Field Placement and Evaluation of Stabilized Dredged Material (SDM) from the New York/New Jersey Harbor

Since the 1997 local ban on ocean dumping of dredged sediments, the States of New York and New Jersey have pursued a policy of environmentally sound solutions to the management of dredged material, including beneficial use of stabilized dredged material (SDM) in transportation applications. A pilot study was initiated in 1998 to evaluate the use of SDM in the construction of highway embankments. Utilizing 80,000 cubic yards of dredged material, two embankments were constructed from SDM on a commercial development area adjacent to the Harbor. Geotechnical properties and handling of SDM were evaluated both during and one year post ? construction. This article presents the evaluation of the embankments themselves, including constructability and performance. The results demonstrate that SDM satisfies most of the geotechnical criteria for fill construction, except those for durability, requiring proper coverage and protection similar to that provided for fills constructed on cohesive soils. This same characteristic precludes long term stockpiling of SDM prior to final placement, limiting applications to those that have schedules overlapping with dredging projects. Increased costs for the use of SDM can be as high as $8 per cubic yard over traditional fills; however, this cost may be recouped through management fees collected from dredging projects.     

Permian–Jurassic Mahanadi and Pranhita–Godavari Rifts of Gondwana India: Provenance from regional paleoslope and U–Pb/Hf analysis of detrital zircons

The Permian–Jurassic Mahanadi and Pranhita–Godavari Rifts are part of a drainage system that radiated from the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains in central Antarctica. From 12 samples we analysed detrital zircons for U–Pb ages, Hf-isotopes, and trace elements to determine the age, rock type and source of the host magma, and T_DM model age. Clusters, in decreasing order of abundance, are (1) 820–1000 Ma, host magmas felsic granitoids with alkaline rock, (2) 1500–1700 Ma felsic granitoids, (3) 500 to 700 Ma mafic granitoids with alkaline rock, (4) 2400–2550 Ma granitoids, and (5) 1000–1200 Ma felsic and mafic granitoids, mafic rock, and alkaline rock. T_DM ranges from 1.5 to 3.5 Ga. Joint paleoslope measurements and zircon ages indicate that the Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt (EGMB) and lateral belts and conjugate Antarctica are potential provenances. Zircons from the Gondwana Rifts differ from those in other Gondwanaland sandstones in their predominant 820–1000 Ma and 1500–1700 Ma ages (from the EGMB and conjugate Rayner–MacRobertson Belt) that dilute the 500–700 Ma (Pan-Gondwanaland) ages. The 1000–1200 Ma zircons reflect the assembly of Rodinia, the 500–700 Ma ones that of Gondwanaland; the other ages reflect collisions in the region.     

Risk assessment of workers exposed to noise pollution in a textile plant

In order to assess the risks associated with worker’s hearing loss, due to exposure to noise pollution, at the Boroujerd Textile Factory a cross sectional study was conducted. 60 workers from the Spinning and Weaving workshops and official staff were randomly selected as case and control groups and their hearing were tested by audiometry. The audiometric results revealed that amongst workers being exposed to the noise pollution in the Spinning and Weaving Workshops there is a distinct increase in the number of cases of hearing loss at high frequencies. There also appears to be a slight bias towards hearing loss in the left ear, in preference to the right in addition, those who have worked for longer than 16 years are subjected to hearing loss even at low frequencies conversely, the office workers (the control group) seem to suffer little or no hearing loss at low frequencies at all, but after approximately 10 years of service there may be some hearing loss, but only at higher frequencies, which could be attributed to presbycusis. Also, the t-test (statistical hypothesis test) results verified the significant difference among both groups at high frequencies. The questionnaire results indicated that workers feel symptoms such as headache, no sense centralization, excitement, nervousness, vertigo. Hence, controlling procedures seem to be essential to protect workers from noise disorders.     

Applying ultrasonic waves to evaluate the volumetric block proportion of bimrocks

As a result of civilization, a lot of underground and surface structures have been constructed on or within complex rocks such as mélange and lahars. There are many engineering problems related to this group of rocks called block-in-matrix rocks (bimrock). In the literature, the more important parameter controlling the geomechanical characteristics of bimrocks is volumetric block proportion (VBP), and there is much uncertainty related to estimated VBP applying sieve or image analysis. So, in this research, to develop a relation between the VBP and ultrasonic wave velocities and find how the fractal dimension and maximum block size affect the P and S wave velocities, 90 large-scale cubic samples were fabricated and the P and S wave velocities were measured in three perpendicular directions inside the physical samples. The fabricated samples were almost isotropic, and there was a direct relation between ultrasonic wave velocities and VBP. The difference between the evaluated VBP and the real one was in the range of ?10 to +15% when the real VBP was equal or less than 60% and up to +25% when the real VBP was equal to 75%. In general, the fractal dimension had an indirect relation with ultrasonic velocities and there was no dominant trend for ultrasonic wave velocity variation versus the maximum block size.     

East Antarctic sources of extensive Lower–Middle Ordovician turbidites in the Lachlan Orogen,southern Tasmanides,eastern Australia

Lower to upper Middle Ordovician quartz-rich turbidites form the bedrock of the Lachlan Orogen in the southern Tasmanides of eastern Australia and occupy a present-day deformed volume of ～2–3 million km³. We have used U–Pb and Hf-isotope analyses of detrital zircons in biostratigraphically constrained turbiditic sandstones from three separate terranes of the Lachlan Orogen to investigate possible source regions and to compare similarities and differences in zircon populations. Comparison with shallow-water Lower Ordovician sandstones deposited on the subsiding margin of the Gondwana craton suggests different source regions, with Grenvillian zircons in shelf sandstones derived from the Musgrave Province in central Australia, and Panafrican sources in shelf sandstones possibly locally derived. All Ordovician turbiditic sandstone samples in the Lachlan Orogen are dominated by ca 490–620 Ma (late Panafrican) and ca 950–1120 Ma (late Grenvillian) zircons that are sourced mainly from East Antarctica. Subtle differences between samples point to different sources. In particular, the age consistency of late Panafrican zircon data from the most inboard of our terranes (Castlemaine Group, Bendigo Terrane) suggests they may have emanated directly from late Grenvillian East Antarctic belts, such as in Dronning Maud Land and subglacial extensions that were reworked in the late Panafrican. Changes in zircon data in the more outboard Hermidale and Albury-Bega terranes are more consistent with derivation from the youngest of four sedimentary sequences of the Ross Orogen of Antarctica (Cambrian–Ordovician upper Byrd Group, Liv Group and correlatives referred to here as sequence 4) and/or from the same mixture of sources that supplied that sequence. These sources include uncommon ca 650 Ma rift volcanics, late Panafrican Ross arc volcanics, now largely eroded, and some <545 Ma Granite Harbour Intrusives, representing the roots of the Ross Orogen continental-margin arc. Unlike farther north, Granite Harbour Intrusives between the Queen Maud and Pensacola mountains of the southern Ross Orogen contain late Grenvillian zircon xenocrysts (derived from underlying relatively juvenile basement), as well as late Panafrican magmatic zircons, and are thus able to supply sequence 4 and the Lachlan Ordovician turbidites with both these populations. Other zircons and detrital muscovites in the Lachlan Ordovician turbidites were derived from relatively juvenile inland Antarctic sources external to the orogen (e.g. Dronning Maud Land, Sør Rondane and a possible extension of the Pinjarra Orogen) either directly or recycled through older sedimentary sequences 2 (Beardmore and Skelton groups) and 3 (e.g. Hannah Ridge Formation) in the Ross Orogen. Shallow-water, forearc basin sequence 4 sediments (or their sources) fed turbidity currents into outboard, deeper-water parts of the forearc basin and led to deposition of the Ordovician turbidites ～2500–3400 km to the north in backarc-basin settings of the Lachlan Orogen.     

Application of third generation shallow water wave models in a tidal environment

Wave modeling was performed in the German Bight of the North Sea during November 2002, using the spectral wave models, namely the K-model and Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN), both developed for applications in environments of shallow water depths. These models mainly differ with respect to their dissipation source term expressions and in exclusion or inclusion of nonlinear wave–wave interactions. The K-model uses nonlinear dissipation and bottom dissipation, and neglects quadruplet wave–wave interaction whereas, SWAN includes, besides bottom dissipation, dissipation by white-capping and depth induced wave breaking and triad wave–wave interaction. The boundary spectra were extracted from the WAM model results of a North Sea hindcast of the HIPOCAS project, wind fields, tidal current and water level variations from the results of models used in the Belawatt project. The purpose of this study was to test the performance of both wave models to see whether they were able to predict near-shore wave conditions accurately. The runs were performed with and without tidal current and level variations to determine their effect on the waves. Comparisons of model results with buoy measurements show that taking into account tides and currents improve the spectral shape especially in areas of high current speeds. Whereas SWAN performed better in terms of spectral shape, especially in case of two peaked spectra, the K-model showed better results in terms of integrated parameters.Responsible Editor: Hans Burchard     

Effective environmental factors in the distribution of vegetation types in Poshtkouh rangelands of Yazd Province (Iran)

The objective of this research was to study the relationships between environmental factors and vegetation in order to find the most effective factors in the separation of the vegetation types in Poshtkou rangelands of Yazd province. Sampling of soil and vegetation were performed with randomized-systematic method. Vegetation data including density and cover percentage were estimated quantitatively within each quadrat, and using the two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN), and vegetation was classified into different groups. The topographic conditions were recorded in quadrat locations. Soil samples were taken in 0–30 and 30–60 cm depths in each quadrat. The measured soil variables included texture, lime, saturation moisture, gypsum, acidity (pH), electrical conductivity, sodium absorption ratio, and soluble ions (Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Cl⁻, CO₃²⁻, HCO₃⁻ and SO₄²⁻). Multivariate techniques including principal component analysis (PCA) and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used to analyse the collected data. The results showed that the vegetation distribution pattern was mainly related to soil characteristics such as salinity, texture, soluble potassium, gypsum, and lime. Totally, considering the habitat conditions, ecological needs and tolerance range each plant species has a significant relation with soil properties.     

Mercury in soil from the area of Dayton,Ohio

Mercury concentrations in “A-zone” soil from seventeen urban, suburban, and rural town locations in the area of Dayton, Ohio range from 0.24 to 1.50 ppm. A positive correlation is indicated between the mercury concentrations and the amount of fallout of settleable particulate matter from the air at these sites. Airborne pollution may be an important source of the element in Dayton area soils.     

Independent Base Vector Representation to Address Endmember Variability in Hyperspectral Unmixing

The normal compositional model (NCM) is a well-known and powerful model in hyperspectral unmixing which represents endmembers as independent Gaussian vectors to capture endmember variability. However, the assumption of independent endmembers diminishes the model accuracy because the high degree of correlation between endmembers of a scene and identical sources of variability demonstrate that the endmembers are dependent. This paper proposes a new hyperspectral unmixing algorithm which represents endmembers using dependent Gaussian vectors to estimate abundance fractions. To overcome the higher complexity caused by dependence assumption, this algorithm introduces new independent Gaussian vectors named Base Vectors to represent different endmembers by a weighted linear combination. Also, the proposed unmixing algorithm uses maximum likelihood method to estimate weight coefficients of Base Vectors which are used to represent mixed pixel. Finally, abundance estimation can be done using the new representation for endmembers and mixed pixel. The proposed algorithm is evaluated and compared with other state-of-the-art unmixing algorithms using simulated and real hyperspectral images. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed unmixing algorithm can unmix pixels composed of correlated endmembers in hyperspectral images in the presence of spectral variability more accurately than previous methods.