Laboratory investigations of the thermal strain of frozen soils, using fiber-optic strain gauges based on Bragg gratings

Measurements of the thermal deformations of frozen soil samples were performed in the cold laboratory in temperature range from 0°C to-12°C.Fiber Bragg Gratings strain and temperature sensors were used to measure the deformation and temperature inside the samples.A number of tests with the samples prepared from Kaolin and Cambrian clay saturated with fresh water,and prepared from fine and silt sand saturated with fresh or saline water,are performed.Thermal deformations of the samples are analyzed depending on the cyclic changes of their temperature.     

On the Distance Function Between Two Keplerian Elliptic Orbits

The problem of finding critical points of the distance function between two Keplerian elliptic orbits is reduced to the determination of all real roots of a trigonometric polynomial of degree 8. The coefficients of the polynomial are rational functions of orbital parameters. Using computer algebra methods we show that a polynomial of a smaller degree with such properties does not exist. This fact shows that our result cannot be improved and it allows us to construct an optimal algorithm to find the minimal distance between two Keplerian orbits. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The northern sea route as an element of the ICZM system in the Arctic: problems and perspectives

Characteristics of the current state of transportation problems along the Northern Sea Route are given. The required ice data necessary to guarantee the safety of navigation are discussed. A variety of developing transportation prospects along the Northern Sea Route, including international aspects, are disputed. Effective economic alternatives of the Northern Sea Route under the conditions of the current Russian economic crisis are analyzed.     

中-哈-吉-乌天山变形带容矿金矿床:成矿环境和控矿要素与找矿标志

天山是全球第二大金矿富集区,世界级和大型-超大型金矿床东西成带横贯中国新疆中部—哈萨克斯坦东南部—吉尔吉斯斯坦—乌兹别克斯坦,构成巨型跨境金成矿带。天山巨型跨境金成矿带和重要金矿床形成的地质环境、成矿的控制要素、找矿勘查的标志都是学术界和工业界高度关注的重大地质和找矿问题。通过广泛、深入地文献调研和境内外天山较全面野外地质矿产调查与研究,本文认为中-哈-吉-乌天山大规模金成矿主体形成于晚石炭世—早二叠世古亚洲洋闭合后的陆块拼贴变形过程,部分形成于中—晚二叠世陆内走滑变形过程。中天山南、北缘古缝合带及其附近的大型脆性/韧-脆性变形带是巨量金成矿的关键控制因素,多期叠加复合成矿是天山变形带容矿金矿床的显著特征。地壳初始富集、构造变形活化、岩浆热液叠加是天山变形带容矿金矿床的主控因素。“碳质细碎屑岩+脆韧性变形带+海西末期岩体”是中-哈-吉-乌天山变形带容矿大型-超大型金矿的找矿标志组合。     

基于GPS观测研究2010年青海玉树MS7.1地震震后地壳形变特征及其机制

2010年4月14日青海玉树M_S7.1地震发生在青藏高原东南部甘孜-玉树地震带,在震后7~10天内,我们快速建立了由15个GPS测站组成的跨地震破裂带观测剖面,包括1个连续站,3个半连续站和11个流动站,对所有站进行了240多天的观测,获取了该次地震的震后形变时空特征.采用欧拉矢量和位错模型解算了背景速度场,并从GPS观测的形变场中扣除该分量.采用分层黏弹性位错模型计算余震引起的地表形变,结果表明余震对部分测站的位移造成不可忽视的影响.采用对数模型拟合位移时间序列,表明特征衰减时间为6.7±1.2天.利用最速下降法反演震后余滑时空分布,反演结果表明震后断层活动以左旋滑动为主,断层南盘具有少量的抬升.在空间分布上,余滑主要位于同震破裂区的两侧,西北侧的余滑几乎达到地表,而东南区的余滑基本在同震破裂区的下方,余滑最大的区域位于结古镇东南下方10~20 km的深度范围.随着震后离逝时间的增加,2个余滑区在空间上保持不变,余滑区的面积逐渐扩大.余滑的矩释放为（1.5~5.1）×10¹⁸Nm,相当于1个M_W6.1~6.4地震释放的能量.分层岩石圈黏弹性模型计算的地壳孔隙弹性反弹形变与地表观测值相差较大,不能解释观测到的震后变形.采用麦克斯维尔流变体模型计算下地壳和上地幔松弛引起的地表形变,显示出其对地表形变的贡献较小.GPS观测得到的震后形变所具有的快速衰减特征,以及余滑模型能够较好地拟合GPS地表形变,表明2010年玉树M_S7.1地震后早期阶段的地壳形变主要是由余滑机制决定的.     

Estimation of methane fluxes from bottom sediments of Lake Baikal

Methane bubble fluxes in gas flares from bottom sediments in Lake Baikal were estimated for the first time using hydroacoustic methods. Earlier work has demonstrated the occurrence of gas seeps both inside and outside of areas where bottom simulating reflectors were identified in seismic profiles. Fluxes ranged from 14 to 216 tons per year, with the flux for the entire area of the central and southern basins ranging from 1,400 to 2,800 tons per year. Comparison with other water bodies showed that fluxes from the most intensive Baikal flares were similar to those in the Norwegian and Okhotsk seas. Gas hydrates decompose at the lower boundary of the gas hydrate stability zone due to sedimentation. Calculation of the amount of methane produced due to sedimentation gave a total of between 2,600 and 14,000 tons per year for the central and southern basins of the lake. Based on rough estimation, the total flux from shallow- and deep-water gas seeps is similar to the amount of methane produced due to sedimentation. This suggests that gas hydrates possibly occupy much more than 10?% of the pore volume near the base of the gas hydrate stability zone, or that there are other reasons for gas hydrate dissociation and bubble flux from these bottom sediments.     

Methane fluxes in the southeastern Baltic Sea

New data from surveys of gas-bearing mud areas in the Gdansk Deep (southeastern Baltic Sea) were collected during four research cruises in 2009–2011. These revealed the presence of seven large pockmarks apart from the three already known, and enabled significant improvement of the existing digital map of gassy mud distribution. Based on geochemical sediment analyses, calculated diffusive methane fluxes from the upper (0–5?cm) seabed layer into near-bottom waters were highest—3.3?mmol/(m²?day)—in pockmark mud, contrasting strongly with the minimum value of 0.004?mmol/(m²?day) observed in typical, background mud. However, fluxes of less than 0.1?mmol/(m²?day) were observed in all sediment types, including pockmarks. In a newer attempt to roughly estimate budgets at a more regional scale, diffusive methane venting amounts to 280?×?10⁶?mmol/day for southeastern Baltic Sea muddy sediments. Elongated pockforms in the southern Gotland Deep, known since the end of the 1980s as pockmarks, had methane concentrations that were similar to those of gassy mud from the Gdansk Basin, and there was no geo-acoustic evidence of considerably increased gas levels.     

Heterogeneous strain regime in the eastern margin of Tibetan Plateau and its tectonic implications

The eastern margin of Tibetan Plateau is one of the most active zones of tectonic deformation and seismicity in China. To monitor strain buildup and benefit seismic risk assessment, we constructed 14 survey-mode global position system(GPS) stations throughout the northwest of Longmenshan fault. A new GPS field over 1999–2011 is derived from measurements of the newly built and pre-existing stations in this region. Sequentially,two strain rate fields, one preceding and the other following the 2008 MW7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, are obtained using the Gausian weighting approach. Strain field over1999–2007 shows distinct strain partitioning prior to the2008 MW7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, with compression spreading over around Longmenshan area. Strain field derived from the two measurements in 2009 and 2011 shows that the area around Longmenshan continues to be under striking compression, as the pattern preceding the Wenchuan earthquake, implying a causative factor of the sequent of 2013 MW6.7 Lushan earthquake. Our GPSderived dilatation shows that both the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes occurred within the domain of pronounced contraction. The GPS velocities demonstrate that the Longriba fault underwent slight motion with the faultnormal and-parallel rates at 1.0 ± 2.5 mm and 0.3 ± 2.2 mm/a; the Longmenshan fault displayed slow activity, with a fault-normal rate at 0.8 ± 2.5 mm/a, and a fault-parallel rate at 1.8 ± 1.7 mm/a. Longriba fault is on a par with Longmenshan fault in strain partitioning to accommodate the southeastward motion of eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Integrated analysis of principal strain tensors, mean principal stress, and fast directions of mantle anisotropy shows that west of Sichuan is characterized as mechanically strong crust-mantle coupling.     

Stability of phlogopite in ultrapotassic kimberlite-like systems at 5.5–7.5 GPa

Hydrous K-rich kimberlite-like systems are studied experimentally at 5.5–7.5 GPa and 1200–1450?°C in terms of phase relations and conditions for formation and stability of phlogopite. The starting samples are phlogopite–carbonatite–phlogopite sandwiches and harzburgite–carbonatite mixtures consisting of Ol?+?Grt?+?Cpx?+?L (±Opx), according to the previous experimental results obtained at the same P–T parameters but in water-free systems. Carbonatite is represented by a K- and Ca-rich composition that may form at the top of a slab. In the presence of carbonatitic melt, phlogopite can partly melt in a peritectic reaction at 5.5 GPa and 1200–1350?°C, as well as at 6.3–7.0 GPa and 1200?°C: 2Phl?+?CaCO₃ (L)?Cpx?+?Ol?+?Grt?+?K₂CO₃ (L)?+?2H₂O (L). Synthesis of phlogopite at 5.5 GPa and 1200–1350?°C, with an initial mixture of H₂O-bearing harzburgite and carbonatite, demonstrates experimentally that equilibrium in this reaction can be shifted from right to left. Therefore, phlogopite can equilibrate with ultrapotassic carbonate–silicate melts in a?≥?150?°C region between 1200 and 1350?°C at 5.5 GPa. On the other hand, it can exist but cannot nucleate spontaneously and crystallize in the presence of such melts in quite a large pressure range in experiments at 6.3–7.0 GPa and 1200?°C. Thus, phlogopite can result from metasomatism of peridotite at the base of continental lithospheric mantle (CLM) by ultrapotassic carbonatite agents at depths shallower than 180–195 km, which creates a mechanism of water retaining in CLM. Kimberlite formation can begin at 5.5 GPa and 1350?°C in a phlogopite-bearing peridotite source generating a hydrous carbonate–silicate melt with 10–15 wt% SiO₂, Ca# from 45 to 60, and high K enrichment. Upon further heating to 1450?°C due to the effect of a mantle plume at the CLM base, phlogopite disappears and a kimberlite-like melt forms with SiO₂ to 20 wt% and Ca#?=?35–40.     

Krypton and Xenon Radionuclides Monitoring in the Northwest Region of Russia

Monitoring of Xe and Kr radionuclides was conducted from August 2006 to 30 July 2008 within the framework of ISTC Project #2133. Cherepovets City in Vologda Province and St. Petersburg were chosen as monitoring locations. Kr–Xe concentrate samples were obtained as a result of processing of several thousand m³ of atmospheric air. New results of ⁸⁵Kr monitoring show, that for last 15 years, the ⁸⁵Kr volumetric activity in the atmospheric air of the northwest region of Russia has increased approximately 50% and has achieved a level of 1.5 Bq/m³. This value correlates well with similar data for Western Europe and Japan. The xenon fraction (80–160 cm³ under STP) is adsorbed on charcoal in the ampoule, which is measured in the well of HPGe gamma detector. Minimum detectable concentration (MDC) of ¹³³Xe for this technique is 0.008 mBq/m³, and it is the most sensitive method used today. The ¹³³Xe concentration in the atmospheric air of Cherepovets City varied in the monitoring period ranging from 0.09 to 2.5 mBq/m³. During the period of March 2007–30 July 2008, ¹³³Xe activity concentration in the atmospheric air of St. Petersburg changed from background values (0.2–0.3 mBq/m³) to 185 mBq/m³ and for approximately 20% of the samples ¹³⁵Xe was also measured with the ¹³⁵Xe/¹³³Xe activity ratio varied within the range of 0.03–3.5.