Internal erosion of chemically reinforced granular materials: a mathematical modeling approach

Internal erosion (IE) affects the stability of natural and reinforced materials by causing instability within their granular structure. The dislodgement and transport of eroded particles affect both the particulate concentration of eroding fluid and the pore network of eroded material. In this study, we examined these modifications using a transport model with a finite element code. First, IE tests on chemically reinforced sand columns were performed to obtain information about eroded material loss of mass, particulate concentration of effluent, porosity and permeability modifications, and existing IE stages. Second, based on experimental results, a mathematical one‐dimensional model has been formulated to monitor the evolution and spatial distribution of erodible solids, fluidized particles, porosity, permeability, and seepage stresses. The model consists of a set of coupled nonlinear differential equations solved in sequence. It provides valuable information about the extent and the dynamics of structural changes, which can be used to estimate an IE time for the hydraulic work to reach failure. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distribution and abundance of ichthyoplankton in the Manicouagan River estuary,a tributary of the lower St. Lawrence estuary

The species composition and relative abundance of ichthyoplankton were investigated during summer 1986 at four stations along the salinity gradient in the Manicouagan River estuary, a tributary of the lower St. Lawrence estuary. Physical characteristics of water masses indicated the presence of a strong saline front (>10‰ per km) delineating the freshwater and marine section of the Manicouagan estuary. The estuary supports a depauperate ichthyoplankton community, including four species of pelagic fish eggs and eight species of fish larvae. Species richness increased with salinity. The ichthyoplankton fauna can be divided into two distinct groups: freshwater and marine. These two groups result initially from spawning preferences exhibited by the different species abundance of freshwater larvae was maximal at the head of the estuary and marine larvae were most abundant at the most saline station. The length frequency distribution suggests that marine larvae are not effectively retained within the estuary. The Manicouagan estuary cannot be considered as a major spawning site nor an important nursery zone for any fish found in this area.     

Detection of turbulent coherent motions in a forest canopy part I: Wavelet analysis

Turbulence measurements performed at high frequencies yield data revealing intermittent and multi-scale processes. Analysing time series of turbulent variables thus requires extensive numerical treatment capable, for instance, of performing pattern recognition. This is particularly important in the case of the atmospheric surface layer and specifically in the vicinity of plant canopies, where largescale coherent motions play a major role in the dynamics of turbulent transport processes. In this paper, we examine the ability of the recently developedwavelet transform to extract information on turbulence structure from time series of wind velocities and scalars. It is introduced as a local transform performing a time-frequency representation of a given signal by a specific wavelet function; unlike the Fourier transform, it is well adapted to studying non-stationary signals. After the principles and the most relevant mathematical properties of wavelet functions and transform are given, we present various applications of relevance for our purpose: determination of time-scales, data reconstruction and filtering, and jump detection. Several wavelet functions are inter-compared, using simple artificially generated data presenting large-scale features similar to those observed over plant canopies. Their respective behaviour in the time-frequency domain leads us to assign a specific range of applications for each.     

Evidence of an early alteration process driven by magmatic fluid in Mururoa volcano

Evidence for a deuteric alteration process induced by a magmatic fluid has been found in the feeder zone of the Mururoa volcano (French Polynesia). Within the dikes, where basaltic glass does not show any evidence of pervasive alteration, vesicles are filled with dioctahedral smectites and calcite, while olivine phenocrysts are replaced by dioctahedral smectites, ankerite and calcite.The ¹³C signature of carbonates, the carbon and H₂O content of the whole rocks and their impoverishment in deuterium are compatible with the presence of magmatic CO₂ during the crystallization of intruding lavas and exclude contamination by seawater. Mass balance calculations on selected thin sections photographs of partly filled up vesicles and replaced olivine crystals, constrain, assuming a closed system interaction, the chemical composition of the initial fluid and the respective amounts of the initial solid phases involved in the alteration process. Thermodynamic modelings using the EQ3/6 software package correctly predict the mineralogic, chemical and isotopic exchanges accompanying alteration, thus validating the closed system assumption. The model which allows prediction of the influence of CO₂ on the alteration products, shows that, above a 0.25 CO₂ mole fraction in the initial fluid, the alteration is entirely controlled by the chemical composition of the initial solid phases. The presence of CO₂ implies the precipitation of dioctahedral smectites and carbonates instead of the magnesian smectites commonly observed in CO₂-free systems.The Mururoa feeder zone shows alteration features typical of a closed system interaction between the basaltic rock and a magmatic fluid in which seawater did not take part.     

Quantitative measurement of channel-block hydraulic interactions by experimental saturation of a large, natural, fissured rock mass

The hydrodynamic behavior of fissured media relies on the relationships between a few very conductive fractures (channels) and the remaining low-conductivity fractures and matrix (blocks). We made a quantitative measurement of those relationships and their effect on water drainage and storage in a 19,000 m3 natural reservoir consisting of karstified limestones. This reservoir was artificially saturated with water by closing a water gate on the main outlet during a varying time (delta t) fixed by the operator. The water gate was completely or partly closed until the water pressure reached a particular specified value. If the water gate was left completely closed long enough, the water pressure was fixed by the elevation of temporary outlets at the site boundaries. The water elevation within the reservoir was monitored by means of pressure cells located on single fractures representative of the bedding plane and the two families of fractures of the massif network. The comparison of pressure variations with the network geometry allows us to identify a typical double permeability characterized by a few very conductive channels along 10 vertical faults. These channels limit blocks consisting of low-conductivity bedding planes and a rather impervious matrix. Depending on the closure interval, delta t, of the water gate, the total volume of water stored in the reservoir can vary from 0.8 m3 (delta t = 5 minutes) to 18.6 m3 (delta t = 2 days). Such a variance of storage versus closure time is explained by the reservoir's double permeability that is characterized by blocks that saturate much more slowly than channels. If plotted versus time, this injected volume fits a power relationship, according to the saturation state of the blocks. In less than 34 minutes, storage is close to zero in the blocks and to 1.6 to 2 m3 in the channels. For closing times shorter than 1 hour, only 1% of the volume that flows in the channels is stored into the blocks. Depending on the water pressure and for a given delta t = 3000 minutes, the volume of water stored is controlled by the geometry of the joint network and of the aquifer boundaries. Such an experiment shows that the flow is concentrated in about 10% of the fractured network (channels). The water storage that takes place in the 90% remaining fractures (blocks) depends mainly on time during which pressure remains high into the 10% channels. The accurate modeling of such typical double-permeability media needs a careful study of the geometry of the channels whose narrowings modify the flow and induce dam effects that maintain a high pressure gradient with surrounding blocks.     

Middle-Late Pleistocene polycyclic evolution of a stable coastal area (southern Apulia, Italy)

The Otranto–Leuca coastal tract is marked by the presence of numerous sea caves placed close to present sea level. They are located generally at the back of a shore platform covered by a sequence of breccia deposits, marine sediments and speleothems. At Grotta di Masseria dell'Orte, marine cemented sands rest on a narrow shore platform at about 6.2 m above mean sea level and are covered by speleothems older than 185 ka. At Grotta del Diavolo, which is mostly filled by breccia deposits, three beach levels have been detected at about 3.0, 3.5 and 5.9 m above msl. They are either covered by or overlie speleothems that yield an U/Th age of 340, 78 ka and between 170.3 and 146.5, respectively. Geomorphological evidence and radiometric ages indicate that the area after a period of uplift has been tectonically stable since the last part of the Middle Pleistocene so that marine landforms close to the present shoreline underwent a polycyclic evolution. The sedimentary fills of sea caves formed during Middle-Late Pleistocene glacial stages, when arid or semiarid conditions promoted the removal of regolith and the development of thick breccia deposits. During Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 9.3, 5.5 and 5.1, cave sediments were partially eroded whereas beach layers and related speleothems developed. These are, in fact, the only marine isotope stages marked by a sea level position which in this Mediterranean region was either close to, or slightly higher than, the present one.     

A structural model for the seismicity of the Arudy (1980) epicentral area (Western Pyrenees, France)

The Western Pyrenees presents a diffuse and moderate ( M ≤ 5.7) instrumental seismicity. It nevertheless historically suffered from strong earthquakes (I = IX MSK). The seismic sources of these events are not yet clearly identified. We focus on the Arudy (1980) epicentral area ( M = 5.1) and propose here the reactivation of early Cretaceous normal faults of the Iberian margin as a potential source. The late Cretaceous inversion of this basin, first in a left-lateral strike-slip mode and then in a more frontal convergence, resulted in a pop-up geometry. This flower structure attests of the presence of a deep crustal discontinuity.
The present-day geodynamic arrangement suggests that this accident is reactivated in a right lateral mode. This reactivation leads to a strain partitioning between the deep discontinuity that accommodates the lateral component of the motion and shallow thrusts, rooted on this discontinuity. These thrusts accommodate the shortening component of the strain. The distribution of the instrumental seismicity fits well the structural model of the Arudy basin. Whatever the compressive regional context, the structural behaviour of the system explains too the extensive stress tensor determined for the Arudy crisis if we interpret it in terms of strain ellipsoid. Indeed numerical modelling has shown that this concomitant activity of strike-slip and thrust faulting results in an extensive component that can rise 50 per cent of the finite strain.
We identify too a 25–30 km long potential seismic source for the Arudy area. The size of the structure and its potential reactivation in a strike-slip mode suggest that a maximum earthquake magnitude of ∼6.5 could be expected. The extrapolation of this model at the scale of the Western Pyrenees allows to propose other potential sources for major regional historical earthquakes.     

Grain-size-sensitive flow and shear-stress enhancement at the brittle–ductile transition of the continental crust

Localized shear zones along low-angle normal faults have been identified in regions of extension at the brittle-ductile transition of the continental crust. The possibility of the strain localizing at a depth of 10 km is interpreted here as a consequence of an increase in the equivalent shear stress applied to the flow of the lower crust. This enhancement of the flow stress is seen as a prerequisite for the triggering of brittle deformation mechanisms leading to strain localization. The lower crust rheology used to examine this stress increase is strain-rate, temperature and grain-size dependent, due to the coupling of dislocation and diffusion creep. The model structure proposed consists of a top layer, the upper crust, gliding rigidly above a bottom layer, the lower crust, which deforms in simple shear. During a short time interval (1400 years), the equivalent shear stress is found to increase by a factor of up to 3 (67 MPa for anorthite and 17 MPa for quartz). For anorthite, this stress could explain the activation of a Mohr-Coulomb failure with a friction coefficient of 0.2, which is reasonable at the depth of 10 km. Dislocation creep is activated during a rapid change in the prescribed velocity, whereas diffusion creep dominates if the velocity is held constant, highlighting the importance of grain-size sensitivity for lower crustal rheology.     

Subsurface DC resistivity mapping: approximate 1-D interpretation

Resistivity prospecting is the main tool used to investigate the shallow structure of the ground. A series of new techniques for determining the 2-D and 3-D geometry of the ground is now finding increasing use, but the light and simple Wenner prospecting technique remains a practical and efficient tool for rapidly mapping lateral variations in resistivity. When the resistivity changes are smooth, 1-D modelling can be used to interpret the data, and the criteria governing this approximation can be defined from synthetic data generated by a 3-D slab-model. For a Wenner array, two quadripole configurations can be used, Normal and Dipole-Dipole. For these two configurations the width of the transition zone, the apparent anisotropy effect and the precision of the resistivity values recovered from 1-D inversion differ. However the simultaneous inversion of both sets of data gives better results than for either configuration by itself. Two examples illustrate that in geological contexts where the thickness of the weathered zone causes the changes in the apparent resistivity value, this parameter can be recovered from 1-D inversion.     

TWO REFERENCE MATERIALS, TRACHYTES MDO-G AND ISH-G, FOR ARGON DATING (K-AR AND 40AR/39AR) OF PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE ROCKS

With the recent extension of K-Ar dating methods within the Upper Pleistocene time, the use of new standards is recommended to allow calibration and inter-laboratory comparisons. For this purpose, two pure microlitic groundmass reference materials were prepared from trachy-basaltic lavas: Trachyte (MDO-G) from Mont Dore, Puy de Sancy, Massif Central is around 250 000 years old; the second Trachyte (ISH-G) from the Isle of Ischia, Gulf of Naples (Italy), is historical: Arso flow erupted on Christmas 1301 - January 1302 AD.