风积砂毛细现象的试验研究

为了研究颗粒配比对风积砂中毛细现象的影响,本文通过9种不同颗粒配比的风积砂进行室内竖管法毛细水上升高度试验,得出了如下结论:(1)在单一砂样试验中,粗砂(粒径0.5～2 mm)、中砂(粒径0.25～0.5mm)、细砂(粒径0.075～0.25 mm)、粉土(粒径<0.075 mm)的最大毛细水上升高度分别为7.5 cm、16.0 cm、30.5cm、98.0 cm;(2)在混合砂样试验中,中砂和粉土以9:1、8:2、7:3、1:1混合,最大毛细水上升高度分别为32.0 cm、51.0 cm、71.0 cm、73.0 cm。揭示了风积砂平均粒径越小,最大毛细水上升高度越高,并建立了风积砂毛细水上升高度h(cm)-时间t(min)lnh=a(lnt)2+b(lnt)+c形式的预测模型,其中a、b、c是与风积砂物理性质有关的物理量,为生态保护及工程应用提供参考依据。     

Rates of rock surface lowering,Princess Elizabeth land,Eastern Antarctica

A series of micro-erosion-meter sites on different rock types and in differing wind regimes was established and re-read after four years on two sites in the Larsemann and Vestfold Hills. These two oases in Eastern Antarctica are subjected to both wind abrasion and salt wedging. The measurements displayed bimodal distributions, indicating that both abrasion and single-grain detachment could be observed. Surface lowering rates of 0·015 and 0·022 mm a^?1 were demonstrated for the Larsemann and Vestfold Hills, respectively.     

Aeolian system sediment state: theory and Mojave Desert Kelso dune field example

The sediment state of aeolian dune fields and sand seas at a basinal scale is defined by the separate components of sediment supply, sediment availability and the transport capacity of the wind. The sediment supply for aeolian systems is the sediment that contemporaneously or at some later point serves as the source material for the aeolian system. Numerous factors impact the susceptibility of grains on a surface to transport, but these are cumulatively manifested by the actual transport rate, which serves as a proxy for sediment availability. Transport capacity is the potential sediment transport rate of the wind. Because the three aspects of sediment state can be given as a volumetric rate, they are directly comparable. Plotted simultaneously against time, the generated curves define nine possible classes of sediment state. Sediment supply that is stored occurs because it is transport or availability limited, or generated at a rate greater than the potential or actual transport rates respectively. Contemporaneous or lagged influx to an aeolian system may be limited by sediment availability, but cannot exceed the transport capacity of the wind. For the Kelso dune field in the Mojave Desert of California, a variety of stratigraphic and geomorphic evidence is used to approximate the sediment state of the system. The sediment supply was generated during the latest Pleistocene and earliest Holocene during humid periods of enhanced discharge by the Mojave River to form the Lake Mojave fan delta or terminal fan, and has been calculated over time from the sedimentation rate and the frequency of floods. Estimation of transport capacity over time was based upon modern wind data, with an allowance for greater winds during the Pleistocene based upon climatic models. Sediment availability was approximated by calculation of a modern dune mobility index, with variation over time based upon climatic inferences. While quantifying the Kelso or any natural system is subject to numerous uncertainties, the sediment state approach reflects the temporal and spatial disjointed nature of accumulations at Kelso, as well as illuminating questions for future research.     

Climatology of yellow sand (Asian sand, Asian dust or Kosa)in East Asia

In order to study climatology of yellow sand (Asian sand, Asian dust or Kosa) in EastAsia, secular fluctuation in China, Korea and Japan in the recent 30 years was presented. Thenumber of days with sand-dust storm at five stations in China-Hotan, Zhangye, Minqin, Jurhand Beijing, decreases a lot at the former three stations, but changed little at the latter two stations.Suggesting that the recent global warming is more evident in Xinjiang and Gansu, where the fre-quency of cold air invasions from the higher latitudes is decreasing. But, the eastern parts ofMongolia, inner Mongolia, and North China encounter stronger cyclones in early spring as a resultof global warming. These cyclones bring cold air from higher latitudes, causing severe duststorms. Secular variation in the annual days with sand-dust storms in China and Kosa days in Ko-rea and Japan show a parallel change with higher frequency from 1975 to 1985. This may be re-lated to the higher frequency of La Nina years. However, different tendency was shown in theperiod from 1986 to 1996. Since 1996 or 1997, a sharp increase is clear, which may be caused bythe developed cyclones in East Asia as well as human activities, and stronger land degradationunder La Nina conditions. Anomalies of the total number of stations with Kosa days were dis-cussed in accordance with some synoptic meteorological conditions such as the differences be-tween Siberian anticyclone and Aleutian cyclone center at 500 hPa level during the previous winter.     

Beach fetch distance and aeolian sediment transport

An experiment was conducted to examine the influence of fetch distance on aeolian sediment transport on a natural sand beach at Benone Strand, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The site consisted of a wide dissipative beach, approximately 150 m wide at low tide and 80 m wide during high tide. Surface moisture levels (and hence dry fetch distance) were dictated by both local groundwater, from a stream outlet across the beach, as well as local tidal levels. An abundant dry sediment supply was available during the experiment. High-resolution (1 Hz) measurements were made of wind speed and direction along with sediment flux. Wind velocity ranged from 2·1 to 8·1 m s^–1 during the study. Second-order polynomial sand transport equations were derived from the wind speed and trap results with r ² values of better than 0·93 for all data. When the data were sorted into velocity bins of 1 m s^–1, there was no discernible relationship between fetch distance and sand transport, with a measured fetch distance range of 10–58 m available during the experiment. Results show that fetch distance is unimportant when an adequate sand supply is available. However, it is suggested that fetch may restrict the development of steady-state transport under sediment-limited conditions. Sediment availability is thus identified as a key variable in aeolian transport studies on natural beaches.     

Enigmatic clastic pipe swarms and implications for fluidization dynamics in aeolian deposits

Soft‐sediment deformation of contorted and massive sandstone is common throughout much of the siliciclastic record, but clastic pipes represent a distinctive class of pressurized synsedimentary features. Remarkable centimetre to metre‐scale clastic pipe exposures in the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone of Utah (USA) establish a range of pipe sizes, expressions and relationships to the host rock in an erg margin setting, traditionally thought to be just a dry desert system. In particular, the field and laboratory characterizations of cylindrical pipes show internal concentric, annular rings that imply water fluidization, with alignment of long grain axes due to shear flow along pipe margins. Central interior parts of decimetre‐scale pipes appear massive in plan view, but display weakly developed pseudobedding from post‐pressure release, gravitational settling in the cross‐sectional view. Deformation features of conjugate fractures, ring faults, hypotrochoid patterns (geometric arcs and circles) and breccia in the host material reflect both brittle and ductile behaviour in response to the fluidization and injection of the clastic pipes. The stratigraphic context of individual pipes and the stratabound intervals of pipe features imply dynamic deformation nearly coincident with deposition in this Early Jurassic aeolian system related to multiple factors of groundwater expulsion, timing and local host sediment properties that influenced pipe development. Although the pipe features might be easily overlooked as a smaller scale feature of soft‐sediment deformation in dune deposits, these are valuable environmental indications of disrupted fluid pathways within porous, reservoir quality sands, associated with possible combinations of periodic springs, high water‐table conditions and strong ground‐motion events. These pipe examples may be important analogues where exposures are not so clear, with applications to diverse modern and ancient clastic settings internationally on Earth as well as in planetary explorations such as on Mars.     

The use of grain‐size distribution patterns to elucidate aeolian processes on a transverse dune of Thar Desert,India

The grain‐size distribution of aeolian dune sands in the Thar Desert, India was analyzed and compared with three model distributions – log‐normal, log‐hyberbolic and log‐skew‐Laplace – to determine the best‐fit statistical model. In total, 51 samples were collected along a single transect over a transverse dune, of which 15 were from the stoss side, 12 from the crest and 24 from the lee side. Samples were collected during a calm period in the afternoon of a winter's day. It was observed that of these 51 samples, 33 fit best to a log‐hyperbolic distribution, 14 fit best to a normal distribution and only four fit best to a Laplace distribution. However, it was further observed that of 24 samples from the lee side, 13 fit best to a normal distribution, eight fit best to a hyperbolic distribution, and three fit best to a Laplace distribution. Of 12 samples from the crest of the dune, 11 fit best to the log‐hyperbolic distribution, only one to the Laplace distribution but none to a normal distribution. Of 15 samples from the stoss side of the dune, only one sample best‐fits a normal distribution, 14 fit best to a log‐hyperbolic distribution, and none best fit to a Laplace distribution. During sample collection a calm period prevailed and there was no dusty wind. It was therefore assumed that in the initial stage a mixture of coarse, medium and fine sands was laid down on the stoss side of the dune. As wind speeds increased and saltation started, the coarser fractions were segregated and lagged behind on the stoss slope. In the final stage when the remaining intermediate and finer fractions reached the dune crest, the finer fractions were winnowed away to suspension from the crest of the dune. As a result, a narrow range of intermediate sized sediments was deposited by rolling down the lee side to explain the development of log‐normality. In such a situation, both the coarser and finer fractions, to which the skewed distributions can be attributed, are separated from the initial mixture of coarse, intermediate and fine fractions. Hence the main criteria for the development of a normal distribution is the lack of skewed fractions and the concentration of the narrow, intermediate size fractions in the final grain size distribution. This is also corroborated with the index of symmetry, which is a measure of the difference between the angle of two slopes of the hyperbolic distribution as represented by the coarser and finer fractions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heterogeneous Saltation: Theory, Observation and Comparison

In the theory of saltation, under development since the 1940s, it is often assumed that saltation is homogeneous, i.e., saltating particles are uniform in size and follow identical trajectories. This assumption is a limitation to the development of saltation theory. In this paper, as in some other studies made since the 1980s, we are concerned with the saltation of multi-sized particles in turbulent flows, a process that we refer to as heterogeneous saltation. The theory deals with several questions, including the variation of particle size distribution with height, the entrainment rates of particles in different size ranges, and the associated profiles of saltation flux, particle momentum flux and particle concentration. It is hypothesised that saltation is dynamically similar and ‘universal’ similarity functions can be established. The similarity function for saltation flux is presented. Field observations are carried out at the southern fringe of the Takla Makan Desert in April 2002. Measurements of streamwise saltation flux of 32 particle size groups are made using a sand particle counter, together with measurements of wind speed and other atmospheric variables. These data are used to validate the saltation theory, by examining whether the observed saltation flux and particle size distribution can be reproduced. It is shown that the theory is promising in predicting these quantities.     

Field measurement and numerical modelling of aeolian mass flux distributions on a sandy beach

ABSTRACT The vertical and horizontal distributions of aeolian mass flux were measured at Oceano Dunes, California, and these data were used to evaluate a numerical model of saltation. Grain‐size analyses showed that the distributions of the modal sediment size class corresponded closely to those of the total sediment population, and modelling thus focused on replicating the distributions of the mean grain size. Although much previous work has assumed that the mean launch speed of saltating particles varies in proportion to shear velocity, simulations using a constant mean launch speed were found to yield the closest approximations to the mass flux distributions observed in the field. Both exponential and gamma distributions of launch velocity produced realistic simulations, although the latter approach required the inclusion of an additional reptation component to achieve good results. A range of mean launch angles and an equivalent sphere correction were also found to generate comparable results, providing the other input parameters could be varied freely. All the modelling approaches overestimated the proportion of mass flux occurring at the bottom of the vertical distributions, and underestimated the proportion occurring at the upwind end of the horizontal distributions. No theoretical shortcoming that would account for these small, but systematic, discrepancies could be identified, and experimental error thus represents a more plausible explanation. The conclusion that mean grain launch speeds are essentially constant and independent of shear velocity suggests that the additional kinetic energy extracted by grains under more energetic wind conditions is largely transferred to the bed, and that increases in the transport rate are therefore driven primarily by the ejection of additional grains. It is suggested that the kinetic energy of rebounding grains is constrained by the ability of the bed to resist deformation, equivalent to a plastic limit. Hence, grains of larger mass (diameter) rebound from the bed at lower speeds, and follow shorter, lower trajectories, as has been widely observed previously.     

Late Quaternary paleoenvironments and paleoclimatic conditions in the distal Andean piedmont, southern Mendoza, Argentina

The Andean piedmont of Mendoza is a semiarid region covered by extensive and partially vegetated dune fields consisting of mostly inactive aeolian landforms of diverse size and morphology. This paper is focused on the San Rafael plain (SRP) environment, situated in the distal Andean piedmont of Mendoza (34° 30′S), and reports the sedimentology and OSL chronology of two representative exposures of late Quaternary deposits, including their paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic significance. Eleven facies, including channel, floodplain, fluvio–aeolian interaction, and reworked pyroclastic and aeolian deposits, were described and grouped into two facies associations (FA1 and FA2). FA1 was formed by unconfined sheet flows, minor channelized streams and fluvial–aeolian interaction processes. FA2 was interpreted as aeolian dune and sand-sheet deposits. OSL chronology from the SRP sedimentary record indicates that between ca. 58–39 ka and ca. 36–24 ka (MIS 3), aggradation was governed by ephemeral fluvial processes (FA1) under generally semiarid conditions. During MIS 2, the last glacial maximum (ca. 24–12 ka), a major climatic shift to more arid conditions is documented by significant aeolian activity (FA2) that became the dominant sedimentation process north of the Diamante–Atuel fluvial system. The inferred paleoenvironmental conditions from the SRP sections are in broad agreement with regional evidence.