The use of watershed geomorphic data in flash flood susceptibility zoning: a case study of the Karnaphuli and Sangu river basins of Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - The occurrence of heavy rainfall in the south-eastern hilly region of Bangladesh makes this area highly susceptible to recurrent flash flooding. As the region is the commercial...     

黄土孢粉分析的新途径——筛滤分析法

黄土-古土壤序列在全球古气候、古环境研究中占有不可替代的重要地位,而其中的孢粉是黄土高原生态环境演化过程中保存的直接生物学证据,它对建立黄土高原降水或湿度状况的时空变化特征,认识季风变迁的过程、规律以及未来发展趋势等具有重要的意义。随着黄土研究工作的不断深入,作为直接生物学证据的孢粉研究相对薄弱。其中最困扰的因素是从黄土中提取孢粉极其困难,分析技术上始终未能找到一个突破口,因此需要一种分析效果好、快捷、成本低的分析方法以获得大量高精度的孢粉数据。筛滤分析法正是为了适应黄土研究的需要而设计的一种新型的黄土孢粉分析方法。筛滤分析法利用真空状态下的气压差使样品在水中完全悬浮跳动,样品得到充分的冲洗并促使孢粉与其它无机质与有机质分离。相对真空的状态减少了微细颗粒对极为细小的网眼的阻塞,重力作用促使水及各类颗粒不断冲击筛网,使粒径小于10μm的物质较容易被过滤到聚水容器中,而孢粉与较少的大颗粒物质则被隔离在筛网之上,这使我们很容易用重液浮选出干净、清晰的孢粉底样。筛滤分析法与常规的黄土孢粉分析相比,具有以下特点:①大大降低了分析样品的重量及药品的消耗,一般仅需样品30 g左右,是常规分析法用量的1/6~1/8。②整个分析流程短, 12个样品一个流程仅需3~4 d。③筛滤分析法使孢粉几乎全部被隔离在筛网上而丢失极少,提高了黄土孢粉研究精度。④筛滤分析法几乎不破坏孢粉的结构,孢粉底样干净、清晰。使用筛滤分析法共分析耀县全新世黄土剖面69块孢粉样品,均发现数量不等的孢粉。孢粉底样干净、杂质少,结构清楚。共统计孢粉14978粒,分属27个科属,这些科属包括了黄土高原主要的孢粉类型。从孢粉结果可以初步确定,在全新世时期,位于黄土高原南缘的耀县地区,草本植物占全部孢粉总量的93.6%,而乔木植物仅占孢粉总量的4.7%。在整个剖面中没有出现乔木植物含量超过30%,可以认为在黄土高原的全新世时期是以草原植被为主,并无森林生长。     

Isolation and characterization of alkane degrading bacteria from petroleum reservoir waste water in Iran (Kerman and Tehran provenances)

Petroleum products spill and leakage have become two major environmental challenges in Iran. Sampling was performed in the petroleum reservoir waste water of Tehran and Kerman Provinces of Iran. Alkane degrading bacteria were isolated by enrichment in a Bushnel–Hass medium, with hexadecane as sole source of carbon and energy. The isolated strains were identified by amplification of 16S rDNA gene and sequencing. Specific primers were used for identification of alkane hydroxylase gene. Fifteen alkane degrading bacteria were isolated and 8 strains were selected as powerful degradative bacteria. These 8 strains relate to Rhodococcus jostii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Achromobacter piechaudii, Tsukamurella tyrosinosolvens, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Rhodococcus erythropolis, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa genera. The optimum concentration of hexadecane that allowed high growth was 2.5%. Gas chromatography results show that all strains can degrade approximately half of hexadecane in one week of incubation. All of the strains have alkane hydroxylase gene which are important for biodegradation. As a result, this study indicates that there is a high diversity of degradative bacteria in petroleum reservoir waste water in Iran.     

Cluster Analysis of Petrophysical and Geological Parameters for Separating the Electrofacies of a Gas Carbonate Reservoir Sequence

Natural Resources Research - Assessing reservoir properties and knowing the relationship between different reservoir parameters can significantly help to plan for production from a reservoir. In...     

Mineralogy and microchemistry of the Egat gold deposit, South Eastern Desert of Egypt

Gold-bearing quartz lodes from the Egat gold mine, South Eastern Desert of Egypt, are associated with pervasively silicified, highly sheared ophiolitic metagabbro and island-arc metavolcanic rocks. The mineralized quartz veins and related alteration haloes are controlled by NNW-trending shear/fault zones. Microscopic and electron probe microanalyses (EPMA) data of the ore and gangue minerals reveal that fine-grained auriferous sulfarsenides represent early high-temperature (355–382 °C) phases, with formation conditions as (fS₂?=??10, and fO₂ around ?31). A late, low-temperature (302–333 °C) assemblage includes coarse pyrite, arsenopyrite, and free-milling gold grains (88–91 wt.% Au), with formation conditions as (fS₂?=??8 and fO₂ around ?30). Gold was impounded within early sulfarsenides, while free-milling gold blebs occur along microfractures in quartz veins and as inclusions in late sulfides. Infiltration of hydrothermal fluids under brittle–ductile shear conditions led to mobilization of refractory Au from early sulfarsenide phases and reprecipitated free gold, simultaneous with silicification of the host rocks. The positive correlation between Au and As favors and verifies the use of As as the best pathfinder for gold targets, along the NNW-trending shear zones.     

Gravity field and structures of the Rajmahal Hills: Example of the Paleo-Mesozoic continental margin in eastern India

A narrow strip of Gondwana basins separates the Rajmahal traps from the peninsular shield in eastern India. This part of the shield margin is associated with a conspicuous gravity high of 100 km wavelength and 48 mGal amplitude over an area of 25,000 km². Second order residual anomalies due to Gondwana sediments and traps are superposed on this wider gravity high. Gravity interpretation, partly constrained by seismic data, suggests that the wider high is caused by a denser metamorphic layer (amphibolite and granulite) up to 3.5 km thick. The metamorphic layer also extends below the eastern Rajmahal hills where the Gondwanas, traps and younger sediments have covered it. The Gondwanas are downfaulted against the shield edge and are preserved over an irregular basin floor whose deepest part underlies the eastern flank of the Rajmahal hills adjacent to the Bengal basin. It is inferred that the Gondwanas were deposited over a rifted and highly faulted shield margin that was intruded by the Rajmahal traps nearly 100 m.y. ago. High-grade metamorphism along the shield edge presumably preceded the continental rifting, perhaps occurring in the Precambrian as a part of the Eastern Ghats orogeny, along the east coast of India.     

Cretaceous Environments of Afghanistan:A Synthesis Based on Selected Sections

1IntroductionThe Late Mesozoic sequences of Afghanistan are important in understanding the geodynamic evolu-tion of the northwestern part of South Asia, in par-ticular the transgressive and regressive history of the northwestern part of the Tethys connecting Iran to the west and the northern Indian Subcontinent to the east. Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous sedimentary seque-nces were initially studied by Griesbach (1885 ~1887) and Hayden (1880~1901) through several traverses in northern an…     

Study of Aerosol Direct and Indirect Effects and Auto-conversion Processes over the West African Monsoon Region Using a Regional Climate Model

This study assesses the direct and indirect effects of natural and anthropogenic aerosols(e.g., black carbon and sulfate)over West and Central Africa during the West African monsoon(WAM) period(June–July–August). We investigate the impacts of aerosols on the amount of cloudiness, the influences on the precipitation efficiency of clouds, and the associated radiative forcing(direct and indirect). Our study includes the implementation of three new formulations of auto-conversion parameterization [namely, the Beheng(BH), Tripoli and Cotton(TC) and Liu and Daum(R6) schemes] in Reg CM4.4.1,besides the default model's auto-conversion scheme(Kessler). Among the new schemes, BH reduces the precipitation wet bias by more than 50% over West Africa and achieves a bias reduction of around 25% over Central Africa. Results from detailed sensitivity experiments suggest a significant path forward in terms of addressing the long-standing issue of the characteristic wet bias in Reg CM. In terms of aerosol-induced radiative forcing, the impact of the various schemes is found to vary considerably(ranging from-5 to-25 W m~(-2)).