Computer Monte Carlo simulation in quantitative resource estimation

The method of making quantitative assessments of mineral resources sufficiently detailed for economic analysis is outlined in three steps. The steps are (1) determination of types of deposits that may be present in an area, (2) estimation of the numbers of deposits of the permissible deposit types, and (3) combination by Monte Carlo simulation of the estimated numbers of deposits with the historical grades and tonnages of these deposits to produce a probability distribution of the quantities of contained metal.Two examples of the estimation of the number of deposits (step 2) are given. The first example is for mercury deposits in southwestern Alaska and the second is for lode tin deposits in the Seward Peninsula.The flow of the Monte Carlo simulation program is presented with particular attention to the dependencies between grades and tonnages of deposits and between grades of different metals in the same deposit.     

Chloride source delineation in an urban-agricultural watershed: Deicing agents versus agricultural contributions

Analyses (n = 525) of chloride (Cl⁻), bromide (Br⁻), nitrate as nitrogen (NO₃-N), sodium (Na⁺), calcium (Ca²⁺) and potassium (K⁺) in stream water, tile-drain water and groundwater were conducted in an urban-agricultural watershed (10% urban/impervious, 87% agriculture) to explore potential differences in the signature of Cl⁻ originating from an urban source as compared with an agricultural source. Only during winter recharge events did measured Cl⁻ concentrations exceed the 230 mg/L chronic threshold. At base flow, nearly all surface water and tile water samples had Cl⁻ concentrations above the calculated background threshold of 18 mg/L. Mann–Whitney U tests revealed ratios of Cl⁻ to Br⁻ (p = .045), to NO₃-N (p < .0001), to Ca²⁺ (p < .0001), and to Na⁺ (p < .0001) to be significantly different between urban and agricultural waters. While Cl⁻ ratios indicate that road salt was the dominant source of Cl⁻ in the watershed, potassium chloride fertilizer contributed as an important secondary source. Deicing in watersheds where urban land use is minimal had a profound impact on Cl⁻ dynamics; however, agricultural practices contributed Cl⁻ year-round, elevating stream base flow Cl⁻ concentrations above the background level.     

Spatiotemporal distributions of tsunami sources and discovered periodicities

Both spatial and spatiotemporal distributions of the sources of tsunamigenic earthquakes of tectonic origin over the last 112 years have been analyzed. This analysis has been made using tsunami databases published by the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics (Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (United States), as well as earthquake catalogs published by the National Earthquake Information Center (United States). It has been found that the pronounced activation of seismic processes and an increase in the total energy of tsunamigenic earthquakes were observed at the beginning of both the 20th (1905–1920) and 21st (2004–2011) centuries. Studying the spatiotemporal periodicity of such events on the basis of an analysis of the two-dimensional distributions of the sources of tectonic tsunamis has made it possible to determine localized latitudinal zones with a total lack of such events (90°?75° N, 45°–90° S, and 35°?25° N) and regions with a periodic occurrence of tsunamis mainly within the middle (65°?35° N and 25°–40° S) and subequatorial (15° N–20° S) latitudes of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The objective of this work is to analyze the spatiotemporal distributions of sources of tsunamigenic earthquakes and the effect of the periodic occurrence of such events on the basis of data taken from global tsunami catalogs.     

Computation of the seismic stability of rock wedges

Summary Newmark's concept of computing the permanent displacement under seismic loads has been combined with the conventional limit equilibrium analysis to compute the displacements of a rock wedge. The rock wedge formed by the intersecting planes may or may not have a tension crack in the upper slope surface. As the static analysis of a rock wedge is available from the literature, only the seismic problem is treated theoretically in more details.A computer program has been developed to compute the displacements from the digitised input data of the acceleration-time-history. The program can take into account the water pressure on the intersecting planes and on the planes of the tension crack. The effect of rock anchors if present is also taken care of in addition to static surcharge loads. The program calculates the conventional static factor of safety, remaining resistance against sliding, the critical acceleration, exciting force, relative velocity with time and the cumulative displacements.Two model examples are presented: one with simple sinusoidal acceleration and the other one with actual earthquake data considering the different systems of forces acting on the wedge. The results are critically discussed with respect to the different parameters e. g. anchor forces, water pressure and cohesion influencing the magnitude of displacements under seismic loads. It is shown that the critical acceleration is a better index for the seismic stability than the conventional factor of safety.The critical acceleration presented in this paper serves as a very handy tool for a site engineer to get the first hand information about the stability of the wedge for a given acceleration-time-history without going into the details of dynamic analysis.Notations A, B Inclined intersecting planes - C, D Geometric points on the intersection ofA andB - a _cr Critical acceleration - a _h Horizontal acceleration - a _v Vertical acceleration - a _r Relative acceleration of the wedge - DF Driving force - DF _dyn Dynamic driving force - DF _st Static driving force - FS Factor of safety - g Acceleration due to gravity - m Mass of the wedge - RF Resisting force - RF _dyn Dynamic resisting force - RF _st Static resisting force - RS Remaining resisting force against sliding - RS _dyn Total seismic induced force - RS _st Remaining static resisting force against sliding - s _r Cumulative relative displacement of the wedge - TRS Total remaining resisting force against sliding - v _r Relative velocity of the wedge - W Weight of the wedge - W _A ,W _B Weight of the wedge in the planeA andB - Dip of line of intersection of the planesA andB - Average friction angle - _A , _B Friction angle of planeA andB - I, II, III, IV Points in the curve shown in Fig. 6     

POSITION OF ARSENIC MINERALS IN THE METALLOGENIC SERIES.

The fact that there is certain definite order in the distribution of metallic ores around a central magma has now been generally recognized by economic geologists and its effects on the geographic distribution as well as     

Active wrench faults of Iran,Afghanistan and Pakistan

The fault pattern of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan has been mapped from air-photo-mosaics. The Herat, Chaman, Shahrud, Doruneh, and Zagros are the five major active faults and are wrench in character. With the exception of the Chaman fault, which lies to the east, the faults or their extensions spiral out from a centre in the Dasht Lut Depression of eastern Iran, the dextral faults spiralling out clockwise and the sinistral faults anticlockwise. The spiral fault pattern is consistent with that expected from a central force, and from the relation between the sense of horizontal displacement and the direction of outspiralling it is inferred that the crustal blocks west of the Chaman fault are moving in towards the Lut Centre. Similar spiral fault patterns can be recognized at many places in the world, and their centres are probably critical for explaining present day tectonics.-- , , , . — , , , — . , , , .

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Zusammenfassung Auf einer beigegebenen Karte wird der Verlauf von aktiven und von vermutlichen Hauptverwerfungen in Afghanistan, Pakistan und im Iran gezeigt, wie er anhand von Luftbild-Mosaikkarten und Luftaufnahmen bestimmt wurde. Die fünf wichtigsten aktiven Dislokationen sind die Herat-, Chaman-, Sharud-, Doruneh- und die Zagros-Verwerfung.Die deutlich sichtbare Herat-Verwerfung erstreckt sich in ENE-Richtung über 800 km durch den Nordteil Afghanistans zur chinesischen Grenze. Ihre Verschiebung erfolgte rechtsläufig, so daß die nördliche Scholle relativ zur südlichen nach E versetzt wurde.Die etwa 700 km lange nach SSW weisende Chaman-Verwerfung zieht sich in zwei schwach gegensinnig geschwungenen Bögen von der Herat-Verwerfung wenig N Kabul die afghanisch-pakistanische Grenze entlang, um in zahlreiche Zweigverwerfungen aufzuspalten, die in Westpakistan nach W umbiegen. Die Verschiebung erfolgte linksläufig und ist gut sichtbar.Die Sharud-Verwerfung im Iran erstreckt sich nach ENE durch die Achse des Elburs-Gebirges und biegt dann nach SE parallel zur russischen Grenze ab. Die Verwerfung ändert häufig ihre Richtung und ist nur schwer zu verfolgen. Sie hat eine sichere Länge von 800 km und ist linksläufig.Die gut sichtbare Doruneh-Verwerfung verläuft in Kurven 250 km südlich der Sharud-Verwerfung derselben parallel. Nach E spaltet sie sich auf, nach W vereinigt sie sich vermutlich mit der Sharud-Verwerfung. Sie ist 600 km lang und linksläufig.Die Zagros-Verwerfung tritt auf Luftaufnahmen am wenigsten hervor, auf geologischen Karten ist sie jedoch eine Hauptverwerfung. Sie erstreckt sich vom Schnittpunkt der drei Grenzen des Iran, Irak und der Türkei 950 km nach SE bis fast zur pakistanischen Grenze, wo sie wahrscheinlich anfangs nach NW, später nach N umbiegt. Die Verwerfung ist wahrscheinlich rechtsläufig.Die fünf Hauptverwerfungen, zusammen mit vier kleineren Verwerfungen, deren horizontaler Verschiebungssinn bekannt ist, bilden ein relativ einfaches Strukturmuster.Mit Ausnahme der Chaman-Verwerfung, die im E liegt, verlaufen die Verwerfungen oder ihre Ausläufer ausgehend von einem in der Dasht Lut-Senke gelegenen Zentrum in Gestalt einzelner Spiralen sternförmig nach allen Seiten; die in ihrem Verschiebungssinn rechtsläufigen im Uhrzeigersinn gebogen, die linksläufigen in Gegenrichtung gekrümmt. Die übrigen geologischen und morphologischen Hauptlinien zeigen ebenfalls eine derartige Anordnung mit demselbenZentrum. Das damit gegebene Strukturmuster läßt die Einwirkung einer zentralen Kraft vermuten. Aus dem Zusammenhang zwischen horizontalem Verschiebungssinn und der Richtung der einzelnen Spiralen ist zu schließen, daß sich die westlich der Chaman-Verwerfung liegenden Krustenblöcke in Richtung auf das Lut-Zentrum bewegten.Derartige Verwerfungssysteme sternförmig-spiraler Anordnung scheinen kritische Punkte im heutigen tektonischen Bild der Erde zu sein, wobei das Westende der Poebene und die Banda-See zwei der auffallendsten Zentren sind. Ebenso verlaufen die pazifischen Inselbögen in Spiralen, die sich gleichfalls in solchen Zentren treffen könnten.

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Résumé Une carte des failles actives de la Perse, de l'Afghanistan, et de la Pakistan a été dressée d'après des photos-aériennes et des photos-mosaïques. Les ruptures des filets et des rivières montrent que le rejet net est presque horizontal. Cinq failles sont dextrales, et quatre sont sinistrales. Des lignes qui montrent la direction de la maximum contraction horizontale, déterminée par les failles, encerclent la Dasht Lut dépression dans la Perse orientale.

     

Geochemistry of hydrothermal alteration at the Roosevelt hot springs thermal area,Utah

Hot spring deposits in the Roosevelt thermal area consist of opaline sinter and sintercemented alluvium. Alluvium, plutonic rocks, and amphibolite-facies gneiss have been altered by acidsulfate water to alunite and opal at the surface, and alunite, kaolinite, montmorillonite, and muscovite to a depth of 70 m. Marcasite, pyrite, chlorite, and calcite occur below the water table at about 30 m.The thermal water is dilute (ionic strength 0.1–0.2) sodium-chloride brine. The spring water now contains 10 times as much Ca, 100 times as much Mg, and up to 2.5 times as much SO₄ as the deep water. Although the present day spring temperature is 25°C, the temperature was 85°C in 1950.A model for development of the observed alteration is supported by observation and irreversible mass transfer calculations. Hydrothermal fluid convectively rises along major fractures. Water cools by conduction and steam separation, and the pH rises due to carbon dioxide escape. At the surface, hydrogen and sulfate ions are produced by oxidation of H₂S. The low pH water percolates downward and reacts with feldspar in the rocks to produce alunite, kaolinite, montmorillonite, and muscovite as hydrogen ion is consumed.