Diagenesis and hydrocarbon emplacement in the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation tight sandstones in the southern Ordos Basin,China

The Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation in the southern Ordos Basin is a tight sandstone but productive hydrocarbon exploration target. A variety of analyses, including thin-sections, cathodoluminescence (CL), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), fluorescence, isotope and fluid inclusion, have been used to analyse the reservoir petrology and diagenesis to understand the evolution of reservoir porosity. The sandstones are mostly feldspathic litharenites and lithic arkoses with low porosities (7.6% on average) and extremely low permeabilities (0.49 mD on average). A complex diagenetic alteration history of the reservoir caused different kinds of reduction in reservoir porosity. The carbonate cements are sourced from adjacent organic-rich mudstone and precipitated with a higher content near the edges of sandstone units and a lower content at the centres of sandstone units, resulting in two different diagenetic evolution paths. The analysis of porosity evolution history and hydrocarbon emplacement produced the following conclusions: (1) during the eodiagenesis period, mechanical compaction reduced the primary porosity dramatically from 40 to 19%; and (2) during the mesodiagenesis period, the first-phase oil charged the reservoir (porosity ranging from 14 to 19%) as bitumen along detrital grains forming a preferential pathway for subsequent oil emplacements. In the second-phase of oil charge, the reservoir porosity ranged from 9 to 14% limiting water–rock reactions. During the third-phase of oil charge, porosity of the reservoir remained at 9%. In general, the densification period (with a porosity close to 10%) of the reservoir occurs at the same time as the major oil emplacement and may be an explanation for the low oil saturation of the Chang 8 tight sandstone.     

Increasing critical sensitivity of the Load/Unload Response Ratio before large earthquakes with identified stress accumulation pattern

The Load/Unload Response Ratio (LURR) method is proposed for short-to-intermediate-term earthquake prediction [Yin, X.C., Chen, X.Z., Song, Z.P., Yin, C., 1995. A New Approach to Earthquake Prediction — The Load/Unload Response Ratio (LURR) Theory, Pure Appl. Geophys., 145, 701–715]. This method is based on measuring the ratio between Benioff strains released during the time periods of loading and unloading, corresponding to the Coulomb Failure Stress change induced by Earth tides on optimally oriented faults. According to the method, the LURR time series usually climb to an anomalously high peak prior to occurrence of a large earthquake. Previous studies have indicated that the size of critical seismogenic region selected for LURR measurements has great influence on the evaluation of LURR. In this study, we replace the circular region usually adopted in LURR practice with an area within which the tectonic stress change would mostly affect the Coulomb stress on a potential seismogenic fault of a future event. The Coulomb stress change before a hypothetical earthquake is calculated based on a simple back-slip dislocation model of the event. This new algorithm, by combining the LURR method with our choice of identified area with increased Coulomb stress, is devised to improve the sensitivity of LURR to measure criticality of stress accumulation before a large earthquake. Retrospective tests of this algorithm on four large earthquakes occurred in California over the last two decades show remarkable enhancement of the LURR precursory anomalies. For some strong events of lesser magnitudes occurred in the same neighborhoods and during the same time periods, significant anomalies are found if circular areas are used, and are not found if increased Coulomb stress areas are used for LURR data selection. The unique feature of this algorithm may provide stronger constraints on forecasts of the size and location of future large events.     

南海边缘海多金属结核与大洋多金属结核对比

本文通过系统对比分析前人研究成果,研究了南海边缘海多金属结核的成矿特征,结果表明：南海边缘海结核的矿物组成与大洋结核相似,均主要由锰相矿物和铁相矿物组成,其中锰相矿物主要为水羟锰矿和钡镁锰矿,铁相矿物主要以无定型铁氧化/氢氧化物形式存在,另外南海边缘海结核中含有大量硅酸盐矿物,表明在南海结核成矿过程中受到大量的陆源碎屑矿物混杂;相对于大洋主要经济成矿区的多金属结核,南海边缘海多金属结核中主要的经济元素如Mn、Cu、Co、Ni和Zn质量分数较低,而亲陆源性元素如Fe、Ti、P、Nb、Pb、Rb、Sc、Ta、Sr、Th和REY（REE和Y）等质量分数较高;南海边缘海多金属结核的元素地球化学特征和REE配分模式显示其为水成成因,并呈现更低的Mn/Fe值;同时南海边缘海结核也具有较快的平均生长速率及较高的δCe正异常,表明其生长在更为氧化的海水环境。虽然较快的沉积物沉积速率和动荡的海水环境影响了南海边缘海结核的成矿,但大量陆源物质进入海洋也为南海边缘海结核提供了丰富的成矿物质来源,便于南海边缘海结核的快速生长成矿。南海边缘海结核富集有Fe、Ti、Pb、Rb、Th和REY等金属元素,同样可以作为极具潜力的海洋矿产资源。南海边缘海多金属结核具有其独特的地球化学特征,与大洋多金属结核存在着明显差异。     

钇易解石族的端员—钛钇易解石的发现

本矿物为新发现的钇易解石族的端员矿物－钛钇易解石，产于江西省龙南县足洞燕山期中粒白云母花岗岩及其风化壳中。矿物属斜方晶系，常呈板状或短柱状，为天然晶质体，浅黄色，粒度为０．０７５ｍｍ，硬度４．７，比重４．７３，二轴正晶，Ｎｇ＝２．２４８，Ｎｍ＝２．２１２，Ｎｐ＝２．１９４，Ｎｇ－Ｎｐ＝０．０５４，２Ｖ＝７０°。空间群为Ｄ＾１６２ｈ－Ｐｍｎｂ，ａ０＝０．７５０ｎｍ，ｂ０＝１．０９２ｎｍ，Ｃ０＝０．５     

三塘湖盆地航磁异常特征及油气远景预测

三塘湖盆地是我国西部典型的火山岩油气盆地。本文基于1：5万高精度航磁资料,结合区域地质、区域重力、地面踏勘和物性资料,对三塘湖盆地进行了航磁综合解释;详细分析了磁场和重力场特征及其与区域构造的对应关系,圈定了盆地火山岩分布范围,采用欧拉反褶积方法计算了磁性体埋深,初步揭示了盆地磁性基底起伏情况;结合盆地火山岩油气成藏模式,开展了航磁油气远景预测。结果表明,三塘湖盆地中央坳陷内有隐伏火山岩存在的次级凹陷中心具有寻找火山岩油藏的良好前景：汉水泉凹陷区中的2个次级凹陷中心、条湖凹陷区北段次级凹陷中心应作为油气勘探重点区域;石头梅凸起和岔哈泉凸起区可作为重要油气勘探方向;方方梁凸起及其以南区域可作为下一步油气勘探工作的预研区。研究结果可为盆地油气资源后续勘探开发提供指导。     

Effect of the Dry Ashing Method on Cadmium Isotope Measurements in Soil and Plant Samples

A dry ashing method is commonly used to remove organic material from samples prior to geochemical analysis. In the course of this study, the Cd isotope ratios of a series of soil and plant reference materials and samples were studied to evaluate the effect of the dry ashing method on measurement results of Cd isotope ratios. The samples were pre‐treated using the dry ashing method and high‐pressure bomb for comparison. The results show that the digestion using high‐pressure bombs did not lead to Cd loss, but using the dry ashing method would cause different proportions of Cd loss. The whole range of Cd isotope difference between two methods was from ?0.07‰ to 3.01‰. There was also an obvious difference in measured Cd isotope ratios from the same leaf sample pre‐treated independently by the dry ashing method, indicating that the amount of Cd loss and the effect on Cd isotope measurement during dry ashing is related to the properties of the samples. Therefore, dry ashing may not be appropriate for the removal of organic material in Cd isotope ratio measurement, especially for samples with high organic contents. The δ^114/110Cd values of reference materials NIST SRM 1573a and GSD‐30 are reported for the first time in this study.     

Enhancement of backtracking search algorithm for identifying soil parameters

In this paper, an enhanced backtracking search algorithm (so-called MBSA-LS) for parameter identification is proposed with two modifications: (a) modifying the mutation of original backtracking search algorithm (BSA) considering the contribution of current best individual for accelerating convergence speed and (b) novelly incorporating an efficient differential evolution (DE) as local search for improving the quality of population. The proposed MBSA-LS is first validated with better performance than the original BSA and some other typical state-of-the-art optimization algorithms on a benchmark of soil parameter identification in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and robustness. Then, the efficiency of the MBSA-LS is further illustrated by two representative cases: identifying soil parameters from both laboratory tests and field measurements. All comparisons demonstrate that the proposed MBSA-LS algorithm can give accurate results in a short time. Finally, to conveniently solve the problems of parameter identification, a practical tool ErosOpt for parameter identification is developed by integrating the proposed MBSA-LS and some other efficient algorithms for readers to conduct the parameter identification using optimisation algorithms.     

Variational Bayesian independent component analysis for spectral unmixing in remote sensing image

Spectral unmixing is a key technology of optical remote sensing image analysis; it not only influences the accuracy of the extraction of land cover information and automatic classification of topographical objects, but also greatly hinders the development of quantitative remote sensing. Independent component analysis (ICA) is a statistical method which is recently developed to extract the independent linear components, and which can realize the extraction of endmembers as well as fractional abundances with little a priori knowledge. However, ICA still cannot process the correlations among the various components. To overcome this problem, variational Bayesian independent component analysis (VBICA) has been proposed to process optical remote sensing images. In the Bayesian framework, the separation of independent components of remote sensing image has finally been achieved with conditional independence standards of Bayesian network and approximate variational algorithm. In the simulative image and real AVIRIS hyperspectral remote sensing image, the VBICA algorithm demonstrates its better performance. The experiment’s results indicate that the proposed VBICA algorithm is feasible, which has obvious advantages and a good application prospect. The reason is that it can effectively overcome the correlations between the various components in remote sensing images and break through the limitations of traditional remote sensing images analysis. Last but not least, the VBICA algorithm is applied in the classification of the TM multispectral remote sensing images. Compared to basic maximum likelihood classification, principal component analysis and FastICA algorithms, VBICA improves the classification accuracy of remote sensing images, and contributes to the further extension of the application of ICA in remote sensing image analysis.     

深基坑支护方案的分析与优化

针对武汉市南湖岸边复杂的地质条件及周边环境,在某高层建筑的深基坑支护结构设计中,结合实际因地制宜地对基坑的支护方法进行了分析比较。支护效果及实测数据表明,该工程所采用的混合式支护实施方案技术安全可靠,经济合理,可为同类型基坑工程设计提供借鉴。