Acoustic monitoring of gas emissions from the seafloor. Part II: a case study from the Sea of Marmara

A rotating, acoustic gas bubble detector, BOB (Bubble OBservatory) module was deployed during two surveys, conducted in 2009 and 2011 respectively, to study the temporal variations of gas emissions from the Marmara seafloor, along the North Anatolian Fault zone. The echosounder mounted on the instrument insonifies an angular sector of 7° during a given duration (of about 1 h). Then it rotates to the next, near-by angular sector and so forth. When the full angular domain is insonified, the “pan and tilt system” rotates back to its initial position, in order to start a new cycle (of about 1 day). The acoustic data reveal that gas emission is not a steady process, with observed temporal variations ranging between a few minutes and 24 h (from one cycle to the other). Echo-integration and inversion performed on the acoustic data as described in the companion paper of Leblond et al. (Mar Geophys Res, 2014), also indicate important variations in, respectively, the target strength and the volumetric flow rates of individual sources. However, the observed temporal variations may not be related to the properties of the gas source only, but reflect possible variations in sea-bottom currents, which could deviate the bubble train towards the neighboring sector. During the 2011 survey, a 4-component ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) was co-located at the seafloor, 59 m away from the BOB module. The acoustic data from our rotating, monitoring system support, but do not provide undisputable evidence to confirm, the hypothesis formulated by Tary et al. (2012), that the short-duration, non-seismic micro-events recorded by the OBS are likely produced by gas-related processes within the near seabed sediments. Hence, the use of a multibeam echosounder, or of several split beam echosounders should be preferred to rotating systems, for future experiments.     

Delineating generalized species boundaries from species distribution data and a species distribution model

Species distribution models (SDM) are commonly used to provide information about species ranges or extents, and often are intended to represent the entire area of potential occupancy or suitable habitat in which individuals occur. While SDMs can provide results over various geographic extents, they normally operate within a grid and cannot delimit distinct, smooth boundaries. Additionally, there are instances where a zone of primary occupancy (i.e., a mostly continuous region where species exists, excluding outliers) is better suited for particular analyses, such as when examining source/sink population dynamics or modeling movement into new habitats. We present a semi-automated method to delineate a generalized species boundary (GSB) from SDM output, which provides a practical alternative to digitizing. This preliminary boundary is then manually updated based on inventory data and historical ranges. We used the method to generate contemporary boundaries for 132 tree species of the eastern United States, which are complementary to the ranges generated by Elbert Little for North America during the 1970s, but are not replacements. The methods we present can broadly be applied to other grid-based SDM to generate GSBs.     

Paleoceanographic Indicators for Early Cambrian Black Shales from the Yangtze Platform,South China: Evidence from Biomarkers and Carbon Isotopes

The lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation, a widespread black shale deposition, is of geological interest because of its polymetallic beds, Cambrian explosion, depositional ages, dramatic environmental changes and so on. Previous study focused mainly on inorganic geochemistry and few studies have investigated the organic fractions of upper Neoproterozoic-lower Cambrian strata in South China. Here we report a study of biomarkers plus organic carbon isotopes for black shales from Ganziping, Hunan Province (China). All the saturated hydrocarbon fractions have a unimodal distribution of n-alkanes, a high content of short-chain alkanes and maximize at C 19 or C 20 (C 23 for sample Gzh00-1). The C 27 /C 29 sterane ratio ranges from 0.77 to 1.20 and 4-methylsteranes are in low abundance. These parameters indicate that algae and bacteria are the important primary producers. Furthermore, biomarker maturity proxies show the samples to be higher maturity. The low Pr/Ph values (<0.7) suggest that the samples were deposited under anoxic conditions and, likely, under stratified water columns. In addition, 25-norhopanes and gammacerane are present as diagnostic indicators of normal marine salinity and dysoxic to anoxic conditions. During the Early Tommotian, known to coincide with a transgression event, small shelly fossils increased in abundance and diversity. Moreover, positive δ 13 C org excursions close to 1.4‰ occur at the base of the Tommotian stage. In summary, the Early Cambrian black shales were deposited under dramatic paleoenvironmental changes, including oceanic anoxia, higher primary productivity and sea-level rise.     

7000 years of paleostorm activity in the NW Mediterranean Sea in response to Holocene climate events

A high-resolution record of paleostorm events along the French Mediterranean coast over the past 7000 years was established from a lagoonal sediment core in the Gulf of Lions. Integrating grain size, faunal analysis, clay mineralogy and geochemistry data with a chronology derived from radiocarbon dating, we recorded seven periods of increased storm activity at 6300–6100, 5650–5400, 4400–4050, 3650–3200, 2800–2600, 1950–1400 and 400–50 cal yr BP (in the Little Ice Age). In contrast, our results show that the Medieval Climate Anomaly (1150–650 cal yr BP) was characterised by low storm activity.The evidence for high storm activity in the NW Mediterranean Sea is in agreement with the changes in coastal hydrodynamics observed over the Eastern North Atlantic and seems to correspond to Holocene cooling in the North Atlantic. Periods of low SSTs there may have led to a stronger meridional temperature gradient and a southward migration of the westerlies. We hypothesise that the increase in storm activity during Holocene cold events over the North Atlantic and Mediterranean regions was probably due to an increase in the thermal gradient that led to an enhanced lower tropospheric baroclinicity over a large Central Atlantic–European domain.     

Joint optimization of oil well placement and controls

Well placement and control optimization in oil field development are commonly performed in a sequential manner. In this work, we propose a joint approach that embeds well control optimization within the search for optimum well placement configurations. We solve for well placement using derivative-free methods based on pattern search. Control optimization is solved by sequential quadratic programming using gradients efficiently computed through adjoints. Joint optimization yields a significant increase, of up to 20% in net present value, when compared to reasonable sequential approaches. The joint approach does, however, require about an order of magnitude increase in the number of objective function evaluations compared to sequential procedures. This increase is somewhat mitigated by the parallel implementation of some of the pattern-search algorithms used in this work. Two pattern-search algorithms using eight and 20 computing cores yield speedup factors of 4.1 and 6.4, respectively. A third pattern-search procedure based on a serial evaluation of the objective function is less efficient in terms of clock time, but the optimized cost function value obtained with this scheme is marginally better.     

Experimental studies of groundwater pipe flow network characteristics in gravelly soil slopes

Piping flow networks have often been identified in hydrogeological field studies of gravelly soil slopes in the southern part of China. The present experimental studies have shown that under long-term groundwater seepage, piping flow networks gradually develop in the slope. Factors affecting the development of flow pipe seepage network included the grain size distribution, the degree of soil compaction, and soil depth. Piping seepage networks favorably form if the content of the gravel was high, the soil cohesion was low, the degree of the soil compaction was low, or the soil depth was shallow. Due to the enhanced permeability associated with the presence of flow pipe seepage network in gravelly soil slopes, groundwater can be effectively drained away. This can beneficially prevent the rise of groundwater level in the slope during raining seasons, hence reducing pore water pressure along the potential failure surface and increasing slope stability. Once the flow pipe seepage network was disturbed or damaged, the water level in the upper portion of the slope experienced a great rise, hence reducing the slope stability. Therefore, slope toe excavation and excessive loading at the slope crest should be avoided for slopes with well-developed flow pipe seepage network in order to preserve it.     

Numerical Study on Coalescence of Pre-Existing Flaw Pairs in Rock-Like Material

The present numerical study, which is an extension of our previous numerical analysis on cracking processes of a single pre-existing flaw, focuses on the coalescence of two pre-existing parallel open flaws in rock subjected to a uniaxial compressive loading. To facilitate a systematic investigation, the arrangements of the flaw pair are classified into 11 categories. Simulations engaging AUTODYN are conducted on each category. The numerical results are compared with some published physical experimental test results. Eleven typical coalescence patterns are obtained, which are in good agreement with the experimental results, which include two coalescence patterns obtained in flaw pair arrangements (II) and (VIII″) not being reported in previous studies. The information gathered in the simulations helps identify the type (tensile/shear) of each crack segment involved in the coalescence. Most of the coalescence cracks initiate at or around the flaw tips, except those in flaw pair arrangements (II) and (IX′) with a very short ligament length, in which the coalescence cracks initiate on the flaw surfaces away from the flaw tip regions. Based on the numerical simulation results, the properties of the 11 coalescence patterns are obtained. Except those in flaw pair arrangements (II) and (IX′), the other coalescence patterns can be interpreted with respect to the basic crack types—tensile wing crack, horsetail crack and anti-wing crack. In addition, based on the type of crack segments involved in coalescence, namely tensile and shear, the coalescence can be classified into T mode (tensile mode), S mode (shear mode) and TS mode (mixed tensile–shear mode).     

A derivative-free methodology with local and global search for the constrained joint optimization of well locations and controls

In oil field development, the optimal location for a new well depends on how it is to be operated. Thus, it is generally suboptimal to treat the well location and well control optimization problems separately. Rather, they should be considered simultaneously as a joint problem. In this work, we present noninvasive, derivative-free, easily parallelizable procedures to solve this joint optimization problem. Specifically, we consider Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), a global stochastic search algorithm; Mesh Adaptive Direct Search (MADS), a local search procedure; and a hybrid PSO–MADS technique that combines the advantages of both methods. Nonlinear constraints are handled through use of filter-based treatments that seek to minimize both the objective function and constraint violation. We also introduce a formulation to determine the optimal number of wells, in addition to their locations and controls, by associating a binary variable (drill/do not drill) with each well. Example cases of varying complexity, which include bound constraints, nonlinear constraints, and the determination of the number of wells, are presented. The PSO–MADS hybrid procedure is shown to consistently outperform both stand-alone PSO and MADS when solving the joint problem. The joint approach is also observed to provide superior performance relative to a sequential procedure.