Residual strength of slip zones of large landslides in the Three Gorges area, China

Slip zones of the large landslides in the Three Gorges area are commonly composed of fine-grained soils with substantial amount of coarse-grained particles, particularly gravel-sized particles. In this study, residual strength of the soils from slip zones of these landslides were examined in relation to their index properties based on a survey of 170 landslides. It was found that laboratory-determined residual friction angle using gravel-free fraction of the disturbed soils from the slip zones was closely related to clay content, liquid limit and plasticity index. On the other hand, in-situ residual friction angle of these soils (i.e. including gravel fraction) showed very weak correlations with clay content and Atterberg limits, but was largely dependent on gravel and fines (clays + silts) contents, increasing with gravels and decreasing with fines, and displayed strong linear correlation with the ratio of gravel to fines contents. These observations indicate that among the index properties, clay content and Atterberg limits can be used to estimate residual strength of the soils finer than 2 mm, but they are not appropriate evaluate the residual strength of the soils containing considerable amount of gravel-sized particles. For the latter, particle size distribution (particularly the ratio of gravel to fines contents) appears to be a useful index. Additionally, it was found that there was no identifiable correlation between relative abundance of individual major clay minerals and residual friction angles of both gravel-free fraction of disturbed and in-situ soils, suggesting that influence of clay minerals on residual strength of these soils can not be simply evaluated based on their abundance.     

MCZT在气枪震源信号频谱分析中的应用

气枪震源信号是短时非平稳信号,采用频谱细化算法能提高频谱分析的准确性。首先进行了改进线性调频Z变换(MCZT)和FFT两种频谱分析算法的误差仿真计算,然后进行气枪震源的水下子波信号和地震波信号的对比计算。结果表明MCZT计算误差较小、计算时间较少,能有效提高气枪震源信号频率和幅度特征提取的准确性,是气枪震源信号频谱特征分析的一个有效方法。     

Extractable and total Fe and Mn contents of three sand dune soils in NW Nigeria

The profile distribution of total, diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid (DTPA)- and 0·1 HCl-extractable Fe and Mn were determined in 12 pedons formed on three contiguous sand dunes in the semi-arid savanna of Nigeria. The total Fe and Mn contents varied from 100 to 3750 and 40 to 11,375 μg g⁻¹, respectively. Values of 0·1 HCl-extractable Fe and Mn varied from 8·0 to 123 and 1·5 to 43·5 μg g⁻¹, respectively. The corresponding values of DTPA-extractable Fe and Mn were 4·5 to 16·0 and 1·0 to 38·8 μg g⁻¹. Total Fe and Mn correlated significantly with clay in nearly all the dunes (p≤ 0·01) but were not significantly correlated with organic matter. The 0·1 HCl-extractable Mn had a positive significant correlation with soil pH (r= 0·58*) in Illela dunes but a negative significant correlation with pH in the Sangiwa dunes (r= −0·75***). The values of extractable Fe and Mn in the sand dune soils are above the critical limits reported in other literature, thus deficiencies of these micronutrients do not pose a problem to crop production in the study area.     

On the properties of strange modes

Properties of the so-called strange modes occurring in linear stability calculations of stellar models are discussed. The behaviour of these modes is compared for two different sets of stellar models, for very massive zero-age main-sequence stars and for luminous hydrogen-deficient stars, both with high luminosity-to-mass ratios. We have found that the peculiar behaviour of the frequencies of the strange modes with the change of a control parameter is caused by the pulsation amplitude of a particular eigenmode being strongly confined to the outer part of the envelope, around the density inversion zone. The frequency of a strange mode changes because the depth of the confinement zone changes with the control parameter. Weakly non-adiabatic strange modes tend to be overstable because the amplitude confinement quenches the effect of radiative damping. On the other hand, extremely non-adiabatic strange modes become overstable because the perturbation of radiation force (gradient of radiation pressure) provides a restoring force that can be out of phase with the density perturbation. We discuss this mechanism by using a plane-parallel two-zone model.     

The magnetic field and rotational period of 53 Camelopardalis

The magnetic Ap star 53 Cam has been described as the best object for testing theories of elemental diffusion in the presence of a stellar magnetic field. It is thus vital to determine the rotational period of this very important star as accurately as possible. An improved period (8.026 81±0.000 04 d) is derived here by combining new measurements of the effective magnetic field with previously published values.     

Determining temperature amplitude as a function of depth in the atmospheres of rapidly oscillating Ap stars

We present numerical models based on realistic treatment of the intensity spectrum (from model atmospheres), and demonstrate that they are consistent with Kurtz and Medupe's recent formula in showing that limb darkening is too small an effect to explain the observed sharp decline of pulsation light amplitude with wavelength in rapidly oscillating Ap stars. Kurtz and Medupe's formula is shown to be a special form of Watson's earlier general formula for non-radial light variations of a star pulsating in any mode ( l m ). Using a technique suggested by Kurtz and Medupe we derive temperature semi-amplitude as a function of depth in the atmospheres of α Cir and HR 3831, assuming that we can neglect non-adiabatic effects.     

Dating of post-glacial landforms in the central howgills

Little is known of Holocene landform development in Upland Britain. This paper describes a site at Middle Langdale in the Howgill Fells of Cumbria where large, but now stabilized and inactive gullies cut through periglacial material. At the base of the gullies large debris cones have buried earlier alluvial sediments on the valley floor. On these sediments and buried by the debris cones is a well-developed organic soil from which two ¹⁴C dates have been obtained in an attempt to estimate the age range of the soil. These dates range from 2580±55 years BP for the fine particulate fraction from the base of the organic horizon to 940±95 years BP for fossil rootlets from the uppermost organic layer, immediately below the overlying debris cones. The pollen evidence suggests that the valley floor site was initially dominated by alder carr and later by a Juncus marsh with birch, alder and hazel nearby. The pollen, from the surrounding upland area suggests woodland on the valley sides, dominated by oak and elm that was later replaced by a more open environment rich in heath species and in which disturbed ground species were present. The magnetic evidence indicates a stable local environment during soil formation but shows a sudden inwash of unweathered debris at the top of the buried soil. The evidence suggests that the valley floor was geomorphologically stable throughout the period of soil formation, although there was a local change in valley floor vegetation and a reduction of woodland cover on the valley sides at sometime during the period. The evidence then points to major geomorphological changes; a wave of soil erosion, gully development and debris cone deposition, perhaps following the Scandinavian introduction of sheep farming in the tenth century A.D.     

ACMEG‐TS: A constitutive model for unsaturated soils under non‐isothermal conditions

This paper introduces an unconventional constitutive model for soils, which deals with a unified thermo‐mechanical modelling for unsaturated soils. The relevant temperature and suction effects are studied in light of elasto‐plasticity. A generalized effective stress framework is adopted, which includes a number of intrinsic thermo‐hydro‐mechanical connections, to represent the stress state in the soil. Two coupled constitutive aspects are used to fully describe the non‐isothermal behaviour. The mechanical constitutive part is built on the concepts of bounding surface theory and multi‐mechanism plasticity, whereas water retention characteristics are described using elasto‐plasticity to reproduce the hysteretic response and the effect of temperature and dry density on retention properties. The theoretical formulation is supported by comparisons with experimental results on two compacted clays. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A thermo‐mechanical model for variably saturated soils based on hypoplasticity

The paper presents a mechanical model for non‐isothermal behaviour of unsaturated soils. The model is based on an incrementally non‐linear hypoplastic model for saturated clays and can therefore tackle the non‐linear behaviour of overconsolidated soils. A hypoplastic model for non‐isothermal behaviour of saturated soils was developed and combined with the existing hypoplastic model for unsaturated soils based on the effective stress principle. Features of the soil behaviour that are included into the model, and those that are not, are clearly distinguished. The number of model parameters is kept to a minimum, and they all have a clear physical interpretation, to facilitate the model usefulness for practical applications. The step‐by‐step procedure used for the parameter calibration is described. The model is finally evaluated using a comprehensive set of experimental data for the thermo‐mechanical behaviour of an unsaturated compacted silt. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.