Measuring anisotropy in rocks using laser-generated ultrasound

Summary. Measurements using standard contacting piezoelectric transducers and non-contacting laser sources and detectors, have been investigated for the study of ultrasonic anisotropy in rocks. An ultrasonic polariscope has been constructed in order to obtain reproducible travel-time and amplitude measurements. Three case studies are described to demonstrate the apparatus, namely isotropic halite, anisotropic calcite and transversely anisotropic mudstone. A novel technique has been developed in order to construct pseudo-particle motion diagrams, to highlight shear-wave birefringence in rock samples using 2.25 MHz transducers. A pulsed laser has been used to generate compressional and shear waves for comparison with piezoelectric transducer results. The pulses generated by laser irradiation have many advantages for the study of velocity and attenuation anisotropy because of their known characteristics, broad bandwidth and high level of reproducibility. The use of a non-contacting laser source and detector eliminates the need for elaborate coupling agents, stress bonding or immersion techniques. Point-source and line-focusing of the laser beam provides an indirect method of studying shear-wave polarization phenomena. Results from rotation of the line-focused laser beam and rotation of piezoelectric shear-wave transducers with respect to anisotropy, are compared for both velocity and amplitude phenomena in an anisotropic rock sample.     

Mineralogy and geochemistry of metalliferous black slates in the okcheon metamorphic belt, Korea: a metamorphic analogue of black shales in the South China block

Metalliferous black slates, which were locally exploited for their low-quality coal, are distributed in the Late Proterozoic to Paleozoic Okcheon Metamorphic Belt (OMB) of the Korean Peninsula. The mineralogy of the fine matrix is dominated by either quartz–(Ba, V)–mica–graphite or Quartz-Ba-feldspar–graphite. Polycrystalline submillimeter ellipsoids and elongate lenses aligned along foliations and veinlets are scattered through the fine matrix. Both ellipsoids and veinlets include many minor minerals containing rare elements: titanite, apatite, allanite, rutile, polycrase, barite, uraninite, xenotime, armenite, zircon, molybdenite, and sphalerite. Large graphite–apatite ellipsoids (nodules) with widths of several centimeters also occur in the highly carbonaceous black slates. Goldmanite occurs locally as porphyroblasts. The maximum rare element contents are: Ba 9.7%, V 2.04%, Mo 0.13%, U 0.11%, Cr 0.33%, Cu 254 ppm, Ni 479 ppm, Zn 607 ppm, Y 255 ppm, platinum-group element (PGE) + Au 309 ppb, and carbon 57%. The occurrence of the black slates and their elemental abundances suggests that most of the rare elements were accumulated from seawater in an oxygen-poor environment. However, the high Ba content of the OMB black slates indicates some hydrothermal input into an organic-rich basin. Although metamorphism and multiple deformations prevent a direct temporal and spatial correlation, metal abundances and a close association with graphite–apatite nodules and low-quality coal suggest that the OMB black slates are metamorphosed analogues of the Early Cambrian Ba–V deposits hosted by the black shales in the South China Block.     

Multiple deformations along the Honam shear zone in southwestern Korea constrained by Rb–Sr dating of synkinematic fabrics: Implications for the Mesozoic tectonic evolution of northeastern Asia

The Honam shear zone, dextrally running along the southern margin of the Ogcheon belt, Korea, has drawn much attention in reconstructing the Mesozoic tectonic framework of northeastern Asia. Here we present Rb–Sr data for the middle to southwestern part of the Honam shear zone, in an attempt to directly determine ages of deformation. In the middle part, the younger limit of deformation is constrained to be 162 ± 11 Ma by feldspar–biotite Rb–Sr dating of the deformed Sunchang granodiorite. On the other hand, an early Cretaceous deformation age is estimated for synkinematic fibers in ultramylonites from the southwestern part by two reproducible Rb–Sr errorchrons at 138 ± 4 and 139 ± 23 Ma. This deformational time scale is consistent with earlier interpretations based on field evidence, magnetic susceptibility data, and age data for Jurassic plutons within the shear zone. Our data demonstrate that the Honam shear zone is not a Permian to Triassic tectonic feature related to the Chinese continental collision.     

Historical change in lake sedimentation in Lake Takkobu, Kushiro Mire, northern Japan over the last 300 years

Environmental degradation, including shallowing, deterioration of aquatic habitat and water pollution, has arisen from the inflow of fine sediment to Lake Takkobu in northern Japan. The lake has experienced gradual environmental degradation due to agricultural development, which has introduced both fine sediment and sediment-associated nutrients into the lake. We have reconstructed the history of sediment yield to Lake Takkobu in Kushiro Mire over the last 300 years and have examined trends with reference to land-use development. Fifteen lake sediment core samples were obtained, and various physical variables of lake sediments were analyzed and dated using ¹³⁷Cs and tephrochronology. The physical variables showed that all points contained mainly silt, except for two points close to the river mouths, where the mean diameter was < 35 μm. The peaks were defined as a “signal” when the physical variables were synchronous in a profile. These were created by floods and engineering works constructing drainage systems. The signal of canal construction in 1898 was detected in all core points. Lake Takkobu core samples contained two tephra layers. From the refractive indices of dehydrated glasses, the lower tephra layer was identified as Ko-c2 (1694) and the upper tephra layer as Ta-a (1739). A clear peak in the ¹³⁷Cs concentration was detected at all the sampling points, except for the site close to the Takkobu River. This site showed two peaks in the ¹³⁷Cs concentration, which was attributed to perturbation from flood events and a drainage project. The maximum ¹³⁷Cs concentration was identified as the sediment surface from 1963, enveloped by the 1962 and 1964 signals. The sediment yield averaged over the last 300 years for Lake Takkobu was reconstructed for four periods using the signal, tephra and ¹³⁷Cs as marker layers. The sediment yield under the natural erosion condition for the first two periods was 226 tons/year from 1694 to 1739 and 196 tons/year from 1739 to 1898. The development of the Takkobu watershed started in 1880s with partial deforestation and channelization in 1898, 1959, and 1962 leading to an increased sedimentation yield of 1016 tons/year from 1898 to 1963. Continued deforestation, channelization works in 1964, road construction in 1980–1990s, as well as agriculture development caused a further increase to 1354 tons/year from 1963 to 2004. Compared to the averaged natural sedimentation yield of 206 tons/year until 1898, initial land-use development in a catchment accelerated lake sedimentation, indicated by the 5-fold sediment yield. With increasing agricultural development since 1960s, sedimentation yields were highest for 1963–2004; a 7-fold increase compared with pre-impact conditions. To reduce sediment yield, riparian buffers along the rivers should be preserved or rebuilt, and sluices may function effectively during short-term periods of flooding. Environmental management policy and laws restricting uncontrolled and inappropriate land-use might help in addition to ensure longer-term environmental health by reducing the sedimentation rate.     

The impact of boundary on the fractional advection–dispersion equation for solute transport in soil: Defining the fractional dispersive flux with the Caputo derivatives

The inherent heterogeneity of geological media often results in anomalous dispersion for solute transport through them, and how to model it has been an interest over the past few decades. One promising approach that has been increasingly used to simulate the anomalous transport in surface and subsurface water is the fractional advection–dispersion equation (FADE), derived as a special case of the more general continuous time random walk or the stochastic continuum model. In FADE, the dispersion is not local and the solutes have appreciable probability to move long distances, and thus reach the boundary faster than predicted by the classical advection–dispersion equation (ADE). How to deal with different boundaries associated with FADE and their consequent impact is an issue that has not been thoroughly explored. In this paper we address this by taking one-dimensional solute movement in soil columns as an example. We show that the commonly used FADE with its fractional derivatives defined by the Riemann–Liouville definition is problematic and could result in unphysical results for solute transport in bounded domains; a modified method with the fractional dispersive flux defined by the Caputo derivatives is presented to overcome this problem. A finite volume approach is given to numerically solve the modified FADE and its associated boundaries. With the numerical model, we analyse the inlet-boundary treatment in displacement experiments in soil columns, and find that, as in ADE, treating the inlet as a prescribed concentration boundary gives rise to mass-balance errors and such errors could be more significant in FADE because of its non-local dispersion. We also discuss a less-documented but important issue in hydrology: how to treat the upstream boundary in analysing the lateral movement of tracer in an aquifer when the tracer is injected as a pulse. It is shown that the use of an infinite domain, as commonly assumed in literature, leads to unphysical backward dispersion, which has a significant impact on data interpretation. To avoid this, the upstream boundary should be flux-prescribed and located at the upstream edge of the injecting point. We apply the model to simulate the movement of Cl⁻ in a tracer experiment conducted in a saturated hillslope, and analyse in details the significance of upstream-boundary treatments in parameter estimation.     

Topic 1: Data acquisition and evaluation of groundwater pollution by nitrates,pesticides, and disease-producing bacteria

The potential of certain agricultural activities for groundwater pollution has long been recognized. Intensification of agriculture, increases in land area devoted to arable crops, intensification of animal husbandry, and a move away from arable rotations toward monoculture have affected groundwater nitrate content and necessitate continued close monitoring of groundwater. Investigative techniques vary, and have included systematic collection of water quality data from the saturated zone of aquifers, determining solute concentrations in pore waters present in unsaturated zones overlying unconfined aquifers, and deep profiling of consolidated aquifers. Pore water has been analyzed for both chemical components and thermonuclear tritium. Studies continue throughout the world. The results of several of these from various countries are included in the Symposium.     

Volcanogenic tonsteins from tertiary coal measures,East Kalimantan,Indonesia

Laterally persistent tonsteins, up to 30 cm thick, occur in coal seams and associated sediments in the Tertiary Kutei Basin of East Kalimantan, Indonesia, where Neogene strata which form a generally eastward-prograding, marginal-marine to fluvio-deltaic sequence, are disposed in a north-northeast to south-southwest striking fold belt, centred on Samarinda. Eight tonsteins have so far been recorded in the middle to upper Miocene of the Badak syncline, some 40 km south-southwest of Samarinda, and range from tonsteins in the strict sense (kaolinite-mudstones of wide stratigraphical extent) including graupen and kristall varieties, to smectite-mudstones. They may pass laterally into each other. Most contain pyroclasts in varying stages of alteration and are regarded as volcanogenic. Primary textures include microscopic vitroclastic aggregates completely argillised to smectite, graded crystal-tuffs with abundant sanidine, glass shards and secondary vermiform kaolinite crystals, and argillised lithic tuffs. Texturally and compositionally these Tertiary tonsteins are closely similar to European Carboniferous tonsteins and this strengthens the conclusion of a volcanogenic origin even where pyroclastic textures have been removed through alteration. The East Kalimantan tonsteins are of economic and stratigraphic significance in providing distinctive horizons which have proved useful in aiding correlation of boreholes drilled in a coal-resource project in this area.     

A marine kill in New Jersey coastal waters

A kill of lobsters around wrecks off the New Jersey coast seem not to be a direct result of pollution but may have been due to an influx of water causing reduced oxygen levels combined with high temperatures. Mortalities of this kind have been observed before in the area but it is not known if this is an annual event or due to abnormal circumstances. It would be worth keeping the situation under review in the future.     

Predicting the bioaccumulation of organic compounds in marine organisms using octanol/water partition coefficients

Sediments and animals collected from near the discharge zone of the Los Angeles County wastewater treatment plant were analysed for 27 selected organic compounds that had been identified in the effluent. It was found that the sediment and tissue concentrations of these organic compounds were positively correlated with each other and with the n-octanol/water partition coefficient but that these were negatively correlated with the effluent concentration. It was concluded that n-octanol/water partition coefficients should be used to predict which organics have the potential to bioaccumulate and therefore cause biological effects.