Relationship between long‐term changes in algal community structure and herbivore diet at the Three Kings Islands,New Zealand

We examined temporal changes at the Three Kings Islands, New Zealand in 1993 and 2002 in the diet of the endemic herbivorous fish Odax cyanoallix (Family Labridae) and in habitat‐forming macroalgae, and compared these with published accounts from 1979. The diet of O. cyanoallix predominantly comprised the laminarian Ecklonia radiata in 1993, and the fucoids Sargassum johnsonii and Landsburgia quercifolia in 2002. In depths <10 m, the endemic fucoid S. johnsonii was dominant in 1979 and 2002 and absent in 1993. E. radiata was absent in 1979, abundant in 1993, and rare in 2002. A period of significantly lower sea‐surface temperatures (SST) at the Three Kings Islands in 1990–95 corresponded to an unusually long El Niño event. The low SST may have resulted in the failure of S. johnsonii to grow and/or recruit during the El Niño event, leading to the observed changes. This study demonstrates variability in fucoid and laminarian assemblages over large time scales that are reflected in diet shifts in a species of herbivorous fish.     

含底坡项浅水方程的一种数值求解方法

激波捕捉格式能处理含强间断的浅水方程,因为必须采用关于守恒变量的守恒形式方程,作为水流实际驱动力的水位梯度项被分解为压力梯度项和底坡项,如果离散格式不能很好地平衡这两项的作用,将导致不准确的结果。基于理论推导,提出了一种新方法,在单元内部采用非守恒形式,保留水位梯度项,在界面处采用守恒格式捕捉间断。利用4个具有代表性的算例对提出的方法进行了验证,结果表明,该方法能够处理变化地形上的强间断和流态变化,并能够准确捕捉扰动的传播过程。     

四川二郎山地区构造变形特征及成因探讨

二郎山地区横跨康滇地轴、龙门山造山带2个二级大地构造单元,地处3个不同构造带的交汇部位,区内地质背景复杂,褶皱、断裂比较发育。通过野外地质调查、物化探技术及遥感测量技术等地质填图手段,将研究区按沉积建造、变形型式、地质演化等方面将其划分为东部沉积盖层变形岩块和西部基底变形岩块2个构造单元,并进一步划分为8个次级单元。阐明该地区的构造变形特征及成因,不仅有利于更好地认识研究区及周边的形成与演化,而且能够更好地指导区域内的地质研究工作。     

Precambrian amphibolites and basic granulites of the south coast of Western Australia

Field relations and chemical variation trends suggest that amphibolite and basic granulite bands occurring throughout the Precambrian gneissic terrain of the south coast of Western Australia were derived from basic igneous rocks. It is not known whether the original rocks were mainly intrusive, extrusive, or pyroclastic, but occasional discordant contacts indicate that intrusive types are certainly represented.

The chemical affinities of the original magmas are not entirely clear. Present compositions suggest dominantly subalkaline affinities, although a significant proportion of the analised samples show some alkaline characteristics. Data for supposedly immobile elements (Ti, P, Zr, Nb, Y) show possible similarities to recent island‐arc and ocean‐floor basalts, but these are not sufficiently strong to permit any firm conclusions regarding the original tectonic environment of eruption or intrusion. This absence of clear chemical similarities of the amphibolites and basic granulites to basalts of any particular modern tectonic environment may suggest chemical modification during possible low‐temperature alteration (e.g. ocean‐floor or burial meta‐morphism) or subsequent high‐grade regional metamorphism and anatexis, or the inapplicability of currently recognised tectonomagmatic principles to the Precambrian.     

Spatial distribution of deformation bands in damage zones of extensional faults in porous sandstones: Statistical analysis of field data

The distribution of deformation bands in damage zones of extensional faults in porous sandstones has been analyzed using 106 outcrop scanlines along which the position and frequency of deformation bands have been recorded. The analysis reveals a non-linear relationship between damage zone width and fault throw, a logarithmic decrease in deformation band frequency away from the fault core, as well as a fractal spatial distribution associated with clustering of the deformation bands. Furthermore, damage zones appear wider in the hanging wall than in the footwall, although the deformation band density is similar on both sides. Statistical trends derived from the database imply that fault growth in porous sandstones can be considered as a scale invariant process. From an initial process zone, the damage zone grows by a constant balance between the development of new deformation bands in the existing damage zone and the creation of new bands outside. Moreover, as the width of the damage zone increases throughout the active lifetime of a fault, the distribution of the deformation bands in the damage zone remains self-similar. Hence band distribution and damage zone width for seismically mapped faults can be predicted from the relationships found in this paper.     

Thermomechanics of an extensional shear zone,Raft River metamorphic core complex,NW Utah

A detailed structural and microstructural analysis of the Miocene Raft River detachment shear zone (NW Utah) provides insight into the thermomechanical evolution of the continental crust during extension associated with the exhumation of metamorphic core complexes. Combined microstructural, electron backscattered diffraction, strain, and vorticity analysis of the very well exposed quartzite mylonite show an increase in intensity of the rock fabrics from west to east, along the transport direction, compatible with observed finite strain markers and a model of ``necking'' of the shear zone. Microstructural evidence (quartz microstructures and deformation lamellae) suggests that the detachment shear zone evolved at its peak strength, close to the dislocation creep/exponential creep transition, where meteoric fluids played an important role on strain hardening, embrittlement, and eventually seismic failure.Empirically calibrated paleopiezometers based on quartz recrystallized grain size and deformation lamellae spacing show very similar results, indicate that the shear zone developed under stress ranging from 40 MPa to 60 MPa. Using a quartzite dislocation creep flow law we further estimate that the detachment shear zone quartzite mylonite developed at a strain rates between 10⁻¹² and 10⁻¹⁴ s⁻¹. We suggest that a compressed geothermal gradient across this detachment, which was produced by a combination of ductile shearing, heat advection, and cooling by meteoric fluids, may have triggered mechanical instabilities and strongly influenced the rheology of the detachment shear zone.     

Deformation bands in chalk,examples from the Shetland Group of the Oseberg Field,North Sea,Norway

Deformation bands are described in detail for the first time in carbonate rock from the subsurface and in chalk from the North Sea. The samples are from 2200 to 2300 m below sea level, in upper Maastrichtian to Danian chalk in the Oseberg Field. The deformation bands were investigated using thin-section analysis, SEM and computed tomography (CT). There is a reduction in porosity from 30 to 40% in the matrix to ca. 10% or less inside the deformation bands. They have apparent thicknesses ranging from less than 0.05–0.5 mm and have previously often been referred to as hairline fractures. Their narrowness is probably the reason why these features have not previously been recognised as deformation bands. The deformation bands in chalk are very thin compared to deformation bands in sandstone and carbonate grainstones which have mm to cm widths. This is suggested to be due to the fine grain size of the chalk matrix (2–10 μm), and it appears to be a positive correlation between grain-size and width of deformation bands. The deformation bands are suggested to have been formed as compactional shear bands during mechanical compaction, and also related to faulting.     

Measuring the elastic properties of natural rocks and mineral assemblages under Earth's deep crustal and mantle conditions

The direct access to the interior of our planet is very limited. Scientific drilling can reach about 15 km depth. Natural exhumation processes in conjunction with orogeny bring massive rock packages from up to 100 km depth back to surface. Explosion breccia and kimberlite pipes can carry small rock and mineral fragments as xenoliths from up to 250 km depth. But all the detailed knowledge we achieved about Earth's deep interior structures and dynamics, especially during the last two decades is based on highly resolved seismic data, in particular seismic tomography. That means it is a three-dimensional distribution of elastic and inelastic data with the maximum resolution of the seismic wavelength, i.e. at great depth several kilometres in principle. Consequently any material information is a matter of interpretation. Thus a detailed knowledge about the elastic properties of rocks in dependence on pressure, temperature, mineral content, grain size, deformation, crack distribution, etc., is crucial for this interpretation.     

Evaluating hydro-mechanical interactions of adjacent clay-based sealing materials

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is investigating various geological isolation concepts for Canada’s used reactor fuel (NWMO, 2005). These options are all based on the concept of multiple barriers that include Highly Compacted Bentonite (HCB), Dense Backfill (DBF), Light Backfill (LBF), and Gap Fill (GF). The hydraulic, mechanical, and other characteristics of these clay-based sealing materials have been examined previously, but typically in relative isolation (e.g., Dixon, 1999, Blatz, 2000, Siemens, 2006, Stroes-Gascoyne et al., 2006, Baumgartner et al., 2007). Information on how these clay-based sealing materials interact with each other is needed to understand the evolution and performance of the overall sealing system.A total of twenty-three (23) tests that examine the physical interaction of physically dissimilar clay-based sealing materials were installed and monitored at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s (AECL) geotechnical laboratory. This paper describes the process of water uptake, interaction between the components installed, and the role of groundwater salinity on water uptake as interpreted from these tests.     

An active crawler for discovering geospatial Web services and their distribution pattern – A case study of OGC Web Map Service

The increased popularity of standards for geospatial interoperability has led to an increasing number of geospatial Web services (GWSs), such as Web Map Services (WMSs), becoming publicly available on the Internet. However, finding the services in a quick and precise fashion is still a challenge. Traditional methods collect the services through centralized registries, where services can be manually registered. But the metadata of the registered services cannot be updated timely. This paper addresses the above challenges by developing an effective crawler to discover and update the services in (1) proposing an accumulated term frequency (ATF)–based conditional probability model for prioritized crawling, (2) utilizing concurrent multi-threading technique, and (3) adopting an automatic mechanism to update the metadata of identified services. Experiments show that the proposed crawler achieves good performance in both crawling efficiency and results' coverage/liveliness. In addition, an interesting finding regarding the distribution pattern of WMSs is discussed. We expect this research to contribute to automatic GWS discovery over the large-scale and dynamic World Wide Web and the promotion of operational interoperable distributed geospatial services.