Comparison of single- and dual-permeability models in simulating the unsaturated hydro-mechanical behavior in a rainfall-triggered landslide

Landslide-prone slopes in earthquake-affected areas commonly feature heterogeneity and high permeability due to the presence of cracks and fissures that were caused by ground shaking. Landslide reactivation in heterogeneous slope may be affected by preferential flow that was commonly occurred under heavy rainfall. Current hydro-mechanical models that are based on a single-permeability model consider soil as a homogeneous continuum, which, however, cannot explicitly represent the hydraulic properties of heterogeneous soil. The present study adopted a dual-permeability model, using two Darcy-Richards equations to simulate the infiltration processes in both matrix and preferential flow domains. The hydrological results were integrated with an infinite slope stability approach, attempting to investigate the hydro-mechanical behavior. A coarse-textured unstable slope in an earthquake-affected area was chosen for conducting artificial rainfall experiment, and in the experiment slope, failure was triggered several times under heavy rainfall. The simulated hydro-mechanical results of both single- and dual-permeability model were compared with the measurements, including soil moisture content, pore water pressure, and slope stability conditions. Under high-intensity rainfall, the measured soil moisture and pore water pressure at 1-m depth showed faster hydrological response than its simulations, which can be regarded as a typical evidence of preferential flow. We found the dual-permeability model substantially improved the quantification of hydro-mechanical processes. Such improvement could assist in obtaining more reliable landslide-triggering predication. In the light of the implementation of a dual-permeability model for slope stability analysis, a more flexible and robust early warning system for shallow landslides hazard in coarse-textured slopes could be provided.     

Evolution of the shape parameter in the Weibull distribution for brittle rocks under uniaxial compression

Applying the statistical damage theory based on the Weibull distribution to describe rock deformation and failure processes is an important development in rock mechanics. The shape parameter of the Weibull distribution, m, determines the basic shape of the distribution curve; additionally, it also represents a physical characteristic which can be applied when constructing rock constitutive models. To study the evolution of m during rock failure when applying the Weibull distribution to rock mechanics, uniaxial cyclic loading tests of shale specimens were conducted and previous rock mechanics experiments under different temperatures and loading rates were reviewed. The results indicate that m varied with the accumulation of damage but was almost constant between the volume expansion point and the peak strength point of each specimen. Combined with previous studies about the accelerated failure behavior of rocks, we conclude that between the volume expansion point and the peak strength point, the mechanical behavior of the rock fracture process did not change significantly. Based on the characteristics of m at different damage stages during the rock failure process, ranges of m values at different damage stages are proposed. The conclusions reached in this study may be used as an important reference for theoretical research on rock mechanics.     

Heavy metals status,transport mechanisms,sources, and factors affecting their mobility in Chinese agricultural soils

Heavy metals are the focus of much interest because of their environmental persistence, toxicity, and mobility in soils. Some of the Chinese soils have been contaminated with heavy metals due to expansion of mining industries, pesticides usage, and other anthropological activities, which made the agro-ecosystem to become contaminated. The objective of this review is to illuminate the current pollution status, sources of heavy metals, transport mechanisms, and the factors affecting their mobility in Chinese soils. The additional studies in the future will present on source identification and the heavy metal transport characteristics in soil.     

Carbon and nitrogen isotope,and mineral inclusion studies on the diamonds from the Pozanti–Karsanti chromitite,Turkey

The Pozanti–Karsanti ophiolite (PKO) is one of the largest oceanic remnants in the Tauride belt, Turkey. Micro-diamonds were recovered from the podiform chromitites, and these diamonds were investigated based on morphology, color, cathodoluminescence, nitrogen content, carbon and nitrogen isotopes, internal structure and inclusions. The diamonds recovered from the PKO are mainly mixed-habit diamonds with sectors of different brightness under the cathodoluminescence images. The total δ¹³C range of the PKO diamonds varies between ??18.8 and ??28.4‰, with a principle δ¹³C mode at ??25‰. Nitrogen contents of the diamonds range from 7 to 541 ppm with a mean value of 171 ppm, and the δ¹⁵N values range from ??19.1 to 16.6‰, with a δ¹⁵N mode of ??9‰. Stacking faults and partial dislocations are commonly observed in the Transmission Electron Microscopy foils whereas inclusions are rather rare. Combinations of (Ca_0.81Mn_0.19)SiO₃, NiMnCo-alloy and nano-sized, quenched fluid phases were observed as inclusions in the PKO diamonds. We believe that the ¹³C-depleted carbon signature of the PKO diamonds derived from previously subducted crustal matter. These diamonds may have crystallized from C-saturated fluids in the asthenospheric mantle at depth below 250 km which were subsequently carried rapidly upward by asthenospheric melts.     

Electrical conductivity of the plagioclase–NaCl–water system and its implication for the high conductivity anomalies in the mid-lower crust of Tibet Plateau

In order to investigate the origin of the high conductivity anomalies geophysically observed in the mid-lower crust of Tibet Plateau, the electrical conductivity of plagioclase–NaCl–water system was measured at 1.2 GPa and 400–900 K. The relationship between electrical conductivity and temperature follows the Arrhenius law. The bulk conductivity increases with the fluid fraction and salinity, but is almost independent of temperature (activation enthalpy less than 0.1 eV). The conductivity of plagioclase–NaCl–water system is much lower than that of albite–NaCl–water system with similar fluid fraction and salinity, indicating a strong effect of the major mineral phase on the bulk conductivity of the brine-bearing system. The high conductivity anomalies of 10^?1 and 10⁰ S/m observed in the mid-lower crust of Tibet Plateau can be explained by the aqueous fluid with a volume fraction of 1 and 9%, respectively, if the fluid salinity is 25%. The anomaly value of 10^?1 S/m can be explained by the aqueous fluid with a volume fraction of 6% if the salinity is 10%. In case of Southern Tibet where the heat flow is high, the model of a thin layer of brine-bearing aqueous fluid with a high salinity overlying a thick layer of partial melt is most likely to prevail.     

Geology of the Yap Trench: new observations from a transect near 10°N from manned submersible Jiaolong

This paper describes the petrology and geochemistry of rocks from the Yap Trench acquired by three dives of the Jiaolong research submarine. Combining the geophysical data and submersible observations, this paper describes the geomorphology, shallow structures, and sedimentology of the Yap Trench and further discusses the tectonics and activities of this region. Two obvious slope breaks are found on the landward slope, and horsts and grabens with small fault offsets are observed in the ocean-ward slope of the trench. Peridotites sampled from the Yap Trench inner wall are highly depleted subduction-related mantle residues. Volcanic rocks in the northern segment of the trench have subduction-related characteristics that Yap fore-arc rocks underwent metasomatism during Cenozoic subduction. The rocks with remarkable lithologic difference from lithospheric mantle and upper crust sampled in the break slopes suggest that the slope break area may represent a lithologic boundary or transition zone. The landward slope of the Yap Trench was removed by subduction erosion as a result of collision with the Caroline Ridge. The bending of the down-going plate caused normal faults, horsts, and grabens with little or no sediments indicating that the Caroline Ridge is subducting beneath the Yap arc along the trench even though the convergence rate is very slow.     

Jurassic and Cretaceous (Yanshannian) tectonics,magmatism and metallogenesis in South China: preface

ABSTRACT

South China is famous for its poly-metal deposits, with more than 50% of global W and Sb reserves, 20% of global Sn reserves, as well as abundant Cu-Mo-Pb-Zn-Au-Ag, Ta, Nb, REE and U deposits. This special issue consists of 21 papers, reporting recent progress on Yanshannian tectonic evolution, magmatism and ore deposits in South China, aiming at better understandings on the Mesozoic large-scale magmatism and mineralization events.     

新疆伊吾县宝山铁矿床矽卡岩成因研究

宝山铁矿床位于东准噶尔库兰卡孜干-北塔山-纸房-琼河坝岛弧带东段。宝山铁矿中矽卡岩与铁矿体密切共生,是重要的找矿标志。研究区矽卡岩中石榴子石、透辉石单矿物电子探针分析结果显示,石榴子石属于钙铁榴石-钙铝榴石系列,透辉石属于透辉石-钙铁辉石系列。矽卡岩中高场强元素(如Nb、Ta、Zr、Hf)相对亏损,稀土元素表现出LREE富集,HREE亏损的特点。∑REE为39.90×10~(-6)~178.43×10~(-6),∑LREE/∑HREE比值1.64~7.53,(La/Yb)N比值为1.32~10.10,轻、重稀土元素分异程度较弱,与玄武质凝灰岩具有相似的地球化学特征,这说明矽卡岩是玄武质凝灰岩受后期岩浆热液改造形成,随着温度和压力降低,磁铁矿沉淀形成铁矿体。     

Silver–bearing minerals in the Xinhua hydrothermal vein-type Pb-Zn deposit,South China

Mineralogy and Petrology - Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) results are reported for newly identified silver–bearing minerals from the Xinhua deposit, Yunkaidashan area, South China. The...     

Real-time identification of urban rainstorm waterlogging disasters based on Weibo big data

With the acceleration of urbanisation in China, preventing and reducing the economic losses and casualties caused by urban rainstorm waterlogging disasters have become a critical and difficult issue that the government is concerned about. As urban storms are sudden, clustered, continuous, and cause huge economic losses, it is difficult to conduct emergency management. Developing a more scientific method for real-time disaster identification will help prevent losses over time. Examining social media big data is a feasible method for obtaining on-site disaster data and carrying out disaster risk assessments. This paper presents a real-time identification method for urban-storm disasters using Weibo data. Taking the June 2016 heavy rainstorm in Nanjing as an example, the obtained Weibo data are divided into eight parts for the training data set and two parts for the testing data set. It then performs text pre-processing using the Jieba segmentation module for word segmentation. Then, the term frequency–inverse document frequency method is used to calculate the feature items weights and extract the features. Hashing algorithms are introduced for processing high-dimensional sparse vector matrices. Finally, the naive Bayes, support vector machine, and random forest text classification algorithms are used to train the model, and a test set sample is introduced for testing the model to select the optimal classification algorithm. The experiments showed that the naive Bayes algorithm had the highest macro-average accuracy.