Causes of Land Subsidence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The occurrence of land subsidence in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia is either natural or man-made. Natural land subsidence occurs due to the development of subterranean voids by a solution of host rocks in carbonate and evaporite terrains, over many areas of Saudi Arabia. Man-induced land subsidence is either due to the removal of groundwater in the agricultural areas or to wetting of unstable soils. Therefore, earth fissures and a lowering of the ground surface in unconsolidated sediments took place in alluvial plains and volcanic vent terrains. Unstable soils include Sabkha soils and loess sediments. These types of soils occur in coastal plains, desert areas and volcanic terrains. When this soil is wetted either during agricultural activities, waste disposal or even during a rain storm, subsidence takes place due to either the removal of salts from the Sabkha soil or the rearrangement of soil particles in loess sediments.     

我国北方农牧交错带的环境演变

中国北方农牧交错带在１０～８．５ｋａＢ．Ｐ．经历了三次阶段性增暖后进入全新世暖期。８．５～８．０ｋａＢ．Ｐ．和４～３．５ｋａＢ．Ｐ．暖期的开始与结束事件中降水变化落后于温度变化３００～５００ａ；暖期盛期时的年均温较现代高２～３℃，降水多１００ｍｍ左右；暖期中存在多次短期寒冷事件，年均温最冷时较现代低３℃以上。３．５ｋａＢ．Ｐ．以来冷干趋势之上叠加着大致由３００ａ稳定与５００ａ波动构成的约８００ａ的周期性变化。全新世暖期原始农业文化的阶段性发展与暖期内环境波动相对应；暖期结束时发生了由农业向牧业文化转换的事件；暖期以后的冷干期为农牧交错文化时期，农业经济随冷干程度的变化而兴衰     

Simulation Experiments of Land Surface Physical Processes and Ecological Effect over Different Underlying Surface

Based on the existing Land Surface Physical Process Models(Deardorff, Dickinson, LIU, Noilhan, Seller, ZHAO), a Comprehensive Land Surface Physical Process Model (CLSPPM) is developed by considering the different physical processes of the earth‘s surface-vegetation-atmosphere system more completely. Compared with SiB and BATS, which are famous for their detailed parameterizations of physical variables, this simplified model is more convenient and saves much more computation time. Though simple, the feas...     

建设用地地质灾害危险性评估中几个问题的思考

结合工作实践，就建设用地地质灾害危险性评估及其成果审查工作中经常遇到的5个问题——评估灾害类型的确定原则，评估区环境条件分析深度的把握，现状、预测及综合地质灾害危险性评估内容的侧重点，土地适宜性评价的依据以及优秀评估成果的判定标准，提出了个人的理解和认识。供从事类似工作的同志参考。     

Method of high-density seismic imaging ex-ploration and application samples

Introduction Now, shallow seismic reflection wave technique has been used extensively in geological ex-plorations of bridge, dam, high building and so on. Since shallow seismic reflection wave tech-nique is often implemented in industrial zone or city with dense population, the background dis-turbance including industrial noise, life noise, etc is very serious. Furthermore, the disturbance of seismic source is also serious due to short array length and offset of the method. In general, shal-lo…     

土壤的冷生构造及其对阿拉斯加土地利用的意义

Cryogenic structure (patterns made by ice inclusions) in seasonally frozen and permafrost-af-fected soils result from ice formation during freezing. Analysis of cryogenic structures in soils is essential to our understanding of the cryogenic processes in soils and to formulating land use management interpretations. When soils freeze, the freezing front moves downward and attracts water moving upward resulting in mainly horizontal lenticular ice formation. Platy and lenticular soil structures form between ice lenses in upper active layer. The reticular soil structure usually forms above the permafrost table caused by freeze-back of the permafrost. The upward freeze-back resulted in platy soil structure and the volume changes following the annual freeze-thaw cycle resulted in vertical cracks. The combined result is an ice-net formation with mineral soils embedded in the ice net. The upper permafrost layer that used to be a part of the active layer has an ice content exceeding 50% due to repeated freeze-thaw cycles over time. The mineral soils appear in blocks embedded in an ice matrix. The permafrost layer that never experienced the freeze-thaw cycle often consists of alternate layers of thin ice lens and frozen soils with extreme hard consistence and has relatively lower ice content than the ice-rich layer of the upper permafrost. Ice contents and thaw settling potentials associated with each cryogenic structure should be considered in engineering and land use interpretations.     

鄱阳湖区平垸行洪、退田还湖后的防洪减灾形势分析

根据鄱阳湖区“退田还湖”的实际资料，采用洪水模拟的方法分析计算出“退田还湖”降低湖口站洪水位和减少1954年洪水超额分洪量，分析了“退田还湖”后鄱阳湖区的防洪减灾形势，提出应继续加强对鄱阳湖区防洪工程的建设，探讨了“退田还湖”后江湖洪水关系的变化趋势。     

U–Pb geochronology of the southern Brasília belt (SE-Brazil): sedimentary provenance, Neoproterozoic orogeny and assembly of West Gondwana

The Brasília belt borders the western margin of the São Francisco Craton and records the history of ocean opening and closing related to the formation of West Gondwana. This study reports new U–Pb data from the southern sector of the belt in order to provide temporal limits for the deposition and ages of provenance of sediments accumulated in passive margin successions around the south and southwestern margins of the São Francisco Craton, and date the orogenic events leading to the amalgamation of West Gondwana.Ages of detrital zircons (by ID–TIMS and LA-MC-ICPMS) were obtained from metasedimentary units of the passive margin of the São Francisco Craton from the main tectonic domains of the belt: the internal allochthons (Araxá Group in the Áraxá and Passos Nappes), the external allochthons (Canastra Group, Serra da Boa Esperança Metasedimentary Sequence and Andrelândia Group) and the autochthonous or Cratonic Domain (Andrelândia Group). The patterns of provenance ages for these units are uniform and are characterised as follows: Archean–Paleoproterozoic ages (3.4–3.3, 3.1–2.7, and 2.5–2.4 Ga); Paleoproterozoic ages attributed to the Transamazonian event (2.3–1.9 Ga, with a peak at ca. 2.15 Ga) and to the ca. 1.75 Ga Espinhaço rifting of the São Francisco Craton; ages between 1.6 and 1.2 Ga, with a peak at 1.3 Ga, revealing an unexpected variety of Mesoproterozoic sources, still undetected in the São Francisco Craton; and ages between 0.9 and 1.0 Ga related to the rifting event that led to the individualisation of the São Francisco paleo-continent and formation of its passive margins. An amphibolite intercalation in the Araxá Group yields a rutile age of ca. 0.9 Ga and documents the occurrence of mafic magmatism coeval with sedimentation in the marginal basin.Detrital zircons from the autochthonous and parautochthonous Andrelândia Group, deposited on the southern margin of the São Francisco Craton, yielded a provenance pattern similar to that of the allochthonous units. This result implies that 1.6–1.2 Ga source rocks must be present in the São Francisco Craton. They could be located either in the cratonic area, which is mostly covered by the Neoproterozoic epicontinental deposits of the Bambuí Group, or in the outer paleo-continental margin, buried under the allochthonous units of the Brasília belt.Crustal melting and generation of syntectonic crustal granites and migmatisation at ca. 630 Ma mark the orogenic event that started with westward subduction of the São Francisco plate and ended with continental collision against the Paraná block (and Goiás terrane). Continuing collision led to the exhumation and cooling of the Araxá and Passos metamorphic nappes, as indicated by monazite ages of ca. 605 Ma and mark the final stages of tectonometamorphic activity in the southern Brasília belt.Whilst continent–continent collision was proceeding on the western margin of the São Francisco Craton along the southern Brasília belt, eastward subduction in the East was generating the 634–599 Ma Rio Negro magmatic arc which collided with the eastern São Francisco margin at 595–560 Ma, much later than in the Brasília belt. Thus, the tectonic effects of the Ribeira belt reached the southernmost sector of the Brasília belt creating a zone of superposition. The thermal front of this event affected the proximal Andrelândia Group at ca. 588 Ma, as indicated by monazite age.The participation of the Amazonian craton in the assembly of western Gondwana occurred at 545–500 Ma in the Paraguay belt and ca. 500 Ma in the Araguaia belt. This, together with the results presented in this work lead to the conclusion that the collision between the Paraná block and Goiás terrane with the São Francisco Craton along the Brasília belt preceded the accretion of the Amazonian craton by 50–100 million years.     

Fold-Thrust-Belt Structure of the Proterozoic Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt: A Proposed Correlation Between India and Antarctica in Gondwana

The Proterozoic Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt along the east coast of India shares a thrusted lower contact with the surrounding cratons. The thrust, known as the Terrane Boundary shear zone, is associated with two large lateral ramps resulting in a curved outline on the northwestern corner of the mobile belt. The Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt is divided into two lithotectonic units, the Lathore Group and the Turekela Group, based on their lithological assemblages and deformational history. On the basis of published data from a Deep Seismic Sounding (DSS) profile of the Eastern Ghats crust, the Terrane Boundary Shear Zone is considered to be listric in nature and acts as the sole thrust between craton and mobile belt. The Lathore and Turekela Groups are nappes. With this structural configuration the NW part is described as a fold thrust belt. However, the thrusting postdates folding and granulite metamorphism that occurred in the Eastern Ghats, as in the Caledonide type of fold thrust belt of NW Scotland. The Terrane Boundary Shear Zone is interpreted to be contiguous with the Rayner-Napier boundary of the Enderby Land in a Gondwana assembly.     

The Gondwanan Carboniferous-Permian Boundary Revisited: New Data from Australia and Argentina

The identification and correlation of the Carboniferous-Permian (Gzhelian-Asselian) boundary within the sedimentary sequences of Gondwana has always been a topic of debate. Type latest Carboniferous and earliest Permian marine sequences are characterised by warm tropical faunas and come from the Uralian Region of Russia and Kazakhstan. Faunas include conodonts and fusulinid foraminiferids which are prime tools for correlation. Such faunal groups are absent from most Gondwanan sequences where reliance for correlations must be placed primarily on brachiopods, bivalve molluscs and palynology. The Western Australian marine sequences, with their contained ammonoids, provide a pivotal link for the dating and correlating of Early Permian Gondwanan sequences with those of the type regions and their palynostratigraphical record is essential for trans-Australian correlations and correlations elsewhere throughout Gondwanaland.New data from the fully cored DM Tangorin DDHl bore hole, drilled in the Cranky Corner Basin, New South Wales, Australia, reveals a sequence of descending faunal zones. The stratigraphically highest zone with Eurydesrna cordaturn, encompasses the Late Sakmarian (Sterlitamakian). The middle zone with Torniopsis elongata, Sulciplica c r a m and Trigonotreta tangorini straddles the Sterlitamakian-Tastubian boundary, with the palynomorphs Pseudoreticulatispora pseudoreticulata high in the zone and Granulatisporites confluens low in the zone. An impoverished fauna with Trigonotreta nov., low in the Granulatisporites confluens Zone, is probably of latest Asselian or Tastubian age.Significant new data from Argentina has revealed marine faunas from below the occurrence of Granulatisporites confluens. These are considered to be of Asselian age. Outcrops of the Tupe Formation, with a marine fauna, at La Herradura Creek in the western Paganzo Basin, San Juan Province, are best regarded as being of mid to late Asselian age. The Tupe Fauna has been recognised as the Tivertonia jachalensis-Streptorhynchus inaequiornatus Zone. Previously, this fauna was considered to be of Late Carboniferous or Stephanian age. Three faunal associations are known from the Rio del Peii6n Formation, Rio Blanco Basin, La Rioja Province. The middle assemblage with Tivertonia, Costaturnulus, Kochiproductus and Trigonotreta, appears to correlate well with the Tupe Formation fauna. The lower assemblage, with Streptorhynchus, Etherilosia, Costaturnulus, Trigonotreta and a punctate spiriferid, as well as indeterminate productids, probably of Early Asselian age. The youngest assemblage includes a species ofRhynchopora that is close to Rhynchopora australasica from the latest Asselian-early Tastubian of Western Australia. The marine biostratigraphical data from Argentina has enabled a much greater understanding of the earliest Permian marine faunas to be achieved - a story that is apparently absent from the other cold and cool temperate regions of Gondwana.