The back-barrier and barrier depositional history of Romney Marsh,Walland Marsh and Dungeness,Kent, England

Previous stratigraphical investigations of Romney Marsh have tended to be local in scale, and this has hindered efforts to establish a unifying stratigraphical framework for this area. This paper addresses this problem, by describing the results of a 12-km transect across Romney Marsh, linking previously studied back- and fore-marsh sites (Horsemarsh Sewer and Broomhill respectively), and presenting additional pollen, diatom and radiocarbon data from an intermediate, mid-marsh site (Brookland). One main organic unit is recorded across much of Romney Marsh, although its age, altitude and composition varies. Microfossil and radiocarbon data from Brookland and elsewhere on Romney Marsh show that this organic unit accumulated under a general removal and return of marine conditions that took place between ca. 5100 and 2000 yr BP. A recently proposed model of barrier development is used to investigate the history of back-barrier sedimentation in Romney and Walland Marshes. This model suggests a three-phase life-history for gravel barriers, which consists of initiation, stability and breakdown. Although there are problems in relating back-barrier deposits directly to barrier dynamics, nevertheless the Romney Marsh data do, for the most part, agree with the expected number and sequence of sea-level tendencies predicted by this model. The back-barrier stratigraphical data suggest that initiation, stability and breakdown of the Dungeness foreland occurred between ca. 6000 and 5000 yr BP, 5000 and 2000 yr BP and 2000 yr BP and present, respectively.     

Review of Global Ocean Intermediate Water Masses: 1.Part A, the Neutral Density Surface (the ‘McDougall Surface’) as a Study Frame for Water-Mass Analysis

1Preface Todescribeoceanicintermediatewatermasses,itis necessarytohaveawell definedstudyframeorsurfacebecauseofthefluctuationnatureofintermediatewa ters.Itiswellunderstoodthatoceanicwater mass mixingdoesnotalignwitheitheraconstantgeopoten tialdepthorapropertysurfacesuchastemperature,salinity,pressureanddensitysurfacesbutfollowsa neutraldensitysurface.Thisisbecauseawaterparcelmovesasmalldistanceisentropicallyandadiabaticallyontheneutraldensitysurfacewithoutdoingworka gainstabuoyantrestoringforc…     

The early Cretaceous marine transgression and its significance for landscape interpretation

Significant elements of the Australian landscape date from Mesozoic or earlier times. Australia did not separate completely from other Gondwanan components until Early Tertiary times and these Mesozoic and older elements can therefore be regarded as Gondwanan. During the separation and northern drift of the continent and particularly in Late Jurassic and earlier Cretaceous times the sea invaded and spread across much of the erstwhile landmass. The associated sediments not only covered and preserved much of the pre‐existing land surface, but they also augmented the effects of thalassostatic loading of the basins, causing further subsidence. Hinge lines developed near the coastal zones of the times, so that subsidence of the basins caused adjacent land masses to rise. Many old land surfaces have been re‐exposed at the former oceanic margins, but epigene forms are preserved high in the relief on the uplifted blocks. They survive partly because, as Crickmay (1976) suggested, rivers effectively erode at and near their channels; the divides remain untouched. A reinforcement effect also operates because the valleys are wet sites, the interfluves dry. Hence weathering and erosion proceed apace in the former while the latter are stable, allowing palaeoforms to survive.     

Comparison and integration of spatial data using covariance matrices

A differential approach to map comparison and integration is presented utilizing the variance-covariance matrices of polynomial trend surfaces. The approach is based on the statistics presented in the trend-surface computer program, CORSURF. Examples in south-central Kansas and the Maracaibo Basin in Venezuela are presented to show how the technique could be used in basinanalysis studies.     

原料配比对氯氧镁水泥固化砾石土干密度的影响

干密度是评价软土固化质量的重要指标,一般通过室内击实试验获得。以氯氧镁水泥(MOC)为结合料,砾石土为固化对象,研究了原料配比对MOC固化砾石土击实性能的影响。通过室内击实试验,考察了轻烧镁粉掺量、卤水浓度、卤水掺量和活性MgO/MgCl_2物质的量比(Mg/Cl比)影响混合料干密度的规律。结果表明:MOC固化砾石土击实料的干密度随卤水掺量增加先增加后降低,随轻烧镁粉掺量及Mg/Cl比的增加而先增加后降低,随卤水浓度及轻烧镁粉掺量的增加而增加,随卤水浓度增加及Mg/Cl比降低而增加。     

A spatial and statistical analysis of the impact of transformation of raster cost surfaces on the variation of least-cost paths

Planners who are involved in locational decision-making often use raster-based geographic information systems to quantify the value of land in terms of suitability or cost for a certain use. From a computational point of view, this process can be seen as a transformation of one or more sets of values associated with a grid of cells into another set of such values through a function reflecting one or more criteria. While it is generally anticipated that different transformations lead to different ‘best’ locations, little has been known on how such differences arise (or do not arise). The paper attempts to answer this question in the context of path planning through a series of computational experiments using a number of random landscape grids with a variety of spatial and nonspatial structures. In the experiments, we generated least-cost paths on a number of cost grids transformed from the landscape grids using a variety of transformation parameters and analyzed the locations and (weighted) lengths of those paths. Results show that the same pair of terminal cells may well be connected by different least-cost paths on different cost grids though derived from the same landscape grid and that the variation among those paths is affected by how given values are distributed in the landscape grid as well as by how derived values are distributed in the cost grids. Most significantly, the variation tends to be smaller when the landscape grid contains more distinct patches of cells potentially attracting or distracting cost-saving passage or when the cost grid contains a smaller number of low-cost cells.     

鲁西地区新太古界雁翎关组中花岗质“砾石”SHRIMP锆石U-Pb定年及地质意义

鲁西地区泰山岩群雁翎关组为华北克拉通新太古代典型花岗绿岩带的重要组成部分,形成时代大于2.6Ga.对其中变质砾岩中的一花岗质砾石进行了锆石SHRIMP定年,(2632±18)Ma年龄为砾石所代表的花岗质岩石的形成时代,表明雁翎关变质砾岩中至少部分砾石为构造成因.该砾石可解释为花岗岩脉经构造变形而形成.结合前人研究成果,对泰山岩群形成时代和绿岩带基底岩石特征进行了探讨.     

Bulk sampling of coarse clastic sediments for particle-size analysis

A guide is provided to the minimum sample masses required to obtain reproducible measures of the particle-size distributions of coarse sediments. This is based on studies of the actual particle-size distributions of a range of clastic deposits. Procedures are given to enable representative bulk samples of tills, fluvial gravels and beach gravels to be taken.     

THE PHASE SPACE STRUCTURE OF THE EXTENDED SITNIKOV-PROBLEM

In this article we treat the 'Extended Sitnikov Problem' where three bodies of equal masses stay always in the Sitnikov configuration. One of the bodies is confined to a motion perpendicular to the instantaneous plane of motion of the two other bodies (called the primaries), which are always equally far away from the barycenter of the system (and from the third body). In contrary to the Sitnikov Problem with one mass less body the primaries are not moving on Keplerian orbits. After a qualitative analysis of possible motions in the 'Extended Sitnikov Problem' we explore the structure of phase space with the aid of properly chosen surfaces of section. It turns out that for very small energies H the motion is possible only in small region of phase space and only thin layers of chaos appear in this region of mostly regular motion. We have chosen the plane ( ) as surface of section, where r is the distance between the primaries; we plot the respective points when the three bodies are 'aligned'. The fixed point which corresponds to the 1 : 2 resonant orbit between the primaries' period and the period of motion of the third mass is in the middle of the region of motion. For low energies this fixed point is stable, then for an increased value of the energy splits into an unstable and two stable fixed points. The unstable fixed point splits again for larger energies into a stable and two unstable ones. For energies close toH = 0 the stable center splits one more time into an unstable and two stable ones. With increasing energy more and more of the phase space is filled with chaotic orbits with very long intermediate time intervals in between two crossings of the surface of section. We also checked the rotation numbers for some specific orbits. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.