BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: The Mexican Colonial Copper Industry. Elinore M. Barrett . The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society . James R. Beniger . Land Degradation and Society . Piers M. Blaikie And Harold C. Brookfield , Eds . La carte, mode d'emploi. Roger Brunet . France: les dynamiques du territoire . Roger Brunet AND Jacques Sallois , EDS. At the Crossroads—The Mineral Problems of the United States . Eugene N. Cameron . A Census of One Billion People , Papers for International Seminar on China's 1982 Population Census. Li Chengrui , ED. Les Milieux “Naturels” du Globe . Jean Demangeot . The Geophysiology of Amazonia: Vegetation and Climate Interactions : Robert E. Dickinson , ED. Tenn-Tom Country . James F. Doster And David C. Weaver . Family Farming in Europe and America . Boguslaw Galeski And Eugene Wilkening , EDS. The Geography of Urban Transportation . Susan Hanson , Ed. Combating Desertification in Developing Countries . J. K. Jain , ED. Cartography in France—1660–1848. Science, Engineering and Statecraft . Josef W. Konvitz . Distribution of Distances in Pregeographical Space . Hans Kuiper . Physical Geography Lab Manual: A New Experimental Approach . Neal G. Lineback And John M. Harlin . Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation , 2nd ed. Tom L. Mc Knight . The Desert Is No Lady: Southwestern Landscapes in Women's Writing and Art . Vera Norwood And Janice Monk , EDS. France: A Geographical, Social, and Economic Survey . Philippe Pinchemel , translated, by D. Elkins and T. H. Elkins. Gene Banks and the World's Food . Donald L. Plucknett , Nigel J. H. Smith , J. T. Williams , And N. Murthi Anishetty . Latin American Development: Geographical Perspectives . David Preston , Ed. Making Sense of Development: An Introduction to Classical and Contemporary Theories of Development and Their Application to Southeast Asia . P. W. Preston . The History of the Countryside. Oliver Rackham . The Third World in Perspective . H. A. Reitsma AND J. M. G. Kleinpenning . The Industrial Geography of Australia . David C. Rich . The Recruiting Game , 2nd Ed., revised. John F. Rooney , JR. A Cultural Geography of North American Indians . Thomas E. Ross AND Tyrel G. Moore , EDS. Eastern Europe . Dean S. Rugg . Human Territoriality: Its Theory and History . Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography: 7. Robert David Sack . Experimental Fluvial Geomorphology . Stanley A. Schumm , M. Paul Mosley , AND William E. Weaver . The New Urban Landscape . David Schuyler . Atlas of American Women . Barbara Gimla Shortridge . Impacts of Hazardous Technology: The Psycho-Social Effects of Restarting TMI-1 . John Sorensen , Jon Soderstrom , Emily Copenhaver , Sam Carnes AND Robert Bolin . Modern Physical Geography , 3rd Ed., (Third Edition). Arthur N. Strahler AND Alan H. Strahler . India: Economic Resource Base and Contemporary Political Patterns . B. L. Sukhwal .     

A constraint to the Wisconsinan glacial history,Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Thick ice-bearing permafrost is not observed today beneath the deeper channels of the central Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Analysis of a precision temperature log recently obtained at an offshore well near Ellef Ringnes Island indicates that the thermal regime beneath the seabed is in equilibrium with today's marine environment. If thick permafrost similar to that observed on land today had existed in the Pleistocene in areas that are presently offshore, then such permafrost must have started melting no later than 25000 years ago in order to allow the present thermal regime to evolve. This suggests that the inter-island channels must have been water-filled at least by that date.     

ENHANCING AND USING A SENSE OF PLACE WITHIN URBAN AREAS: A ROLE FOR APPLIED CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

Basic concepts of cultural historical geography have been applied to a variety of community issues in St. Paul, MN. Through the process a sense of place has been developed at several scales. This inclusive sense of place has provided a link among various factions and made possible several compromises in land use and economic development issues. Most of the work was done through undergraduate field seminars.     

Geomorphological and Pedological Investigations on the Glacial History of the Kali Gandaki (Nepal Himalaya)

In semi-arid orographic left tributaries of the Kali Gandaki at the northern and western flank of the Nilgiri Himal, glacio-geomorphological and pedological investigations were carried out on prehistoric moraines. Geomorphological relief analysis was derived from other literature and the own fieldwork of the author. The resulting glacial chronology was used as benchmark to explore the limits of different pedological dating methods regarding the degree of soil development. These methods are based on iron fractionation, total element contents and particle size distribution. In general the different glacial stages are mirrored correctly in the relative graduation of soil development. The ratio of well crystallised pedogenic iron-oxides to the total iron content and the ratio fine clay to total clay are most suitable, because they are almost independent from existing changes in the lithological composition. The total element based weathering indices are less suitable, because they react highly sensitive to the geology dependent shift to higher carbonate contents. Most of the grain size based weathering indices are inapplicable because of the typically high textural variability within till deposits.     

Application of the EnKF and Localization to Automatic History Matching of Facies Distribution and Production Data

The performance of the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) for continuous updating of facies location and boundaries in a reservoir model based on production and facies data for a 3D synthetic problem is presented. The occurrence of the different facies types is treated as a random process and the initial distribution was obtained by truncating a bi-Gaussian random field. Because facies data are highly non-Gaussian, re-parameterization was necessary in order to use the EnKF algorithm for data assimilation; two Gaussian random fields are updated in lieu of the static facies parameters. The problem of history matching applied to facies is difficult due to (1) constraints to facies observations at wells are occasionally violated when productions data are assimilated; (2) excessive reduction of variance seems to be a bigger problem with facies than with Gaussian random permeability and porosity fields; and (3) the relationship between facies variables and data is so highly non-linear that the final facies field does not always honor early production data well. Consequently three issues are investigated in this work. Is it possible to iteratively enforce facies constraints when updates due to production data have caused them to be violated? Can localization of adjustments be used for facies to prevent collapse of the variance during the data-assimilation period? Is a forecast from the final state better than a forecast from time zero using the final parameter fields?To investigate these issues, a 3D reservoir simulation model is coupled with the EnKF technique for data assimilation. One approach to enforcing the facies constraint is continuous iteration on all available data, which may lead to inconsistent model states, incorrect weighting of the production data and incorrect adjustment of the state vector. A sequential EnKF where the dynamic and static data are assimilated sequentially is presented and this approach seems to have solved the highlighted problems above. When the ensemble size is small compared to the number of independent data, the localized adjustment of the state vector is a very important technique that may be used to mitigate loss of rank in the ensemble. Implementing a distance-based localization of the facies adjustment appears to mitigate the problem of variance deficiency in the ensembles by ensuring that sufficient variability in the ensemble is maintained throughout the data assimilation period. Finally, when data are assimilated without localization, the prediction results appear to be independent of the starting point. When localization is applied, it is better to predict from the start using the final parameter field rather than continue from the final state.     

冀中坳陷武清凹陷苏50井石炭-二叠纪煤系的成烃演化

基于对武清凹陷苏50井的石炭-二叠纪煤系的构造—埋藏史研究,结合磷灰石裂变径迹测试及矿物包裹体分析,运用EASY%Ro数值模拟技术,研究了苏50井石炭-二叠系烃源岩的生烃演化历史,揭示了苏50井处石炭-二叠系烃源岩曾发生过3次重要的生烃作用过程,分别发生在海西-印支期、燕山期与喜马拉雅晚期,主要生烃作用发生在喜马拉雅晚期,并指出武清凹陷是华北石炭-二叠系煤成气勘探的有利地区之一。     

Failures Associated with the 2004 Mindulle Typhoon in Taiwan

On July 2, 2004, a 2000-km southwest air current following the Mindulle Typhoon caused serious damages to infrastructures in Taiwan. The disaster resulted in extensive geological and structural failures, mainly as a result of debris flow. Some of the sites were subjected to types of repeated failures compared to previous typhoons. Some structural failures were attributed to geotechnical failures. It is decided to document and identify causes for some of these major failures triggered by typhoons. The case history showed significant implications to future disaster prevention and management works. New challenges were posed in geotechnical engineering design in encountering rainfall-induced failures.     

喀喇昆仑断裂带走滑过程中伴随的快速隆升作用:热年代学证据

喀喇昆仑断裂带是青藏高原西部的一条大型右旋走滑断裂带,它是喜马拉雅山脉西段北侧重要的地质边界.本文在岩石学、变形构造的研究基础上,对喀喇昆仑断裂带东南段阿伊拉日居山-噶尔盆地地区的喀喇昆仑韧性剪切带中变质岩石的同构造矿物进行了40Ar/39Ar热年代学研究.显微构造研究表明,剪切带中的矿物记录了从高温(>600℃)到低温(<250℃)条件下的连续变形,表现为近水平的右旋剪切运动转变成斜向的右旋正滑,使绿片岩相的变形作用叠加在中-高温变形之上.暗示出走滑过程中存在隆升作用,热年代学结果显示其连续剪切变形作用从早中新世以来至少持续到4Ma,并且出现三个快速冷却阶段:第一个快速冷却阶段为从25～22Ma到21～18Ma期间,可能代表的是浅部高温剪切过程中变形局部停止或减慢的过程;第二个快速冷却时期为从15Ma到12～10Ma,是喀喇昆仑断裂带走滑过程中,阿伊拉日居山的快速隆升、噶尔盆地开始形成以及主要河流深切过程阶段;9Ma以来是第三个快速冷却过程,使阿伊拉日居山脉进一步快速隆升、噶尔盆地定形过程.根据不同年代地表地貌特征的右旋错位距离以及不同层次变形特征,估算出喀喇昆仑断裂带长期滑移速率为8～10mm/a,伴随的隆升速率为1mm/a.从显微构造和热年代学证据表明,晚第四纪以来该断裂经历了强烈的右旋走滑运动的同时伴随强烈的隆升作用.     

Francisco José de Caldas's Unaccomplished Life-Project – His Map Provincias Unidas de la Nueva Granada, 1811/ 1815

The first attempted republican map of present-day Colombia remained unachieved. Francisco José de Caldas worked on it since 1797 and, come the revolution and Nueva Granada's republican inception, he prepared two successive cartouches to introduce it: the first one in 1811, the latter in 1815. Finally entitled Provincias de la Nueva Granada, Caldas's map remains understudied. In this article, I establish its basic cartographic parameters, discuss the political context of its unfinished making and link it to its pertinent cartographic precedents.