甘肃南部公元1824年以来降水重建

通过对甘肃南部腊子口的油松(Pinus tabulaeformis)进行树木年轮分析,首次建立了研究区1824~2011年标准化年表(STD),并与邻近的岷县气象站降水和温度进行相关分析,结果表明,该年表与上一年8月到当年7月的总降水(p8c7)相关性最好,相关系数达到0.644(pp<0.1),说明研究区干旱变化与海温存在遥相关关系;多窗谱分析(MTM)结果表明降水存在2~3年和7年周期。ENSO事件时,东亚季风减弱,位于季风边缘区的甘肃南部地区出现干旱化趋势。     

Benchmarking analogue models of brittle thrust wedges

We performed a quantitative comparison of brittle thrust wedge experiments to evaluate the variability among analogue models and to appraise the reproducibility and limits of model interpretation. Fifteen analogue modeling laboratories participated in this benchmark initiative. Each laboratory received a shipment of the same type of quartz and corundum sand and all laboratories adhered to a stringent model building protocol and used the same type of foil to cover base and sidewalls of the sandbox. Sieve structure, sifting height, filling rate, and details on off-scraping of excess sand followed prescribed procedures.Our analogue benchmark shows that even for simple plane-strain experiments with prescribed stringent model construction techniques, quantitative model results show variability, most notably for surface slope, thrust spacing and number of forward and backthrusts. One of the sources of the variability in model results is related to slight variations in how sand is deposited in the sandbox. Small changes in sifting height, sifting rate, and scraping will result in slightly heterogeneous material bulk densities, which will affect the mechanical properties of the sand, and will result in lateral and vertical differences in peak and boundary friction angles, as well as cohesion values once the model is constructed. Initial variations in basal friction are inferred to play the most important role in causing model variability.Our comparison shows that the human factor plays a decisive role, and even when one modeler repeats the same experiment, quantitative model results still show variability. Our observations highlight the limits of up-scaling quantitative analogue model results to nature or for making comparisons with numerical models. The frictional behavior of sand is highly sensitive to small variations in material state or experimental set-up, and hence, it will remain difficult to scale quantitative results such as number of thrusts, thrust spacing, and pop-up width from model to nature.     

Benchmarking numerical models of brittle thrust wedges

We report quantitative results from three brittle thrust wedge experiments, comparing numerical results directly with each other and with corresponding analogue results. We first test whether the participating codes reproduce predictions from analytical critical taper theory. Eleven codes pass the stable wedge test, showing negligible internal deformation and maintaining the initial surface slope upon horizontal translation over a frictional interface. Eight codes participated in the unstable wedge test that examines the evolution of a wedge by thrust formation from a subcritical state to the critical taper geometry. The critical taper is recovered, but the models show two deformation modes characterised by either mainly forward dipping thrusts or a series of thrust pop-ups. We speculate that the two modes are caused by differences in effective basal boundary friction related to different algorithms for modelling boundary friction. The third experiment examines stacking of forward thrusts that are translated upward along a backward thrust. The results of the seven codes that run this experiment show variability in deformation style, number of thrusts, thrust dip angles and surface slope. Overall, our experiments show that numerical models run with different numerical techniques can successfully simulate laboratory brittle thrust wedge models at the cm-scale. In more detail, however, we find that it is challenging to reproduce sandbox-type setups numerically, because of frictional boundary conditions and velocity discontinuities. We recommend that future numerical-analogue comparisons use simple boundary conditions and that the numerical Earth Science community defines a plasticity test to resolve the variability in model shear zones.     

Effect of Rheology and Thickness Variation of Basal Detachment on Fold-and-Thrust Belts: Numerical SimulationEI北大核心CSCD

Detachment is the prime factor affecting the fold-and-thrust belts. In order to investigate the effect of rheology and thickness variation of basal detachment on fold-and-thrust belts, numerical simulations are carried out by using two dimensional plane strain mechanical models with elastoplastic or viscoelastoplastic material behavior solved with the finite difference software FLAC. Universal mudstone detachment has frictional property. Such fold-and-thrust belts are simulated with elastoplastic constitutive model. In contrast, salt detachment has creep property, so viscoelastoplastic constitutive models are employed for these fold-and-thrust belts. The results show that rheology and thickness of basal detachment influence the fold-and-thrust belts greatly. When the detachment is mudstone, the typical structural style of imbricate fan will develop, also the propagating forward piggy-back thrust sequence; however, when the detachment is salt, structural style will show Jura-type consisted of a series of anticlines and synclines, and out-of-sequence thrusts will appear. Varieties of thickness of basal mudstone detachment will change eventual surface slope of the fold-and-thrust belts, but have little effect on the structural styles and thrust sequence. For salt detachment, the effect is significant, no matter where the thickest detachment distributes, most strongly deformation and the highest surface will be located there. Thickening of salt detachment combined with slight thinning of overburden strata from hinterland to foreland will result in uncommon structural style and thrust sequence: back thrusts and backward propagating. These differences are mainly due to the much smaller shear strength of salt than that of mudstone. © 2017, Science Press. All right reserved.