Temporal and spatial features of the soil moisture in boreal spring in eastern China

Soil moisture data of 45 years from European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA-40) and the in situ observational data are used to study the temporal and spatial characteristics of the soil moisture in boreal spring in the area to the east of 100°E in China. Results show that ERA-40 soil moisture well reproduces the temporal and spatial features of observations. ERA-40 data capture the spatial pattern that the soils in Northeast China and Southwest China are wetter than those...     

Occurrence of Alaskan-type mafic-ultramafic intrusions in the North Qilian Mountains, northwest China: Evidence of Cambrian arc magmatism on the Qilian Block

Field relationships, mineralogy and petrology, whole‐rock chemistry, and age of the Zhamashi mafic–ultramafic intrusion in the North Qilian Mountains, northwest China, have been studied in the present work. The Zhamashi intrusive body consists of ultramafic, gabbroic, and dioritic rocks in a crudely concentrically zoned structure. The ultramafic rocks are layered cumulates with rock types varying continuously from dunite through wehrlite and olivine clinopyroxenite to clinopyroxenite. The gabbroic and dioritic rocks are also layered or massive cumulates with rock types varying continuously from noritic gabbro through hornblende gabbro to diorite. The ultramafic and adjoining gabbroic rocks are discontinuous in lithology and discordant in structure across the interface. The interface is steep, sharp, and fractured. Contact metamorphic zones are well developed between the Zhamashi intrusive body and the country rock. The concentrically zoned structure of the intrusive body and the intrusion into the continental crust are the two main pieces of evidence for considering that the Zhamashi intrusion is Alaskan‐type. The mineral chemistry of the chromian spinels (Cr‐spinels) and clinopyroxenes, and the variation trend of the whole‐rock compositional plot in the (Na₂O + K₂O)–FeO–MgO (AFM) diagram are also supportive of this consideration. The age of the Zhamashi intrusive body, determined with sensitive high mass‐resolution ion microprobe on the zircon grains, is 513.0 ± 4.5 Ma. Parental magma of the Zhamashi intrusion is compositionally close to the primitive magma produced by partial melting of the mantle peridotite. It was differentiated by fractional crystallization at low total pressure and under H₂O‐rich conditions in an arc environment to form all the major rock types. The concentrically zoned structure of the Zhamashi intrusive body was constructed in two stages: formation of a stratiform‐type layered sequence, followed by diapiric re‐emplacement. The occurrence of the Alaskan‐type intrusion suggests an active continental margin and Cambrian arc magmatism for the northern margin of the Qilian Block.     

海地地震发生在构造复杂的地震活动带

北京时间2010年1月13日5时53分（当地时间2010年1月12日16时53分）,加勒比岛国海地发生7．3级地震（震中18．5°N,72．5°W）,首都太子港及全国大部分地区受灾情况严重,大片建筑物倒塌,死亡人数不断攀升。这场地震是海地自1770年以来遭遇的最强地震,     

国际地震中心(ISC)2009—2011发展战略

引言 本文确定了国际地震中心（ISC）的下一步发展战略。它经ISC执行委员会在2008年6月8-9日萨彻姆（Thatcham）会议上考虑并获得支持。ISC理事会在2009年1月11日开普敦（Cape Town）会议期间原则上批准了此战略规划。规划中还对ISC理事会成员在会后一个月内提交的校正／修改意见予以考虑。     

海地地震彰显更好地利用地震信息的必要性

2010年1月12日（当地时间,译者注,下同）,沿海地Ennquillo—Plantain Garden断裂带（EPGFZ）的一部分区段发生了走滑型地震。当美国普渡大学（Purdue University）地球与大气科学系地球物理学教授Eric CMais首次得知有关此次地震的消息时,     

苏门答腊近海地震

过去的几年中,印度尼西亚遭受的自然灾害可真不少.2004年"节礼日"那天的灾难性地震和海啸发生后,巽他大型逆冲断层(Sundamegathrust)依然没有消停.这一大型逆冲断层是澳大利亚板块向欧亚板块俯冲的标志,它随同印度尼西亚群岛(不包括婆罗洲Borneo)一起向该群岛西部延伸.由于沿巽他大型逆冲断层的破裂,印度尼西亚遭受了一场"地震风暴"(较短时期内群发性大地震)的袭击.最近一次灾难发生在2009年9月30日苏门答腊岛巴东市,震级MW7.6,造成1000多人死亡.     

基态修正模型的时空数据组织和快照查询方法研究

基态修正模型是目前应用较广的一种时空数据模型.本文分析了基态修正模型中的时空数据特点,采用shapefile文件作为基态数据文件,自主设计差文件格式来存储和组织变化数据.在此基础上设计了快照查询的算法、流程和查询结果的显示方法.为了给用户提供更直观、更充分的时空信息,本文提出了一种双屏幕多视图的时空数据显示模式.采用VC.NET从底层开发了一个时态地理信息系统平台,并以中南大学主校区的时空数据为实验数据对上述算法和模式进行了检验.实验表明,本文所设计的算法可行,快照显示模式能够提供更直观、更丰富、对比性强的信息内容,是时空信息显示的一种可行模式.     

Global distribution of thermosteric contribution to sea level rising trend

The sea level derived from TOPEX/Poseidon(T/P) altimetry data shows prominent long term trend and inter-annual variability.The global mean sea level rising rate during 1993-2003 was 2.9 mm a-1.The T/P sea level trend maps the geographical variability.In the Northern Hemisphere(15°-64°N),the sea level rise is very fast at the mid-latitude(20°-40°N) but much slower at the high-latitude,for example,only 0.5 mm a-1 in the latitude band 40°-50°N.In the Southern Hemisphere,the sea level shows high rising rate both in mid-latitude and high-latitude areas,for example,5.1 mm a-1 in the band 40°-50°S.The global thermosteric sea level(TSL) derived from Ishii temperature data was rising during 1993-2003 at a rate of 1.2 mm a-1 and accounted for more than 40% of the global T/P sea level rise.The contributions of the TSL distribution are not spatially uniform;for instance,the percentage is 67% for the Northern Hemisphere and only 29% for the Southern Hemisphere(15°-64°S) and the maximum thermosteric contribution appears in the Pacific Ocean,which contributes more than 60% of the global TSL.The sea level change trend in tropical ocean is mainly caused by the thermosteric effect,which is different from the case of seasonal variability in this area.The TSL variability dominates the T/P sea level rise in the North Atlantic,but it is small in other areas,and shows negative trend at the high-latitude area(40°-60°N,and 50°-60°S).The global TSL during 1945-2003 showed obvious rising trend with the rate of about 0.3 mm a-1 and striking inter-annual and decadal variability with period of 20 years.In the past 60 years,the Atlantic TSL was rising continuously and remarkably,contributing 38% to the global TSL rising.The TSL in the Pacific and Indian Ocean rose with significant inter-annual and decadal variability.The first EOF mode of the global TSL from Ishii temperature data was the ENSO mode in which the time series of the first mode showed steady rising trend.Among the three oceans,the first mode of the Pacific TSL presented the ENSO mode;there was relatively steady rising trend in the Atlantic Ocean,and no dominant mode in the Indian Ocean.     

Desertification Reversion in Relation to Land Use Change and Climate in Naiman County, Inner-Mongolia, China

Analyses of desertified land and land use change in Naiman County of Inner-Mongolia showed that there was a fluctuated in-crease of rain-fed cropland in the period from 1951 to 1960, then decreased until the middle of the 1990＇s, then increased again, while irrigated cropland consistently increased. The woodland and build-up land consistently increased while grassland area de-creased. The area of water body increased from 1975 to 1995 and then decreased while river beach decreased. Wetland change fluctuated with a maximum of 303.53km2 in 1995 and a minimum of 62.08 km2 in 2002. Invasion of cropland into river beach does not only change land coverage on the beach, but also the hydrological process of the river systems and deeply influence wa-ter availability. The correlation between cropland and underground water table is negative and significant. Increase of irrigated cropland is the primary cause of water availability reduction. Water table reduction is negatively correlated to cropland. The total desertified land has decreased since 1975. A rapid increase occurred before 1959, but it is difficult to assess the change of deserti-fication due to lack of data from 1959 to 1975. Changes of different types of desertified lands were different. There is no signifi-cant correlation between land use and different types of desertified land, but there is a significant negative correlation between woodland and total desertified land. The correlation between grassland and total desertified land is positive and significant. There is a significant correlation between different land cover and key factors such as water body and annual precipitation, river beach and runoff, area of shifting dune and annual precipitation, and cropland and underground water table. Desertification reversion in Naiman County is fragile and will be even much more fragile due to population growth, rapid land use and climate change. This will lead to continued invasion of irrigated cropland into more fragile ecosystems and reduction of water availability.     

Carbon and nitrogen mineralization in soils along a desertification gradient in the semiarid Horqin Sandy Land, Northern China

This experiment was conducted in three sites along a desertification gradient in Horqin Sandy Land, Northern China. Soils una-mended and amended with five types of plant residue in a wide range of C:N ratios from 9.9 to 82.2 were incubated for 70 days, during which C and N mineralization were measured. Along the desertification gradient from fixed sand dune to semifixed, and mobile sand dune: cumulative CO2-C produced from the unamended soils was 231.6, 193.3 and 61.9 μg/g, respectively, while net inorganic N was 22.9, 17.6 and 0.9 mg/kg. Soils amended with residues produced more CO2-C than the unamended soils across all sites. During the first 10 days, C mineralization rate of residue-amended soils decreased with the increase of C:N ratio at each site. However, the mineralization rates were poorly correlated with the C:N ratio in subsequent stage of incubation. Soils of mobile sand dune amended with higher C:N ratio (more than 32) residues produced less CO2-C than that of fixed and semifixed sand dune. NO3--N was the predominant form of inorganic N during the mineralization process in sandy soils. Carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N) can be regarded as a predictor of the speed of N mineralization in sandy soil. The more C. microphylla residue with the lowest C:N ratio (9.9) added in soils, the more net inorganic N released. Our results suggest that C. microphylla residue when added to soil would potentially provide short-term plant available N and improve the soil quality in sandy land. The desertification process postponed the release of inorganic N from plant residues.