Holistic environmental assessment and offshore oil field exploration and production

According to UK Government surveys, concern for the environment is growing. Environmental regulation of the industry is becoming wider in its scope and tougher in its implementation. Various techniques are available to assess how the industry can drive down its environmental impact and comply with environmental regulation. Environmental Assessments (EA) required by European law do not cover the whole life cycle of the project that they are analysing. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) was developed to assess the environmental loadings of a product, process or activity over its entire life cycle. It was the first technique used in environmental analysis that adopted what was described as a holistic approach. It fails this approach by not assessing accidental emissions or environmental impacts other than those that are direct. Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) offers the opportunity to value environmental effects and appraise a project on the basis of costs and benefits. Not all environmental effects can be valued and of those that can there is considerable uncertainty in their valuation and occurrence. CBA cannot satisfactorily measure the total environmental risk of a project. Consequently there is a need for a technique that overcomes the failures of project-level EA, LCA and CBA, and assesses total environmental risk. Many organizations such as, the British Medical Association, the European Oilfield Speciality Chemicals Association, the Royal Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (Norway) and Shell Expro now recognize that a holistic approach is an integral part of assessing total risk. The Brent SPAR case study highlights the interdisciplinary nature required of any environmental analysis. Holistic Environmental Assessment is recommended as such an environmental analysis.     

Discovery of A-type Granite Zone and Its Geodynamic Significance in the Western Kunlun Mts., China

l. IntroductionGranite distributes widely in western KunlunMts. Many researches have been conducted byscientists (Wang Yuzhen et.al., l987; Zhang Yuquanet.al., l989, Fang Xilian et.al., I990, Jiang Chunfaet.al., 1992; Pan Yusheng, l992, Xu Ronghua et.al.,l 994; Jing Daogui et.al., l996, Zhang Yuquan et.al.,l998). But all of the researches have been donealong Sino-Pakistan road and Xinjiang-Tibet roadt"ith fOcus on isotopic dating of the intrusion andconducted a few on origin and tect…     

The Relative Impact of Regional Scale Land Cover Change and Increasing CO2 over China

A series of 17-yr equilibrium simulations using the NCAR CCM3 (T42 resolution) were performed to investigate the regional scale impacts of land cover change and increasing CO2 over China. Simulations with natural and current land cover at CO2 levels of 280,355, 430, and 505 ppmv were conducted. Results show statistically significant changes in major climate fields (e.g. temperature and surface wind speed) on a 15-yr average following land cover change. We also found increases in the maximum temperature and in the diurnal temperature range due to land cover change. Increases in CO2 affect both the maximum and minimum temperature so that changes in the diurnal range are small. Both land cover change and CO2 change also impact the frequency distribution of precipitation with increasing CO2 tending to lead to more intense precipitation and land cover change leading to less intense precipitation-indeed, the impact of land cover change typically had the opposite effect versus the impacts of CO2. Our results provide support for the inclusion of future land cover change scenarios in long-term transitory climate inodelling experiments of the 21st Century. Our results also support the inclusion of land surface models that can represent future land cover changes resulting from an ecological response to natural climate variability or increasing CO2. Overall, we show that land cover change can have a significant impact on the regional scale climate of China, and that regionally, this impact is of a similar magnitude to increases in CO2 of up to about 430 ppmv. This means that that the impact of land cover change must be accounted for in detection and attribution studies over China.     

SPECIFIC DEGRADATION OF WATERSHEDS

An extensive database of reservoir sedimentation surveys throughout continental United States is compiled and analyzed to determine specific degradation SD relationships as function of mean annual rainfall R, drainage area A, and watershed slope S. The database contains 1463 field measurements and specific degradation relationships are defined as function of A, R and S. Weak trends and significant variability in the data are noticeable. Specific degradation measurements are log normally distributed with respect to R, A, and S and 95% confidence intervals are determined accordingly. The accuracy of the predictions does not significantly increase as more independent variables are added to the regression analyses.     

STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF A WATERSHED-SCALE SEDIMENT INFORMATION NETWORK

A "Watershed-Scale Sediment Information Network" (WaSSIN), designed to complement UNESCO’s International Sedimentation Initiative, was endorsed as an initial project by the World Association for Sedimentation and Erosion Research. WaSSIN is to address global fluvial-sediment information needs through a network approach based on consistent protocols for the collection, analysis, and storage of fluvial-sediment and ancillary information at smaller spatial scales than those of the International Sedimentation Initiative. As a second step of implementation, it is proposed herein that the WaSSIN have a general structure of two components, (1) monitoring and data acquisition and (2) research. Monitoring is to be conducted in small watersheds, each of which has an established database for discharge of water and suspended sediment and possibly for bed load, bed material, and bed topography. Ideally, documented protocols have been used for collecting, analyzing, storing, and sharing the derivative data. The research component is to continue the collection and interpretation of data, to compare those data among candidate watersheds, and to determine gradients of fluxes and processes among the selected watersheds. To define gradients and evaluate processes, the initial watersheds will have several common attributes. Watersheds of the first group will be: (1) six to ten in number, (2) less than 1000 km2 in area, (3) generally in mid-latitudes of continents, and (4) of semiarid climate. Potential candidate watersheds presently include the Weany Creek Basin, northeastern Australia, the Zhi Fanggou catchment, northern China, the Eshtemoa Watershed, southern Israel, the Metsemotlhaba River Basin, Botswana, the Aiuaba Experimental Basin, Brazil, and the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, southwestern United States.     

2004年苏门答腊-安达曼地震图小波分析及其在海啸早期预警中的应用

试图利用小波变换在地震图开始部分检测长周期成分。分析了2004年12月6日苏门答腊—安达曼M_w9.2级地震和2005年3月28日尼亚斯M_w8.7级地震的位移地震图。小波分析能够在S波到达台站前清楚地区分两次地震的长周期W震相的振幅。结果显示,2004年地震W震相的振幅明显更大。这一方法可以用于快速识别具有引发海啸可能的巨大地震。     

特大地震大小的快速估计法

将根据初至地震P波的宽带记录(即在宽频范围内的记录)得出的体波震级m_B重新引入国际地震实践中能更快地估计大地震的大小。国际地震学与地球内部物理学协会(IASPEI)震级测定工作组做出的这一建议以及与未来震级测量标准相关的其他建议于2005年10月2～8日在智利召开的IASPEI大会上被IASPEI地震观测与解释委员会采纳。     

Subsidence history and forming mechanism of anomalous tectonic subsidence in the Bozhong depression, Bohaiwan basin

The Bozhong depression of the Bohaiwan basin belongs to a family of extensional basins in East China, but is quite different from other parts of the basin. The Cenozoic subsidence of the depression is controlled by a combination of lithospheric thinning and polycyclic strike-slip movements. Three episodic rifts have been identified, i.e. Paleocence-early Eocene, middle-late Eocene and Oligocene age. The depression underwent syn-rift and post-rift stages, but two episodic dextral movement events of the strike-slip faults modify the subsidence of the Bozhong depression since the Oligocene. The early dextral movement of the Tan-Lu fault associated with crustal extension resulted in accelerated subsidence during the time of deposition of the Dongying Formation with a maximum thickness of 4000 m. A late reactivation of dextral movement of the Tan-Lu fault began in late Miocene (about 12 Ma), which resulted in the intense subsidence of Minghuazhen Formation and Quaternary. In addition, dynamic mantle convection-driven topography also accelerated the post-rift anomalous subsidence since the Miocene (24.6 Ma). Our results indicate that the primary control on rapid subsidence both during the rift and post-rift stages in the Bozhong depression originates from a combination of multiple episodic crustal extension and polycyclic dextral movements of strike-slip faults, and dynamic topography.     

流体在大陆裂谷附近下地壳地震中的作用

在大陆裂谷附近的下地壳中发生地震一直令人费解,这是因为人们一般认为下地壳太热,不会发生脆性破裂(Ruff,2004;Chen and Molnar,1983)。这类异常事件通常被解释为下地壳温度低于正常值(Doserand Yarwood,1994;Shudofskyet al,1987)。但是如果下地壳温度确实低以致引发地震,那么它下面的上地幔温度也应足够低(Chenand Molnar,1983),然而我们至今尚未观测到上地幔地震(McKenzieet al,2005)。大量下地壳地震发生在新西兰的一个活动大陆裂谷———陶波火山区(TVZ)的西南端附近(Sherburn and White,2005)。在此,我们采用由密集部署的地震…     

水向地幔深部运移的地震学证据

介绍了日本东北部俯冲带中水向地幔深部运移的地震学证据。资料表明,水在100km以上的浅部从含水的洋壳中释放出来,然后在俯冲板块顶部形成含水的地幔物质沟渠,这就是水进入地幔深部的通道。本文对寒冷的俯冲带环境中水从海洋运移到地幔深部的机制提供了直接证据。