The Aghajari (Upper Fars) Formation in the Folded Zagros Zone, Iran:Insights to Identify Facies, Architectural Elements, Fluvial Systems,Petrography and Provenance

The Aghajari Formation, called also the Upper Fars, develops throughout the Folded Zagros Zone and its thickness in the type section in southwest of Iran is 2966 meters. To analyze the sedimentary basin of this Formation, lithofacies, architectural elements and petrofacies of the related deposits in a section in southeast of Sarvestan in Fars Province of Iran with a thickness of 2221.45 meters were examined. Microscopically studying thin sections, the petrography and the occurrence of the deposits were determined. In this section, 16 lithofacies, 10 architectural elements and 2 sandstone petrofacies were identified. The lithofacies were divided into two major and minor groups, in which the major lithofacies consist of coarse-grained (Gh, Gp, Gt and Gm), medium-grained (Sh, Sp, St, Sl, Sm, Sr and Ss and fine-grained ones (Fm, Fl and Fsm), and the minor lithofacies were evaporative and mixed silisiclastic-carbonate. The identified architectural elements are CH, SB, GB, LA, DA, CR, CS, LV, LS, CH (FF) and FF. By combining evidences from facies analysis and architectural elements together, the Aghajari Formation was divided into three parts in which the related sedimentation environments, from top to bottom, are gravel, gravel-sand and fine-grained meandering river respectively. There have also been playas and shoreface in the lower part. Based on petrography, the sandstones of this formation were classified into two groups: litharenite and sublitharenite. The origin of these deposits (sandstones) was appointed to the recycled orogeny and the source of quartz is low and medium to high metamorphic rank. Using the field evidences, the paleocurrent direction was achieved indicating the direction of the paleocurrent from northwest to southeast at the time of deposition. It is hoped that these data can be used in the interpretation of the basin and reconstruction of the paleogeography in the local and regional scales.     

Prediction of drought in dry lands through feedforward artificial neural network abilities

Drought is one of the most important natural hazards in Iran. It is especially more prevalent in arid and hyper arid regions where there are serious limitations in regard to providing sufficient water resources. On the other hand, drought modeling and particularly its prediction can play important role in water resources management under conditions of lack of sufficient water resources. Therefore, in this study, drought prediction in a hyper arid location of Iran (Ardakan region) has been surveyed based on the abilities of artificial neural. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) in different time scales (3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 monthly time series) computed based on the data gathered from four rain gauge stations. After evaluation and testing of different artificial neural networks (ANN) structures, gradient descent back propagation (traingd) network showed higher abilities than others. Then, the predictions of SPI time series with different monthly lag times (1:12 months) were tested. Generally, drought prediction by ANNs in the Ardakan region has shown considerable results with the correlation coefficient (R) more than 0.79 and in the most cases and it rises more than 0.90, which indicates the ANN’s ability of drought prediction.     

Groundwater arsenic contamination in Ganga–Meghna–Brahmaputra plain, its health effects and an approach for mitigation

The authors’ survey of the Ganga–Meghna–Brahmaputra (GMB) plain (area 569,749 km²; population >500 million) over the past 20 years and analysis of more than 220,000 hand tube-well water samples revealed groundwater arsenic contamination in the floodplains of the Ganga–Brahmaputra river (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Assam) in India and the Padma–Meghna–Brahmaputra river in Bangladesh. On average, 50 % of the water samples contain arsenic above the World Health Organization guideline value of 10 μg/L in India and Bangladesh. More than 100 million people in the GMB plain are potentially at risk. The authors’ medical team screened around 155,000 people from the affected villages and registered 16,000 patients with different types of arsenical skin lesions. Arsenic neuropathy and adverse pregnancy outcomes have been recorded. Infants and children drinking arsenic-contaminated water are believed to be at high risk. About 45,000 biological samples analyzed from arsenic-affected villages of the GMB plain revealed an elevated level of arsenic present in patients as well as non-patients, indicating that many are sub-clinically affected. In West Bengal and Bangladesh, there are huge surface water in rivers, wetlands, and flooded river basins. In the arsenic-affected GMB plain, the crisis is not over water scarcity but about managing the available water resources.     

Assessment of bioclimatic comfort conditions based on Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) using the RayMan Model in Iran

In this study thermal comfort conditions are analyzed to determine possible thermal perceptions during different months in Iran through the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET). The monthly PET values produced using the RayMan Model ranged from ?7.6°C to 46.8°C. Over the winter months the thermal comfort condition (18–23°C) were concentrated in southern coastal areas along the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. Most of the country experienced comfort conditions during the spring months, in particular in April, while during the summer months of July and August no thermal comfort conditions were observed. In November coastal areas of the Caspian Sea had the same physiological stress level of thermal comfort as April. The map produced showing mean annual PET conditions demonstrated the greatest spatial distribution of comfortable levels in the elevation range from 1000 to 2000 meter a.s.l., with annual temperatures of 12–20°C and annual precipitation of under 200 mm. The statistical relationship between PET conditions and each controlling parameter revealed a significant correlation in areas above 2000 meter, annual temperature over 20°C and annual precipitation of 200–400 mm with a correlation coefficient (R ²) of 0.91, 0.97 and 0.96, respectively.     

Surface water quality contamination source apportionment and physicochemical characterization at the upper section of the Jakara Basin, Nigeria

The present study investigates the surface water quality of three important tributaries of Jakara Basin, northwestern Nigeria to provide an overview of the relationship and sources of physicochemical and biological parameters. A total of 405 water samples were collected from 27 sampling points and analyzed for 13 parameters: dissolved oxygen (DO), 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), pH, ammonia-nitrogen (NH₃NL), dissolved solids (DS), total solids (TS), nitrates (NO₃), chloride (Cl), phosphates (PO₄), Escherichia coli (E. coli) and fecal coliform bacteria (FCB). Pearson’s product–moment correlation matrix and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to distinguish the main pollution sources in the basin. Four varimax components were extracted from PCA, which explained 84.86, 83.60, and 78.69 % of the variation in the surface water quality for Jakara, Tsakama, and Gama-Kwari Rivers, respectively. Strong positive loading included BOD₅, COD, NH₃NL, E. coli, and FCB with negative loading on DO attribute to a domestic waste water pollution source. One-way ANOVA revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean of the three water bodies (p?>?0.05). It is therefore recommended that the government should be more effective in controlling the point source of pollution in the area.     

Geomorphological investigation of possible impact evidences for the crater-shaped structure of Zirouki in Samsour Desert, SE Iran

Despite the extensive records on geomorphological studies in Iran, meteorite impact craters have so far not been considered in to account. Based on both remote sensing technique and field work we have recognized the circular structure of Zirouki crater in the Samsour desert, southeast of Iran, which if confirmed as an impact structure, would be the third impact structure candidate in the Middle East after the Wabar craters in Saudia Arabia and Jebel Waqf as Suwwan in Jordan. Geomorphological investigation of the possible impact structure of Zirouki crater was done based on multi criteria methodology including of geological, topographical, geophysical and petrographical studies. Among different studies, topographical investigation indicated that the crater shape morphology was quite obvious with a central uplift projection; as well geophysical pattern provided very strong evidence for possible impact structure, indicating the presence of circular negative gravity anomaly at the whole of the crater.     

Assessment of drought hazard impact on wheat cultivation using standardized precipitation index in Iran

The assessment of drought hazard impacts on wheat cultivation as a strategic crop in Iran is essential for making mitigation plans to reduce the impact of drought. Standardized precipitation index has gained importance in recent years as a potential drought indicator and is being used more frequently for assessment of drought hazard in many countries. In the present study, the calculated standardized precipitation index for 48 stations dataset in the 30-year time scale fulfilled 30 statistical matrices. The drought hazard index map was produced by sum overlaying the spatial representations of 30 statistical matrices and categorized into four levels of low, moderate, high, and very high, which demonstrated probability of drought occurrences of 10–20 %, 20–30 %, 30–40 %, and 40–50 %, respectively. Finally, after the general division of zonal statistics in drought hazard index map of Iran, major drought hazard zones were geographically classified into five zones. The statistical analysis showed a significant correlation (R ²?=?0.701 to 0.648) between drought occurrences and wheat cultivation including surface area and total production for these drought hazard zones.     

Determination of optimum relaxation coefficient using finite difference method for groundwater flow

Solution of Laplace’s equation can be done by iteration methods likes Jacobi, Gauss–Seidel, and successive over-relaxation (SOR). There is no new knowledge about the relaxation coefficient (ω) in SOR method. In this paper, we used SOR for solving Laplace’s differential equation with emphasis to obtaining the optimum (minimum) number of iterations with variations of the relaxation coefficient (ω). For this purpose, a code in FORTRAN language has been written to show the solution of a set of equations and its number of iterations. The results demonstrate that the optimum value of ω with minimum iterations is achieved between 1.7 and 1.9. Also, with increasing β?=??x/?y from 0.25 to 10, the number of iterations reduced and the optimum value is obtained for β?=?2.     

Relocation processing of selected earthquakes in the Gulf of Aqaba region

Earthquakes in the Gulf of Aqaba were compiled from the Jordan Seismological Observatory bulletins, Saudi Arabia (SNSN, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology), and Egypt (National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, Helwan) sources and were relocated after reexamining the P and S arrival times, testing the efficiency of stations used to determine the location of Aqaba events, calculating the average value of V _p/V _s, and choosing the best crustal model for the study area. The earthquake epicenters are distributed along the eastern side of the Gulf of Aqaba.