Natural hydraulic cracking: numerical model and sensitivity study

Natural hydrofracturing caused by overpressure plays an important role in geopressure evolution and hydrocarbon migration in petroliferous basins. Its mechanism is quite well understood in the case of artificial hydraulic fracturing triggered by high-pressure fluid injection in a well. This is not so for natural hydraulic fracturing which is assumed to initiate as micro-cracks with large influence on the permeability of the medium. The mechanism of natural hydraulic cracking, triggered by increasing pore pressure during geological periods, is studied using a fracturing model coupled to the physical processes occurring during basin evolution. In this model, the hydraulic cracking threshold is assumed to lie between the classical failure limit and the beginning of dilatancy. Fluid pressure evolution is calculated iteratively in order to allow dynamic adjustment of permeability so that the fracturing limit is always preserved. The increase of permeability is interpreted on the basis of equivalent fractures. It is found that fracturing is very efficient to keep a stress level at the rock’s hydraulic cracking limit: a fracture permeability one order of magnitude larger than the intrinsic permeability of the rock would be enough. Observations reported from actual basins and model results strongly suggest that natural hydraulic cracking occurs continuously to keep the pressure at the fracturing limit under relaxed stress conditions.     

河北平原水系密度与隐伏活动构造的关系

以1926年出版的比例尺为1：5万的顺直地形图作为基础图件，用地理信息系统技术对河北平原作水系密度计量分析，揭示隐伏在第四纪巨厚的沉积物之下活动构造的信息，研究结果证实水系线密度统计图与使用其它地球科学方法获得的成果，例如基底活动断块图，地貌类型图和第四纪厚度图都有很好的对应，特别与布格重力图对应更好，研究结果发现水系密度图与布格重力异常图在总体一致性较好的前提下，多处反向异常区均为近代强震发生的区域，提出这种地表水系密度统计研究的成果不仅可以揭示深部隐伏的活动构造，而且具有较明确的时间含义。     

疏勒河流域昌马灌区泉水量预测分析

疏勒河流域农业灌溉主要采用地表水灌溉 ,泉水为该区农业灌溉的主要水源之一 ,该文利用 2 0世纪 90年代的测流资料 ,采用有限差分方法对疏勒河中游泉水量的变化趋势进行预测分析 ,结果显示 ,随着时间的延长 ,泉流量呈逐渐减小的趋势 ,但下降梯度逐渐变小 ,最终趋于稳定     

西部公路路基内部排水效果模拟研究

以半挖半填路基为例，讨论了各类地质单元与路基系统的作用及路基系统内部地下水运动特征，着重分析了地下水对路基边坡稳定性的控制作用，通过敏感性分析，阐明了降低路基边坡地下水位的必要性，研究了地下水对路基系统的作用机理；建立了路基排水的数学模型，对影响路基排水的降雨强度、渗沟间距、排水时间等因素进行了敏感分析；通过对路基系统渗透系数、入渗系数、降雨量及初始水头的不同取值，运用Modflow软件对排水效果进行了模拟；通过工程实例，验证了路基排水设计方案的合理性。     

贵州某机场的主要工程地质问题分析及其处理措施建议

贵州某机场为山区高填方机场，最大填方高度近60m，场址沟谷发育，基底为软硬交替的、顺倾向岩层的斜坡地区，笔者就该机场的主要工程地质问题一边坡稳定问题、沉降问题、地表水和地下水的排泄问题进行了不同程度的研究并提出了相应的处理措施。     

比奥固结理论在堆载预压加固工程场地中运用

运用平面应变比奥固结有限单元法，对南京某钢铁厂江边原料厂采用堆载预压结合塑料排水板处理的软土地基进行了计算，得到了较为理想的效果。计算中将塑料排水板合理地简化成等效砂墙，理论计算结果与实测结果吻合较好。验证了计算方法是合理可行的。     

基于自然水系网信息的元素运移分析

地面上的矿物或污染物元素主要是随水系而运移的。因此，利用自然水系网信息来定量分析元素沿水系的迁移、分散，对于地质找矿和环境保护都具有重要意义。在研究应用主概率权模拟模型产生自然水系网的基础上，提出了元素在水系网中运移的计算方法，结合所模拟出的水系网，具体分析了元素在其中的迁移、扩散情况，给出了正问题和反问题的计算结果。结果表明，正、反问题的求解具有一致性，方法是有效、可行的。     

Architecture of coastal and alluvial deposits in an extensional basin: the Carboniferous Joggins Formation of eastern Canada

Abstract The Joggins Formation was deposited in the Cumberland Basin, which experienced rapid mid‐Carboniferous subsidence on bounding faults. A 600 m measured section of coastal and alluvial plain strata comprises cycles tens to hundreds of metres thick. The cycles commence with coal and fossiliferous limestone/siltstone intervals, interpreted as widespread flooding events. These intervals are overlain by coarsening‐upward successions capped by planar‐based sandstone mounds, up to 100 m in width that represent the progradation of small, river‐generated delta lobes into a standing body of open water developed during transgression. The overlying strata contain sand‐rich heterolithic packages, 1–8 m thick, that are associated with channel bodies 2–3 m thick and 10–50 m wide. Drifted plant debris, Calamites groves and erect lycopsid trees are preserved within these predominantly green‐grey heterolithic sediments, which were deposited on a coastal wetland or deltaic plain traversed by channel systems. The cycles conclude with red siltstones, containing calcareous nodules, that are interbedded with thin sandstones and associated with both single‐storey channel bodies (1–1·5 m thick and 2–3 m wide) and larger, multistorey channels (3–6 m thick) with incised margins. Numerous channel bodies at the same level suggest that multiple‐channel, anastomosed river systems were developed on a well‐drained floodplain. Many minor flooding surfaces divide the strata into parasequences with dominantly progradational and aggradational stacking patterns. Multistorey channel bodies are relatively thin, fine grained and modestly incised, and palaeosols are immature and cumulative. The abundance and prominence of flooding surfaces suggests that base‐level rise was enhanced, whereas the lack of evidence for abrupt basinward stepping of facies belts, coupled with the absence of strong fluvial incision and mature palaeosols, suggests that base‐level fall was suppressed. These architectural features are considered to reflect a tectonic architectural signature, in accordance with the high‐subsidence basinal setting. Evidence for restricted marine influence and variation in floral assemblages suggests modulation by eustatic and climatic effects, although their relative importance is uncertain.     

Cenozoic Plate interaction of the Australia and Philippine Sea Plates: “hit-and-run” tectonics

Recent studies in northwest New Guinea have shown the presence of at least two marginal basins of different age, both of which formed in back-arc settings. The older basin opened between the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, a remnant of which is now preserved as the New Guinea Ophiolite. Its obduction started at 40 Ma and it was finally emplaced on the Australian margin at 30 Ma. The younger basin was active during the Oligocene to Middle Miocene and was obducted in the Early Pliocene. Studies of the western edge of the Philippine Sea also reveal an important deformation of the Philippine arc in the Oligocene, which hitherto has remained unexplained. Using information from these systems, paleomagnetic results, kinematic reconstructions and geochemistry of the supra-subduction ophiolite, we present a plate model to explain the region's Eo–Oligocene development. We suggest that an extensive portion of oceanic crust extended the Australian Plate a considerable distance north of the Australian Craton. As Australia began its steady 7–8 cm/year northward drift in the Early Eocene, this lithosphere was subducted. Thus, the portion of the Philippine Sea Plate carrying the Taiwan–Philippine Arc to its present site may have actually been in contact with the ophiolite now in New Guinea and obduction led to deformation of the Philippine Sea Plate itself. Neogene Plate kinematics transported the deformed belt in contact with the Sunda block in the Late Miocene and Pliocene. This interpretation has implications for the origin for the Philippine Sea Plate and the potential incorporation of continental fragments against its boundaries.     

Kinematics of the Gondwana basins of peninsular India

The Gondwana successions (1–4 km thick) of peninsular India accumulated in a number of discrete basins during Permo-Triassic period. The basins are typically bounded by faults that developed along Precambrian lineaments during deposition, as well as affected by intrabasinal faults indicating fault-controlled synsedimentary subsidence. The patterns of the intrabasinal faults and their relationships with the respective basin-bounding faults represent both extensional and strike-slip regimes. Field evidence suggests that preferential subsidence in locales of differently oriented discontinuities in the Precambrian basement led to development of Gondwana basins with varying, but mutually compatible, kinematics during a bulk motion, grossly along the present-day E–W direction. The kinematic disparity of the individual basins resulted due to different relative orientations of the basement discontinuities and is illustrated with the help of a simple sandbox model. The regional E–W motion was accommodated by strike-slip motion on the transcontinental fault in the north.