Tectono-geomorphic development of intra-continental Cenozoic depressions within Cretaceous rocks of the Interior Homocline,Central Arabia

Intra-continental depressions occurred in Central Arabia, within the evaporite-bearing Sulaiy Formation, and extends for over 550 km along N-S arcuate belt, passing through eastern Ar Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They mark Jurassic/Cretaceous contact within the Interior Homocline of Central Arabia, accommodating Neogene and Quaternary deposits. Two en echelon major depressional areas were discovered, the northern major depressional area and the southern major depressional area. The first depressional area occurs between Al Artawiyah and Ad Dilam towns, following the arcuate Jurassic/Cretaceous contact. It contains five depressions: N-S Al Artwaiyah depression; NW-SE Ath Thumamah depression, northeast of Riyadh; NW-SE Jinadriyah depression, east of Riyadh; E-W Al Kharj depression; and N-S Ad Dilam depression. All five depressions seems to be formed by tectonic and subsequent geomorphic events, except for Al Artawiyah and Jinadriyah depression, which developed mainly by tectonic events. Southern major depressional area steps over to southwest of Ad Dilam, and occurs from Hawtat bani tamim to Layla towns. This Hawtah-Layla major depression trends N-S, and Cretaceous units strike NNE, which is a slightly oblique relationship, suggesting expression of deep-seated structures. Tectonic features were part of the Alpine-Himalayan orogeny, developing during Eocene. They followed by a geomorphic event (karsts and subsequent collapse) that took place during Mid Pleistocene. Ad Dilam depression is a surface expression of three oil and gas fields, while the southern major depression between Hawtat Bani Tamim and Layla towns is a surface expression of four oil and gas fields. Yet, other several depressional areas are also accommodating Quaternary desert sediments, and they contain economic resources, which therefore, worth further detailed studies.     

Extraction and analysis of geological lineaments of Kolli hills,Tamil Nadu: a study using remote sensing and GIS

The aim of the present study is to investigate the lineaments of Kolli hills of Tamil Nadu State for which CARTOSAT-1 satellite’s DEM output has been made use of. The extracted lineaments were analysed using ArcGIS and Rockworks software. The total number and length of lineaments are 523 and 943.81 km, respectively. Shorter lineaments constitute about 3/4th of the total number of lineaments. The density of the lineaments varies from 0 to 7.41 km/km², and areas of very high to high density are restricted to the south central, central and north eastern parts, and these areas reflect the high degree of rock fracturing and shearing which makes these areas unsuitable for the construction of dams and reservoirs. However, these areas could be targeted for groundwater exploitation as they possess higher groundwater potential. The lineaments are oriented in diverse directions. However, those orienting in ENEWSW, NE-SW and NW-SE are predominating followed by those oriented in sub E-W and sub N-S directions. These orientations corroborate with results of previous regional studies and with orientations of prominent geological structures and features of the study area. Distinct variation in the predominant orientations of lineaments of varied sizes is observed, while the shorter ones are oriented in either NW-SE or NNW-SSE directions, the longer ones are oriented in either NE-SW or ENE-WSW. A comparative analysis of lineament datasets of the eight azimuth angles and the final lineament map underlines the need to extract lineaments from various azimuth angles to get a reliable picture about the lineaments.     

Numerical simulation of wave-induced currents combined with parabolic mild-slope equation in curvilinear coordinates

Researches on breaking-induced currents by waves are summarized firstly in this paper. Then, a combined numerical model in orthogonal curvilinear coordinates is presented to simulate wave-induced current in areas with curved boundary or irregular coastline. The proposed wave-induced current model includes a nearshore current module established through orthogonal curvilinear transformation form of shallow water equations and a wave module based on the curvilinear parabolic approximation wave equation. The wave module actually serves as the driving force to provide the current module with required radiation stresses. The Crank-Nicolson finite difference scheme and the alternating directions implicit method are used to solve the wave and current module, respectively. The established surf zone currents model is validated by two numerical experiments about longshore currents and rip currents in basins with rip channel and breakwater. The numerical results are compared with the measured data and published numerical results.     

Uncertainty assessment of the multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network model with implementation of the novel hybrid MLP-FFA method for prediction of biochemical oxygen demand and dissolved oxygen: a case study of Langat River

Accurate prediction of the chemical constituents in major river systems is a necessary task for water quality management, aquatic life well-being and the overall healthcare planning of river systems. In this study, the capability of a newly proposed hybrid forecasting model based on the firefly algorithm (FFA) as a metaheuristic optimizer, integrated with the multilayer perceptron (MLP-FFA), is investigated for the prediction of monthly water quality in Langat River basin, Malaysia. The predictive ability of the MLP-FFA model is assessed against the MLP-based model. To validate the proposed MLP-FFA model, monthly water quality data over a 10-year duration (2001–2010) for two different hydrological stations (1L04 and 1L05) provided by the Irrigation and Drainage Ministry of Malaysia are used to predict the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and dissolved oxygen (DO). The input variables are the chemical oxygen demand (COD), total phosphate (PO₄), total solids, potassium (K), sodium (Na), chloride (Cl), electrical conductivity (EC), pH and ammonia nitrogen (NH₄-N). The proposed hybrid model is then evaluated in accordance with statistical metrics such as the correlation coefficient (r), root-mean-square error, % root-mean-square error and Willmott’s index of agreement. Analysis of the results shows that MLP-FFA outperforms the equivalent MLP model. Also, in this research, the uncertainty of a MLP neural network model is analyzed in relation to the predictive ability of the MLP model. To assess the uncertainties within the MLP model, the percentage of observed data bracketed by 95 percent predicted uncertainties (95PPU) and the band width of 95 percent confidence intervals (d-factors) are selected. The effect of input variables on BOD and DO prediction is also investigated through sensitivity analysis. The obtained values bracketed by 95PPU show about 77.7%, 72.2% of data for BOD and 72.2%, 91.6% of data for DO related to the 1L04 and 1L05 stations, respectively. The d-factors have a value of 1.648, 2.269 for BOD and 1.892, 3.480 for DO related to the 1L04 and 1L05 stations, respectively. Based on the values in both stations for the 95PPU and d-factor, it is concluded that the neural network model has an acceptably low degree of uncertainty applied for BOD and DO simulations. The findings of this study can have important implications for error assessment in artificial intelligence-based predictive models applied for water resources management and the assessment of the overall health in major river systems.     

Enhancement of removal efficiency of ammonia nitrogen in sequencing batch reactor using natural zeolite

Two sets of lab-scale sequencing batch reactors (SBR), i.e., control SBR and SBR using zeolite as carrier (zeo-SBR), were applied to assess nitrogen removal efficiency. The test results revealed that zeolite powder added in SBR could improve its performance. Due to the combination of zeolite adsorption for NH₄ ⁺–N and enhanced simultaneous nitrification and de-nitrification (SND), a higher removal ratio of ammonia nitrogen in wastewater was observed in the test reactor, and the introduction of zeolite powder was helpful to inhabit sludge bulging comparing with the control SBR, in other words, activated sludge immobilized by zeolite powder could remove NH₄ ⁺–N, COD, and PO₄ significantly in a shorter cycle time. Applied two hydraulic retention times (HRTs) showed that the nitrogen and phosphorus removal could be improved while adapting to load variations.     

Fractal analysis of magnetite grains — implications for interpreting deformation mechanism

In the present study, the grain size (d) and shape of 225 magnetite grains, that crystallized at T>600°C in a syntectonic granite (Godhra Granite, India) are evaluated and implications of data to decipher deformation mechanism of magnetite are discussed. Fractal (ruler) dimension (D) analysis of magnetite grains is performed and it is demonstrated that they show fractal behaviour. Smaller magnetite grains tend to be more serrated than the larger ones, which is manifested in the higher fractal (ruler) dimension (D) of the former. Assuming a natural strain rate ranging between 10⁻¹⁰ s⁻¹ and 10⁻¹⁴ s⁻¹, the grain size data fall dominantly in the dislocation creep field of the existing deformation mechanism map of magnetite for 630°C. However, SEM-EBSD studies reveal that subgrains are absent in the magnetite grains and they did not undergo dislocation creep. Thus it is inferred that the shape of magnetite grains was not controlled by dislocation creep. It is concluded that the higher serration and increased fractal dimension of finer magnetite grains implies the importance of diffusion creep as an important deformation mechanism at high-T for magnetite in polymineralic rocks.     

A level-set corrector to an adaptive multiscale permeability prediction

We consider the inverse problem of permeability estimation for two-phase porous-media flow. The novel approach is based on regularization by zonation, where the geometry and size of the regions are chosen adaptively during the optimization procedure. To achieve this, we have utilized level-set functions to represent the permeability. The available data are sparsely distributed in space; hence, it is reasonable to confine the estimation to coarse-scale structures. The level-set approach is able to alter the boundaries between regions of different permeability without strict restrictions on their shape; however, when the data are sparse, a reasonable initial guess for the permeability is required. For this task, we use adaptive multiscale permeability estimation, which has the potential of identifying main permeability variations. These are described by a piecewise constant function, where the constant values are attained on rectangular zones. In the current work, we develop a level-set corrector strategy, assuming adaptive multiscale permeability estimation as a predictor.     

Precambrian crystalline basement in southern Mongolia as revealed by SHRIMP zircon dating

Single zircon ages determined by ion microprobe (SHRIMP II) for granitoid gneisses from the southern slope of the Baga Bogd massif (Gobi-Altai, southern Mongolia) reveal several episodes of zircon growth, ranging from late Palaeoproterozoic to late Cambrian. The oldest events are documented by a zircon crystallization age for a gneiss protolith at 1519 ± 11 Ma and by a xenocrystic zircon from a dark grey augen-gneiss yielding an age of c. 1701 Ma. Discrete igneous events are recorded in granite-gneisses with protolith emplacement ages of 983 ± 6, 956 ± 3 and 954 ± 8 Ma. These ages provide the first record of early Neoproterozoic magmatic activity in this region. A much younger and discrete magmatic event is recorded by several dioritic to granitic orthogneisses which are tectonically interlayered with the older gneisses and have protolith emplacement ages between 502 and 498 Ma. These late Cambrian granitoids of calc-alkaline affinity are likely to have been emplaced along an active continental margin and suggest that the Baga Bogd Precambrian crustal fragment was either docked against the southward (present-day coordinates) growing margin of the CAOB or was a large enough crustal entity to develop an arc along its margin. We speculate that the Precambrian gneisses of this massif may be part of a crustal fragment rifted off the Tarim Craton.     

Seasonal variations of phosphorus species in sediment from the middle Adriatic Sea

Phosphorus (P) species concentrations in 0–2 cm surface sediment layer were investigated monthly from November 2001 to December 2002 at the bay, channel and open sea stations in the middle Adriatic. Modified SEDEX method was used for inorganic phosphorus species determination [P in biogenic (P-FD), authigenic (P-AUT), detrital apatite (P-DET) and P adsorbed on to iron oxides and hydroxides (P–Fe)], and organic phosphorus (P-ORG). P-FD, P-AUT and P-DET concentration ranges (1.5–5.4, 0–2.7 and 0.4–3.4 μmol g⁻¹, respectively) were similar at all stations, and showed no obvious common trend of seasonal changes. P–Fe ranged from 1.9 to 11.9 μmol g⁻¹ with the highest values at bay station and higher seasonal oscillations than other inorganic P forms. P-ORG ranged from 0.3 to 18.7 μmol g⁻¹ with higher concentrations at stations of fine-sized sediments and showed increased concentrations in warm part of the year at all stations. Correlation between concentrations of P–Fe in the surface sediment layer and orthophosphate sediment-water interface concentration gradients at bay and channel stations indicated to P–Fe importance in the orthophosphate benthic flux. For the bay station, linkage between sediment P-ORG and chlorophyll a concentrations, primary production and microzooplankton abundance was established, indicating a 1 month delay of sediment response to production fluctuations in the water column.     

WSO and the winds of massive stars: the gate to the metal-poor Local Universe

The spectrographs on-board the World Space Observatory (WSO) will provide access to the 1020–1800 Å wavelength range with unprecedented sensitivity. Previous observatories operating in the 1150–2000 Å range (such as IUE and HST-STIS) have proved extremely useful to study the winds of OB type stars, which leave their most prominent imprints in the far ultraviolet range. The addition of the λ < 1200 Å wavelengths is critical as it contains important diagnostic lines for mass loss and shocks in the wind, as found by FUSE-based analyses.WSO will enable quantitative spectroscopic analyses of blue massive stars in the Local Group beyond the Magellanic Clouds. The results will lead to the characterization of their winds as a function of metallicity, and shed new light on current urging questions regarding radiation driven winds.