Mineral chemistry of banded migmatites from Hafafit and Feiran areas, Egypt

The migmatitic rocks exposed in Hafafit and Feiran areas exhibit some migmatitic structures as the banded, agmatic, boudinage and schlieren structures. The dominant type of these structures is the stromatic migmatites. Electron microprobe analyses of plagioclases, biotites and amphiboles from Hafafit and Feiran areas, in the Eastern Desert and Sinai, Egypt, are carried out and the metamorphic conditions are discussed. The present study revealed marked differences in the composition of plagioclases, biotites and amphiboles from Hafafit and Feiran localities. The obtained data indicated that plagioclases of the Feiran migmatites are of andesine and oligoclase composition, and display anorthite content from An₂₀ to An₃₈; whereas the Hafafit migmatites show a wider range of plagioclases from An₁₀ to An₆₀, and therefore plagioclases have labradorite, andesine and oligoclase composition. This may be due to the slow rate of the crystallisation processes. The analyses indicated that biotites of the studied areas are of metamorphic origin showing significant variation in Fe–Mg. It is worth mentioning that biotites from Hafafit migmatites have Mg–biotite composition while that of Feiram migmatites have Fe–biotite composition. High Mg and low Fe contents in biotite suggest higher crystallisation temperature. The composition of amphiboles in Hafafit migmatites is ferro-tschermakitic hornblende, while amphiboles from Feiram migmatites are magnesio-hornblende. High Ti content in the hornblende of Feiran migmatites suggests that they were formed at slightly higher temperatures and lower pressure than the Hafafit migmatites (i.e. Feiram migmatites and Hafafit migmatites were formed at granulite and amphibolite facies, respectively). Discrimination diagrams show that the muscovite is of secondary origin. Moreover, the present study confirmed that these migmatites are mainly formed by metamorphic differentiation via partial melting.     

On the possible origin of X-rays in long laboratory sparks

In this paper, based on theoretical estimation of the achievable electric fields during the physical development process of a long spark under different conditions, we show that the encounter of negative and positive streamer fronts just before the final breakdown is one scenario, under which the observed X-ray bursts in long sparks is highly possible. Our calculations show that for example in an 80 cm long rod–sphere air gap at atmospheric pressure with negative lightning impulse breakdown voltage of about 925 kV, electrons are accelerated to values in the range of 100–300 keV during the encounter. Subsequently, these electrons gain more energy moving through the potential gradient of the positive streamer region. The total gain of energy by electrons may reach 300–500 keV. The results also show that negative discharges can produce more energetic electrons than positive. If the suggested mechanism of X-ray production in long sparks is correct, then the X-ray burst may consist of several pulses closely spaced in time. Time resolved photography in simultaneous measurement of X-rays would be able to confirm this prediction.     

Generalized cumulant correlators and hierarchical clustering

The cumulant correlators, C _pq , are statistical quantities that generalize the better-known S _p parameters; the former are obtained from the two-point probability distribution function of the density fluctuations while the latter describe only the one-point distribution. If galaxy clustering develops from Gaussian initial fluctuations and a small-angle approximation is adopted, standard perturbative methods suggest a particular hierarchical relationship of the C _pq for projected clustering data, such as that obtained from the Automatic Plate Measuring (APM) survey. We establish the usefulness of the two-point cumulants for describing hierarchical clustering by comparing such calculations against available measurements from projected catalogues, finding very good agreement. We extend the idea of cumulant correlators to multipoint generalized cumulant correlators (related to the higher-order correlation functions). We extend previous studies in the highly non-linear regime to express the generalized cumulant correlators in terms of the underlying 'tree amplitudes' of hierarchical scaling models. Such considerations lead to a technique for determining these hierarchical amplitudes, to arbitrary order, from galaxy catalogues and numerical simulations. Knowledge of these amplitudes yields important clues about the phenomenology of gravitational clustering. For instance, we show that a three-point cumulant correlator can be used to separate the tree amplitudes up to sixth order. We also combine the particular hierarchical Ansatz of Bernardeau & Schaeffer with extended and hyper-extended perturbation theory to infer values of the tree amplitudes in the highly non-linear regime.     

The Distribution of Riparian Corridor Plants and the Relations to River Water Salinity along Perai River, Penang, Malaysia

Ecological surveys were carried out to investigate the distribution and characterization of riparian corridor plants along the Perai River,Penang,Malaysia from July 2007 to March 2008.Surveys were design to represent horizon-tal sections of the river starting from the river mouth towards the upper reaches for 20 km.A total of 84 species of plants from 30 families were recorded.They consisted of 28 species of standing plants(plants with height of more than 1 m)and 56 species of weedy plants(plants with heigh...     

基于AHP_熵权法的孟印缅地区洪水灾害风险评估

孟印缅三国地处亚热带与热带季风气候区,因自然条件制约,洪涝灾害频繁发生,对“孟中印缅经济走廊”建设将会带来重大影响。开展孟印缅地区的洪水风险评估可为“孟中印缅经济走廊”的建设安全提供必要的信息和科技支撑。利用1980—2016年的降水数据,结合河网、数字高程和土地利用等数据,选取雨季降雨量、暴雨天数、高程、坡度、河网密度、植被覆盖度、土壤可蚀性、人口密度、地均GDP和土地利用10个指标,采用层次分析法和AHP_熵权法对孟印缅地区的洪水灾害风险分布进行了比较研究。研究表明：孟印缅地区高风险区和较高风险区分别占总面积的1.05%和28.76%,高风险区主要分布在印度北部的恒河平原、印度东北部的阿萨姆邦、孟加拉国大部分地区和缅甸南部。受自然、人口和经济条件的制约,孟加拉国是孟印缅三国中洪水风险最高的国家,高风险区和较高风险区分别占总面积的10.61%和65.87%。层次分析法和AHP_熵权法结果间的比较表明,后者比前者识别出更大范围的洪水高风险区。本研究为中国开展周边国家自然灾害的风险评估提供了有效的方法,有助于推进国家孟中印缅经济走廊的建设。     

Towards the representation of groundwater in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator

Groundwater is an important component of the hydrological cycle with significant interactions with soil hydrological processes. Recent studies have demonstrated that incorporating groundwater hydrology in land surface models (LSMs) considerably improves the prediction of the partitioning of water components (e.g., runoff and evapotranspiration) at the land surface. However, the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), an LSM developed in the United Kingdom, does not yet have an explicit representation of groundwater. We propose an implementation of a simplified groundwater flow boundary parameterization (JULES-GFB), which replaces the original free drainage assumption in the default model (JULES-FD). We tested the two approaches under a controlled environment for various soil types using two synthetic experiments: (1) single-column and (2) tilted-V catchment, using a three-dimensional (3-D) hydrological model (ParFlow) as a benchmark for JULES’ performance. In addition, we applied our new JULES-GFB model to a regional domain in the UK, where groundwater is the key element for runoff generation. In the single-column infiltration experiment, JULES-GFB showed improved soil moisture dynamics in comparison with JULES-FD, for almost all soil types (except coarse soils) under a variety of initial water table depths. In the tilted-V catchment experiment, JULES-GFB successfully represented the dynamics and the magnitude of saturated and unsaturated storage against the benchmark. The lateral water flow produced by JULES-GFB was about 50% of what was produced by the benchmark, while JULES-FD completely ignores this process. In the regional domain application, the Kling-Gupta efficiency (KGE) for the total runoff simulation showed an average improvement from 0.25 for JULES-FD to 0.75 for JULES-GFB. The mean bias of actual evapotranspiration relative to the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) product was improved from −0.22 to −0.01 mm day⁻¹. Our new JULES-GFB implementation provides an opportunity to better understand the interactions between the subsurface and land surface processes that are dominated by groundwater hydrology.     

Improvement of very soft ground by a high-efficiency vacuum preloading method: A case study

This paper describes a full-scale test on a very soft clay ground around 70,000?m², which is conducted in Huizhou of Guangdong Province, China, to present a new method of vacuum preloading method. A novel moisture separator was developed, which can automatically regulate the vacuum pressure variation by changing the volume of the gas inside it. A large quantity of water drained by the proposed moisture separators can be directly used as a surcharge loading, which would shorten the ground improvement time and save costs as well. Three levels of silt-prevention prefabricated vertical drains were used in the treating process to accelerate the consolidation. In addition, the vacuum preloading method also included an effective radial drainage device which would strengthen the dredged soft clay fill in a deep layer. In the in situ test, tens of piezometers and settlement plates were installed to measure the variations of excess pore water pressures and settlement of two stages of observation points at different positions in the ground. The results show that the largest average consolidation settlement was 314.1?cm and made a saving of more than 66% in power consumption compared with traditional method. It demonstrates that this adopted method is an efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly method for improving sites with low bearing capacity and high compressibility soils.     

Evolution of geophysical parameters over the Indian Ocean region during contrasting monsoon years of 2002 and 2003 using TRMM/TMI data

Summary The evolution of geophysical parameters over Indian Ocean during two contrasting monsoon years 2002 (drought) and 2003 (normal) were studied using TRMM/TMI satellite data. Analysis indicates that there was a lack of total water vapour (TWV) build up over Western Indian Ocean (WIO) during May 2002 (drought) when compared to 2003 (normal). Negative (positive) TWV anomalies were found over the WIO in May 2002 (2003). In 2002, negative SST anomaly of ∼1.5 °C is found over entire WIO when compared to 2003. Anomalously high sea surface wind speed (SWS) anomaly over the South West Indian Ocean (SWIO) and WIO would have resulted in cooling of the sea surface in May 2002 in comparison to 2003. In 2003 the wind speed anomaly over entire WIO and Arabian Sea (AS) was negative, whereas sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly was positive over the same region, which would have resulted in higher moisture availability over these regions. A negative (positive) TWV anomaly over Eastern Arabian Sea (EAS) and positive (negative) anomaly over WIO forms a dipole structure. In the month of June no major difference is seen in all these parameters over the Indian Ocean. In July 2002 the entire WIO and AS was drier by 10–15 mm as compared to 2003. The pentad (5 day) average TWV values shows high (>55 mm) TWV convergence over EAS and Bay of Bengal (BoB) during active periods of 2003, which gives high rainfall over these regions. However, during 2002 although TWV over BoB was >55 mm but it was ∼45–55 mm over EAS during entire July and hence less rainfall. The evaporation has been calculated from the bulk aerodynamic formula using TRMM/TMI geophysical products. It has been seen that the major portion of evaporative moisture flux is coming from southern Indian Ocean (SIO) between 15 and 25° S. Evaporation in June was more over AS and SIO in 2003 when compared to 2002 which may lead to reduce moisture supply in July 2002 and hence less rainfall compared to July 2003.