Dunes on Titan observed by Cassini Radar

Thousands of longitudinal dunes have recently been discovered by the Titan Radar Mapper on the surface of Titan. These are found mainly within ±30° of the equator in optically-, near-infrared-, and radar-dark regions, indicating a strong proportion of organics, and cover well over 5% of Titan's surface. Their longitudinal duneform, interactions with topography, and correlation with other aeolian forms indicate a single, dominant wind direction aligned with the dune axis plus lesser, off-axis or seasonally alternating winds. Global compilations of dune orientations reveal the mean wind direction is dominantly eastwards, with regional and local variations where winds are diverted around topographically high features, such as mountain blocks or broad landforms. Global winds may carry sediments from high latitude regions to equatorial regions, where relatively drier conditions prevail, and the particles are reworked into dunes, perhaps on timescales of thousands to tens of thousands of years. On Titan, adequate sediment supply, sufficient wind, and the absence of sediment carriage and trapping by fluids are the dominant factors in the presence of dunes.     

First results from a dark matter search with liquid argon at 87 K in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory

A new method of searching for dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP) has been developed with the direct detection of the low energy nuclear recoils observed in a massive target (ultimately many tons) of ultra pure liquid argon at 87 K. A high selectivity for argon recoils is achieved by the simultaneous observation of both the VUV scintillation luminescence and of the electron signal surviving columnar recombination, extracted through the liquid–gas boundary by an electric field.

First physics results from this method are reported, based on a small 2.3 l test chamber filled with natural argon and an accumulated fiducial exposure of about 100 kg day, supporting the future validity of this method with isotopically purified ⁴⁰Ar and for a much larger unit presently under construction with correspondingly increased sensitivities.     

第十五批天文学名词的推荐译名

中国天文学会名词审定委员会从1985年开始在<天文学进展>发表天文学名词的推荐译名,到2007年已公布了14批2280个名词.现再推荐第十五批151个名词,其中大多数是近年来出现的天文学新词.希望读者在试用过程中对译名提出改进意见.     

A Simple Monte Carlo Method for Locating the Three-dimensional Critical Slip Surface of a Slope

Based on the assumption of the plain-strain problem, various optimization or random search methods have been developed for locating the critical slip surfaces in slope-stability analysis, but none of such methods is applicable to the 3D case. In this paper, a simple Monte Carlo random simulation method is proposed to identify the 3D critical slip surface. Assuming the initial slip to be the lower part of a slip ellipsoid, the 3D critical slip surface is located by means of a minimized 3D safety factor. A column-based 3D slope stability analysis model is used to calculate this factor. In this study, some practical cases of known minimum safety factors and critical slip surfaces in 2D analysis are extended to 3D slope problems to locate the critical slip surfaces. Compared with the 2D result, the resulting 3D critical slip surface has no apparent difference in terms of only cross section, but the associated 3D safety factor is definitely higher.     

ON LOPINITE,A NEW TYPE OF COAL IN CHINA

To the east of Nanchang,the capital of Kiangsi Province,there cropsout a continuous belt of Permian coal series~1 trending approximately in thedirection from N.E.to S.W.Broadly speaking,this coal belt forms a synclinal     

ON THE OCCURRENCE OF SPHAEROSIDERITE IN A SUBBITUMINOUS COAL FROM HSIAN COAL MINE,LIAONING PROVINCE

Mr.T.F.Hou,geologist of the National Geological Survey of Chinabrought back in 1931 from Liaoning province,a specimen of subbituminous coalin which are included patches or aggregates of small oolites.This interestingspecimen was given to the writer for microscopical investigation.Both polished     

4-Dimensional Models of Deformation of the Earth's Crust and Earthquake Prediction

Traditionally, when creating 4-D models of elastic offsets in the Earth's crust, the data from geodesic and GPS monitoring of offsets on the ground surface, earthquake catalogs, monitoring of the water level and radon content in wells, sea level fluctuations, as well as gravitational and magnetic fields, etc., can be taken as bases for information. In essence, the reason for creating a 4-D model of slow elastic deformations is to approximate the process by a set of plane deformation solitons (solitary waves). The parameters of a set of deformation solitons are obtained by a two-stage inversion. First, the parameters of the model are determined in a kinematic way by the use of a modified simplification of the method. Then, a calibration of the amplitude characteristics of the model is carried out in terms of elastic dynamic offsets. Taking Ural, Northern Tianshan, Greece, and China as examples, models for these regions are created on the basis of seismological, geodesic, deformation, hydrogeological, and     

Breaking Criteria for Regular Waves on Gentle Slopes

Nelson pointed out that the wave breaking criterion(H/d)_b for gentle slopes(i<1/100),inwhich H is the wave height and d is the water depth at the breaking point,is smaller than that for beachslopes of i>1/100),i.e.,the value of(H/d)_b for gentle slopes may be smaller than 0.6.Goda indicatedthat the wave breaking criterion given by himself is a result based on theoretical study,so it should be alsocorrect and can be used for gentle beaches,i.e.,the value of(H/d)_b for gentle slopes may be still largerthan 0.7.By use of high order nonlinear wave theory,this problem is analyzed in this study and the reasonwhy there is a large difference between different studies is explained.Moreover,the bottom energy loss dur-ing wave propagation is considered and the critical slope for the absence of wave breaking is also analyzed.