Avalanche Risk During Backcountry Skiing – An Analysis of Risk Factors

Skier-triggered avalanches are the main cause of avalanche accidents in backcountry skiing. The risk of accidents during backcountry skiing was analysed statistically and related to factors such as elevation level, aspect, stability rating and the time of the year. The analysis is based on a database about terrain usage and avalanche accidents from a large heli-skiing operator in Canada, which makes it possible to study the conditional probability of accidents given the recorded pattern of terrain usage. This study shows that the historical risk of accidentally triggering an avalanche greater than size 1 depends highly on the stability rating, with the highest risk occurring during “poor” stability. The risk is greater at high elevations, and it is lower during the late season than earlier on. Skier risk does not depend as much on aspect as may be indicated from avalanche data alone. However, it is relatively high in the N–NE–E sector. These factors are not independent of each other and therefore analyses of combined factors were also performed. Questionnaires and interviews were used to gain knowledge about the terrain selection of professional mountain guides. These results indicate that when selecting terrain, guides first look at the overall shape and size of the terrain, but avalanche history of terrain and inclination are also important factors. Finally, remarks in avalanche reports were analysed, and common human factors identified.     

Mercury speciation and mobilization in contaminated soils of the Valle del Azogue Hg mine (SE,Spain)

Hg mobilization from contaminated soils and mine wastes was the source of environmental contamination in the Valle del Azogue mining area. We researched solid-phase speciation and aqueous mobility of Hg through Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron probe microanalysis analysis, solid-phase-Hg-thermo-desorption (SPTD) and laboratory column experiments. We found that in contaminated soils and mine wastes, the predominant Hg species was cinnabar (HgS), mainly formed from the weathering of Hg-rich pyrite, and metallic Hg (0) in the matrix, whereas in calcines and tailings the dominant species was metallic Hg (0). The mobilization of Hg in the aqueous phase seems to have originated from the dissolution of elemental Hg (0) present in soils and wastes, reaching concentrations of up to 67 μg l⁻¹, and showing a higher long-term environmental potential risk, in addition to atmospheric emissions.     

Spatial assessment and redesign of a groundwater quality monitoring network using entropy theory, Gaza Strip, Palestine

Using entropy theory, a methodology was developed for the evaluation and redesign of groundwater quality monitoring wells in the Gaza Strip in Palestine. Essential to the methodology is the development of a Transinformation Model (TM) which yields the amount of information transfer and the dependency between the wells as a function of distance. The TM parameters, such as the minimum transinformation and the range, were employed for evaluating the network which revealed that most of the distances between wells were less than the range. It also indicated that a high percentage of redundant information existed in the network. Therefore, the network was reduced by superimposing a square pattern over the monitored area and selecting one well per square block in a stratified pattern. The methodology was tested using the chloride data collected from 1972–2000 from 417 groundwater quality monitoring wells in the Gaza Strip. The number of the groundwater quality monitoring wells in the Gaza Strip was reduced by 53%, while there was 26% redundant information based on the minimum existing distance between wells. This methodology is meant to help monitor the groundwater quality (salinity) in the Gaza Strip.     

Ammonium regeneration in intertidal sediments of the Yangtze estuary during air-exposure

The influences of exposure to the atmosphere on ammonium cycle in the intertidal surface sediments were in situ studied with a geochemical approach at a typical station in the Yangtze Estuary during three tidal cycles in September 2003. During an about 8-h emersion period of each diurnal tide, six high-resolution vertical profiles of adsorbed and dissolved ammonium were measured. It was observed that both adsorbed and dissolved ammonium generally had an increasing trend in sediment cores during the exposure. The rate of ammonium regeneration in sediments was estimated using the accumulation amount of ammonium including adsorbed and soluble fractions during the daytime emersion. The calculation result showed that there was relatively high ammonification rate (˜500 nmol N cm⁻³ day⁻¹), which reflected that organic nitrogen in sediments was quickly decomposed with a residence time of ˜52.7 days. Due to the dramatic temperature difference observed in sediment profiles, free convection was considered an important mechanism of regulating the efflux of produced ammonium into overlying waters. The total estimated amount of regenerated ammonium was ˜1.35×10⁵ t N year⁻¹ in the intertidal flat of the Yangtze Estuary, which occupied 7.6% of the total inorganic nitrogen annually transported to the estuarine ecosystem.     

Effect of sampling and linkage on fault length and length–displacement relationship

The power-law exponent (n) in the equation: D=cL ⁿ , with D = maximum displacement and L = fault length, would be affected by deviations of fault trace length. (1) Assuming n=1, numerical simulations on the effect of sampling and linkage on fault length and length–displacement relationship are done in this paper. The results show that: (a) uniform relative deviations, which means all faults within a dataset have the same relative deviation, do not affect the value of n; (b) deviations of the fault length due to unresolved fault tip decrease the values of n and the deviations of n increase with the increasing length deviations; (c) fault linkage and observed dimensions either increase or decrease the value of n depending on the distribution of deviations within a dataset; (d) mixed deviations of the fault lengths are either negative or positive and cause the values of n to either decrease or increase; (e) a dataset combined from two or more datasets with different values of c and orders of magnitude also cause the values of n to deviate. (2) Data including 19 datasets and spanning more than eight orders of fault length magnitudes (10⁻²–10⁵ m) collected from the published literature indicate that the values of n range from 0.55 to 1.5, the average value being 1.0813, and the peak value of n _d (double regression) is 1.0–1.1. Based on above results from the simulations and published data, we propose that the relationship between the maximum displacement and fault length in a single tectonic environment with uniform mechanical properties is linear, and the value of n deviated from 1 is mainly caused by the sampling and linkage effects.     

电子地图中多尺度地图数据显示的研究

将计算机三维模型简化中的LOD思想引入到电子地图的组织和显示中,提出了同一比例尺数字地图不同详细程度的分层显示方法和不同比例尺数字地图嵌套显示方法,实现了电子地图的多级缩放。     

青藏高原东缘龙门山晚新生代剥蚀厚度与弹性挠曲模拟

龙门山是青藏高原东缘边界山脉,具有青藏高原地貌、龙门山高山地貌和山前冲积平原三个一级地貌单元。利用数字高程模式图像和裂变径迹年代测定方法研究和计算龙门山晚新生代剥蚀厚度与剥蚀速率,结果表明:3.6 Ma以来龙门山的剥蚀厚度介于1.91-2.16 km之间,剥蚀速率介于0.53-0.60 mm/a之间。在此基础上,开展了该地区岩石圈的弹性挠曲模拟,结果表明龙门山的隆升机制具有以构造缩短隆升和剥蚀卸载隆升相叠合的特点。3.6 Ma之前,龙门山的隆升与逆冲推覆构造负载有关,以构造缩短驱动的构造隆升为特色;3.6 Ma之后,龙门山的隆升与剥蚀卸载驱动的抬升有关,并以剥蚀卸载隆升为特色,进而提出了龙门山晚新生代以来的隆升机制以剥蚀成山作用为主的认识。