Assessment of groundwater recharge and water fluxes of the Guarani Aquifer System, Brazil

The groundwater recharge and water fluxes of the Guarani Aquifer System in the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil were assessed through a numeric model. The study area (6,748 km²) comprises Jacaré-Guaçú and Jacaré-Pepira River watersheds, tributaries of the Tietê River in the central region of the state. GIS based tools were used in the storage, processing and analysis of data. Main hydrologic phenomena were selected, leading to a groundwater conceptual model, taking into account the significant outcrops occurring in the study area. Six recharge zones were related to the geologic formation and structures of the semi-confined and phreatic aquifer. The model was calibrated against the baseflows and static water levels of the wells. The results emphasize the strong interaction of groundwater flows between watersheds and the groundwater inflow into the rivers. It has been concluded that lateral groundwater exchanges between basins, the deep discharges to the regional system, and well exploitation were not significant aquifer outflows when compared to the aquifer recharge. The results have shown that the inflows from the river into the aquifer are significant and have the utmost importance since the aquifer is potentially more vulnerable in these places.     

Ages (U–Pb SHRIMP and LA ICPMS) and stratigraphic evolution of the Neoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary successions from the extensional Camaquã Basin,Southern Brazil

During the Ediacaran, southern Brazil was the site of multiple episodes of volcanism and sedimentation, which are best preserved in the 3000 km² Camaquã Basin. The interlayered sedimentary and volcanic rocks record tectonic events and paleoenvironmental changes in a more than 10 km-thick succession. In this contribution, we report new U–Pb and Sm–Nd geochronological constraints for the 605 to 580 Ma Bom Jardim Group, the 570 Ma Acampamento Velho Formation, and a newly-recognized 544 Ma volcanism. Depositional patterns of these units reveal the transition from a restricted, fault-bounded basin into a wide, shallow basin. The expansion of the basin and diminished subsidence rates are demonstrated by increasing areal distribution and compressed isopachs and increasing onlap of sediments onto the basement to the west. The Sm–Nd isotopic composition of the volcanic rocks indicates mixed sources, including crustal rocks from the adjacent basement. Both Neoproterozoic and Paleoproterozoic sources are indicated for the western part of the basin, whereas only the older Paleoproterozoic signature can be discerned in the eastern part of the basin.     

The Diamantina Monazite: A New Low‐Th Reference Material for Microanalysis

Most monazite reference materials (RMs) for in situ U‐Pb geochronology are rich in Th; however, many hydrothermal ore deposits contain monazite that is low in trace element contents, including Th, U and Pb. Because of potential problems with matrix effects and the lack of appropriate matrix‐matched RMs, such variations can bias dating of hydrothermal deposits. In this paper, we describe a polycrystalline low‐U and low‐Th Diamantina monazite from the Espinhaço Range, SE Brazil. It has a U‐Pb ID‐TIMS weighted mean ²⁰⁷Pb^*/²³⁵U ratio of 0.62913 ± 0.00079, ²⁰⁶Pb^*/²³⁸U of 0.079861 ± 0.000088 and ²⁰⁷Pb^*/²⁰⁶Pb^* of 0.057130 ± 0.000031, yielding a weighted mean ²⁰⁶Pb^*/²³⁸U date of 495.26 ± 0.54 Ma (95% c.l.). In situ dates acquired with different methods (LA‐(Q, SF, MC)‐ICP‐MS and SIMS) are within uncertainty of the ID‐TIMS data. U‐Pb LA‐(Q, MC)‐ICP‐MS runs, using Diamantina as a primary RM, reproduced the ages of other established RMs within < 1% deviation. The LA‐MC‐ICP‐MS analyses yielded homogeneous Sm‐Nd isotopic compositions (¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd = 0.511427 ± 23, 2s; ¹⁴⁷Sm/¹⁴⁴Nd = 0.1177 ± 13, 2s) and εNd_(495 Ma) of ?18.7 ± 0.5 (2s). SIMS oxygen isotope determinations showed measurement reproducibility better than ± 0.3‰ (2s), confirming Diamantina's relative homogeneity at test portion masses below 1 ng.     

Detecting Randomness in Spatial Point Patterns: A “Stat-Geometrical” Alternative

There are several methods to test the hypothesis of complete spatial randomness of point patterns. This work involves a new geometrical-based strategy to detect spatial arrangements, which takes into account both Euclidean and angular distances, defining a triangle-based network. An asymptotic test based on the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic is proposed to accommodate this situation. To assess the usefulness of this method (Stat-Geo), simulations based on Monte Carlo procedures, conducted using SPLUS, give satisfactory results with a high degree of accuracy. As expected, the new technique proposed in this paper, performs better than traditional ones like distance-based or angle-based, since more information (combining distance and angle) is introduced in the decision-making system. This approach is a very simple way to offer high efficiency results for a low computational cost. Furthermore, this alternative method allows barycentric interpolation of the unsampled points into a two-dimensional simplex (triangular) framework.     

Late-Pleistocene and mid-Holocene environmental changes in highland valley head areas of Santa Catarina state, Southern Brazil

Low resolution of the continental sedimentary record is a common source of skepticism about the application of geomorphology and sedimentology to Quaternary studies. In spite of this, when supported by independent proxy data, geomorphology and sedimentology may favor palaeo-hydrologic interpretation. This paper associates geomorphologic, stratigraphic, sedimentologic, isotopic, palynologic and geochronologic data. The research was conducted in valley head sites in southern Brazilian highlands, under mild subtropical climate. The results point to environmental changes, the ages of which coincide to Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 5b, 3, 2 and 1. Although late-Pleistocene temperatures and precipitation were lower than those of today, the study valley heads seem to have sustained locally wetter environments, which fed shallow soil–water saturated zones. These saturated zones are believed to have expanded during transitions between stadial and interstadial states, contributing to hillslope erosion and sedimentation regardless of the sign of the climatic change. The interior organization of holocenic slope-wash deposits suggests that the mid-Holocene climate was drier than today’s and was under the influence of seasonally contrasting precipitation regimes. The predominance of overland flow-related sedimentary records suggests that an excess of precipitation over evaporation influenced local palaeo-hydrology. This palaeo-hydrologic condition seems to have been recurrent and also explains the alternating periods of pedogenesis and sedimentation.     

U–Pb SHRIMP and Sm–Nd geochronology of granite–gneiss complexes and implications for the evolution of the Central Brazil Archean Terrain

The paper is a first attempt to unravel the Archean multi-stage metaplutonic assemblage of the Meso/Neoarchean terrane of the State of Goiás, Central Brazil, by means of the U–Pb SHRIMP zircon and Sm–Nd techniques. Two stages of granitic plutonism, spanning ca. 140 m.y., were precisely established for the accretion of the gneiss protoliths. The earliest stage embraces tonalitic to granodioritic and minor granitic orthogneisses with Nd juvenile signature, emplaced from ca. 2845 to ca. 2785 Ma, interpreted as the roots of an early arc. Inherited zircon xenocrysts and Nd isotopic data indicate that the juvenile magmas underwent contamination from a sialic crust as old as 3.3 Ga, from which there are, so far, no recognizable exposures. The second stage comprises granodioritic to granitic gneisses and lasted from ca. 2711 to 2707 Ma. Based on their Nd isotopic signatures and on inherited zircon crystals, their protoliths are interpreted as dominantly crustal-derived. The SHRIMP data from zircon crystals did not depict a Paleoproterozoic overprinting on the Archean gneisses, which is due to geological processes with prevailing temperatures below the isotopic stability of the U/Pb/Th system in the mineral. These processes comprise crustal extension and intrusion of a mafic dike swarm at ca. 2.3 Ga, followed by low grade events mostly related to shear zones between ca. 2.15 and 2.0 Ga. The study also revealed the extent of the Pan- African tectono-thermal overprinting on the Archean orthogneisses. Most of the zircon populations show morphological evidence of metamorphic peripheral recrystallization dated between ca. 750 and 550 Ma. One of the banded gneisses with a crystallization age of ca. 2700 Ma (2σ) has a more complex zircon population including magmatic new grains, which yielded a precise 206Pb/238U crystallization age of 590 ± 10 Ma (2σ). These new grains are interpreted to have grown in anatectic veins injected within strongly sheared gneiss.The data characterize a widespread Pan-African-aged metamorphic overprinting, culminating with localized anatexis of the Archean orthogneisses.     

Petrographic and seismic evidence for the depositional setting of giant turbidite reservoirs and the paleogeographic evolution of Campos Basin,offshore Brazil

The paleogeographic evolution of Campos Basin, a major oil province of Brazil, during the deposition of its giant turbidite reservoirs, was reinterpreted based on the integration of quantitative sandstone petrography and structural analysis of regional 3D seismic data. The major detrital compositional trends indicate that the geodynamic evolution of the continental margin, rather than global eustatic sea-level fluctuations, has exerted the main control on sand supply to the deepwater systems. This control was imposed by the interaction of three geodynamic processes: (i) escarpment retreat of the coastal mountain ridges, (ii) mantle plume-related dynamic uplift and magmatic activity, and (iii) tectonic reactivation of major basement fault-zones. The pattern of distribution of compositional and textural parameters within the turbidite sequences indicated that the sand supply to deepwater was also constrained by high-frequency stratigraphic processes of the climate Milankovitch band. This new approach to the controls on the formation of the sand-rich, deepwater systems in Campos Basin has a key importance for the generation of realistic models for the exploration of new turbidite reservoirs and for the optimized development of producing turbidite oilfields in such a world-class hydrocarbon province. The proposed integrated methodology can help to unravel the controls on the deposition of deepwater sand-rich, deepwater reservoirs in other divergent margin settings.     

Using fluidized bed and flume experiments to quantify cohesion development from aging and drainage

Temporal variations in soil erosion resistance are often the result of decreased soil cohesion due to physical disruption followed by a regain of soil strength through a process called aging, stabilization or consolidation. The goal of this study was to quantify changes in soil cohesion due to aging and subsurface hydrologic condition using a fluidized bed method. A flume experiment was also used to verify that findings from the fluidized bed experiment translated into measurable changes in soil erodibility. Tests were performed on three different soils (a Miami soil, a Cecil soil and Crosby–Miami soil complex). Changes in soil cohesion due to aging and drainage state were successfully detected by the fluidized bed technique. For all soils tested, cohesion developed in a two‐stage process where an increase in cohesion with aging duration immediately after the soil was rewetted, was followed by a decrease in cohesion which often started after 24 h of aging. When soils were aged at field capacity, the resulting cohesion measured by the fluidized bed method was on average 3.13 times higher than that measured when aging was performed at saturation. Trends in soil rill erodibility K_r with aging duration measured in the flume experiment were consistent with the two‐stage pattern observed in soil cohesion estimates but the legacy effect of suction applied at field capacity faded after 72 h of aging. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical study on the effect of submerged depth on the horizontal plate wave energy converter

The growing search for clean and renewable energy sources has given rise to the studies of exploring sea wave energy. This paper is concerned with the numerical evaluation of the main operational principle of a submerged plate employed for the conversion of wave energy into electrical one. The numerical model used to solve the conservation equations of mass, momentum and transport of volume fraction is based on the finite volume method （FVM）. In order to tackle with the flow of mixture of air-water and its interaction with the device, the multiphase model volume of fluid （VOF） is employed. The purpose of this study is the evaluation of a numerical model for improvement of the knowledge about the submerged plate wave energy converter, as well as the investigation of the effect of the distance from the plate to the bottom of the sea （HP） on the performance of the converter. The simulations for several distances of the plate from the seabed show that the optimal efficiency is 64%, which is obtained for HP=0.53 m （88% of the depth）. This efficiency is 17% larger than that found in the worst case （HP=0.46 m, 77% of the depth）.