Regional modelling of permafrost thicknesses over the past 130 ka: implications for permafrost development in Great Britain

The greatest thicknesses of permafrost in Great Britain most likely occurred during the last glacial–interglacial cycle, as this is when some of the coldest conditions occurred during the last 1 000 000 years. The regional development of permafrost across Great Britain during the last glacial–interglacial cycle was modelled from a ground surface temperature history based on mean annual temperatures and the presence of glacier ice. To quantify the growth and decay of permafrost, modelling was undertaken at six locations across Great Britain that represent upland glaciated, lowland glaciated, upland unglaciated and lowland unglaciated conditions. Maximum predicted permafrost depths derived in this academic study range between several tens of metres to over 100 m depending upon various factors including elevation, glacier ice cover, geothermal heat flux and air temperature. In general, the greatest maximum permafrost thicknesses occur at upland glaciated locations, with minimum thickness at lowland sites. Current direct geological evidence for permafrost is from surface or shallow processes, mainly associated with the active layer. Further research is recommended to identify the imprint of freeze/thaw conditions in permanently frozen porous rocks from beneath the active layer.     

Andesite and dacite genesis via contrasting processes: the geology and geochemistry of El Valle Volcano,Panama

The easternmost stratovolcano along the Central American arc is El Valle volcano, Panama. Several andesitic and dacitic lava flows, which range in age 5–10 Ma, are termed the old group. After a long period of quiescence (approximately 3.4 Ma), volcanic activity resumed approximately 1.55 Ma with the emplacement of dacitic domes and the deposition of dacitic pyroclastic flows 0.9–0.2 Ma. These are referred to as the young group. All of the samples analyzed are calc-alkaline andesites and dacites. The mineralogy of the two groups is distinct; two pyroxenes occur in the old-group rocks but are commonly absent in the young group. In contrast, amphibole has been found only in the young-group samples. Several disequilibrium features have been observed in the minerals (e.g., oscillatory zoning within clinopyroxenes). These disequilibrium textures appear to be more prevalent among the old- as compared with the young-group samples and are most likely the result of magma-mixing, assimilation, and/or polybaric crystallization. Mass-balance fractionation models for major and trace elements were successful in relating samples from the old group but failed to show a relationship among the young-group rocks or between the old- and young-group volcanics. We believe that the old-group volcanics were derived through differentiation processes from basaltic magmas generated within the mantlewedge. The young group, however, does not appear to be related to more primitive magmas by differentiation. The young-group samples cannot be related by fractionation including realistic amounts of amphibole. Distinctive geochemical features of the young group, including La/Yb ratios〉15, Yb〈1, Sr/Y〉150, and Y〈6, suggest that these rocks were derived from the partial melting of the subducted lithosphere. These characteristics can be explained by the partial melting of a source with residual garnet and amphibole. Dacitic material with the geochemical characteristics of subducted-lithosphere melting is generated apparently only where relatively hot crust is subducted, based on recent work. The young dacite-genesis at El Valle volcano is related to the subduction of relatively hot lithosphere.     

Computational study of tetrahedral Al–Si and octahedral Al–Mg ordering in phengite

 As part of a wider study of the nature and origins of cation order–disorder in micas, a variety of computational techniques have been used to investigate the nature of tetrahedral and octahedral ordering in phengite, K₂ ^[6](Al₃Mg)^[4](Si₇Al)O₂₀(OH)₄. Values of the atomic exchange interaction parameters J _n used to model the energies of order–disorder were calculated. Both tetrahedral Al–Si and octahedral Al–Mg ordering were studied and hence three types of interaction parameter were necessary: for T–T, O–O and T–O interactions (where T denotes tetrahedral sites and O denotes octahedral sites). Values for the T–T and O–O interactions were taken from results on other systems, whilst we calculated new values for the T–O interactions. We have demonstrated that modelling the octahedral and tetrahedral sheets alone and independently produces different results from modelling a whole T–O–T layer, hence justifying the inclusion of the T–O interactions. Simulations of a whole T–O–T layer of phengite indicated the presence of short-range order, but no long-range order was observed. Received: 8 August 2002 / Accepted: 14 February 2003 Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to EPSRC (EJP) and the Royal Society (CIS) for financial support. Monte Carlo simulations were performed on the Mineral Physics Group's Beowulf cluster and the University of Cambridge's High Performance Computing Facility.     

Estimation of groundwater recharge using the soil moisture budget method and the base-flow model

A detailed characterization of the site is crucial to designing an efficient method of managing the risks associated with tailings from abandoned mines. Therefore, samples collected from various depths within tailings in Guryong mine, Korea, were analyzed for their chemical, physical and mineralogical characteristics. All samples of the Guryong tailings had acid-generating potential. However, in the oxidation zone, the net acid generation (NAG) was low (30 kg H₂SO₄ t⁻¹) although the acid neutralization potential (ANP) was less than zero. The ANP values in the unoxidation zone were higher (> −56.0 kg CaCO₃ t⁻¹) than in the other zones. As a result, the amount of alkali ions that are needed to neutralize the acid needs to be considered. In this experiment G3, G4 and G6 drill cores containing fine tailings particles near the unoxidation zone were observed to contain calcite (CaCO₃) with acid-neutralizing capacity. A low pH (2−4) in the oxidation zone of the tailings changed to a neutral pH in the unoxidation zone of the tailings. These results suggest that the acid-neutralizing capacity of the tailings was controlled by particle and mineral composition of tailings.     

Decoupling of the East Asian summer monsoon and Indian summer monsoon between 20 and 17 ka

Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 2, with its profound environmental and climatic changes from before the last glacial maximum (LGM) to the last deglaciation, is an ideal period for understanding the evolution of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and Indian summer monsoon (ISM), two Asian monsoon sub-systems. With 875 stable oxygen isotope ratios and 43 ²³⁰Th dates from stalagmites in Sanxing Cave, southwestern China, we construct and interpret a new, replicated, Asian summer monsoon (ASM) record covering 30.9–9.7 ka with decadal resolution. δ¹⁸O records from this site and other reported Chinese caves display similar long-term orbitally dominated trends and synchronous millennial-scale strong and weak monsoonal events associated with climate changes in high northern latitudes. Interestingly, Sanxing δ¹⁸O and Arabian Sea records show a weakening ISM from 22 to 17 ka, while the Hulu and Qingtian records from East and Central China express a 3-ka intensifying EASM from 20 to 17 ka. This decoupling between EASM and ISM may be due to different sensitivities of the two ASM sub-systems in response to internal feedback mechanisms associated with the complex geographical or land-ocean configurations.     

A density-dependent multi-species model to assess groundwater flow and nutrient transport in the coastal Keauhou aquifer,Hawai‘i,USA

Hydrogeology Journal - Fresh groundwater is a critical resource supporting coastal ecosystems that rely on low-salinity, nutrient-rich groundwater discharge. This resource, however, is subject to...     

Nitrous oxide emissions from different land use patterns in a typical karst region, Southwest China

Fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O) from different land use patterns (matured forest, secondary forest, grassland and cropland) in a subtropical karst region of Guizhou Province, Southwest China, were measured for one year with a closed static chamber technique and by gas chromatography. The results showed that soil under different land uses was a source of atmospheric N2O. The cropland was a source with relatively high N2O as compared to forest and grassland, but no significant differences were observed. N2O emissions from soils varied with land use change and fertilizer application. There were two peaks of N2O flux occurred following the combination of two obvious precipitation and fertilizer events in the cultivated land. Converting from the matured forest to secondary forest tended to increase annual emissions of N2O (from 1.40 to 1.65 kg N ha -1 a -1 ), while changing land use from secondary forest to scattered grassland tended to decrease annual emissions of N2O slightly (from 1.65 to 1.45 kg N ha -1 a -1 ). Our range of cumulative annual N2O emission across different land uses (1.40-1.91 kg N ha -1 a -1 ) in a karst region is in general agreement with previously published data in a non-karst region. However, in the maize field, N2O emission factor (EF) was 0.34% for fertilizer application, which is about 71.2% lower than the IPCC default value. It is suggested that current IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) EF methodology could overestimate N2O emission from the karstic cropland. Anyway, the N2O emission from cropland in the karst region would contribute significantly to the global N2O budget, so reducing fertilization frequency during the crop growing season could lead to a decrease in N2O emission in the whole year.     

Probabilistic Analysis of Fracture Reactivation Associated with Deep Underground CO2 Injection

In the context of carbon capture and storage, deep underground injection of CO₂ induces the geomechanical changes within and around the injection zone and their impact on CO₂ storage security should be evaluated. In this study, we conduct coupled multiphase fluid flow and geomechanical modeling to investigate such geomechanical changes, focusing on probabilistic analysis of injection-induced fracture reactivation (such as shear slip) that could lead to enhanced permeability and CO₂ migration across otherwise low-permeability caprock formations. Fracture reactivation in terms of shear slip was analyzed by implicitly considering the fracture orientations generated using the Latin hypercube sampling method, in one case using published fracture statistics from a CO₂ storage site. The analysis was conducted by a coupled multiphase fluid flow and geomechanical simulation to first calculate the three-dimensional stress evolution during a hypothetical CO₂ injection operation and then evaluate the probability of shear slip considering the statistical fracture distribution and a Coulomb failure analysis. We evaluate the probability of shear slip at different points within the injection zone and in the caprock just above the injection zone and relate this to the potential for opening of new flow paths through the caprock. Our analysis showed that a reverse faulting stress field would be most favorable for avoiding fracture shear reactivation, but site-specific analyses will be required because of strong dependency of the local stress field and fracture orientations.     

Cordierite breakdown under high-pressure hydrous conditions

Green and Vernon (1974) have experimentally determined a divariant field of cordierite-orthoamphibole-kyanite-quartz with a slope of 12±4 bars per °C occurring between 8.0 and 10.4 kbar at 750° C and between 9.5 and 11.3 kbar at 850° C. However, the writers' thermodynamic calculation of the divariant band indicates a more limited range of 0.65 and 0.7 kbar at 750° C and 850° C respectively, with an estimated error of ±0.2 kbar.     

Hybrid discretization of multi-phase flow in porous media in the presence of viscous,gravitational, and capillary forces

Multi-phase flow in porous media in the presence of viscous, gravitational, and capillary forces is described by advection diffusion equations with nonlinear parameters of relative permeability and capillary pressures. The conventional numerical method employs a fully implicit finite volume formulation. The phase-potential-based upwind direction is commonly used in computing the transport terms between two adjacent cells. The numerical method, however, often experiences non-convergence in a nonlinear iterative solution due to the discontinuity of transmissibilities, especially in transition between co-current and counter-current flows. Recently, Lee et al. (Adv. Wat. Res. 82, 27–38, 2015) proposed a hybrid upwinding method for the two-phase transport equation that comprises viscous and gravitational fluxes. The viscous part is a co-current flow with a one-point upwinding based on the total velocity and the buoyancy part is modeled by a counter-current flow with zero total velocity. The hybrid scheme yields C¹-continuous discretization for the transport equation and improves numerical convergence in the Newton nonlinear solver. Lee and Efendiev (Adv. Wat. Res. 96, 209–224, 2016) extended the hybrid upwind method to three-phase flow in the presence of gravity. In this paper, we present the hybrid-upwind formula in a generalized form that describes two- and three-phase flows with viscous, gravity, and capillary forces. In the derivation of the hybrid scheme for capillarity, we note that there is a strong similarity in mathematical formulation between gravity and capillarity. We thus greatly utilize the previous derivation of the hybrid upwind scheme for gravitational force in deriving that for capillary force. Furthermore, we also discuss some mathematical issues related to heterogeneous capillary domains and propose a simple discretization model by adapting multi-valued capillary pressures at the end points of capillary pressure curves. We demonstrate this new model always admits a consistent solution that is within the discretization error. This new generalized hybrid scheme yields a discretization method that improves numerical stability in reservoir simulation.