Geochemical zoning around the McClean uranium deposits, Saskatchewan, Canada

Some 3400 drill core samples of the Athabasca Group and underlying regolith have been obtained by sampling 8-m sections from 55 diamond drill holes in the McClean Lake Area, Saskatchewan. Forty eight holes are from sections over six areas known to contain uranium mineralization and 7 are from unmineralized areas. The uranium zones are covered by 30 to 180 m of Athabasca sandstones and conglomerates.The uranium mineralization of the McClean deposits can be described as belonging to two different facies; a more reduced sulphide-arsenide facies and a more oxidized hematite-“bleached” facies, superimposed on any one of three host rocks.The sulphide-arsenide facies is probably older and, except in one deposit, it forms a patchy distribution of relicts. The principal pattern is an upwards increase in sulphur/arsenic ratio. The hematite-“bleached” facies appears to be younger and may represent a reworking of the earlier sulphide-arsenide facies mineralization under more oxidizing conditions.The trace metals can be grouped according to their redox behaviour. Vanadium, Mo and U, occurring as oxides, form one group while Ni, Co, Zn, Cu and As, occurring as sulphides and/or arsenides, form intermediate and most reduced groups, respectively. Iron is concentrated in the most oxidized facies as hematite or goethite and in the most reduced facies as pyritebravoite, siderite and chlorite. Manganese follows the distribution of siderite.The ratio of oxidized to reduced minerals can be represented by the ratio of U/Ni. This ratio can be used to estimate the variation of redox potential in the deposit at the time of deposition or alteration. The principal pattern is one of systematic increase in U/Ni ratio or oxidation potential both upward and to the northeast in each of the hematite and bleached facies.A generalized Eh-pH diagram is used to qualitatively describe the significance of each mineral facies.The U/Ni ratio of the transition between the hematite and “bleached” facies increases upwards. The phase diagram suggests that a possible cause is an upward decrease in pH and increase in Eh.The overall distribution is compatible with the origin of the deposits due to reduction at the interface between a plume of reductant emanating from fractures in the sub-Athabasca basement and an oxidizing aquifer moving southwestward in the sandstone. This model does not accurately predict the distribution of elements among the seven McClean Lake pods. However, it explains the overall pattern. Local variations in metal ratios in solution either in time or reflecting local provenance could be adduced to explain local deviations from the overall pattern.Clay alteration, apparently largely contemporaneous with the earliest mineralization, is largely illitic but with sporadic occurrences of xenotime and goyazite. Thus K and to some extent P, Y and light REE's are also enriched to some degree in the deposits.Uranium analysis of the drill core shows that there is little movement of U into the overlying sandstones from basement rocks and regolith that contain no uranium deposits. Uranium in the Athabasca sandstone from these areas averages less than 1 ppm. However, where uranium zones have been found in the basement rocks, regolith and lower Athabasca sandstone, U values greater than 2–3 ppm consistently occur in the overlying sandstones at or near surface.There appear to be two types of U anomalies, those that flank the deposits and those that directly overlie them. Both types exhibit vertical and lateral continuity. They are associated with vertical to steeply dipping fracture systems that traverse the Athabasca sandstone from basement to surface. The fractures are thought to be related to diagenetic processes from compaction of the sedimentary rocks over basement irregularities as well as tectonic processes (i.e. re-adjustment along old basement structures).These results suggest that target areas containing deeply buried uranium deposits could be defined by U analyses of the Athabasca sandstone from quite widely spaced holes of limited depth. This conclusion can be compared to XRD and chemical studies of clay mineral distribution within the Athabasca sandstone about the deposits.     

地下水水源保护区范围计算的KLF法及其在徐州张集地区的应用

详细介绍了地下水水源保护区范围的计算方法:Krijgsman-Lobo-Ferreira(KLF)法,分别推导出了正水流梯度方向、负水流梯度方向和垂直于地下水流方向保护区范围的计算公式,并就方法的适用性及参数取值等问题进行了探讨.在徐州张集地区应用的结果表明,KLF法提供了一种计算地下水保护区范围的便捷、科学、有效的方法,计算结果对于确定地下水源保护区范围及有效保护地下水源具有实际意义.     

A review of the assessments of the major fisheries resources in South Africa

The waters off South Africa's coastline boast a rich mix of commercially fished species. Quantitative assessments of these marine resources have developed from simple methods first applied in the 1970s, to models that encompass a wide range of methodologies. The more valuable resources have undergone regular assessments in recent decades, with frequencies closely related to the management approach employed for each fishery. Many of these assessments form the operating models used to simulation-test candidate management procedures. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the assessments of 11 of the most important fisheries resources in South Africa. Some assessments use simple biomass dynamics models, whereas others are a hybrid of age- and length-based models, each designed to model the specific characteristics of the resource and fishery concerned. Many of the assessments have been disaggregated by species/stock and/or area as related multispecies/stock/ distribution hypotheses have arisen. This paper explores the similarities and differences in the data available and the methods applied. The review indicates that, whereas the status of three of these resources cannot be estimated reliably at present, the status of six resources is considered to be reasonable to good, whereas that of abalone Haliotis midae and West Coast rock lobster Jasus lalandii remains poor.     

Predatory pelagic fishes of the Bijagós Archipelago (Guinea-Bissau) show high overlap in diets dominated by sardinella

Knowledge of trophic interactions between the key components of marine communities is required to understand food-web dynamics and develop ecosystem-based management approaches. In West Africa, where fisheries sustain the livelihoods of a significant part of the human population, this understanding is even more urgent, especially in the face of rapidly expanding fisheries and some stock collapses in the region. We studied the feeding ecology of the Crevalle jack Caranx hippos, West African Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus tritor and Guinean barracuda Sphyraena afra in the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau. These are the most abundant pelagic predatory teleost fishes in the area, but little is known about their ecology despite being species with commercial and recreational value, and they likely also play an important role in various African coastal ecosystems. Our findings show a high degree of dietary overlap among these three predator species, despite some degree of segregation by prey size and type. All three predators depend on Sardinella maderensis as the most important prey, which together with other members of the Clupeidae represented 47–96% of the ingested prey items. There was little difference in the diets of the predators between the dry and rainy seasons. These novel findings suggest a ‘wasp-waist’-structured ecosystem in the Bijagós Archipelago in which S. maderensis is the central small-sized pelagic fish species, and stress the need for an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management in the region, with precautionary measures taken to avoid the overexploitation of clupeids.     

Natural iodine in a clay formation: Implications for iodine fate in geological disposals

Iodine is one of the most problematic radioisotopes in the context of nuclear waste geological disposal due to its high mobility. Considerable effort has been dedicated to the measurement of its potential retardation during diffusive transport leading to conflicting results, from no retardation to significant retardation, leading in turn to considerable debate. The present study aims at providing new insights into this aspect of the iodine problem by careful quantification of iodine reservoirs in the Callovian-Oxfordian (COx) clay rock taken here as model material for these studies. The present study confirmed the ubiquitous presence of iodine at 1-5 mg kg⁻¹ level in the COx clayey formation. The iodide concentration level in the porewater is also confirmed at a value in the range ∼20-40 μmol L⁻¹, i.e. higher than the expected range of radio-iodine concentration in the far-field of the storage. Surprisingly, most of the iodine was found not to be associated with organic matter but rather in an inorganic form associated with carbonate minerals. This result has potentially significant implications for the fate of radio-iodine. In undisturbed far-field conditions, most natural iodine would not be accessible for isotopic exchange with radioactive iodine, reducing the effective Kd to negligible values. During laboratory experiments, good monitoring of the geochemical parameters (at least the Eh, pH, P_CO2, [Ca] and [Mg]) is mandatory to avoid iodine-bearing carbonate precipitation and to enable rigorous interpretation of the iodide diffusion/retention experiments.     

岩石圈伸展的壳/幔拆离模型(Parallel Extension Tectonics):华北克拉通东部早白垩世岩石圈减薄与破坏机理

华北克拉通岩石圈减薄和破坏机理长期以来存在争议,基于岩石学、岩石地球的化学分析研究突出强调深部过程的重要性。前人提出了两种重要模式:包括以拆沉作用为代表的top-down tectonics模型和以热-机械侵蚀与化学侵蚀,或地幔置换、交代作用的bottom-up tectonics模型。然而,对于这两种模式而言尚存在许多无法合理解释的问题,比如在此深部过程中,区域性岩石圈伸展有多大的贡献?地壳伸展构造是作为深部过程的响应,还是同为岩石圈伸展的产物?本文基于早白垩世东亚地区(尤其是华北克拉通东部地区)伸展构造与岩浆活动的综合分析,揭示出华北克拉通东部不同地区伸展构造变形与岩浆活动之间的时、空和成因关系有一定的差异。但整体上看,岩石圈伸展起着主导作用,控制着岩浆上侵和就位,在拆离断层下盘侵入形成各种规模的花岗质为主的侵入体,或于上盘喷发形成火山-沉积岩盆地。在伸展构造发育的不同阶段,可以有伸展早期、伸展期及伸展期后的岩浆活动。岩浆活动的强度及岩浆源区特点有显著的时空变化。一方面,在同一地区不同演化阶段其源区有很大的差异。表现为主体上是早期以古老下地壳源为主,随着壳/幔伸展作用演化,逐渐向混合源或独立幔源的演化。同时,不同地区岩浆源区的变化规律也显著不同。以胶辽地区为例,胶东整体上是壳幔混合源区对于岩浆演化有重要贡献;而辽东地区具有显著的源区演化特点:从剪切早期古老下地壳源区为主,并伴有幔源物质加入,剪切期古老下地壳为主,到剪切晚期和剪切期后以新生下地壳为主。本文认为岩石圈伸展的壳/幔拆离模型(Parallel Extension Tectonics),可以合理地解释华北克拉通及邻区早白垩世构造-岩浆活动性。在该模型中,遭受伸展的华北克拉通岩石圈发生壳-幔拆离作用。在岩石圈伸展作用期间,地壳层次的拆离作用与岩石圈地幔层次上的拆离作用可以是耦合的或者是解耦的,从而导致华北克拉通岩石圈减薄过程中在地壳尺度上的拆离作用与变质核杂岩的剥露有三种不同的类型:同岩浆活动型伸展(C型:Co-magmatism mode extension)、无岩浆活动型伸展(A型:Amagmatism mode extension)和多阶段混合型(M型:Multi-mode extension)。     

Geography Education Students' Experiences with a Problem-Based Learning Fieldwork Activity

This article reports on a problem-based learning (PBL) fieldwork activity carried out by geography education students on the Mooi River in the North West province of South Africa. The value of doing practical fieldwork using a PBL approach in the training of geography teachers was researched by means of an interpretative multimethods approach. Findings indicated that students experienced this approach positively as a teaching and learning strategy and expanded their view on the complexity of environmental issues. PBL fieldwork should be part of the training program of geography teachers and can add to the growth of ecologically literate citizens.