Deep-ocean piezometer probe technology for geotechnical investigations

Two single-sensor piezometer probes, 8 mm in diameter, were developed for deep-ocean geotechnical investigations. These probes were tested in a hyperbaric chamber pressurized to 55 MPa (8000 psi). Testing was performed for a period of five weeks under high hydrostatic pressure with the probes inserted in reconstituted illitic marine sediment. Small differential pore-water pressures were generated in response to both mechanically and thermally generated forcing functions. During deep-ocean simulated pressure tests, the sensors exhibited excellent sensitivity and stability. These developments in piezometer-probe technology provide a quantitative means of assessing important geotechnical parameters of fine-grained seabed deposits.     

Generalized strain probing of constitutive models

Advanced material constitutive models are used to describe complex soil behaviour. These models are often used in the solution of boundary value problems under general loading conditions. Users and developers of constitutive models need to methodically investigate the represented soil response under a wide range of loading conditions. This paper presents a systematic procedure for probing constitutive models. A general incremental strain probe, 6D hyperspherical strain probe (HSP), is introduced to examine rate‐independent model response under all possible strain loading conditions. Two special cases of HSP, the true triaxial strain probe (TTSP) and the plane‐strain strain probe (PSSP), are used to generate 3‐D objects that represent model stress response to probing. The TTSP, PSSP and general HSP procedures are demonstrated using elasto‐plastic models. The objects resulting from the probing procedure readily highlight important model characteristics including anisotropy, yielding, hardening, softening and failure. The PSSP procedure is applied to a Neural Network (NN) based constitutive model. It shows that this probing is especially useful in understanding NN constitutive models, which do not contain explicit functions for yield surface, hardening, or anisotropy. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A one-dimensional model for the interaction between continental-scale ice sheets and atmospheric stationary waves

 The great continental ice sheets of the Pleistocene represented a significant topographic obstacle to the westerly winds in northern midlatitudes. This work explores how consequent changes in the atmospheric stationary wave pattern might have affected the shape and growth of the ice sheets themselves. A one dimensional (1-D) model is developed which permits an examination of the types and magnitudes of the feedbacks that might be expected. When plausible temperature perturbations are introduced at the ice-sheet margin which are proportional to the stationary wave amplitude, the equilibrium shape of the ice sheet is significantly altered, and depends on the sign of the perturbation. The proposed feedback also affects the response of the ice sheet to time-varying climate forcing. The results suggest that the evolution of a continental-scale ice sheet with a land-based margin may be significantly determined by the changes it induces in the atmospheric circulation. Received: 1 October 1999 / Accepted: 17 July 2000     

Theoretical accuracy of synthetic aperture sonar micronavigation using a displaced phase-center antenna

The Cramer-Rao lower bounds on the cross-track translation and rotation of a displaced phase-center antenna (DPCA) in the slant range plane between two successive pings (known as DPCA sway and yaw in what follows) are computed, assuming statistically homogeneous backscatter. These bounds are validated using experimental data from a 118-182-kHz sonar, showing an accuracy of the order of 20 microns on the ping-to-ping cross-track displacements. Next, the accuracy required on the DPCA sway and yaw in order to achieve a given synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) beampattern specification, specified by the expected SAS array gain, is computed as a function of the number P of pings in the SAS. Higher accuracy is required when P increases to counter the accumulation of errors during the integration of the elementary ping-to-ping estimates: the standard deviation must decrease as P/sup -1/2/ for the DPCA sway and P/sup -3/2/ for the yaw. Finally, by combining the above results, the lower bounds on DPCA micronavigation accuracy are established. These bounds set an upper limit to the SAS length achievable in practice. The maximum gain Q in cross-range resolution achievable by a DPCA micronavigated SAS is computed as a function of the key SAS parameters. These theoretical predictions are compared with simulations and experimental results.     

Metamorphism in Archaean greenstone belts: calculated fluid compositions and implications for gold mineralization

An inescapable consequence of the metamorphism of greenstone belt sequences is the release of a large volume of metamorphic fluid of low salinity with chemical characteristics controlled by the mineral assemblages involved in the devolatilization reactions. For mafic and ultramafic sequences, the composition of fluids released at upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies conditions for the necessary relatively hot geotherm corresponds to those inferred for greenstone gold deposits (X_CO2= 0.2–0.3). This result follows from the calculation of mineral equilibria in the model system CaO–MgO–FeO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O–CO₂, using a new, expanded, internally consistent dataset. Greenstone metamorphism cannot have involved much crustal over-thickening, because very shallow levels of greenstone belts are preserved. Such orogeny can be accounted for if compressive deformation of the crust is accompanied by thinning of the mantle lithosphere. In this case, the observed metamorphism, which was contemporaneous with deformation, is of the low-P high-T type. For this type of metamorphism, the metamorphic peak should have occurred earlier at deeper levels in the crust; i.e. the piezothermal array should be of the ‘deeper-earlier’type. However, at shallow crustal levels, the piezothermal array is likely to have been of ‘deeper-later’type, as a consequence of erosion. Thus, while the lower crust reached maximum temperatures, and partially melted to produce the observed granites, mid-crustal levels were releasing fluids prograde into shallow crustal levels that were already retrograde. We propose that these fluids are responsible for the gold mineralization. Thus, the contemporaneity of igneous activity and gold mineralization is a natural consequence of the thermal evolution, and does not mean that the mineralization has to be a consequence of igneous processes. Upward migration of metamorphic fluid, via appropriate structurally controlled pathways, will bring the fluid into contact with mineral assemblages that have equilibrated with a fluid with significantly lower X_CO2. These assemblages are therefore grossly out of equilibrium with the fluid. In the case of infiltrated metabasic rocks, intense carbonation and sulphidation is predicted. If, as seems reasonable, gold is mobilized by the fluid generated by devolatilization, then the combination of processes proposed, most of which are an inevitable consequence of the metamorphism, leads to the formation of greenstone gold deposits predominantly from metamorphic fluids.     

Dissolution and depletion of ferromagnesian minerals from Holocene tephra layers in an acid bog,New Zealand,and implications for tephra correlation

This study examines the depletion of ferromagnesian silicate minerals from a sequence of thin, distal, mainly rhyolitic tephra layers of Holocene age preserved in an acid peat bog (Kopouatai), North Island, New Zealand. The rate of such depletion has been fast, as indicated by the complete loss of biotite from one tephra layer (Kaharoa Tephra), in which it is normally dominant, in only ca. 770 yr. Chemical dissolution is advocated as the likely cause for the depletion, with amphiboles and other mineral grains commonly showing etch pits, microcaves, and other characteristic surface solution features. Theoretical thermodynamic and kinetic models show a marked increase in the rate of dissolution of all ferromagnesian minerals under conditions of low pH (< 4), but that where silica concentrations in solution are high the relative proportions of minerals remaining are unaffected. However, where concentrations of dissolved silica are low, as in most bog environments, the relative proportions of ferromagnesian minerals are affected as well as absolute amounts being decreased. Amphiboles are depleted relative to pyroxenes, consistent with kinetic studies. The results show that the identification and correlation of tephras on the basis of relative abundances of ferromagnesian minerals alone may be unreliable, and emphasise the need to use multiple criteria in such studies.     

Response of circular footings and anchor plates in non-homogeneous elastic soils

The axisymmetric elastic response of circular footings and anchor plates in a linearly non-homogeneous elastic soil is analysed. It is assumed that footings/anchors are flexible and subjected to axisymmetric vertical loads. The response of the footing/anchor is modelled by using the classical Poisson–Kirchhoff thin plate theory. A variational technique is used to analyse the interaction problem. A representation for the contact stress is established by using a fundamental solution corresponding to a unit vertical pressure acting over an annular region in the interior of the non-homogeneous soil. The fundamental solution can be derived by using rigorous analytical procedures. The influence of the footing flexibility and the degree of soil non-homogeneity on the displacements, bending moments and contact stresses of a surface footing is examined over a wide range of governing parameters. In the case of anchor plates the influence of depth of embedment, degree of soil non-homogeneity and anchor flexibility on the anchor displacement is investigated.     

A sapphirine–phlogopite–cordierite paragenesis in a low-P amphibolite facies terrain, Arunta Inlier, Australia

Summary Silica-undersaturated phlogopite schists from the Cackleberry Metamorphics, Arunta Inlier, central Australia, preserve relatively low-temperature sapphirine-bearing parageneses that developed during low-pressure upper amphibolite facies metamorphism. Peak metamorphic phlogopite–cordierite–sapphirine assemblages are interpreted to have formed during the same event recorded in nearby metapelites, at c.3 kbar and 650–700 °C. Initial cooling of the terrain resulted in the breakdown of sapphirine to corundum–chlorite–phlogopite and corundum–spinel–chlorite assemblages. Further retrogression at greenschist facies conditions resulted in the replacement of sapphirine by diaspore–chlorite intergrowths. The reaction textures are consistent with a near-isobaric heating-cooling path at low-pressure, and provide evidence for the stability of sapphirine at c.700 °C at low pressures in rocks of an appropriate Mg- and Fe³⁺-rich bulk composition. Received August 15, 2001 accepted December 27, 2001     

A chum scale pattern analyzer and stock identification based onscale patterns by discriminant function and power spectrum analysis

An optoelectronic instrument has been developed to analyze the scales and scale patterns of chum salmon. This device, with specially developed software, has been used to study populations of salmon. Fish from two different rivers approximately 200 km apart from each other were grouped with an accuracy of 82% or more. Machine-measured ages coincided with those derived from visual estimation in approximately 80% of the fish sampled. These results suggest the proposed system could be of practical use for measuring and analyzing the scale patterns that allow one to accurately measure both natural and farmed populations of salmon     

Comparison of results from several AOGCMs for global and regional sea-level change 1900–2100

 Sea-level rise is an important aspect of climate change because of its impact on society and ecosystems. Here we present an intercomparison of results from ten coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) for sea-level changes simulated for the twentieth century and projected to occur during the twenty first century in experiments following scenario IS92a for greenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols. The model results suggest that the rate of sea-level rise due to thermal expansion of sea water has increased during the twentieth century, but the small set of tide gauges with long records might not be adequate to detect this acceleration. The rate of sea-level rise due to thermal expansion continues to increase throughout the twenty first century, and the projected total is consequently larger than in the twentieth century; for 1990–2090 it amounts to 0.20–0.37 m. This wide range results from systematic uncertainty in modelling of climate change and of heat uptake by the ocean. The AOGCMs agree that sea-level rise is expected to be geographically non-uniform, with some regions experiencing as much as twice the global average, and others practically zero, but they do not agree about the geographical pattern. The lack of agreement indicates that we cannot currently have confidence in projections of local sea-level changes, and reveals a need for detailed analysis and intercomparison in order to understand and reduce the disagreements. Received: 1 September 2000 / Accepted: 20 April 2001