Natural radionuclides as tracers of coastal biogeochemical processes

This paper presents an overview of the ways that natural radionuclides have been used as tracers of biogeochemical processes occurring in the coastal ocean. The radionuclides involved include those in the uranium and thorium decay series and those produced in the atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric gases (i.e., cosmogenic radionuclides). The property of radioactivity provides a chronometer with which to measure the rates of oceanic processes, and the fundamental biogeochemical behavior of the radionuclide determines which process(es) it may be used to trace. Examples from recent research will be presented in the talk.     

藏南江孜盆地晚侏罗至早白垩世重力流沉积

西藏南部江孜盆地的沙拉岗矿区发育一套晚侏罗至早白垩世的碎屑流、滑动流与浊流等重力流沉积,主要由斜坡相碎屑岩夹硅质岩和灰岩构成。在这个斜坡背景中出现了上斜坡相,下斜坡相与海底扇相等3种类型的岩相组合。其中,上斜坡以各种规模的滑动沉积为特色,下斜坡以不同性质的碎屑流沉积为特征。海底扇具有完整的内扇、中扇与外扇组合,可划分出进积型和退积型两种序列类型,它们多半是由浊流形成的各种砂体组成的。     

Marine Sand Resources Offshore Israel

The continental margin of northern Sinai and Israel, up to Haifa Bay, is the northeastern limb of the submarine Nile Delta Cone. It is made up predominantly of clastics from the Nile and its predecessors. The continental shelf and coastal plain of Israel are built of a series of shore-parallel ridges composed of carbonate-cemented quartz sandstone (locally named kurkar), a lithification product of windblown sands that were piled up into dunes during the Pleistocene. The drop in global sea level and regression during the last glacial period exposed the continental shelf to subaerial erosion and created a widespread regional erosional unconformity which is expressed as a prominent seismic reflector at the top of the kurkar layers. The subsequent Holocene transgression abraded much of the westernmost kurkar ridges, drowned their cores, and covered the previous lowstand deposits with marine sands, which were in turn covered by a sequence of sub-Recent clayey silts. The Mediterranean coasts of Sinai and Israel are part of the Nile littoral cell. Since the building of the Aswan dams the sand supplied to Israel's coastal system is derived mainly from erosion of the Nile Delta and from sands offshore Egypt that are stirred up by storm waves. The sands are transported by longshore and offshore currents along the coasts of northern Sinai and Israel. Their volume gradually declines northward with distance from their Nile source. The longshore transport terminates in Haifa Bay where some sand is trapped, and the test escapes to deeper water by bottom currents and through submarine canyons, thus denying Nile-derived sand supply to the 40-km-long 'Akko-Rosh Haniqra shelf. The sand balance along Israel's coastal zone is a product of natural processes and human intervention. Losses due to the outgoing longshore transport, seaward escape, and landward wind transport exceed the natural gains from the incoming longshore transport and the abrasion of the coastal cliffs. The deficit is aggravated by the construction of (1) seaward-projecting structures that trap sands on the upstream side and (2) offshore detached breakwaters that trap sands between themselves and the coast. The negative sand balance is manifested by the removal of sand from the seabed and the consequent exposure of archaeological remains that were hitherto protected by it. The sediments that escape seaward from the longshore transport system form a 2.5- to 4-km-wide sandy apron adjacent to the shore that extends to where the water is 30 - 40 m deep. The apron's slope (0.5 - 0.8) is steeper than the theoretical equilibrium slope for the median grain-size diameter in this zone (0.1 - 0.3 mm). The beach sands and the apron's surficial sands are well sorted. Their grain size decreases with distance from shore, from 0.2 - 0.3 mm nearshore to 0.11 - 0.16 mm by the drowned ridge. The coarse-grained fraction consists of skeletal debris (commonly 5 - 12% carbonate matter) and wave-milled kurkar grains (locally named zifzif). In deeper water, the basal sands underlying the fine-grained sediment cover consist of 1- to 30-cm layers whose composition ranges from silty sands to various types of sands (fine, medium, coarse, and gravelly) to zifzif. For the most part, they contain large amounts of skeletal debris (20 - 60%) and small fragments of kurkar. Two types of kurkar rock were encountered offshore: a well-sorted, fine- to medium-grained (0.074 - 0.300 mm) lithified dune sand with variable amounts of carbonate cement, ranging from hard rock of low permeability to loose sand; and a porous sandstone made up predominantly of algal grains and skeletal debris (calcarenite).     

Cold seeps associated with a submarine debris avalanche deposit at Kick’em Jenny volcano,Grenada (Lesser Antilles)

Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) exploration at the distal margins of a debris avalanche deposit from Kick’em Jenny submarine volcano in Grenada has revealed areas of cold seeps with chemosynthetic-based ecosystems. The seeps occur on steep slopes of deformed, unconsolidated hemipelagic sediments in water depths between 1952 and 2042 m. Two main areas consist of anastomosing systems of fluid flow that have incised local sediments by several tens of centimeters. No temperature anomalies were observed in the vent areas and no active flow was visually observed, suggesting that the venting may be waning. An Eh sensor deployed on a miniature autonomous plume recorder (MAPR) recorded a positive signal and the presence of live organisms indicates at least some venting is still occurring. The chemosynthetic-based ecosystem included giant mussels (Bathymodiolus sp.) with commensal polychaetes (Branchipolynoe sp.) and cocculinid epibionts, other bivalves, Siboglinida (vestimentiferan) tubeworms, other polychaetes, and shrimp, as well as associated heterotrophs, including gastropods, anemones, crabs, fish, octopods, brittle stars, and holothurians. The origin of the seeps may be related to fluid overpressure generated during the collapse of an ancestral Kick’em Jenny volcano. We suggest that deformation and burial of hemipelagic sediment at the front and base of the advancing debris avalanche led to fluid venting at the distal margin. Such deformation may be a common feature of marine avalanches in a variety of geological environments especially along continental margins, raising the possibility of creating large numbers of ephemeral seep-based ecosystems.     

Steady flow-induced instability of a partially embedded pipeline: Pipe-soil interaction mechanism

The steady flow-induced instability of a partially embedded pipeline involves a complex process of pipe-soil interaction. In accordance with the hydrodynamic loading and the dimensionless analyses, a series of pipe-soil interaction tests have been conducted with an updated pipe-soil interaction facility including a load-displacement synchronous measurement system, to reveal the underlying pipe-soil interaction mechanism. The effects of pipe surface roughness, end-constraint and initial embedment are investigated, respectively. The values of lateral-soil-resistance coefficient for the rough pipes are bigger than those for the smooth pipes. For a fixed value of non-dimensional submerged weight, the values of lateral-soil-resistance coefficient for the anti-rolling pipes are much larger than those for the freely laid pipes. The effects of initial embedment on the ultimate soil resistance get less with the decrease of the submerged weight of the pipe. A comparison is made between the results of the present mechanical-actuator tests and those of the previous water-flume tests, indicating that those results are quite comparable. For the equivalent level of dimensionless submerged weight, the directly laid pipe in currents has higher lateral stability than in waves.     

Stratigraphic evolution of a submarine channel-lobe complex system in a narrow fairway within the Magallanes foreland basin, Cerro Toro Formation, southern Chile

This study integrates newly acquired stratigraphic data, geologic mapping, and paleocurrent data to constrain the stratigraphic evolution of the oldest channel-lobe complex in the Upper Cretaceous Cerro Toro Formation in the Silla Syncline area of the Magallanes Basin, termed the Pehoe member. The Pehoe member ranges in thickness from 60 m in the north to at least 410 m farther down system and comprises three separate divisions (A, B, and C). A lower conglomerate unit and an upper one, termed Pehoe A and C divisions respectively, represent the fill of major incised submarine channels or channel complexes. These are separated by stratified sandstone of the Pehoe B division, representing a weakly confined lobe complex, either transient or terminal.The integration of new data with observations from previous studies reveal that the three main coarse-grained conglomerate and sandstone members in the Cerro Toro Formation in the Silla Syncline include at least seven distinct submarine channels or channel complexes and two major lobe complexes. The thinning and disappearance of these units along the eastern limb of the syncline reflect confinement of the flows to a narrow trough or mini-basin bounded to the east by a topographic high. This confinement resulted in unidirectional paleocurrents to the south and southeast in all deposits. Changes in depositional geometries are interpreted as reflecting changes in sediment supply and relative confinement. Submarine channels were from 700 m to 3.5 km wide and occupied a fairway that was 4-5 km wide. Flows moving south and southeast in this mini-basin probably crossed the eastern topographic high south of the present exposures and joined those moving southward along the axis of the foreland basin at least 16 km to the east.     

琼东南盆地中央峡谷天然气成藏特征及其主控因素

基于地震、测井、岩芯、岩屑和天然气样品分析化验等资料,研究了中央峡谷天然气成藏特征,探讨了成藏主控因素与成藏模式。研究结果表明,晚中新世—早上新世沿琼东南盆地中央坳陷发育一条大型海底峡谷,称之为中央峡谷,峡谷内充填了多期相互叠置的浊积砂岩,平均孔隙度为15%~33%,渗透率为11×10-3~971.3×10-3μm2,为较好的储层;发育了岩性和构造-岩性复合两大类圈闭。峡谷的气源来自于崖城组的煤系地层,属于煤型气。烃源岩的有机质类型为Ⅱ2和Ⅲ型,以Ⅲ型为主;热演化程度处于成熟—高成熟阶段,晚中新世—上新世达到生烃高峰。琼东南盆地中央坳陷是一个高温高压的坳陷,实测地温梯度平均值高达4.2~4.6℃/100m,实测压力系数为1.20~2.15。在高温高压的环境下,盆地内孕育众多的底辟构造,而峡谷下伏的底辟构造与谷内相互叠置的复合砂体在空间上有效的配置构成了天然气垂向与侧向运移的输导体系,成为峡谷天然气成藏的关键因素。     

海底电缆工程对中华白海豚的影响研究——以厦门英春—围里海底电缆工程为例

中华白海豚是国家一级重点保护水生哺乳动物,厦门湾是中华白海豚的重要栖息地之一。文章以厦门英春—围里海底电缆工程为例,评价工程建设对中华白海豚及其栖息地的影响,并提出中华白海豚的保护措施,以期为海洋工程建设对水生野生保护动物的保护管理提供借鉴。     

Numerical analysis of liquefaction of porous seabed around pipeline fixed in space under seismic loading

Liquefaction of seabed under seismic loading is one of the main points that govern the overall stability of submarine pipeline. However, most previous investigations concerned only with free seabed and searched for seismic accumulative excess pore pressure by solving Terzaghi's consolidation equation containing pore pressure source term. It is not able to introduce two-dimensional structures such as submarine pipelines in one-dimensional problem, and it is also not able to obtain the distribution of seismic accumulative excess pore pressure in seabed around submarine pipelines by such a way. In this study, a FEM numerical analysis method for determining the liquefaction of sandy seabed around a buried pipeline under seismic loading is presented. The empirical mode of dynamic increase of pore pressure under undrained shearing induced by seismic loading is incorporated with two-dimensional dynamic consolidation equation and a numerical procedure based on FEM is developed to assess the accumulative excess pore pressure. By numerical computations, the accumulative process of pore pressure and liquefaction potential of seabed soil during seismic loading is evaluated. From a series of numerical computations based on the presented model with various parameters, the effects of soil characteristic parameters and pipeline geometry on seismic accumulative excess pore pressure around submarine pipeline and along the depth of seabed are explored in detail.