Surface and groundwater quality characterization of Deoria District,Ganga Plain,India

A water quality investigation was carried out in the Deoria district, Ganga plain, to assess the suitability of surface and groundwaters for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes. As much as 50 representative samples from river and groundwater were collected from various stations to monitor the water chemistry of various ions, comprising Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, HCO₃ ⁻, SO₄ ²⁻, NO₃ ⁻, Cl⁻, F⁻, and trace metals, such as Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Cd, and Pb. The results showed that electrical conductance (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), HCO₃ ⁻, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, and total hardness (TH) are above the maximum desirable limit, and apart from Fe and Mn all other trace metals are within the maximum permissible limit for drinking water. The calculated values for sodium absorption ratio (SAR), salinity, residual sodium carbonate (RSC), and permeability index (PI) indicate well to permissible use of water for irrigation. High values of Na%, RSC, and Mg-hazard (MH) at some stations restrict its use for agricultural purpose. Anthropogenic activities affect the spatial variation of water quality. Economic and social developments of the study area is closely associated with the characteristics of the hydrological network.     

Assessment of rock slope stability by probabilistic-based Slope Stability Probability Classification method along highway cut slopes in Adilcevaz-Bitlis (Turkey)

Rock slope stability is of great concern along highway routes as stability problems on cut slopes may cause fatal events as well as loss of property. In rock slope engineering, stability evaluations are commonly performed by means of analytical or numerical analyses, principally considering the factor of safety concept. As a matter of fact, the probabilistic assessment of slope stability is progressively getting popularity due to difficulties in assigning the most appropriate values to design parameters in analytical or numerical methods. Additionally, the effect of heterogeneities in rock masses and discontinuities on the analysis results is minimized through the probabilistic concept. In this study, slope stability of high and steep sedimentary rock cut slopes along a state highway in Adilcevaz-Bitlis (Turkey) was evaluated on the basis of probabilistic approach using the Slope Stability Probability Classification (SSPC) system. The probabilistic assessment indicates major slope stability problems because of discontinuity controlled and discontinuity orientation independent mass movements. Almost all studied cut slopes suffer from orientation-independent stability problems with very low stability probabilities. Additionally, the probability of planar and toppling failures is significantly high with respect to the SSPC system. The stability problems along the investigated rock slopes were also verified by field reconnaissance. Remedial measures such as slope re-design and reinforcement at the studied locations should be taken to prevent hazardous events along the highway. On the other hand, the probabilistic approach may be a useful tool during rock slope engineering to overcome numerous uncertainties when probabilistic and analytic results are compared.     

青藏高原净生态系统碳交换量的遥感评估模型研究

青藏高原作为世界海拔最高的区域,是全球气候变化的敏感区之一。定量估算这一区域的净生态系统碳交换量（NEE）有利于理解陆地生态系统碳平衡对未来气候变化的响应。本文构建了一个模拟该地区NEE动态变化的净碳收支模型（NCBM）。该模型由来源于MODIS影像的增强型植被指数（EVI）、陆地表面水分指数（LSWI）以及来源于地面观测的空气温度和短波辐射共同驱动,并利用青藏高原地区的3种植被类型（包括高寒灌丛、高寒湿地和高寒草甸）的碳通量长期观测数据对模型进行了校准和验证。结果表明,在模型校准站点年,NCBM模型可以模拟NEE观测值81%的变化,均方根误差（RMSE）为0.03molC/m2/d,模型效率（EF）为0.81。在模型验证站点年,NCBM模型可以预测NEE观测值84%的变化,RMSE为0.03molC/m2/d,EF为0.81。在大多数情况下,NCBM模型可以清晰地模拟各植被类型的NEE季节和年际变化。此外,NCBM模型因为结构简单,模型驱动变量易于获取等优势,具有在区域尺度上模拟NEE时空变化的潜力。但是该模型还需要进一步的改进和发展,特别需要提高对植被非常稀疏地区NEE变化的模拟能力。     

地震灾害风险评估及减灾策略研究——以贵州罗甸县为例

为探究贵州省地震灾害风险薄弱环节,减轻地震灾害风险,以贵州省罗甸县为示范,采用地震危险性概率分析方法对各乡镇进行危险性分析,开展地震灾害承灾体现场抽样调查,通过层次分析法和问卷调查的方式,首次构建乡镇级别的地震灾害风险和减灾能力指标体系,评估各乡镇地震灾害综合指数和程度,计算各乡镇地震灾害风险指数,确定红水河镇为高风险区、罗悃镇为中风险区、木引等7个乡镇为低风险区,并从建筑物设防、地震地质灾害及水库地震等角度剖析罗甸县地震灾害特点,从农村危房改造、移民搬迁、地质灾害防护及交通等方面提出减小地震灾害风险的建议。     

Misconceptions about the Hubble recession law

Almost all astronomers now believe that the Hubble recession law was directly inferred from astronomical observations. It turns out that this common belief is completely false. Those models advocating the idea of an expanding universe are ill-founded on observational grounds. This means that the Hubble recession law is really a working hypothesis. One alternative to the Hubble recession law is the tired-light hypothesis originally proposed by Zwicky (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 15:773, 1929). This hypothesis leads to a universe that is an eternal cosmos continually evolving without beginning or end. Such a universe exists in a dynamical state of virial equilibrium. Observational studies of the redshift-magnitude relation for Type Ia supernovae in distant galaxies might provide the best observational test for a tired-light cosmology. The present study shows that the model Hubble diagram for a tired-light cosmology gives good agreement with the supernovae data for redshifts in the range 0<z<2. This observational test of a static cosmology shows that the real universe is not necessarily undergoing expansion nor acceleration. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Seismic clusters and their characteristics at the Arabian Sea Triple Junction: Supportive evidences for plate margin deformations

The plate margin features defining the Arabian Sea Triple Junction (ASTJ) are: the Aden Ridge (AR), Sheba Ridge (SR) with their intervening Alula-Fartak Transform (AFT), Carlsberg Ridge (CR) and Owen Fracture Zone (OFZ). Exact nature of ASTJ is presently debated: whether it is RRF (ridge-ridge-fault) or RRR (ridge-ridge-ridge) type. A revised seismicity map for ASTJ is given here using data for a period little more than a century. “Point density spatial statistical criterion” is applied to short-listed 742 earthquakes (mb ≥ 4.3), 10 numbers of spatio-temporal seismic clusters are identified for ASTJ and its arms. Relocated hypocentres help better constraining the cluster identification wherever such data exist. Seismic clusters actually diagnose the most intense zones of strain accumulation due to far field as well as the local stress operating at ASTJ. An earthquake swarm emanating from a prominent seismic cluster below SR provides an opportunity to investigate the pore pressure diffusion process (due to the active source) by means of “r-t plot”. Stress and faulting pattern in the active zones are deduced from 43 CMT solutions. While normal or lateral faulting is characteristic for these arms, an anomalous thrust earthquake occurs in the triangular ‘Wheatley Deep’ deformation zone proximal to ASTJ. The latter appears to have formed due to a shift of the deformational front from OFZ towards a transform that offsets SR. Though ASTJ is still in the process of evolution, available data favour that this RRF triple junction may eventually be converted to a more stable RRR type.     

Geochronology and petrogenesis of the post-orogenic Cu–Ni sulfide-bearing mafic–ultramafic complexes in Jilin Province, NE China

Northeastern (NE) China is a well-documented example of a collisional zone characterized by widespread post-orogenic granites and mafic–ultramafic complexes. Based on a study of the Hongqiling and Piaohechuan Cu–Ni sulfide-bearing mafic–ultramafic complexes in central Jilin province, we present geological, petrological, geochemical and geochronological data which indicates their post-orogenic origin.The Hongqiling complex comprises pyroxenite, olivine websterite, lherzolite, gabbro and leucogabbro. Zircon U–Pb SHRIMP analyses on a leucogabbro of the Hongqiling complex yield a weighted mean ²⁰⁶Pb–²³⁸U age of 216±5 Ma. The Piaohechuan complex is composed of gabbro, pyroxenite and dolerite, exposed as dikes. A plagioclase-bearing pyroxenite has a U–Pb zircon weighted mean ²⁰⁶Pb–²³⁸U age of 217±3 Ma, identical to that of the Hongqiling complex. These ages are coeval with the emplacement of A-type granites in the area, but slightly younger than the regional metamorphism (240 Ma) and syn-orogenic granitic magmatism (246±4 Ma). This suggests that these mafic–ultramafic complexes are post-orogenic in origin. The age data also indicated a short period of lithospheric stabilization of about 30 Ma after cessation of orogenic activity.Geochemical investigation indicates that the primary mafic magma was a lithospheric mantle-derived basalt resulting from the upwelling of asthenosphere due to lithospheric delamination during post-orogenic processes. The magmatic source was contaminated by a small amount of crustal material, and subsequent crystal fractionation resulted in the Cu–Ni mineralization.The widespread occurrence of mafic–ultramafic complexes in the Xing'an–Mongolian Orogenic Belt of NE China and in the Altay–Tianshan–Junggar Orogenic Belt of Northern Xinjiang indicates that mafic intrusions are an important magmatic suite that evolved during post-orogenic processes. Portions of this mafic magma could have underplated the lower crust, and served as the heat source for associated late-stage granitic magmas.     

A comparative study of sequential minimal optimization-based support vector machines,vote feature intervals,and logistic regression in landslide susceptibility assessment using GIS

Landslide susceptibility assessment using GIS has been done for part of Uttarakhand region of Himalaya (India) with the objective of comparing the predictive capability of three different machine learning methods, namely sequential minimal optimization-based support vector machines (SMOSVM), vote feature intervals (VFI), and logistic regression (LR) for spatial prediction of landslide occurrence. Out of these three methods, the SMOSVM and VFI are state-of-the-art methods for binary classification problems but have not been applied for landslide prediction, whereas the LR is known as a popular method for landslide susceptibility assessment. In the study, a total of 430 historical landslide polygons and 11 landslide affecting factors such as slope angle, slope aspect, elevation, curvature, lithology, soil, land cover, distance to roads, distance to rivers, distance to lineaments, and rainfall were selected for landslide analysis. For validation and comparison, statistical index-based methods and the receiver operating characteristic curve have been used. Analysis results show that all these models have good performance for landslide spatial prediction but the SMOSVM model has the highest predictive capability, followed by the VFI model, and the LR model, respectively. Thus, SMOSVM is a better model for landslide prediction and can be used for landslide susceptibility mapping of landslide-prone areas.     

利用深井地震速度记录确定震级的初步研究

利用上海遥测地震台网虹桥、南汇台深井地震速度记录资料讨论地震尾波衰减与震级关系.采用统计方法求得了用垂直向地震波持续时间 L 测定震级M_v 的公式M_v 虹桥=-0.981+1.677×log(L)+0.600×log(△)±0.22M_v 南汇=-1.461+1.979×log(L)+0.506×log(△)±0.22结果表明,地震速度记录的持续时间 L 的对数加上震中距(△,单位:km)的对数与震级在近震范围内(△<5°)呈线性关系,说明用地震速度记录同样可以测定地震震级,这有助于提高深井速度记录资料的推广和应用。     

Early J2 basalts in SE China: Incipience of large-scale late Mesozoic magmatism

Magmatism in SE China was dormant during 204–180 Ma, but was reactivated in 180–170 Ma (early J₂), and then became more and more intensive towards the end of early Cretaceous. The small-scale early J₂ magmatism is the incipience to long-term and large-scale magmatism in this region. A near east-west (EW) trend volcanic belt was distributed across south Hunan, south Jiangxi and southwest Fujian was formed during early J₂ time. Along this belt from the inland toward the coast, the lithology of basalts changes from alkali into tholeiite, and the amount of erupted volcanic rocks and the proportions of rhyolites coexisting with the basalts increase. On the basis of geochemical characteristics of these basalts, we infer that the melting degree of source rocks and the extent of fractional crystallization and crustal contamination all increased whereas the depth of mantle source decreased from the inland to the coast, which led to the variations of geological characteristics of the volcanic belt. In early J₂, the western spreading Pacific plate began to subduct underneath SE China continental block, reactivating near EW trend deep fault that was originally formed during the Indosinian event. The stress of the western spreading Pacific plate and the extent of asthenosphere upwelling increased from the inland to the coast, which is consistent with the generation and evolution of early J₂ basalts.