Regional differences in the relationship between climatic factors,vegetation, land surface conditions,and dust weather in China’s Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Region

This paper analyzes the regional differences in dust weather and its relationship with climatic factors and vegetation cover, using data at 27 observation stations in the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Region from 1960 to 2007. There was a decreasing trend in dust weather in the southeast, which was correlated with wind and temperature. In contrast, in the northwest, the number of dusty days did not decrease and was significantly correlated with precipitation and vegetation cover. These results suggest that, in addition to the climate and underlying conditions, physical geographic conditions also influenced the frequency of dust weather.     

The 2010 Yushu earthquake triggered landslide hazard mapping using GIS and weight of evidence modeling

The Yushu County, Qinghai Province, China, April 14, 2010, earthquake triggered thousands of landslides in a zone between 96°20′32.9″E and 97°10′8.9″E, and 32°52′6.7″N and 33°19′47.9″N. This study examines the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology and Bayesian statistics in creating a suitable landslide hazard-zone map of good predictive power. A total of 2,036 landslides were interpreted from high-resolution aerial photographs and multi-source satellite images pre- and post-earthquake, and verified by selected field checking before a final landslide-inventory map of the study area could be established using GIS software. The 2,036 landslides were randomly partitioned into two subsets: a training dataset, which contains 80 % (1,628 landslides), for training the model; and a testing dataset 20 % (408 landslides). Twelve earthquake triggered landslide associated controlling parameters, such as elevation, slope gradient, slope aspect, slope curvature, topographic position, distance from main surface ruptures, peak ground acceleration, distance from roads, normalized difference vegetation index, distance from drainages, lithology, and distance from all faults were obtained from variety of data sources. Landslide hazard indices were calculated using the weight of evidence model. The landslide hazard map was compared with training data and testing data to obtain the success rate and predictive rate of the model, respectively. The validation results showed satisfactory agreement between the hazard map and the existing landslide distribution data. The success rate is 80.607 %, and the predictive rate is 78.855 %. The resulting landslide hazard map showed five classes of landslide hazard, i.e., very high, high, moderate, low and very low. The landslide hazard evaluation map should be useful for environmental recovery planning and reconstruction work.     

矿物晶体形态统计方法探讨

矿物晶体形态标型研究广泛应用于矿床成因研究和成矿预测工作,是成因矿物学研究中一个很重要的方面。文章以黄铁矿晶体形态统计为例,介绍了适用于简单晶体形态统计的形态统计法、适用于复杂晶体形态统计的习性统计法,以及根据实际观测实践提出的权重统计法。通过对这3种方法的比较,指出了不同方法的利弊,给出了根据不同研究目的及样品实际情况选择不同方法的建议。     

考虑含水率影响的非饱和原状黄土冻融强度试验研究

提出了用于非饱和原状黄土增湿的蒸汽增湿方法,给出了蒸汽增湿试验步骤,通过对比试验分析确定了适宜的试验参数,从增湿后水分分布是否均匀、土体密度是否改变等方面论证了蒸汽增湿方法的有效性。对含水率的测试结果表明,微波炉法测试结果能满足精度要求,酒精燃烧法在测试较高含水率时误差较大。进一步应用蒸汽增湿法得到的不同含水率原状土样测定了非饱和黄土冻融后的强度指标,揭示出当非饱和原状黄土含水率过低时,冻融作用对黄土的粘聚力值基本没有影响,当含水率较高时,经历冻融循环后黄土粘聚力值较冻融前降低,冻结温度越低以及冻融循环次数越多,降低值越大。经历冻融循环后黄土内摩擦角值较冻融前增加,冻结温度越低,增加值越大。在含水率较低时冻融循环次数几乎不引起内摩擦角值发生变化,在含水率较高时冻融循环次数越多,引起内摩擦角增加值越大。     

青海地区盐渍土分布规律及其独特工程特性探讨

针对青海一些地区盐渍土当硫酸钠含量小于1%时也会产生盐胀,而超氯盐渍土却不会产生溶陷的事实,进行了较为深入细致的论证和研究。以数据、事实为依据,得出了与现行理论及规范有较大出入的论断。     

Tracing of water movement through the unsaturated zone of a coarse gravel aquifer by means of dye and deuterated water

To better understand the movement and transport of water and pollution through the coarse gravel unsaturated zone, the presented research was conducted to estimate water flow and transport processes with a tracing experiment in a lysimeter in the Selniška Dobrava. A combined tracing experiment was performed with deuterated water and the fluorescent dye—uranine. The fastest and dominant flow velocities were calculated based on injection time, the first tracer appearance time and the time of highest concentration. Mean flow velocity and vertical dispersion were estimated by an analytical best-fit method using one-dimensional convection–dispersion model. Deuterium was confirmed as an ideal conservative tracer and a more suitable tracer than dye (uranine) for the study of water flow in the unsaturated zone of a coarse gravel aquifer. The retardation factor of the dye as compared with deuterium was 1.13–1.75, which is in agreement with previously published results. Artificial tracers, especially deuterated water, were also identified as a very useful tool to assess other properties and differences in water flow in the unsaturated zone of a coarse gravel aquifer such as velocity and dispersion.     

Cryptic crustal contamination of MORB primitive melts recorded in olivine-hosted glass and mineral inclusions

The origin of compositional heterogeneities among the magmas parental to mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) was investigated using a single rock piece of the olivine-phyric basalt from 43°N, Mid-Atlantic Ridge (AII D11-177). The exceptional feature of this sample is presence of very primitive olivine crystals (90–91 mol% Fo) that are significantly variable in terms of CaO (0.15–0.35 wt%). A population of low-Ca olivine (0.15–0.25 wt% CaO) is also notably distinct from high-Ca olivine population in AII D11-177, and primitive MORB olivine in general, in having unusual assemblage of trapped mineral and glass inclusions. Mineral inclusions are represented by high-magnesian (Mg# 90.7–91.1 mol%) orthopyroxene and Cr-spinel, distinctly enriched in TiO₂ (up to 5 wt%, c.f. <1 wt% in common MORB spinel). Glass inclusions associated with orthopyroxene and high-Ti Cr-spinel have andesitic compositions (53–58 wt% SiO₂). Compared to the pillow-rim glass and “normal” MORB inclusions, the Si-rich glass inclusions in low-Ca olivine have strongly reduced Ca and elevated concentrations of Ti, Na, K, P, Cl, and highly incompatible trace elements. Strong variability is recorded among glass inclusions within a single olivine phenocrysts. We argue that the observed compositional anomalies are mineralogically controlled, and thus may arise from the interaction between hot MORB magmas and crystal cumulates in the oceanic crust or magma chamber.     

Raman spectra of methane hydrate up to 86 GPa

High-pressure Raman studies of methane hydrate were performed using a diamond anvil cell in the pressure range of 0.1–86 GPa at room temperature. Raman spectra of the methane molecules revealed that new softened intramolecular vibration mode of ν ₁ appeared at 17 GPa and that the splitting of vibration mode of ν ₃ occurred at 15 GPa. The appearance of these two modes indicates that an intermolecular attractive interaction increases between the methane molecules and the host water molecules and between the neighboring methane molecules. These interactions might result in the exceptional stability of a high-pressure structure, a filled ice Ih structure (FIIhS) for methane hydrate, up to 40 GPa. At 40 GPa, a clear change in the slope of the Raman shift versus pressure occurred, and above 40 GPa the Raman shift of the vibration modes increased monotonously up to 86 GPa. A previous XRD study showed that the FIIhS transformed into another new high-pressure structure at 40 GPa. The change in the Raman spectra at 40 GPa may be induced by the transition of the structure.     

<Superscript>57</Superscript>Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy,X-ray single-crystal diffractometry,and electronic structure calculations on natural alexandrite

Natural alexandrite Al₂BeO₄:Cr from Malyshevo near Terem Tschanka, Sverdlovsk, Ural, Russia, has been characterized by ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, electron microprobe, X-ray single-crystal diffractometry and by electronic structure calculations in order to determine oxidation state and location of iron. The sample contains 0.3 wt% of total iron oxide. The ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectrum can be resolved into three doublets. Two of them with hyperfine parameters typical for octahedrally coordinated high-spin Fe³⁺ and Fe²⁺, respectively, are assigned to iron substituting for Al in the octahedral M2-site. The third doublet is attributed to Fe³⁺ in hematite. Electronic structure calculations in the local spin density approximation are in reasonable agreement with experimental data provided that expansion and/or distortion of the coordination octahedra are presumed upon iron substitution. The calculated hyperfine parameters of Fe³⁺ are almost identical for the M1 and M2 positions, but the calculated ligand-field splitting is by far too large for high-spin Fe³⁺ on M1.     

Changing poverty distribution in Bolivia: the role of rural–urban migration and urban services

Bolivia is a country with high levels of poverty and inequality among its peoples and regions. For the nation and its urban and rural areas, trends in the social and spatial distribution of poverty (and extreme poverty) are identified from 1976 to 2003 using UBN data with minor support where appropriate from poverty lines. The main survey between 1992 and 2001 uses composite and selected UBN to track detailed poverty change for the country’s nine departments, its ten largest cities and a selection of other smaller urban and rural municipalities. Because of rising background increases in population in the various surveyed administrative units, many instances of relative reductions in poverty are accompanied by rising absolute increases. Marked spatial variations in poverty and development in the country over the last several decades are identified as the main driver for the country’s quickening pace of rural–urban migration. As a result, the paper concludes by assessing two different but closely related views. One investigation tests the notion that because more poor people have been living in Bolivia’s cities than in its rural areas since the mid to late 1990s, rapid rural–urban migration has simply shifted the locus of poverty from the countryside to the cities in a process called, the ‘urbanisation of poverty.’ A second, more challenging, investigation assesses the view that the flow of poor rural people to the better serviced urban areas of Bolivia has actually acted to alleviate national poverty levels.