准噶尔盆地乌尔禾油田百口泉组冲积扇沉积特征及油气勘探意义

通过分析岩心、铸体薄片及测井等资料,认为准噶尔盆地乌尔禾油田百口泉组发育一套典型的退积型冲积扇沉积。百口泉组中下部发育扇中亚相,上部发育扇缘亚相,反映研究区在三叠纪早期,湖平面逐渐升高,可容空间与沉积物补给速率比值（A/S比值）逐渐增大的沉积特征。沉积微相类型包括辫状河道充填、筛状沉积、泥石流沉积及片流沉积。综合构造、测试及试油等资料,认为扇中亚相辫状河道充填为油气富集的有利储集相带,控制了油气富集的规模与油藏边界。在有利相带控制油藏分布的结论指导下部署钻探的多口评价井在百口泉组均获得工业油流,有效地指导油田现场生产。     

中国江河水沙变化趋势与主要影响因素

通过选定中国主要河流的代表水文站,分析了中国主要河流代表站总径流量和总输沙量的变化趋势。结果表明,全国主要河流代表站总径流量随时间没有明显的趋势性增加或减小,多年平均径流量为14090亿m3;年总输沙量在1960年前变化不大,1960年后逐渐减小,从20世纪50年代的26.43亿t减小至2001～2008年间的5.95亿t;平均含沙量则从50年代的1.74kg/m3减至2001～2008年间的0.46kg/m3。中国南方主要河流和主要内陆河流的代表站径流量没有明显的增加或减少趋势,北方河流代表站径流量除淮河、松花江外,具有明显的减少趋势;中国各主要河流代表站年输沙量除塔里木河外,都有不同程度的减少,其中北方河流的减小幅度较大。影响中国主要河流水沙变化的主要因素分为自然和人类活动因素,其中自然因素包括流域降雨量变化和流域下垫面条件;人类活动因素包括水土保持措施、水库工程、流域调水调沙及引水引沙、河道采砂等。     

鄂尔多斯盆地东北部侏罗系古河道中一种特殊的砂岩型铀矿床

东胜砂岩型铀矿床是近几年在中国鄂尔多斯盆地东北部发现的一大型铀矿床。因其独特的特征而不同于其他普通砂岩型矿床,矿体一般受绿色砂岩和灰色砂岩之间的过渡带控制,而这两种砂岩目前都指示着还原地球化学环境。古氧化绿色砂岩主要由与油-气二次还原作用有关的绿泥石化和绿帘石化造成。从成因上讲,该矿床与普通砂岩型铀矿床不同,它有着更为复杂的成因,不仅经历了古氧化的成矿过程,而且还经历了油-气流体和热液流体的再改造。空间上,它与侏罗纪直罗组辫状古河道体系有关。较高品位的铀矿化带一般赋存在辫状河主河道与分支河道的分叉部位,所形成砂岩的不均匀性表明,其沉积相属于辫状河到辫状三角洲的过渡沉积体系。统计结果表明,中、细粒砂岩是铀矿化最有利的岩石类型。     

Equitable utilisation and effective protection of sharing transboundary water resources:international rivers of western China

Western China includes 12 provincial divisions (the 7 provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and; 5 autonomous regions of Tibet, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Guangxi; and one city of Chongqing), which comprise 71.4% of the national land area, 28.5% of the national population and produce 17.5% of the national GDP in China. There are 17 countries that have riparian relationships with western China, most of which are water-short countries. All are listed by UN ESCAP as countries with potential water crisis. The co-operative development and coordinated management of international rivers in western China is an important step toward the implementation of the national Great Western Development program. Taking into account of the national strategy and object hierarchy, as well as the development demand of the western region, it is necessary to pursue the multi-disciplinary study of the equitable allocation, utilisation, and ecoenvironment protection of transboundary water resources in the region. Such efforts will undoubtedly provide scientific evidence and support for the decision-making of the environmental protection and ecological construction and management in the western regions, the enforcement of the sub-regional economic co-operation, mitigation of trans-boundary conflicts, and enhancing bio-diversity conservation.     

The braided Milk River, northern Montana, fails the Leopold–Wolman discharge-gradient test

The Milk River, the northernmost tributary to the Missouri–Mississippi River system, exhibits an anomalous sand-bed braiding reach in an otherwise meandering system. Shortly after leaving Alberta and entering Montana the river suddenly changes to braiding and maintains this pattern for 47 km before entering Fresno Reservoir. Measured stream gradient and bankfull discharge in the braiding reach severely fail the Leopold and Wolman [U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. 282B (1957) 39] slope–discharge test for differentiating channel patterns. While channel slope has long been regarded as one of the primary variables associated with braiding, our data from the sand-bed Milk River do not support this relationship. Instead, the data show that the braiding reach has a lower channel slope (0.00047) than the meandering reach (0.00055). Coupled with a constant discharge the unit length stream power is comparable between the two reaches. At the morphologic transition between meandering and braiding, a dramatic reduction in channel bank strength occurs where the sampled silt–clay content declines from 65% in the meandering reach to 18% in the braiding. This enables channel widening which is reflected in a 60% reduction in unit area stream power in the braiding reach. Thus, sediment transport capacity declines and channel bars are deposited. During waning flows, these bars are dissected, producing a braiding morphology. We suggest that for sand-bed braiding rivers the silt–clay percentage in the channel banks may be more important than slope. A review of the original Leopold and Wolman [U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. 282B (1957) 39] dataset, and many subsequent analyses, reveals that most braided rivers studied were gravel-bed. As a result, causal variables associated with braiding in sand-bed environments may need a thorough evaluation.     

Bed-material transport estimated from channel surveys: Vedder River,British Columbia

This study investigates the possibility to estimate bed-material transfer in gravel-bed rivers by analysis of morphological changes along Vedder River, British Columbia. Data from repeated cross-section surveys are used to estimate volume changes along the length of an 8 km reach. Gravel budgets are based on a continuity approach. An error analysis is performed to evaluate the uncertainty in the best estimate of transport rates. The mean annual gravel transport into the reach over a 9 year period was estimated to be 36600 ± 5600 m³ yr^?1. The sediment transport regime along the length of the river is evaluated and examined in relation to peak flood flows. Significant spatial and temporal variability in transport rates is demonstrated, making dubious the generalization of transport estimates from hydraulic calculations, or from sample measurements at a single cross-section. The assumptions, procedures and limitations of the ‘morphological approach’ to sediment transport analysis are discussed. It is concluded that this approach provides information of quality comparable or superior to that of direct measurements of transport, yet requires less field effort. It also provides additional information about river morphological changes, making it a preferred method for geomorphlogical investigations and for many river management concerns.     

Play: The handmaiden of work

The natural habitat of geomorphologists is at play in the fields of the Lord. Picnics, not the work ethic, often motivate the most productive. As in the field, so too in the mind, creative insights derive from the play of ideas. As in much of science today, Earth scientists are called upon to ‘solve’ immediate problems, but problems whose solutions lie at the cutting edge of the research frontier. The impact of anthropogenic activities in the context of natural processes, the playground where many geomorphologists work, requires continuous reciprocal exchange between research and application. Apologies are not needed for choices of orientation, but only for destructive separation.     

Turbulent flow structure in a gravel-bed river: Markov chain analysis of the fluctuating velocity profile

Three electromagnetic current meter probes were deployed in a Canadian gravel-bed river to obtain simultaneous records at 10 Hz of streamwise (u) and vertical (v) velocity components at three heights above the bed. By looking at the positive and negative signs of the instantaneous fluctuations from the time-average values of each velocity component at each height, the fluctuating velocity profile of u or v can be treated as a Markov chain with eight states and its statistical properties can be tested against null hypotheses based on the absence of spatial structure. We report results of this novel approach. The most common states of the u profile were those with either higher-than-average or lower-than-average velocities at all heights; these ‘high speed’ and ‘low speed’ states persisted for up to 3 s. The most common v profiles were all-upwards or all-downwards, but these persisted for shorter times than the high speed and low speed u profiles. Analysis of transition probabilities shows statistically significant tendencies for acceleration from the low speed u profile, and change from all-upwards to all-downwards v profile, to take place progressively from the uppermost probe downwards, in a sweep-like way. Deceleration from the high speed to low speed u profile and change from all-downwards to all-upwards v profile (burst-like behaviour) do not show such clear patterns. The results are interpreted in terms of the advection of inverted wedges of relatively high-momentum fluid, followed by more chaotic structures. A separate set of flow visualization experiments over a mixed gravel bed in a flume supports the presence of advected wedge structures, the decelerating part of the sequence corresponding to irregular ejections of near-bed fluid.     

Monitoring alluvial sand suspension by eddy correlation

Eddy correlation techniques are standard tools in micrometeorology and oceanography to measure momentum and contaminant transport across turbulent boundary layers. They can, in theory, be used to estimate the net vertical suspended sediment flux directly over different areas of an alluvial channel boundary, and thus disclose ongoing erosion/deposition patterns. The basic principles and main problems in applying the technique to alluvial suspension are first introduced. Results from a trial application of the method in a large sand bed river are then presented; the focus of the analysis is on the substantial (and surprising) contributions of multi-minute flow fluctuations to suspension work in the study environment. The data were collected in a 10 m deep channel of the Fraser River near Mission, British Columbia, Canada. Turbulent fluctuations of flow components streamwise and normal to the bed, along with the output of an optical suspended sediment sensor, were monitored over 7 h, 1 m above the bed. Flow velocities averaged 0·9 ms^?1 and mean suspended sediment concentrations 500 mgl^?1, at sensor level above 1–5 dm high dunes. Spectral analysis of the records reveals that approximately 30 per cent of the vertical suspended sand mixing across the sensor level (and roughly as much of the momentum exchange) was linked to gradual flow oscillations with periods between 1 and 13·6 min (underlying briefer, turbulent fluctuations). Extended periods of sediment-rich, slightly upward directed but slower mean flow alternated with periods of sediment-poor, slightly downward and faster mean flow; these slow fluctuations involved 10–20 cms^?1 changes in 5 min average flow speed, 2–4· changes in vertical flow angle and 100 mgl^?1 changes in mean sand concentration. To obtain accurate eddy-correlation estimates of the vertical suspension flux in the study conditions, hour-scale flow and turbidity records that include many of these multi-minute cycles appear to be necessary. The spectra of the Fraser River near-bed signals do not conspicuously differ in overall shape (in terms of low-frequency content and location of peak) from turbulent spectra encountered in some atmospheric boundary layers. Nonetheless, the long period fluctuations observed on the Fraser River may not be turbulent; rather they may reflect slowly evolving perturbations in the near-bed streamlines, caused by bedform translation or gradual fluctuation within the large-scale streamwise cells of the secondary flow.     

Adaptive adjustment of channel geometry

This paper constructs a model of channel geometry composed of three subsections: a steady-state submodel, a gradedstate submodel, and a stochastic error submodel. With the aid of this representation of the morphology of channels, the at-a-point changes in geometry can be reproduced by a simple recursive equation of autoregressive, moving-average form which is derived from methods used in the statistical analysis of time series. A set of height loss data for three Japanese rivers derived from Yatsu's (1955) paper is used to determine the effect of bed material changes on adaptations within the graded-state submodel of the channel. The results of analyzing the autocorrelation function, spectrum, and adaptive parameter shifts within this model can be used to infer that significant changes in the amplitude of height change variation, and a shift to higher frequency oscillations of bed forms are associated with the shift in bed material conditions.