A Perspective on Water Resources in China: Interactions between Climate Change and Soil Degradation

Water is one of the most critical resources in China. Climate change and soil degradation will be two major, interrelated environmental challenges faced by managers of water resources in coming decades. In this study, we used a water-balance model and updated databases to assess the interacting impacts of climate change and soil degradation on Chinas future water resources. We plotted the spatial pattern of changes in actual and potential evapotranspiration, soil moisture deficits, and surface runoff across China in the 2020s using a resolution of 0.5° latitude and longitude under scenarios based on climate change, soil degradation, and a combination of the two. The results showed that climate change would affect the magnitude and spatial pattern of water resources on a national scale. Some regions in central, southwestern, and northeastern China would become more vulnerable to disastrous drought and floods as a result of soil degradation. Under the combined impacts of climate change and soil degradation, soil moisture deficits would increase most in central, western, and southwestern China; surface runoff would increase most in southeastern China. More detailed process-based models are needed to capture feedback mechanisms more effectively.     

Role of Stress-controlled Flow Pathways in HDR Geothermal Reservoirs

— We addressed effects of in situ stress on the formation of flow pathways in fractured rocks in geothermal reservoirs, especially for HDR projects. Here we focused on fractures which are critically-stressed, causing shear slip in a current stress field. The sliding is likely to break sealing in the fractures and, as a result, to increase their permeability. Such a mechanism is possibly significant under high-temperature conditions at geothermal fields because of temperature enhancement on chemical reactions for the sealing. We present a procedure to estimate the orientation of the critically-stressed fractures relative to axes of in situ principal stress with the aid of the Mohr diagram. The procedure allows us to evaluate intuitively how the orientation changes with factors such as magnitude of in situ principal stresses and pore pressure. We applied the procedure to estimate possible orientations of the critically-stressed fractures in major HDR test sites. Results show that overall alignments of microseismicity during hydraulic stimulation are within predicted ranges for possible orientations of the critically-stressed fractures. Furthermore, it was found that if the state of in situ stress is not favorable to cause sliding of natural fractures, it tends to lead a high wellhead pressure at hydraulic stimulation and a high recovery rate at circulation. On the other hand, if the state of in situ stress is favorable for sliding, it tends vice versa to lead a low wellhead pressure at hydraulic stimulation and a low recovery rate at circulation.     

Guidelines for the good practice of surface wave analysis: a product of the InterPACIFIC project

Surface wave methods gained in the past decades a primary role in many seismic projects. Specifically, they are often used to retrieve a 1D shear wave velocity model or to estimate the V_S,30 at a site. The complexity of the interpretation process and the variety of possible approaches to surface wave analysis make it very hard to set a fixed standard to assure quality and reliability of the results. The present guidelines provide practical information on the acquisition and analysis of surface wave data by giving some basic principles and specific suggestions related to the most common situations. They are primarily targeted to non-expert users approaching surface wave testing, but can be useful to specialists in the field as a general reference. The guidelines are based on the experience gained within the InterPACIFIC project and on the expertise of the participants in acquisition and analysis of surface wave data.     

Is there horizontal phase propagation of 5-min oscillations at high velocities?

New observations of the photospheric 5-min oscillations are presented which prove that the physical reality of the very high horizontal phase propagation velocities observed in connection with the oscillations cannot be maintained. Instead, a statistical model is proposed to explain the observed phase relations.Mitteilungen aus dem Fraunhofer Institut Nr. 119.     

Observational aspects on a dominant spectral frequency in an airflow over a weeping-lovegrass stand

Mean and fluctuating wind velocities were measured above a flexible stand (weeping-lovegrass). A waving phenomenon Honami appeared over the stand during the observation period. Some spectral parameters were derived from the vertical wind fluctuations. A dependency of frequency on mean horizontal wind velocity was found. The result, n _m = 0.66u, was obtained under the range of wind speeds from 0.9 m s^-1 to 3.1 m s^-1 just above the canopy.     

Geological,mineralogical, and oxygen isotope studies of the Chandmani Uul iron oxide–copper–gold deposit in Dornogobi Province,Southeastern Mongolia

The Chandmani Uul deposit is located in Dornogovi province, Southeastern Mongolia. Iron oxide ores are hosted in the andesitic rocks of the Shar Zeeg Formation of Neoproterozoic to Lower‐Cambrian age. Middle‐ to Upper‐Cambrian bodies of granitic rocks have intruded into the host rocks in the western and southern regions of the deposit. The wall rocks around the iron oxide ore bodies were hydrothermally altered to form potassic, epidote, and sericite–chlorite alteration zones, and calcite and quartz veinlets are ubiquitous in the late stage. Since granitic rocks also underwent potassic alteration, the activity of the granitic rocks must have a genetic relation to the ore deposit. The ore mineral assemblage is dominated by iron oxides such as mushketovite, euhedral magnetite with concentric and/or oscillatory zoning textures, and cauliflower magnetite. Lesser amounts of chalcopyrite and pyrite accompany the iron oxides. Among all these products, mushketovite is dominant and is distributed throughout the deposit. Meanwhile, euhedral magnetite appears in limited amounts at relatively shallow levels in the deposit. By contrast, cauliflower magnetite appears locally in the deeper parts of the deposit, and is associated with green‐colored garnet and calcite. Sulfide minerals are ubiquitously associated with these iron oxides. The oxygen isotope (δ¹⁸O) values of all types of magnetite, quartz, and epidote were found to be ?5.9 to ?2.8‰, 10.5 to 14.9‰, and 3.6 to 6.6‰, respectively. The δ¹⁸O values of quartz–magnetite pairs suggest an equilibrium isotopic temperature near 300°C. The calculated values of δ¹⁸O for the water responsible for magnetite ranged from 2 to 10‰. All the data obtained in this study suggest that the iron oxide deposit at the Chandmani Uul is a typical iron oxide–copper–gold deposit, and that this deposit was formed at an intermediate depth with potassic and sericite–chlorite alteration zones under the oxidized conditions of a hematite‐stable environment. The δ¹⁸O range estimated implies that the ore‐forming fluid was supplied by a crystallizing granodioritic magma exsolving fluids at depth with a significant contribution of meteoric water.     

Numerical Simulation of Accretion Discs in Close Binary Systems andDiscovery of Spiral Shocks

The history of hydrodynamic numerical simulations for accretion disks in close binary systems is reviewed, in which emphasis is placed, in particular, on the facts that spiral shock waves were numerically found in 1986 by researchers including one of the present authors and that spiral structure was discovered in IP Pegasi in 1997 by Steeghs et al. The results of our two and three-dimensional numerical simulations in recent years are then summarized, with comparison being made with observations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Observations of disks around protostellar sources with nobeyama millimeter array

We present results from a survey observation of circumstellar disks around protostellar sources associated with the Taurus molecular cloud. Our result shows that the 98 GHz continuum emission tends to be weaker for embedded sources than for visible T Tauri stars, which is consistent with our previous interpretation of disk formation. Direct observations of the formation of a centrifugally supported viscous accretion disk around HL Tau is discussed.