Groundwater Recharge Rate and Zone Structure Estimation Using PSOLVER Algorithm

The quantification of groundwater recharge is an important but challenging task in groundwater flow modeling because recharge varies spatially and temporally. The goal of this study is to present an innovative methodology to estimate groundwater recharge rates and zone structures for regional groundwater flow models. Here, the unknown recharge field is partitioned into a number of zones using Voronoi Tessellation (VT). The identified zone structure with the recharge rates is associated through a simulation‐optimization model that couples MODFLOW‐2000 and the hybrid PSOLVER optimization algorithm. Applicability of this procedure is tested on a previously developed groundwater flow model of the Tahtal? Watershed. Successive zone structure solutions are obtained in an additive manner and penalty functions are used in the procedure to obtain realistic and plausible solutions. One of these functions constrains the optimization by forcing the sum of recharge rates for the grid cells that coincide with the Tahtal? Watershed area to be equal to the areal recharge rate determined in the previous modeling by a separate precipitation‐runoff model. As a result, a six‐zone structure is selected as the best zone structure that represents the areal recharge distribution. Comparison to results of a previous model for the same study area reveals that the proposed procedure significantly improves model performance with respect to calibration statistics. The proposed identification procedure can be thought of as an effective way to determine the recharge zone structure for groundwater flow models, in particular for situations where tangible information about groundwater recharge distribution does not exist.     

Main features of the deep structure by local earthquake tomography and active tectonics: case of Rif Mountain (morocco) and Betic Cordillera (Spain)

Within the Spain and Moroccan networks, a large volume of seismic data has been collected and used for investigating the lithosphere in the Betic–Rif Cordillera. The present study has two main goals: (1) Use the most actual seismological data from recent earthquakes in the Betic–Rif arc for investigating the lithosphere through the application of seismic local tomography techniques. (2) Define the possible structural blocks and explain the GPS velocities perturbation in this region. The resolution tests results indicate that the calculated images gave a close true structure for the studied regions from 5- to 60-km depth. The resulting tomographic image shows that the presence of two upper crust body (velocity 6.5 km/s) at 3- to 13-km depth between Iberian Betic and Moroccan Rif in the western and in the middle of Alboran Sea also shows the low velocity favoring the presence of melt in the base of these two bodies. The crustal bodies forms tectonic blocks in the Central Rif and in the Central Betic Cordillera.     

A three-scale cracking criterion for drying soils

Cracking is a most unwanted development in soil structures undergoing periodic drying and wetting. Desiccation cracks arise in an apparent absence of external forces. Hence, either an internal, self-equilibrated stress pattern resulting from kinematic incompatibilities, or a stress resulting from reaction forces at the constraints appear as a cracking cause, when reaching tensile strength. At a meso-scale, tubular drying pores are considered in the vicinity of a random imperfection, inducing a stress concentration in the presence of significant pore suction. This approach allows one to use the effective stress analysis, which otherwise, away from the stress concentration, usually yields compressive effective stress and hence a physically incompatible criterion for a tensile crack. Recent experiments on idealized configurations of clusters of grains provide geometrical data suggesting that an imperfection as a result of air entry deep into the granular medium penetrates over 4 to 8 internal radii of a typical pore could yield a tensile effective stress sufficient for crack propagation.     

Early Cretaceous porphyry copper mineralization in Northeast China: the Changfagou example

The Changfagou Cu deposit is a newly discovered porphyry deposit located in the southern Jilin Province of Northeastern China, on the northeastern margin of the North China Craton. To better understand the formation of the Cu deposit, we report the zircon U–Pb and molybdenite Re–Os dating, and Sr-, Nd-, and Hf- isotopic data of the granite porphyry. LA-ICP-MS dating of zircon grains from two mineral zones in the granite porphyry yield ages of 115.7 ± 0.8 and 115.3 ± 0.6 Ma, which is interpreted as the emplacement age of the granite porphyry. The molybdenite Re–Os model ages of 112.5 to 113.8 Ma, an isochron age of 113.3 ± 1.3 Ma, and a weighted mean model age of 113.0 ± 0.7 Ma, which represents the age of the Cu mineralization quite well. The Changfagou granite porphyry samples lack amphibole and muscovite, and are compositionally characterized by high SiO₂, high Na₂O+K₂O, and low P₂O₅, enriched in some Rb, Th, U, and Pb, and depleted in Nb, Ta, Ti, P, and Eu. Mineralogical and geochemical features suggest that the Changfagou granite porphyry samples are slightly peraluminous and are of highly fractionated I-type granitoids. The granitic rocks also have relatively high (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr)_i (0.71199 to 0. 71422), and both low εNd(t) (?14.56 to ?13.19) and εHf(t) values (?14.916 to ?8.644), which suggest that Changfagou granite porphyry are derived from mixed sources of crustal and mantle, and diagenesis and mineralization were possibly related to the switch in subduction direction of the Palaeo-Pacific Plate in the late phase of Early Cretaceous.     

利用瞬变电磁和多频电磁方法监测地下水位及其对Hawara遗址的影响

利用瞬变电磁（TEM）和地面电磁（GEM）方法,本文研究了埃及Hawara遗址区的地下水对遗址的影响.这个遗址包括Hawara金字塔、北区墓地、以及被称作“迷宫”的南区墓葬场所.现今Hawara遗址已经完全荒废,被耕作区和Bahr Wahba运河包围.地表水和地下水会破坏Hawara金字塔和“迷宫”遗址的地基,现在金字塔入口已被淹没至地面下约6 m深处.本文在耕作区、金字塔以及“迷宫”等三个地区进行了TEM勘察;在“迷宫”地区进行了GEM勘察.综合分析以上两种勘察数据,我们发现,农业灌溉是浸入到地下的水的主要来源;本地区地下水位随着观测点及海拔的不同,在地面以下2~7 m之间变化.     

Discovery of the causeway and the mortuary temple of the Pyramid of Amenemhat II using near‐surface magnetic investigation,Dahshour, Giza,Egypt

The main outbuildings of the Amenemhat II pyramid complex in Dahsour were yet to be discovered due to a very long subjection of the area to the military authorities and also the demolition of the pyramid itself. We describe the discovery of some of these outbuildings using near‐surface magnetic investigations. A gradiometer survey was conducted in the area east of the pyramid to measure the vertical magnetic gradient with a high resolution instrument at 0.5 m sampling interval. The data showed some undesirable field effects such as grid discontinuities, grid slope, traverse stripe effects, spikes and high frequencies originating from recent ferrous contamination. These undesirable effects were addressed to produce an enhanced display. We have successfully detected four main structures in the area east of the pyramid; the causeway that connected the mortuary temple with the valley temple during the Middle Kingdom of the 12^th Dynasty, the mortuary temple and its associated rooms, ruins of an ancient working area and an Egyptian‐style tomb structure called a Mastaba. An improved recognition for these structures was accomplished by using the analytic signal and Euler deconvolution techniques. Excavation of a small part within the study area has proven the reliability of magnetic discoveries and the shallowness and composition of the detected features.     

Mixed estimation methods for Halphen distributions with applications in extreme hydrologic events

The Halphen family of distributions is a flexible and complete system to fit sets of observations independent and identically distributed. Recently, it is shown that this family of distributions represents a potential alternative to the generalized extreme value distributions to model extreme hydrological events. The existence of jointly sufficient statistics for parameter estimation leads to optimality of the method of maximum likelihood (ML). Nevertheless, the ML method requires numerical approximations leading to less accurate values. However, estimators by the method of moments (MM) are explicit and their computation is fast. Even though MM method leads to good results, it is not optimal. In order to combine the advantages of the ML (optimality) and MM (efficiency and fast computations), two new mixed methods were proposed in this paper. One of the two methods is direct and the other is iterative, denoted respectively direct mixed method (MMD) and iterative mixed method (MMI). An overall comparison of the four estimation methods (MM, ML, MMD and MMI) was performed using Monte Carlo simulations regarding the three Halphen distributions. Generally, the MMI method can be considered for the three Halphen distributions since it is recommended for a majority of cases encountered in hydrology. The principal idea of the mixed methods MMD and MMI could be generalized for other distributions with complicated density functions.