The compositional variation of synthetic sodic amphiboles at high and ultra-high pressures

Sodic amphiboles in high pressure and ultra-high pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks are complex solid solutions in the system Na₂O–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O (NMASH) whose compositions vary with pressure and temperature. We conducted piston-cylinder experiments at 20–30?kbar and 700–800?°C to investigate the stability and compositional variations of sodic amphiboles, based on the reaction glaucophane=2jadeite+talc, by using the starting assemblage of natural glaucophane, talc and quartz, with synthetic jadeite. A close approach to equilibrium was achieved by performing compositional reversals, by evaluating compositional changes with time, and by suppressing the formation of Na-phyllosilicates. STEM observations show that the abundance of wide-chain structures in the synthetic amphiboles is low. An important feature of sodic amphibole in the NMASH system is that the assemblage jadeite–talc?±?quartz does not fix its composition at glaucophane. This is because other amphibole species such as cummingtonite (Cm), nyböite (Nyb), Al–Na-cummingtonite (Al–Na-Cm) and sodium anthophyllite (Na-Anth) are also buffered via the model reactions: 3cummingtonite?+?4quartz?+?4H₂O=7talc, nyböite?+?3quartz=3jadeite?+?talc, 3Al–Na-cummingtonite + 11quartz + 2H₂O=6jadeite + 5talc, and 3 sodium anthophyllite?+?13quartz?+?4H₂O=3 jadeite + 7talc. We observed that at all pressures and temperatures investigated, the compositions of newly grown amphiboles deviate significantly from stoichiometric glaucophane due to varying substitutions of Al^IV for Si, Mg on the M(4) site, and Na on the A-site. The deviation can be described chiefly by two compositional vectors: [Na^AAl^IV]<=>[□^ASi] (edenite) toward nyböite, and [Na^(M4)Al^VI]<=>[Mg^(M4)Mg^VI] toward cummingtonite. The extent of nyböite and cummingtonite substitution increases with temperature and decreases with pressure in the experiments. Similar compositional variations occur in sodic amphiboles from UHP rocks. The experimentally calibrated compositional changes therefore may prove useful for thermobarometric applications.     

Directional spectrum analysis and statistics obtained from ERS-1 SAR wave images

This work examines ERS-1 (the first European Remote Sensing Satellite) SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) water surface wave images over Hualien of Taiwan, indicating that the variation of SAR signals in space domain is similar to in situ wave data's in time domain. Some statistical properties of SAR data are investigated. The Rayleigh distribution function closely corresponds with the histogram of wave heights, but the Gaussian one cannot for water surface displacements. Evidence reveals that SAR wave signals do not respond well to actual ocean waves effectively. As wave spectral analysis of available SAR data reveals, the appropriate sample size of SAR wave image, sampling average, and moving average should be taken carefully to accurately confirm directional power spectra. Moreover, SAR spectra are compared with in situ ones, confirming that peak frequencies correlate well and wave directions approximately agree with each other. Some differences between both spectral shapes remain somewhat unclear and require further study. Nevertheless, in this study, ERS-1 SAR power spectra verified the feasibility of deriving an appropriate dominant wave direction and peak frequency.     

A Review on Hydraulic Fracture Height Growth for Layered Formation

Geotechnical and Geological Engineering - The fracture vertical stretching distance and fracture morphologies have great impact on the stimulated reservoir volume and well production in layered...     

用1999年集集地震序列建立台湾地区地震形变的三维模型及其特殊意义

编纂了台湾地区包括震源位置和震源参数的地震目录。选择的数据库用于建立与菲律宾海板块与欧亚板块俯冲和碰撞等各种构造运动有关的台湾地区三维地震形变模型。我们将整个台湾地区划分为10km间隔的三维网格,计算每个网格的地震矩释放量,即该网格内所有地震释放的地震矩总和。当一次地震的物理尺度超过网格尺寸10km时,相应的地震矩就分布在多个网格上。这种定量方法较好地描述了该地区地震矩释放的一级特征。值得注意的是,集集地震的发生,填充了震源区附近地震矩释放量在震前存在的明显不足。本文推测某个区域内地震矩分布的不足—填充模式可以应用于预测未来大地震的发生地点。根据这一观点,我们认为,集集地震可能会引起另外2次地震(北部的苗栗—新竹区和南部的嘉义区),这2次地震的破坏性及震级与集集地震类似,且靠近集集地震震源区。     

Water storage loss in central and south Asia from GRACE satellite gravity: correlations with climate data

Recent decrease of water supply in central Asia and south Asia affects billions of people here. By filtering the errors at higher frequency components and correcting for the contaminated components, we enhance the monthly GRACE gravity fields to improve the determination of change in equivalent water height (EWH). The water storage changes from GRACE and the GLDAS hydrology model all show decreasing trends in this region. At the annual and inter-annual time scales, significant correlations between the variations in EWH and the variations in temperature, precipitation and snow equivalent height are found, especially at high altitude stations, suggesting that climate change is the driving factor for the water depletion in central Asia and south Asia.     

Mineralogical and geochemical investigations of sediment-source region changes in the Okinawa Trough during the past 100 ka (IMAGES core MD012404)

We present a mineralogical and geochemical study of core MD012404, retrieved from the central Okinawa Trough (OT) of the East China Sea. Our studies reveal that the sediment sources of the core have been changed through time during the past 100 ka. Our mineralogical proxies indicate that the sediments source from the Yangtze River correlates well sea-level changes before 24 ka. Our Ti/Al ratios otherwise indicate an increase of sediment supply from eastern Taiwan after 26 ka. The cooler climate of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 23～19 ka) led to a reduction in fluvial sediments from the Yangtze River. However, subsequent climate warming (after ～19 ka) resulted in an abrupt increase in fluvial sediments. After the LGM, the Kuroshio intrusion flow into the OT may have increased. We also infer anomalous changes in eolian sources transported by winter monsoons during the LGM and at 80 ka based on an eolian mineralogical indicator (feldspar). We conclude that the sediment source of core MD012404 is primarily of terrestrial origins, but influenced by sea-level changes and variations in the East Asian monsoon.     

Note on the flow of a stratified fluid over a stationary obstacle in a channel

Abstract

A new method is introduced to produce a uniform stratified flow over a stationary obstacle in an open channel. The flow is achieved by discharging the flow from the channel through a sink. The details of the sink are unimportant. The flow speed is limited only by the sink capacity. Selective withdrawal at lower densimetric Froude numbers is effectively eliminated through the use of a contraction. The standing, free-surface, long wave arising from the initiation of the flow is also eliminated by the contraction. Experiments are conducted for flow over a sphere for a range of Reynolds numbers from O(10²) to O(10³) and a range of Richardson numbers from O(10^?1) to O(10). Dye and neutrally buoyant droplets are used for quantitative analysis of the wake structure. The wake is also probed by a hot-film anemometer. The frequency of vortex shedding is obtained. Comparison with data from towed experiments is also presented.     

Development of regional design hyetographs

A method is proposed to establish regional design hyetographs for facilitating the determination of design hyetographs at ungauged sites. The method is applied to the central area of Taiwan. First, the single‐station design hyetographs at all rain gauges are analysed using principal components analysis and cluster analysis. The principal components analysis shows that there are six dominant factors, and the cluster analysis indicates that the time to peak rainfall has the largest influence on the classification of hyetographs. It also shows that the single‐station hyetographs in the study area can be classified into three clusters. Finally, the homogeneous regions for these three clusters are delineated and the corresponding regional design hyetographs are proposed. Once the homogeneous regions and the regional hyetographs are available, the design hyetograph at the point of interest can be easily determined. The proposed method is expected to be useful for providing the design hyetographs at ungauged sites. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enabling maps/location searches on mobile devices: constructing a POI database via focused crawling and information extraction

With the popularity of mobile devices and smartphones, we have witnessed rapid growth in mobile applications and services, especially in location-based services (LBS). According to a mobile marketing survey, maps/location searches are among the most utilized services on smartphones. Points of interest (POIs), such as stores, shops, gas stations, parking lots, and bus stops, are particularly important for maps/location searches. Existing map services such as Google Maps and Wikimapia are constructed manually either professionally or with crowd sourcing. However, manual annotation is costly and limited in current POI search services. With the abundance of information on the Web, many store POIs can be extracted from the Web. In this paper, we focus on automatically constructing a POI database to enable store POI map searches. We propose techniques that are required to construct a POI database, including focused crawling, information extraction, and information retrieval techniques. We first crawl Yellow Page web sites to obtain vocabularies of store names. These vocabularies are then investigated with search engines to obtain sentences containing these store names from search snippets in order to train a store name recognition model. To extract POIs scattered across the Web, we propose a query-based crawler to find address-bearing pages that might be used to extract addresses and store names. We crawled 1.25 million distinct POI pairs scattered across the Web and implemented a POI search service via Apache Lucent’s search platform, called Solr. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed geographical information retrieval model outperforms Wikimapia and a commercial app called ‘What’s the Number?’     

Bioremediation of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene-contaminated groundwater using unique bacterial strains: microcosm and mechanism studies

Groundwater at many military factory, munition storage and maneuver sites is contaminated by explosives chemicals that were released into the subsurface. The 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) is among the most common explosive pollutants. In this study, two TNT-degrading strains, isolated from TNT-contaminated soils and wastewater sludge, were applied for TNT biodegradation. Based on the 16S rDNA sequence analyses, these two bacterial strains were identified as Achromobacter sp. and Klebsiella sp. via biochemical and DNA analyses. Microcosm study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of TNT biodegradation under aerobic conditions. Results indicate that TNT degradation by-products were detected in microcosms (inoculated with Achromobacter sp. and Klebsiella sp.) with cane molasses addition. Klebsiella sp. and Achromobacter sp. used TNT as the nitrogen source and caused completely removal of TNT. Two possible TNT biodegradation routes could be derived: (1) part of the TNT was transformed to nitrotoluene then transformed to nitrobenzene followed by the nitro substitute process, and trinitrobenzene, dinitrobenzene, and nitrobenzene were detected; and (2) TNT was transformed via the nitro substitute mechanism, and dinitrotoluene followed by nitrotoluene isomers were detected. The initial TNT degradation involved the reduction or removal of the nitro substitute to an amino derivative or free nitrite. Results show that the second route was the dominant TNT biodegradation pathway. The produced by-products were also degraded without significant accumulation during the degradation process. These findings would be helpful in designing a practical system inoculated with isolated TNT degradation strains for the treatment of TNT-contained groundwater.