Far field effects of Alpine plate tectonism in the Iberian microplate recorded by fault-related denudation in the Spanish Central System

Apatite fission track analysis was performed on 56 samples from central Spain to unravel the far field effects of the Alpine plate tectonic history of Iberia. The modelled thermal histories reveal complex cooling in the Cenozoic, indicative of intermittent denudation. Accelerated cooling events occurred across the Spanish Central System (SCS) from the Middle Eocene to Recent. These accelerated cooling events resulted in up to 2.8±0.9 km of denudation in the western Sierra de Gredos and 3.6±1.0 km in the central and eastern Gredos (assuming a paleogeothermal gradient of 28±5 °C and a surface temperature of 10 °C). The greatest amount of denudation (5.0±1.6 km) occurred in the Sierra de Guadarrama. Accompanying rock uplift was 4.7±1.0 and 5.9±1.6 km in the eastern Gredos and Guadarrama, respectively. Most denudation in the Gredos occurred from the Middle Eocene to the Early Miocene and can be related to the N–S stress field, induced by the Pyrenean compression. In the Guadarrama, the greatest denudation was Pliocene to Recent of age and seems related to the ongoing NW–SE Betic compression. The fact that the formation of the E–W trending Gredos coincides with the N–S Pyrenean compression and the creation of the present day morphology of the NE–SW trending Guadarrama with the younger NW–SE Betic compression, indicates that they record the far field effects of Alpine plate tectonics on Iberia. The trend of pre-existing lineaments was of major importance in influencing the style and magnitude of these of far field effects.     

Compression studies of gibbsite and its high-pressure polymorph

Various X-ray diffraction methods have been applied to study the compression behavior of gibbsite, Al(OH)₃, in diamond cells at room temperature. A phase transformation was found to take place above 3 GPa where gibbsite started to convert to its high-pressure polymorph. The high-pressure (HP) phase is quenchable and coexists with gibbsite at the ambient conditions after being unloaded. This HP phase was identified as nordstrandite based on the diffraction patterns obtained at room pressure by angle dispersive and energy dispersive methods. On the basis of this structural interpretation, the bulk modulus of the two polymorphs, i.e., gibbsite and nordstrandite, could be determined as 85 ± 5 and 70 ± 5 GPa, respectively, by fitting a Birch-Murnaghan equation to the compression data, assuming their K_o ^′ as 4. Molar volume cross-over occurs at 2 GPa, above which the molar volume of nordstrandite is smaller than that of gibbsite. The differences in the molar volume and structure between the two polymorphs are not significant, which accounts for the irreversibility of the phase transition. In gibbsite, the axial compressibility behaves as c/c _o > a/a _o > b/b _o. This is due to the fact that the dioctahedral sheets along the c-axis are held by the relatively weak hydrogen bonding, which results in the greater compressibility along this direction. In nord- strandite, the axial compressibility is b/b _o > c/c _o > a/a _o, which can also be interpreted as resulting from the the existence of hydrogen bonds along the b-axis. Received: 28 September 1998 / Revised, accepted: 22 December 1998     

Discontinuity controlled probabilistic slope failure risk maps of the Altindag (settlement) region in Turkey

The evaluation of potential rock slope problems using stereographic projection techniques known as kinematic analysis is one of the most important parts of a slope stability investigation to be carried out in jointed rock media. In conventional stereoprojection techniques for the assessment of possible rock slope failures, the peak orientations of joints together with the slope geometry and the friction angle of the weakness planes are used. Other possible joint orientations which may be encountered in the rock media are ignored, although they belong to the group of joint peak orientations. In this study, nearly vertical jointed andesites cropped out at the Altindag settlement region in Ankara were studied in order to evaluate the relevance of this ignored discontinuity orientation data on slope stability. As a result, probabilistic risk maps for planar, toppling and wedge failures were produced using the kinematic rules and digital elevation model of the study area. The comparison of the distribution of the actual failures in the area and the probabilistic risk maps prepared for the study area revealed that all of the identified failures are found to be located in the higher risk zones on the probabilistic risk maps.     

FREQUENCY-SELECTIVE DESIGN OF THE KIRCHHOFF MIGRATION OPERATOR1

Integral migration techniques perform a sum over an aperture of input traces to obtain output at a single point. The length of the aperture is limited by a spatial Nyquist criterion, which typically prohibits imaging very steep dips at very high frequencies without generating severe migration artifacts (migration operator aliasing). For time-domain Kirchhoff migration, this can be a fatal shortcoming. The standard way to address this problem is to interpolate traces spatially before migration. This reduces the trace spacing, thereby increasing the frequency content which can be migrated without aliasing at steep dips. An alternative remedy to the operator aliasing problem is to modify the phase response of the Kirchhoff migration operator. This operator is frequency-selective across the migration aperture: it passes all temporal frequencies of the input traces in the innermost portion of the aperture (referring to the shallow dips), and gradually cuts out the higher frequencies as it approaches the outer portion of the aperture. Thus, while all frequencies of the input data contribute to the shallow-dip portion of the migrated image, only the permissible low frequencies of the input data contribute to imaging the steepest dips. Using a simple realization of a frequency-selective Kirchhoff migration operator, this technique is illustrated on a synthetic data set involving greater than vertical dips.     

THE RADIATION OF ACOUSTIC WAVES FROM AN AIR-GUN*

A theoretical model is developed for predicting three important parameters of the pressure pulse radiated by an air-gun, namely the rise time, the amplitude of the initial pulse, and the period of the bubble pulse. A knowledge of these three parameters is essential for the efficient design of air-guns arrays. The prediction of the amplitude of the initial pulse is based on the assumption that the initial pulse is radiated by a spherical source with surface area equal to that of the air-gun ports and not by a spherical source with initial volume equal to that of the air-gun chamber, as has been assumed previously. A simple equation is obtained for predicting the period of the bubble pulsation, taking into account the effect of the air-gun body, boundaries such as the sea-surface and seabed and the presence of a number of identical air-guns placed at the same depth and fired simultaneously.     

Real Time Analysis and Forecasting of Strata Caving Behaviour during Longwall Operations

Summary. Discontinuous manual observations and irregular caving characteristics of roof rocks often lead to improper decisions resulting in accidents and production loss. Hence, systematic monitoring of the hanging roof behind the chock shields is necessary for safe and productive mining operations. A real-time application was successfully implemented in an Indian mine for forecasting of hanging roof behaviour to enhance safety and productivity. This paper reports the functioning of real-time TWAP (time weighted average pressure) analysis in the forecasting of hanging roof behaviour in real time.     

Attitudes and behaviors of undergraduate students toward environmental issues

The studies carried out throughout the world have indicated that there are differences between environmental attitudes and environmentally responsible behaviors of undergraduate students. In what ways the environmental attitudes and behaviors of the students who will protect and manage the resources of the country in the future have changed is an important issue? This study was aimed at determining the environmental attitudes and environmentally responsible behaviors of the undergraduate students of Abant Ýzzet Baysal University toward environmental issues. In addition, the effects of the faculty in which the students are enrolled, locality and gender on the determined environmental attitudes and environmentally responsible behaviors of the students were investigated. The data were gathered from 507 students in 2005. To explain the environmental attitudes and environmentally responsible behaviors of undergraduate students toward environmental issues, factor analysis was used with Varimax Rotation method. To determine the changes of the environmental attitudes and environmentally responsible behaviors of the students with regard to the faculty, locality and gender, one-way analysis of variance was used. According to the results, students highly support the environmental attitudes and highly participate only in consumerism behaviors. Finally, it was determined if faculty and gender had an effect on the environmental attitudes and behaviors of the students.     

Updating the Vegetation Layer of the NZLRI National Database Using Satellite Imagery

This paper describes four methods of rapidly mapping vegetation using satellite imagery, for use in updating the vegetation layer of the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory (NZLRI). The visual interpretation method was tested in a 500 km² study area on the North Island west coast where 3 6 NZLRI vegetation classes occurred. Sixteen distinct groups of NZLRI vegetation classes were identified on Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery, and named “image classes”. Classes were identified by correlating ground data with image colour and texture and by using recognisable landform and cultural features. A limited number of vegetation changes have occurred since NZLRI mapping was first carried out. Updating the vegetation layer of the NZLRI requires recognising and mapping changes and modifying the database. Identifying distinctive groups of NZLRI vegetation classes on satellite imagery will facilitate this.