Potentiality of Paleocene source rocks and their contribution in generating the accumulated oil in the Eocene Pila Spi Reservoir in Taq Taq Oil Field, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

The organic matters within the Paleocene Aaliji and Kolosh Formations in the well TT-04, Taq Taq Oil Field in Kurdistan Region, NE Iraq have been studied optically and also analytically by means of pyrolysis, Gas Chromatography (GC), and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). Amorphous organic matters seemed to be the dominant component of the extracted organic matters within the studied section with an obvious increase of the Phytoclasts at the upper part of Kolosh Formation. Thermal Alteration Index, vitrinite reflectance, pyrolysis, and gas chromatography data all indicated the maturity of the lower part from the studied layers (known generally as Aaliji/Kolosh) and within the early stages of oil generation. Oil–source correlation indicates the possibility of contribution of the Paleocene source rocks in generating the accumulated oil in the Eocene Pila Spi reservoir in the field which also appeared to be a mature and of marine-to-mixed carbonate source. Oil–oil correlation between the oil in Pila Spi and the oil in the Upper Cretaceous reservoirs showed the possibility of existence of more than one source for the two oils. GC/MS analysis for the Pila Spi oil indicated the effect of biodegradation which may be considered as one of the reasons for being the American Petroleum Institute (API) of this oil about 24° while the oil in the Cretaceous reservoirs is of more than 47° API.     

Modified Technique for Calculating the Parameters of Climatic Variability of Upwelling by Thermal Index

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - A modified technique for calculating the amplitude-phase characteristics of the seasonal cycle and long-term trends in the intensity of upwelling is...     

Wind-driven upwelling and surface chlorophyll blooms in Greater Cook Strait

We present the results of a combined observational and numerical study to investigate cool plumes of nutrient-rich upwelled water that emanate near the Kahurangi Shoals and extend into Greater Cook Strait. Surface temperature and chlorophyll are mapped using satellite observations to produce surface climatologies, to validate a numerical simulation and to show the utility of using spatial temperature differences as a measure of upwelling. We find upwelling near the Kahurangi Shoals is strongly wind-driven in the weather band. Upwelling occurs at all times of the year, but its surface signature is only visible in summer months. The upwelled nutrient-rich water supports increased primary production compared to surrounding waters, particularly in summer when the water column is more stratified and surrounding surface waters are presumably nutrient depleted.     

Climate and Water: From Climate Models to Water Resources Management and Vice Versa

This article reviews the recent developments in the functional chain from climate models to climate scenarios, through hydrology all the way to water resources management, design and policy making. Although climate models, such as Global Circulation Models (GCMs) continue to evolve, their outputs remain crude and often even inappropriate to watershed-scale hydrological analyses. The bridging techniques are evolving, though. Many families of regionalization technologies are under progress in parallel. Perhaps the most important advances are in the field of regional weather patterns, such as ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation), NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) and many more. The gap from hydrology to water resources development is by far not that wide. The traditional and contemporary practices are well in place. In climate change studies, the bottleneck is not in this link itself but in the climatic input. The tendency seems to be towards integrated water resources assessments, where climate is only one among many changes that are expected to occur, such as demography, land cover and land use, economy, technologies, and so forth. In such a pragmatic setting a risk–analytic interpretation of those scenarios is often called for. The above-outlined continuum from climate to water is a topic where the physically based modelers, the empiricists and the pragmatists should not get restricted to their own way of thinking. The issues should develop hand in hand. Perhaps the greatest challenge is to incorporate and respect the pragmatic policy-related component to the two other branches. For this purpose, it is helpful to reverse the direction of thinking from time to time to start—instead of climate models—from practical needs and think how the climate scenarios and models help really in the difficult task of designing better water structures, outline better policies and formulate better operational rules in the water field.     

Modellversuche zur Hangtektonik

Zusammenfassung Das Verformungsverhalten von Felshängen wird einmal durch die geologische Entwicklungsgeschichte, zum anderen durch die zum Zeitpunkt der Beobachtung herrschenden Randbedingungen (Höhe, Neigung des Hanges, eingeprägte Kräfte) und Gebirgseigenschaften bestimmt. Diese Gebirgseigenschaften sind einerseits von den Gesteinseigenschaften (Verformbarkeit und Festigkeit) und andererseits von der Klüftung abhängig.Mit Hilfe zweidimensionaler großmaßstäblicher Modelle, die in einer ersten Serie aus starren Kluftkörpern (Strukturmodelle) und in einer zweiten Serie aus äquivalentem Modellmaterial aufgebaut waren, wird der Versuch unternommen, die innere Kinematik eines ganzen Hangquerschnittes zu studieren. Während im ersten Fall der Einfluß des Trennflächengefüges allein untersucht werden kann, überlagern sich im zweiten Fall Material- und Gefügeparameter.Anhand der Strukturmodelle wird eine Einteilung in verschiedene typische Verformungsverhalten von Hängen in Abhängigkeit von der Kluftstellung und vom Kluftreibungswinkel vorgenommen.Der besonders interessante Fall eines Kluftkörperverbandes mit bergeinwärtsfallender Bankung — hier überlagern sich Rotations- und Translationsbewegungen — wird in seinem gesamten Verformungsablauf beschrieben und nach charakteristischen Verformungsstadien unterteilt. Dabei wird die Entwicklung der Verformungen vom Hakenwerfen der Böschungsfront bis zu einem tiefgreifenden Talzuschub mit der Ausbildung ausgeprägter Schwächezonen erfaßt.Die an den Versuchen durchgeführten Beobachtungen gestatten eine bessere Bewertung des Trennflächeneinflusses auf das Verformungsverhalten von Felsmassen mit regelmäßigem Gefügemuster (H-Typ) und geben Hinweise zur besseren Abschätzung des Verformungsablaufes im Inneren eines Hanges sowie der zu erwartenden Form des Böschungsbruchkörpers.

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The deformation behaviour of rock slopes is influenced by the geological history, by the boundary conditions (height, inclination of the slope, additional forces) acting at the time of observation and the material properties of the rock mass. The properties depend on the rock parameters (deformability and strength) and on the joint patterns.With two-dimensional large scale models which consisted of rigid blocks in the first series of tests (structural models) and of equivalent model material in a second one, it was tried to study the kinematics of a whole slope section.In the first of those cases joint fabric is the only parameter to be investigated while in the second, series of test material and structural parameters have to be considered simultaneously. The structural models allow a classification into different types of deformation behaviour of the slopes. Criteria of classifications are the inclination of the strata and the friction angle.The especially interesting case of a jointed rock system with strata dipping into the mountain (in this case rotational and translational displacements are superposed) is described in its whole deformation history which is divided into characteristic stages of deformation. The development of displacements is studied from a first Hakenwerfen at the front of the slope to a deep Talzuschub with the formation of zones of weakness (latent sliding surfaces).Conclusions drawn from these tests allow a better assessment of the influence of joint sets on the deformation behaviour of a rock mass, the development of displacements in the interior of a slope and the shape of sliding surfaces.

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Résumé Le processus de déformation des versants rocheux est déterminé d'abord par l'histoire géologique, ensuite par les conditions immédiates du milieu régnant au moment de l'observation (hauteur, inclinaison de la pente, forces emmagasinées) et par les propriétés à l'échelle de l'ensemble rocheux. Ces dernières dépendent d'une part des propriétés du matériau rocheux lui-même (déformabilité et résistance) et d'autre part de la fissuration.A l'aide de maquettes bidimensionelles à grande échelle composées, lors d'une première série, de blocs rigides (modèle structural) et lors d'une seconde série, de blocs faits d'un matériau équivalent, on a assayé d'étudier la cinématique interne d'une coupe transversale faite dans un versant. Tandis que dans le premier cas, c'est seulement l'influence de la disposition des plans de division qui a pu être recherchée, dans le second il y a eu superposition des paramètres propres à cette disposition et au matériau.En partant de ces modèles structuraux, on a pu classer les différents types de comportements à la déformation des versants en fonction de la position de fissures et de leur angle de frottement.Le cas particulièrement intéressant d'un complexe fissuré à stratification inclinant vers l'intérieur du versant (ici se superposent en effet les mouvements de rotation et de translation) est décrit intégralement dans le déroulement de sa déformation et subdivisé en stades caractéristiques de déformation. On a pu ainsi saisir le développement des déformations depuis le «Hakenwerfen» du front du talus jusqu'à la poussée en profondeur vers la vallée, avec formation de zones de faiblesse bien marquées.Les observations faites lors des essais permettent de mieux évaluer l'influence des plans de division sur le processus de déformation des masses rocheuses qui ont une structure régulière (type H). Elles donnent des indications pour apprécier plus justement le développement de la déformation dans un versant, et de la forme de la zone de rupture à laquelle il faut s'attendre.

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Trace elements in organic- and iron-rich surficial fluids of the boreal zone: Assessing colloidal forms via dialysis and ultrafiltration

On-site size fractionation of about 40 major and trace elements (TE) was performed on waters from boreal small rivers and their estuaries in the Karelia region of North-West Russia around the “Vetreny Belt” mountain range and in Paanajärvi National Park (Northern Karelia). Samples were filtered in the field using a progressively decreasing pore size (5 μm, 2.5 (3) μm, 0.22 (0.45) μm, 100 kDa, 10 and 1 kDa) by means of frontal filtration and ultrafiltration (UF) techniques and employing in-situ dialysis with 10 and 1 kDa membranes followed by ICP-MS analysis. For most samples, dialysis yields a systematically higher (factor of 2-3) proportion of colloidal forms compared to UF. Nevertheless, dialysis is able to provide a fast and artefact-free in-situ separation of colloidal and dissolved components.Similar to previous studies in European subarctic zones, poor correlation of iron concentration with that of organic carbon (OC) in (ultra)filtrates and dialysates reflect the presence of two pools of colloids composed of organic-rich and Fe-rich particles. All major anions and silica are present as dissolved species (or solutes) passing through the 1-kDa membrane. Size-separation ultrafiltration experiments show the existence of larger or smaller pools of colloidal particles different for each of the considered elements.The effect of rock lithology (acidic versus basic) on the colloidal speciation of TE is seen solely in the increase of Fe and some accompanying TE concentrations in catchment areas dominated by basic rocks compared to granitic catchments. Neither the ultrafiltration pattern nor the relative proportions of colloidal versus truly dissolved TE are affected by the lithology of the underlying rocks: within ±10% uncertainty, the two colloidal (10 kDa-0.22 μm and 1-10 kDa) and the truly dissolved (<1 kDa) pools show no difference in percentage of TE distribution between two types of bedrock lithology. The same conclusion is held for organic- and Fe-rich waters. In contrast, landscape context analysis demonstrated slight dominance, for most TE affected by UF, of large-size colloids (10 kDa-0.22 μm) in rivers and streams and small-size colloids and truly dissolved fractions in swamp stagnant surface waters. This supports the existence of two pathways of colloids formation: during the plant litter degradation in wetland zones and at the redox front in river riparian zone.     

Frictional Properties and Microstructure of Calcite-Rich Fault Gouges Sheared at Sub-Seismic Sliding Velocities

We report an experimental and microstructural study of the frictional properties of simulated fault gouges prepared from natural limestone (96 % CaCO₃) and pure calcite. Our experiments consisted of direct shear tests performed, under dry and wet conditions, at an effective normal stress of 50 MPa, at 18–150 °C and sliding velocities of 0.1–10 μm/s. Wet experiments used a pore water pressure of 10 MPa. Wet gouges typically showed a lower steady-state frictional strength (μ = 0.6) than dry gouges (μ = 0.7–0.8), particularly in the case of the pure calcite samples. All runs showed a transition from stable velocity strengthening to (potentially) unstable velocity weakening slip above 80–100 °C. All recovered samples showed patchy, mirror-like surfaces marking boundary shear planes. Optical study of sections cut normal to the shear plane and parallel to the shear direction showed both boundary and inclined shear bands, characterized by extreme grain comminution and a crystallographic preferred orientation. Cross-sections of boundary shears, cut normal to the shear direction using focused ion beam—SEM, from pure calcite gouges sheared at 18 and 150 °C, revealed dense arrays of rounded, ~0.3 μm-sized particles in the shear band core. Transmission electron microscopy showed that these particles consist of 5–20 nm sized calcite nanocrystals. All samples showed evidence for cataclasis and crystal plasticity. Comparing our results with previous models for gouge friction, we suggest that frictional behaviour was controlled by competition between crystal plastic and granular flow processes active in the shear bands, with water facilitating pressure solution, subcritical cracking and intergranular lubrication. Our data have important implications for the depth of the seismogenic zone in tectonically active limestone terrains. Contrary to recent claims, our data also demonstrate that nanocrystalline mirror-like slip surfaces in calcite(-rich) faults are not necessarily indicative of seismic slip rates.     

Low-salinity plumes in the oceanic region of the Basque Country

Low-salinity waters, within the upper layers of the water column, have been observed in the oceanic region of the southeastern limit of the Bay of Biscay (in March, 2007). This contribution assesses the potential role of large surface freshwater discharges from the Adour (France), Nervión, Oria, Deba, Urola, Urumea and Bidasoa (Basque Country) rivers, to explain the presence of these low-salinity waters. Such discharges, within the offshore waters, reached to at least 50 m in depth; likewise, extending over 15–20 km, in the horizontal. This pattern is confirmed by field data collected by offshore buoys, model results, and the analysis of satellite images. The presence of the low-salinity waters is corroborated by numerical simulations, performed by the ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) hydrodynamic model, with the incorporation of river discharges. In order to simulate the freshwater movements and to identify their origin, particles were released at the river mouths and dispersed (by a Lagrangian particle-tracking model, LPTM), supplied by 3-hourly current fields derived from the ROMS model. The plumes of the Nervión, Oria, Urola and Urumea rivers appear to be the main factors contributing to the low-salinity field, at the offshore locations of the buoys. This pattern is related mainly to the prevailing oceano-meteorological conditions, over the period of analysis.