Relict mountain slope deposits of northern Portugal: facies,sedimentogenesis and environmental implications

This paper deals with the formation processes and the palaeoenvironmental significance of relict slope deposits located on the uppermost part of the north Portugal mountains. For this purpose, seven key sites representative of the different lithofacies have been selected and analysed in detail. The data show that three main dynamic processes are responsible for the emplacement of regional fossil slope deposits: runoff, debris flows and dry grain flows. The ubiquity of these processes and the lack of frost‐related features or landforms do not support the existence of severe Pleistocene climates in this part of the lberian Peninsula as postulated by previous work. Pedological data gathered at one of the study sites show that a subalpine environment was probably present at 700–800 m altitude between 29 and 14 kyr. Using data from the Pyrenees Mountains, a 6.5 to 12°C depression in mean annual temperature has been tentatively postulated for this Pleniglacial period. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The grain-size characteristics of Quaternary deposits at Xingshan near Siping in Jilin province, China

This research paper analyses the grain-size characteristics of the Quaternary deposits at Xingshan near Siping, Jilin province in China by employing graphic measures to study the grain size distribution and its mode of transport and deposition. The Quaternary deposits at Xingshan lie unconformable on Cretaceous rocks made of siltstone, mudstone and sandstone. The average grain size is between 8.06 to 8.55Φ (0.002 6 ～0.003 7 mm). The Quaternary deposits at Xingshan mainly compose of very fine silt to clay. The compositions of the grade are clay 63% and silt 37%. The clay size components are weathered debris transported and deposited by flowing water from the SE highlands or hills to the low lying NW Xingshan plains whereas the silty components accumulated by aoelian process. The Quaternary deposits at Xingshan accumulated in the middle and late Pleistocene interglacial periods from (459.12～39.03) ka to (88.92～7.56) ka. The standard deviation ranged from 0.96 to 1.36Φ, indicating that the sediments are moderately to poorly sorted, Coefficient of skewness ranged from 0.16～0.31 with an average skewness of 0.218, (Positively skewed towards fine). Kurtosis values (0.84～1.05) from the grain size distribution and visual inspection of the frequency curves indicate platykurtic to mesokurtic curves and unimodal to bimodal grain-size distribution. The type of deposit formation is sand dune and the source is at a distal from its provenance.     

Optimization of grid-drilling using computer simulation

A computer simulation method has been developed to find efficient drilling grids for mineral deposits. A well-known ore deposit is used as a model to develop an efficient pattern for undiscovered ore bodies in the same area or in other prospects where similar geometry is suspected. The model for this study is the Austinville, Virginia deposit, a Mississippi Valley-type deposit composed of 17 ore bodies totaling 34 million short tons (30 million metric tons). The method employs a computer program that simulates drilling the model deposit with different patterns, including various levels of follow-up drilling. Follow-up holes are drilled in fences at one half the original spacing around holes in the grid that show ore-grade mineralization. Each pattern is drilled 100 times from random starting locations to provide a range of outcomes of drilling, including the best, worst, and most likely. For this study, patterns of 100 drill holes were composed of 10 fences spaced 1000–5000 feet (305–1524 m) apart, each with 10 holes spaced 200–1000 feet (61–305 m) apart. In all, 25 grids were used with zero to three levels of follow-up drilling. The 600/2000 grid, with drill holes spaced 600 feet (183 m) apart in fences spaced 2000 feet (610 m) apart, was compared with the 200/5000 grid because they represented contrasting outcomes. The 600/2000 grid penetrated many ore bodies consistently but with few multiple hits to individual ore bodies; whereas the 200/5000 grid inconsistently penetrated few ore bodies with many multiple hits. The 600/2000 grid was more efficient than the 200/5000 grid at hitting large ore bodies of 1,000,000 short tons or greater (900,000 metric tons or greater) and was made more effective by adding one cycle of follow-up drilling. The 600/2000 grid had a 97% chance of hitting one or more large ore bodies with at least one drill hole per ore body, and the 200/5000 grid had a 64% chance. Once hit, there was an 82% chance that the largest ore body would be penetrated by three or more holes when using the 600/2000 grid and an 88% chance using the 200/5000 grid.     

潮汐沉积率与沉积间断

在浙北奥陶系文昌组和长江三角洲开敞型淤泥质海岸非潮道潮汐纹层研究的基础上,得出与国外同类研究相近的沉积率。现代海岸进积速度和潮坪沉积的观察及测试证明,上述沉积率是难以置信的。现代潮坪观测表明,潮汐纹层在形成过程中即包含着改造,所保留的纹层占应形成数的不到１０％,其余９０％以上被侵蚀。小型层序是风暴和平静天气的产物,为风暴层序,与大小潮周期无关。其地层中保留的数量不到应生成数的１０％,其余９０％被改造。小型层序被侵蚀,其中的纹层随之消失。致使潮坪层序中保存的纹层数仅为应形成数的０．２％。被改造的纹层和单层留下的仅是侵蚀面,即小间断。在进行潮汐沉积高分辨率的研究时应充分重视沉积间断的作用     

3D numerical modelling of fluid flow in the Val-d’Or orogenic gold district: major crustal shear zones drain fluids from overpressured vein fields

Fluid flow patterns have been determined using oxygen isotope isopleths in the Val-d’Or orogenic gold district. 3D numerical modelling of fluid flow and oxygen isotope exchange in the vein field shows that the fluid flow patterns can be reproduced if the lower boundary of the model is permeable, which represents middle or lower crustal rocks that are infiltrated by a metamorphic fluid generated at deeper levels. This boundary condition implies that the major crustal faults so conspicuous in vein fields do not act as the only major channel for upward fluid flow. The upper model boundary is impermeable except along the trace of major crustal faults where fluids are allowed to drain out of the vein field. This upper impermeable boundary condition represents a low-permeability layer in the crust that separates the overpressured fluid from the overlying hydrostatic fluid pressure regime. We propose that the role of major crustal faults in overpressured vein fields, independent of tectonic setting, is to drain hydrothermal fluids out of the vein field along a breach across an impermeable layer higher in the crust and above the vein field. This breach is crucial to allow flow out of the vein field and accumulation of metals in the fractures, and this breach has major implications for exploration for mineral resources. We propose that tectonic events that cause episodic metamorphic dehydration create a short-lived pulse of metamorphic fluid to rise along zones of transient permeability. This results in a fluid wave that propagates upward carrying metals to the mineralized area. Earthquakes along crustal shear zones cause dilation near jogs that draw fluids and deposit metals in an interconnected network of subsidiary shear zones. Fluid flow is arrested by an impermeable barrier separating the hydrostatic and lithostatic fluid pressure regimes. Fluids flow through the evolving and interconnected network of shear zones and by advection through the rock matrix. Episodic breaches in the impermeable barrier along the crustal shear zones allow fluid flow out of the vein field.     

滇西潞西上芒岗卡林型金矿

上芒岗金矿赋存于二叠系沙子坡组碳酸岩和侏罗系勐戛组下段砂岩、灰岩中,明显受上芒岗断裂控制,与美国模式卡林型金矿极为相似,具有相同的物质来源和成因模式。上芒岗地区具有广阔的深部找矿前景。     

滨里海盆地东缘阿克纠宾地区遥感地质及地球物理场研究

 以图像处理、GIS为平台，对哈萨克斯坦阿克纠宾地区的重、磁、电、遥感及地震资料进行了综合分析。指出，该地区重、磁力资料信息含量较高，对于确定盐下构造分布具有积极意义。使用遥感资料对小断层及裂隙发育状况进行研究，有助于裂隙孔隙型碳酸盐岩油藏开发注水效率的提高。同时可对扎纳若尔、阿里别克莫拉等油田的井网状况进行监控和地面设施进行调查。     

阿尔金地区构造应力场及其对金属矿产分布的控制作用

构造应力场研究可以为区域矿产预测提供依据。主要根据节理、擦痕的测试分析，结合区域构造解析，确定阿尔金山东西向拉配泉－－红柳沟构造带经历了三期不同方向的应力作用：印支期以前的南北向挤压作用，印支－燕山期的北西－南东向的挤压和中生代晚期－新生代北东东－南南西向的挤压；并利用有限元数值模拟前两期构造应力场的演变过程，进而讨论了区域构造应力场对内生金属矿产分布规律的控制作用指出了区域寻找大型内生金属矿产的有利地段。     

Use of Noise to Augment Training Data: A Neural Network Method of Mineral–Potential Mapping in Regions of Limited Known Deposit Examples

One of the main factors that affects the performance of MLP neural networks trained using the backpropagation algorithm in mineral-potential mapping isthe paucity of deposit relative to barren training patterns. To overcome this problem, random noise is added to the original training patterns in order to create additional synthetic deposit training data. Experiments on the effect of the number of deposits available for training in the Kalgoorlie Terrane orogenic gold province show that both the classification performance of a trained network and the quality of the resultant prospectivity map increasesignificantly with increased numbers of deposit patterns. Experiments are conducted to determine the optimum amount of noise using both uniform and normally distributed random noise. Through the addition of noise to the original deposit training data, the number of deposit training patterns is increased from approximately 50 to 1000. The percentage of correct classifications significantly improves for the independent test set as well as for deposit patterns in the test set. For example, using ±40% uniform random noise, the test-set classification performance increases from 67.9% and 68.0% to 72.8% and 77.1% (for test-set overall and test-set deposit patterns, respectively). Indices for the quality of the resultant prospectivity map, (i.e. D/A, D × (D/A), where D is the percentage of deposits and A is the percentage of the total area for the highest prospectivity map-class, and area under an ROC curve) also increase from 8.2, 105, 0.79 to 17.9, 226, 0.87, respectively. Increasing the size of the training-stop data set results in a further increase in classification performance to 73.5%, 77.4%, 14.7, 296, 0.87 for test-set overall and test-set deposit patterns, D/A, D × (D/A), and area under the ROC curve, respectively.