Empirical assessment of rockfall and debris flow risk along the Karakoram Highway,Pakistan

Natural Hazards - The Karakoram Highway links north Pakistan with southwest China. It passes through unique geomorphological, geological and tectonic setting. This study focused 200-km-long section...     

Stratigraphic correlation and paleoenvironmental analysis of the hydrocarbon-bearing Early Miocene Euphrates and Jeribe formations in the Zagros folded-thrust belt

The Lower Miocene Euphrates and Jeribe formations are considered as the main targets of the Tertiary petroleum system in the western part of the Zagros Basin. The formations consist of carbonates with some evaporate intercalations of the Dhiban Formation. This study utilized data from a field investigation including newly described outcrop sections and newly discovered productive oil fields within the Kirkuk embayment zone of the Zagros fold and thrust belt such as Sarqala and Kurdamir wells. This work is the first to show a stratigraphic correlation and paleoenvironmental interpretation by investigating both well data and new outcrop data. Three depositional environments were identified, (1) an inner and outer ramp belts environment, (2) shoal environment, and (3) restricted lagoon environment. Within these 3 environments, 12 microfacies were identified, based on the distribution of fauna mainly benthonic foraminifera, rock textures, and sedimentary structures. The inferred shallow water depths and variable salinities in both the Euphrates Formation and Jeribe Formation carbonates are consistent with deposition on the inner ramp (restricted lagoon and shoal) environments. Those found in the Euphrates Formation constrained the depositional environment to the restricted lagoon and shoal environment, while the microfacies in the Jeribe Formation provided evidence for an inner ramp and middle to outer ramp belt environments. This study represents the first detailed research that focuses on the stratigraphic correlation and changes in carbonate facies with the main aim to provide a wider understanding of stratigraphy of these carbonate reservoirs throughout the northern part of Iraq.     

Geochemical modeling,fate distribution,and risk exposure of potentially toxic metals in the surface sediment of the Shyok suture zone,northern Pakistan

The objective of the current study was to assess the contamination of potentially toxic metals (PTMs) in weathered surface sediment, along stream tributaries, and surrounding area of the river Chitral, Shyok suture zone district Chitral, Pakistan. To understand the geochemical features of 113 sediment, samples were collected from the Mirkhani and Drosh area. Then, different statistical tools including the geo-accumulation index (Igeo), cluster analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA), and ecological risk assessment (ERA) were used to unravel the origin, intensity, and exposure level of PTMs to control risk and restore the ecosystem within the study area. The results for the PTMs namely nickle (Ni), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and cobalt (Co) in Mirkhani and Drosh were in the following ranges: 10–150, 15–210, 15–250, 0.08–1.00, 10–70, 76–240 and 14–51; and 13–240, 17–210, 15–150, 0.08–0.60, 7–140, 47–150 and 13–36 mg/kg, respectively. In consequence, the potential ecological risk caused by Pb, Ni, Cu, Co, Cr, and Zn is reflected by the percentages of samples with an ecological risk index (ERI) greater than one which were 100%, 91%, 100%, 100%, 92%, and 100%, respectively. However, the overall mean decreasing order of ecological risk of PTMs in the district Chitral was Pb > Ni > Cu > Co > Cr > Zn > Cd. Moreover, the PCA yielded 78% variability which indicated that mineral prospects play an important role in the contamination of sediment. Furthermore, the mineral phases of Pb and Zn suggested supersaturation, while that for Cd revealed unsaturation. The results of Igeo, ERI, and CA indicated contamination of PTMs in the study area. The ERI value of Pb, Ni, Cu, Co, Cr, and Zn was higher than 1 suggesting an ecological risk in the study area. Moreover, the current study showed the dominance of geogenic contamination with major contributions from ultramafic rock and known mineral prospects. Therefore, contaminated sediment of the Shyok suture zone is extremely detrimental to the aquatic ecosystem of the study area.     

Elevation Dependency of Climatic Variables Trends in the Last Decades in the Snow-Fed and Glacier-Fed Vakhsh River Basin,Central Asia

Water Resources - Given the various altitudes of the Vakhsh River Basin (VRB) in Central Asia, global warming has significant implications for water resources and environmental changes as most snow...     

Mineralogy,Fluid inclusions and stable isotopes study constraints on genesis of sulfide ore mineral,Qaladiza area Qandil Series,Iraqi Kurdistan Region

The metalized quartz veins is located 5 km west of the Iraqi-Iran border in the Qandil range. The quartz veins included sulfide and oxide ore minerals which mostly occur in the form of open-space filling texture. The polymetallic mesothermal quartz veins are hosted by marble and phyllite rocks. Within these veins, multiphase, open-space filling and crustiform, bedding to massive textures with pyrite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite,galena, sphalerite, tenorite, azurite, and malachite are observed. Selected samples were analyzed by using ore microscopy and electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Ore minerals show replacement textures. The paragenesis diagram was made from a careful study of polished sections and three stages have been identified including pre-stage mineralization, mineralization, and post-mineralization stages.Fluid inclusion microthermometric analysis of 15 primary inclusions of quartz veins indicated that ore mineralization at the studied area were formed by a mesothermal, low to medium density, and dilute NaCl-type fluid system. The source of the fluid is mostly metamorphic which became mixed with other fluids later. Hydrothermal fluids of the selected studied area were classified into two groups based on microthermometry study; the first group had a higher homogenization temperature (335.5 to 386.8 °C) than the second group (194.1 to 298.5 °C), with a small difference in salinity between them. Nearly each group has different complexes including chloride and sulfide complexes respectively. The results of stable sulfur isotope of the ore minerals (chalcopyrite and sphalerite) confirmed the sedimentary and/or metamorphic origin of the ore mineralization.     

Groundwater flow modelling of Hindon-Yamuna interfluve region, Western Uttar Pradesh

The study area Hindon -Yamuna interfluve region is underlain by a thick pile of unconsolidated Quaternary alluvial deposits and host multiple aquifer system. Excessive pumping in the last few decades, mainly for irrigation, has resulted in a significant depletion of the aquifer. Therefore, proper groundwater management of Hindon-Yamuna interfluve region is necessary. For effective groundwater management of a basin it is essential that careful zone budget study should be carried out. Keeping this in view, groundwater flow modelling was attempted to simulate the behavior of flow system and evaluate zone budget. Visual MODFLOW, pro 4.1 is used in this study to simulate groundwater flow. The model simulates groundwater flow over an area of about 1345 km² with a uniform grid size of 1000 m by 1000 m and contains three layers, 58 rows and 37 columns. The horizontal flows, seepage losses from unlined canals, recharge from rainfall and irrigation return flows were applied using different boundary packages available in Visual MODFLOW, pro 4.1. The river — aquifer interaction was simulated using the river boundary package. Simulated pumping rates of 500 m³/day, 1000 m³/day and 1500 m³/day were used in the pumping well package.The zone budget for the steady state condition of study area indicated that the total annual direct recharge is 416.10 MCM and the total annual groundwater draft through pumping is of the order of 416.63 MCM. Two scenarios were considered to predict aquifer system response under different conditions. Sensitivity analysis on model parameters was conducted to quantitatively evaluate the impact of varying model inputs. Based on the results obtained from the sensitivity analysis, it was found that the model is more sensitive to hydraulic conductivity and recharge parameter. Present study deals with importance of groundwater modelling for planning, design, implementation and management of groundwater resources.     

Absorption of metals on sedimentary and peat humic acids

Humic acids isolated from marine sediments were found to be effective in absorption of various metal ions through chelation, cation exchange and surface adsorption. The quantities of metal ions complexed varied from 40 to 205 mg/g of organic matter. In the presence of equal concentrations of Co, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn in the reaction media, humic acid and peatmoss, a rich source of humic compounds, showed preferential absorption for Cu. Copper constituted more than 50% of the metal ions complexed by organic matter. As compared with the other metal ions, its bonding strength was very firm because it could not be displaced by ferric ion or cation exchange reagents.Peatmoss, a rich source of humic acid, was found to absorb significant quantities of various metal ions. Under laboratory conditions each kg of peat absorbed about 1500 mg of various metal ions from solutions containing equal concentrations of Co, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn. However, in the field trials with sea water, absorption of metals was limited to Zn (28.7 mg/kg), Cu (3.66 mg/kg) and Fe (2.0 mg/kg). Under-saturation of sea water for transition metals and super-saturation for alkali and alkaline earth metals appears to be a bottleneck in the effective utilization of peat as a means of recovery of metals from sea water.     

Socio-political and ecological stresses on traditional pastoral systems: A review

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Pastoralism is a viable socio-economic system-shaped by landless and agro-pastoral communities in many pastoral regions of the world. This system is mainly based...     

A Generic Closed-Loop Contaminant Treatment System Package for MODFLOW 6

We present a contaminant treatment system (CTS) package for MODFLOW 6 that facilitates the simulation of pump-and-treat systems for groundwater remediation. Using the “nonintrusive” MODFLOW 6 application programming interface (API) capability, the CTS package can balance flows between extraction and injection wells within the outer flow solution loop and applies blended concentration/mass treatment efficiency within the outer transport solution loop. The former can be important when the requested extraction rate cannot be satisfied by the current simulated groundwater system conditions, while the latter can be important for simulating incomplete/imperfect treatment schemes. Furthermore, the CTS package allows users to temporally vary all aspects of a simulated CTS system, including the configuration and location of injection and extraction wells, and the CTS efficiency. This flexibility combined with the API-based implementation provide a generic and general CTS package that can be applied across the wide range of MODFLOW 6 simulation options and that evolves in step with MODFLOW 6 code modifications and advancements without needing to update the CTS package itself.