New occurrence of potential phosphate resource in northeast Jordan

An exploration program aided by field investigation, exploration drilling, detailed sampling, lithological and petrological studies, geochemical investigation, and resource calculation leads to the discovery of a potential phosphate resource in northeast Jordan close to the international border with Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The studied phosphate is of the Middle Eocene age that belongs to the Wadi Shallala Formation. It is equivalent to the phosphate deposits recorded in the lower part of the Umm Wual Formation in the Turayf region of Saudi Arabia and the Eocene Ratga Formation in the Ethna phosphate deposit west of Iraq. The phosphorites in the region are broadly similar in mineralogical composition and geochemical affinities. X-ray diffraction indicates the presence of francolite with variable amounts of calcite and quartz. Most samples consist of phosphate clasts embedded in carbonate and silica matrix and cement. P₂O₅ content is up to 32.3 % with an average equal to 18.6 %. The impurity is caused by the presence of variable amounts of SiO₂ and CaO. The F% and F/P₂O₅ ratio in studied phosphates is lower compared with that in phosphates from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The geological and geochemical results were integrated for resource estimation. Three high-grade phosphate layers with ≥23 % P₂O₅ were considered in the calculations. The phosphate resource is classified as an inferred resource. The total volume of the resource is about 649 million tons. The average P₂O₅ content is 24.57, and the stripping ratio is 1:5.8.     

Impact assessment of land cover changes on the runoff changes on the extreme flood events in the Kelantan River basin

In the current years, changing the land cover/land use had serious hydrological impacts affecting the flood events in the Kelantan River basin. The flood events at the east coast of the peninsular Malaysia got highly affected in the recent decades due to several factors like urbanisation, rapid changes in the utilisation of land and lack of meteorological (i.e. change in climate) and developmental monitoring and planning. The Kelantan River basin has been highly influenced due to a rapid change in land use during 1984 to 2013, which occurred in the form of transformation of agricultural area and deforestation (logging activities). In order to evaluate the influence of the modifications in land cover on the flood events, two hydrological regional models of rainfall-induced runoff event, the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC)-Hydrologic Modeling System (HMS) model and improved transient rainfall infiltration and grid-based regional model (Improved TRIGRS), were employed in this study. The responses of land cover changes on the peak flow and runoff volume were investigated using 10 days of hourly rainfall events from 20 December to the end of December 2014 at the study area. The usage of two hydrological models defined that the changes in land use/land cover caused momentous changes in hydrological response towards water flow. The outcomes also revealed that the increase of severe water flow at the study area is a function of urbanisation and deforestation, particularly in the conversion of the forest area to the less canopy coverage, for example, oil palm, mixed agriculture and rubber. The monsoon season floods and runoff escalate in the cleared land or low-density vegetation area, while the normal flow gets the contribution from interflow generated from secondary jungle and forested areas.     

Landslide susceptibility zonation using GIS and evidential belief function model

The main goal of this paper is to generate a landslide susceptibility map through evidential belief function (EBF) model by using Geographic Information System (GIS) for Qianyang County, Shaanxi Province, China. At first, a detailed landslide inventory map was prepared, and the following ten landslide-conditioning factors were collected: slope angle, slope aspect, curvature, plan curvature, profile curvature, altitude, distance to rivers, geomorphology, lithology, and rainfall. The landslides were detected from the interpretation of aerial photographs and supported by field surveys. A total of 81 landslides were randomly split into the following two parts: the training dataset 70 % (56 landslides) were used for establishing the model and the remaining 30 % (25 landslides) were used for the model validation. The ArcGIS was used to analyze landslide-conditioning factors and evaluate landslide susceptibility; as a result, a landslide susceptibility map was generated by using EBF and ArcGIS 10.0, thus divided into the following five susceptibility classes: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. Finally, when we validated the accuracy of the landslide susceptibility map, both the success-rate and prediction-rate curve methods were applied. The results reveal that a final susceptibility map has the success rate of 83.31 % and the prediction rate of 79.41 %.     

A sensitivity study on the numerical model of displacement and deformation of embedded brittle rock bodies in extension environment during salt tectonics

Many salt bodies contain large rock inclusions (called stringers) such as carbonate or anhydrite bodies. Mostly, large rock inclusions embedded in salt bodies have different ways of movement and deformation, including displacement, folding and fracturing. A finite element model with adaptive remeshing has been built for downbuilding simulation. The standard model set-up is constrained by observations from the South Oman Salt Basin. Based on the generic model in the previous research which shows the fracture, overtrusting or folding deformation during downbuilding process, a sensitivity study has been conducted on the numerical model of the deformation and displacement of brittle rock bodies, including the parameters such as the initial depth and the distance between them. The results of simulation are analyzed based on the data from SOSB and Zechstein salt basin. The study shows that the frequency of the break and the size of stringer fragments are strongly affected by the initial depth and thickness of stringers and the basement configuration.     

Assessment of pollution sources in the southeastern of the Riyadh and its impact on the population/Saudi Arabia

The rapid growth of Riyadh—capital of Saudi Arabia—is pushing the area to more pollution and incentive for reorganization. The aim of this research is to assess air pollutants in southeast of Riyadh and detect opinion of the population about their environment. The assessment was done by analyzing 405 questionnaires, evaluating thermal band of Landsat 8, and spatial analyzing of particular matter and chemicals in 19 air samples by geostatistical tool in the ArcMap. Most of the inhabitants stated that they are suffering from bad odor, sewage leakage, and dust mainly from a cement factory. The thermal band of Landsat clarified the location of the pollution sources mainly the 1st industrial city, Yammama Cement Factory, and power plant in Farouq area. The ordinary kriging maps showed that the highest concentration of PM₁₀ (>403 μg/m³) lied to the northern and western side of the study area and caused a health issue to most inhabitants.     

Carbon and nitrogen dynamics of the intertidal seagrass, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Zostera japonica</Emphasis>, on the southern coast of the Korean peninsula

Seagrasses require a large amount of nutrient assimilation to support high levels of production, and thus nutrient limitation for growth often occurs in seagrass habitats. Seagrasses can take up nutrients from both the water column and sediments. However, since seagrasses inhabiting in the intertidal zones are exposed to the air during low tide, the intertidal species may exhibit significantly different carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics compared to the subtidal species. To examine C and N dynamics of the intertidal seagrass, Zostera japonica, C and N content and stable isotope ratios of above- and below-ground tissues were measured monthly at the three intertidal zones in Koje Bay on the southern coast of Korea. The C and N content and stable isotope (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) ratios of seagrass tissues exhibited significant seasonal variations. Both leaf and rhizome C content were not significantly correlated with productivity. Leaf δ¹³C values usually exhibited negative correlations with leaf productivity. These results of tissue C content and δ¹³C values suggest that photosynthesis of Z. japonica in the study site was not limited by inorganic C supply, and sufficient inorganic C was provided from the atmosphere. The tissue N content usually exhibited negative correlations with leaf productivity except at the upper intertidal zone, suggesting that Z. japonica growth was probably limited by N availability during high growing season. In the upper intertidal zone, no correlations between leaf productivity and tissue elemental content and stable isotope ratios were observed due to the severely suppressed growth caused by strong desiccation stress.     

Characteristics of drift pumice from New Caledonia beaches

Siliceous drift pumice was collected from a total of 40 beaches around the main island of New Caledonia, Southwest Pacific, in order to determine its provenance. New Caledonia is enclosed by a barrier reef lagoon whose 2008 designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site brought attention to the environmental degradation caused by a century of open cast nickel mining. The frequent, voluminous pumice eruptions in the Southwest Pacific provide ample source material that is somewhat durable, highly transportable in water, and easy to collect and analyze. Geochemical and mineralogical analyses were used to identify the source of the pumice in order to map the transport vector across the open ocean and into the lagoon. Drift pumice was sampled during 2008 and 2010. The mineral assemblage of the pumice was consistently calcic plagioclase, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, and opaque minerals. All of the pumice was of fairly uniform geochemistry: low in mafic elements, low in alkalis, with LILE enriched compared to HFSE, and negative Eu, Ti, and Zr anomalies. The pumice is predominately dacitic and tholeiitic. This geochemical signature was consistent with published data from the Tonga arc, which is further supported by the mineralogy. With the exception of two samples (which probably came from either the Kermadec arc or Vanuatu) all of the pumice comes from the Tonga arc. The samples from 2008 are consistent with pumice erupted from Metis Shoal in 2006, and the majority of 2010 samples are consistent with pumice erupted from an unnamed volcano (0403-091) that erupted in 2001.     

Latitudinal change in benthic foraminiferal fauna by ITCZ movement along the ~131°W transect in the equatorial Pacific Ocean

Modern and fossil benthic foraminifera were examined from nine surface sediments and two piston cores along the ~131°W transect in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This study was conducted to clarify the biotic response of abyssal benthic foraminifera during the last 220 ka to changes in the seasonal extent of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The abundance of modern benthic foraminifera was high at stations between the equator and 6°N, whereas it was low at stations north of 6°N, which is generally consistent with the latitudinal CaCO₃ distribution of surface sediments. The northward increase of Epistominella exigua from the equator to ~6°N is similar to the seasonal variations in chlorophyll-a concentrations in the surface water and ITCZ position along ~131°W. This species was more common at core PC5103 (~6°N) than at core PC5101 (~2°N) after ~130 ka, when the Shannon-Wiener diversity (H’) between the two cores started to diverge. Hence, the presentday latitudinal difference in benthic foraminifera (E. exigua and species diversity) between ~2°N and ~6°N along ~131°W has been generally established since ~130 ka. According to the modern relationship between the seasonality of primary production and seasonal ITCZ variations in the northern margin of the ITCZ, the latitudinal divergence of benthic foraminiferal fauna between ~2°N and ~6°N since ~130 ka appear to have been induced by more distinct variations in the seasonal movement of ITCZ.