The fate of dumped sediments monitored by a high-resolution multibeam echosounder system,Weser Estuary,German Bight

With the development of high-resolution multibeam echosounder systems (MBES) for surveying shallow-water areas a new tool is available to monitor rapid changes in seabed morphology as, e.g., caused by the dumping of dredge spoil in coastal waters. In this study, four data sets of repeated bathymetric surveys with a MBES were processed and analyzed. The data were collected in a 1.94-km² dumping site in the outer Weser Estuary (German Bight). Between June and December 1998, 2.6 million m³ of dredged sediment were deposited there. The bathymetric maps generated in the course of this study reveal features such as subaqueous dunes, scour holes, and mounds of dumped dredge spoil. The mean water depth decreased by about 1 m during the dumping period. Furthermore, difference grids showing changes in sediment volume allowed a calculation of the sediment budget for the monitored area. After a time period of only 5 months, 0.5 million m³ of the originally dumped 2.6 million m³ of dredge spoil had already been removed from the dumping site.     

Fossilisation of a silica diagenesis reaction front on the mid-Norwegian margin

The diagenetic transformation of biogenic silica from opal-A to opal-CT was recognised on seismic reflection data over an area of 78 × 10³ km² on the mid-Norwegian margin. The opal-A/CT diagenetic boundary appears as a positive, high amplitude reflection that generally cross-cuts the hosting stratigraphy. We demonstrate that it is not a sea bottom simulating reflection (BSR) and also that is not in thermal equilibrium with the present day isotherms. We present arguments that three styles of deformation associated with the opal-A/CT reflection – polygonal faulting, regional anticlines and synclines and differential compaction folding – indicate that the silica diagenesis reaction front is fossilised at a regional scale. Isochore maps demonstrate the degree of conformity between the opal-A/CT reflection and three seismic horizons of Late Miocene to Early Pliocene age that potentially represent the paleo-seabed when ‘fossilisation’ of the reaction front took place. The seismic interpretational criteria for recognition of a fossilised diagenetic front are evaluated and the results of our study are integrated with previous studies from other basins of the NE Atlantic in order to determine if the arrest of silica diagenesis was diachronous along this continental margin.     

林甸M S 5.1地震前地震活动图像分析和综合预报方法

通过对黑龙江亚板块及其临近区域的不同时段地震活动图像研究分析,发现了中强震前地震活动图像的一些特点,再回归到地震动力学环境中去,建立了理论解释模型和两条判据假说。以此为基础并结合近年来地震活动图像综合分析后,我们在2005年下半年黑龙江省地震趋势会商意见中提出:松嫩盆地是5级以上中强震的主要孕震区。2005年7月25日林甸Ms 5．1地震对此给予了验证。本文对此过程阐述并作进一步分析,希望这种综合预报方法对地震预报工作有所帮助。     

A New Approach for Border Detection of the Dumluca (Turkey) Iron Ore Area: Wavelet Cellular Neural Networks

Anomaly analysis is used for various geophysics applications such as determination of geophysical structure's location and border detections. Besides the classical geophysical techniques, artificial intelligence based image processing algorithms have been found attractive for geophysical anomaly analysis. Recently, cellular neural networks (CNN) have been applied to geophysical data and satisfactory results are reported. CNN provides fast and parallel computational capability for geophysical image processing applications due to its filtering structure. The behavior of CNN is defined by two template matrices that are adjusted by a properly supervised learning algorithm. After training stage for geophysical data, Bouguer anomaly maps can be processed and analyzed sequentially. In this paper, CNN learning and processing capability have been improved, combining Wavelet functions and backpropagation learning algorithms. The new architecture is denoted as Wavelet-Cellular Neural networks (Wave-CNN) and it is employed to analyze Bouguer anomaly maps which are important to extract useful information in geophysics. At first, Wave-CNN performance is tested on synthetic geophysical data, which are created by a computer environment. Then, Bouguer anomaly maps of the Dumluca iron ore field have been analyzed and results are reported in comparison to real drilling results.     

Quantifying the epistemic uncertainty in ground motion models and prediction

The aim of this paper is to compute the ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE)-specific components of epistemic uncertainty, so that they may be better understood and the model standard deviation potentially reduced. The reduced estimate of the model standard deviation may also be more representative of the true aleatory uncertainty in the ground-motion predictions.The epistemic uncertainty due to input variable uncertainty and uncertainty in the estimation of the GMPE coefficients are examined. An enhanced methodology is presented that may be used to analyse their impacts on GMPEs and GMPE predictions. The impacts of accounting for the input variable uncertainty in GMPEs are demonstrated using example values from the literature and by applying the methodology to the GMPE for Arias Intensity. This uncertainty is found to have a significant effect on the estimated coefficients of the model and a small effect on the value of the model standard deviation.The impacts of uncertainty in the GMPE coefficients are demonstrated by quantifying the uncertainty in hazard maps. This paper provides a consistent approach to quantifying the epistemic uncertainty in hazard maps using Monte Carlo simulations and a logic tree framework. The ability to quantify this component of epistemic uncertainty offers significant enhancements over methods currently used in the creation of hazard maps as it is both theoretically consistent and can be used for any magnitude–distance scenario.     

Flow and fracture maps for basaltic rock deformation at high temperatures

Understanding how the strength of basaltic rock varies with the extrinsic conditions of stress state, pressure and temperature, and the intrinsic rock physical properties is fundamental to understanding the dynamics of volcanic systems. In particular it is essential to understand how rock strength at high temperatures is limited by fracture. We have collated and analysed laboratory data for basaltic rocks from over 500 rock deformation experiments and plotted these on principal stress failure maps. We have fitted an empirical flow law (Norton’s law) and a theoretical fracture criterion to these data. The principal stress failure map is a graphical representation of ductile and brittle experimental data together with flow and fracture envelopes under varying strain rate, temperature and pressure. We have used these maps to re-interpret the ductile–brittle transition in basaltic rocks at high temperatures and show, conceptually, how these failure maps can be applied to volcanic systems, using lava flows as an example.     

中国大陆及邻近海域的Rayleigh波群速度分布

利用Rayleigh波群速度资料反演得到中国大陆及其临近海域的(70°E-145°E,10°N-55°N)15-120s周期的群速度分布图像. 塔里木盆地在15s处清楚地显示为低速,在16-33s左右没有显示,但在36-5s显示为高速,说明塔里木盆地有较深的根. 青藏高原块体是44s至120s图像中最为突出的低速块体,南面与印度板块的分界线以及与北面的塔里木盆地、柴达木盆地的分界清晰,其块体中西部的速度低于东部. 泰国清迈附近存在一尺度为1000km左右的低速带,可能是青藏高原块体的物质向东南方向迁移造成上地幔物质上涌的结果. 南北地震带表现为强烈的速度梯度带,西面为低速,东面为高速. 中国南海的中央、日本海中央、菲律宾海表现为海洋性地壳. 菲律宾海的图像与地形及地震带完全吻合. 环绕菲律宾海及日本海存在400km左右宽的低速带,可能是岩浆活动带.     

The l:200,000-scale map of the near-surface mineral resources of the Federal Republic of Germany

For those who deal with aspects of regional planning that are affected by the extraction of near-surface mineral resources, a simple map that shows the distribution of these resources accompanied by explanatory notes is essential; a preliminary 1:1 million-scale map was published in 1982. The Geological Surveys of the Federal States of Germany, in conjunction with the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, are compiling a series of maps that will cover the country at a scale of 1:200,000. When completed by the end of the next decade, this set of maps will consist of 57 sheets, each of which will be accompanied by explanatory notes. By the end of 1995, 17 sheets had been published BGR reports on the status of a Federal mineral-resource mapping program.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Boundary Control and Legal Priniciples . Curtis M. Brown , Walter G. Robillard and Donald A. Wilson . Lost Initiatives: Canada's Forest Industries, Forest Policy, and Forest Conservation . R. Peter Gillis and Thomas R. Roach . The Navajo Atlas: Resources, People, and History of the Dine Bikeyah . James M. Goodman . The City and the Sign . M. Gottdiener AND Alexandros Ph . Lagopoulos , EDS. The Comfortable House: North American Suburban Architecture 1890–1930 . Alan Gowans . Arabic-Islamic Cities. Building and Planning Principles . Besim Salim Hakim . Contemporary Climatology . Ann Henderson -Sellers and Peter J. Robinson . A Trace of Desert Waters . Samuel G. Houghton . Geography, Resources and Environment. Vol. 1: Selected Writings of Gilbert F. White. Vol. 2: Themes from the Work of Gilbert F. White . Robert W. Kates AND Ian Burton , ED. Spatial Dimensions of Unemployment and Underemployment (A Case Study of Rural Punjab) . Gopal Krishan . Maps of the Holy Land: Cartobibliography of Printed Maps, 1475–1900 . Compiled by Eran Laor , assisted by Shoshana Klein . The Geography of Third World Cities . Stella Lowder . A Perspective on U.S. Farm Problems and Agricultural Policy . Lance Mc Kinzie , Timothy G. Baker AND Wallace E. Tyner . Soil Erosion and Its Control. R.P.C . Morgan , ED Geopolitics . Patrick O'Sullivan . Landscape, Meanings and Values . Edmund C. Penning -Rowsell AND David Lowenthal , EDS.     

Application of GIS Processing Techniques for Producing Mineral Prospectivity Maps—A Case Study: Mesothermal Au in the Swayze Greenstone Belt,Ontario, Canada

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to prepare and process digital geoscience data in a variety of ways for producing gold prospectivity maps of the Swayze greenstone belt, Ontario, Canada. Data used to produce these maps include geologic, geochemical, geophysical, and remotely sensed (Landsat). A number of modeling methods are used and are grouped into data-driven (weights of evidence, logistic regression) and knowledge-driven (index and Boolean overlay) methods. The weights of evidence (WofE) technique compares the spatial association of known gold prospects with various indicators (evidence maps) of gold mineralization, to derive a set of weights used to produce the final gold prospectivity map. Logistic regression derives statistical information from evidence maps over each known gold prospect and the coefficients derived from regression analysis are used to weight each evidence map. The gold prospectivity map produced from the index overlay process uses a weighting scheme that is derived from input by the geologist, whereas the Boolean method uses equally weighted binary evidence maps.The resultant gold prospectivity maps are somewhat different in this study as the data comprising the evidence maps were processed purposely differently for each modeling method. Several areas of high gold potential, some of which are coincident with known gold prospects, are evident on the gold prospectivity maps produced using all modeling methods. The majority of these occur in mafic rocks within high strain zones, which is typical of many Archean greenstone belts.