Relating petroleum system and play development to basin evolution: West African South Atlantic basins

Sedimentary basins can be classified according to their structural genesis and evolutionary history and the latter can be linked to petroleum system and play development. We propose an approach in which we use the established concepts in a new way: breaking basins down into their natural basin cycle division, then defining the characteristics of each basin cycle (including the type of petroleum systems and plays they may contain) and comparing them with similar basin cycles in other basins, thereby providing a means to learn through a greater population of (perhaps not immediately obvious) analogues. Furthermore, we introduce the use of the trajectory plot as a new tool in such an analysis. This methodology has been applied to the West African South Atlantic marginal basins between Cameroon and Angola, and we demonstrate that the similar tectonostratigraphic evolution of the individual basins along this margin has led to the development of similar types of petroleum systems and play (level)s. Consequently, we can make analogue comparisons among these basins in order to evaluate and predict the presence of potential, yet undiscovered, hydrocarbon accumulations in less well explored parts of the margin.     

关于气候系统与地球系统的若干思考

分析了地球系统的基本特征和地球系统的能源和运转方式,指出地热涡和地冷涡是地面气候系统的重要成员. 利用全球地磁场资料,研究了地球内部焦耳热的分布和演变规律,结果表明:全球地磁场的变化与全球气温的变化有密切联系,而且焦耳热场的分布与地热带、火山分布、全球最大降水量带有很好的对应. 因此,要对气候变化有一个全面的认识,必须研究整个地球系统.     

Recent Progress and Future Prospects in Solar Physics, and Their Relevance for Planet Earth

Understanding our star, the Sun, is of fundamental interest for life on Earth. In this paper, the status of knowledge in solar physics of roughly two decades ago is summarised, and the most recent developments in this very active field are shown, many of them achieved by means of space based missions. The Sun–Earth connection is described and, finally, an outlook on future solar research is given.     

Researches in China on the Effects of Tides on the Earth Rotation

In this paper the tidal phenomena on the Earth are concisely specified, including solid tides, ocean tides and atmospheric tides due to the luni-solar tide-generating force, and the Earth pole tide due to the motion of the Earth's rotation axis (polar motion); as well as their effects on the Earth rotation. The outcomes of scientific researches of Chinese astronomers on these topics are described in some detail. These researches deal with the mechanisms responsible for tidal effects on the earth rotation, and on the measurements of the Earth rotation parameters. Finally, the effects discovered by Chinese researchers on the measurements of the period and change in period of pulsars are discussed. These effects are very small in magnitude but not negligible.     

The outer core rotation about an inclined axis from geomagnetic secular variations (Mitteilungen des Zentralinstituts für Physik der Erde,Nr. 1832)

Non-axisymmetric motions of the outer core of the Earth are important for the dynamo problem and the excitation of the decade variations of the polar motion. The components of the vector of a rigid rotation of the outer core about an inclined axis were estimated by a first-order approximation of the frozen- field theory of the geomagnetic secular variation from 1903.5 to 1975.5. The trends and quasi-periodic constituents of these quantities were computed. It was shown that the position and time behaviour of the rotational pole of the outer core differ considerably from the well-know co-ordinates of the dipole axis. Some periods of the equatorial components of the rotational vector are comparable with those of the axial component previously derived for a pure axial rotation. Additionally, the time behaviour of the pole path shows events like the well-known Markowitz wobble but naturally with other extent. These and other results suggested that the investigations are worth to be continued in future by some physical interpretations.     

A new approach to the calculation of the cratering rate of the Earth over the last 125 ± 20 Myr

The recent cratering record of the surface of the Earth is re-examined using a new technique that concentrates on estimating the mean areas occupied by individual craters, together with the gradients of linear plots of crater numbers versus crater ages. This analysis indicates that the lower limit of the rate at which craters have been produced over the last 125±20 Myr is, for example, (12.0±0.7)×10⁻¹⁵ km⁻² yr⁻¹ for D 2.4 km craters, (9.5±0.6)×10⁻¹⁵ km⁻² yr⁻¹ for D 5.0 km craters, (6.5±0.5)×10⁻¹⁵ km⁻² yr⁻¹ for D 12 km craters, and (3.0±0.3)×10⁻¹⁵ km⁻² yr⁻¹ for D 22 km craters. These figures indicate that previous researchers have considerably overestimated the rate at which small (2.4< D <20 km) craters are being produced. It is also found that the relationship between crater production rate and crater diameter is not a simple power law in the 2.4< D <40 km diameter range. On the most stable areas of the Earth's continents, and over the last 125±20 Myr it seems that the rate at which craters are eroded below the detection limit does not depend on crater diameter throughout the above size range.     

R-N场中雷达回波延迟实验的后后牛顿修正

从球对称引力场中光子在赤道面上的运动微分方程出发,采用后牛顿近似方法,讨论了Reissner-Nordstr(o|¨)m度规场中雷达回波延迟实验的后后牛顿修正.通过计算给出了后牛顿以及后后牛顿的修正结果,当荷电量Q为零时,该结果适用于电中性天体,其后牛顿部分的修正与经典文献一致.文中采用的近似展开方法同样适用于讨论更高阶的修正.雷达回波的高阶修正对目前展开的高精度空间引力试验有着重要的参考价值.     

大气折射与路径弯曲延迟

电磁波信号在地球大气中的传播受到折射的影响,传播的方向发生了改变,传播的路径变为曲线,长度大于直线距离,相应的传播时间也被延长了,采用一个简化的球对称大气模型计算了光线在不同天顶距下由于路径弯曲而引起的延迟改正.     

Mineralogical characterization of potential targets for the ASTEX mission scenario

In-situ investigation of asteroids is the next logical step in understanding their exact surface mineralogy, petrology, elemental abundances, particle size distribution, internal structure, and collisional evolution. Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) provide us with ample opportunities for in-situ scientific exploration with lower Δv requirements and subsequently lower costs than their main belt counterparts. The ASTEX mission concept aims at surface characterization of two compositionally diverse NEAs, one with primitive and the other with a strong thermally evolved surface mineralogy. Here we present the first results of our ground-based characterization of potential ASTEX mission targets using the SpeX instrument on the NASA IRTF. Of the four potential targets we characterized, two (1991 JW and 1998 PA) have compositions similar to ordinary chondrite mineralogy. The other two targets (1994 CC and 1999 TA10) are thermally evolved objects with igneous formation histories. While 1994 CC is a triplet system and thus very challenging to orbit the V-type NEA, 1999 TA10 is the most interesting scientific ASTEX target identified so far.