Cyclical salt efflorescence weathering: an invisible threat to the recovery of underground mine environment for tourist exploitation

Enhancing the value of an underground mine environment for tourist exploitation involves altering the physico-chemical balance of stone materials whose original mechanical properties guaranteed the structural stability of the site’s galleries and chambers. Humidity and temperature changes caused by the public exhibition of this kind of assets are the main causes of such disorders. After the intervention in the Agrupa-Vicenta mine in La Union (Spain) there were still runoff-water leaks into the mine. These water runoffs through the fault and schistosity planes of the enclosing rock mass give rise to salt precipitation over time. Adapting this mine and turning it into a museum have meant a decrease in relative indoors humidity and an increase in temperature. These variations have caused rocks, which were stable in the original conditions, to increase their rate of physico-chemical weathering due to the polycyclic supergene alteration of the metal sulfides they contain. The resulting release of sulfates into the solution and their subsequent precipitation as single and double salt efflorescence causes haloclasty, deteriorating the rock’s mechanical properties and diminishing the structural stability of the operation. This paper presents the results of characterizing the supergene mineral phases of salt efflorescence in the rock bed enclosing an underground sulfide mine value enhanced for tourist exploitation. Dangers for the structural stability of this type of architectural intervention, associated to the formation of efflorescences, are also identified; these efflorescences are caused by the weathering of rocks that make up its supporting structure.     

Evolution of fault zones in carbonates with mechanical stratigraphy – Insights from scale models using layered cohesive powder

We present analogue models of the formation of dilatant normal faults and fractures in carbonate fault zones, using cohesive hemihydrate powder (CaSO₄·½H₂O). The evolution of these dilatant fault zones involves a range of processes such as fragmentation, gravity-driven breccia transport and the formation of dilatant jogs. To allow scaling to natural prototypes, extensive material characterisation was done. This showed that tensile strength and cohesion depend on the state of compaction, whereas the friction angle remains approximately constant. In our models, tensile strength of the hemihydrate increases with depth from 9 to 50 Pa, while cohesion increases from 40 to 250 Pa. We studied homogeneous and layered material sequences, using sand as a relatively weak layer and hemihydrate/graphite mixtures as a slightly stronger layer. Deformation was analyzed by time-lapse photography and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to calculate the evolution of the displacement field. With PIV the initial, predominantly elastic deformation and progressive localization of deformation are observed in detail. We observed near-vertical opening-mode fractures near the surface. With increasing depth, dilational shear faults were dominant, with releasing jogs forming at fault-dip variations. A transition to non-dilatant shear faults was observed near the bottom of the model. In models with mechanical stratigraphy, fault zones are more complex. The inferred stress states and strengths in different parts of the model agree with the observed transitions in the mode of deformation.     

Discovery of Earth's quasi‐satellite

Abstract— The newly discovered asteroid 2003 YN₁₀₇ is currently a quasi‐satellite of the Earth, making a satellite‐like orbit of high inclination with apparent period of one year. The term quasi‐satellite is used since these large orbits are not completely closed, but rather perturbed portions of the asteroid's orbit around the Sun. Due to its extremely Earth‐like orbit, this asteroid is influenced by Earth's gravity to remain within 0.1 AU of the Earth for approximately 10 years (1997 to 2006). Prior to this, it had been on a horseshoe orbit closely following Earth's orbit for several hundred years. It will re‐enter such an orbit, and make one final libration of 123 years, after which it will have a close interaction with the Earth and transition to a circulating orbit. Chaotic effects limit our ability to determine the origin or fate of this object.     

Contributors to the frequency of intense climate disasters in Asia-Pacific countries

With record breaking heat waves, dryness, and floods in several parts of the world in recent years the question arises whether and to what extent the hazard of hydrometeorological extreme weather events has changed, and if changes can be attributed to specific causes. The methodology of probabilistic event attribution allows to evaluate such potential changes in the occurence probabilities of particular types of extreme events. We show that such a probabilistic assessment not only provides information on changing hazards in hydrometerological events but also permits statements about multivariate combinations of hydrometeorological variables. Hence attribution studies could be targeted specifically towards relevant impacts in particular sectors, if different suitable multivariate proxies are used. We demonstrate our methodology by using combinations of temperature, precipitation and humidity in the large ensemble of climate simulations within the weather@home project in order to derive impact-relevant quantities such as a seasonal water balance and heat stress imposed on the human body. Finally, we estimate the hazard probabilities of those events in South-East Europe, a region that has recently experienced severe summer dryness (2012) in combination with multiple heat waves.     

Fingerprinting TCE in a bedrock aquifer using compound-specific isotope analysis

A dual isotope approach based on compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of carbon (C) and chlorine (Cl) was used to identify sources of persistent trichloroethylene (TCE) that caused the shut-down in 1994 of a municipal well in an extensive fractured dolostone aquifer beneath Guelph, Ontario. Several nearby industrial properties have known subsurface TCE contamination; however, only one has created a comprehensive monitoring network in the bedrock. The impacted municipal well and many monitoring wells were sampled for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), inorganic parameters, and CSIA. A wide range in isotope values was observed at the study site. The TCE varies between -35.6‰ and -21.8‰ and from 1.6‰ to 3.2‰ for δ(13) C and δ(37) Cl, respectively. In case of cis-1,2-dichloroethene, the isotope values range between -36.3‰ and -18.9‰ and from 2.4‰ to 4.7‰ for δ(13) C and δ(37) Cl, respectively. The dual isotope approach represented by a plot of δ(13) C vs. δ(37) Cl shows the municipal well samples grouped in a domain clearly separate from all other samples from the property with the comprehensive well network. The CSIA results collected under non-pumping and short-term pumping conditions thus indicate that this particular property, which has been studied intensively for several years, is not a substantial contributor of the TCE presently in the municipal well under non-pumping conditions. This case study demonstrates that CSIA signatures would have been useful much earlier in the quest to examine sources of the TCE in the municipal well if bedrock monitoring wells had been located at several depths beneath each of the potential TCE-contributing properties. Moreover, the CSIA results show that microbial reductive dechlorination of TCE occurs in some parts of the bedrock aquifer. At this site, the use of CSIA for C and Cl in combination with analyses of VOC and redox parameters proved to be important due to the complexity introduced by biodegradation in the complex fractured rock aquifer. It is highly recommended to revisit the study when the municipal well is back into full operation.     

Integrated Landslide Susceptibility Analysis and Hazard Assessment in the Principality of Andorra

In the paper we present the procedure for hazard assessment that has been used to prepare the landslide hazard map of the Principality of Andorra at 1:5,000 scale. The main phases of the hazard assessment are discussed. Susceptibility analysis has involved the location of the potential slope failures, and the estimation of both landslide volume and runout distance. In the susceptible areas, landslide magnitude and frequency has been determined in order to produce the Hazard Zoning Map. Data required for hazard assessment have been introduced into a GIS or derived directly from available Digital Terrain Models. Data handling and treatment with the GIS has allowed the performance of the landslide hazard assessment and mapping in a fast and reproducible way.     

Rapid development of an unusual peat-accumulating ecosystem in the Chilean Altiplano

Stratigraphic relationships, radiocarbon dating, sediment and peat characteristics, and rates of peat and carbon accumulation from a soligenous peatland, or “bofedal,” in the Chilean Altiplano shows the peatland to be unusually young, dynamic, and sensitive to environmental changes. The site lies in the National Park Nevado de Tres Cruces in the puna desert grassland at an elevation of 4300 m a.s.l. Eight peat cores were extracted from a 1.75-km transect yielding a maximum of 3.6 m of organic sediment. Organic matter began to accumulate 1700-1100 cal yr B.P. under a progressively arid local climate, after a period when regional climate is believed to have been more humid than at present. Areas of greater relief and better drainage in the valley bottom eventually fostered the growth of a riparian cushion plant community after water flowing down the valley began to diminish. This led to rapid lateral expansion of the riparian peatland communities over open water in topographic depressions at a rate heretofore unprecedented in the peatland literature. It appears that development of the peatland has been encouraged by autoregulation of internal hydrology. The drainage impediment created by organic mass accumulation in lower-relief areas probably reduced the amount of water arriving at the lower reaches of the peatland. These areas have become progressively drier and have since died and oxidized. Through endogenous peat accumulation and a concomitant drainage impediment, the ecosystem has been migrating upstream over the past 50 years.