Settlements of saturated clean sand deposits in shaking table tests

Shaking table tests were conducted on saturated clean Vietnam sand in the large biaxial laminar shear box (1880 mm×1880 mm×1520 mm) at the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), Taiwan. The settlement of sand specimens was measured and evaluated during and after each shaking test. Without liquefaction, the settlement of sand caused by shaking is very small. Significant volume changes occur only when there is liquefaction of sand. The volumetric strain of liquefied sand was calculated according to the measured settlement and the thickness of liquefied sand in the specimen. Relations between volumetric strain after liquefaction and the relative density of saturated clean sand were developed for various shaking durations and earthquake magnitudes. They are not affected by the shaking amplitude, frequency, and direction (one- or multidirectional shaking).     

Reconstructing fluvial bar surfaces from compound cross‐strata and the interpretation of bar accretion direction in large river deposits

The interpretation of fluvial styles from the rock record is based for a significant part on the identification of different types of fluvial bars, characterized by the geometric relationship between structures indicative of palaeocurrent and surfaces interpreted as indicative of bar form and bar accretion direction. These surfaces of bar accretion are the boundaries of flood‐related bar increment elements, which are typically less abundant in outcrops than what would be desirable, particularly in large river deposits in which each flood mobilizes large volumes of sediment, causing flood‐increment boundary surfaces to be widely spaced. Cross‐strata set boundaries, on the other hand, are abundant and indirectly reflect the process of unit bar accretion, inclined due to the combined effect of the unit bar surface inclination and the individual bedform climbing angle, in turn controlled by changes in flow structure caused by local bar‐scale morphology. This work presents a new method to deduce the geometry of unit bar surfaces from measured pairs of cross‐strata and cross‐strata set boundaries. The method can be used in the absence of abundant flood‐increment bounding surfaces; the study of real cases shows that, for both downstream and laterally accreting bars, the reconstructed planes are very similar to measured bar increment surfaces.     

Zonal features of lake acidification

Zonal features of water acidification in small lakes of European Russia are analyzed. The conditions under which the process can develop are evaluated. Studies of water chemistry variations and formulation of various criteria used to assess water acidification made it possible to prove the development of the process in the humid part of the area under study, i.e., in tundra, taiga, and forest regions. The leading natural and anthropogenic factors, whose combination governs the acidification mechanism and secondary effects are discussed. The concentrations of some metals (Al, Zn, Pb, and others) are proved to increase in waters with low pH, as well as at an increase in water color index. Critical loads of acid precipitation are evaluated and the values of their exceedance in lakes in different natural-climatic zones.     

青藏铁路唐古拉山-拉萨段全新世控震断裂研究

地表调查表明,沿青藏铁路唐古拉山-拉萨段存在5条重要的全新世控震断裂带,从北到南分别是温泉盆地西缘断裂带、安多盆地北缘断裂带、崩错断裂带、谷露西缘断裂带和当雄-羊八井断裂带.构造-地貌和年代学分析结果表明,北部的温泉盆地西缘断裂和安多盆地北缘断裂带的活动强度相对比较小,平均垂直活动速率约为0.2～0.5mm/a.南侧的谷露西缘断裂带和当雄-羊八井断裂带的全新世垂直活动速率为约(15±0.5)mm/a.而中部的崩错走滑断裂带的活动强度最大,晚第四纪期间的走滑速率可达(11±4.5)mm/a.全新世断裂活动和古地震研究表明,其中温泉盆地西缘断裂带、安多盆地北缘断裂带、崩错断裂带的西北分支、当雄-羊八井断裂带的当雄段等区域未来发生强震的概率相对更大.     

Physical and chemical properties of the waters of saline lakes and their importance for deep-water renewal: Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan

The relationships between electrical conductivity, temperature, salinity, and density are studied for brackish Lake Issyk-Kul. These studies are based on a newly determined major ion composition, which for the open lake shows a mean absolute salinity of 6.06 g kg⁻¹. The conductivity-temperature relationship of the lake water was determined experimentally showing that the lake water is about 1.25 times less conductive than seawater diluted to the same absolute salinity as that of the lake water. Based on these results, an algorithm is presented to calculate salinity from in-situ conductivity measurements. Applied to the field data, this shows small but important vertical salinity variations in the lake with a salinity maximum at 200 m and a freshening of the surface water with increasing proximity to the shores. The algorithm we adopt to calculate density agrees well with earlier measurements and shows that at 20°C and 1 atm Lake Issyk-Kul water is about 530 g m⁻³ denser than seawater at the same salinity. The temperature of maximum density at 1 atm is about 0.15°C lower than that for seawater diluted to the same salinity. Despite its small variations, salinity plays an important role, together with temperature changes, in the static stability and in the production of deep-water in this lake. Changes in salinity may have had important consequences on the mixing regime and the fate of inflowing river water over geological time. Uncharged silicic acid is negligible for the stability of the water column except near an ∼15 m thick nepheloid layer observed at the bottom of the deep basin.     

Nonstationary pearl pulsations as a signature of magnetospheric disturbances

We analyse long-lasting (several hours) Pc1 pearl pulsations with decreasing, increasing or constant central frequencies. We show that nonstationary pearl events (those with either decreasing or increasing central frequency) are observed simultaneously with increasing auroral magnetic activity at the nightside magnetosphere while the stationary events (constant central frequency) correspond to quiet magnetic conditions. Events with decreasing central frequency are observed mostly in the late morning and daytime whereas events with increasing central frequency appear either early in the morning or in the afternoon. We explain the diurnal distribution of the nonstationary pearl pulsations in terms of proton drifts depending on magnetic activity, and evaluate the magnetospheric electric field based on the variation of the central frequency of pearl pulsations.     

Sea level variability at Antalya and Mente? tide gauges in Turkey: atmospheric, steric and land motion contributions

Sea level trends and interannual variability at Antalya and Menteş tide gauges are investigated during the 1985–2001 period, quantifying the roles of atmospheric, steric and local land motion contributions. Tide gauge sea level measurements, temperature/salinity climatologies and GPS data are used in the analyses and the results are compared with the output of a barotropic model forced by atmospheric pressure and wind. The overall sea level trends at two tide gauges collocated with GPS are in the range of 5.5 to 7.9 mm/yr during the study period, but showing different behaviour in the sub-periods 1985–1993 and 1993–2001 due to variations in the contributing factors both in space and time. After the removal of the atmospheric forcing and steric contribution from sea level records, the resulting trends vary between 1.9 to 4.5 mm/yr in Antalya and −1.2 to −11.6 mm/yr in Menteş depending on the period considered. Vertical land movement estimated from GPS data seems to explain the high positive residual trend in Antalya during the whole period. On the other hand, the source of the highly negative sea level trend of about −14 mm/yr in Menteş during 1985–1993 could not be resolved with the available datasets. Interannual variability of wind and atmospheric pressure appear to dominate the sea level at both tide gauges during the study period. Atmospheric and steric contributions together account for ∼50% of the total sea level variance at interannual time scales. Mass induced sea level variations which were not considered in this study may help to close the sea level trend budgets as well as to better explain the interannual sea level variance.     

Geology and tectonics of Neoproterozoic salt diapirs and salt sheets in the eastern Willouran Ranges,South Australia

Allochthonous salt structures and associated primary and secondary minibasins are exposed in Neoproterozoic strata of the eastern Willouran Ranges, South Australia. Detailed geologic mapping using high‐quality airborne hyperspectral remote‐sensing data and satellite imagery, combined with a qualitative structural restoration, are used to elucidate the evolution of this complex, long‐lived (>250 Myr) salt system. Field observations and interpretations at a resolution unobtainable from seismic or well data provide a means to test published models of allochthonous salt emplacement and associated salt‐sediment interaction derived from subsurface data in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Salt diapirs and sheets are represented by megabreccias of nonevaporite lithologies that were originally interbedded with evaporites that have been dissolved and/or altered. Passive diapirism began shortly after deposition of the Callanna Group layered evaporite sequence. A primary basin containing an expulsion‐rollover structure and megaflap is flanked by two vertical diapirs. Salt flowed laterally from the diapirs to form a complex, multi‐level canopy, now partly welded, containing an encapsulated minibasin and capped by suprasalt basins. Salt and minibasin geometries were modified during the Late Cambrian–Ordovician Delamerian Orogeny (ca. 500 Ma). Small‐scale structures such as subsalt shear zones, fractured or mixed ‘rubble zones’ and thrust imbricates are absent beneath allochthonous salt and welds in the eastern Willouran Ranges. Instead, either undeformed strata or halokinetic drape folds that include preserved diapir roof strata are found directly below the transition from steep diapirs to salt sheets. Allochthonous salt first broke through the diapir roofs and then flowed laterally, resulting in variable preservation of the subsalt drape folds. Lateral salt emplacement was presumably on roof‐edge thrusts or, because of the shallow depositional environment, via open‐toed advance or extrusive advance, but without associated subsalt deformation.     

Reservoir construction from the Newberry Volcano EGS Demonstration

The Newberry Volcano EGS Demonstration in central Oregon tests recent technological advances designed to reduce the cost of power generated by EGS in a hot, dry well (NWG 55-29) drilled in 2008. An EGS reservoir was created by injecting large volumes of cold water, causing existing fractures to slip in shear (known as hydroshearing) generating the seismic waves that can be used to map fracture location and size. At the Newberry Demonstration the final injectivity ranged between 1.4 and 1.7 L/s/MPa a ~6x improvement over the initial injectivity of the well. The injectivity improvement and seismic analysis indicate that previously impermeable fractures were enhanced during the NWG 55-29 stimulation.