Expansion and contraction of Chinese deserts during the Quaternary

Episodic dune formations during the Quaternary are found in many deserts of China. The causes of desert expansions on different time scales are not the same. Desert extension at about 1.1 and 0.9 Ma ago were the response to the active tectonic movements, whereas the desert evolutions on the ten-thousand years time scale were the response to the orbital scale climatic changes. Spatial scale studies on desert evolution indicate that desert margins shifted greatly during the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the Holocene optimum, its changing from 125°E of the LGM to 105°E of the climatic optimum. Historical desertification in the semiarid China is not a response to climate drought but largely associated with the human impacts (mainly over-cultivation) since about 2300 years ago, which leads to the reworking of the underlying LGM sands.     

Utilization of water resources,ecological balance and land desertification in the Tarim Basin,Xinjiang

Because of the human exploitation and utilization of water resources in the Tarim Basin, the water resources consumption has changed from mainly natural ecosystem to artificial oasis ecosystem, and the environment has changed correspondingly. The basic changes are: desertification and oasis development coexist, both “the human being advance and the desert retreat” and “the desert advance and the human being retreat” coexist, but the latter is dominant. In the upper reaches, water volume drawing to irrigated agricultural areas has increased, artificial oases have been enlarging and moving from the deltas in the lower reaches of many rivers to the piedmont plains. In the middle and lower reaches of the Tarim River, the stream flow has decreased, old oases have declined, natural vegetations have been degenerating, desertification has been enlarging, and the environment has deteriorated. The transition regions, which consist of forestlands, grasslands and waters between the desert and the oases, have been decreasing continuously, their shelter function to the oases has been weakened, and the desert is threatening the oases seriously.     

Getting ‘holistic’ about land rehabilitation in hot arid regions

The paper describes Western Australian examples and causes of land degradation. It outlines shortcomings in the methodologies used to rehabilitate these areas. From this a protocol is suggested for an ‘holistic’ approach to land rehabilitation.     

A rifted inside corner massif on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 5°S

The structure of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 5°S was investigated during a recent cruise with the FS Meteor. A major dextral transform fault (hereafter the 5°S FZ) offsets the ridge left-laterally by 80 km. Just south of the transform and to the west of the median valley, the inside corner (IC – the region bounded by the ridge and the active transform) is marked by a major massif, characterized by a corrugated upper surface. Fossil IC massifs can also be identified further to the west. Unusually, a massif almost as high as the IC massif also characterizes the outside corner (OC) south of the inactive fracture zone and to the east of the median valley. This OC massif has axis-parallel dimensions identical to the IC massif and both are bounded on their sides closest to the spreading axis by abrupt, steep slopes. An axial volcanic ridge is well developed in the median valley both south of the IC/OC massifs and in an abandoned rift valley to the east of the OC massif, but is absent along the new ridge-axis segment between the IC and OC massifs. Wide-angle seismic data show that between the massifs, the crust of the median valley thins markedly towards the FZ. These observations are consistent with the formation of the OC massif by the rifting of an IC core complex and the development of a new spreading centre between the IC and OC massifs. The split IC massif presents an opportunity to study the internal structure of the footwall of a detachment fault, from the corrugated fault surface to deeper beneath the fault, without recourse to drilling. Preliminary dredging recovered gabbros from the scarp slope of the rifted IC massif, and serpentinites and gabbros from the intersection of this scarp with the corrugated surface. This is compatible with a concentration of serpentinites along the detachment surface, even where the massif internally is largely plutonic in nature.     

A method to estimate hydraulic conductivity while drilling

A field test and analysis method has been developed to estimate the vertical distribution of hydraulic conductivity in shallow unconsolidated aquifers. The field method uses fluid injection ports and pressure transducers in a hollow auger that measure the hydraulic head outside the auger at several distances from the injection point. A constant injection rate is maintained for a duration time sufficient for the system to become steady state. Exploiting the analogy between electrical resistivity in geophysics and hydraulic flow two methods are used to estimate conductivity with depth: a half-space model based on spherical flow from a point injection at each measurement site, and a one-dimensional inversion of an entire dataset.

The injection methodology, conducted in three separate drilling operations, was investigated for repeatability, reproducibility, linearity, and for different injection sources. Repeatability tests, conducted at 10 levels, demonstrated standard deviations of generally less than 10%. Reproducibility tests conducted in three, closely spaced drilling operations generally showed a standard deviation of less than 20%, which is probably due to lateral variations in hydraulic conductivity. Linearity tests, made to determine dependency on flow rates, showed no indication of a flow rate bias. In order to obtain estimates of the hydraulic conductivity by an independent means, a series of measurements were made by injecting water through screens installed at two separate depths in a monitoring pipe near the measurement site. These estimates differed from the corresponding estimates obtained by injection in the hollow auger by a factor of less than 3.5, which can be attributed to variations in geology and the inaccurate estimates of the distance between the measurement and the injection sites at depth.     

Geoecological Characteristics of Lake Seliger

Data of hydrological and hydrochemical observations conducted in August 2000 at Lake Seliger and its major tributaries are presented. The analyzed characteristics included: O₂, H₂S, CH₄, microelements; mineral and organic compounds of P and N, ionic composition components (HCO₃ ^–, Cl^–, Na⁺, K⁺, dry residue, pH; color index, electrical conductivity. Bottom sediment samples were analyzed for microelement concentrations, CH₄, oil hydrocarbons. The influence of the basin on the ecological state of the lake was assessed, and tendencies in the evolution of its ecosystem are analyzed. It is shown that the ecological conditions of the lake has not changed significantly since 1960–1991, however, nutrient concentrations in the lake water was found to increase.     

Optimized Seismic Threshold Monitoring – Part 2: Teleseismic Processing

v--vThis second paper (Part 2) pertaining to optimized site-specific threshold monitoring addresses the application of the method to regions covered by a teleseismic or a combined regional-teleseismic network. In the first paper (Part 1) we developed the method for the general case, and demonstrated its application to an area well-covered by a regional network (the Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site). In the present paper, we apply the method to the Indian and Pakistani nuclear test sites, and show results during the periods of nuclear testing by these two countries in May 1998. Since the coverage by regional stations in these areas is poor, an optimized approach requires the use of selected, high-quality stations at teleseismic distances.¶To optimize the threshold monitoring of these test sites, we use as calibration events either one of the nuclear explosions or a nearby earthquake. From analysis of the calibration events we derive values for array beamforming steering delays, filter bands, short-term averages (STA) lengths, phase travel times (P waves), and amplitude-magnitude relationships for each station. By applying these parameters, we obtain a monitoring capability of both test sites ranging from m_b 2.8-3.0 using teleseismic stations only. When including the nearby Nilore station to monitor the Indian tests, we show that the threshold can be reduced by about 0.4 magnitude units. In particular, we demonstrate that the Indian tests on 13 May, 1998, which were not detected by any known seismic station, must have corresponded to a magnitude (m_b) of less than 2.4.¶We also discuss the effect of a nearby aftershock sequence on the monitoring capability for the Pakistani test sites. Such an aftershock sequence occurred in fact on the day of the last Pakistani test (30 May, 1998), following a large (m_b 5.5) earthquake in Afghanistan located about 1100 km from the test site. We show that the threshold monitoring technique has sufficient resolution to suppress the signals from these interfering aftershocks without significantly affecting the true peak of the nuclear explosion on the threshold trace.     

3-D Viscoelastic FEM Modeling of Crustal Deformation in Northeast Japan

-- As a first step toward establishing a standard earthquake cycle model in Japan, we simulate the crustal deformation during the past 100 years in northeast Japan, using a 3-D FEM based on the kinematic model. Then, we compare the computed results with the observed long-term leveling data and the recent GPS data. On the whole, although the effect of the subducting PAC is dominant, coseismic deformation of the interplate earthquakes can be clearly seen in the inland. Moreover, the postseismic deformation of the earthquakes due to the viscoelastic upper mantle seriously affects the inland movements, and continues for a few decades. Our modeling, including the effects of the interplate earthquakes and the three-dimensional viscoelastic inhomogeneity, reasonably explains the observed movement. Finally, we stress that the viscoelastic effect should be taken into consideration in the analyses, even if no earthquakes occur in the analyzed period.