3D Mineral Prospectivity Mapping with Random Forests: A Case Study of Tongling,Anhui, China

Natural Resources Research - In the past few decades, a variety of data-driven predictive modeling techniques has led to a dramatic advancement in mineral prospectivity mapping (MPM). The random...     

Geological and geophysical studies of the Agoudal impact structure (Central High Atlas,Morocco): New evidence for crater size and age

Since the discovery of shatter cones (SCs) near the village of Agoudal (Morocco, Central High Atlas Mountains) in 2013, the absence of one or several associated circular structures led to speculation about the age of the impact event, the number, and the size of the impact crater or craters. Additional constraints on the crater size, age, and erosion rates are obtained here from geological, structural, and geophysical mapping and from cosmogenic nuclide data. Our geological maps of the Agoudal impact site at the scales of 1:30,000 (6 km²) and 1:15,000 (2.25 km²) include all known occurrences of SCs in target rocks, breccias, and vertical to overturned strata. Considering that strata surrounding the impact site are subhorizontal, we argue that disturbed strata are related to the impact event. Three types of breccias have been observed. Two of them (br1‐2 and br2) could be produced by erosion–sedimentation–consolidation processes, with no evidence for impact breccias, while breccia (br1) might be impact related. The most probable center of the structure is estimated at 31°59′13.73?N, 5°30′55.14?W using the concentric deviation method applied to the orientation of strata over the disturbed area. Despite the absence of a morphological expression, the ground magnetic and electromagnetic surveys reveal anomalies spatially associated with disturbed strata and SC occurrences. The geophysical data, the structural observations, and the area of occurrence of SCs in target rocks are all consistent with an original size of 1.4–4.2 km in diameter. Cosmogenic nuclide data (³⁶Cl) constrain the local erosion rates between 220 ± 22 m Ma^?1 and 430 ± 43 m Ma^?1. These erosion rates may remove the topographic expression of such a crater and its ejecta in a time period of about 0.3–1.9 Ma. This age is older than the Agoudal iron meteorite age (105 ± 40 kyr). This new age constraint excludes the possibility of a genetic relationship between the Agoudal iron meteorite fall and the formation of the Agoudal impact site. A chronolgy chart including the Atlas orogeny, the alternation of sedimentation and erosion periods, and the meteoritic impacts is presented based on all obtained and combined data.     

Compositional Balance Analysis: An Elegant Method of Geochemical Pattern Recognition and Anomaly Mapping for Mineral Exploration

Natural Resources Research - Geochemical pattern recognition and anomaly mapping are always involved in the fields of environmental and exploration geochemistry. Principal component analysis (PCA)...     

Maximum Entropy and Random Forest Modeling of Mineral Potential: Analysis of Gold Prospectivity in the Hezuo–Meiwu District,West Qinling Orogen,China

Natural Resources Research - This study tested and compared the mineral potential mapping capabilities of the random forest (RF) and maximum entropy (MaxEnt) algorithms using gold deposit...     

Efficient propagation of error covariance matrices of gravitational models: application to GRACE and GOCE

We have applied efficient methods for computing variances and covariances of functions of a global gravity field model expanded in spherical harmonics, using the full variance–covariance matrix of the coefficients. Examples are given with recent models derived from GRACE (up to degree and order 150), and with simulated GOCE derived solutions (up to degree and order 200).     

Sedimentary organic matter distributions,burrowing activity,and biogeochemical cycling: Natural patterns and experimental artifacts

The coupling between biogenic reworking activity and reactive organic matter patterns within deposits is poorly understood and often ignored. In this study, we examined how common experimental treatments of sediment affect the burrowing behavior of the polychaete Nephtys incisa and how these effects may interact with reactive organic matter distributions to alter diagenetic transport – reaction balances. Sediment and animals were recovered from a subtidal site in central Long Island Sound, USA. The upper 15 cm of the sediment was sectioned into sub-intervals, and each interval separately sieved and homogenized. Three initial distributions of sediment and organic substrate reactivity were setup in a series of microcosms: (1) a reconstituted natural pattern with surface-derived sediment overlying sediment obtained from progressively deeper material to a depth of 15 cm (Natural); (2) a 15 cm thick sediment layer composed only of surface-derived sediment (Rich); and (3) a 15 cm thick layer composed of uniformally mixed sediment from the original 15 cm sediment profile (Averaged). The two last treatments are comparable to that used in microcosms in many previous studies of bioturbation and interspecific functional interaction experiments. Sediment grain size distributions were 97.5% silt-clay and showed no depth dependent patterns. Sediment porosity gradients were slightly altered by the treatments. Nepthys were reintroduced and aquariums were X-rayed regularly over 5 months to visualize and quantify spatial and temporal dynamics of burrows. The burrowing behaviour of adult populations having similar total biovolume, biomass, abundance, and individual sizes differed substantially as a function of treatment. Burrows in sediment with natural property gradients were much shallower and less dense than those in microcosms with altered gradients. The burrow volume/biovolume ratio was also lower in the substrate with natural organic reactivity gradients. Variation in food resources or in sediment mechanical properties associated with treatments, the latter in part coupled to remineralization processes such as exopolymer production, may explain the burrowing responses. In addition to demonstrating how species may respond to physical sedimentation events (substrate homogenization) and patterns of reactive organic matter redistribution, these experiments suggest that infaunal species interactions in microcosms, including the absolute and relative fluxes of remineralized solutes, may be subject to artifacts depending on exactly how sediments are introduced experimentally. Nonlocal transport and cylinder microenvironment transport – reaction models readily demonstrate how the multiple interactions between burrowing patterns and remineralization rate distributions can alter relative flux balances, decomposition pathways, and time to steady state.     

Disaster risk reduction legislations: Is there a move from events to processes?

Disaster research and scholarship is now advocating a shift from focusing on the hazard event to processes that generate vulnerability and loss of resilience to disasters. Disaster legislations are among prominent instruments that can highlight the tensions as well as challenges that are being encountered towards this change in focus. Using textual analysis, this paper presents a study that investigated whether five post-2002 disaster legislations have shifted emphasis from the hazard to the vulnerability and resilience paradigms. The five examples illustrate that while there is a slight change, at least in rhetoric, from response to a prevention focus, disaster legislations largely promote a centralised institutional framework, with inadequate resource commitments and limited participation from vulnerable communities. Consequently, while generalisations simply cannot be made without a wider analysis of many more examples from different countries, the five disaster legislations appear to re-emphasise the response focus with less attention on the processes that reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience. The conclusion is that while the rhetoric has changed, the disaster legislations have not significantly moved from the hazard to vulnerability and resilience focus suggesting that reduction of losses and damages to disasters remains a big challenge     

Finite element analysis of the effect of corrosion on the behavior of reinforced earth walls

A simple model for the corrosion‐induced loss of stiffness and strength of the steel strips of earth‐reinforced walls was introduced in a finite element simulation of the long‐term behavior of the wall, in which the backfill‐strips interactions are taken into account by means of a generalized homogenization procedure (called a multiphase model). The results show an initial phase of slow displacements induced by the loss of stiffness, followed after a few decades by a steep acceleration of the displacements, leading to wall failure. The influences of the parameter controlling corrosion, the backfill cohesion and the heterogeneity of the corrosion process are discussed. Results are used to discuss a strategy for reinforced earth wall surveillance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of antifouling properties of non-toxic marine paints

The most common way to prevent biofouling of immersed surfaces is to coat the exposed surfaces with a paint containing a biocide acting on marine organisms by diffusion into the surrounding water. However diffusion of toxins into the marine environment causes pollution and serious economic problems. This paper outlines the anti-microfouling properties of some insolubilized quaternary ammonium salts (grafted onto a vinyl copolymer by means of a covalent non-hydrolyzable bond). After immersion times in sea-water up to 4 months, the microbial cover was limited to bacterial forms, without microalgae or cyanobacteria as observed on the untreated, or tin-salt painted surfaces. Bacteria are mostly on unicell forms and numerous areas appear free of any microorganisms. As microbiofouling is an obligate step to macrofouling, this unleachable antifouling treatment could result in a prolonged protection.