Coal mining along the Warfield Fault, Mingo County, West Virginia: a tale of ups and downs

Mine development along a 15-mile (24 km) section of the Warfield Fault in Mingo County, West Virginia has broadened the geological understanding of the fault and its related structures. The fault has been exposed in two new road cuts, one in the northeast-trending segment at Neely Branch and one in the eastern east-trending segment at the head of Marrowbone Creek. Both exposures show a well-defined normal fault with a 45° to 55° N dip, juxtaposing sandstone/shale packages from the roof and the floor of the Coalburg seam. The fault is associated with a thin gouge zone, some drag folding, and parallel jointing. Its trace tends to run parallel to the crest of the adjacent Warfield Anticline. Based on underground mine development and detailed core drilling, the vertical offset along the fault plane ranges from a maximum of 240 ft (73 m) in the central part of the area near the structural bend to less than 100 ft (30 m) in western and eastern directions. The fault is located along the relatively steeply dipping (locally in excess of 25%) southern limb of the Warfield Anticline, and appears related to a late phase of extension involving folded Pennsylvanian strata. On a regional scale, the lithological variations across the fault do not suggest any appreciable strike-slip component.Underground room and pillar mines in the Coalburg seam north and south of the fault have been greatly impacted by the Warfield structures. Due to the combined (and opposite) effects of the folding and faulting, the northern mines are located up to 400 ft (125 m) higher in elevation than the southern ones. Overland conveyor belts connect mining blocks separated by the fault. The practical mining limit along the steep slopes toward the fault is around 15%. Subsidiary normal faults with offsets in the 5- to 15-ft (1.5–4.5 m) range are fairly common and form major roof control and production hurdles. Overall, the Warfield structures pose an extra challenge to mine development in this part of the Appalachian Coalfields.     

广东沿海地区现代地壳垂直运动研究

对３０多年来１万多ｋｍ精密水准复测数百个重合点资料进行了综合研究，结果表明，广东沿海岸段的地壳平均以－０．５ｍｍ／ａ幅度沉降，表现出粤西抬升，粤东沉降，珠江三角洲大面积下沉的格局。粤西岸段平均以＋０．６ｍｍ／ａ速率上升，粤东沿海岸段平均以－０．７ｍｍ／ａ速率下降；珠江三角洲以－１．８ｍｍ／ａ速率下沉，桂东南岸段则以＋３．４ｍｍ／ａ的速上升。     

VIETNAMESE AMERICAN PLACE MAKING IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA*

ABSTRACT. Vietnamese Americans have made places for themselves in Northern Virginia by reconfiguring the geography of the suburban places they inherited, including former high-order central-place nodes. Vietnamese American residences, churches, cemetery plots, and other distinctive ethnic markers are by and large dispersed and rarely noticeable. Their retail districts, however, serve them in multiple material and symbolic ways, not unlike suburban Chinatowns.     

Coastline configuration and geomorphologic development mode of arc-shaped coast in South China

1IntroductionArc-shaped bays are quite common on exposed sediment coast in South China, where the crenulate-bay beaches occur with the presence of two consecutive headlands and a predominant wave approach oblique to the alignment of the upcoast and downcoast headlands (Yasso, 1965). Oblique persistent swell striking a shoreline transports sediment alongshore and sculptures a coast into arc-shaped beaches. The shoreline of beach appearance mainly consists of straight segment and shadow segment…     

The development of talus slopes around Lord Howe island and implications for the history of island planation

Lord Howe Island is a small eroded remnant of a Late Miocene shield volcano. A fringing coral reef dissipates wave energy along a portion of the shoreline, but the remainder of the coast is rugged with spectacular high basaltic sea cliffs. This paper investigates the evolution of talus slopes that occur beneath the loftiest cliffs, and places this analysis within the context of a longer history of island planation that has resulted in a wide truncated shelf around the island. During the Last Glacial, when the sea level was lower than at present, talus slopes accumulated around the extent of the island's cliffed coast because material eroded from cliffs by subaerial processes could not be removed by marine processes. The survival of these slopes during the Holocene has depended on a balance achieved between rates of subaerial and marine erosion. This balance is fundamentally influenced by cliff height, as cliffs higher than 200 m are plunging or veneered by talus slopes, whereas lower cliffs have erosional shore platforms. On comparison with published erosion rates from inland basalt scarps it appears that marine processes may account for over 90 per cent of the total cliff retreat that has occurred at Lord Howe Island, yet contemporary coastal morphology attests to the significance of subaerial processes in recent times. It is likely that marine cliffing was very rapid soon after volcanism ceased, but rates of erosion decreased through time as wave energy became increasingly attenuated across a widening planation surface, and as increasing cliff heights yielded greater quantities of talus that provided protection from rapid marine erosion.     

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。     

Late‐glacial to Holocene depositional architecture of the Ombrone palaeovalley system (Southern Tuscany,Italy): Sea‐level,climate and local control in valley‐fill variability

The Ombrone palaeovalley was incised during the last glacial sea‐level fall and was infilled during the subsequent Late‐glacial to Holocene transgression. A detailed sedimentological and stratigraphic study of two cores along the palaeovalley axis led to reconstruction of the post‐Last Glacial Maximum valley‐fill history. Stratigraphic correlations show remarkable similarity in the Late‐glacial to early‐Holocene succession, but discrepancy in the Holocene portion of the valley fill. Above the palaeovalley floor, about 60 m below sea‐level, Late‐glacial sedimentation is recorded by an unusually thick alluvial succession dated back to ca 18 cal kyr bp . The Holocene onset was followed by the retrogradational shift from alluvial to coastal facies. In seaward core OM1, the transition from inner to outer estuarine environments marks the maximum deepening of the system. By comparison, in landward core OM2, the emplacement of estuarine conditions was interrupted by renewed continental sedimentation. Swamp to lacustrine facies, stratigraphically equivalent to the fully estuarine facies of core OM1, represent the proximal expression of the maximum flooding zone. This succession reflects location in a confined segment of the valley, just landward of the confluence with a tributary valley. It is likely that sudden sediment input from the tributary produced a topographic threshold, damming the main valley course and isolating its landward segment from the sea. The seaward portion of the Ombrone palaeovalley presents the typical estuarine backfilling succession of allogenically controlled incised valleys. In contrast, in the landward portion of the system, local dynamics completely overwhelmed the sea‐level signal, following marine ingression. This study highlights the complexity of palaeovalley systems, where local morphologies, changes in catchment areas, drainage systems and tributary valleys may produce facies patterns significantly different from the general stratigraphic organization depicted by traditional sequence‐stratigraphic models.     

江苏沿海高速公路低能见度浓雾的气候特征和影响因子研究

文章对2012年6月至2014年6月期间发生于江苏省沿海高速公路的浓雾过程(能见度0.5 km)进行统计分析,探讨了低能见度浓雾的气候特征、气象要素变化以及主要环流形势背景。研究结果表明:(1)低能见度浓雾月分布次数有显著差异,3-6月、12月至次年2月雾发生次数最高,春、冬季高于夏、秋季;03:00-05:00为低能见度生成的高峰时段,08:00左右为消散峰值时段。(2)能见度低于0.5 km后,如果相对湿度继续增大到97%左右、温度处于0~4℃、风速在0~2 m·s~(-1)、风向在ENE-SSE,能见度可能继续下降到0.2 km以下。(3)对150366个样本的环流背景统计分析表明,中北部路段的低能见度天气大多数是由锋前雾引起的,主要出现在中低层暖区域内,地面为冷锋前部弱气压场的环流条件下。全路段大面积低能见度天气由辐射雾和平流雾造成,辐射雾天气形势主要是高层为下沉气流,配合地面受弱高压或高压南下;平流雾出现在中低层暖性系统,地面位于入海高压后部或低压倒槽东侧,低层盛行偏东风或东南风。(4)"象鼻型"先期振荡现象适用于沿海高速公路低能见度预报过程,尤其对能见度稳定维持0.2 km以下的浓雾过程有很好的预警和监测作用。     

淤泥质海岸入海河口闸下港道河相关系

以江苏沿海北部的射阳河闸下港道为原型,建立二维水动力及泥沙输运概化数学模型,模拟了淤泥质海岸闸下港道淤积过程。分别在不考虑径流年内分配变化和考虑径流年内分配变化的情况下,研究了入海径流对港道内水沙动力和冲淤演变的影响。参考前人研究成果,结合量纲和谐准则,根据模型的计算结果,建立了淤泥质海岸闸下港道年均平衡流量与汛期排水比例、河床断面积、外海潮差、潮波变形、港道长度等因素间的河相关系式,对在实际情况中达到动态冲淤平衡的某条特定港道,可简化为港道年均流量与河床断面积间关系式的简化形式,并通过分析实测资料,对公式的简化形式加以佐证。     

Assessing potential spatial and temporal conflicts in Washington's marine waters

This paper uses spatial, temporal, and use-intensity data for 27 major marine uses in Washington waters to feature a method for assessing potential use conflicts in a variety of scenarios. The study represents a first step towards quantifying potential conflicts within Washington’s Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) study area by using a cumulative analysis to highlight high- and low-use intensity areas and the novel Marine Potential Conflict Index (MPCI), which incorporates space, time, and intensity of use, to quantify pairwise potential conflicts between uses. About 10% of pairs of uses do not overlap spatially and are likely compatible with one another. Temporally, the number of uses peaks in July and August and falls during January and February. Additionally, the MPCI identified three important use types with a substantial degree of potential conflict: commercial fishing, tribal fishing, and shipping. External data were used in three cases to ground-truth the analysis, as a limited test of its utility in managing any potential conflict. This article assesses the extent of Washington’s existing marine uses along spatial, temporal, and intensity axes, and more broadly provides a straightforward way to examine potential conflicts between marine uses.