Late Mesozoic compressional to extensional tectonics in the Yiwulüshan massif,NE China and its bearing on the evolution of the Yinshan–Yanshan orogenic belt: Part I: Structural analyses and geochronological constraints

With a cratonic nucleus, the North China Craton (NCC) experienced a complex tectonic evolution with multiphase compressional and extensional events during Mesozoic times. Along the northern part of the NCC, the Yinshan–Yanshan fold and thrust belt was a typical intraplate orogen. Jurassic and Cretaceous continental sedimentation, magmatism, widespread intraplate characterize the Yinshan–Yanshan orogenic belt. The geodynamic significance of these tectonic events is still in dispute. In the western part of the Liaoning province, the Yiwulüshan massif crops out at the eastern end of the Yinshan–Yanshan orogenic belt. The Yiwulüshan massif presents an elliptical domal shape with a NE–SW striking long axis. The structural evolution of this massif brings new insights for the understanding of the Mesozoic plutonic–tectonic history of the NCC. A multidisciplinary study involving structural geology, geochronology, Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) and gravity modeling have been carried out. The presentation of the new results splits into two parts. Part I (this paper) deals with field and laboratory structural observations, and presents the main geochronological results. The AMS, gravity modeling data will be provided in a companion paper (Part II). The early compressional deformation (D₁) corresponds to a Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous southward thrusting. The subsequent deformation is related to the Early Cretaceous exhumation of the Yiwulüshan massif. A detailed structural analysis allows us to distinguish several deformation events (D₂, D₃, and D₄). The Cretaceous extensional structures, such as syntectonic plutons bounded by ductile normal faults, metamorphic core complexes, and half-graben basins are recognized in many places in East Asia. These new data from the Yiwulüshan massif constitute a link between Transbaikalia, Mongolia, North China and South China, indicating that NW–SE extensional Mesozoic tectonics occurred throughout the entire region.     

Runoff and water erosion modelling using WEPP on a Mediterranean cultivated catchment

Soil erosion due to water is a major environmental problem in many parts of the world. Most of Mediterranean countries are concerned because of their specific climate and soils sensitivity, but also because of the recent intensification of human activities and agricultural practices. Accurate estimation of soil water erosion for various land-use and climate scenarios is so an important key to define sustainable management policies. In the last decades, several studies have been carried out to build models suitable for quantifying soil erosion. Among these models, the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP, Flanagan, D.C., Nearing, M.A., 1995. USDA-Water Erosion Prediction Project: Hillslope profile and watershed model documentation. NSERL Report 10, USDA-ARS National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory, West Lafayette, IN, USA.) is a physically based, distributed-parameter model that has been developed and mainly validated in USA. Only few studies have investigated its applicability to environmental conditions that differs from those where the model was developed. The aim of this work is to test the efficiency of WEPP model to predict soil erosion at catchment scale in a Mediterranean semi-arid area. Continuous simulations have been conducted between 1995 and 2002 on an cultivated experimental catchment located upstream from a hill reservoir (Kamech catchment, 2.45 km², Cap Bon, Tunisia) where runoff and soil erosion measurements are available at the outlet. Comparison between predictions and measurements shows significant differences. Processes related to seasonal effects (as cracking soils) are pointed out as a weakness of WEPP model for Mediterranean conditions.     

Stabilization of Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases

Given the present commitment of the developed countries according to the Kyoto Protocol, most published scenarios demonstrate that global greenhouse gases concentrations would not be stabilized at any level. In order to stabilize these concentrations, a deeper global involvement is needed. Taking Israel as an example of a `recently-developed' country, we assess the role that such countries could play by assuming voluntary commitments in strengthening global involvement. This case as a model may encourage a global scheme for curbing carbon emissions, in which the more developed countries assume a stronger role and the less developed countries participate according to the principle of common but differentiated responsibility. The scheme builds on the inverse relation that exists between the per capita gross domestic product and the rate of increase of emissions due to economic growth. According to this theoretical scheme, the voluntary commitments assumed by the `recently-developed' countries encourage the more developed countries to deepen their involvement by assuming more stringent reductions of emissions at home and transferring technological and financial means to the less developed countries. The proposed scheme would enable non-Annex I countries, both `recently-developed' countries and less developed countries, to participate much earlier in the net mitigation of greenhouse gases.     

Integration of the life of field seismic data with the reservoir model at the Valhall Field‡

The frequent time‐lapse observations from the life of field seismic system across the Valhall field provide a wealth of information. The responses from the production and injection wells can be observed through time‐shift and amplitude changes. These observations can be compared to modelled synthetic seismic responses from a reservoir simulation model of the Valhall Field. The observed differences between the observations and the modelling are used to update and improve the history match of the reservoir model. The uncertainty of the resulting model is reduced and a more confident prediction of future reservoir performance is provided. A workflow is presented to convert the reservoir model to a synthetic seismic response and compare the results to the observed time‐lapse responses for any time range and area of interest. Correlation based match quality factors are calculated to quantify the visual differences. This match quality factor allows us to quantitatively compare alternative reservoir models to help identify the parameters that best match the seismic observations. Three different case studies are shown where this workflow has helped to reduce the uncertainty range associated with specific reservoir parameters. By updating various reservoir model parameters we have been able to improve the match to the observations and thereby improve the overall reservoir model predictability. The examples show positive results in a range of different reservoir modelling issues, which indicates the flexibility of this workflow and the ability to have an impact in most reservoir modelling challenges.     

Objectives of fisheries management: case studies from the UK, France, Spain and Denmark

The main objectives of fisheries management are generally similar throughout the world. These are often stated in policy documents such as the Common Fisheries Policy and the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. However, at the local level often the key objectives of management are more detailed, characterised by both the overriding management structure and the status and type of fishery concerned. In this paper, we consider case study fisheries from the UK, France, Spain and Denmark to compare some of the various types of fisheries and fisheries management systems that exist in the European Union. From this, we define the key objectives for each management system.     

A critical zone observatory dedicated to suspended sediment transport: The meso-scale Galabre catchment (southern French Alps)

The 20 km² Galabre catchment belongs to the French network of critical zone observatories (OZCAR; Gaillardet et al., Vadose Zone Journal, 2018, 17(1), 1–24). It is representative of the sedimentary lithology and meteorological forcing found in Mediterranean and mountainous areas. Due to the presence of highly erodible and sloping badlands on various lithologies, the site was instrumented in 2007 to understand the dynamics of suspended sediments (SS) in such areas. Two meteorological stations including measurements of air temperature, wind speed and direction, air moisture, rainfall intensity, raindrop size and velocity distribution were installed both in the upper and lower part of the catchment. At the catchment outlet, a gauging station records the water level, temperature and turbidity (10 min time-step). Stream water samples are collected automatically to estimate SS concentration-turbidity relationships, allowing quantification of SS fluxes with known uncertainty. The sediment samples are further characterized by measuring their particle size distributions and by applying a low-cost sediment fingerprinting approach using spectrocolorimetric tracers. Thus, the contributions of badlands located on different lithologies to total SS flux are quantified at a high temporal resolution, providing the opportunity to better analyse the links between meteorological forcing variability and watershed hydrosedimentary response. The set of measurements was extended to the dissolved phase in 2017. Both stream water electrical conductivity and major ion concentrations are measured each week and every 3 h during storm events. This extension of measurements to the dissolved phase will allow progress in understanding both the origin of the water during the events and the partitioning between particulate and dissolved fluxes of solutes in the critical zone. All data sets are available at https://doi.osug.fr/public/DRAIXBLEONE_GAL/index.html .     

A composite Fe,Ni‐FeS and enstatite‐forsterite‐diopside‐glass vitrophyre clast in the Larkman Nunatak 04316 aubrite: Origin by pyroclastic volcanism

Abstract– We studied the mineralogy, petrology, and bulk, trace element, oxygen, and noble gas isotopic compositions of a composite clast approximately 20 mm in diameter discovered in the Larkman Nunatak (LAR) 04316 aubrite regolith breccia. The clast consists of two lithologies: One is a quench‐textured intergrowth of troilite with spottily zoned metallic Fe,Ni which forms a dendritic or cellular structure. The approximately 30 μm spacings between the Fe,Ni arms yield an estimated cooling rate of this lithology of approximately 25–30 °C s^?1. The other is a quench‐textured enstatite‐forsterite‐diopside‐glass vitrophyre lithology. The composition of the clast suggests that it formed at an exceptionally high degree of partial melting, perhaps approaching complete melting, and that the melts from which the composite clast crystallized were quenched from a temperature of approximately 1380–1400 °C at a rate of approximately 25–30 °C s^?1. The association of the two lithologies in a composite clast allows, for the first time, an estimation of the cooling rate of a silicate vitrophyre in an aubrite of approximately 25–30 °C s^?1. While we cannot completely rule out an impact origin of the clast, we present what we consider is very strong evidence that this composite clast is one of the elusive pyroclasts produced during pyroclastic volcanism on the aubrite parent body ( Wilson and Keil 1991 ). We further suggest that this clast was not ejected into space but retained on the aubrite parent body by virtue of the relatively large size of the clast of approximately 20 mm. Our modeling, taking into account the size of the clast, suggests that the aubrite parent body must have been between approximately 40 and 100 km in diameter, and that the melt from which the clast crystallized must have contained an estimated maximum range of allowed volatile mass fractions between approximately 500 and approximately 4500 ppm.     

Essai sur la structure des domaines émergés autour de la Méditerranée occidentale

Résumé De travaux menés dans les zones littorales de l'Afrique du Nord et dans tout le S de l'Espagne, l'auteur tire une nouvelle définition des grands ensembles structuraux péri-méditerranéens. Ces ensembles sont, dans les Cordillères bétiques, du N au S: zones externes (Prébétique, Subbétiques, Pénibétiques), zones internes (Flyschs gaditans, Malaguides, Alpujarrides, Nevadides 1). Dans le Rif marocain, symétriquement, on rencontre du S au N: zones externes (Autochtone de l'Atlas, nappes prérifaines et intrarifaines), zones internes (Flyschs nord-rifains, Tétouanides 2), Ghomarides 3), Sebtides 4); la plupart de ces zones se poursuivent vers l'E, jusqu'en Tunisie et en Sicile.Le fait majeur, à souligner au départ, est la parfaite symétrie de la chaîne alpine de la Méditerranée occidentale: les nappes rifaines ne le cèdent pas en importance aux nappes bétiques. Les diverses unités des deux systèmes se raccordent de manière évidente par la courbure de Gibraltar. L'âge du paroxysme tectonique paraît entièrement compris entre Oligocène supérieur et Miocène supérieur, aucune preuve objective n'existant de nappes plus anciennes.La remise en place des divers ensembles structuraux dépend de l'hypothèse générale définie au départ. Il est d'abord fait allusion à l'interprétation classique, par charriages modérés, ne faisant pas appel à des modifications importantes dans l'emplacement des bassins sédimentaires, actuellement visibles en plan. Les objections à ce premier schéma paraissent déterminantes.Une deuxième interprétation, que l'auteur a déjà partiellement esquissée auparavant, sera envisagée: les unités externes (s'empilant sur elles-mêmes) et leurs socles s'enfonceraient sous les zones internes qui, par réaction, seraient poussées vers l'extérieur de la chaîne: chacune des nappes dépasserait la nappe plus basse, au cours de ce mouvement. Dans le cas de l'Espagne, avant les charriages, les domaines sédimentaires des zones internes se placeraient à l'inverse de la disposition actuelle, soit du N au S: Nevadides, Alpujarrides, Malaguides, Pénibétique et Flyschs gaditans (ultras). Du côté marocain, nous aurions de même du S au N: Sebtides, Ghomarides, Tétouanides, Flyschs nord-rifains (ultras). Cela obligerait, au total, à faire rapprocher l'un de l'autre, en profondeur, les bâtis de la Meseta ibérique et de l'Atlas marocain, d'environ 300 à 500 km, l'actuelle largeur de la mer d'Alboran (150 km) ne permettant pas de reloger les domaines de toutes les nappes. Un axe d'enfouissement serait à rechercher sous l'actuelle Méditerranée.Une troisième interprétation, proposée aujourd'hui par l'auteur, considère que la chaîne péri-méditerranéenne montre une cicatrice structurale fondamentale, qui séparerait domaines internes bétiques et rifains, d'une part, domaines bétiques et rifains plus externes, de l'autre. Cette cicatrice se couderait au niveau de Gibraltar. Les nappes internes seraient comme aspirées vers la cicatrice ainsi que, en sens inverse, les nappes externes. La reconstitution paléogéographique finale est fort satisfaisante et l'ampleur des rétrécissements sensiblement diminuée.La position du domaine des Flyschs kabyles, nord-rifains et gaditans, fait enfin l'objet d'un examen nouveau: sans rejeter l'origine ultra, déjà proposée, l'auteur envisage d'autres solutions, qui auraient l'avantage de mieux s'intégrer dans l'image proposée aujourd'hui.     

Simulation of the interaction of galactic cosmic‐ray protons with meteoroids: On the production of radionuclides in thick gabbro and iron targets irradiated isotropically with 1.6 GeV protons

Abstract— Thick spherical targets made of gabbro (R = 25 cm) and of steel (R = 10 cm) were irradiated isotropically with 1.6 GeV protons at the Saturne synchrotron at Laboratoire National Saturne (LNS)/CEN Saclay in order to simulate the interaction in space of galactic cosmic‐ray (GCR) protons with stony and iron meteoroids. Proton fluences of 1.32 × 10¹⁴ cm^?2 and 2.45 × 10¹⁴ cm^?2 were received by the gabbro and iron sphere, respectively, which corresponds to cosmic‐ray exposure ages of about 1.6 and 3.0 Ma. Both artificial meteoroids contained large numbers of high‐purity target foils of up to 28 elements at different depths. In these individual target foils, elementary production rates of radionuclides and rare gas isotopes were measured by x‐ and γ‐spectrometry, by low‐level counting, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), and by conventional rare gas mass spectrometry. Also samples of the gabbro itself were analyzed. Up to now, for each of the experiments, ～500 target‐product combinations were investigated of which the results for radionuclides are presented here. The experimental production rates show a wide range of depth profiles reflecting the differences between low‐, medium‐, and high‐energy products. The influence of the stony and iron matrices on the production of secondary particles and on particle transport, in general, and consequently on the production rates is clearly exhibited by the phenomenology of the production rates as well as by a detailed theoretical analysis. Theoretical production rates were calculated in an a priori way by folding depth‐dependent spectra of primary and secondary protons and secondary neutrons calculated by Monte Carlo techniques with the excitation functions of the underlying nuclear reactions. Discrepancies of up to a factor of 2 between the experimental and a priori calculated depth profiles are attributed to the poor quality of the mostly theoretical neutron excitation functions. Improved neutron excitation functions were obtained by least‐squares deconvolution techniques from experimental thick‐target production rates of up to five thick‐target experiments in which isotropic irradiations were performed. A posteriori calculations using the adjusted neutron cross sections describe the measured depth profiles of all these simulation experiments within 9%. The thus validated model calculations provide a basis for reliable physical model calculations of the production rates of cosmogenic nuclides in stony and iron meteorites as well as in lunar samples and terrestrial materials.