Shigar valley gemstones,their chemical composition and origin,Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan,Pakistan

A variety of gemstones is being mined in the Shigar valley, Skardu, Pakistan. These include beryl (goshenite and aquamarine), tourmaline (schorl), garnet (almandine–spessartine), apatite, topaz, fluorite, zoisite, clinozoisite, and axinite, mostly occurring in complex or zoned pegmatites and metamorphic rocks. These have been analyzed using electron probe micro-analyzer and X-ray diffractometer. The mineral chemistry of each gemstone is similar to its respective typical gemstone variety with homogenous chemical composition. Field and chemical characteristics suggest that beryl, tourmaline, garnet, apatite, topaz, and fluorite are occurring in zoned pegmatites which are largely formed by magmatic hydrothermal fluids in the cavities and vugs within the intermediate zone. However, zoisite, clinozoisite, and axinite may have a metamorphic and/or metasomatic origin.     

Use of USLE/GIS technology integrated with geostatistics to assess soil erosion risk in different land uses of Indagi Mountain Pass—Çankırı, Turkey

The universal soil loss equation (USLE) is an erosion model to estimate average soil loss that would generally result from splash, sheet, and rill erosion from agricultural plots. Recently, use of USLE has been extended as a useful tool predicting soil losses and planning control practices by the effective integration of the GIS-based procedures to estimate the factor values on a grid cell basis. This study was performed for five different lands uses of Indağı Mountain Pass, Cankırı to predict the soil erosion risk by the USLE/GIS methodology for planning conservation measures in the site. Of the USLE factors, rainfall-runoff erosivity factor (USLE-R) and topographic factor (USLE-LS) were greatly involved in GIS. These were surfaced by correcting USLE-R site-specifically using DEM and climatic data and by evaluating USLE-LS by the flow accumulation tool using DEM and watershed delineation tool to consider the topographical and hydrological effects on the soil loss. The study assessed the soil erodibility factor (USLE-K) by randomly sampled field properties by geostatistical analysis. Crop management factor for different land-use/land cover type and land use (USLE-C) was assigned to the numerical values from crop and flora type, canopy and density of five different land uses, which are plantation, recreational land, cropland, forest and grassland, by means of reclassifying digital land use map available for the site. Support practice factor (USLE-P) was taken as a unit assuming no erosion control practices. USLE/GIS technology together with the geostatistics combined these major erosion factors to predict average soil loss per unit area per unit time. Resulting soil loss map revealed that spatial average soil loss in terms of the land uses were 1.99, 1.29, 1.21, 1.20, 0.89 t ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ for the cropland, grassland, recreation, plantation and forest, respectively. Since the rate of soil formation was expected to be so slow in Central Anatolia of Turkey and any soil loss of more than 1 ton ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ over 50–100 years was considered as irreversible for this region, soil erosion in the Indağı Mountain Pass, to the great extent, attained the irreversible state, and these findings should be very useful to take mitigation measures in the site.     

Petrophysical parameters and modelling of the Eocene reservoirs in the Qadirpur area,Central Indus Basin,Pakistan: implications from well log analysis

The Eocene rock units of the Qadirpur field, Central Indus Basin (Pakistan), are investigated petrophysically for their detailed reservoir characterization. The different petrophysical parameters determined include the following: true resistivity, shale volume, total porosity, effective porosity, density and neutron porosity, water and hydrocarbon saturation, bulk volume of water, lithology, gas effect, P-wave velocity, movable hydrocarbon index and irreducible water saturation and integrated with different cross-plots. The Eocene reservoirs are excellent with high effective porosity (2–32 %) and hydrocarbon saturation (10–93 %). Among these, the Sui Upper Limestone is an overall a poor reservoir; however, it has some hydrocarbon-rich intervals with high effective porosity and better net pay. All the net pay zones identified show low and variable shale volume (5–30 %). The secondary porosity has added to the total and effective porosities in these reservoirs. The main contributors to the porosity are the chalky, intercrystalline and vuggy/fracture types. The thickness of the reservoirs zones ranges from 4.5 to 62 m. These reservoirs are gas-producing carbonates with almost irreducible water saturation (0.002–0.01) and are likely to produce water-free hydrocarbons. The lower values of moveable hydrocarbon index (0.07–0.9) show that the hydrocarbons are moveable spontaneously to the well bore. The proposed correlation model shows that the reservoirs have an inclined geometry and are a part of an anticlinal trap.     

Effect of Fibercast and Fibermesh inclusion on the direct shear and linear shrinkage response of clay

Inclusion of synthetic fibers is becoming a routine task in soil reinforcement. The ability of synthetic fibers in controlling the shrinkage cracks in concrete is the main drive to consider its benefits in clay and other soil materials. The polypropylene fibers are nonbiodegradable and can perform well even in aggressive chemical exposure conditions. The direct shear testing is a popular geotechnical approach to assess the shearing strength for a range of soils. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of fiber inclusion on the direct shear response of semi-arid clay soils. This research is conducted using two different types of polypropylene fibers, viz., Fibercast and Fibermesh, having different surface properties on the shear strength envelope and parameters (angle of internal friction and cohesion). The aspect lengths were varied as 6 and 12 mm, and the dosages were varied as 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 % by weight of the soil. The results were viewed in relation to the fiber type, size, and dose. The soil response and shear resistance measured in consolidated undrained direct shear test is presented for the targeted doses, and the results revealed useful insight compared to unreinforced. The Fibermesh material proved to be the more appropriate fiber additive to typical semi-arid clay soils. The data provides helpful guide for the design geotechnical engineers.     

Contractual solution to the tragedy of property right in coastal fisheries

This article aims to analyze how private property regimes can co-exist with common property regimes in a coastal area. The case study shows how the dynamics of private property and common property right holders is in creating commitment to make symbiosis in resource use. This is based on a case study in two villages in West Lombok, Indonesia, where pearl-culture as a private property resource exists in a common property regime. This is a successful story in dealing with the tragedy of property rights in the country wherein established institutional arrangement is still absent. Nevertheless, this may be site specific, and fragile if there is no institutional arrangement combining formal and informal rules and involving both formal and informal authorities. To make a robust solution, multilevel solution must be considered: national, local, and community level, with reference to Japan case.     

On the application of a particle dispersion model

This paper is concerned with the modeling of particle transport at the Safaniya sea area. It presents the modeling aspects of a marine environment impact study at the Safaniya offshore facility. The offshore facility has continuous discharges of hypochlorite concentration, sanitary waste water, oily water, brine, and sea cooling water. The dispersion of pollutants in the Safaniya sea area is analyzed with the aid of a particle dispersion model. The dispersion of a continuous discharge from the offshore platform is simulated for typical meteorological conditions during the seasons of winter, spring, summer, and fall. Maximum average pollutant concentrations are obtained at various depths. A time series of pollutant concentration near the location of the discharge is constructed. The sea areas affected by the discharge are computed. The dispersion of a hypochlorite concentrate with concentration of 2 ppm is analyzed. Results indicate that the average chlorine concentration has a maximum of 0.27 × 10⁻² ppm.     

Reply to Comment on “A cost-effective device and methodology to compute aquifer transmissivity and piezometry from free-flowing artesian wells”: technical note published in Hydrogeology Journal (2022) 30:1917–1931, by Alix Toulier,Patrick Lachassagne,Heru Hendrayana,Arif Fadillah and Hervé Jourde

Hydrogeology Journal -     

Theory and statistics of weak lensing from large-scale mass inhomogeneities

Weak lensing by large-scale mass inhomogeneities in the Universe induces correlations in the observed ellipticities of distant sources. We first review the harmonic analysis and statistics required of these correlations and discuss calculations for the predicted signal. We consider the ellipticity correlation function, the mean-square ellipticity, the ellipticity power spectrum and a global maximum-likelihood analysis to isolate a weak-lensing signal from the data. Estimates for the sensitivity of a survey of a given area, surface density, and mean intrinsic source ellipticity are presented. We then apply our results to the FIRST radio-source survey. We predict an rms ellipticity of roughly 0.011 in 1 × 1 deg² pixels and 0.018 in 20 × 20 arcmin² pixels if the power spectrum is normalized to σ₈ Ω^0.53 = 0.6, as indicated by the cluster abundance. The signal is significantly larger in some models if the power spectrum is normalized instead to the COBE anisotropy. The uncertainty in the predictions from imprecise knowledge of the FIRST redshift distribution is about 25 per cent in the rms ellipticity. We show that FIRST should be able to make a statistically significant detection of a weak-lensing signal for cluster-abundance-normalized power spectra.