Causes of Land Subsidence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The occurrence of land subsidence in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia is either natural or man-made. Natural land subsidence occurs due to the development of subterranean voids by a solution of host rocks in carbonate and evaporite terrains, over many areas of Saudi Arabia. Man-induced land subsidence is either due to the removal of groundwater in the agricultural areas or to wetting of unstable soils. Therefore, earth fissures and a lowering of the ground surface in unconsolidated sediments took place in alluvial plains and volcanic vent terrains. Unstable soils include Sabkha soils and loess sediments. These types of soils occur in coastal plains, desert areas and volcanic terrains. When this soil is wetted either during agricultural activities, waste disposal or even during a rain storm, subsidence takes place due to either the removal of salts from the Sabkha soil or the rearrangement of soil particles in loess sediments.     

四川成都盆地某深层富钾卤水的地球化学特征及成因

本文报道了四川成都盆地某深层富钾层卤水的化学组成，氧、氢、硫和硼同位素组成以及２５℃等温蒸发析盐过程中，从卤水中获得的固相物质组成。在此基础上讨论了卤水的成因，认为该卤水是蒸发浓缩的海相卤水、非海相卤水以及埋藏成岩过程中封存卤水对地层中海相蒸发盐溶滤作用形成的混合水。     

Vicissitude of Sogo Nur and environmental-climatic change during last 1500 years

Lakes in arid zone are sensitive to climatic changes. The lacustrine sediment sequence in Sogo Nur has well and truly recorded climatic events such as the Sui-Tang Dynasty Warm Period, the Song-Liao Dynasty Cold Period, the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age and the 20th Century Warm Period. Commonly, the climate in warm Periods was relatively humid,accordingly the lake area extended and water level rose, and vice versa. Apart from climatic change, human activity is also an important factor of influencing lake vicissitude, and they played the dominant role alternatively during different periods; the factor of climatic change predominated in historical period, while since the beginning of the 20th century the utilization of water resources by human has became decisive.     

土体冻结过程中的盐分场研究

As to salty soil, salt migrates with water in freezing soils, assembles and crystallizes continuously. Consequently the swelling of the soil volume leads to the phenomenon of salt heaving. It has a practical significance for solving salt-heaving and frost-heaving damage in engineering to deepen the understanding of salt heaving mechanism. In this paper a general overview about new research results at this aspect was presented. And then the study of salt migration and salt heaving mechanism and present salt heaving models were summarized. For further researching the field of salt transfer it is urgent to continually strengthen the salt migration and the numerical simulation study of salt heaving mechanism to expect perfecting the general evaluation of salt heaving prediction models so as to have a better service for engineering.     

无机盐超细粉体制备技术的回顾与展望

评述了制备无机盐超细粉体的传统方法以及一些传统方法的改进 ,对当前几种新技术做了介绍与展望     

An automated salt‐tracing gauge for flow‐velocity measurement

This article introduces the SVG (salt‐velocity gauge), a novel automated technique for measuring flow velocity by means of salt tracing. SVG allows a high measuring rate (up to one every 2 seconds), short control section length (down to 10 cm), high accuracy (+[sol ]?1·5 cm s^?1), and unbiased calculation of the mean velocity in experimental conditions with turbulent, supercritical flow. A few cubic centimetres of saturated salt solution (NaCl) are injected into the flow at regular time intervals using a programmable solenoid valve. The tracer successively passes two conductivity probes placed a short distance downstream. The transformation of the signal between the two probes is modelled as a one‐dimensional diffusion wave equation. Model calibration gives an estimation of the mean velocity and the diffusion for each salt plume. Two implementations of the SVG technique are described. The first was an outdoors simulated rainfall experiment in Senegal (conductivity probes at 40 cm apart, 8 Hz measurement rate, salt injections at 10 second intervals). Mean velocity was estimated to range between 0·1 and 0·3 m s^?1. The second was a laboratory‐based flume experiment (conductivity probes at 10 cm apart, 32 Hz, salt injections at 2 second intervals). Another SVG with probes at 34 cm apart was used for comparison. An acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV) was also used to give an independent assessment of velocity. Using the 10 cm salt gauge, estimated mean velocity ranged from 0·6 to 0·9 m s^?1 with a standard deviation of 1·5 cm s^?1. Comparisons between ADV, 10 cm SVG and 34 cm SVG were consistent and demonstrated that the salt‐tracing results were unbiased and independent of distance between probes. Most peaks were modelled with r² > 90 per cent. The SVG technology offers an alternative to the dye‐tracing technique, which has been severely criticized in the literature because of the wide interval of recommended values for the correction factor α to be applied to the timings. This article demonstrates that a fixed value of α is inappropriate, since the correction factor varies with velocity, diffusion and the length of the control section. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microthermometric measurement of fluid inclusions and its constraints on genesis of PGE-polymetallic deposits in Lower Cambrian black rock series, southern China

Systematic microthermometric measurements of fluid inclusions in the PGE-polymetallic deposits hosted in the Lower Cambrian black rock series in southern China were performed, and the results suggest: (1) there exist two types of fluid inclusions. TypeⅠis of NaCl-H2O system with low-medium salinity, and its homogenization temperatures (Th) and salinities are 106.9- 286.4℃ and ( 0.8- 21.8) wt%NaCl eq. respectively; TypeⅡ is of CaCl2-NaCl-H2O system with medium-high salinities, and its homogenization temperatures and salinities range from 120.1℃ to 269.6℃ and ( 11.4- 31.4) wt%NaCl eq., respectively. The typeⅡ fluid inclusions have been discovered for the first time in this kind of deposits; (2) two generations of ore-forming fluids were recognized. Characteristics of fluid inclusions in the PGE-polymetallic ores and carbonate-quartz stockworks in the underlying phosphorites are almost of no difference, they may represent ore-forming fluids at the main metallogenic stage. The peak value of homogenization temperature of those fluid inclusions is about 170℃, while their salinities possess a remarkable bimodal distribution pattern with two peak values of (27-31) wt%NaCl eq. and (4-6) wt%NaCl eq. On the contrary, fluid inclusions in the carbonate-quartz veins in the hanging wall may represent ore-forming fluids at the post-metallogenetic stage. The homogenization temperatures and the peak values of salinities are mostly 130-170℃ and (12-14) wt%NaCl eq., respectively; (3) nobel gas isotopic composition analyses in combination with the microthermometric measurements of fluid inclusions suggest that the ore-forming fluids at the main metallogenetic stage were probably derived from mixing of basinal hot brines with the CaCl2-NaCl-H2O system and seawater with the NaCl-H2O system; (4) in the Early Cambrian, the basinal hot brines were trapped in the Caledonian basins, which were distributed along the southern margin of the Yangtze Craton, and where giant thick sediments were accumulated, and expelled and migrated laterally along the strata because of the pressure caused by overlying sediments. The basinal hot brines absorbed Ni, Mo, V, PGE from the surrounding rocks and were transformed into ore-bearing hydrothermal fluids with the CaCl2-NaCl-H2O system and medium-high salinities, then ascended along faults and mixed with seawater of the NaCl-H2O system, and finally PGE-polymetallic deposits or occurrences were formed in the black rock series.     

Primary Ore Mineral Assemblage and Fluid Inclusion Study of the Batu Hijau Porphyry Cu-Au Deposit, Sumbawa, Indonesia

Abstract. The Batu Hijau porphyry Cu‐Au deposit, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, is associated with a tonalitic intrusive complex. The temperature‐pressure condition of mineralization at the Batu Hijau deposit is discussed on the basis of fluid inclusion microthermometry. Then, the initial Cu‐Fe sulfide mineral assemblage is discussed. Bornite and chalcopyrite are major copper ore minerals associated with quartz veinlets. The quartz veinlets have been classified into ‘A’ veinlets associated with bornite, digenite, chalcocite and chalcopyrite, ‘B’ veinlets having chalcopyrite bornite along vuggy center‐line, rare ‘C’ chalcopyrite‐quartz veinlets, and late ‘D’ veinlets consisting of massive pyrite and quartz (Clode et al., 1999). Copper and gold mineralization is associated with abundant ‘A’ quartz veinlets. Abundant fluid inclusions are found in veinlet quartz consisting mainly of gas‐rich inclusions and polyphase inclusions throughout the veinlet types. The hydrothermal activity occurred in temperature‐pressure conditions of aqueous fluid immiscibility into hypersaline brine and dilute vapor. The halite dissolution (Tm[halite]) and liquid‐vapor homogenization (Th) temperatures of the polyphase inclusions in veinlet quartz range from 270 to 472d?C and from 280 to 454d?C, respectively. The estimated salinity ranges from 36 to 47 wt% (NaCl equiv.). The apparent pressures lower than 300 bars are estimated to have been along the liquid‐vapor‐halite curve for the fluid inclusions having the Th lower than the Tm that trapped the brine saturated with halite, or at slightly higher pressure relative to liquid‐vapor‐halite curve for the fluid inclusions having the Th higher than the Tm that trapped the brine unsaturated with halite. The actual temperature and pressure during the hydrothermal activity at the Batu Hijau deposit are estimated to have been around 300d?C and 50 bars. At such temperature‐pressure conditions, the principal and initial Cu‐Fe sulfide mineral assemblages are thought to be chalcopyrite + bornite solid solution (bnss) for the chalcopyrite‐bearing assemblage, and chalcocite‐digenite solid solution and bnss for the chalcopyrite‐free assemblage.     

江苏王港盐沼的现代沉积速率

江苏海岸湿地总面积超过5000km^2，但围垦活动的加剧使盐沼湿地面积迅速减少；为了达到海岸防护、保滩促淤的目的，先后引种了大米草和互花米草。通过采集江苏王港潮滩盐沼湿地9处柱状样和挖取探槽剖面，以及对沉积剖面样品进行^210Pb和^137Cs测年分析，探讨了^210Pb的本底及影响^210Pb富集的因素，估算了王港盐沼湿地的现代沉积速率。王港潮滩盐沼沉积物对^210Pb的吸附作用较弱；受风暴潮、生物扰动、物源变化及实验误差等因素的影响，在^210Pbex剖面上出现了数据异常点，将这些数据点剔除后计算得到的沉积速率为33cm yr^-1，^137Cs测年显示，该地区1963年以来的平均沉积速率3．1cm yr^-1，与^210Pb法及前人研究结果相一致。根据一个典型剖面的^137Cs测年数据分析，王港潮滩盐沼的沉积过程根据地貌特征的不同可分3个阶段，大米草覆盖阶段滩面高程迅速增加，互花米草的生长提高了滩面淤积速率。