The potential for convection and implications for geothermal energy in the Perth Basin, Western Australia     

Heather A. Sheldon  Brendan Florio  Michael G. Trefry  Lynn B. Reid  Ludovic P. Ricard  K. Ameed R. Ghori 《Hydrogeology Journal》2012,20(7):1251-1268

Convection of groundwater in aquifers can create areas of anomalously high temperature at shallow depths which could be exploited for geothermal energy. Temperature measurements in the Perth Basin (Western Australia) reveal thermal patterns that are consistent with convection in the Yarragadee Aquifer. This observation is supported by Rayleigh number calculations, which show that convection is possible within the range of aquifer thickness, geothermal gradient, salinity gradient and permeability encountered in the Yarragadee Aquifer, assuming that the aquifer can be treated as a homogeneous anisotropic layer. Numerical simulations of convection in a simplified model of the Yarragadee Aquifer show that: (1) the spacing of convective upwellings can be predicted from aquifer thickness and permeability anisotropy; (2) convective upwellings may be circular or elongate in plan view; (3) convective upwellings create significant temperature enhancements relative to the conductive profile; (4) convective flow rates are similar to regional groundwater flow rates; and (5) convection homogenises salinity within the aquifer. Further work is required to constrain the average horizontal and vertical permeability of the Yarragadee Aquifer, to assess the validity of treating the aquifer as a homogeneous anisotropic layer, and to determine the impact of realistic aquifer geometry and advection on convection.  相似文献   

Developing coastal adaptation to climate change in the New York City infrastructure-shed: process, approach, tools, and strategies   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Cynthia Rosenzweig  William D. Solecki  Reginald Blake  Malcolm Bowman  Craig Faris  Vivien Gornitz  Radley Horton  Klaus Jacob  Alice LeBlanc  Robin Leichenko  Megan Linkin  David Major  Megan O��Grady  Lesley Patrick  Edna Sussman  Gary Yohe  Rae Zimmerman 《Climatic change》2011,106(1):93-127

While current rates of sea level rise and associated coastal flooding in the New York City region appear to be manageable by stakeholders responsible for communications, energy, transportation, and water infrastructure, projections for sea level rise and associated flooding in the future, especially those associated with rapid icemelt of the Greenland and West Antarctic Icesheets, may be outside the range of current capacity because extreme events might cause flooding beyond today??s planning and preparedness regimes. This paper describes the comprehensive process, approach, and tools for adaptation developed by the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) in conjunction with the region??s stakeholders who manage its critical infrastructure, much of which lies near the coast. It presents the adaptation framework and the sea-level rise and storm projections related to coastal risks developed through the stakeholder process. Climate change adaptation planning in New York City is characterized by a multi-jurisdictional stakeholder?Cscientist process, state-of-the-art scientific projections and mapping, and development of adaptation strategies based on a risk-management approach.  相似文献   

Performance of soil particle-size distribution models for describing deposited soils adjacent to constructed dams in the China Loess Plateau     

Pei Zhao  Ming-an Shao  Robert Horton 《Acta Geophysica》2011,59(1):124-138

Soil particle-size distributions (PSD) have been used to estimate soil hydraulic properties. Various parametric PSD models have been proposed to describe the soil PSD from sparse experimental data. It is important to determine which PSD model best represents specific soils. Fourteen PSD models were examined in order to determine the best model for representing the deposited soils adjacent to dams in the China Loess Plateau; these were: Skaggs (S-1, S-2, and S-3), fractal (FR), Jaky (J), Lima and Silva (LS), Morgan (M), Gompertz (G), logarithm (L), exponential (E), log-exponential (LE), Weibull (W), van Genuchten type (VG) as well as Fredlund (F) models. Four-hundred and eighty samples were obtained from soils deposited in the Liudaogou catchment. The coefficient of determination (R ²), the Akaike’s information criterion (AIC), and the modified AIC (mAIC) were used. Based upon R ² and AIC, the three- and four-parameter models were both good at describing the PSDs of deposited soils, and the LE, FR, and E models were the poorest. However, the mAIC in conjunction with R ² and AIC results indicated that the W model was optimum for describing PSD of the deposited soils for emphasizing the effect of parameter number. This analysis was also helpful for finding out which model is the best one. Our results are applicable to the China Loess Plateau.  相似文献   

A global context for megadroughts in monsoon Asia during the past millennium   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Ashish Sinha  Lowell Stott  Max Berkelhammer  Hai Cheng  R. Lawrence Edwards  Brendan Buckley  Mark Aldenderfer  Manfred Mudelsee 《Quaternary Science Reviews》2011,30(1-2):47-62

Proxy reconstructions of precipitation from central India, north-central China, and southern Vietnam reveal a series of monsoon droughts during the mid 14th–15th centuries that each lasted for several years to decades. These monsoon megadroughts have no analog during the instrumental period. They occurred in the context of widespread thermal and hydrologic climate anomalies marking the onset of the Little Ice Age (LIA) and appear to have played a major role in shaping significant regional societal changes at that time. New tree ring-width based reconstructions of monsoon variability suggest episodic and widespread reoccurrences of monsoon megadroughts continued throughout the LIA. Although the El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) plays an important role in monsoon variability, there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that these megadroughts were associated with anomalous sea surface temperature anomalies that were solely the result of ENSO-like variability in the tropical Pacific. Instead, the causative mechanisms of these megadroughts may reside in protracted changes in the synoptic-scale monsoon climatology of the Indian Ocean. Today, the intra-seasonal monsoon variability is dominated by ‘active’ and the ‘break’ spells – two distinct oscillatory modes of monsoon that have radically different synoptic scale circulation and precipitation patterns. We suggest that protracted locking of the monsoon into the “break-dominated” mode – a mode that favors reduced precipitation over the Indian sub-continent and SE Asia and enhanced precipitation over the equatorial Indian Ocean, may have caused these exceptional droughts. Impetus for periodic locking of the monsoon into this mode may have been provided by cooler temperatures at the extratropical latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere which forced the mean position of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) further southward in the Indian Ocean.  相似文献   

A comparison of the evolution of arc complexes in Paleozoic interior and peripheral orogens: Speculations on geodynamic correlations     

J. Brendan Murphy  Cees R. van Staal  William J. Collins 《Gondwana Research》2011,19(3):812-827

We discuss the potential geodynamic connections between Paleozoic arc development along the flanks of the interior (e.g. the Iapetus and Rheic) oceans and the exterior Paleopacific Ocean. Paleozoic arcs in the Iapetus and Rheic oceanic realms are preserved in the Appalachian–Caledonide and Variscan orogens, and in the Paleopacific Ocean realm they are preserved in the Terra Australis Orogen. Potential geodynamic connections are suggested by paleocontinental reconstructions showing Cambrian–Early Ordovician contraction of the exterior ocean as the interior oceans expanded, and subsequent Paleozoic expansion of the exterior oceans while the interior oceans contracted. Subduction initiated in the eastern segment of Iapetus at ca. 515 Ma and Early to Middle Ordovician orogenesis along the flanks of this ocean is highlighted by arc–continent collisions and ophiolite obductions. Over a similar time interval, subduction and orogenesis took place in the exterior ocean and included formation of the Macquarie arc in the Tasmanides of Eastern Australia and the Famatina arc and correlatives in the periphery of the proto-Andean margin of Gondwana. Major changes in the style of subduction (from retreating to advancing) in interior oceans occurred during the Silurian, following accretion of the peri-Gondwanan terranes and Baltica, and closure of the northeastern segment of Iapetus. During the same time interval, subduction in the Paleopacific Ocean was predominantly in a retreating mode, although intermittent episodes of contraction closed major marginal basins. In addition, however, there were major disturbances in the Earth tectonic systems during the Ordovician, including an unprecedented rise in marine life diversity, as well as significant fluctuations in sea level, atmospheric CO₂, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and ¹³C in marine strata carbonates. Stable and radiogenic isotopic data provide evidence for the addition of abundant mantle-derived magma, fluids and large mineral deposits that have a significant mantle-derived component. When considered together, the coeval, profound changes in the style of tectonic activity and the disturbances recorded in Earth Systems are consistent with the emergence of a superplume during the Ordovician. We speculate that the emergence of a superplume triggered by slab avalanche events within the Iapetus and Paleopacific oceans was associated with the establishment of a new geoid high within the Paleopacific regime, the closure of the interior Rheic Ocean and the amalgamation of Laurussia and Gondwana, which was a key event in the Late Carboniferous amalgamation of Pangea.  相似文献   

Migration of hydrothermal systems in an evolving collisional orogen, New Zealand     

D. Craw  P. Upton  T. Horton  J. Williams 《Mineralium Deposita》2013,48(2):233-248

The Pacific–Australian tectonic plate boundary through the South Island of New Zealand consists of the transpressional Southern Alps mountain belt and the transcurrent Marlborough Fault System, both of which have active tectonically driven hydrothermal systems, with topographically driven meteoric incursion and warm springs. The Southern Alps hydrothermal system is relatively diffuse, with little or no fault control, and is channelled through scattered extensional sites beneath the mountains, where gold mineralisation is occurring locally. The hydrothermal activity along the Marlborough Fault System is controlled by the principal faults in well-defined valleys separated by narrow high ridges. Lateral evolution of Marlborough fault strands southwestwards into the Southern Alps has caused diversion of diffuse Southern Alps hydrothermal activity into the structural superimposition zone, where fluid flow is increasingly being controlled by faults. This hydrothermal diversion was accompanied by major topographic reorientation and river drainage reversal in the late Quaternary. Vein swarms now exposed in the remnants of the Southern Alps north of the superimposition zone formed at shallow levels, with some evidence for fluid boiling, from a mixture of meteoric and deep-sourced fluid. These veins, some of which contain gold, are part of an abandoned <1 million-year-old hydrothermal zone beneath the fossil topographic divide of the Southern Alps that has now been dismembered by lateral incursion of the Marlborough fault strands. Observations on this active plate boundary provide some insights into processes that controlled orogenic gold mineralisation in ancient belts, particularly with respect to relationships between hydrothermal fluid flow, structure and topography.  相似文献   

Provenance analysis of the Paleozoic sequences of the northern Gondwana margin in NW Iberia: Passive margin to Variscan collision and orocline development     

Daniel Pastor-Galán  Gabriel Gutiérrez-Alonso  J. Brendan Murphy  Javier Fernández-Suárez  Mandy Hofmann  Ulf Linnemann 《Gondwana Research》2013,23(3):1089-1103

The Cantabrian Zone of NW Iberia preserves a voluminous, almost continuous, sedimentary sequence that ranges from Neoproterozoic to Early Permian in age. Its tectonic setting is controversial and recent hypotheses include (i) passive margin deposition along the northern margin of Gondwana or (ii) an active continental margin or (iii) a drifting ribbon continent. In this paper we present detrital zircon U–Pb laser ablation age data from 13 samples taken in detrital rocks from the Cantabrian Zone sequence ranging from Early Silurian to Early Permian in depositional age. The obtained results, together with previously published detrital zircon ages from Ediacaran–Ordovician strata, allow a comprehensive analysis of changing provenance through time. Collectively, these data indicate that this portion of Iberia was part of the passive margin of Gondwana at least from Ordovician to Late Devonian times. Zircon populations in all samples show strong similarities with the Sahara Craton and with zircons found in Libya, suggesting that NW Iberia occupied a paleoposition close to those regions of present-day northern Africa during this time interval. Changes in provenance in the Late Devonian are attributed to the onset of the collision between Gondwana and Laurussia.Additionally, the Middle Carboniferous to Permian samples record populations consistent with the recycling of older sedimentary sequences and exhumation of the igneous rocks formed before and during the Variscan orogeny. Late-Devonian to Permian samples yield zircon populations that reflect topographic changes produced during the Variscan orogeny and development of the lithospheric scale oroclinal buckling.  相似文献   

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987112001570   总被引：2，自引：2，他引：0  

R.Damian Nance  J.Brendan Murphy 《地学前缘(英文版)》2013,4(4):439-448

The supercontinent cycle,by which Earth history is seen as having been punctuated by the episodic assembly and breakup of supercontinents,has influenced the rock record more than any other geologic phenomena,and its recognition is arguably the most important advance in Earth Science since plate tectonics.It documents fundamental aspects of the planet’s interior dynamics and has charted the course of Earth’s tectonic,climatic and biogeochemical evolution for billions of years.But while the widespread realization of the importance of supercontinents in Earth history is a relatively recent development,the supercontinent cycle was first proposed thirty years ago and episodicity in tectonic processes was recognized long before plate tectonics provided a potential explanation for its occurrence.With interest in the supercontinent cycle gaining momentum and the literature expanding rapidly,it is instructive to recall the historical context from which the concept developed.Here we examine the supercontinent cycle from this perspective by tracing its development from the early recognition of long-term episodicity in tectonic processes,through the identification of tectonic cycles following the advent of plate tectonics,to the first realization that these phenomena were the manifestation of episodic supercontinent assembly and breakup.  相似文献   

Bulk density effects on soil hydrologic and thermal characteristics: A numerical investigation          下载免费PDF全文

Yuki Kojima  Joshua L. Heitman  Masaru Sakai  Chihiro Kato  Robert Horton 《水文研究》2018,32(14):2203-2216

Soil bulk density (ρ_b) is commonly treated as static in studies of land surface dynamics. Magnitudes of errors associated with this assumption are largely unknown. Our objectives were to (a) quantify ρ_b effects on soil hydrologic and thermal properties and (b) evaluate effects of ρ_b on surface energy balance and heat and water transfer. We evaluated 6 soil properties, volumetric heat capacity, thermal conductivity, soil thermal diffusivity, water retention characteristics, hydraulic conductivity, and vapour diffusivity, over a range of ρ_b, using a combination of 6 models. Thermal conductivity, water retention, hydraulic conductivity, and vapour diffusivity were most sensitive to ρ_b, each changing by fractions greater than the associated fractional changes in ρ_b. A 10% change in ρ_b led to 10–11% change in thermal conductivity, 6–11% change in saturated and residual water content, 49–54% change in saturated hydraulic conductivity, and 80% change in vapour diffusivity. Subsequently, 3 field seasons were simulated with a numerical model (HYDRUS‐1D) for a range of ρ_b values. When ρ_b increased 25% (from 1.2 to 1.5 Mg m^?3), soil temperature variation decreased by 2.1 °C in shallow layers and increased by 1 °C in subsurface layers. Surface water content differed by 0.02 m³ m^?3 for various ρ_b values during drying events but differences mostly disappeared in the subsurface. Matric potential varied by >100 m of water. Surface energy balance showed clear trends with ρ_b. Latent heat flux decreased 6%, sensible heat flux increased 9%, and magnitude of ground heat flux varied by 18% (with a 25% ρ_b increase). Transient ρ_b impacted surface conditions and fluxes, and clearly, it warrants consideration in field and modelling investigations.  相似文献   

Soil-Gas Surveying for Subsurface Gasoline Contamination Using Total Organic Vapor Detection Instruments Part I. Theory and Laboratory Experimentation     

Gary A. Robbins  Brendan G. Deyo  Mark R. Temple  James D. Stuart  Michael J. Lacy 《Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation》1990,10(3):122-131

Factors influencing the response of total organic vapor detection instruments used in soil-gas surveying for subsurface gasoline leakage were investigated through performing theoretical assessments and laboratory experiments. Theoretical assessments indicate that total organic vapor measurements will depend on response conditions and the relative concentration of constituents in soil gas, in addition to absolute constituent levels. Laboratory tests conducted using flame ionization, photoionization and explosimeter devices indicated that conditions influencing their responses included instrument flow rate and soil-air permeability when performing direct-probe sampling; the linear range of the instrument; the multicomponent nature of gasoline vapors; and levels of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and relative humidity in soil air. If an instrument's response to these conditions is not taken into account, survey results may be misleading. To circumvent adverse instrument responses, a serial dilution technique is presented.  相似文献