Geostatistical Simulation of Acoustic Log Data for Seismic Depth Conversion

Seismic reflection methods measure the time a seismic wave takes to travel through the ground, from the user defined source to a series of signal monitoring sensors known as geophones. The measured times need to be depth converted to allow for integration with other geological data. In order to convert from time to depth, an estimate of the rock volume velocity field must be made. The velocity field estimate can be made by assignment of velocity estimates to a geological model independent of the seismic processing. This article presents the results of using the acoustic geophysical log data extrapolated via sequential Gaussian simulation to derive the velocity field. The uncertainties associated with the velocity estimates were significant and provided the means to assess confidence limits for the actual depth determination. The technique is assessed by application to a major coal deposit, approximately 2.1 m thick and 210 m deep. Considering only the uncertainty associated with estimating the velocity field, half of the confidence interval values showed approximately 1 m of uncertainty in depth. The application of sequential Gaussian simulation to model the 3D distribution of acoustic velocity can be extended to other geophysical log parameters or derived estimates.     

Using fine‐scale catch predictions to examine spatial variation in growth and catchability of Panulirus cygnus along the west coast of Australia

Puerulus settlement has been monitored throughout the western rock lobster Panulirus cygnus fishery for nearly 40 years. These data, in combination with indices of effort and water temperature, were used to produce recruitment‐catch relationships for each 1° transect of latitude in the coastal part of this fishery from Kalbarri to Cape Leeuwin, as well as at the offshore Abrolhos Islands (total of eight transects). The fine spatial scales of these models provided estimates of certain life history traits that are known to affect lobster catches between adjacent fishing ports. This catch modelling showed that the proportions of 3‐ and 4‐year‐old post‐settlement lobsters contributing to the catches varied markedly from the southern to northern transects, suggesting that juvenile lobsters grow substantially faster in the warmer northern and offshore waters of this fishery. These proportions provide accurate estimates of juvenile growth rates, which are vital in the construction of location‐specific growth algorithms required by the age‐structured models used in the management of this fishery. Model estimates of density‐dependent mortality were greater in the more densely populated centre of the fishery and markedly lower at the northern and southern limits of this species distribution. Annual increases in fishing efficiency were also found to be lowest at the northern and southern extremes of the fishery and greatest in the centre of the fishery, where technology advances and increased fleet mobility have enabled the fleet to increase efficiency by 1–3% each year. Catchability (q) was found to be most influenced by water temperatures in the cooler southern transects, whereas at the Abrolhos Islands, changes in water temperature produced almost no discernable change in q. The catch modelling was also used to quantify the impact of management changes introduced in the 1993/94 fishing season. Increased protection of female lobsters and an 18% pot reduction resulted in a 3–4% permanent reduction in the catch rates of lobsters throughout most of the coastal fishery, whereas at the offshore Abrolhos Islands, catch rates increased by c. 20%, presumably owing to a reduction in the level of pot saturation.     

基于星载激光雷达和雷达高度计数据的南极冰盖表面高程制图

南极数字高程模型DEMs(Digital Elevation Models)是研究极区大气环流模式,南极冰盖动态变化和南极科学考察非常重要的基础数据。目前,科学家已经发布了五种不同的南极数字表面高程模型。这些数据都是由卫星雷达高度计,激光雷达和部分地面实测数据等制作而成。尽管如此,由于海洋与冰盖交接的南极冰盖边缘区随时间的快速变化,有必要根据新的卫星数据及时更新南极冰盖表面高程数据。因此,我们利用雷达高度计数据(Envisat RA-2)和激光雷达数据(ICESat/GLAS)制作了最新的南极冰盖高程数据。为提高ICESat/GLAS数据的精度,本文采用了五种不同的质量控制指标对GLAS数据进行处理,滤除了8.36%的不合格数据。这五种质量控制指标分别针对卫星定位误差、大气前向散射、饱和度及云的影响。同时,对Envisat RA-2数据进行干湿对流层纠正、电离层纠正、固体潮汐纠正和极潮纠正。针对两种不同的测高数据,提出了一种基于Envisat RA-2和GLAS数据光斑脚印几何相交的高程相对纠正方法,即通过分析GLAS脚印点与Envisat RA-2数据中心点重叠的点对,建立这些相交点对的高度差(GLAS-RA-2)与表征地形起伏的粗糙度之间的相关关系,对具有稳定相关关系的点对进行Envisat RA-2数据的相对纠正。通过分析南极冰盖不同区域的测高点密度,确定最终DEM的分辨率为1000 m。考虑到南极普里兹湾和内陆地区的差异性,将南极冰盖分为16个区,利用半方差分析确定最佳插值模型和参数,采用克吕金插值方法生成了1000 m分辨率的南极冰盖高程数据。利用两种机载激光雷达数据和我国多次南极科考实测的GPS数据对新的南极DEM进行了验证。结果显示,新的DEM与实测数据的差值范围为3.21—27.84 m,其误差分布与坡度密切关系。与国际上发布的南极DEM数据相比,新的DEM在坡度较大地区和快速变化的冰盖边缘地区精度有较大改进。     

Climate change or nuclear power—No thanks! A quantitative study of public perceptions and risk framing in Britain

The UK is witnessing a new line in political debate around new nuclear energy generation as one potential feature of future energy policy, specifically for contributing to climate change mitigation alongside energy security. Little is known about how ordinary citizens might be responding to this reframing. This paper reports the results from a major British survey (n=1491) undertaken in the autumn of 2005. The consistent message is that while higher proportions of the British public are prepared to accept nuclear power if they believe it contributes to climate change mitigation, this is a highly conditional view, with very few actively preferring this over renewable sources given the choice. People see both climate change and nuclear power as problematic in terms of risks and express only a ‘reluctant acceptance’ of nuclear power as a ‘solution’ to climate change. The combined data from this survey can also be interpreted as an indication of the complexity surrounding beliefs about energy futures and the difficulty of undertaking simplistic risk–risk tradeoffs within any single framing of the issues; such as nuclear energy versus climate change. The results also indicate that it would be unwise, in the UK as elsewhere, to simplistically assume that there exists any single or stable public ‘opinion’ on such complex matters. We conclude with a discussion of the role and implications of the survey evidence for the policy process.     

Retrieval of atmospheric reflectivity profiles in case of long radar pulses

Future space-borne cloud profiling radars (CPR) will employ longer pulse lengths than ground-based systems. As a consequence, reflectivity profiles observed from space will be more strongly convoluted with the radar pulse shape. Here we describe a constrained linear inverse technique that reduces the effects of this convolution. We apply the technique to simulated data, based on actual observations from the ground, and show that significant improvements in the reflectivity profile can be obtained. Average Z errors (dBz) are halved, while cloud boundaries are substantially better retrieved. The results in this paper are relevant to space-borne missions like CloudSat and EarthCARE.     

The inner city: In search of the problem

This paper explores the theoretical content of the inner-city debate in Britain and seeks to examine the extent to which the ‘problem’ is either new or primarily economic. It is argued that the inner-city issue, while subject to specific political and ideological forces, is associated with the general processes of uneven capitalist development. In this sense, metropolitan decline is a further manifestation of the relationship between the built environment, the transience of economic activity and social change. More specifically the decline of the inner city relates to the incipient role of Britain in the development of capitalism and its current position in the world economy. The emergence of this as a ‘problem’ for the British state is combined with a convenient spatial determinism, which isolates the inner city as an anomaly even as the search for palliatives is erected to the status of a major social task.     

伊犁京希—伊尔曼德金矿床的热液蚀变及成矿流体演化特征

京希－伊尔曼德金矿床的热液蚀变在空间上有明显的分带性，中心蚀变带以强烈的硅化为主，典型的蚀变矿物组合为石英或玉髓和地开石，中间带为高级泥化带，以地开石－高岭石－石英或玉髓为特征；外带为以蒙脱石－高岭石－伊利石－其他粘土矿物等矿物组合为主的泥化带，蚀变强度和矿物组合的分带性是温度、压力和化学梯度的反映，是流体在不断的水或流体－岩石反应和成分交换的产物。该矿床成矿流体演化过程为：早期酸性（pH=2-3)含矿流体在沿断裂上升过程中，受围岩灰岩中的流体（pH为中性）缓冲，在其进入高渗透性的碎屑岩层时，流速和水－岩石或流休－岩石反应大大加快，并在与大气降水的混合作用下，pH值逐步升高（3－5），产生了流体的温度及成分梯度，在温度和压力迅速下降的条件下，金及蚀变矿物沉淀、结晶生长，形成了蚀变空间分带，中心带保存完好的多孔状石英和地开石等高级泥化矿物组合说明该矿床是高硫化热液体系作用下的产物。     

Vertical and lateral organization of a carbonate deep-water slope marginal to a submarine fan system, Miocene, southern Turkey

Organization is recognized in the forereef–deep water slope–submarine fan system of the Burdigalian-Langhian Kaplankaya Formation. A basinwards transition from a prograding shelfal reef complex, through forereef talus, deep-water slope and laterally encroaching bypass deep-water clastic system is described, although the deep-water slope makes up the bulk of the succession. Considerable thickness variations occur between the reef and deep-water clastic complexes; these are controlled by sea-floor topography, carbonate foreslope gradient and degree of mass wasting off the platform and foreslope. The vertical and lateral heterogeneity of the Kaplankaya deep-water slope system is described from a number of localities along a 40-km-long and up to 3-km-wide exposed section of the northern margin of the Miocene Adana Basin, a foreland basin setting resulting from thrust sheet loading from the north during the Tauride Orogeny. Detailed field mapping is supplemented with vertical sedimentary logs, photomosaics, palaeontological and petrological data to investigate stratal variation, diagnostic architectural elements, controls on slope progradation, differential timing of basinward encroachment of the reefal complex and lateral onlap of the deep-water clastic system onto the slope. Three-dimensional models are presented showing the vertical and lateral facies associations in different parts of the deep-water slope system, and provide a basis for architectural prediction of geometry and relative position in such environments.     

Impact of lunar cycle and swell on the daily catch rate of western rock lobster (Panulirus cygnus) using time series modelling

The western rock lobster fishery is one of the most valuable single‐species fisheries in Australia, valued at AU$300 million per year. The impact of environmental factors such as lunar cycle and swell on the daily catch rate of the western rock lobster (Panulirus cynus) is of particular interest in the stock assessment and management of the fishery. The variation in daily catch rates was examined for two periods (migrating period November‐January, non‐migrating period February‐June), at different depths in three management zones for three categories of lobster (undersize, legal size, and setose). Regression and transfer function models for relationships between catch rates and environmental data were considered and compared. The lunar cycle has a significant impact on the daily catch rates with c. 30% lower catch rate during the full moon and c. 20% higher catches near the new moon. This impact occurs mainly during the non‐migrating period both in deep water (40–100 m) and shallow water (<40 m). The swell on the day before fishing was also shown to be significantly related to the catch rate with an increase of c. 10–15% for an increase in swell from light to moderate or moderate to high. These environmental factors can be used to standardise catch rates to provide an improved abundance index for stock assessment. Also, management closures are being considered for 3–5 days over the low catch rate, full moon period to reduce fishing costs and lower fishing effort.     

The origin of crystalline residues in Stardust Al foils: Surviving cometary dust or crystallized impact melts?

Abstract– Samples returned by the Stardust mission from comet 81P/Wild 2 provide an unequaled opportunity to investigate cometary formation and evolution. Crystalline silicates have been identified in impact craters in Stardust Al foil, yet their origin is ambiguous. They may be original cometary components, or they may have grown from melt generated by impact. We have now studied experimental impacts of the calcium silicate mineral wollastonite, using scanning and transmission electron microscopy to document the relationship between impact feature shape and crystal lattice orientation in impact residue. Wollastonite can have a characteristic acicular habit, forming crater shapes that indicate crystal orientation upon impact. From extracted impact residue, we determined the lattice orientation of crystalline material for comparison with the whole particle orientation. We assume that crystallization from melt, without surviving seed nuclei, should result in randomly oriented crystallite growth, with no preferred direction for individual crystals. However, we find that the majority of crystalline material in the residue retains b‐axis orientation parallel to the long axis of the crater form. This, together with impact parameter calculations and lack of Al incorporation by the residue (suggesting melting did not occur), indicates that these crystals and, by analogy, the majority of Al‐free crystalline silicates in Stardust foil, are surviving remnants of the impactor. Furthermore, amorphous wollastonite residue probably did not form via melting and subsequent quenching, but instead by high‐pressure amorphization or degradation of unquenchable phases. Finally, one crystal studied appears to be a new high‐pressure/temperature polymorph of CaSiO₃, indicating that such polymorphs may be observed in Stardust residues in craters.