Wrench tectonics flip at oblique subduction. A model from New Zealand

In eastern North Island New Zealand, oblique subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the Australian Plate is associated with strain partitioning. Dextral along-strike component of displacement occurred first at Early Miocene major faults within the eastern fore-arc domain. These faults were active from Early Miocene to Pliocene times. Since Pliocene times, most of the movement occurs at western faults such as the Wellington Fault. The latter joins the back-arc domain to the north. The jump of wrench faulting is related to the oblique opening of the back-arc domain. Both phenomena are impeded southwards by the Hikurangi oceanic plateau entering the subduction zone. To cite this article: J. Delteil et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).     

山东济南下寒武统朱砂洞组软沉积变形中燧石的Sm-Nd年龄测定及其意义

在济南南部下寒武统朱砂洞组丁家庄段硅质白云岩中,发育地震引起的硅质触变脉、硅质触变沉陷构造和触变楔等软沉积变形构造。从同一地震触变沉陷构造中,采得一组灰黑色燧石样品。使用英国VG354同位素质谱仪和同位素质谱分析方法,测得每个样品的 ¹⁴⁷Sm/¹⁴⁴Nd 和 ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd 同位素值。采用Sm-Nd 等时线法,对燧石进行了测年。获得燧石的成岩年龄为530.8±6.1 Ma,由于软燧石(硅胶体)成岩至少经历了0.1 Ma的时间,所以,地震沉积事件发生在530.7±6.1 Ma,属早寒武世早期。由于测年结果与沧浪铺阶的下界年龄接近,山东朱砂洞组丁家庄段无化石且河南省标准地层剖面中的整个朱砂洞组属沧浪铺阶,这暗示济南地区朱砂洞组丁家庄段属沧浪铺阶。本次测年得到了鲁西地区第1个下寒武统的同位素年龄值,这对确定该地区早寒武世地震沉积事件发生的时间具有参考价值和意义,也为深入研究鲁西地区寒武纪地层提供了新资料。     

On the singing phenomenon in the offshore seismic experiments

Summary Offshore areas are sometimes found in which seismic record assumes the appearance of a sine wave or a simple combination of sine waves. It is more interesting to note that the dominant frequency on the singing records is the third harmonic of a fundamental whose wave length is four times the water depth. In this paper it has been proved that this peculiar phenomenon happens due to the slope of the sedimentary layer near the observational points. Using the method introduced byCovert (1958) of finding the Green's function for built in bodies, pressure field has been obtained in the water layer for a two dimensional point source in the same medium and it has been proved that due to the slope of the sedimentary layer singing is caused by waves of wave-length equal to four times the water depth.     

Sublethal Effects of Crude Oil on the Community Structure of Estuarine Phytoplankton

While the ecological impacts of crude oil exposure have been widely studied, its sublethal effects on phytoplankton community structure in salt marsh estuaries have not been well documented. The purpose of this study was to simulate oil spill conditions using a microcosm design to examine short-term (2 day) changes in phytoplankton community composition and total biomass following exposure to crude oil obtained from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and a mixture of Texas crude oils. Microcosm experiments were performed in situ in North Inlet Estuary near Georgetown, SC. A control and six replicated experimental treatments of crude oil additions at final concentrations of 10, 50, or 100 μl l⁻¹ of either Deepwater Horizon spill oil or the Texas crude mixture were incubated under in situ conditions. Photopigments were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography and community composition was determined using ChemTax. Total phytoplankton biomass (as chl a) declined with increasing crude oil concentrations. Prasinophytes, the most abundant microalga in both experiments, showed no response to oil exposure in one experiment and a significant negative response in the other. Diatoms euglenophytes and chlorophytes appeared relatively resistant to oil contamination at the exposure levels used in this study, maintaining or increasing their relative abundance with increasing oil concentrations. Chlorophytes and cyanobacteria increased in relative abundance while cryptophyte abundance decreased with increasing oil concentrations. The results of these experiments suggest that low levels of crude oil exposure may reduce total biomass and alter phytoplankton community composition with possible cascade effects at higher trophic levels in salt marsh estuaries.     

中国海域区古近纪含煤盆地与煤系分布研究

新近纪和古近纪是全球重要的聚煤期。中国古近纪聚煤盆地分布在东部沿海省区,是全球性环太平洋聚煤带的组成部分。中国海域区含煤沉积盆地虽然也属于断陷盆地和坳陷盆地类型,且成群出现,但总体构造背景有利于含煤沉积的持续发展,盆地群连续性好,含煤沉积厚度大,如琼东南盆地、东海海域西湖凹陷,含煤沉积厚度达1 km以上,这是陆上区古近纪含煤盆地所不能相比的。研究表明,海域区的聚煤盆地内大多由若干凹陷组成,为聚煤凹陷,可分为两大类,即半地堑凹陷和地堑凹陷。根据成煤盆地的水体深浅又可分为深水半地堑凹陷和浅水半地堑凹陷,地堑凹陷均为深水凹陷。盆地内表现为明显的两个聚煤带：缓坡聚煤带和陡坡聚煤带,缓坡聚煤带占绝对优势。在潮坪体系的潮上带和潮间带沼泽,利于聚煤作用的广泛发生。泥炭的堆积可能存在两种形式：原地堆积和异地堆积。由于盆地构造的频繁活动异地堆积可能是海域区聚煤盆地成煤作用的重要形式。海域区巨厚的含煤沉积为海域区煤成气成藏提供了丰厚的物质基础。又由于含煤地层埋深大,煤的变质作用程度相对较高,成为良好的烃源岩。     

Groundwater-level response to land-use change and the implications for salinity management in the West Moorabool River catchment, Victoria, Australia

The connection between the removal of native vegetation, rising water tables and increasing stream salinity has been established for many catchments across Australia. However, the West Moorabool River in south west Victoria is an example of a catchment where there has been little discernable effect on groundwater levels following land clearing. Over the past 150 years, a significant portion of the catchment has been cleared of dense forest for agricultural development. Historic standing water-level records from 1870–1871 and 1881 are compared with contemporary measurements (1970s to 2007) recorded in the government bore databases. The data show that the earliest recorded groundwater levels are well within the seasonal range of values observed today. By integrating geology and hydrogeology with historical observations of groundwater levels, climate data and land use, the contemporary field observations of stream salinity are linked to the changed water use and shift in rainfall. In contrast to the normally accepted axiom, reafforestation as a management strategy to mitigate the rising salinity in the West Moorabool River catchment would seem inappropriate.     

Errors due to the anisotropic-common-ray approximation of the coupling ray theory

The common-ray approximation eliminates problems with ray tracing through S-wave singularities and also considerably simplifies the numerical algorithm of the coupling ray theory for S waves, but may introduce errors in travel times due to the perturbation from the common reference ray. These travel-time errors can deteriorate the coupling-ray-theory solution at high frequencies. It is thus of principal importance for numerical applications to estimate the errors due to the common-ray approximation applied. The anisotropic-common-ray approximation of the coupling ray theory is more accurate than the isotropic-common-ray approximation. We derive the equations for estimating the travel-time errors due to the anisotropic-common-ray (and also isotropic-common-ray) approximation of the coupling ray theory. The errors of the common-ray approximations are calculated along the anisotropic common rays in smooth velocity models without interfaces. The derivation is based on the general equations for the second-order perturbations of travel time.     

A DEVICE FOR MEASURING GULLY HEADWALL MORPHOLOGY

This paper describes a low-cost device for measuring the three-dimensional morphology of a gully headwall. The device was designed to operate in a gully system with the following characteristics: overhanging banks caused by a thick, dense root mat; retreat of the underlying unconsolidated sediments through small slab failures, leading to a considerable variation in retreat rate at each point on the headwall; and changes in the orientation of the headwall owing to changes in sediment properties and the topographical and hydrological controls of gully growth. The device is used to measure a series of closely spaced vertical profiles of the headwall, and the collected data are combined to draw a contour map showing the distance from the plane of the instrument to the headwall. Comparing maps for sequential times enables retreat rates for the diffferent proportions of the headwall to be quantified.     

Scenario prediction of changes in water balance components in the Lena Basin in the context of possible climate changes

The dynamics of meteorological elements in the Lena R. Basin is predicted for the XXI century under four IPCC global scenarios of SRES family, corresponding to specified scenarios of the economic, technological, political, and demographic development of the civilization. The obtained predictions are used to simulate variants of possible changes in water balance components in the Lena Basin up to the mid-XXI century. The calculation procedure is based on the use of land-surface model SWAP and a climate scenario generator MAGICC/SCENGEN.