Investigations and assessment of the landslide hazards of Fengdu county in the reservoir region of the Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River

The spatial database of landslides in Fengdu County of the reservoir region of the Three Gorges project (TGP) on the Yangtze River was compiled from a variety of different sources including field investigations on landslides, existing catalogues and archives on landslides, reports of meteorological events and human engineering activities that triggered slope failures. The major factors that are found to have affected the slope stabilities are outlined, and an assessment and zonation of landslide hazards of the region is made using an integrated information model, which is divided into destructive, disastrous, likely disastrous and essentially non-disastrous areas from the assessment of landslide hazards. The destructive and disastrous areas are respectively 1.9 and 13.8% of the total region, mostly being nearby townships, highways along the south bank of the Yangtze River and residential quarters along two flanks of the Yangtze River and its distributaries, that will impose direct impact to highway transportation and residential lives, and may effect to some degree the navigation of the Yangtze River, reservoir banks, and building of cities and towns.     

Picophytoplankton and bacterioplankton in the Mississippi River plume and its adjacent waters

Picoplankton abundance and distribution in the Mississippi River plume and its adjacent waters were studied during two cruises in April (high discharge) and October (low discharge) 2000 using flow cytometry. Concentrations of photosynthetic picoplankton,Synechococcus and picoeukaryotes were low in the turbid plume water but high in the coastal waters—i.e., the green waters resulting from mixing of river and oceanic waters. In this region, three types ofSynechococcus, characterized by their phycoerythrin chromophore composition, were found:Synechococcus cells with a low phycourobilin to phycoerythrobilin ratio (PUB:PEB) occurred throughout the region and dominated the totalSymechococcus abundance during both seasons; high PUB:PEB cells, which are the dominant strains in the open or blue ocean, occurred only at the outer shelf stations; and PEB-onlySynechococcus were abundant in most of the surveyed area during april, but were not observed during October.Prochlorococcus cyanobacteria only occurred at the oceanic stations, but extended farther inshore in October compared to April. This was a consequence of the reduced discharge and plume size during October. Picophytoplankton were a less important component of total phytoplankton biomass in the turbid river water and more important in the oligotrophic Gulf water. Seasonally, the contribution of picophytoplankton to total phytoplankton biomass in the surveyed area was higher during low discharge in October than during high discharge in April, even though the spring 2000 river discharge was unusually low and might not present a typical high discharge scenario. The abundance of heterotrophic bacteria was weakly correlated to chlorophylla (chla) concentration, but better correlated to picophytoplankton biomass. A higher proportion of High DNA bacteria occurred in the river-impacted regions during both seasons, with the ratio of High DNA bacteria to Low DNA bacteria significantly higher in April.     

亚洲地震委员会(ASC)第七次学术大会暨日本地震学会(SSJ)秋季会议在日本筑波召开

由亚洲地震委员会和日本地震学会联合主办,日本多个学术机构参与协办的第七届亚洲地震委员会学术大会暨日本地震学会秋季会议于2008年11月24--28日在日本筑波(Tsukuba)举行.     

Land use and land cover change in Liaocheng Prefecture of China

1 Introduction1.1 Introduction to Liaocheng PrefectureLiaocheng Prefecture lies in northwest of Shandong Province and slightly north to the center of the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain with latitudes between 35(47'N and 37(02'N and longitudes between 115(16'E and 116(32'E. Administratively, it consists of two cities (Liaocheng and Linqing) and six counties (Yanggu, Shenxian, Chiping, Dong'e, Guanxian and Gaotang). It covers a total area of 8590 km2 with a maximum distance of 114 km from eas…     

Trends in the frequency of synoptic types in central-southern Chile in the period 1961–2012 using the Jenkinson and Collison synoptic classification

Atmospheric circulation patterns in southern Chile (42° 30′ S) were studied in order to determine and analyse the most characteristic synoptic types and their recent trends, as well as to gain an understanding of how they are associated with low-frequency variability patterns. According to the Jenkinson and Collison (J&C) classification method, a 16-point grid of sea-level pressure data was employed. The findings reveal that some synoptic types show statistically significant trends with a 95% confidence level, positively for anticyclonic westerly hybrids (AW) and advective types for third and fourth quadrant wind flows (W, NW, and N) and negatively for SW and cyclonic hybrids (CS and CSW). A model has been constructed of the linear regression of some weather types with teleconnections that most affect Chile: the undetermined types (U), AW were associated with El Niño or the warm phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), whereas the cyclonic northerly and cyclonic northeasterly types (CN and CNE) were associated with La Niña or cool phase of the PDO. The weather types associated with Antarctic Oscillation (AAO) in its positive phase are anticyclonic northerly and northeasterly and northerly advection types, while in its negative phase are cyclonic southwesterly and advection types.     

Micro- and nano-textural evidence of Ti(–Ca–Fe) mobility during fluid–rock interactions in carbonaceous lawsonite-bearing rocks from New Zealand

Understanding the mobility of chemical elements during fluid–rock interactions is critical to assess the geochemical evolution of a rock undergoing burial and metamorphism and, more generally, to constrain the geochemical budget of the subduction factory. In particular, determining the behavior and mobility of Ti in aqueous fluids constitutes a great challenge that is still under scrutiny. Here, we study plant fossils preserved in blueschist metasedimentary rocks from the Marybank Formation (New Zealand). Using scanning and transmission electron microscopies (SEM and TEM), we show that the carbonaceous material (CM) composing the fossils contains abundant nano-inclusions of Ti- and Fe-oxides. These nanocrystals are mainly anatase, rutile, and Fe–Ti oxides. The mineral composition observed within the fossils is significantly different from that detected in the surrounding rock matrix. We propose that Ti and Fe might have been mobilized by the alteration of a detrital Ti–Fe-rich protolith during an early diagenetic event under acidic and reducing conditions. Aqueous fluids rich in organic ligands released by the degradation of organic matter may have been involved. Moreover, using mass balance and petrological observations, we show that the contrasted mineralogy between the rock matrix and the fossil CM might be the consequence of the chemical isolation of fossil CM during the prograde path of the rock. Such an isolation results from the early formation of quartz and Fe-rich phyllosilicate layers enclosing the fossil as characterized by SEM and TEM investigations. Overall, this study shows that investigating minerals associated with CM down to the nanometer scale in metamorphic rocks can provide a precious record of early prograde geochemical conditions.     

Metasomatism and the crystallization of zircon megacrysts in Archaean peridotites from the Lewisian complex,NW Scotland

Zircon megacrysts are locally abundant in 1–40 cm-thick orthopyroxenite veins within peridotite host rocks in the Archaean Lewisian gneiss complex from NW Scotland. The veins formed by metasomatic interaction between the ultramafic host and Si-rich melts are derived from partial melting of the adjacent granulite-facies orthogneisses. The interaction produced abundant orthopyroxene and, within the thicker veins, phlogopite, pargasite and feldspathic bearing assemblages. Two generations of zircon are present with up to 1 cm megacrystic zircon and a later smaller equant population located around the megacryst margins. Patterns of zoning, rare earth element abundance and oxygen isotopic compositions indicate that the megacrysts crystallized from crustal melts, whereas the equant zircon represents new neocryst growth and partial replacement of the megacryst zircon within the ultramafic host. Both zircon types have U–Pb ages of ca. 2464 Ma, broadly contemporaneous with granulite-facies events in the adjacent gneisses. Zircon megacrysts locally form?>?10% of the assemblage and may be associated to zones of localized nucleation or physically concentrated during movement of the siliceous melts. Their unusual size is linked to the suppression of zircon nucleation and increased Zr solubility in the Si-undersaturated melts. The metasomatism between crustal melts and peridotite may represent an analog for processes in the mantle wedge above subducting slabs. As such, the crystallization of abundant zircon in ultramafic host rocks has implications for geochemistry of melts generated in the mantle and the widely reported depletion of high field strength elements in arc magmas.     

Magmatic zoning in apatite: a monitor of porosity and permeability change in granites

Apatites from the Shap Granite, northern England, are strongly zoned, reflecting multiple generations of growth and dissolution. Such chemical zoning is most readily displayed in cathodoluminescence images and correlates well with trace element variation determined using LA-ICP-MS analyses. The zoned apatites provide a detailed record of the changing scales of permeability during progressive crystallisation within the magma chamber. Early periods of apatite growth are preserved within cores and represent both early growth within a magma chamber dominated by vigorous mixing processes and inherited grains with significantly different chemistries. The main phase of apatite growth within the magma was strongly controlled by the presence of adjacent biotite phenocrysts and is characterised by fine scale oscillatory zoning, followed by the growth of a thin rim of relatively uniform composition. The chemical evolution of the later phases of apatite growth and the stratigraphy of the zoning appear to record late stage crystallisation within progressively more isolated interstitial melt pockets.Editorial responsibility: I. Parsons     

A modeling of the structure and favorable H-docking sites and defects for the high-pressure silica polymorph stishovite

Employing first-principles methods, the docking sites for H were determined and H, Al, and vacancy defects were modeled with an infinite periodic array of super unit cells each consisting of 27 contiguous symmetry nonequivalent unit cells of the crystal structure of stishovite. A geometry optimization of the super-cell structure reproduces the observed bulk structure within the experimental error when P1 translational symmetry was assumed and an array of infinite extent was generated. A mapping of the valence electrons for the structure displays mushroom-shaped isosurfaces on the O atom, one on each side of the plane of the OSi₃ triangle in the nonbonded region. An H atom, placed in a cell near the center of the super cell, was found to dock upon geometry optimization at a distance of 1.69 Å from the O atom with the OH vector oriented nearly perpendicular to the plane of the triangle such that the OH vector makes a angle of 91° with respect to [001]. However, an optimization of a super cell with an Al atom replacing Si and an H atom placed nearby in a centrally located cell resulted in an OH distance of 1.02 Å with the OH vector oriented perpendicular to [001] as observed in infrared studies. The geometry-optimized position of the H atom was found to be in close agreement with that (0.44, 0.12, 0.0) determined in an earlier study of the theoretical electron density distribution. The docking of the H atom at this site was found to be 330 kJ mol^–1 more stable than a docking of the atom just off the shared OO edge of the octahedra as determined for rutile. A geometry optimization of a super cell with a missing Si generated a vacant octahedra that is 20% larger than that of the SiO₆ octahedra. The valence electron density distribution displayed by the two-coordinate O atoms that coordinate the vacant octahedral site is very similar to those displayed by the bent SiOSi angles in coesite. The internal distortions induced by the defect were found to diminish rather rapidly with distance, with the structure annealing to that observed in the bulk crystal to within about three coordination spheres.     

A reappraisal of episodic burial metamorphism in the Andes of central Chile

The Jurassic to Miocene sequences of the central Andes, east of Santiago, reputedly show repeated cycles of episodic sub-greenschist facies, burial metamorphism that are identified by sharp breaks in metamorphic grade at major stratigraphic boundaries. This paper presents the first detailed petrochemical analysis of these low-grade metamorphic sequences by examining the progressive development of secondary minerals, reaction progress in mafic phyllosilicates, and topological variations in the low-grade assemblages as a means of testing this model. The results indicate a progressive increase from zeolite facies through to close to the onset of greenschist facies from Miocene to Jurassic rocks. Combined analysis of reaction progress in mafic phyllosilicates and petrochemical relationships of chlorite–pumpellyite–actinolite in metabasites provides no evidence for sharp metamorphic breaks at major stratigraphic boundaries. Integrating the results presented here with the most recent models of stratigraphic/tectonic development of the central Andes shows that the metamorphism took place in two episodes, and was not episodic on a 40-million-year cycle. An absence of sharp breaks in metamorphic grade in any part of the succession, as demonstrated here, shows that the original petrographic establishment of low-grade facies provided insufficient resolution of changes in metamorphic conditions to establish definitive evidence of such breaks. Accordingly, this study suggests that re-assessment of metamorphic breaks reputedly developed in other areas of the Andean Cordillera is imperative in order to resolve the questions raised here about the origin of the low-grade metamorphism.Editorial responsibility: B. Collins