Texture and mineralogy of sediments from the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river system in the Bengal Basin, Bangladesh and their environmental implications

 The Bengal basin, Bangladesh, represents one of the most densely populated recent floodplains of the world. The sediment flux through the basin is one of the highest on a global scale. A significant portion of this sediment load find its sink in the basin itself because of its lower elevation and frequent flooding. The textural, mineralogical and chemical nature of the sediments thus have an important bearing on the environmental quality of the basin as well as for the Bay of Bengal. The sediment load of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river system consists exclusively of fine sand, silt and clay at their lower reaches within the Bengal basin, Bangladesh, and is deposited under uniformly fluctuating, unidirectional energy conditions. The sediments have a close simitarity in grain size with the sediments of the surrounding floodplain. The mineral assemblage is dominated by quartz and feldspars. Illite and kaolinite are the major clay minerals, and occur in almost equal proportion in bed sediments. The heavy mineral assemblage is dominated by unstable minerals which are mostly derived from high-rank metamorphic rocks. The characteristic smaller grain-size, i.e. having large surface-to-mass ratios, and the mineralogy of sediments suggests that they are susceptible to large chemical adsorptive reactions and thus could serve as a potential trap for contaminants. However, the sediments of the GBM river system in the Bengal basin, Bangladesh, shows lower concentration of Pb, Hg and As, and a marginally higher value for Cd as compared to that of standard shale. Considering population density and extensive agricultural practice in the basin, the sediments can in the long run become contaminated. Received: 9 November 1994 · Accepted: 18 June 1996     

Seismic Ground Motion Expected for the Eastern District of Naples

The seismic ground motion of a test area in the eastern district of Naples is computed with a hybrid technique based on the mode summation and the finite difference methods. This technique allows us the realistic modelling of source and propagation effects, including local soil conditions. In the modelling, we consider the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, a good example of strong shaking for the area of Naples, which is located about 90 km from the epicenter.The detailed geological setting is reconstructed from a large number of drillings. The sub-soil is mainly formed by alluvial (ash, stratified sand and peat) and pyroclastic materials overlying a pyroclastic rock (yellow neapolitan tuff), representing the neapolitan bedrock. The detailed information available on mechanical properties of the sub-soil and its geometry warrants the application of the sophisticated hybrid technique.As expected, the sedimentary cover causes an increase of the signal's amplitudes and duration. If thin peat layers are present, the amplification effects are reduced, and the peak ground accelerations are similar to those observed for the bedrock model. This can be explained by the backscattering of wave energy at such layers, that tend to seismically decouple the upper from the lower part of the structure.For SH-waves, the influence of the variations of the S-wave velocities on the spectral amplification is studied, by considering locally measured velocities and values determined from near-by down-hole measurements. The comparison between the computed spectral amplifications confirms the key role of an accurate determination of the seismic velocities of the different layers.The comparison performed between a realistic 2-D seismic response and a standard 1-D response, based on the vertical propagation of waves in a plane layered structure, shows considerable difference, from which it is evident that serious caution must be taken in the modelling of expected ground motion at a specific site.     

Secondary siderite-oxide-sulphide and carbonate-andalusite assemblages in cordierite granulites from Sri Lanka: post-granulite facies fluid evolution during uplift

We report here that some of the pelitic rocks from the Wanni and Highland Complexes of Sri Lanka reacted with CO₂-rich fluids to produce a wide range of unusual secondary carbonate-silicate-oxide-sulphide assemblages. These enable the depth, temperature and fluid compositions of CO₂ reactions to be calculated more rigorously than is generally possible for the patches of arrested charnockite that have been described from Sri Lanka. Magnesite-andalusite-quartz has partially replaced primary cordierite, and siderite-rutile replaced ilmenite. Paragenetic sequences involving primary pyrrhotite, ilmenite and magnetite and secondary pyrite-siderite-rutile-magnetite-(hematite) demonstrate the control which carbonate equilibria have upon evolving fluid compositions during cooling. Direct evidence for the role of graphite as a source of CO₂ is found in the Highland Complex where primary graphite partially reacted with silicates to form secondary siderite assemblages. It is proposed that following peak metamorphism, continued uplift along a clockwise P-T-t path was accompanied by a series of devolatilization reactions involving breakdown of graphite and the continuous production of secondary CO₂-rich fluids. The limited extent of disseminated secondary carbonate reflects the small amount of graphite inferred to have been present in the source rocks. These rocks demonstrate that CO₂-rich fluids, as found in disseminated fluid inclusions, need not form during peak granulite metamorphism but may be an inevitable consequence of continued uplift along a clockwise P-T-t path. The arrested charnockite which overprinted some of the hornblende-bearing felsic-intermediate composition rocks in Sri Lanka most likely formed by the same process. Received: 4 May 1994 / Accepted: 25 October 1996     

Study of the liquefaction resistance of a saturated sand reinforced with Geosynthetics

This article presents various tests using a cyclic triaxial instrument, on samples of saturated Hostun RF sand, reinforced with circular sheets of geosynthetic material. Tests performed with different types of geosynthetics of different compressibility, rigidity and roughness characteristics indicate a significant increase in liquefaction resistance for samples reinforced with compressible, non-woven geotextiles. The undrained behaviour of saturated Hostun RF sand reinforced with non-woven geotextiles is analysed on the basis of different test series. This analysis highlights the influence of reinforcement compressibility on interstitial pressure distribution in the sample, thus showing the role of this type of inclusion in the increase in liquefaction resistance.     

Attenuation differences in layer 2A in intermediate- and slow-spreading oceanic crust

In situ seismic attenuationQ⁻¹logs are derived from borehole velocity profiles and reveal sharp boundaries between morphologies of the extrusive volcanic layers in intermediate- and slow-spreading oceanic crust.Q⁻¹logs are calculated from the scattering attenuation associated with vertical velocity heterogeneity in Ocean Drilling Program Holes 504B and 896A and in Hole 395A, located in 5.9–7.3 Ma crust on the Pacific and Atlantic plates, respectively. Our results strongly tie crustal properties to seismic measurables and observed geological structures: we find that the scattering attenuation can be used to identify the extrusive volcanic sequence because it is closely related to changes in the degree of vertical heterogeneity. We interpret a distinct decrease in the Q⁻¹log at the transition below the extrusive volcanic layer to correspond with the seismic layer 2A/2B boundary. The boundary is located at 465 m depth below the sea floor in both Hole 395A and 504B, although this is likely to be a coincidence of the sediment thickness at these sites. Layer 2A is estimated to be approximately 150 m thick in Hole 504B and > 300 m thick in Hole 395A. Cyclic sequences of high-porosity pillows and low-porosity massive units in the uppermost 100 m of volcanics in Hole 395A result in large velocity heterogeneities which cause > 5 times more attenuation in this layer than in Hole 504B. In Hole 896A, by contrast, fewer pillows, more massive flows, and a greater volume of carbonate veins decrease the velocity heterogeneity and attenuation significantly over only 1 km distance from Hole 504B. We conclude that the attenuation in the extrusive volcanics of the ocean crust is largely controlled by variation in local heterogeneity and morphology as well as by subsequent hydrothermal alteration. The observed differences inQ⁻¹profiles and layer 2A thickness at these sites may be attributed to variations in the volume and duration of volcanic activity at mid-ocean spreading centers for these Pacific and Atlantic ridge segments.     

Extreme value theory based on the r largest annual events: a robust approach

In Smith (1986, J. Hydrol. 86, 27–43), a family of statistical distributions and estimators for extreme values based on a fixed number r > = 1 of the largest annual events are presented. The method of estimation was numerical maximum likelihood. In this paper, we consider the robust estimation of parameters in such families of distributions. The estimation technique, which is based on optimal B-robust estimates, will assign weights to each observation and give estimates of the parameters based on the data which are well modeled by the distribution. Thus, observations which are not consistent with the proposed distribution can be identified and the validity of the model can be assessed. The method is illustrated on Venice sea level data.