Surface complexation modeling for predicting solid phase arsenic concentrations in the sediments of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, Arkansas, USA

The potential health impact of As in drinking water supply systems in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer in the state of Arkansas, USA is significant. In this context it is important to understand the occurrence, distribution and mobilization of As in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer. Application of surface complexation models (SCMs) to predict the sorption behavior of As and hydrous Fe oxides (HFO) in the laboratory has increased in the last decade. However, the application of SCMs to predict the sorption of As in natural sediments has not often been reported, and such applications are greatly constrained by the lack of site-specific model parameters. Attempts have been made to use SCMs considering a component additivity (CA) approach which accounts for relative abundances of pure phases in natural sediments, followed by the addition of SCM parameters individually for each phase. Although few reliable and internally consistent sorption databases related to HFO exist, the use of SCMs using laboratory-derived sorption databases to predict the mobility of As in natural sediments has increased. This study is an attempt to evaluate the ability of the SCMs using the geochemical code PHREEQC to predict solid phase As in the sediments of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer in Arkansas. The SCM option of the double-layer model (DLM) was simulated using ferrihydrite and goethite as sorbents quantified from chemical extractions, calculated surface-site densities, published surface properties, and published laboratory-derived sorption constants for the sorbents. The model results are satisfactory for shallow wells (10.6 m below ground surface), where the redox condition is relatively oxic or mildly suboxic. However, for the deep alluvial aquifer (21-36.6 m below ground surface) where the redox condition is suboxic to anoxic, the model results are unsatisfactory.     

Metamorphic differentiation at Einasleigh,Northern Queensland

Biotite‐muscovite‐garnet gneisses at Einasleigh contain quartz‐feldspar veins composed of the same minerals as found in the enclosing rock. The vein‐gneiss boundaries are commonly irregular and on a microscopic scale, gradational.

Certain amphibolite layers contain quartz‐feldspar veins composed of the same minerals as found in the amphibolite. Hornblende‐rich extraction zones surround these veins, and material balance calculations show that all or nearly all of the vein‐forming matter was locally derived. Variation in the abundance of hornblende and plagioclase in the amphibolite as a function of distance from a quartz‐feldspar vein can be expressed by error‐function curves, thus suggesting that the mineral‐segregation process was diffusion‐controlled. During the mineral rearrangement, the Na and Ca contents of plagioclase have evidently remained unchanged, but the vein hornblende has become slightly richer in Fe+3, Mg, and Ca, and poorer in Si and Al relative to hornblende in the adjacent amphibolite.

A certain biotite‐plagioclase rock forms layers and boudins in the gneisses and contains pegmatite veins composed of the same minerals as found in the host rock. The plagioclase in these veins is more sodic than that in the host rock while the biotite contains slightly more Ti and Fe+² and less Si and Mg than the biotite of the enclosing rock.

The data indicate that significant portions of the vein‐forming matter at Einasleigh were locally derived. The chemistry of some minerals has changed slightly during the segregation process, resulting possibly from different diffusion rates for the different mineral‐forming constituents.     

Late Cenozoic paleovalley fill sequence from the Southern Liverpool Plains,New South Wales—implications for groundwater resource evaluation

The Liverpool Plains in northern New South Wales contain some of the best agricultural land in Australia and are underlain by extensive smectite clay-dominated soils sourced from weathering the alkali basalts of the Liverpool Ranges. It had been thought that a relatively simple geological model explained the underlying Cenozoic sequence with salt-rich clays of the Narrabri Formation overlying sands and gravel aquifers comprising the Gunnedah Formation. Extensive groundwater modelling based upon this simple conceptualisation has been used in management plans proposed by the mining and agricultural industries. A 31.5 m core has been recovered using minimally disturbed triple-tube coring methods at Cattle Lane (Latitude –31.52° S, Longitude 150.47° E) to resolve uncertainty concerning the aquitard status of the upper layer. Recovered core has been examined and tested to determine grainsize, cation-exchange capacity, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and microscopic examination of granular components. These measurements complement surface and borehole geophysical techniques, hydrogeological data and hydrochemical analysis of water samples recovered from a series of specially constructed piezometers adjacent to the cored hole. The sequence overlies a Late Cretaceous channel cut into Permian bedrock at 91 m depth with sands and clays below 31.5 m considered to represent various alluvial fill events mostly occurring since the Early Pliocene. Erosion of Late Eocene alkali basalts on the Liverpool Ranges, with the formation of smectite clays, pedogenic carbonates and with the addition of quartz from both eolian sources and locally derived from adjacent Triassic sandstone hills, provides the great majority of the sediment recovered from the cores. Late Pleistocene (114 ka) to Holocene ages were determined for the core from three optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements on fine sands (13, 23 and 29 m BG). Detailed examination has failed to detect any evidence of a boundary between Narrabri and Gunnedah formations revealing rather a gradual change in dominance of clays and silts over sands and gravels embedded in a clay-rich matrix. This result challenges the conceptualisation used to conduct groundwater modelling on the Liverpool Plains.     

Unsaturated water flow across soil aggregate contacts

Unsaturated water flow through soil aggregates is controlled by the contacts between aggregates. The contacts are highly conductive when wet and become bottle-necks for flow when drained. We postulate that the hydraulic conductivity of the contacts is in first place determined by the water-filled contact area. The objective of this study was to measure and model the water-filled contact area and to relate it to the conductivity of a series of aggregates. We performed microscopic tomography of an aggregate pair equilibrated at different water potentials. By means of image analysis and a morphological pore network model, the water-filled contact area was calculated. We found that the aggregate surface is rough and the contact region contains macropores which are rapidly drained. As a consequence the water-filled contact area dramatically decreases as the water potential is diminished. We modeled this process by describing the aggregates as spheres covered by much smaller spheres representing the roughness. The water-filled contact was analytically calculated from this model. Knowing the water-filled contact area we up-scale the hydraulic conductivity of a series of aggregates. This is calculated as the harmonic mean of the contact and aggregate conductivities. The contact conductivity is calculated from the water-filled contact area. Near saturation the conductivity of a series of aggregates is close to the conductivity of a single aggregate, and, when further drained, it rapidly decreases as the water-filled contact area. The model matches the experimental data well.     

From the pore scale to the lab scale: 3-D lab experiment and numerical simulation of drainage in heterogeneous porous media

A well-controlled 3-D experiment with pre-defined block heterogeneities is conducted, where neutron tomography is used to map 3-D water distribution after two successive drainage steps. The material and hydraulic properties of the two sands are first measured in the laboratory with multistep outflow experiments. Additionally, the pore structure of the sands is acquired by means of image analysis of synchrotron tomography data and the structure is used for pore-scale simulation of one- and two-phase flow with Lattice-Boltzmann methods. This gives us another set of material and hydraulic parameters of the sands. The two sets of hydraulic properties (from the lab scale and from the pore scale) are then used in numerical simulations of the 3-D experiment.     

湘西金矿及其区域马底驿组锑分布的多峰结构--累积概率格纸在金矿成因和找矿中的应用

湖南雪峰弧形构造隆起带(中-上元古界)囊括了该省80％以上的原生金矿(“沃溪式”金矿)和90％以上的砂金,也是世界名的金-锑-钨综合矿化带。其中,赋存于上元古界板溪群马底驿组紫红色板岩中,位于湘西北沅陵县的沃溪金-锑-钨矿,即湘西金矿为代表性矿床。它也是我国仅次于湘中锡矿山的第二大锑矿生产基地。     

Numbers,types, and compositions of an unbiased collection of cosmic spherules

Abstract— Micrometeorites collected from the bottom of the South Pole water well (SPWW) may represent a complete, well‐preserved sample of the cosmic dust that accreted on Earth from 1100–1500 A.D. We classified 1588 cosmic spherules in the size range 50–800 μm. The collection has 41% barred olivine spherules, 17% glass spheres, 12% cryptocrystalline spherules, 11% porphyritic olivine spherules, 12% relicgrain‐bearing spherules, 3% scoriaceous spherules, 2% I‐type spherules, 1% Ca‐AI‐Ti‐rich (CAT) spherules, and 1% G‐type spherules. We also found bubbly glass spherules, spherules with glass caps, and ones with sulfide coatings—particles that are absent from other collections. A classification sequence of the stony spherules (scoriaceous, relic‐grain‐bearing, porphyritic, barred olivine, cryptocrystalline, glass, and CAT) is consistent with progressive heating and evaporation of Fe from chondritic materials. The modern‐day accretion rate and size distribution measured at the SPWW can account for the stony spherules present in deep‐sea collection through preferential dissolution of glass and small stony spherules. However, weathering alone cannot account for the high accretion rate of I‐type spherules determined for two deep‐sea collections. The SPWW collection provides data to constrain models of atmospheric‐entry heating and to assess the effects of terrestrial weathering.     

The crater-facies kimberlite system of Tokapal, Bastar District, Chhattisgarh, India

Discovery of diamondiferous kimberlites in the Mainpur Kimberlite Field, Raipur District, Chhattisgarh in central India, encouraged investigation of similar bodies in other parts of the Bastar craton. The earlier known Tokapal ultramafic intrusive body, located beyond the 19-km milestone in Tokapal village along the Jagdalpur–Geedam road, was reinterpreted as crater-facies kimberlite. Its stratigraphic position in the Meso-Neoproterozoic intracratonic sedimentary Indravati basin makes it one of the oldest preserved crater-facies kimberlite systems. Ground and limited subsurface data (dug-, tube-wells and exploratory boreholes) have outlined an extensive surface area (>550 ha) of the kimberlite. The morphological and surface color features of this body on enhanced satellite images suggest that there is a central feeder surrounded by a collar and wide pyroclastic apron. Exploration drilling indicates that the central zone probably corresponds to a vent overlain by resedimented volcaniclastic (epiclastic) rocks that are surrounded by a 2-km-wide spread of pyroclastic rocks (lapilli tuff, tuff/ash beds and volcaniclastic breccia). Drill-holes also reveal that kimberlitic lapilli tuffs and tuffs are sandwiched between the Kanger and Jagdalpur Formations and also form sills within the sedimentary sequence of the Indravati basin. The lapilli tuffs are commonly well stratified and display slumping. Base surges and lava flows occur in the southern part of the Tokapal system. The geochemistry and petrology of the rock correspond to average Group I kimberlite with a moderate degree of contamination. However, the exposed rock is intensely weathered and altered with strong leaching of mobile elements (Ba, Rb, Sr). Layers of vesicular fine-grained glassy material represent kimberlitic lava flows. Tuffs containing juvenile lapilli with pseudomorphed olivine macrocrysts are set in a talc–serpentine–carbonate matrix with locally abundant spinel and sphene. Garnet has not been observed, and phlogopite is very rare. Very limited microdiamond testing (two 18-kg samples) proved negative; however, the composition of chromite grains indicate crystallization in the diamond stability field.