Reliability of Conventional Settlement Evaluation for Circular Foundations on Stone Columns

The unit cell idealization has been long adopted in the settlement prediction of stone column-reinforced soils. This paper tests the accuracy of this modeling concept against trusted settlement values of engineering foundations. It is believed that in order to bestow the outcome of this study adequate generality different soil properties and foundation geometries need to be considered. It was, nevertheless, found impracticable to collect field settlement records for all the analyzed cases. The authors, therefore, appealed to the back analysis concept to construct a reliable mathematical model, calibrated against settlement records of full-scale field load test. This model, which is capable of reproducing the real field settlements, is then employed as a generic tool to obtain trusted settlement values for a variety of cases with essential geometrical similarity. The investigation revealed that the unit cell analysis may, in some cases, lead to erroneous estimation for the settlements of foundations with limited extents. Correction factors, dependent on the treated soil properties as well as the foundation size, are introduced.     

Geologic impact of Hurricane Andrew on Everglades coast of southwest Florida

Hurricane Andrew, one of the strongest storms of the century, crossed the southern part of the Florida peninsula on 24 August 1992. Its path crossed the Florida Everglades and exited in the national park across a mangrove-dominated coast onto the shallow, low-energy, inner shelf. The storm caused extensive breakage and defoliation in the mangrove community; full recovery will take decades. It produced no extensive sedimentation unit; only local and ephemeral ebb-surge deposits. The discontinuous shelly storm beach ridge was breached at multiple locations, and it moved landward a few meters. After seven months, there was little geologic indication that the storm had passed. It is likely that the stratigraphic record in this area will not contain any recognizable features of the passage of Hurricane Andrew.     

Dynamic consequence analysis of marine electric power plant in dynamic positioning

Diesel-electric power and propulsion systems with electric thrusters are the industry standard for vessels with dynamic positioning (DP) systems. Diesel engines are paired with generators in generator sets and are used to produce electric power used by thrusters and main propellers during stationkeeping and transit, and other consumers such as hotel load, drilling drives, cranes, and heave compensators. Consequence analysis is used to verify the safety of a DP operation. It is used to check whether there is sufficient running power and thruster capacity available to retain sufficient thrust to maintain vessel position after a worst single failure. Recently, extensions of class rules enable standby generators to be considered in this analysis. This provides a more efficient configuration as relatively fewer generator sets may be running. However, DP performance is degraded during the transition from the fault occurrence until the plant is completely recovered. It is important to determine if this degradation leads to a loss of position during the transition. This study presents a simulation-based dynamic consequence analysis method that can be used to dynamically simulate fault scenarios such that the dynamics of the transient recovery can be analyzed. This analysis can be used for decision-support to configure marine electric power plants in DP. Results from the simulation study show that the currently used static consequence analysis method may provide non-conservative results under certain configurations.     

Mapping and evaluation the process,pattern and potential of urban growth in China

In this paper, the night-time light (NTL hereafter) data obtained by the Defence Meteorological Satellite Programme's Operational Line scan System (DMSP/OLS) were used to extract urban light index (ULI) for analysing urban growth and patterns in China. A unit circle mode was established to perform a comprehensive analysis and calculation of the variation of various types of urban land covers. In order to verify the ULI ability in extracting urban spatial patterns, eight typical cities were selected to make a comparison therein using Landsat TM/ETM + data. The objectives of this research include: 1) mapping temporal process of the urban growth; 2) exploring spatial characteristics of eight typical cities; 3) analysing spatial distribution pattern of primary urban agglomerations, and 4) assessing potential and tendency for urbanization in the future. The research results indicate that: the spatial pattern features of ULI generally agree with those of the features of urban pattern extracted from Landsat TM data. The morphological change of the urban light space can reflect the objective characteristics of the evolution of urban space. The study further illustrated that the NTL Data are applicable for extracting urban space information and have the potential to deepen understanding of urban space expansion.     

Geochemistry of gold-bearing metamorphic rocks of the Natitingou area,Atacora structural unit,Northwestern Bénin (West Africa): Implications for Au genesis

The Natitingou area within the Atacora Structural Unit (ASU) of the Pan-African Dahomeyide orogenic belt, northwestern Bénin, is characterized by the monocyclic metasedimentary formations, amphibolites and orthogneisses which belong to the Internal zone of the belt. Representative samples of these different gold-bearing rocks have been analyzed geochemically to determine their petrogenesis, mode of emplacement, tectonic setting and role in the genesis of gold mineralization in the area. The orthogneisses are subalkaline, peraluminous and emplaced in a syn-collisional arc setting while the amphibolites are metaluminous, tholeiitic with an E-MORB affinity and emplaced in a rifted lithospheric setting. The metasedimentary rocks, comprising quartzites and mica schists are cross-cut by auriferous quartz veins. The metasedimentary rocks are recycled sediments varying from wackes to sublitharenite in composition and deposited in a passive margin setting. The quartz veins similar to the metasedimentary rocks are enriched in LREE, depleted in HREE and showed a negative Eu-anomaly (0.31–0.72). Their chondrite-normalised REE patterns deciphered them as Upper Continental Crustal materials which were probably derived from the reworking of their host metasedimentary rocks. Gold concentration in quartzites, amphibolites, mica schists, quartz veins and orthogneiss were 0.004–9.587, 0.26–1.76, 0.0005–0.464, 0.023–0.147 and 0.0−0.0005 ppm, respectively. Devolatilization process of the country-rocks, is the most probable mechanism for the ore-forming fluid, which could have been generated during the Pan-African Dahomeyide event. Remobilisation of gold and associated metal (As, W, Cu, Mo, Sb, and Sn) after the Pan-African Dahomeyide orogeny is suggested for enrichment of gold along shear and fault zones of the Natitingou area.     

Impact of urbanization on storm response of White Rock Creek,Dallas, TX

This study documents hydrological changes resulting from urbanization of the upper sub-basin of White Rock Creek watershed in Collin and Dallas counties, Texas. The 172-km² watershed was transformed from 87% rural in 1961 to 95% urban in 2002, following construction of the Dallas suburbs of Richardson, Addison, Plano and Frisco. The objective of the study was to investigate changes in the storm response of White Rock Creek in terms of peak storm flow, storm flow volume and lag time. The approach employed to compare pre- and post-urbanization hydrology was to develop average unit hydrographs for each time period and use them to generate the creek’s storm flow response to a set of six hypothetical precipitation events. The results suggest that substantial hydrological changes have occurred. The average infiltration capacity of the watershed was reduced by about 60% so that storm flow was generated at lower precipitation intensities in the post-urbanization period. Storm flow peak discharge and volume were more than doubled for a hypothetical 10-year precipitation event. Average lag time was about 49 min shorter in the post-urbanization period. Urbanization has significantly impacted the storm response of the creek and increased the potential for flooding. It is anticipated that similar hydrological changes will occur in other rapidly urbanizing watersheds in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan region. Watershed managers should take likely changes in storm response into account when planning future storm water management needs.     

中国海相盆地油气保存条件主控因素与评价思路

中国海相盆地具有多旋回演化、盆-山结构复杂、稳定性差的特点,油气保存条件是制约油气勘探的关键因素。本文在对中国海相盆地构造改造特征和油气藏破坏方式分析的基础上,对影响油气保存条件的主控因素进行了总结,提出了海相多旋回强改造盆地油气保存条件评价的思路方法。中国海相盆地构造演化具有"五世同堂、同序异时"的特点,燕山中晚期和喜马拉雅期是影响油气保存的关键构造变革期。海相油气藏的破坏方式主要有断裂切割、抬升剥蚀、褶皱变动、深埋裂解、岩浆烘烤、流体冲洗、生物降解和长期扩散等8种主要方式。构造、盖层、热体制、流体活动和时间是控制保存环境及其动态演化的主控因素。中国海相盆地油气保存系统的评价思路为,以上述5种主控因素动态分析评价为基础,以地质结构和源-盖组合为依据划分评价单元,以源-盖动态演化,今、古流体系统演化和油气藏动态成藏过程研究为重点,动态地评价油气保存系统,进而优选有利的保存单元。     

湘西洪江古商城的特点、形成及其开发利用和保护

湘西洪江古商城,凭借其特有的交通区位优势,历史上曾一度成为久负盛名的西南地区商品转口贸易城市,集经济、政治、军事、宗教、文化功能于一体的综合性城市和具有鲜明地域特色的立体式山水型城市,是明清以来祖国大西南特定区域自然地理环境与社会经济环境综合影响的结果,其作为以完整风貌保存下来的中世纪专业性商城,在国内具有唯一性,应该妥善加以保护和合理利用。     

Tectonic evolution of the Huangling dome and its control effect on shale gas preservation in the north margin of the Yangtze Block,South China

Significant breakthroughs of shale gas exploration have been made in Lower Cambrian and Sinian shale in the north margin of the Yangtze Block, South China. The drill wells with industrial gas flow located in the southern margin of the Huangling dome. Base on the geological survey, 2D seismic, geochronological and drill wells data, the tectonic evolution history of Huangling dome was studied, and its control effect on the preservation condition of shale gas was discussed. The result shows that the Huangling dome might undergo four tectonic stages: (1) About 800 Ma, granite intrusion in the Huangling dome basement, primarily of granites replaced metamorphism rocks; (2) 800–200 Ma, no significant tectonic movement with slowly buried history; (3) From 200 Ma, multi-phase uplift and the sedimentary rocks was eroded in the core of the Huangling dome. Shale gas in the Cambrian and Sinian strata was well preserved in the margin of the Huangling dome as the following reasons: (1) The Sinian shale was buried about 7.8 km in-depth during Middle Jurassic, source rocks have a suitable thermal maturity for shale gas; (2) The rigid basement of the Huangling dome was mainly composed by homogeneity granite, without intensive deformation. As the main challenges of the widely distributed Lower Cambrian and Sinian shale are high-maturity and intensive deformation, a geological unit with a dome probably is a favorable zone for the old age shale gas. Therefore, it indicates that the adjacent zone of the Xuefengshan, Shennongjia and Hannan are the geological units with a dome and probably have potentials for the exploration of shale in the Lower Cambrian and Sinian.