Web-based visualization of large 3D urban building models

Adaptive rendering of large urban building models has become an important research issue in three-dimensional (3D) geographic information system (GIS) applications. This study explores a way for rendering web-based 3D urban building models. A client–server hybrid rendering approach is presented for large 3D city models, stored on a remote server through a network. The approach combines an efficient multi-hierarchical building representation with a novel image-based method, 3D image impostor generated on demand by a remote server. This approach allows transferring complex scenes progressively while keeping high visualization quality. We also evaluated the rendering and data transferring performance of the proposed approach.     

Texture augmented detection of macrophyte species using decision trees

Image classification using multispectral sensors has shown good performance in detecting macrophytes at the species level. However, species level classification often does not utilize the texture information provided by high resolution images. This study investigated whether image texture provides useful vector(s) for the discrimination of monospecific stands of three floating macrophyte species in Quickbird imagery of the South Nation River. Semivariograms indicated that window sizes of 5 × 5 and 13 × 13 pixels were the most appropriate spatial scales for calculation of the grey level co-occurrence matrix and subsequent texture attributes from the multispectral and panchromatic bands. Of the 214 investigated vectors (13 Haralick texture attributes * 15 bands + 9 spectral bands + 10 transformations/indices), feature selection determined which combination of spectral and textural vectors had the greatest class separability based on the Mann–Whitney U-test and Jefferies–Matusita distance. While multispectral red and near infrared (NIR) performed satisfactorily, the addition of panchromatic-dissimilarity slightly improved class separability and the accuracy of a decision tree classifier (Kappa: red/NIR/panchromatic-dissimilarity – 93.2% versus red/NIR – 90.4%). Class separability improved by incorporating a second texture attribute, but resulted in a decrease in classification accuracy. The results suggest that incorporating image texture may be beneficial for separating stands with high spatial heterogeneity. However, the benefits may be limited and must be weighed against the increased complexity of the classifier.     

Investigating the land use characteristics of urban integration based on remote sensing data: experience from Guangzhou and Foshan

Abstract

Urban integration is an increasingly popular phenomenon. It is important to characterize the dynamic processes of urban integration from the perspective of geography. However, previous studies mainly focussed on the overall characteristics of a single entity and failed to consider inter-city influences. Therefore, this study aims to systematically investigate this phenomenon. Firstly, spatial clustering technique and landscape metric were used to analyze the temporal change of spatial layout. Secondly, we built multiple ring buffers of city boundary to reveal the directional differences in urban expansion. Lastly, we compared the observed land use data with the results simulated by cellular automata model. These experiments have shown that the urban expansion characteristics during the urban integration process are rather different from those of a single city, and the above methodology can effectively characterize the urban integration phenomenon. The successful example of Guangzhou–Foshan integration could also provide practical experience for other similar attempts.     

Space,time, and situational awareness in natural hazards: a case study of Hurricane Sandy with social media data

ABSTRACT

Various methods have been developed to investigate the geospatial information, temporal component, and message content in disaster-related social media data to enrich human-centric information for situational awareness. However, few studies have simultaneously analyzed these three dimensions (i.e. space, time, and content). With an attempt to bring a space–time perspective into situational awareness, this study develops a novel approach to integrate space, time, and content dimensions in social media data and enable a space–time analysis of detailed social responses to a natural disaster. Using Markov transition probability matrix and location quotient, we analyzed the Hurricane Sandy tweets in New York City and explored how people’s conversational topics changed across space and over time. Our approach offers potential to facilitate efficient policy/decision-making and rapid response in mitigations of damages caused by natural disasters.     

菲律宾三宝颜省巴哟铁矿类型及分布特征初探

巴哟磁铁矿矿化露头多,矿床小而散,属风化残坡积型,原生矿成因类型较复杂,成矿地质条件良好,铁矿找矿潜力较大,具大型富铁矿找矿远景。     

无机生油假说及其在中国的应用前景

无机生油假说认为,原油和天然气和近地表的生物物质没有根本联系,它们是生成于地幔内的非生物来源的碳氢化合物。因而油气不是一个不可再生资源,而是一个可再生资源。无机生油假说得到地质学、物理学和化学等三个基本学科的支持。在地质观察上,发现全球许多大油田的油气储藏与原始生物物质之间数量上有巨大落差,难于解释它们是由生物生成的。此外,有许多地区在结晶基底或变质基底内,或直接位于其上的沉积岩中发现石油。从生物生油假说来说,也是无法理解的。在化学上,早在二战期间,德国已由人工合成石油(费托合成),并生产了占德国战争中用油的9%的石油。无可争辩地说明,无机可以生成石油。根据化学(物理学)热力学理论分析确认,甲烷是唯一一种在标准温压条件(温度为298.15 K;压力为101325 Pa)下稳定的碳氢化合物,从甲烷形成正常烷属烃只有在压力>3×106kPa、温度>700°C时(相当于地下深度约100 km)才有可能。在地壳内的温压条件下由生物变质形成石油的假说,与化学热力学的基本原则相抵触。从氧化的有机分子,如碳水化合物(C6H12O6)形成较高的碳氢化合物在任何条件下都是不可能的。根据我国长期对深部构造的研究,笔者认为在中国东部及西太平洋蘑菇云岩石圈地幔发育的地区是寻找巨型无机油气田的有利地区,建议在发育蘑菇云岩石圈地幔地区开展无机油气田的勘探,并在无机油气田远景地区布置超深参数钻,以评价含油气远景。另外建议加强物探工作,尤其是研究地震勘探处理基底内三维含油气构造的技术。     

Age and nature of the late Early Cretaceous Zhaga Formation,northern Tibet: constraints on when the Bangong–Nujiang Neo-Tethys Ocean closed

This article reports the depositional environment, provenance, and U–Pb zircon age constraints for the newly identified Zhaga Formation in northern Tibet and uses these to better understand the tectonic evolution of the Bangong–Nujiang suture. One transect across the Zhaga Formation was investigated. The Zhaga Formation is ~2 km thick, dominated by greywacke and conglomerate at the base, basalt and limestone in the middle, and greywacke and shale at the top. Greywacke in the Zhaga Formation typically contains 70–75% quartz, 5% feldspar, 3–5% rock debris, and >15% matrix, with normal grading and convolute bedding, basal flow structures, and distinct Bouma sequences interpreted as bathyal to abyssal turbidites. One rhyolite sample and one greywacke sample from the studied transect were collected for zircon U–Pb dating. The rhyolite yields a concordia age of 118 Ma, and the greywacke yields nine age peaks of 247, 330, 459, 541, 611, 941, 1590, 1871, and 2482 Ma, indicating that the Zhaga Formation formed during the late Early Cretaceous and the provenance of its detritus was the Qiangtang area. These data, combined with the Early Cretaceous ocean islands, indicates that the Bangong–Nujiang Neo-Tethys Ocean must have been open during the late Early Cretaceous. We conclude that the Bangong–Nujiang Neo-Tethys Ocean closed after the late Early Cretaceous and not during the Late Jurassic or the early Early Cretaceous as proposed by previous workers.     

Petrogenesis of early Silurian intrusions in the Sanchakou area of Eastern Tianshan,Northwest China,and tectonic implications: geochronological,geochemical, and Hf isotopic evidence

ABSTRACT

Palaeozoic intrusions in Eastern Tianshan are important for understanding the evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). The Sanchakou intrusions situated in Eastern Tianshan (southern CAOB), are mainly quartz diorite and granodiorite. A comprehensive study of zircon U–Pb ages, zircon trace elements, whole-rock geochemistry, and Lu–Hf isotopes were carried out for the Sanchakou intrusive rocks. LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb dating yielded crystallization ages of 439.7 ± 2.5 Ma (MSWD = 0.63, n = 21) for the quartz diorite, and 430.9 ± 2.5 Ma (MSWD = 0.21, n = 21) and 425.5 ± 2.7 Ma (MSWD = 0.04; n = 20) for the granodiorites. These data, in combination with other Silurian ages reported for the intrusive suites from Eastern Tianshan, indicate an early Palaeozoic magmatic event in the orogen. In situ zircon Hf isotope data for the Sanchakou quartz diorite shows ε_Hf(t) values of +11.2 to +19.6, and the two granodioritic samples exhibit similar ε_Hf(t) values from +13.0 to +19.5. The Sanchakou plutons show metaluminous to weakly peraluminous, arc-type geochemical and low-K tholeiite affinities, and display trace element patterns characterized by enrichment in K, Ba, Sr, and Sm, and depletion in Nb, Ta, Pb, and Ti. The geochemical and isotopic signatures indicate that the Sanchakou dioritic and granodioritic magmas were sourced from a subducted oceanic slab, and subsequently underwent some interaction with peridotite in the mantle wedge. Combined with the regional geological history, we suggest the Sanchakou intrusions formed due to the northward subduction of the Palaeo-Tianshan Ocean beneath the Dananhu–Tousuquan arc during early Silurian time.     

Origin and geodynamic environments of the metamorphic sole rocks from the İzmir–Ankara–Erzincan suture zone (Tokat,northern Turkey)

ABSTRACT

The Late Cretaceous accretionary complex of the ?zmir–Ankara–Erzincan suture zone, near Artova, is composed mainly of peridotites (variably serpentinized), amphibolite, garnet-micaschist, calc-schist, marble, basalt, sandstones, neritic limestones. The metamorphic rocks were interpreted as the metamorphic sole rocks occurring at the base of mantle tectonites, because: (i) amphibolites were observed together with the serpentinized peridotites suggesting their occurrences in the oceanic environment; (ii) foliation in amphibolites and serpentinized peridotites run subparallel to each other; (iii) all these metamorphic rocks and serpentinized peridotites are cross-cut by the unmetamorphosed dolerite dikes with island arc tholeiite-like chemistry. Geochemical characteristics of the amphibolites display enriched mid-ocean ridge basalt (E-MORB)- and ocean island basalt (OIB)-like signatures. The dolerite dikes, on the other hand, yield an island arc tholeiite-like composition. Geothermobarometric investigations of the metamorphic sole rocks suggest that the metamorphic temperature was ~650 ± 30°C and the pressure condition was less than 0.5 GPa. Dating of hornblende grains from amphibolite yielded age values ranging from 139 ± 11 to 157 ± 3.6 Ma (2σ). The oldest weighted average age value is regarded as approximating the timing of the intra-oceanic subduction. These cooling ages were interpreted to be the intra-oceanic subduction/thrusting time of the ?zmir–Ankara–Erzincan oceanic domain.     

New LA-ICPMS U–Pb ages of detrital zircons from the Highland Complex: insights into late Cryogenian to early Cambrian (ca. 665–535 Ma) linkage between Sri Lanka and India

ABSTRACT

Here we report new LA-ICPMS U–Pb zircon geochronology of ultrahigh temperature (UHT) metasedimentary rocks and associated crystallized melt patches, from the central Highland Complex (HC), Sri Lanka. The detrital zircon ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age spectra range between 2834 ± 12 and 722 ± 14 Ma, evidencing new and younger depositional ages of sedimentary protoliths than those known so far in the HC. The overgrowth domains of zircons in these UHT granulites yield weighted mean ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age clusters from 665.5 ± 5.9 to 534 ± 10 Ma, identified as new metamorphic ages of the metasediments in the HC. The zircon ages of crystallized in situ melt patches associated with UHT granulites yield tight clusters of weighted mean ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U ages from 558 ± 1.6 to 534 ± 2.4 Ma. Thus, using our results coupled with recently published geochronological data, we suggest a new geochronological framework for the evolutionary history of the metasedimentary package of the HC. The Neoarchean to Neoproterozoic ages of detrital zircons indicate that the metasedimentary package of the HC has derived from ancient multiple age provenances and deposited during the Neoproterozoic Era. Hence, previously reported upper intercept ages of ca. 2000–1800 Ma from metaigneous rocks should be considered as geochronological evidence for existence of a Palaeoproterozoic igneous basement which possibly served as a platform for the deposition of younger supracrustal rocks, rather than timing of magmatic intrusions into the already deposited ancient sediments, as has been conventionally interpreted. The intense reworking of entire Palaeoproterozoic basement rocks in the Gondwana Supercontinent assembly may have caused sediments of multiple ages and provenances to incorporate within supra-crustal sequences of the HC. Further, our data supports a convincing geochronological correlation between the HC of Sri Lanka and the Trivandrum Block of Southern India, disclosing the Gondwanian linkage between the HC of Sri Lanka and Southern Granulite Terrain of India.