Potential of legacy 2D seismic data for deep targeting and structural imaging at the Neves–Corvo massive sulphide-bearing deposit,Portugal

Seismic methods are becoming an established choice for deep mineral exploration after being extensively tested and employed for the past two decades. To investigate whether the early European mineral-exploration datasets had potential for seismic imaging that was overlooked, we recovered a low-fold legacy seismic dataset from the Neves–Corvo mine site in the Iberian Pyrite Belt in southern Portugal. This dataset comprises six 4–6 km long profiles acquired in 1996 for deep targeting. Using today's industry-scale processing algorithms, the world-class, ca. 150 Mt, Lombador massive sulphide and other smaller deposits were better imaged. Additionally, we also reveal a number of shallow but steeply dipping reflections that were absent in the original processing results. This study highlights that legacy seismic data are valuable and should be revisited regularly to take advantage of new processing algorithms and the experiences gained from processing such data in hard-rock environments elsewhere. Remembering that an initial processing job in hard rock should always aim to first obtain an overall image of the subsurface and make reflections visible, and then subsequent goals of the workflow could be set to, for example understanding relative amplitude ratios. The imaging of the known mineralization implies that this survey could likely have been among one of the pioneer studies in the world that demonstrated the capability of directly imaging massive sulphide deposits using the seismic method.     

Road condition assessment by OBIA and feature selection techniques using very high-resolution WorldView-2 imagery

Accurate information on the conditions of road asphalt is necessary for economic development and transportation management. In this study, object-based image analysis (OBIA) rule-sets are proposed based on feature selection technique to extract road asphalt conditions (good and poor) using WorldView-2 (WV-2) satellite data. Different feature selection techniques, including support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF) and chi-square (CHI) are evaluated to indicate the most effective algorithm to identify the best set of OBIA attributes (spatial, spectral, textural and colour). The chi-square algorithm outperformed SVM and RF techniques. The classification result based on CHI algorithm achieved an overall accuracy of 83.19% for the training image (first site). Furthermore, the proposed model was used to examine its performance in different areas; and it achieved accuracy levels of 83.44, 87.80 and 80.26% for the different selected areas. Therefore, the selected method can be potentially useful for detecting road conditions based on WV-2 images.     

Laboratory Study of Topographic Effects on the Near-surface Tornado Flow Field

To study topographic effects on the near-surface tornado flow field, the Iowa State University tornado simulator was used to simulate a translating tornado passing over three different two-dimensional topographies: a ridge, an escarpment and a valley. The effect of the translation speed on maximum horizontal wind speeds is observed for translation speeds of 0.15 and 0.50 \(\hbox {m}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}\), with the lower value resulting in a larger maximum horizontal wind speed. The tornado translation over the three topographies with respect to flat terrain is assessed for changes in: (a) the maximum horizontal wind speeds in terms of the flow-amplification factor; (b) the maximum aerodynamic drag in terms of the tornado speed-up ratio; (c) the maximum duration of exposure at any location to high wind speeds of a specific range in terms of the exposure amplification factor. Results show that both the maximum wind amplification factor of 14%, as well as the maximum speed-up ratio of 14%, occur on the ridge. For all topographies, the increase in aerodynamic drag is observed to be maximized for low-rise buildings, which illustrates the importance of the vertical profiles of the horizontal wind speed near the ground. The maximum exposure amplification factors, estimated for the range of wind speeds corresponding to the EF2 (50–60 \(\hbox {m}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}\)) and EF3 (61–75 \(\hbox {m}\,\hbox {s}^{-1})\) scales, are 86 and 110% for the ridge, 4 and 60% for the escarpment and ? 6 and 47% for the valley, respectively.     

Ground motion record simulation for structural analysis by consideration of spectral acceleration autocorrelation pattern

A novel approach is introduced to generate simulated ground motion records by considering spectral acceleration correlations at multiple periods. Most of the current reliable Ground Motion Record(GMR) simulation procedures use a seismological model including source, path and site characteristics. However, the response spectrum of simulated GMR is somewhat different when compared with the response spectrum based on recorded GMRs. More specifi cally, the correlation between the spectral values at multiple periods is a characteristic of a record which is usually different between simulated and recorded GMRs. As this correlation has a signifi cant infl uence on the structural response, it is needed to investigate the consistency of the simulated ground motions with actual records. This issue has been investigated in this study by incorporating an optimization algorithm within the Boore simulation technique. Eight seismological key parameters were optimized in order to achieve approximately the same correlation coeffi cients and spectral acceleration between two sets of real and simulated records. The results show that the acceleration response spectra of the synthetic ground motions also have good agreement with the real recorded response spectra by implementation of the proposed optimized values.     

Long-term coupled behaviour of cemented paste backfill in load cell experiments

A pressure cell apparatus has been developed in this research work to study the long-term hydro-mechanical behaviour of cemented paste backfill (CPB) cured under applied stress. The samples are cured for 7, 28, 90 and 150 days and the evolution of their mechanical, hydraulic, physical and microstructural properties is studied. Also, the suction, temperature and electrical conductivity are monitored for a period of 150 days of curing. The testing and monitoring programmes are conducted in undrained conditions, with and without pressure application. The obtained results show that the curing stress affects the hydro-mechanical behaviour of CPB for up to 28 days. Within this curing period, the CPB exhibits enhanced hydro-mechanical performance. However, application of sustained excessive curing stress onto the CPB samples induces the propagation of microcracks in the backfill structure, thus causing lower mechanical strength and higher fluid permeability at the more advanced ages. Furthermore, the mineralogical and chemical compositions of the tailings (e.g., sulfidic tailings) can significantly alter the mechanical strength properties (uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus) and the permeability of the CPB. The evolution of coupled factors and characteristics of the CPB at an early age control and influence its long-term behaviour and performance.