Sedimentology and kinematics of a large, retrogressive growth-fault system in Upper Carboniferous deltaic sediments, western Ireland

Growth faulting is a common feature of many deltaic environments and is vital in determining local sediment dispersal and accumulation, and hence in controlling the resultant sedimentary facies distribution and architecture. Growth faults occur on a range of scales, from a few centimetres to hundreds of metres, with the largest growth faults frequently being under‐represented in outcrops that are often smaller than the scale of feature under investigation. This paper presents data from the exceptionally large outcrops of the Cliffs of Moher, western Ireland, where a growth‐fault complex affects strata up to 60 m in thickness and extends laterally for ≈ 3 km. Study of this Namurian (Upper Carboniferous) growth‐fault system enables the relationship between growth faulting and sedimentation to be detailed and permits reconstruction of the kinematic history of faulting. Growth faulting was initiated with the onset of sandstone deposition on a succession of silty mudstones that overlie a thin, marine shale. The decollement horizon developed at the top of the marine shale contact for the first nine faults, by which time aggradation in the hangingwall exceeded 60 m in thickness. After this time, failure planes developed at higher stratigraphic levels and were associated with smaller scale faults. The fault complex shows a dominantly landward retrogressive movement, in which only one fault was largely active at any one time. There is no evidence of compressional features at the base of the growth faults, thus suggesting open‐ended slides, and the faults display both disintegrative and non‐disintegrative structure. Thin‐bedded, distal mouth bar facies dominate the hangingwall stratigraphy and, in the final stages of growth‐fault movement, erosion of the crests of rollover structures resulted in the highest strata being restricted to the proximity of the fault. These upper erosion surfaces on the fault scarp developed erosive chutes that were cut parallel to flow and are downlapped by the distal hangingwall strata of younger growth faults.     

Grain coarsening in contact metamorphic carbonates: effects of second-phase particles, fluid flow and thermal perturbations

Under contact metamorphic conditions, carbonate rocks in the direct vicinity of the Adamello pluton reflect a temperature‐induced grain coarsening. Despite this large‐scale trend, a considerable grain size scatter occurs on the outcrop‐scale indicating local influence of second‐order effects such as thermal perturbations, fluid flow and second‐phase particles. Second‐phase particles, whose sizes range from nano‐ to the micron‐scale, induce the most pronounced data scatter resulting in grain sizes too small by up to a factor of 10, compared with theoretical grain growth in a pure system. Such values are restricted to relatively impure samples consisting of up to 10 vol.% micron‐scale second‐phase particles, or to samples containing a large number of nano‐scale particles. The obtained data set suggests that the second phases induce a temperature‐controlled reduction on calcite grain growth. The mean calcite grain size can therefore be expressed in the form D = C₂ e^Q*/RT(d_p/f_p)^m*, where C₂ is a constant, Q* is an activation energy, T the temperature and m* the exponent of the ratio d_p/f_p, i.e. of the average size of the second phases divided by their volume fraction. However, more data are needed to obtain reliable values for C₂ and Q*. Besides variations in the average grain size, the presence of second‐phase particles generates crystal size distribution (CSD) shapes characterized by lognormal distributions, which differ from the Gaussian‐type distributions of the pure samples. In contrast, fluid‐enhanced grain growth does not change the shape of the CSDs, but due to enhanced transport properties, the average grain sizes increase by a factor of 2 and the variance of the distribution increases. Stable δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C isotope ratios in fluid‐affected zones only deviate slightly from the host rock values, suggesting low fluid/rock ratios. Grain growth modelling indicates that the fluid‐induced grain size variations can develop within several ka. As inferred from a combination of thermal and grain growth modelling, dykes with widths of up to 1 m have only a restricted influence on grain size deviations smaller than a factor of 1.1. To summarize, considerable grain size variations of up to one order of magnitude can locally result from second‐order effects. Such effects require special attention when comparing experimentally derived grain growth kinetics with field studies.     

Continental crustal growth and the supercontinental cycle: evidence from the Central Asian Orogenic Belt

Studies of supercontinental cycle are mainly concentrated on the assembly, breakup and dispersal of supercontinents, and studies of continental crustal growth largely on the growth and loss (recycling) of the crust. These two problems have long been studied separately from each other. The Paleozoic–Mesozoic granites in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt have commonly positive Nd values, implying large-scale continental crustal growth in the Phanerozoic. They coincided temporally and spatially with the Phanerozoic Pangea supercontinental cycle, and overlapped in space with the P-wave high-V anomalies and calculated positions of subducted slabs for the last 180 Ma, all this suggests that the Phanerozoic Laurasia supercontinental assembly was accompanied by large-scale continental crustal growth in central Asia. Based on these observations, this paper proposes that there may be close and original correlations between a supercontinental cycle, continental crustal growth and catastrophic slab avalanches in the mantle. In this model we suggest that rapid continental crustal growth occurred during supercontinent assembly, whereas during supercontinental breakup and dispersal new additions of the crust were balanced by losses, resulting in a steady state system. Supercontinental cycle and continental crustal growth are both governed by changing patterns of mantle convection.     

High-pressure experimental growth of diamond using C–K2CO3–KCl as an analogue for Cl-bearing carbonate fluid

High-pressure, high-temperature diamond growth experiments have been conducted in the system C–K₂CO₃–KCl at 1050–1420 °C, 7.0–7.7 GPa. KCl is of interest because of the strong effect of halogens on the phase relations of carbonate-rich systems [Geophys. Res. Lett. 30 (2003) 1022] and because of the occurrence of KCl coexisting with alkali silicate–carbonate fluids in natural-coated diamond [Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 64 (2000) 717]. We have used system C–K₂CO₃–KCl as an analogue for these mantle fluids in diamond growth experiments. The presence of KCl reduces the potassium carbonate liquidus to ≤1000 °C at 7.7 GPa, allowing it to act as a solvent catalyst for diamond growth at temperatures below the continental geotherm. This is a reduction on the minimum diamond growth temperature reported in the alkali-carbonate–C–O–H system [Lithos 60 (2002) 145]. Diamond growth using carbonate solvent catalysts is characterised by a relatively long induction period. However, the addition of KCl also reduced the period for diamond growth in carbonate to 5 min; no such induction period appears to be necessary. It is suggested that KCl destabilises carbonate, allowing greater solubility and diffusion of carbon.     

宁夏香山荒漠草原区植物群落多样性时空特征

采用多个多样性指数对宁夏香山荒漠草原区植物群落多样性时间、空间动态进行分析。结果表明，该地区群落时、空动态特征不明显。长期过度放牧导致环境恶化，生境碎化，这些作用的长期性、循环性是造成物种、群落格局与原有时、空动态规律相悖的主要因素，这些因素消除了物种或群落在时间梯度上应有的变化规律。干旱山地物种在长期进化过程中成功的发展了对环境的适应机制，环境的波动性强烈导致了群落多样性在原来消长动态基础上的复杂化，也使多样性动态机制复杂化。应用多种指数数学模型对研究对象进行综合评价，能够真实地反映群落多样性动态。     

地球空间信息学的机遇

从地球空间信息产业和地球空间信息技术发展的前景两个侧面阐述了美国劳工部把地球空间技术与纳米技术、生物技术一起确定为新出现的和正在飞速发展中的三大最重要的技术的原因 ,并分别从时空信息获取、加工、管理和服务 4个方面对地球空间信息未来的技术发展作了简要的叙述     

基于EM算法和单幅雷达图像阴影的控制点坡度校正

对在我国现有的条件下进行控制点坡度校正的必要性进行了阐述，并分析了EM算法。根据EM算法以及基于区域增长的余弦散射模型建立了控制点坡度校正模型，并用河北省张北地区的雷达影像进行了实验，取得了较高的精度初值。     

Estimation of ocean primary productivity and its spatio-temporal variation mechanism for East China Sea based on VGPM model

According to calculation results of ocean chlorophyll concentration based on SeaWiFS data by SeaBAM model and synchronous ship-measured data, this research set up an improved model for CaseⅠand CaseⅡwater bodies respectively. The monthly chlorophyll distribution in the East China Sea in 1998 was obtained from this improved model on calculation results of SeaBAM. The euphotic depth distribution in 1998 in the East China Sea is calculated by using remote sensing data of K490 from SeaWiFS according to the relation between the euphotic depth and the oceanic diffuse attenuation coefficient. With data of ocean chlorophyll concentration, euphotic depth, ocean surface photosynthetic available radiation (PAR), daily photoperiod and optimal rate of daily carbon fixation within a water column, the monthly and annual primary productivity spatio-temporal distributions in the East China Sea in 1998 were obtained based on VGPM model. Based on analysis of those distributions, the conclusion can be drawn that there is a clear bimodality character of primary productivity in the monthly distribution in the East China Sea. In detail, the monthly distribution of primary productivity stays the lowest level in winter and rises rapidly to the peak in spring. It gets down a little in summer, and gets up a little in autumn. The daily average of primary productivity in the whole East China Sea is 560.03 mg/m2/d, which is far higher than the average of subtropical ocean areas. The annual average of primary productivity is 236.95 g/m2/a. The research on the seasonal variety mechanism of primary productivity shows that several factors that affect the spatio-temporal distribution may include the chlorophyll concentration distribution, temperature condition, the Yangtze River diluted water variety, the euphotic depth, ocean current variety, etc. But the main influencing factors may be different in each local sea area.     

Application of Characteristics of Seismogenic Structures in the Determination of Parameter of Potential Seismic Source Areas

INTRODUCTIONThe method of probabilistic seismic risk analysis was proposed by Cornell in1968(Cornell,1968).After more than30years development,it has become the main method for seismic riskassessment of engineering sites and seismic zonation,and has been u…     

DEFORESTATION IN NORTHEAST THAILAND, 1975–91: RESULTS OF A GENERAL STATISTICAL MODEL

Using a general statistical model, this study attempts to characterise the trend of deforestation in the northeast region (Isan) of Thailand between 1975 and 1991, a period when the kingdom had sustained high rates of economic growth and steady increases in population. Using data obtained directly from government bodies on the 17 provinces comprising this heavily deforested region, the study examines the correlations between forest area and a set of six variables: population density, agricultural area, real per capita income, accumulated irrigated area, agricultural credit levels, and distance from Bangkok, the national political and economic centre. It also considers the effect of the two logging bans instituted in 1979 and since 1989. The study found a negative correlation between forest area and population density in particular, followed in ranking by agricultural credit, per capita income, the logging bans and distance from Bangkok. Viewed together with more recent data showing that rates of deforestation in the kingdom as a whole have slowed and appear to be stabilising, these results also suggest the beginnings in the 1990s of a forest transition – from an industrial to a post‐industrial stage in forest utilisation – in Thailand.