Pyroclastic Flow Hazard at Volcán Citlaltépetl

Volcán Citlaltépetl (Pico de Orizaba) with an elevation of 5,675 m is the highest volcano in North America. Its most recent catastrophic events involved the production of pyroclastic flows that erupted approximately 4,000, 8,500, and 13,000 years ago. The distribution of mapped deposits from these eruptions gives an approximate guide to the extent of products from potential future eruptions. Because the topography of this volcano is constantly changing computer simulations were made on the present topography using three computer algorithms: energy cone, FLOW2D, and FLOW3D. The Heim Coefficient (), used as a code parameter for frictional sliding in all our algorithms, is the ratio of the assumed drop in elevation (H) divided by the lateral extent of the mapped deposits (L). The viscosity parameter for the FLOW2D and FLOW3D codes was adjusted so that the paths of the flows mimicked those inferred from the mapped deposits. We modeled two categories of pyroclastic flows modeled for the level I and level II events. Level I pyroclastic flows correspond to small but more frequent block-and-ash flows that remain on the main cone. Level II flows correspond to more widespread flows from catastrophic eruptions with an approximate 4,000-year repose period. We developed hazard maps from simulations based on a National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) DTED-1 DEM with a 90 m grid and a vertical accuracy of ±30 m. Because realistic visualization is an important aid to understanding the risks related to volcanic hazards we present the DEM as modeled by FLOW3D. The model shows that the pyroclastic flows extend for much greater distances to the east of the volcano summit where the topographic relief is nearly 4,300 m. This study was used to plot hazard zones for pyroclastic flows in the official hazard map that was published recently.     

植被发育斜坡非饱和带大孔隙

在气候温湿的滑坡灾害易发区,根系通道、动物通道、干裂缝、管道及团聚体间的结构性孔隙等大孔隙普遍存在于斜坡非饱和带中.采用微观观察、化学分析和现场试验方法并结合相关学科的研究成果,分析大孔隙界定、大孔隙类型和主控因素、大孔隙三维空间结构及大孔隙时效稳定.不同测量方法的差异和大孔隙密度时空变异性是目前大孔隙定义缺乏统一性的原因.大孔隙尺寸不能作为唯一标准界定大孔隙,必须考虑其三维几何形态.多因素控制大孔隙的成因和类型,其中根系通道、裂缝和结构性孔隙对优先流有显著贡献.需从三维几何学和拓扑学方面进一步研究大孔隙三维结构.枯枝落叶层是大孔隙抵御环境因素扰动的重要屏障,但大孔隙域与周围基质域水量交换对大孔隙时效稳定是不利的.深入研究以上问题对植被发育斜坡优先流模型的改进和发展是重要的.     

江苏省开发区土地集约利用的分层线性模型实证研究

本文构建了分层线性模型以揭示不同层次因素对工业用地集约利用的影响。研究表明,开发区土地集约度的差异有63.96%是开发区本身的差异造成的,有36.04%是区域之间的差异造成的;开发区成立年限、开发区入驻企业数量和开发区土地政策强度在区域之间存在明显的变异,开发区区位和开发区级别对开发区土地集约度的关系不依赖于区域环境的变化;区域工业产值和区域城市化率两个变量对开发区成立年限和开发区土地集约度的正向关联影响不显著;区域工业产值会强化开发区入驻企业数量和开发区土地集约度之间的正向关联,而区域城市化率则弱化了开发区入驻企业数量和开发区土地集约度之间的正向关联;开发区土地政策强度和开发区土地集约度之间的正向关系受区域工业产值的影响不大,而区域城市化率会强化开发区土地政策强度和开发区土地集约度之间的正向关系;区域层次变量解释了18.18%的开发区入驻企业数量与开发区土地集约度之间的相关,解释了11.27%的开发区土地政策强度与开发区土地集约度之间的相关。     

Outside the boundary - Land use changes in the surroundings of urban nature reserves

The importance of the landscape surrounding a protected area for sustaining its values is frequently discussed in conservation literature. Studies on the interactions of urbanisation and nature conservation at the global scale suggest that protected nature attracts urbanisation, and that this in turn might negatively impact the area. However, studies specifically addressing such land use dynamics at city scale are largely missing. In this study we examine the change in proportion of built up area in two zones (500 m and 1000 m) surrounding 15 urban nature reserves in southern Sweden. By using comprehensive maps from the last 50 years, we compared the zones to the overall urbanisation in the cities to reveal discrepancies in land use surrounding the nature reserves. We found that the amount of built up area in the buffer zones surrounding nature reserves followed the same trend as the corresponding cities and this relation was stable over time, although the positive relationship was not significant. The establishment of nature reserves had no detectable effect on surrounding land use, however two distinguished groups of reserves were identified with either more or less built up area in buffers zones compared to cities. These differences were related to specific local drivers such as land ownership, land use history and nature reserve location. In contrast to earlier studies at global scale, our study did not show that nature reserves attract urbanisation. Instead, we stress that the great variety of contextual factors at the city scale makes quantitative analysis of this kind extremely difficult. However, a general neglect from planning and nature conservation agencies to recognise nature reserves’ dependence on the surrounding landscape configuration could be detrimental to sustain their values in the long-term. Hence we suggest that zones surrounding nature-protected areas should be planned and managed according to local land use history and current landscape conditions to enable and enhance necessary cross-boundary interactions.     

Mechanism of the Anlesi landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir, China

Many gentle dip translational rock slides have taken place in the Three Gorges Reservoir, China. In order to study the mechanism of these translational rock slides, the authors use the Anlesi landslide as a typical case study to investigate in detail. Field investigations show that the slip zones of the Anlesi landslide were formed from a white mudstone in Jurassic red strata. X-ray diffraction and infrared ray analysis showed that the main mineral components of the slip zones are montmorillonite, illite, feldspar and quartz. Laboratory tests indicate that the slip zone soils are silty clay, of medium-swelling potential, the shear strength decreasing significantly as the slip zone attracts water and saturates.The main factors contributing to the Anlesi landslide are recent tectonic activity, incompetent beds, and intensive rainfall. Recent tectonic activity had caused shear failure along the incompetent beds, and joints within the sandstone. With the effect of intensive rainfall, water percolates to the incompetent beds along tectonic fissures, resulting in swelling of the soil material and high groundwater pressures within fissures in the strata. As a consequence, the Anlesi slope is prone to slide along these incompetent beds.Flac3D software was used to simulate the mechanism of the Anlesi landslide considering the rheological properties of soil and rock. The simulation results demonstrate that the stress, displacement and failure area changes with simulated creep time. The maximum displacement in the X direction reaches 7.59 m after 200-year simulated creep. Therefore, the mechanism of the Anlesi landslide can be illustrated considering the rheological properties of Jurassic red strata.     

Deformation during exhumation of medium‐ and high‐grade metamorphic rocks in the Variscan chain in northern Sardinia (Italy)

The Anglona and SW Gallura regions represent key places to investigate the tectonic evolution of medium‐ and high‐grade metamorphic rocks cropping out in northern Sardinia (Italy). From south to north we distinguish two different metamorphic complexes recording similar deformation histories but different metamorphic evolution: the Medium Grade Metamorphic Complex (MGMC) and the High Grade Metamorphic Complex (HGMC). After the initial collisional stage (D1 deformation phase), both complexes were affected by three contractional deformational phases (D2, D3 and D4) followed by later extensional tectonics. The D2 deformation phase was the most significant event producing an important deformation partitioning that produced localized shearing and folding domains at the boundary between the two metamorphic complexes. We highlight the presence of two previously undocumented systems of shear belts with different kinematics but analogous orientation in the axial zone of Sardinia. They became active at the boundary between the MGMC and HGMC from the beginning of D2. They formed a transpressive regime responsible for the exhumation of the medium‐ and high‐grade metamorphic rocks, and overall represent a change from orthogonal to orogen‐parallel tectonic transport. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Potash in a salt mushroom at Hormoz Island, Hormoz Strait, Iran

Increasing volumes of potash are currently being discovered in a cluster of diapirs of Hormoz (formerly Hormuz) salt near Bandar Abbas, Iran. Most of the potash beds studied so far occur in complex recumbent folds in a salt mountain that would be difficult to exploit safely. However, Holocene marine erosion removed any salt mountains from a sub-group of near-shore Zagros diapirs and exposed their deeper structural levels. Even though these diapirs are still active, their potash deposits are likely more tractable to safe exploitation than in a salt mountain — as we make clear here for Hormoz Island.Geochemical surveys on Hormoz Island reveal two separate potash anomalies that are valuable pseudo-stratigraphic markers. Integrating field measurements of the attitudes of bedding with lineaments on air photos suggests that Hormoz Island consists of a mature bell- or plume-shaped mushroom diapir with potash beds wound around a toroidal axis of rotation near current exposure levels.2D numerical models simulate the salt mushroom on Hormoz Island and its internal circulation. They also suggest that the diapir has a wide overhand above a narrow stem in this gas-rich region. We use the mushroom diapir model to outline a regional exploration strategy that has the potential of influencing the world potash market thereafter.     

Origin of fault domains and fault-domain boundaries (transfer zones and accommodation zones) in extensional provinces: Result of random nucleation and self-organized fault growth

In many extensional provinces, large normal faults dip in the same direction forming fault domains. Features variously named transfer faults, transfer zones, and accommodation zones (hereafter non-genetically referred to as fault-domain boundaries) separate adjacent fault domains. Experimental modeling of distributed extension provides insights on the origin, geometry, and evolution of these fault domains and fault-domain boundaries. In our scaled models, a homogeneous layer of wet clay or dry sand overlies a latex sheet that is stretched orthogonally or obliquely between two rigid sheets. Fault domains and fault-domain boundaries develop in all models in both map view and cross-section. The number, size, and arrangement of fault domains as well as the number and orientation of fault-domain boundaries are variable, even for models with identical boundary conditions. The fault-domain boundaries in our models differ profoundly from those in many published conceptual models of transfer/accommodation zones. In our models, fault-domain boundaries are broad zones of deformation (not discrete strike-slip or oblique-slip faults), their orientations are not systematically related to the extension direction, and they can form spontaneously without any prescribed pre-existing zones of weakness. We propose that fault domains develop because early-formed faults perturb the stress field, causing new nearby faults to dip in the same direction (self-organized growth). As extension continues, faults from adjacent fault domains propagate toward each another. Because opposite-dipping faults interfere with one another in the zone of overlap, the faults stop propagating. In this case, the geometry of the domain boundaries depends on the spatial arrangement of the earliest formed faults, a result of the random distribution of the largest flaws at which the faults nucleate.     

Earthquake-controlling Processes of Detachment Zones in Eastern North China

The basin-and-range area in eastern North China is known for frequent occurrence of earthquakes, their great magnitudes and heavy losses thereby incurred. Seismic studies in the past usually emphasized the intersections, inflexions and branches of the faults. However, the intensities of many great earthquakes in this area do not show linear distribution, and the epicenters are horizontally dispersed at certain depths instead of along the strike of faults. Based on the sub-mantle plume studies made by authors in the past decade, it is thought that there exists an uplifted sub-mantle plume under the fault depression area in North China. The uplifting and intrusion of mantle materials caused the upper crust to be faulted, while low-velocity and high-velocity layers are alternatively distributed in the middle crust under the influence of the mantle and the lower crust. The middle and lower crust materials were detached from the top of the sub-mantle plume to the surroundings while the sub-mantle plume materi     

绿帘石记录俯冲带变质流体活动

俯冲带是连接地球表生圈层和深部圈层的关键纽带,深刻影响着地球内部的运行方式和人类宜居环境。俯冲板片脱水释放的高压-超高压变质流体控制着俯冲带诸多重要地质过程,如地幔楔交代和部分熔融、岛弧岩浆活动、中/深源地震以及地球内部的元素迁移和分异等等。深入了解这些流体的源区、运移、成分和物理化学条件是理解这些流体性质和行为的前提和关键。绿帘石是俯冲带变质岩中一个常见的含水造岩矿物,具有较宽广的稳定温压范围(绿片岩相-榴辉岩相)、较高的微量元素含量和缓慢的体扩散行为(如Sr、Pb、Th、U、Cr、V和LREE),能够指示俯冲带(多期)变质流体活动和地球化学效应。本文总结了近年来俯冲带变质绿帘石研究的主要进展及其在揭示俯冲带流体活动方面的重要应用,包括探究俯冲带流体的起源、成分特征、运移方式、氧逸度条件、交代效应和多期次结晶行为。这些研究表明绿帘石是一个极好的变质流体活动记录器,能够为理解俯冲带流体活动和深部元素迁移提供关键信息。