Role of hydrological regime and floodplain sediments in channel instability of the Bhagirathi River,Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta,India

Abstract

This research deals with the surface dynamics and key factors – hydrological regime, sediment load, and erodibility of floodplain facies – of frequent channel shifting, intensive meandering, and lateral instability of the Bhagirathi River in the western part of the Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta (GBD). At present, the floodplain of the Bhagirathi is categorized as a medium energy (specific stream power of 10–300 W m^?2), non-cohesive floodplain, which exhibits a mixed-load and a meandering channel, an entrenchment ratio >2.2, width–depth ratio >12, sinuosity >1.4, and channel slope <0.02. In the study area, since 1975, four meander cutoffs have been shaped at an average rate of one in every 9–10 years. In the active meander belt and sand-silt dominated floodplains of GBD, frequent shifting of the channel and meander migration escalate severe bank erosion (e.g. 2.5 × 10⁶ m³ of land lost between 1999 and 2004) throughout the year. Remote sensing based spatio-temporal analysis and stratigraphic analysis reveal that the impact of the Farakka barrage, completed in 1975, is not the sole factor of downstream channel oscillation; rather, hydrogeomorphic instability induced by the Ajay–Mayurakshi fluvial system and the erodibility of floodplain sediments control the channel dynamics of the study area.     

Pattern,style and timing of British–Irish Ice Sheet advance and retreat over the last 45 000 years: evidence from NW Scotland and the adjacent continental shelf

Predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate warming and rising global sea level is important but difficult. This is especially so when fast-flowing glaciers or ice streams, buffered by ice shelves, are grounded on beds below sea level. What happens when these ice shelves are removed? And how do the ice stream and the surrounding ice sheet respond to the abruptly altered boundary conditions? To address these questions and others we present new geological, geomorphological, geophysical and geochronological data from the ice-stream-dominated NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The study area covers around 45 000 km² of NW Scotland and the surrounding continental shelf. Alongside seabed geomorphological mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a suite of over 100 new absolute ages (including cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages, optically stimulated luminescence ages and radiocarbon dates) collected from onshore and offshore, to build a sector-wide ice-sheet reconstruction combining all available evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. Using this information we present a detailed assessment of ice-sheet advance/retreat history, and the glaciological connections between different areas of the NW BIIS sector, at different times during the last glacial cycle. The results show a highly dynamic, partly marine, partly terrestrial, ice-sheet sector undergoing large size variations in response to sub-millennial-scale climatic (Dansgaard–Oeschger) cycles over the last 45 000 years. Superimposed on these trends we identify internally driven instabilities, operating at higher frequency, conditioned by local topographic factors, tidewater dynamics and glaciological feedbacks during deglaciation. Specifically, our new evidence indicates extensive marine-terminating ice-sheet glaciation of the NW BIIS sector during Greenland Stadials 12 to 9 – prior to the main ‘Late Weichselian’ ice-sheet glaciation. After a period of restricted glaciation, in Greenland Interstadials 8 to 6, we find good evidence for rapid renewed ice-sheet build-up in NW Scotland, with the Minch ice-stream terminus reaching the continental shelf edge in Greenland Stadial 5, perhaps only briefly. Deglaciation of the NW sector took place in numerous stages. Several grounding-zone wedges and moraines on the mid- and inner continental shelf attest to significant stabilizations of the ice-sheet grounding line, or ice margin, during overall retreat in Greenland Stadials 3 and 2, and to the development of ice shelves. NW Lewis was the first substantial present-day land area to deglaciate, in the first half of Greenland Stadial 3 at a time of globally reduced sea-level c. 26 kabp , followed by Cape Wrath at c. 24 kabp. The topographic confinement of the Minch straits probably promoted ice-shelf development in early Greenland Stadial 2, providing the ice stream with additional support and buffering it somewhat from external drivers. However, c. 20–19 kabp , as the grounding-line migrated into shoreward deepening water, coinciding with a marked change in marine geology and bed strength, the ice stream became unstable. We find that, once underway, grounding-line retreat proceeded in an uninterrupted fashion with the rapid loss of fronting ice shelves – first in the west, then the east troughs – before eventual glacier stabilization at fjord mouths in NW Scotland by ~17 kabp. Around the same time, ~19–17 kabp , ice-sheet lobes readvanced into the East Minch – possibly a glaciological response to the marine-instability-triggered loss of adjacent ice stream (and/or ice shelf) support in the Minch trough. An independent ice cap on Lewis also experienced margin oscillations during mid-Greenland Stadial 2, with an ice-accumulation centre in West Lewis existing into the latter part of Heinrich Stadial 1. Final ice-sheet deglaciation of NW mainland Scotland was punctuated by at least one other coherent readvance at c. 15.5 kabp , before significant ice-mass losses thereafter. At the glacial termination, c. 14.5 kabp , glaciers fed outwash sediment to now-abandoned coastal deltas in NW mainland Scotland around the time of global Meltwater Pulse 1A. Overall, this work on the BIIS NW sector reconstructs a highly dynamic ice-sheet oscillating in extent and volume for much of the last 45 000 years. Periods of expansive ice-sheet glaciation dominated by ice-streaming were interspersed with periods of much more restricted ice-cap or tidewater/fjordic glaciation. Finally, this work indicates that the role of ice streams in ice-sheet evolution is complex but mechanistically important throughout the lifetime of an ice sheet – with ice streams contributing to the regulation of ice-sheet health but also to the acceleration of ice-sheet demise via marine ice-sheet instabilities.     

微生物-CMC无固相钻井液固壁作用与机理初探

松散破碎性地层孔壁失稳一直是困扰钻探工程界的难题之一,增强该类地层的胶结性,提高其力学性能是有效解决孔壁失稳的技术关键。本文将微生物诱导碳酸钙沉积（MICP）技术与CMC无固相钻井液相结合,构建微生物-CMC无固相钻井液体系。通过岩心浸泡实验、X射线衍射实验（XRD）以及扫描电镜分析两种微观分析手段对微生物-CMC无固相钻井液的固壁作用与机理进行了初探。结果表明：微生物-CMC无固相钻井液对松散破碎性地层具有较明显的加固作用,且作用时间越长,初始菌种浓度越高,钙源浓度越大,固壁效果越好。在固壁过程中,微生物随钻井液渗透进入试样内部,在松散颗粒之间诱导生成碳酸钙晶体,填充孔隙空间,将松散颗粒胶结成整体,并具有一定的力学强度,从而达到加固孔壁的目的。本研究结果为解决松散破碎性地层孔壁失稳提供了新的钻井液技术方案。     

基于变分客观分析方法的青藏高原试验区夏季对流降水过程热动力特征分析

本文利用基于变分客观分析方法的物理协调大气分析模型,构建了青藏高原试验区大气热力—动力相互协调的数据集,并通过该数据集对青藏高原试验区夏季深厚及浅薄对流降水过程的热动力特征进行分析,结果表明:变分客观分析后的垂直速度场能更好地与实际观测的对流降水过程相吻合;深厚对流降水期高云含量多,整层大气为较强的上升运动,上升运动可达100 hPa左右,浅薄期高云含量少,上升运动仅能延伸到300 hPa左右;两种对流降水过程中视热源Q₁在低层为冷却作用,高层为加热作用,在深厚期中高层Q₁存在两个加热中心,中层受较强的水汽凝结释放潜热加热所影响,高层主要受过冷云水凝结成冰晶形成高云时释放的热量所影响;在浅薄期中高层Q₁只存在一个加热中心,大气的加热主要来源于水汽的凝结潜热释放;深厚对流降水期视水汽汇Q₂的加热作用可以延伸到200 hPa,而浅薄期仅到340 hPa左右。     

高原涡和西南涡影响的两次四川暴雨过程的对比分析

为了进一步研究高原涡、西南涡对西南地区暴雨的影响,本文用中国气象局自动站与CMORPH降水数据融合的逐时降水资料、国家卫星气象中心的逐时FY-2E卫星的云顶亮温（TBB）资料、欧洲气象资料中心（ERA-interim）的再分析资料,通过天气学诊断分析方法以及拉格朗日轨迹模式HYSPLITv4.9,对发生在四川盆地的有高原涡东移影响西南涡发展引发暴雨的两次过程进行对比分析,发现:（1）两次暴雨过程的降水强度和分布有明显区别,并且TBB活动特征显示在过程一中有MCC（Mesoscale Convective Complex）的产生和发展,过程二则没有。（2）对于过程一,500 hPa上,高原涡逐渐减弱为高原槽并伸展到四川盆地上空,850 hPa上,在鞍型场附近有MCC的产生和发展,200 hPa上,高原涡在南亚高压北部偏西风急流下方的强辐散区内,位于南亚高压东南侧急流区下方稳定少动,偏东风急流北部有辐散中心,有利于西南涡的加强。对于过程二,500 hPa高原涡东移在四川盆地上空与西南涡耦合,形成一个稳定且深厚的系统,这也是过程二的暴雨强度比过程一强的最主要原因。200 hPa上,四川盆地始终位于南亚高压东侧的西北气流中,“抽吸作用”明显。（3）在过程一中,位涡逐渐东传且位涡增加的地方对应强降水区与MCC发展区,反映了暴雨和位涡的发展基本一致。在过程二中,中层位涡高值区从高原上东移并下传至盆地上空,两涡耦合使得上下层打通,位涡值比耦合之前单独的两涡强度更强。 MCC产生的必要条件是中层大气要有强正涡度、强辐合和强上升运动,在未产生MCC前,过程一与过程二在盆地上空的动力条件甚至是相反的;从热力条件看,过程一中有明显的干冷空气入侵,增强不稳定条件,有利于MCC的产生并引发强降水;另一方面,本文也应证了二阶位涡的水平分布与暴雨落区有较好的对应关系。（4）通过拉格朗日方法的水汽轨迹追踪模式和聚类分析方法分析可得两次暴雨过程的水汽输送源地和通道也有明显区别,过程一主要有两条水汽通道,通道一来自阿拉伯海和孟加拉湾洋面的底层,通道二来自四川南部750 m以下高度;而过程二的主要水汽输送通道有三条,通道一来自西方地中海、黑海和里海上空1500～2500 m高度附近,通道二来自阿拉伯海和印度洋的底层,通道三的水汽从孟加拉湾低层绕过云贵高原直接输送到四川盆地。     

Slow quasigeostrophic unstable modes of a lens vortex in a continuously stratified flow

This work addresses the linear dynamics underlying the formation of density interfaces at the periphery of energetic vortices, well outside the vortex core, both in the radial and axial directions. We compute numerically the unstable modes of an anticyclonic Gaussian vortex lens in a continuously stratified rotating fluid. The most unstable mode is a slow mode, associated with a critical layer instability located at the vortex periphery. Although the most unstable disturbance has a characteristic vertical scale which is comparable to the vortex height, interestingly, the critical levels of the successively fastest growing modes are closely spaced at intervals along the axial direction that are much smaller than the vortex height.     

Large-scale convective dynamos in a stratified rotating plane layer

We study the effect of stratification on large-scale dynamo action in convecting fluids in the presence of background rotation. The fluid is confined between two horizontal planes and both boundaries are impermeable, stress-free and perfectly conducting. An asymptotic analysis is performed in the limit of rapid rotation (τ???1 where τ is the Taylor number). We analyse asymptotic magnetic dynamo solutions in rapidly rotating systems generalising the results of Soward [A convection-driven dynamo I. The weak field case. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 1974, 275, 611–651] to include the effects of compressibility. We find that in general the presence of stratification delays the efficiency of large-scale dynamo action in this regime, leading to a reduction of the onset of dynamo action and in the nonlinear regime a diminution of the large-scale magnetic energy for flows with the same kinetic energy.     

Theoretical analyses of acidization dissolution front instability in fluid‐saturated carbonate rocks

This paper presents an instability theory that can be used to understand the fundamental behavior of an acidization dissolution front when it propagates in fluid‐saturated carbonate rocks. The proposed theory includes two fundamental concepts, namely the intrinsic time and length of an acidization dissolution system, and a theoretical criterion that involves the comparison of the Zhao number and its critical value of the acidization dissolution system. The intrinsic time is used to determine the time scale at which the acidization dissolution front is formed, while the intrinsic length is used to determine the length scale at which the instability of the acidization dissolution front can be initiated. Under the assumption that the acidization dissolution reaction is a fast process, the critical Zhao number, which is used to assess the instability likelihood of an acidization dissolution front propagating in fluid‐saturated carbonate rocks, has been derived in a strictly mathematical manner. Based on the proposed instability theory of a propagating acidization dissolution front, it has been theoretically recognized that: (i) the increase of the mineral dissolution ratio can stabilize the acidization dissolution front in fluid‐saturated carbonate rocks; (ii) the increase of the final porosity of the carbonate rock can destabilize the acidization dissolution front, while the increase of the initial porosity can stabilize the acidization dissolution front in fluid‐saturated carbonate rocks; (iii) the increase of the mineral dissolution ratio can cause an increase in the dimensionless propagation speed of the acidization dissolution front; (iv) the increase of the initial porosity can enable the acidization dissolution front to propagate faster, while the increase of the final porosity can enable the acidization dissolution front to propagate slower in the acidization dissolution system. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

磁尾宽频带静电噪声的一种新的激发机制

本文提出了磁尾宽频带静电噪声强谱段的一种新的激发机制。在等离子体片边界层中存在着瞬时的局域性的晨昏电场。电子和离子对该电场的响应不同:在电场存在的区域内,电子作回旋漂移运动,而离子轨道在的时间尺度内可视为直线。由于等离子体片边界层中等离子体是非均匀的,这就导致了电荷分离的产生,从而可激发静电不稳定性。本文通过求解含电场的Vlasov方程,计算了由此产生的不稳定波的频率和增长率,考察了波矢方向。上述计算结果均与强谱段静电噪声的观测特征一致。