Incremental Growth of Plains-Type (Compactional) Folds in a Cratonic Environment as Revealed by the Sedimentary Sequence

The enigma of the origin and development of plains-type folds, as they were christened in the early 20th Century, essentially has been solved. The folds, a considerable distance from the tectonic disturbance, were formed by draping of sediments over differentially displaced Precambrian basement fault blocks. These Precambrian basement fault blocks controlled the location, size, and shape of the folds. Forces were transmitted through the rigid basement causing readjustment along the indigenous fracture/fault pattern formed much earlier. In the U.S. Midcontinent, the crystalline basement is overlain by a thin veneer of sediments, and once the structures were formed, they continued to develop as evidenced by features in the overlying sediments. As the stress was transmitted through the basement and then relaxed, the fault blocks moved differentially in concert to these outside forces. Sediment compaction and nondeposition over structural topographic highs reacted accordingly to form the features as seen today. To determine the structural history, structural closure on different horizons on the anticline is plotted in their appropriate stratigraphic position at depth. This gives a compaction line for each tectonically coherent segment. Similar segments show a relatively straightline with offsets at major unconformities indicating breaks in the continuum. It is at these breaks that the section can be stretched until the compaction line matches as a continuum with the resulting gap giving the approximate amount of missing section for that part of the rock column. Conversely, the amount of closure on a structure at depth for each line segment can be estimated by extrapolating downward in that segment. This technique to determine depth of burial and thus the amount of missing stratigraphic section from well data at numerous locations has been compared with estimates made by other methods and the results are similar. Where no other data are available or for quick estimates, then, it is proposed that this approach will give reasonable results and that the values can be used as a constraint in basin modeling.     

地质学家重视研究深部（变质）CO_2对古气候的影响

地质学家重视研究深部（变质）ＣＯ２对古气候的影响贾跃明（中国地质矿产信息研究院，北京，１０００３７）近几年来，随着过去全球变化研究的兴起，地质学家越来越重视地质历史时期影响大气ＣＯ２浓度的因素的调查。不少人认为，变质作用和火山活动可能是过去大气中ＣＯ...     

Assessing soil erosion in Mediterranean karst landscapes of Lebanon using remote sensing and GIS

Maps showing the potential for soil erosion at 1:100,000 scale are produced in a study area within Lebanon that can be used for evaluating erosion of Mediterranean karstic terrain with two different sets of impact factors built into an erosion model. The first set of factors is: soil erodibility, morphology, land cover/use and rainfall erosivity. The second is obtained by the first adding a fifth factor, rock infiltration. High infiltration can reflect high recharge, therefore decreasing the potential of surface runoff and hence the quantity of transported materials. Infiltration is derived as a function of lithology, lineament density, karstification and drainage density, all of which can be easily extracted from satellite imagery. The influence of these factors is assessed by a weight/rate approach sharing similarities between quantitative and qualitative methods and depending on pair-wise comparison matrix.The main outcome was the production of factorial maps and erosion susceptibility maps (scale 1:100,000). Spatial and attribute comparison of erosion maps indicates that the model that includes a measure of rock infiltration better represents erosion potential. Field investigation of rills and gullies shows 87.5% precision of the model with rock infiltration. This is 17.5% greater than the precision of the model without rock infiltration. These results indicate the necessity and importance of integrating information on infiltration of rock outcrops to assess soil erosion in Mediterranean karst landscapes.     

Reflection of equatorial Kelvin waves at eastern ocean boundaries Part I: hypothetical boundaries

A baroclinic shallow-water model is developed to investigate the effect of the orientation of the eastern ocean boundary on the behavior of equatorial Kelvin waves. The model is formulated in a spherical polar coordinate system and includes dissipation and non-linear terms, effects which have not been previously included in analytical approaches to the problem. Both equatorial and middle latitude response are considered given the large latitudinal extent used in the model. Baroclinic equatorial Kelvin waves of intraseasonal, seasonal and annual periods are introduced into the domain as pulses of finite width. Their subsequent reflection, transmission and dissipation are investigated. It is found that dissipation is very important for the transmission of wave energy along the boundary and for reflections from the boundary. The dissipation was found to be dependent not only on the presence of the coastal Kelvin waves in the domain, but also on the period of these coastal waves. In particular the dissipation increases with wave period. It is also shown that the equatorial β-plane approximation can allow an anomalous generation of Rossby waves at higher latitudes. Nonlinearities generally have a small effect on the solutions, within the confines of this model.     

Recent increase of river–floodplain suspended sediment exchange in a reach of the lower Amazon River

We analyzed variation of channel–floodplain suspended sediment exchange along a 140 km reach of the lower Amazon River for two decades (1995–2014). Daily sediment fluxes were determined by combining measured and estimated surface sediment concentrations with river–floodplain water exchanges computed with a two‐dimensional hydraulic model. The average annual inflow to the floodplain was 4088 ± 2017 Gg yr^?1 and the outflow was 2251 ± 471 Gg yr^?1, respectively. Prediction of average sediment accretion rate was twice the estimate from a previous study of this same reach and more than an order of magnitude lower than an estimate from an earlier regional scale study. The amount of water routed through the floodplain, which is sensitive to levee topography and increases exponentially with river discharge, was the main factor controlling the variation in total annual sediment inflow. Besides floodplain routing, the total annual sediment export depended on the increase in sediment concentration in lakes during floodplain drainage. The recent increasing amplitude of the Amazon River annual flood over two decades has caused a substantial shift in water and sediment river–floodplain exchanges. In the second decade (2005–2014), as the frequency of extreme floods increased, annual sediment inflow increased by 81% and net storage increased by 317% in relation to the previous decade (1995–2004). Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hydrodynamic modeling of flushing time in a small estuary of North Bay, Florida, USA

Freshwater fraction method is popular for cost-effective estimations of estuarine flushing time in response to freshwater inputs. However, due to the spatial variations of salinity, it is usually expensive to directly estimate the long-term freshwater fraction in the estuary from field observations. This paper presents the application of the 3D hydrodynamic model to estimate the distributions of salinity and thus the freshwater fractions for flushing time estimation. For a case study in a small estuary of the North Bay in Florida, USA, the hydrodynamic model was calibrated and verified using available field observations. Freshwater fractions in the estuary were determined by integrating freshwater fractions in model grids for the calculation of flushing time. The flushing time in the North Bay is calculated by the volume of freshwater fraction divided by the freshwater inflow, which is about 2.2 days under averaged flow conditions. Based on model simulations for a time series of freshwater inputs over a 2-year period, a power regression equation has been derived from model simulations to correlate estuarine flushing time to freshwater inputs. For freshwater input varying from 12 m³/s to 50 m³/s, flushing time in this small estuary of North Bay changes from 3.7 days to 1.8 days. In supporting estuarine management, the model can be used to examine the effects of upstream freshwater withdraw on estuarine salinity and flushing time.     

Bifurcation modelling in a meandering gravel–sand bed river

The Rhine bifurcation at Pannerden forms the major distribution point for water supply in the Netherlands, distributing not only water and sediment but also flooding risks and navigability. Its morphological stability has been a concern for centuries. We present experiences from more than two decades of numerical morphological modelling of this bifurcation with a gravel–sand bed and a meandering planform. Successive computations have shown the importance of upstream approach conditions, the necessity to include physical mechanisms for grain sorting and alluvial roughness, and the need to assume a thicker active layer of the river bed than is suggested by laboratory flume experiments using a constant discharge. The active layer must be thicker in the model to account for river bed variations due to higher‐frequency discharge variations that are filtered out in morphological modelling. We discuss limitations in calibration and verification, but argue that, notwithstanding these limitations, 2D and 3D morphological models are valuable tools, not only for pragmatic applications to engineering problems, but also for revealing the limitations of established knowledge and understanding of the relevant physical processes. The application of numerical models to the Pannerden bifurcation appeared to reveal shortcomings in established model formulations that do not pose particular problems in other cases. This application is therefore particularly useful for setting the agenda for further research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

FY-3微波成像仪遥感图像地理定位方法研究

MWRI (MicroWave Radiation Imager) is one of the payloads on our next generation polar meteorological satellite FY-3. MWRI conically scans with a fixed incident angle on the earth surface. It is the first time for Chinese remote sensor to use this scan mode. In this work, we present a geolocation method for FY-3 MWRI’s remote sensing image based on its special scan geometry. The integrated coordinate systems and the specific relationships with these coordinate systems are defined. A spatial relationship model between the remote sensing data and the earth-based coordinate system is established. This method also includes an algorithm of satellite orbit computation, which is used to get the satellite’s instantaneous velocity vector from its position. This method has been applied to MWRI’s remote sensing image geolocation. The results show that the accuracy of this method can achieve 1 pixel. The 33 GCPs (Ground Control Points) which are in the regiones of FY-3 MWRI’s observation have been collected and used to analyze the precision of the geolocation. By statistical analysis, the error along-track is about 1.5km, and the error along-scan is about 3.0km. It is obvious that this method fulfills the requirement of precision for FY-3 MWRI whose space resolution exceeds 5km.     

基于Vulcan的西岭金矿床三维地质模型构建及资源量估算

通过对西岭金矿区域地质和矿区地质的研究,搜集和整理了矿区的地质资料.在充分学习了澳大利亚Vul-can软件的技术后,基于该软件首次建立了矿区地质钻孔数据库,构建了矿区的多个三维可视化地质实体模型和块体模型,并利用距离幂次反比法和普通克吕格法2种品位估值方法分别进行了资源量估算,并与传统的地质块段法的计算结果进行了对比,...     

A bounding surface model for anisotropically overconsolidated clay incorporating thermodynamics admissible rotational hardening rule

A bounding surface model is formulated to simulate the behavior of clays that are subject to an anisotropic consolidation stress history. Conventional rotational hardening is revisited from the perspective of thermodynamics. As the free energy cannot be accumulated infinitely upon critical state failure, the deviatoric back stress must vanish. This requires the rotated yield surface to be turned back to eventually align on the hydrostatic axis in the stress plane. Noting that most of the previous propositions violate this restriction, an innovative rotational hardening rule is formulated that is thermodynamically admissible. The bounding surface framework that employs the modified yield surface is applied to simulate elastoplastic deformations for overconsolidated clays, with which the overprediction of strength on the “dry” side can be greatly improved with reasonable results. Other important features, including contractive or dilative response and hardening or softening behavior, can also be well-captured. It has been shown that the model can simulate three types of reconstituted clays that are sheared with initial conditions over a wide range of anisotropic consolidation stress ratios and overconsolidation ratios under both triaxial undrained and drained conditions. Limitations and potential improvement of the model regarding the fabric anisotropy at critical state have been discussed.