The submarine landscape of the ‘Jurassic Coast’ World Heritage Site,Dorset, UK and its Setting

This paper reviews recent studies of the seabed offshore from the Jurassic Coast and discusses their significance for understanding landforms of the World Heritage Site’s Setting as well as adding to understanding of the structures exposed in the cliffs. The processes of coastal formation as sea-levels rose and fell during the Pleistocene and in the recent post-glacial period are critical for this as they reveal the landforms which preserve former shorelines. Detailed surveys of the seabed provide evidence of the low slope of much of this seabed and so enhance the potential to interpret older terrestrial landforms which have been attributed to uplift of former sea beds. Considering both the seabed and the coast from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene means that it is possible to assess the human impact on these landforms and processes, as well as the natural timescale within which changes occur. The paper describes the seabed geomorphology, relating this, where appropriate, to both the coastal landforms and the exposed structures. Current interpretations of the seabed features and their implications for our understanding of the recent evolution of the Site and Setting are explored. The features of the coast and adjacent sea bed at different phases of the changing coastal environment are discussed to the extent that the available evidence makes this possible, but for much of the area this remains speculative.     

Sedimentary processes and facies of the waterlaid Anvil Spring Canyon alluvial fan, Death Valley, California

The Anvil Spring Canyon fan of the Panamint Range piedmont in central Death Valley was built entirely by water-flow processes, as revealed by an analysis of widespread 2- to 12-m-high stratigraphic cuts spanning the 9·7 km radial length of this 2·5–5·0° sloping fan. Two facies deposited from fan sheetfloods dominate the fan from apex to toe. The main one (60–95% of cuts) consists of sandy, granular, fine to medium pebble gravel that regularly and sharply alternates with cobbly coarse to very coarse pebble gravel in planar couplets 5–25 cm thick oriented parallel to the fan surface. The other facies (0–25% of cuts) comprises 10- to 60-cm-thick, wedge-planar and wedge-trough beds of pebbly sand and sandy pebble gravel in backsets sloping 3–28°. Both facies are interpreted as resulting from rare, sediment-charged flash floods from the catchment, and were deposited by supercritical standing waves of expanding sheetfloods on the fan. Standing waves were repeatedly initiated, enlarged, migrated, and then terminated either by gradually rejoining the flood or by more violent breakage and washout. The frequent autocyclic growth and destruction of standing waves during an individual sheetflood resulted in the deposition of multiple coarse and fine couplet and backset sequences 50–250 cm thick across the active depositional lobe of the fan. Erosional intensity during washout of the standing wave determined whether early-phase backset-bed deposits or washout-phase sheetflood couplet deposits were selectively preserved in a given cycle. Two minor facies are also found in the Anvil fan. Pebble–cobble gravel lags (0–20% of cuts) are present above erosional scours into the sheetflood couplet and backset deposits. They consist of coarse gravel concentrated through fine-fraction winnowing of the host sheetflood facies by sediment-deficient water flows. This reworking occurred during recessional flood stage or from non-catastrophic discharge during the long intervals between major flash floods. This facies is common at the surface, giving rise to a ‘braided-stream’ appearance. However, it is stratigraphically limited, present as thin, continuous to discontinuous beds or lenses that bound 50- to 250-cm-thick sheetflood sequences. The other minor facies of the Anvil fan consists of clast-supported and imbricated, thickly stratified, pebbly, cobbly, boulder gravel present in narrow, radially aligned ribbons nested within sheetflood deposits. This facies is interpreted as representing deposition in the incised channel of the fan, a subenvironment characterized by greater flow competence resulting from maintained depth from channel-wall confinement, and by more frequent water flows and winnowing events caused by its direct connection with the catchment feeder channel.     

Cause of dominance by sheetflood vs. debris-flow processes on two adjoining alluvial fans, Death Valley, California

Two large, adjoining alluvial fans of the Panamint Range piedmont, Death Valley, California, are composed of different facies assemblages deposited by contrasting sedimentary processes. The Anvil Spring fan was built solely by water-flow processes (incised-channel floods and sheetfloods), whereas the neighbouring Warm Spring fan has been constructed principally by debris flows. The boundary between these fans delineates a sharp provincial piedmont contact between sheetflood-dominated fans to the south and debris-flow-dominated fans to the north. Factors such as climate, catchment area, fan area, catchment relief, aspect, vegetation types and density, and neotectonic setting are essentially identical for these two fans. The key difference between them is that their catchments are underlain by dissimilar bedrock types, which weather to yield distinctive sediment suites. Weathering of the granite and andesite of the Anvil fan catchment produces significant volumes of medium to very coarse sand, granules, pebbles, cobbles and boulders, but minimal silt and clay. In contrast, the shale, quartzite and dolomite that dominate bedrock in the Warm Spring catchment weather to yield a wide suite of sedimentary particles spanning from clay to boulders. The abundance of mud, and the unsorted character of the yielded sediment, cause precipitation-induced slope failures in the Warm Spring catchment to transform readily into debris flows. This propensity is due to the low permeability of the colluvial sediment, which causes added water to become trapped quickly and pore pressure to rise rapidly, promoting transformations to debris flows. In contrast, the limited volume of sediment finer than medium sand yielded from the Anvil fan catchment causes the colluvium to have high permeability. This factor prevents the transformation of wet colluvium to a debris flow during hydrologically triggered slope failures, instead maintaining sediment transport as entrained bed load or suspended load in a water flow.     

基于粒子群算法的浮筒配置优化问题的研究

针对传统的验证法在解决浮筒配置问题中存在的计算量大、计算时间长、工作重复性强等缺点,提出了一种将浮筒纵向位置配置和浮筒充气量综合考虑、一体优化的方法。文章将各种合理性校验准则作为约束条件,通过逼近沉艇起浮瞬间和浮起后的平衡状态,来求取各对浮筒的纵向位置和充气量,将浮筒配置问题转换为一个多目标、多约束的最优化问题。在此基础上,根据粒子群优化算法的特点,提出了一种双向搜索策略,来求解浮筒配置优化问题。这种方法简单实用,计算时间短,无需人工干预,算法运行一次可获得多组配置方案供决策人员选择。算例表明用这种方法来解决浮筒配置问题是可行的、有效的。     

Seafloor and buried mounds on the western slope of the Niger Delta

Seafloor mounds are potential geohazards to offshore rig emplacement and drilling operations and may contain evidence of underlying petroleum systems. Therefore, identifying and mapping them is crucial in de-risking exploration and production activities in offshore domains.A 738 km² high resolution three-dimensional seismic dataset was used to investigate the occurrence, seismic characteristics and distribution of features interpreted as seafloor and buried sediment mounds, at water-depths of 800–1600 m, on the western Niger Delta slope. Fifteen seafloor mounds and eighteen shallowly buried mounds were identified. The seafloor mounds are characterised by lower seismic amplitude anomalies than the surrounding seabed sediments, and overlie vertical zones of acoustic blanking. The buried mounds in contrast are characterised by high amplitude anomalies; they also directly overlie sub-vertical zones of acoustic blanking. Seismic evidences from the features, their distribution patterns and tectono-stratigraphic associations suggest that their formation was controlled by the juxtaposition of buried channels and structural highs and their formation caused by focused fluid flow and expulsion of entrained sediments at the seabed.Considering the acoustic and geometrical characteristics of the mounds and comparing them with mound-shaped features from around the world, we conclude that the mounds most likely comprise heterolithic seafloor extrusions of muds and sands from the Agbada Formation with gas and possibly oil in some of the pore space giving rise to the acoustic characteristics.     

模糊多属性决策法在海底电缆路由方案比选中的应用

海底电缆预选路由方案的比选需要参考多种指标,这些指标包含定量和定性两种,但各指标间的不可公度性,给路由方案的选择提出挑战。文章提出了一种基于离差思想和模糊向量投影的多属性决策法。首先引入三角模糊数,将定性指标合理量化,构建决策矩阵,规范化后运用离差思想求解各指标权重,然后计算各方案在正理想方案和负理想方案上的投影,最后求出相对贴近度,依据其大小比选出最佳方案。     

基于含气泡液体声波方程的海底冷泉数值模拟

海底冷泉羽状流与海底天然气水合物的分布密切相关,对水合物稳定带的边界具有指示作用,是未来能源勘探的重要领域.研究海底冷泉羽状流的地震响应特征,对确定天然气水合物的储集区域及成藏环境等均有重要意义.当前获得海底冷泉羽状流的地震响应主要通过数值模拟进行,然而该过程所依据的含气泡介质声速模型及随机介质理论不能完整描述海底冷泉的物理性质,采用的声波方程也不适用于高频地震波数值模拟.为了准确地实现海底冷泉羽状流地震波数值模拟,精确分析其地震响应特征,本文提出利用Keller-Miksis气泡振动模型来描述气泡在声波作用下的运动状态,同时考虑气泡间的相互作用,建立海底冷泉气泡模型.在此基础上,本文创新性地采用含气泡液体声波方程进行海底冷泉高频地震波数值模拟.数值模拟结果表明,本文提出的方法能够实现海底冷泉羽状流地震响应的高精度数值模拟.     

The evolution of the Tugela canyon and submarine fan: A complex interaction between margin erosion and bottom current sweeping,southwest Indian Ocean,South Africa

The transfer of sediment from the upper continental slope to rise is poorly documented along the southeast African passive margin. New swath bathymetric and sub-bottom data collected in the Natal Valley, southwest Indian Ocean, provide insight into the evolution of the Tugela canyon and fan system. Several distinct downslope changes in canyon morphology are noted. The canyon increases in relief and widens with depth. Basement outcrop is restricted to the head of the canyon becoming less prominent with depth. Step-like terracing of the canyon walls and floor becomes prominent in the mid-slope portions of the canyon and is related to a marked increase in the cross sectional asymmetry of the canyon profile. The contemporary Tugela canyon rests within a depression of the last phase of infilling. The canyon is the product of downslope erosion, and incision, caused by several phases of hinterland uplift in the mid Oligocene, mid Miocene and late Pliocene. Each phase was followed by pelagic infilling of the palaeo-canyon form. Downslope, the uplift phases are preserved in the cut-terraces and axial incisions within the main canyon thalweg. The contemporary canyon is a moribund feature, sediment starvation of the shelf area by current sweeping of the Agulhas current has decreased the material available for canyon incision and fan development. Additional current sweeping by the North Atlantic Deep Water current has stunted the development of the associated fan complex.     

Numerical Modeling of Sediment Mass Sliding and Tsunami Generation: The Case of February 7, 1963, in Corinth Gulf,Greece

Numerical modeling of a landslide process at the continental slope by taking into account slope parameters is performed for the tsunami event of February 7, 1963, reported in the Corinth Gulf, central Greece. A layered sediment structure was considered, and an initial external dynamic action at the landslide process was introduced. The results obtained were quite consistent with the observational runup data as well as with the results arrived at by conventional rigid-body and viscous-fluid models. However, this approach permits to describe in detail the formation of several wave groups and particular tsunami characteristics that are strongly dependent on the landslide model.