Raindrop‐impact‐induced erosion processes and prediction: a review

Raindrop‐impact‐induced erosion is initiated when detachment of soil particles from the surface of the soil results from an expenditure of raindrop energy. Once detachment by raindrop impact has taken place, particles are transported away from the site of the impact by one or more of the following transport processes: drop splash, raindrop‐induced flow transport, or transport by flow without stimulation by drop impact. These transport processes exhibit varying efficiencies. Particles that fall back to the surface as a result of gravity produce a layer of pre‐detached particles that provides a degree of protection against the detachment of particles from the underlying soil. This, in turn, influences the erodibility of the eroding surface. Good understanding of rainfall erosion processes is necessary if the results of erosion experiments are to be properly interpreted. Current process‐based erosion prediction models do not deal with the issue of temporal variations in erodibility during a rainfall event or variabilities in erodibility associated with spatial changes in dominance of the transport processes that follow detachment by drop impact. Although more complex erosion models may deal with issues like this, their complexity and high data requirement may make them unsuitable for use as general prediction tools. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sediment yield and storage variations in the Négron River catchment (south western Parisian Basin,France) during the Holocene period

In the Négron River catchment area (162 km²), surface‐sediment stores are composed of periglacial calcareous ‘grèze’ (5 × 10⁶ t) and loess (21 × 10⁶ t), and Holocene alluvium (12·6 × 10⁶ t), peat (0·6 × 10⁶ t) and colluvium (18·5 × 10⁶ t). Seventy‐five per cent of the Holocene sediments is stored along the thalwegs. Present net sediment yield, calculated from solid discharge at the Négron outlet, is low (0·6 t km^?2 a^?1) due to the dominance of carbonate rocks in the catchment. Mean sediment yield during the Holocene period is 7·0 t km^?2 a^?1 from alluvium stores and 7·6 t km^?2 a^?1 from colluvium stores. Thus, the gross sediment yield during the Holocene period is about 18·7 t km^?2 a^?1 and the sediment delivery ratio 3 per cent. The yield considerably varies from one sub‐basin to another (3·9 to 24·5 t km^?2 a^?1) according to lithology: about 25 per cent and 50 per cent of initial stores of periglacial grèze and loess respectively were reworked during the Holocene period. Sediment yield has increased by a factor of 6 in the last 1000 years, due to the development of agriculture. The very high rate of sediment storage on the slope during that period (88 per cent of the yield) can be accounted for by the formation of cultivation steps (‘rideaux’). It is predicted that the current destruction of these steps will result in a sediment wave reaching the valley floors in the coming decades. Subboreal and Subatlantic sediments and pollen assemblages in the Taligny marsh, where one‐third of the alluvium is stored, show the predominant influence of human activity during these periods in the Négron catchment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

珠江河口水环境时空变异对河口生态系统的影响

分析近20年来珠江河口水环境变异的特征,探讨珠江河口水环境与水生物相互联系和相互作用的关系。结果表明,珠江河口形态、地貌、水文情势和入河污染物等变异改变了珠江河口水生物的栖息条件,削弱了河口生态系统的自动调节修复能力和稳定性,对河口生态系统的物质循环、能量流动和发育演化平衡构成了重大影响。     

煤矿区地质灾害对新农村建设的影响

河南省煤炭资源丰富,分布于六大煤矿区,主要煤矿119个。煤矿区地质灾害主要有地面塌陷、地裂缝、崩塌、滑坡、不稳定斜坡等。各类灾害造成居民住房、学校、道路、水利、电力等设施和土地资源的破坏。煤矿区地质灾害已成为阻碍农村经济持续发展的重要因素。在论述煤矿区地质灾害对新农村建设影响的基础上,初步制定地质灾害防治措施,提出煤矿塌陷区新农村建设中村庄选址对策。     

Impact cratering — fundamental process in geoscience and planetary science

Impact cratering is a geological process characterized by ultra-fast strain rates, which generates extreme shock pressure and shock temperature conditions on and just below planetary surfaces. Despite initial skepticism, this catastrophic process has now been widely accepted by geoscientists with respect to its importance in terrestrial — indeed, in planetary — evolution. About 170 impact structures have been discovered on Earth so far, and some more structures are considered to be of possible impact origin. One major extinction event, at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, has been firmly linked with catastrophic impact, but whether other important extinction events in Earth history, including the so-called “Mother of All Mass Extinctions” at the Permian-Triassic boundary, were triggered by huge impact catastrophes is still hotly debated and a subject of ongoing research. There is a beneficial side to impact events as well, as some impact structures worldwide have been shown to contain significant (in some cases, world class) ore deposits, including the gold-uranium province of the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa, the enormous Ni and PGE deposits of the Sudbury structure in Canada, as well as important hydrocarbon resources, especially in North America. Impact cratering is not a process of the past, and it is mandatory to improve knowledge of the past-impact record on Earth to better constrain the probability of such events in the future. In addition, further improvement of our understanding of the physico-chemical and geological processes fundamental to the impact cratering process is required for reliable numerical modeling of the process, and also for the correlation of impact magnitude and environmental effects. Over the last few decades, impact cratering has steadily grown into an integrated discipline comprising most disciplines of the geosciences as well as planetary science, which has created positive spin-offs including the study of paleo-environments and paleo-climatology, or the important issue of life in extreme environments. And yet, in many parts of the world, the impact process is not yet part of the geoscience curriculum, and for this reason, it deserves to be actively promoted not only as a geoscientific discipline in its own right, but also as an important life-science discipline.     

T型巷道中突出煤−瓦斯两相流动力学试验研究

为了进一步探究突出煤−瓦斯两相流在不同巷道布置方式下的动力学行为,利用多场耦合煤矿动力灾害大型物理模拟试验系统,开展了T型巷道布置方式下的煤与瓦斯突出试验,得出了两相流运移过程中冲击力与静压的演化特征。结果表明：直线主巷内冲击力随时间呈多峰值震荡衰减趋势,体现了突出过程的脉冲特性,且距突出口越近,冲击力震荡次数越多;分岔两侧支巷内冲击力突出前期呈现两种演化趋势,其一是迅速增大至峰值后缓慢下降,其二是缓慢增大后缓慢下降;距分岔结构中心左侧1 500 mm处出现了较大冲击力值,出现重度危险区域,而右侧则在距500 mm和1 900 mm处。利用突出运移动态图像将整个过程分为单相气流和两相流两个阶段,单相气流阶段中分岔后支巷的冲击力就迅速上升至峰值,而在两相流阶段分岔前主巷的冲击力上升至最高值,存在分岔后冲击力峰值高于分岔前的现象。突出过程中,巷道壁面上静压值总体偏低;静压随时间呈间歇式波动发展,且其峰值点自煤层由近及远呈先增大后减小的趋势;距突出口越远,直线主巷内静压出现峰值的时刻越滞后;分岔支巷内静压左右两侧的演化近似,随着时间推进,分岔结构前后静压衰减逐渐增大。     

Origin of the Mt Ashmore structural dome,west Bonaparte Basin,Timor Sea

New insights into the 3D structure, composition and origin of the Mt Ashmore dome, west Bonaparte Basin, Timor Sea, are enabled by reprocessed seismic-reflection data and by optical microscopic, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM)/energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses of drill cuttings. The structural dome, located below a major pre-Oligocene post-Late Eocene unconformity and above a ～6 km-deep-seated basement high indicated by marked gravity and magnetic anomalies, displays chaotic deformation at its core and a centripetal kinematic deformation pattern. A study of drill cuttings of Lower Oligocene to Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks intersected by the Mt Ashmore 1B petroleum-exploration well reveals microbrecciation and extreme comminution and flow-textured fluidisation of altered sedimentary material. The microbreccia is dominated by aggregates of poorly diffracting micrometre to tens of micrometres-scale to sub-millimetre particles, including relic subplanar fractured quartz grains, carbonate, barite, apatite and K-feldspar. A similar assemblage occurs in fragments in basal Oligocene sediments, probably derived from the eroded top section of the dome, which protrudes above the unconformity. SEM coupled with EDS show the micrometre to tens of micrometres-scale particles are characterised by very low totals and non-stoichiometric compositions, including particles dominated by Si, Al–Si, Si–Ca–Al, Si–Al–Ca, Si–Mg, Fe–Mg–Ca, Fe–Mg and carbonate. XRD analysis identifies a high proportion of amorphous poorly diffracting material. TEM indicates internally heterogeneous, fragmented and recrystallised structure of the amorphous grains, which accounts for the low totals in terms of the high-volatile and porous nature of the particles. Another factor for the low totals is the uneven thin-section surfaces which affect the totals. No volcanic material or evaporites were encountered in the drillcore, militating against interpretations of the structure in terms of magmatic intrusion or salt diapirism. Such models are also inconsistent with the strong gravity and magnetic anomalies, which signify a basement high below the dome. An interpretation of the dome in terms of a central rebound uplift of an impact structure can not be proven due to the lack of shock metamorphic effects such as planar deformation features, impact melt or coesite. However, an impact model is consistent with the chaotic structure of the domal core, centripetal sense of deformation, microbrecciation, comminution and fluidisation of the Triassic to Eocene rocks. In this respect, an analogy can be drawn between the Mt Ashmore structural dome and likely but unproven impact structures formed in volatile (H₂O, CO₂)-rich sediments where shock is attenuated by high volatile pressure, such as Upheaval Dome, Utah. In terms of an impact hypothesis the Mt Ashmore dome is contemporaneous with a Late Eocene impact cluster (Popigai: D = 100 km, 35.7 ± 0.2 Ma; Chesapeake Bay: D = 85 km, 35.3 ± 0.1 Ma).     

Paleolithic vs. Epipaleolithic fisheries in northern Iberia

A comparison of Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic fisheries in NW Iberia shows an overall high trophic level of catch. Freshwater fisheries (and thus their impacts) are ca. 8000 yr older than marine fisheries and have suffered virtually no changes in the region except for the increase in numbers, being focused on two families (Salmonidae, and Anguillidae to a very minor extent). Marine fisheries in the Paleolithic likely had a low impact but rapidly increased in importance, raising the average trophic level of the catch, the number of affected taxa and the proportion of marine to freshwater fisheries with time.     

三轴冲击荷载作用下淤泥力学响应研究

利用SPAX-2000（改进型）静动真三轴系统,针对淤泥类超软土进行静动力排水固结试验,研究包括较高频率在内的各冲击荷载频率（1、8、16 Hz）与不同围压（200、250、300 kPa）作用下淤泥的力学响应;此外,结合三轴剪切试验研究不同固结条件对淤泥不排水强度的影响。试验结果表明：（1）在相同冲击频率作用下,试样抗剪强度随着围压增大而提高;围压增大,使得球应力增大,体应变随着增大,有效地促进试样排水固结。（2）相同围压作用下,存在着一个冲击荷载频率阈值,当冲击频率低于这一阈值时,随着冲击荷载频率的提高,轴向应变量逐渐变小,反之逐渐变大。（3）冲击瞬间,体应变为负值,表现为体胀,这与原位试验夯击瞬间的孔隙水压力变化曲线一致,从而验证了高含水率淤泥在冲击作用下的孔压负增长现象。