Dust production and the release of iron oxides resulting from the aeolian abrasion of natural dune sands

Global dust trajectories indicate that signi?cant quantities of aeolian‐transported iron oxides originate in contemporary dryland areas. One potential source is the iron‐rich clay coatings that characterize many sand‐sized particles in desert dune?elds. This paper uses laboratory experiments to determine the rate at which these coatings can be removed from dune sands by aeolian abrasion. The coatings impart a red colour to the grains to which previous researchers have assigned variable geomorphological signi?cance. The quantities of iron removed during a 120 hour abrasion experiment are small (99 mg kg^?1) and dif?cult to detect by eye; however, high resolution spectroscopy clearly indicates that ferric oxides are released during abrasion and the re?ectance of the particles alters. One of the products of aeolian abrasion is ?ne particles (<10 µm diameter) with the potential for long distance transport. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Apport de la cathodoluminescence à haute résolution à l'étude de la diagenèse météorique dans les formations sédimentaires carbonatées

Different diagenetic transformations and their relative chronological sequence are studied in the meteoric diagenetic zone from the Upper Oligocene limestone at the North of the Aquitaine Basin (France), by combining high-resolution cathodoluminescence spectroscopy and electron-microprobe analyses. More than 128 spot analyses by electron microprobe and 60 analyses by cathodoluminescence spectroscopy are done on different meteoric cements firstly identified by classic optical microscopy. Three cement types are identified according to the relative intensity of the bands of their respective cathodoluminescence spectra (350, 380, 430, 500, and 620 nm). From these investigations, we could identify for each meteoric cement different phases of crystalline growth and crystalline dissolution. As a result, a better and more realistic meteoric diagenetic model is proposed. It illustrates the cyclic transformations from vadose zone (unsaturated) to meteoric zone (saturated). To cite this article: R. Chapoulie et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).     

GIS-based detachment susceptibility analyses of a cut slope in limestone, Ankara—Turkey

Due to the rapidly growing population of the city of Ankara (Turkey) and increased traffic congestion, it has become necessary to widen the Ankara-Eskişehir (E-90) highway connecting the newly built areas west of the city to the city center. During widening, several cut slopes were formed along the highway route. As a result, some instability problems (small-sized rock falls/sliding, sloughing, raveling) produced detachment zones along a cut slope in highly jointed, folded and sheared limestone, causing local degradation of the cut slope. Identification of the areas that are likely to detach from the cut slope in the future is considered to be very important for the application of remedial measures. For this purpose, the relationships between the existing detachment zones and various parameters (e.g., point load strength index, weathering, block size, daylighting, shear zone) were investigated using GIS-based statistical detachment susceptibility analyses in order to predict the further aerial extension of the detachment zones with time. During the overlay analyses, statistical index and weighting factor methods were used. The outcomes of the analyses were compared and evaluated with the field observations to check the reliability of the methods and to assess the detachment zones that may develop in the future. The detachment susceptibility map without the block-size layer gives the best result and indicates some risky zones where detachments are likely to occur in the future. Recommendations on remedial measures of the cut slope should consider these risky zones.     

金沙江下虎跳滑石板滑坡破坏机理及稳定性分析

1996年10月28日发生在金沙江下虎跳峡口的滑石板滑坡,因堵塞金沙江、摧毁公路而引起高度重视。野外调查发现,滑石板滑坡是典型结构面控制的顺层基岩滑坡,层面和两组近于垂直层面的节理将边坡厚层灰岩切割成不同规模的菱形块体,长期的风化作用、重力、降雨、人工开挖公路等因素作用下,这些菱形块体从顺层稳定状态演化为稳定性较差的悬挂体,受河谷边坡斜向割切影响,表现为梯级叠次悬挂,最外边的悬挂体稳定性最差,最容易发生快速滑动。因此,该滑坡每次发生破坏滑动的体积不会很大,但是具有多次重复发生的特点,值得高度注意。     

济南张夏组灰岩岩溶地下水供水潜力探讨

济南南部广布巨厚张夏组灰岩,其中赋存优质丰富的岩溶地下水。出露众多泉水,其流量为800～8000m3/d。该文通过简述济南地区张夏组灰岩岩溶地下水的赋存条件与水文地质特征,概略计算与评价其资源量,论证开发利用这一新水源的可行性,以期为济南供水与保泉开辟新途径。     

提高机采水平的配套技术及应用

随着濮城油田的持续性高速开发,油田综合含水逐渐上升,油水井井况进一步恶化,作为油田生产主体的机械采油井躺井频繁、管杆泵使用寿命缩短。近几年中原油田采油二厂濮城油田年平均躺井数达560井次之多,导致机械采油井维护费用增加,管杆泵投入增大,严重制约着油田的生产和经营。通过加缓蚀剂在油管内壁形成保护油膜,起到润滑作用;应用特殊抽油杆防腐止磨;应用尼龙扶正器对抽油杆体扶正,避免了钢体与钢体的硬磨;应用旋转井口通过地面人力转动改变油管与抽油杆的偏磨面;配合合理生产参数;各种配套技术的合理应用,使濮城油田躺井减少,避免了频繁作业,增加长寿井,管杆泵投入节约了19.3%。     

The Distribution of Chadian and earliest Arundian strata in North Wales: Implications for Dinantian (Carboniferous) lithostratigraphy and palaeogeography

The late Chadian Foel Formation, previously thought to be confined to the Dyserth area of North Wales, forms a poorly exposed but persistent basal unit to much of the Dinantian crop east of the Clwydian Range, necessitating a revision of the local lithostratigraphy. The formation comprises a peritidal heterolith which, together with the lowest few metres of the overlying Llanarmon Limestone, yields microfossil assemblages diagnostic of the Eoparastaffella Cf4α Subzone. Succeeding strata, containing the lowest archaediscid foraminifera, provide the first record of Cf4β assemblages from North Wales and establish an early Arundian age for these beds. The Foel Formation was deposited as an aggradational sequence on the northern flank of St. George's Land during a pulsed transgression which began in late Chadian times. The widely recognized basal Arundian transgression is represented by the contact between the Foel Formation and overlying platform carbonates. The latter overlap the Foel Formation in the southernmost part of the Clwydian crop demonstrating, for the first time, southwards onlap on the northern side of the Bala–Bryneglwys Fault System.     

Slope process change and colluvium deposition in Swaziland: An SEM analysis

Electron microscope analysis of sixty samples taken from six colluvium sites in Swaziland has shown that the quartz grains exhibit marked edge abrasion in the uppermost beds of exposures. This edge abrasion is lacking in the lower beds in all sections examined and indicates slope process change during colluvium deposition. A model of slope evolution is provided, in which slope erosion progressively brings about more channelling and causes greater surface roughness because of the exhumation of more core stones and differentially weathered rock. This roughness causes increased edge abrasion.     

Plate tectonics,palaeoenvironments and limestone geomorphology in West-Central Britain

The variety of active, exhumed, and buried limestone landforms of northern England, North Wales, and the Isle of Man arises in part from the way in which Dinantian (Lower Carboniferous) sedimentation was affected by a tilt-block basement structure evolved during the closure of the Iapetus Ocean suture to the north, and partly to subsequent plate tectonic movements associated with the closure of the proto-Tethys ocean, the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and the Alpine orogeny. Landforms created during the Dinantian now form important exhumed and buried landscape features. The Permian half-graben structures of the eastern Irish Sea-Cheshire-Worcester Basins account for many of the contrasts between the upland karsts of the Pennines and the lowland karsts of coastal areas.