Long-term observations of the group structure of surface waves in ice

Ocean Dynamics - Several years of surface wave observations in the Chukchi Sea reveal wave groups are a common feature in open water and ice-covered conditions. The strength of the groupiness, here...     

Analyzing CO2 emissions mitigation by technology improvement in Central and Eastern Europe

As a legacy of the centrally planned economy, the economies in transition of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have a unique potential to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through the improvement in their high energy intensities. Since much of this `low-hanging fruit' in energy-efficiency improvements can be highly cost-effective, many developed countries facing difficulties in meeting their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets domestically are eager to find such opportunities in the CEE region. Therefore, studies analysing the potentials and costs of carbon dioxide reduction through technology improvement in the region have come into the limelight. While there are a few excellent studies in the region aimed at analysing climate change abatement potentials, they all embark on different assumptions, methodologies and boundary conditions. It is hence difficult, if not impossible, to compare and analyse the results of these studies across different authors, countries or time horizons. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to place four leading studies on GHG mitigation through technology improvement from the CEE region into an internationally comparable framework. Four studies were selected from three countries, Poland, Hungary and Estonia, which are all the results of major national and international efforts to assess costs and potentials of GHG reduction. The paper places their assumptions, methods and final results into a framework which enables policy-makers and project designers to compare these across geographical and technological boundaries. Since other studies from around the globe have been analysed in this framework in the literature, this paper provides a vehicle for the findings of these four studies to be compared to others worldwide. In addition, the paper highlights a few areas where similar studies to be completed in the future in the region may be enhanced by incorporating features used in GHG mitigation research in other parts of the world. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

絮凝−真空−电渗联合加固滩涂软土的模型试验研究

针对真空预压作用下排水板淤堵与排水条件受限等问题,提出絮凝−真空−电渗联合加固法。首先通过沉降柱试验确定合适的有机絮凝剂,然后采用该絮凝剂,分别在 48 h（开始介入真空预压,固结度为0 ）、60 h（排水速率明显下降,固结度为60%）及 84 h（排水速率近乎 0,固结度为 80%）时介入电渗,开展不同电渗介入时间的絮凝−真空−电渗联合加固试验。试验从排水量、十字板剪切强度、含水率与孔压等对比分析联合加固的有效性,确定其最佳电渗介入时间。试验结果表明：当固结度为 80% 时介入电渗,絮凝−真空−电渗联合加固法能够有效地抑制排水速率减小的趋势,增长有效排水时间。同时,土体的抗剪强度和承载力亦得到大幅提升,孔压消散更加均匀。此外,在阳离子聚丙烯酰胺絮凝剂的作用下,初始排水速率快,在一定程度上使土体的渗透性得到提升,有效地解决了排水板淤堵问题,说明絮凝−真空−电渗联合加固法具有较强的优越性。     

Crack Initiation and Crack Propagation in Heterogeneous Sulfate-Rich Clay Rocks

Brittle fracture processes were hypothesized by several researches to cause a damage zone around an underground excavation in sulfate-rich clay rock when the stress exceeds the crack initiation threshold, and may promote swelling by crystal growth in newly formed fractures. In this study, laboratory experiments such as unconfined and confined compression tests with acoustic emission monitoring, and microstructural and mineralogical analyses are used to explain brittle fracture processes in sulfate-rich clay rock from the Gipskeuper formation in Switzerland. This rock type typically shows a heterogeneous rock fabric consisting of distinct clayey layers and stiff heterogeneities such as anhydrite layers, veins or nodules. The study showed that at low deviatoric stress, the failure behavior is dominated by the strength of the clayey matrix where microcracks are initiated. With increasing deviatoric stress or strain, growing microcracks eventually are arrested at anhydrite veins, and cracks develop either aligned with the interface between clayey layers and anhydrite veins, or penetrate anhydrite veins. These cracks often link micro-fractured regions in the specimen. This study also suggest that fracture localization in sulfate-rich clay rocks, which typically show a heterogeneous rock fabric, does not take place in the pre-peak range and renders unstable crack propagation less likely. Sulfate-rich clay rocks typically contain anhydrite veins at various scales. At the scale of a tunnel, anhydrite layers or veins may arrest growing fractures and prevent the disintegration of the rock mass. The rock mass may be damaged when the threshold stress for microcrack initiation is exceeded, thus promoting swelling by crystal growth in extension fractures, but the self-supporting capacity of the rock mass may be maintained rendering the possibility for rapidly propagating instability less likely.     

Geochemical Stratigraphy and Microvertebrate Assemblage Sequences across the Silurian/Devonian Transition in South China

Carbon isotope (δ13Corg) analyses of non-marine clastic rocks and neritic carbonates and black shales spanning the Silurian/Devonian transition are compared from two richly fossiliferous sequences in Qujing of East Yunnan and Zoige of Sichuan, South China. The two sections, Xishancun and Putonggou sections in South China, reveal positive δ13Corg shifts happening in the Upper Pridoli and Lower Devonian and reaching peak values as heavy as ?25.2‰ (Xishancun) and ?19.9‰ (Putonggou) in the lowermost Lochkovian following the first occurrence of the thelodont Parathelodus and the conodont Icriodus woschmidti woschmidti (only in Putonggou Section and together with Protathyris-Lanceomyonia brachiopod fauna). These results replicate a globally known positive shift in δ13Corg from the uppermost Silurian to the lowermost Devonian. The δ13Corg variations across the Silurian/Devonian Boundary (SDB) at the two sections in South China exhibit a shift in carbon isotopic composition similar to the detailed SDB curves from the borehole Klonk-1 drilled at top of the Klonk Global Standard Stratotype-Section and Point (GSSP) in the Prague Basin, Czech Republic. In addition, four microvertebrate assemblages, including the Liaojiaoshan, Xishancun, Yanglugou and Xiaputonggou assemblages, are recognized from the Silurian/Devonian transition exposed in the Xishancun and Putonggou sections, respectively. The results from both carbon isotope stratigraphy and microvertebrate assemblage sequences suggest that the SDB in South China is located at the base of the Xishancun Formation (between sample QX-20 and sample QX-21) in the Xishancun Section and the lower part of the Xiaputonggou Formation (between sample ZP-09 and sample ZP-10) in the Putonggou Section. The isotopic trend for organic carbon together with the changes of microvertebrate remains across the SDB can offer an approach to a potential correlation of the SDB from different sedimentary facies, which help to correlate the marine with non-marine deposits.     

Methane‐related microbial gypsum calcitization in stromatolites of a marine evaporative setting (Münder Formation,Upper Jurassic,Hils Syncline,north Germany)

Fossil stromatolites may reveal information about their hydrochemical palaeoenvironment, provided that assignment to a specific microbial community and a corresponding biogeochemical mechanism of formation can be made. Tithonian stromatolites of the Münder Formation at Thüste, north Germany, have traditionally been considered as formed by intertidal cyanobacterial communities. However, thin sections of the stromatolites show elongated angular traces of former gypsum crystals in a dense arrangement, but no algal or cyanobacterial filament traces. Moreover, high Fe²⁺ and Mn²⁺ contents, oxygen‐isotope and sulphur‐isotope ratios of carbonate‐bound sulphates, and sulphurized hydrocarbon biomarkers of the stromatolitic carbonate indicate that CaCO₃ precipitation occurred near the oxic–anoxic interface as a result of intensive bacterial sulphur cycling rather than photosynthetic activity. Furthermore, anaerobic oxidation of methane by Archaea may have driven CaCO₃ precipitation in deeper parts of the biofilm community, as reflected by high concentrations of squalane with a strongly negative δ¹³C in conjunction with evaporite pseudomorphs showing extremely low δ¹³C_Carb ratios. Consequently, the Thüste stromatolites are now interpreted as having initially formed by gypsum impregnation of biofilms. Subsequently, early Mg‐calcitic calcitization within the biofilms occurred because of combined bacterial iron, manganese and sulphate reduction, with an increasing contribution of anaerobic oxidation of methane with depth. This model plausibly explains the prominent preservation of signals derived from oxygen‐independent metabolic pathways, whereas virtually no geochemical record exists for an aerobic community that may, nevertheless, have prevailed at the stromatolite surface. Photic‐zone stromatolites with a prominent signal of anaerobic oxidation of methane may be common in, and indicative of, oxygen‐depleted sulphate‐bearing environments with high rates of methane production, conditions that possibly were fulfilled at the Archaean to Proterozoic transition.     

内蒙古沙麦钨矿区高分异花岗岩独居石U-Pb定年及成矿意义

兴蒙造山带是中国北方重要的多金属成矿带,产出有一系列的钨多金属矿床。沙麦钨矿位于内蒙古二连浩特—东乌旗成矿带东侧,是兴蒙造山带发育的典型石英脉型钨矿床之一。通过对沙麦矿区出露的花岗岩开展独居石U-Pb测年,总结区域钨矿化的成矿年龄与矿化特征,探讨区域钨矿成矿时序及构造动力学背景。测年结果显示,沙麦矿区中细粒黑云母二长花岗岩、似斑状黑云母二长花岗岩LA-ICP-MS独居石U-Pb谐和年龄分别为(141.6±1.1) Ma和(141.4±0.3) Ma,进一步确认沙麦钨矿形成于早白垩世。而二连浩特—东乌旗成矿带及其邻区钨矿化存在晚石炭世—早二叠世、早白垩世两期,成矿时代分别发生于约300 Ma和140～130 Ma。300 Ma成矿期钨成矿作用受古亚洲洋的影响;140～130 Ma成矿期为区域钨矿成矿作用高峰期,成矿作用受到古太平洋和蒙古—鄂霍次克洋构造体系叠加作用的影响。