwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Based on geomorphological studies and the high density of archaeological material, a source was located along the western margin of Cardiel Lake. Neutron activation analysis of samples from the source and archaeological sites in several neighboring basins allowed us to model its circulation. Siltstone's archaeological distribution indicates that its regional circulation had a southerly direction dating from the early Holocene. This southern vector shows an important difference when compared to the distribution of obsidian from Pampa del Asador, which has a broader circulation pattern. This could be related to a greater availability of high‐quality lithic materials north of the siltstone source. This work also contributes to the construction of a lithic source database for southern Patagonia.     

Performance evaluation of implicit stochastic reservoir operation optimization supported by long-term mean inflow forecast

This study applies implicit stochastic optimization (ISO) to develop monthly operating rules for a reservoir located in Northeast Brazil. The proposed model differs from typical ISO applications as it uses the forecast of the mean inflow for a future horizon instead of the current-month inflow. Initially, a hundred different 100-year monthly inflow scenarios are synthetically generated and employed as input to a deterministic operation optimization model in order to build a database of optimal operating data. Later, such database is used to fit monthly reservoir rule curves by means of nonlinear regression analysis. Finally, the established rule curves are validated by operating the system under 100 new inflow ensembles. The performance of the proposed technique is compared with those provided by the standard reservoir operating policy (SOP), stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) and perfect-forecast deterministic optimization (PFDO). Different forecasting horizons are tested. For all of them, the results indicate the feasibility of using ISO in view of its lower vulnerability in contrast to the SOP as well as the proximity of its operations with those by PFDO. The results also reveal that there is an optimal choice for the forecasting horizon. The comparison between ISO and SDP shows small differences between both, justifying the adoption of ISO for its simplified mathematics as opposed to SDP.     

Hypothesis of the multiple subsidence trough related to very steep and vertical coal seams and its prediction through profile functions

Coalfields in the north of Spain (Asturias) are mainly steeply dipping and at considerable depth. There is widespread use of caving mining methods at the present time. This paper describes a theory developed to predict the subsidence related to very steep and nearly vertical coal seams (70°–90°). This theory of the multiple subsidence trough is applied through a new profile function. Three real cases are analysed and the profile function is adjusted. An empirical relationship between the parameters of the new profile function and geological and mining factors has been developed.