Porphyry fertility in the Northparkes district: indicators from whole-rock geochemistry

Abstract

Four economic porphyry Cu–Au deposits and several prospects have been investigated in the Northparkes district, part of the Ordovician to early Silurian Junee–Narromine Belt of the Macquarie Arc, New whole-rock geochemical data from the Northparkes porphyry Cu–Au district, NSW, indicate that the mineralising intrusive complexes exhibit distinct arc signatures that are transitional from high-K calc-alkaline to silica-saturated alkalic. Based on ratios of Sr/Y vs Y (e.g. Sr/Y > ～20 and Y < ～17?ppm) the mineralising intrusions are interpreted to have crystallised from fractionated hydrous melts indicating the suppression of plagioclase crystallisation in favour of hydrous mineral phases. This interpretation is supported by listric-shaped rare earth element curves and the presence of primary hornblende phenocrysts indicating elevated magmatic water contents. There is an association of mineralising intrusions with a low Zr trend both in the mineralised Northparkes district intrusive rocks and in mineralised porphyry-related intrusive rocks globally. A newly developed fertility indicator ratio Zr/Y ～10% is more accurate at identifying the mineralised rocks at Northparkes than the conventional Sr/Y vs Y fertility indicator diagram, successfully identifying 92% of the mineralising intrusions, mainly owing to the fact that it is less affected by hydrothermal alteration. The insensitivity of Zr–Y to alteration makes this indicator a useful new tool that may lead to enhanced probabilities for future discoveries in the Northparkes district, broader Macquarie Arc and altered rocks globally.

1. KEY POINTS

2. Mineralising intrusions in the Northparkes district have distinct Zr vs Y concentrations.

3. The Zr vs Y indicator of magmatic fertility is less sensitive to alteration than Sr-based indicators.

4. The Zr vs Y magmatic fertility indicator identified at Northparkes is not unique and identifies mineralising intrusions in other porphyry fields.

     

Hydrological alterations from water infrastructure development in the Mekong floodplains

The Mekong floodplains, which encompasses the region from Kratie Township in Central Cambodia to the Vietnamese East Sea, is a region of globally renown agricultural productivity and biodiversity. The construction of 135 dams across the Mekong basin and the development of delta‐based flood prevention systems have caused public concern given possible threats on the stability of agricultural and ecological systems in the floodplains. Mekong dams store water upstream and regulate flow seasonality, while in situ flood prevention systems re‐distribute water retention capacity in the floodplains. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate possible impacts of the recent development of both hydropower dams and flood prevention systems on hydrological regimes in the Mekong floodplains. An analysis of measured daily and hourly water level data for key stations in the Mekong floodplains from Kratie to the river mouth in Vietnam was conducted. Hydropower dam information was obtained from the hydropower database managed by the Mekong River Commission, and the MODIS satellite imagery was used to detect changes in flooding extent related to the operation of flood prevention systems in the Vietnam Mekong Delta. Results indicate that the upper part of the floodplains, the Cambodian floodplains, may buffer upstream dam impacts to the Vietnam Mekong Delta. Flood prevention up to date has had the greatest effect on the natural hydrological regime of the Mekong floodplains, evidenced by a significant increase of water level rise and fall rates in the upper delta and causing water levels in the middle delta to increase. The development of flood prevention systems has also effected spatial distribution of flooding as indicated via a time series analysis of satellite imagery. While this development leads to increase localized agricultural productivity, our historical data analysis indicates that development of one region detrimentally affects other regions within the delta, which could increase the risk of future conflicts among regions, economic sectors and the ecological value of these important floodplains. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

广西寒武系地层建造边缘铅锌矿床成矿构造岩相特征及其找矿意义

广西寒武系地层建造边缘铅锌矿床主要分布于沉积不整合面之上古风化壳或碳酸盐岩建造中,呈浅成中-低温热液类型,具有多阶段成矿及围岩蚀变分带特征。通过成矿构造岩相特征分析,认为矿床成矿建造以碳酸盐岩地层有利岩性、层间滑脱面或层间破碎带叠加区域大断裂为主,控制着层状矿体空间分布,古风化壳层、区域大断裂伴生的次级断裂次之,控制着脉状矿体的空间分布。成矿物质主要来源于生物碎屑岩中的元素迁移。矿床围岩蚀变可划分为强蚀变岩带和弱蚀变岩带,强蚀变岩带蚀变以黄铁矿化、毒砂矿化、硅化、白云岩化、方解石化为主,偶见重晶石化、绢云母化、铅锌矿化。弱蚀变岩带蚀变以黄铁矿化、毒砂化、方解石化为主,偶见重晶石化。地质找矿标志为方解石脉、重晶石脉、蚀变岩带及古风化壳与断裂构造交汇部位。地球化学找矿标志为Pb、Zn、Cd、Hg、As、Ba等元素异常的出现。     

Validating RAPFISH sustainability indicators: Focus on multi-disciplinary aspects of Indian marine fisheries

In determining the importance of fisheries sustainability indicators, stakeholders’ interest plays a defining role in the fisheries management practices. The indicator based tools such as RAPFISH have been available for sustainability assessment of fishery resources. In the present study, procedures to validate the pre-selected RAPFISH, which is a multidisciplinary indicator based evaluation tool for measuring the sustainability of fishery resources, are applied. The sustainability indicators were subjected to validation process based on feedback from resource owners, users and experts, using Multi-Criteria Analyses such as Weighted Sum Model and Analytic Hierarchy Process. Based on the validation results, suggestions have been made to improve methodology and its effective application in practice. This paper demonstrates RAPFISH as a potentially effective multidisciplinary tool for evaluation of sustainability of fishery resources.     

Land cover changed object detection in remote sensing data with medium spatial resolution

Land cover change information is crucial to analyse the process and the change patterns of environments and ecological systems. Recent studies have incorporated object-based image analysis for its ability to generate meaningful geographical objects into studies of change detection. In this research, we developed a systematic methodology to realise multi-type land cover changed object detection with medium spatial resolution remote sensing images in Beijing, China. Optimum index factor (OIF) was applied to determine the best change indicators and the chi-square transformation was carried out to determine the change threshold of the 4 classes of changed object. The clustering change vectors in the feature space were proposed to discriminate the change types. According to the accuracy assessment, the overall accuracy of changed/unchanged object detection was approximately 93.9% with an overall kappa of 0.824, and the change type discrimination also achieved an overall accuracy of 81.67%, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

对荒漠化几个理论问题的初步探讨

讨论了荒漠化的概念和内涵,评价指标体系及发生机制等问题,认为联合图《防治荒漠化公约》中的荒漠化定义揭示了各类型荒漠化的共同本质,是较为科学和适用的定义,荒漠化评价指标的“基准”荒漠化气候类型及评价的空间尺度是建立荒漠化评价指标体系的关键,荒漠化的发生机制是荒漠化理论的核心,它涉及到荒漠化的反馈关系,荒漠化的非平衡过程及荒漠化与土地系统复杂性的关系,土地利用／土地覆被变化是荒漠化的驱动因素之一。     

潮汐盐沼环境特点及高分辨率海面变化有孔虫标尺

潮汐盐沼是海洋边缘海环境的最边缘部分,是海陆过渡的真正边界。盐沼环境因素具明显的垂直分带性,各环境参数变化是典型的海洋或陆地不可相比的,盐沼坡度平缓,由海向陆的环境变化在这里分异清楚;沉积中垂向变化平面上得到极大的放大等。据国外研究,盐沼环境控制着有孔虫的特征和分布,利于盐沼有孔虫的垂直分带恢复古海平面变化,精确到±２０ｃｍ,甚至±５ｃｍ,这在海面变化、环境演变、全球变化研究上有重要意义。     

太湖全新世沉积物的古盐度指标及其环境意义

沉积物中的Ｃａ／（Ｆｅ＋Ｃａ）比值和硼含量随水体含盐度的高低而相应增减，它们都是较好的古盐度指标。本文对太湖全新世的沉积物进行了古盐度指标的分析。并与现代湖泊和海洋沉积物作了对比，结果反映东太湖为陆相沉积环境，而西太湖则主要为海相沉积环境。此结论与古生物化石的结论一致，从而证明了太湖地区于全新世期间经历了大规模的海侵，并形成海湾－湖环境。同时也证明了这些古盐度指标是行之有效的。     

基于PSR框架的土地质量指标体系研究进展与展望

基于"压力-状态-响应(Press-State-Response,PSR)"模式的土地质量指标体系是国际土地科学研究的热点问题。我国经济的快速增长和土地退化的严峻形势要求建立能够衡量土地质量变化的指标体系。介绍了基于PSR框架的土地质量指标体系的来源、基本概念、评价框架和研究计划。介绍了国际土地质量指标研究计划中提出的养分平衡、产量差额、农业土地利用强度与利用多样性、土地覆被、土壤质量、土地退化、农业生物多样性、水质量、林地质量、牧草地质量、土地污染等11项土地质量指标。在总结、分析国内外土地质量指标体系研究的最新进展和研究不足基础上,提出未来我国有关部门在土地质量方面的研究趋势与建议。