Experimental investigation on the deformation characteristics of granular materials under drained rotational shear

Rotational shear is the type of loading path where samples are subjected to cyclic rotation of principal stress directions while the magnitudes of principal stresses are maintained constant. This paper presents results from an experimental investigation on the drained deformation behaviour of saturated sand in rotational shear conducted in a hollow cylinder apparatus. Two types of granular materials, Leighton Buzzard sand and glass beads are tested. A range of influential factors are investigated including the material density, the deviatoric stress level, and the intermediate principal stress. It is observed that the volumetric strain during rotational shear is mainly contractive and most of strains are generated during the first 20 cycles. The mechanical behaviour of sand under rotational shear is generally non-coaxial, i.e., there is no coincidence between the principal axes of stress and incremental strain, and the variation of the non-coaxiality shows a periodic trend during the tests. The stress ratio has a significant effect on soil response in rotational shear. The larger the stress ratio, the more contractive behaviour and the lower degree of non-coaxiality are induced. The test also demonstrates that the effect of the intermediate principal stress, material density and particle shape on the results is pronounced.     

Tectonothermal history of the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland) in the light of low‐temperature thermochronology

The low‐temperature thermal history of the Holy Cross Mountains (HCM) is investigated by apatite fission track and apatite and zircon (U–Th)/He thermochronology. Our results provide constraints on the deformation history of Palaeozoic basement rocks in the transition area from Precambrian to Palaeozoic Europe that are exposed from beneath Permian–Mesozoic sediments within the HCM. Late to post‐Variscan cooling of the Palaeozoic strata from maximum temperatures is shown to be a major feature of the HCM. This cooling likely followed a heating event related to burial and/or hot fluid circulation along the Holy Cross Fault in the late Carboniferous. The central part of the HCM shows a rapid cooling event caused by tectonic inversion, which started in the Late Cretaceous. However, this event was less pronounced in the western margin of the HCM, where slow cooling continued throughout the Mesozoic with only minor acceleration of the cooling rate since the latest Cretaceous.     

Coupling of P–T–t–D histories of eclogite and metagreywacke—Insights to late Ordovician–Silurian crustal folding events recorded in the Beishan Orogen (NW China)

The Beishan complex is composed of orthogneiss and metagreywacke that both enclose bodies of eclogite and serves as a unique example for comparative petrological study of all these lithologies. The rocks show the earliest regional steep N-S striking fabric (S2) preserved in low strain domains that are reworked by ubiquitous steep N-NE dipping cleavage (S3). The eclogite shows an almost isotropic fabric defined by an M1 assemblage of Grt–Cpx–Amp–Qz–Rt–Ilm that is locally retrogressed to M2-3 amphibolite facies mineral assemblages, with P–T peak at 20–21 kbar and 750–775°C and retrogression to 2–3kbar and 530–550°C. The typical mineral assemblage of the host metagreywackes is Bt–Ms–Pl–Qz−Chl–Ilm±Grt. Rare Al-rich metagreywacke layers are composed of Grt–Ky–St±Sil−And–Bt–Ms–Pl–Qz±Chl±Rt–Ilm giving a P–T path with peak at 8–8.5kbar and ~670°C correlated with the S2 fabric and retrogression to ~2.5kbar and 525–550°C correlated with the S3 foliation. In two eclogite samples, the garnet-whole rock-clinopyroxene Lu–Hf isochrons give ages of 461.9±1.6 Ma and 462.0±6.2 Ma interpreted as reflecting average age of garnet formation, and Sm–Nd isochrons give ages of 453.6±2.7 Ma and 452.8±3.0 Ma interpreted as dating near-peak metamorphism. In metagreywacke, in-situ U–Pb dating of monazite gives two groups of ages of 445–440 Ma (Mnz cores) and 436–429 Ma (Mnz rims), interpreted as reflecting the metamorphic peak and retrogression. Our results show that eclogite was formed during Ordovician by subduction of a continental crust (D1). Eclogite and metagreywacke underwent partly decoupled P–T–t–D paths until their juxtaposition at mid-crustal levels during a first late Ordovician–early Silurian D2 shortening. Coupling of their P–T–t–D paths occurred during exhumation in the Silurian and a second and orthogonal D3 shortening event. The data from the Beishan Orogen are consistent with a collisional intra-Gondwanan orogen located south of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt.     

Summer Floods in Central Europe – Climate Change Track?

In Central Europe, river flooding has been recently recognized as a major hazard, in particular after the 1997 Odra /Oder flood, the 2001 Vistula flood, and the most destructive 2002 deluge on the Labe/Elbe. Major recent floods in central Europe are put in perspective and their common elements are identified. Having observed that flood risk and vulnerability are likely to have grown in many areas, one is curious to understand the reasons for growth. These can be sought in socio-economic domain (humans encroaching into floodplain areas), terrestrial systems (land-cover changes – urbanization, deforestation, reduction of wetlands, river regulation), and climate system. The atmospheric capacity to absorb moisture, its potential water content, and thus potential for intense precipitation, are likely to increase in a warmer climate. The changes in intense precipitation and high flows are examined, based on observations and projections. Study of projected changes in intense precipitation, using climate models, for several areas of central Europe, and in particular, for drainage basins of the upper Labe/Elbe, Odra/Oder, and Vistula is reported. Significant changes have been identified between future projections and the reference period, of relevance to flood hazard in areas, which have experienced severe recent floodings.     

Assessment of climate change and associated impact on selected sectors in Poland

The present paper offers a brief assessment of climate change and associated impact in Poland, based on selected results of the Polish–Norwegian CHASE-PL project. Impacts are examined in selected sectors, such as water resources, natural hazard risk reduction, environment, agriculture and health. Results of change detection in long time series of observed climate and climate impact variables in Poland are presented. Also, projections of climate variability and change are provided for time horizons of 2021–2050 and 2071–2100 for two emission scenarios, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 in comparison with control period, 1971–2000. Based on climate projections, examination of future impacts on sectors is also carried out. Selected uncertainty issues relevant to observations, understanding and projections are tackled as well.     

The Middle Pleistocene glaciolacustrine environment of an ice‐dammed mountain valley,Sudeten Mountains,Poland

This article reports on an Early Saalian proglacial lake formed between the Scandinavian Ice Sheet and the front of the Sudeten Mountains, Poland. Sediments investigated at Mys?ów point to a transition from glacifluvial to glaciolacustrine environments. The bulk of the sediments was deposited in deep‐water Gilbert‐type deltas (A–E complexes). A delta plain (topset) gradually passes into a subaerial plateau and then a clastic shoreline and the subaquatic slope of a prograding delta (foreset). The glaciolacustrine lithofacies represent a number of lake‐basin environments, from marginal subaqueous slopes to distal parts of a subaqueous fan. Glaciolacustrine and glaciodeltaic deposits locally reach ?50–70 m in thickness. Analyses of A–E complexes indicate that the lake existed for more than 130 years and that its origin and evolution were closely connected with the ice front. This case study records lake sedimentation at an ice‐sheet margin with cohesionless gravity flows, turbidity currents, debris‐avalanching and, to a much lesser degree, parapelagic suspension fall‐out and ice‐raft dumping. In the initial stage, the lake extended more than 10 km to the south, and the deposition was relatively slow. In the second stage, recession of the ice sheet caused rapid growth of a delta. The third and ultimate stage coincided with the final glacial recession, with rapid deposition occurring only on the lake bottom. The model of the glaciolacustrine environment presented here may also be applicable to many other proglacial lakes in mountain areas.     

Use of mathematical modeling to investigate inter-aquifer contamination by organic-rich water through an unplugged well (central Wielkopolska, Poland)

Hydrogeological research was performed to establish the origin of organic-rich water in a Quaternary aquifer (Wielkopolska Buried Valley aquifer, Poland). The spatial distribution of such water was determined by means of multilevel sampling with a packer. The nature, spatial distribution and chemistry of the organic-rich water suggest hydraulic connection between the Quaternary aquifer and the underlying Neogene aquifer. This connection may be enabled by an old abandoned, improperly plugged well, and must therefore be considered as an artificial hydraulic connection between hydrogeologically separated aquifers. For the verification of this hypothesis, a groundwater contaminant transport model was constructed. The results of contaminant transport modeling allow the contaminant transport parameters (transverse and longitudinal dispersivity) to be identified in the field. The numerical groundwater model was used for the prognosis of organic-rich water remediation, and for specification of water-resource management principles in the region where organic-rich water occurs. The results of this research enable the verification of assumptions regarding complex groundwater flow conditions in the boundary zone of a buried valley.     

Geology,stratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis-bearing Quaternary palaeolake(s) of Gorzów Wielkopolski (NW Poland,Central Europe)

The sedimentary succession exposed in the Gorzów Wielkopolski area includes Eemian Interglacial (MIS 5e) or Early Weichselian (MIS 5d–e) deposits. The sedimentary sequence has been the object of intense interdisciplinary study, which has resulted in the identification of at least two palaeolake horizons. Both yielded fossil remains of large mammals, alongside pollen and plant macrofossils. All these proxies have been used to reconstruct the environmental conditions prevailing at the time of deposition, as well as to define the geological context and the biochronological position of the fauna. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of the glaciofluvial layers of the GS3 succession to 123.6 ± 10.1 (below the lower palaeolake) and 72.0 ± 5.2 ka (above the upper palaeolake) indicate that the site formed during the Middle–Late Pleistocene (MIS 6 – MIS 5). Radiocarbon-dating of the lacustrine organic matter revealed a tight cluster of Middle Pleniglacial Period (MIS 3) ages in the range of ~41–32 ka cal bp (Hengelo – Denekamp Interstadials). Holocene organic layers have also been found, with ¹⁴C ages within a range of 4330–4280 cal bp (Neolithic). Pollen and plant macrofossil records, together with sedimentological and geochemical data, confirm the dating to the Eemian Interglacial.