Lateral migration,thermoluminescence chronology and colour variation of longitudinal dunes near Birdsville in the Simpson Desert,central Australia

The longitudinal dunes of the Simpson Desert, in the vicinity of Birdsville, have been reworked largely during the Holocene from dunes deposited up to 80000 years ago or earlier. The widespread asymmetry of these roughly northward-trending dunes, with steeper eastern faces and more gentle western faces, supports wind-rose data showing sand-transporting winds from the southwest obliquely intersecting the dunes. While this suggests a change in the wind pattern since the dune field was oriented, it does not indicate that the dunes are necessarily shifting leeward (eastward) as a consequence. It is hypothesized that the direction of migration is controlled by the extent to which the dunes are vegetated. Relatively well-vegetated dunes can accrete sand on their gentle stoss slopes and erode on their lee slopes causing them to shift westward and hence obliquely into the wind, a condition that probably prevails in wetter regions and during episodes of relatively humid climate. In contrast, in very dry areas or during arid phases, sand can move unimpeded up a sparsely vegetated stoss face and over the crest to form an avalanche or slip face on the lee side, thereby causing the dunes to shift eastward. Despite evidence that longitudinal dune crests can shift laterally to some extent, the dunes in the western part of the Simpson Desert have not migrated, either westward or eastward, more than 100m or so from their Pleistocene cores. Aeolian transport and partial or complete removal of iron cutans from around quartz grains results in dunes of widely varying colour yet of similar age.     

新地震区划图的几个基本问题

我国新的地震区划图(1990年版)是采用地震危险性慨率分析方法编制的。该图给出的是场点地震烈度值,该值在50年内被突破的概率为0.1。人们普遍关注该图与我国曾经编制的地震区划图(1957年版,1977年版)的区别,该图超越概率概念的内含和外延以及超越概率水平为什么采用50年超越概率0.1。本文围绕这些问题进行了讨论。分析结果表明,前两张地震区划图编图的基本着眼点都是地震预测,而新的地震区划着眼于场点的地震动预测。新的地震区划图是按场点地震危险性分析方法给出的,它所表示的地震危险性只能针对具体的场点,不能完全反映区域的地震危险性特征。而弄清场点地震危险性和区域地震危险性的差异是正确进行区域防灾对策的基础。作者希望这些讨论能对正确使用新的地震区划图有所裨益。     

A field study of the coupled effects of aquifer stratification,fluid density,and groundwater fluctuations on dispersivity assessments

A number of experimental studies have tackled the issue of solute transport parameter assessments either in the laboratory or in the field. But yet, the behavior of a plume in the field under density driven forces, is not well known due to possible development of instabilities. Some field tracer tests on the fate of plumes denser than native groundwater such as those encountered under waste disposal facilities, have pointed out the processes of sinking and splitting at the early stage of migration. The process of dispersion was widely investigated, but the range of dispersivity values obtained from either experimental tests, or numerical and theoretical calculations is still very large, even for the same type of aquifers. These discrepancies were considered to be essentially caused by soil heterogeneities and scale effects. In the meantime, studies on the influence of sinking and fingering have remained more scarce. The objective of the work is to analyze how transport parameters such as dispersivities can be affected by unstable conditions, which lead to plume sinking and fingering. A series of tracer tests were carried out to study under natural conditions, the transport of a dense chloride solution injected in a shallow two-layered aquifer. Two types of experiments were performed: in the first type, source injection was such that the plume could travel downward from one layer to the other of higher pore velocity, and in the second one, the migration took place only in the faster layer. The results suggest some new insights in the processes occurring at the early stages of a dense plume migration moving in a stratified aquifer under groundwater fluctuations, which can be summarized through the following points: (i) Above a stability criterion threshold, a fingering process and a multi modal plume transport take place, but local dispersivities can be cautiously derived, using breakthrough curves matching. (ii) When water table is subject to some cycling or rising, the plume can be significantly distorted in the transverse direction, leading to unusual values of the ratio between longitudinal and transverse dispersivities. (iii) Under stable conditions, for example in the case of straightforward injection in the faster aquifer layer, longitudinal dispersivity is greater than the transverse component as usually encountered, and the obtained transport parameters are closed to macro dispersivity values, which reach their asymptotic limit at very short distances. (iv) The classical scale effect about the varying dispersivity at short distances could be a process mainly due to the distance required for a plume stabilization.     

东北地区平均、最高、最低气温时空变化特征及对比分析

东北地区是我国受全球气候变暖影响增温最显著的地区之一,有其独特的气候变化特点。利用东北地区建国以来较密集的气象观测资料,运用Yamamoto检测、趋势系数、气候倾向率等方法分析了该区域近44 a来平均、最高、最低气温的时空变化特征和规律,并初步探讨了这些变化的差异和可能影响因素。结果表明:近44 a来,东北地区平均气温存在明显的变暖倾向,气候变暖趋势存在着季节性和地域性差异。冬季增温最强,秋季增温最弱;区域变化表现为在区域中心区域,即吉林、黑龙江、内蒙古三省交界区增温趋势最明显,辽宁中部和内蒙古东部的中心靠近边境区域为增温较弱的地区;最低气温的增温率是最高气温的2倍左右。     

江淮流域夏季典型旱涝年大气中的水汽输送和收支

该文利用NCEP/NCAR再分析资料对中国东部区域1991年和1994年这两个夏季旱涝典型年的降水状况、水汽输送及收支状况等进行了综合定量对比分析,结果表明:江淮流域夏季旱涝形势的形成更多地取决于流经其上的东西向水汽输送的变化。南亚夏季风强弱的变化对江淮流域的旱涝形成可能具有更为重要的影响。中国东部夏季的偏西水汽输送主要来自西南地区西边界,江淮流域夏季干旱年该地区西边界的水汽输入明显比洪涝年减少,因而在未来的中国东部旱涝预测中要特别重视西南地区西边界的水汽输送状况。     

Carbon isotope composition of the Lower Triassic marine carbonates, Lower Yangtze Region, South China

The Early Triassic is a critical period in earth his- tory. A series of events such as volcano eruptions[1,2], sea-level fluctuations, changes in environmental con- ditions[3], mass extinctions[4,5] as well as global negative carbon isotope excursions[6-9] have been discovered in the uppermost Permian or across the Permian-Triassic boundary. Large scale sea-level rise[10-12], restoration of environment conditions, re- covery of ecosystem[13], including gradual carbon iso- tope rise[14] occur…     

西北地区近期地壳水平运动与构造变形特征

利用截止2004年的西北地区GPS和跨祁连-龙首山构造带的红外测距观测资料，借助最小二乘配置、弹性块体边界负位错模型及单一力源反演，研究昆仑山口西8．1级大震前后西北地区水平形变应变场的动态演化特征；尤其是大震3年后，即当前的构造形变与应力场态势；获取活动块体及其边界断裂上可能反映中强以上孕震背景的高应变能积累区、段，以及可能的潜在震源。结果表明：青藏块体北缘地区经8．1级大震后的短期松弛和调整，目前正在恢复印度板块北东向碰撞推挤背景场的主控作用。而北天山构造带中段及其与西段的交汇区、南天山构造带中西段及其与西昆仑构造带的交汇区、阿尔金断裂中段、祁连山构造带中东段及其与海原断裂的交汇区、西秦岭北缘断裂与庄浪河断裂东南延伸线的交汇区域等具有相对高应变能积累背景；临泽与海原这两个地区也反映一定程度的应变能积累状态。     

标记分水岭算法及区域合并的遥感图像分割

传统的分水岭算法通常对梯度图像进行无标记分割，其结果是容易造成过度分割。本文采用了一种基于标记的分水岭算法，首先,利用Sobel边缘算子对原遥感图像进行梯度重建，获得梯度幅值图像，同时计算待分割区域的周长、面积和形态因子，并对其进行标记； 然后,利用距离函数图标定种子法和等值线跟踪法获得初始分割图像； 最后，利用改进的区域合并方法获得最终的分割结果。实验结果表明了该方法的有效性。     

Everyday effects, practices and causal mechanisms of ‘cultural embeddedness’: Learning from Utah’s high tech regional economy

In recent years, economic geographers have drawn extensively upon notions of ‘cultural embeddedness’ to explore how spatially variable sets of cultural conventions, norms, values and beliefs shape firms’ innovative performance in dynamic regional economies. However, our understanding of these causal links remains partial, reinforced by an ‘over-territorialised’ conception of cultural embeddedness which sidelines the role of institutional actors operating outside and across the boundaries of ‘the local’. So motivated, this paper offers a theoretically-informed - and theoretically informing - empirical analysis of the high tech regional economy in Salt Lake City, Utah to explore the everyday causal mechanisms, practices and processes - both local and extra-local - through which firms’ cultural embedding within the region is manifested, performed and (un)intentionally (re)produced. In so doing, this paper aims to further our understanding of the constitutive entanglement and complex interweaving of cultural/economic practices, and to contribute to the development of an in-depth empirical corpus of work which compliments the exciting conceptual developments that have largely dominated cultural economic geography over the last decade.     

Pleistocene tectonics inferred from fluvial terraces of the northern Upper Rhine Graben, Germany

This study of fluvial terraces of the River Rhine and tributaries aims to search for indications of Pleistocene tectonic activity. The study area includes the northern Upper Rhine Graben (URG), the Mainz Basin and the adjacent Rhenish Massif with the Middle Rhine Valley. High rates of Quaternary surface processes, large amount of human modifications, relatively slow tectonic deformation and presently low intra-plate seismic activity characterize this area. Therefore, the records of relatively slow tectonic deformation are less well preserved and thus difficult to detect. This study uses the relative position of fluvial terraces to determine the more local effects of fault movements on the terraces and to evaluate their displacement rates and patterns. The research is based on a review of previous terrace studies and new terrace mapping from the eastern Mainz Basin and the bordering URG using topographic map interpretations and field observations. This newly mapped sequence of terrace surfaces can be correlated to other terraces in the vicinity on the basis of relative height levels. Terrace correlation between the western Mainz Basin and Middle Rhine Valley relies on a single chronostratigraphic unit (Mosbach sands) and additional relative height correlations. This is the first study to present a continuous correlation of terraces from the western margin of the URG to the Rhenish Massif and enables the study of the transition from the subsiding graben to the uplifted Rhenish Massif. By means of a longitudinal profile, which ranges from the URG to the Rhenish Massif, the influence of individual fault movements on the terrace levels and the large-scale regional uplift is demonstrated. It is evident from the profile that the uplift of Early to Middle Pleistocene terraces increases northwards, towards the Rhenish Massif. The uplift was diachronic, with a significant pulse occurring first in the northern URG (Lower Pleistocene) and later in the Rhenish Massif (Middle Pleistocene). The largest vertical displacements are recorded for the boundary fault separating the Mainz Basin and the Rhenish Massif (Hunsrück–Taunus Boundary Fault) and for faults bounding the northeastern Mainz Basin. The motions and displacement rates calculated for individual faults indicate deformation rates in the order of 0.01–0.08 mm/year. At this stage, the calculation of displacement rates depends mostly on a single dated stratigraphic unit. Additional dating of terrace deposits is urgently needed to better constrain the temporal development of the terrace sequence and the impact of tectonic movements.