Geochemistry and Genesis of Iron-apatite Ore in the Khanlogh Deposit, Eastern Cenozoic Quchan-Sabzevar Magmatic Arc, NE Iran

The Khanlogh deposit in the Cenozoic Quchan-Sabzevar magmatic belt, NE Iran, is hosted by Oligocene granodioritic rock. The Khanlogh intrusive body is I-type granitoid of the calc-alkaline series. The orebodies are vein, veinlet, massive, and breccia in shape and occur along the fault zones and fractures within the host rock. Ore minerals dominantly comprise magnetite and apatite associated with epidote, clinopyroxene, calcite, quartz, and chlorite. Apatites of the Khanlogh deposit have a high concentration of REE, and show a strong LREE/HREE ratio with a pronounced negative Eu anomaly. Magnetites have a high concentration of REE and show weak to moderate LREE/HREE fractionation. They are comparable to the REE patterns in Kiruna-type iron ores and show an affinity to calc-alkaline magmas. The Khanlogh deposit is similar in the aspects of host rock lithology, alteration, mineralogy, and mineral chemistry to the Kiruna-type deposits. Field observations, hydrothermal alteration halos, style of mineralization, and the geochemical characteristics of apatite, magnetite, and host rock indicate that these magnetite veins have hydrothermal origin similar to Cenozoic Kiruna-type deposits within the Tarom subzone, NW Iran, and are not related to silica-iron oxide immiscibility, as are the major Precambrian magnetite deposits in central Iran.     

Impact of cyclone Nilam on tropical lower atmospheric dynamics

A deep depression formed over the Bay of Bengal on 28 October 2012, and developed into a cyclonic storm. After landfall near the south coast of Chennai, cyclone Nilam moved north-northwestwards. Coordinated experiments were conducted from the Indian stations of Gadanki(13.5?N, 79.2?E) and Hyderabad(17.4?N, 78.5?E) to study the modification of gravity-wave activity and turbulence by cyclone Nilam, using GPS radiosonde and mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere radar data. The horizontal velocities underwent large changes during the closest approach of the storm to the experimental sites. Hodograph analysis revealed that inertia gravity waves(IGWs) associated with the cyclone changed their directions from northeast(control time) to northwest following the path of the cyclone. The momentum flux of IGWs and short-period gravity waves(1–8 h) enhanced prior to, and during, the passage of the storm(±0.05 m2s-2and ±0.3 m2s-2, respectively), compared to the flux after its passage. The corresponding body forces underwent similar changes, with values ranging between ±2–4m s-1d-1and ±12–15 m s-1d-1. The turbulence refractivity structure constant(C2n) showed large values below 10 km before the passage of the cyclone when humidity in the region was very high. Turbulence and humidity reduced during the passage of the storm when a turbulent layer at ～17 km became more intense. Turbulence in the lower troposphere and near the tropopause became weak after the passage of the cyclone.     

Flood susceptibility mapping using frequency ratio and weights-of-evidence models in the Golastan Province,Iran

Flood is one of the most devastating natural disasters with socio-economic and environmental consequences. Thus, comprehensive flood management is essential to reduce the flood effects on human lives and livelihoods. The main goal of this study was to investigate the application of the frequency ratio (FR) and weights-of-evidence (WofE) models for flood susceptibility mapping in the Golestan Province, Iran. At first, a flood inventory map was prepared using Iranian Water Resources Department and extensive field surveys. In total, 144 flood locations were identified in the study area. Of these, 101 (70%) floods were randomly selected as training data and the remaining 43 (30%) cases were used for the validation purposes. In the next step, flood conditioning factors such as lithology, land-use, distance from rivers, soil texture, slope angle, slope aspect, plan curvature, topographic wetness index (TWI) and altitude were prepared from the spatial database. Subsequently, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn for produced flood susceptibility maps and the area under the curves (AUCs) was computed. The final results indicated that the FR (AUC = 76.47%) and WofE (AUC = 74.74%) models have almost similar and reasonable results. Therefore, these flood susceptibility maps can be useful for researchers and planner in flood mitigation strategies.     

Concentrations of zinc,manganese, copper,cadmium, magnesium and iron in ten species of algae and sea water from Aqaba,Jordan

Concentrations of zinc, manganese, copper, cadmium, magnesium and iron in three species of red, four species of brown and three species of green macroalgae, and also in sea water have been determined at two localities along the coast of Aqaba. Significant differences in metal concentrations were found between the various species (P<0·01). Similar significant differences were found with regard to different metals (P<0·001). Concentration factors ranged between 10² for Cd and 9·2 × 10⁴ for Fe. The difference in levels of metals between the two localities, however, was not significant (P > 0·05). Of the three groups of algae examined, rhodopytes exhibited the highest concentration power of metals.     

Isoprenoids of Okinawan mangroves as lipid input into estuarine ecosystem

Isoprenoids in the nonsaponifiable lipids (NSL) fraction of Okinawan mangroves were analyzed with special reference to their importance as lipid input into estuarine ecosystems. Triterpenoids and phytosterols comprised the major proportion of NSL. Identifications of the triterpenoids and phytosterols in NSL fraction were based on the interpretation of ¹³C-NMR and GC-MS spectra. The triterpenoids and phytosterols mainly comprised 11 and 6 compounds, respectively. The major components were lupeol, β-amyrin and taraxerol for triterpenoids, and β-sitosterol and stigmasterol for phytosterols. The diversity in the terpenoid composition was noted in both leaves and roots of mangrove species, implying the chemotaxonomic utility of terpenoids. Terpenoid compositions of the root are not always similar to that of leaf, suggesting that terpenoids in the root are produced by biosynthesis in situ, not by translocation of the synthate from the leaf. Terpenoids existed in greater proportion in the outer parts of the root. These data are likely to contribute to estimating the lipid input from mangrove trees adjacent to estuarine sediments and the ocean.     

Study of discontinuities in hydrological data using catastrophe theory

Abstract

Modelling and prediction of hydrological processes (e.g. rainfall–runoff) can be influenced by discontinuities in observed data, and one particular case may arise when the time scale (i.e. resolution) is coarse (e.g. monthly). This study investigates the application of catastrophe theory to examine its suitability to identify possible discontinuities in the rainfall–runoff process. A stochastic cusp catastrophe model is used to study possible discontinuities in the monthly rainfall–runoff process at the Aji River basin in Azerbaijan, Iran. Monthly-averaged rainfall and flow data observed over a period of 20 years (1981–2000) are analysed using the Cuspfit program. In this model, rainfall serves as a control variable and runoff as a behavioural variable. The performance of this model is evaluated using four measures: correlation coefficient, log-likelihood, Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC). The results indicate the presence of discontinuities in the rainfall–runoff process, with a significant sudden jump in flow (cusp signal) when rainfall reaches a threshold value. The performance of the model is also found to be better than that of linear and logistic models. The present results, though preliminary, are promising in the sense that catastrophe theory can play a possible role in the study of hydrological systems and processes, especially when the data are noisy.

Citation Ghorbani, M. A., Khatibi, R., Sivakumar, B. & Cobb, L. (2010) Study of discontinuities in hydrological data using catastrophe theory. Hydrol. Sci. J. 55(7), 1137–1151.     

Three‐dimensional time‐harmonic fundamental solutions for a fluid‐saturated poroelastic half‐space with partially permeable free surface

By virtue of a pair of scalar potentials for the displacement of the solid skeleton and the pore fluid pressure field of a saturated poroelastic medium, an alternative solution method to the Helmholtz decomposition is developed for the wave propagation problems in the framework of Biot's theory. As an application, a comprehensive solution for three‐dimensional response of an isotropic poroelastic half‐space with a partially permeable hydraulic free surface under an arbitrarily distributed time‐harmonic internal force field and fluid sources is developed. The Green's functions for the poroelastic fields, corresponding to point, ring, and disk loads, are reduced to semi‐infinite complex‐valued integrals that can be evaluated numerically by an appropriate quadrature scheme. Analytical and numerical comparisons are made with existing elastic and poroelastic solutions to illustrate the quality and features of the solution. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Probabilistic analyses of soil consolidation by prefabricated vertical drains for single‐drain and multi‐drain systems

Natural soils are one of the most inherently variables in the ground. Although the significance of inherent soil variability in relation to reliable predictions of consolidation rates of soil deposits has long been realized, there have been few studies that addressed the issue of soil variability for the problem of ground improvement by prefabricated vertical drains. Despite showing valuable insights into the impact of soil spatial variability on soil consolidation by prefabricated vertical drains, available stochastic works on this subject are based on a single‐drain (or unit cell) analyses. However, how the idealized unit cell solution can be a supplement to the complex multi‐drain systems for spatially variable soils has never been addressed in the literature. In this study, a rigorous stochastic finite elements modeling approach that allows the true nature of soil spatial variability to be considered in a reliable and quantifiable manner, both for the single‐drain and multi‐drain systems, is presented. The feasibility of performing an analysis based on the unit cell concept as compared with the multi‐drain analysis is assessed in a probabilistic context. It is shown that with proper input statistics representative of a particular domain of interest, both the single‐drain and multi‐drain analyses yield almost identical results. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A kinematic hardening based model for unsaturated soils considering different hydraulic conditions

At present, several of the existing elastoplastic constitutive models are adapted for describing the stress–strain behavior of unsaturated soils. However, most of them present certain limitations in this field. These limitations can be related to the basic model and/or added unsaturated state variables and formulations. In this regard, inability to model the hydro‐mechanical behavior in constant water (CW) conditions is an example of these limitations. In this paper, an advanced version of CJS model is selected for adaptation to the unsaturated states. Adaptation to unsaturated states is achieved in the framework of effective stress approach. Effective stress equation and unsaturated state variables are selected based on the recent research existing in the literature. The developed model is capable of describing the complex behavior of unsaturated soil in the CW condition in addition to predicting the behavior at failure and post–failure, nonlinear elastoplastic behavior at low levels of stress and strain (by selecting a very small elastic domain), as well as wetting and collapse behaviors. In order to validate the model, results of triaxial tests in CD and CW conditions are used. The validation results indicate the good capability of the proposed model. Behavior of the unsaturated soils during wetting is an important issue. For this reason, the model is also evaluated based on the results of wetting and collapse triaxial tests. A comparison between the tests and simulation results shows that the model is able to predict the soil behavior under the wetting path. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.