Research on the critical conditions for clay particle release during saline aquifer freshening process

Water sensitivity phenomenon occurs during saline aquifer freshening process in seawater intrusion area, and clay particles released in the phenomenon can damage the infiltration capacity of the aquifer. In order to find out the factors and mechanisms for clay particle release, laboratory column infiltration experiments simulating saline aquifer freshening process were designed to measure the critical conditions(critical flow velocity, critical salt concentration and critical ionic strength) and force analysis for clay particle according to DLVO electric double layer theory was employed to illustrate the mechanisms for particle release. The research results showed that critical flow velocity for clay particle release is influenced by salt concentration of injecting solution. When salt concentration of injecting solution is very high, clay particles are not released, indicating that there does not exist a critical flow velocity in this situation. As salt concentration of injecting solution decreases, particles start to be released. The critical salt concentration for clay particle release is 0.052 mol L-1 in our work, which was determined by a constant-flux experiment for stepwise displacement of high concentration Na Cl solution. The critical ionic strength for clay particle release decreases as Ca2+ molar content percentage of the mixed solution of Na Cl and Ca Cl2 increases following the first-order exponential decay equation y = 0.0391e-0.266 x + 0.0015.     

国外关键矿产战略研究进展及其启示

近年来,世界各国都将经济发展的重心向战略性新兴产业转移,为保障战略性新兴产业的发展而引发的资源安全保障问题随之而来。一些研究机构和组织纷纷开展关键矿产研究,厘定了关键矿产清单,并提出有针对性的保障措施。然而,目前国内对于关键矿产的研究才刚刚起步,对新兴产业所需矿产的研究偏少,关键矿产定量化研究的方法和指标体系总体以跟踪国外研究为主。系统地剖析了国外主要研究机构的关键矿产评价理论、模型和指标体系,总结了国外关键矿产的基本特征,并结合国内实际提出了加强部门协作、打通产业数据链、开展中国关键矿产评价理论和模型的研究、提高关键矿产供应风险治理的研究等对策建议。     

人类关键区的科学逻辑与研究趋势

人类关键区是人类社会进入人类世时代,人类所创造的地表景观在地理圈层中的特征区域。人类近万年历史对人地关系的认知可分为人类文明与地球环境、人类活动与地理环境、空间行为与土地利用3个层级。人类关键区具有全球尺度、国家尺度、区域尺度、地方尺度以及社区尺度。全球尺度的人类关键区可划分为建成区、农业区、生态区、裸露区。人类关键区未来的研究主要包括人类关键区的识别,人类关键区物质循环与能量流动,人类关键区耦合机理与动力机制,人类关键区地理模拟（器）与调控决策。人类关键区的提出为全球可持续发展提供中国地理科学的创新理论与实践路径。     

农田近地表风沙流风程效应变化特征研究

风沙流的风程效应研究是定量获取风沙流沿程变化的核心和难点,风程效应是指输沙率随沙床表面或地块长度的增加而不断增大,而后趋于稳定的变化特征,饱和输沙率（f_max）和饱和路径长度（L_sat）是风程效应的重要参数。采用自动连续称重式集沙仪,以河北坝上地区康保县境内典型旱作农田为研究对象,观测了2017、2018年和2021年内4次典型风蚀事件,分析近地表5 cm高度风沙流的风程效应在5 min时间尺度下的变化特征。结果表明：（1） 近地表输沙通量随风程距离的增大而增大。（2） 4次风蚀事件中L_sat的变化范围在11~280 m之间,并存在明显差异,其变化与风速无关。（3） 近地表风沙流的f_max与风速（U）呈幂函数关系。（4） 风程效应的变化特征与地表可蚀性因子、地表微地貌变化有着紧密联系,未来应对不同的土壤类型和质地农田的风程效应进行深入研究。     

Fabric dilatancy and the plasticity modeling of granular media

A novel conceptual model of the mechanics of sands is developed within an elastic–plastic framework. Central to this model is the realization that volume changes in anisotropic granular materials occur as a result of two fundamentally different mechanisms. The first is purely kinematic, dilative, and is the result of the changes in anisotropic fabric. There is also a second volume change in granular media that occurs as a direct response to changes in stress as in a standard elastic/plastic continuum. The inclusion of the two sources of volume change results in three important datum states. When subjected to isotropic strains, the resulting stress state in granular materials is not isotropic but lies upon the kinematic normal consolidation line. There exists a state at which the fabric‐induced volumetric strain rate becomes equal to the stress‐induced volumetric strain rate making the total plastic volumetric strain rate equal to zero. Granular response changes from contractive to dilative at this phase transformation line. The third datum state is the one in which the stress‐induced volumetric strain rate is zero. The sand, however, continues to dilate at this state with the difference between stress and dilation ratio a constant as predicted by Taylor's stress–dilatancy rule. These predictions are shown in accordance with experimental data from a series of drained tests and undrained on Ottawa sand. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An enhanced constitutive model for crushable granular materials

Studies in the past have tried to reproduce the mechanical behaviour of granular materials by proposing constitutive relations based on a common assumption that model parameters and parameters describing the properties, including gradation of individual grains are inevitably linked. However successful these models have proved to be, they cannot account for the changes in granular assembly behaviour if the grains start to break during mechanical loading. This paper proposes to analyse the relation between grading change and the mechanical behaviour of granular assembly. A way to model the influence of grain breakage is to use a critical state‐based model. The influence of the amount of grain breakage during loading, depending on the individual grain strength and size distribution, can be introduced into constitutive relations by means of a new parameter that controls the evolution of critical state with changes in grain size distribution. Experimental data from a calcareous sand, a quartz sand, and a rockfill material were compared with numerical results and good‐quality simulations were obtained. The main consequences of grain breakage are increased compressibility and a gradual dilatancy disappearance in the granular material. The critical state concept is also enriched by considering its overall relation to the evolution of the granular material. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assess hydrological responses to a warming climate at the Lysina Critical Zone Observatory in Central Europe

Climate warming is having profound effects on the hydrological cycle by increasing atmospheric demand, changing water availability, and snow seasonality. Europe suffered three distinct heat waves in 2019, and 11 of the 12 hottest years ever recorded took place in the past two decades, which will potentially change seasonal streamflow patterns and long-term trends. Central Europe exhibited six dry years in a row since 2014. This study uses data from a well-documented headwater catchment in Central Europe (Lysina) to explore hydrological responses to a warming climate. We applied a lumped parameter hydrologic model Brook90 and a distributed model Penn State Integrated Hydrologic Model (PIHM) to simulate long-term hydrological change under future climate scenarios. Both models performed well on historic streamflow and in agreement with each other according to the catchment water budget. In addition, PIHM was able to simulate lateral groundwater redistribution within the catchment validated by the groundwater table dynamics. The long-term trends in runoff and low flow were captured by PIHM only. We applied different EURO-CORDEX models with two emission scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways RCP 4.5, 8.5) and found significant impacts on runoff and evapotranspiration (ET) for the period of 2071–2100. Results from both models suggested reduced runoff and increased ET, while the monthly distribution of runoff was different. We used this catchment study to understand the importance of subsurface processes in projection of hydrologic response to a warming climate.     

Structural kinematics,metamorphic P–T profiles and zircon geochronology across the Greater Himalayan Crystalline Complex in south‐central Tibet: implication for a revised channel flow

A specific question about the Himalayas is whether the orogeny grew by distributed extrusion or discrete thrusting. To place firm constraints on tectonic models for the orogeny, kinematic, thermobarometric and geochronological investigations have been undertaken across the Greater Himalayan Crystalline Complex (GHC) in the Nyalam region, south‐central Tibet. The GHC in this section is divided into the lower, upper and uppermost GHC, with kinematically top‐to‐the‐south, alternating with top‐to‐the‐north shear senses. A new thrust named the Nyalam thrust is recognized between the lower and upper GHC, with a 3 kbar pressure reversion, top‐to‐the‐south thrust sense, and was active after the exhumation of the GHC. Peak temperature reached ～749 °C in the cordierite zone, and decreased southwards to 633–667 °C in the kyanite and sillimanite‐muscovite zones, and northwards to greenschist facies at the top of the South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS). Pressure at peak temperature reached a maximum value in the kyanite zone of 9.0–12.6 kbar and decreased northwards to ～4.1 kbar in the cordierite zone. Zircon U‐Pb ages of a sillimanite migmatite and an undeformed leucogranite dyke cutting the mylonitized rocks in the STDS reveal a long‐lived partial melting of the GHC, which initiated at 39.7–34 Ma and ceased at 14.1 Ma. Synthesizing the obtained and collected results, a revised channel flow model is proposed by considering the effect of heat advection and convection by melt and magma migration. Our new model suggests that distributed processes like channel flow dominated during the growth of the Himalayan orogen, while discrete thrusting occurred in a later period as a secondary process.     

Feminism and Social Theory in Geography: An Introduction*

This essay introduces a collection of articles based on papers developed for a Fall 2004 speaker series at the University of Minnesota. The articles address the continued relevance of feminist geography and the unique contributions of feminist perspectives in various areas of geographic research. They also point out directions for needed future research. This introduction briefly reviews the successes of and remaining challenges to feminist geography, including material inequities yet unresolved in two other (nonresearch) “places” of academic life: teaching and the workplace. We discuss the ongoing underrepresentation of women and people of color on our faculties and in the front of classrooms.