Hydraulic testing of low-permeability formations: A case study in the granite of Cadalso de los Vidrios, Spain     

Miguel Mejías  Philippe Renard  Damian Glenz   《Engineering Geology》2009,107(3-4):88-97

In recent years, the study of low-permeability geological formations has undergone considerable development. This is mainly due to the use of natural geological barriers to confine waste disposals, preventing leaking water from bringing contaminants into contact with the biosphere and the groundwater resources.In that context, the Spanish Geological Survey (IGME, Spanish acronym), supported by the National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (ENRESA, Spanish acronym) and with the technical advice of the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) designed and built a Mobile Hydrogeological Unit (UMH, Spanish acronym) for low-permeability formations characterization, which has been operational since 1997 and has been used for different purposes. Among other possibilities, the UMH allows conducting: constant transient-state flow-rate injection tests, constant-head transient-state injection tests, pseudo-stationary state injection tests, pressure fall-off tests, slug tests and pulse tests.The main objectives of this article are to describe the hydraulic characterization methodology used by IGME to carry out hydraulic tests in low permeability environment, to compare different testing methods and to summarize the results that have been obtained when characterizing the leucogranites of Cadalso de los Vidrios in Spain.The study area presents an increasing interest for granite production inside the Community of Madrid. The petrological and structural characteristics of the granite rocks and the core-samples extracted from a 200 m deep borehole investigation are described. The packer tests are conducted with the Mobile Hydrogeological Unit.The tests are interpreted with the help of analytical solutions. The main software used is Hytool, an open source matlab toolbox that provides a library of analytical solutions and a set of routines to facilitate hydraulic tests interpretation.The results allow the elaboration of a comparative analysis of the applied hydraulic tests and to define the hydraulic conductivity optimum application interval most suited for each of the used methods.Hydraulic conductivity values obtained varies from 3.20·10^− 7 m/s, for the upper weathered layer, to 2.80·10^− 12 m/s, for the test section from 97.36 to 116.15 m depth.Finally, the hydraulic conductivity values obtained in this area are compared with other case studies of granite formations around the world.  相似文献   

The evolution of a tropical rainforest/grassland mosaic in southeastern Brazil since 28,000 C yr BP based on carbon isotopes and pollen records     

Luiz Carlos Ruiz Pessenda  Paulo Eduardo De Oliveira  Milene Mofatto  Vanda Brito de Medeiros  Ricardo Jos Francischetti Garcia  Ramon Aravena  Jos Albertino Bendassoli  Accio Zuniga Leite  Antonio Roberto Saad  Mario Lincoln Etchebehere 《Quaternary Research》2009,71(3):437-452

The lack of paleoecological records from the montane Atlantic Rainforest of coastal Brazil, a hotspot of biological diversity, has been a major obstacle to our understanding of the vegetational changes since the last glacial cycle. We present carbon isotope and pollen records to assess the impact of the glaciation on the native vegetation of the Serra do Mar rainforest in São Paulo, Brazil. From ca. 28,000 to  22,000 ¹⁴C yr BP, a subtropical forest with conifer trees is indicative of cool and humid conditions. In agreement carbon isotopic data on soil organic matter suggest the presence of C₃ plants and perhaps C₄ plants from  28,000 to  19,000 ¹⁴C yr BP. The significant increase in the sedimentation rate and algal spores from  19,450 to  19,000 ¹⁴C yr BP indicates increasing humidity, associated to an erosion process between  19,000 and  15,600 ¹⁴C yr BP. From  15,600 ¹⁴C yr BP to present there is a substantial increase in arboreal elements and herbs, indicating more humid and warmer climate. From  19,000 to  1000 ¹⁴C yr BP, δ¹³C values indicated the predominance of C₃ plants. These results are in agreement with studies in speleothems of caves, which suggest humid conditions during the last glacial maximum.  相似文献   

Supergene enrichment of copper deposits since the onset of modern hyperaridity in the Atacama Desert,Chile     

Martin Reich  Carlos Palacios  Gabriel Vargas  Shangde Luo  Eion M. Cameron  Matthew I. Leybourne  Miguel A. Parada  Alejandro Zúñiga  Cheng-Feng You 《Mineralium Deposita》2009,44(5):497-504

Supergene enrichment of Cu deposits in the Atacama Desert has played a critical role in making this the prime Cu-producing province of the world. Previously, this has been believed to have occurred exclusively over a long period from the middle Eocene to the late Miocene, which ended when climatic conditions changed from arid to hyperarid. Here, we report U-series disequilibrium ages in atacamite-bearing supergene assemblages that provide a new conceptualization on both the supergene enrichment process and the onset of extreme hyperaridity in the Atacama Desert. ²³⁰Th–²³⁴U ages of gypsum intergrown with atacamite in supergene veins from Cu deposits cluster at ~240 ka (Chuquicamata), 130 ka (Mantos Blancos, Spence), and 80 ka (Mantos de la Luna, Michilla). When coupled with previous data, these results indicate that supergene enrichment of Cu deposits did not cease after the onset of hyperaridity. We propose that supergene enrichment in the Atacama region developed in two main stages. The main phase, caused by downward circulation of meteoric waters in a semi-arid setting, was active from 45 until ~9 Ma, with a last pulse ca. 5 Ma in the southern Atacama Desert. During this phase, atacamite-bearing supergene assemblages were not preserved because atacamite requires saline water for its formation and rapidly dissolves when contacted by meteoric water. This was followed by a second stage starting at ~2–1.5 Ma and continuing until at least the late Pleistocene, when deep formation waters derived from the basement passed up through and modified the pre-existing supergene Cu oxide minerals. Atacamite has then been preserved in the prevailing hyperarid climate.  相似文献   

Hydrochemical characteristics and seasonal influence on the pollution by acid mine drainage in the Odiel river Basin (SW Spain)     

Aguasanta M. Sarmiento  José Miguel Nieto  Manuel Olías  Carlos R. Cánovas 《Applied Geochemistry》2009

The Odiel river Basin is heavily affected by acid mine drainage (AMD) from the sulphide mining areas in the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB). A thorough study has been conducted along this fluvial system, monitoring the seasonal influence on the pollution level and its hydrochemical characteristics. From 2002 to 2006, surface water samples were collected at 91 different points throughout the Odiel river Basin and analyzed by field and laboratory methods for dissolved metals and metalloids. Acid mine drainage affects 37% of the length of the drainage network, which shows a great diversity of geochemical conditions as well as significant variations through the hydrological year. Unaffected streams show different water types depending on the lithological substrate and the marine aerosol influence. Mean concentrations in the contaminated streams are very high: 231 mg/L of Fe, 135 mg/L of Al, 56 mg/L of Zn, 16 mg/L of Cu, etc. Four types of contaminated streams were recognized based on hydrochemical and physicochemical characteristics. There are important seasonal variations depending on the precipitation regimen, level of pollution and proximity to the AMD sources. In the more contaminated samples the M/Fe ratio (M = metals other than Fe) decreases during the summer season. Slightly contaminated samples show an inverse evolution as this ratio increases in spring and summer due to substantial Fe precipitation. A recomparison of contaminant loads suggests that the Odiel river Basin (including the Tinto river) accounts for 15% of the global gross flux of dissolved Zn and 3% of the global gross flux of dissolved Cu transported by rivers into the ocean.  相似文献   

A COMMENT ON “The Quebradagrande Complex: A Lower Cretaceous ensialic marginal basin in the Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes” by Nivia et al.     

Jorge Julin Restrepo  Oswaldo Ordez-Carmona  Mario Moreno-Snchez 《Journal of South American Earth Sciences》2009,28(2):204-205

  相似文献   

Gas hazard assessment at the Monticchio crater lakes of Mt. Vulture, a volcano in Southern Italy     

Antonio Caracausi  P. Mario Nuccio  Rocco Favara  Marco Nicolosi  Michele Paternoster 《地学学报》2009,21(2):83-87

Geochemical investigations have shown that there is a considerable inflow of gas into both crater lakes of Monticchio, Southern Italy. These lakes are located in two maars that formed 140 000 years ago during Mt. Vulture volcano's last eruptive activity. Isotopic analyses suggest that CO₂ and helium are of magmatic origin; the latter displays ³He/⁴He isotope ratios similar to those measured in olivines of the maar ejecta. In spite of the fact that the amount of dissolved gases in the water is less than that found in Lake Nyos (Cameroon), both the results obtained and the historical reports studied indicate that these crater lakes could be highly hazardous sites, even though they are located in a region currently considered inactive. This could be of special significance in very popular tourist areas such as the Monticchio lakes, which are visited by about 30 000 people throughout the summer, for the most part on Sundays.  相似文献   

Core instability models of giant planet accretion – II. Forming planetary systems     

Y. Miguel  A. Brunini † 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2009,392(1):391-399

We develop a simple model for computing planetary formation based on the core instability model for the gas accretion and the oligarchic growth regime for the accretion of the solid core. In this model several planets can form simultaneously in the disc, a fact that has important implications especially for the changes in the dynamic of the planetesimals and the growth of the cores since we consider the collision between them as a source of potential growth. The type I and type II migration of the embryos and the migration of the planetesimals due to the interaction with the disc of gas are also taken into account. With this model we consider different initial conditions to generate a variety of planetary systems and analyse them statistically. We explore the effects of using different type I migration rates on the final number of planets formed per planetary system such as on the distribution of masses and semimajor axis of extrasolar planets, where we also analyse the implications of considering different gas accretion rates. A particularly interesting result is the generation of a larger population of habitable planets when the gas accretion rate and type I migration are slower.  相似文献   

Sample return of interstellar matter (SARIM)     

Ralf Srama  Thomas Stephan  Eberhard Grün  Norbert Pailer  Anton Kearsley  Amara Graps  Rene Laufer  Pascale Ehrenfreund  Nicolas Altobelli  Kathrin Altwegg  Siegfried Auer  Jack Baggaley  Mark J. Burchell  James Carpenter  Luigi Colangeli  Francesca Esposito  Simon F. Green  Hartmut Henkel  Mihaly Horanyi  Annette Jäckel  Sascha Kempf  Neil McBride  Georg Moragas-Klostermeyer  Harald Krüger  Pasquale Palumbo  Andre Srowig  Mario Trieloff  Peter Tsou  Zoltan Sternovsky  Oliver Zeile  Hans-Peter Röser 《Experimental Astronomy》2009,23(1):303-328

The scientific community has expressed strong interest to re-fly Stardust-like missions with improved instrumentation. We propose a new mission concept, SARIM, that collects interstellar and interplanetary dust particles and returns them to Earth. SARIM is optimised for the collection and discrimination of interstellar dust grains. Improved active dust collectors on-board allow us to perform in-situ determination of individual dust impacts and their impact location. This will provide important constraints for subsequent laboratory analysis. The SARIM spacecraft will be placed at the L2 libration point of the Sun–Earth system, outside the Earth’s debris belts and inside the solar-wind charging environment. SARIM is three-axes stabilised and collects interstellar grains between July and October when the relative encounter speeds with interstellar dust grains are lowest (4 to 20 km/s). During a 3-year dust collection period several hundred interstellar and several thousand interplanetary grains will be collected by a total sensitive area of 1 m². At the end of the collection phase seven collector modules are stored and sealed in a MIRKA-type sample return capsule. SARIM will return the capsule containing the stardust to Earth to allow for an extraction and investigation of interstellar samples by latest laboratory technologies.  相似文献   

The ultraviolet morphology of evolved populations     

Miguel Chávez 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2009,320(1-3):45-50

In this paper I present a summary of the recent investigations we have developed at the Stellar Atmospheres and Populations Research Group (GrAPEs-for its designation in Spanish) at INAOE and collaborators in Italy. These investigations have aimed at providing updated stellar tools for the analysis of the UV spectra of a variety of stellar aggregates, mainly evolved ones. The sequence of material here presented roughly corresponds to the steps we have identified as mandatory to properly establish the applicability of synthetic populations in the analyses of observational data of globular clusters and more complex aged aggregates. The sequence is composed of four main stages, namely, (a) the creation of a theoretical stellar data base that we have called UVBLUE, (b) the comparison of such data base with observational stellar data, (c) the calculation of a set of synthetic spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of simple stellar populations (SSPs) and their validation through a comparison with observations of a sample of galactic globular clusters (GGCs), (d) construction of models for dating local ellipticals and distant red-envelope galaxies. Most of the work relies on the analysis of absorption line spectroscopic indices. The global results are more than satisfactory in the sense that theoretical indices closely follow the overall trends with chemical composition depicted by their empirical counterparts (stars and GGCs).  相似文献   

Measurements of the Gegenschein brightness from the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI)     

Andrew Buffington  Mario M. Bisi  P. Paul Hick  Thomas A. Kuchar 《Icarus》2009,203(1):124-176

The Gegenschein is viewed by the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI), which has provided near-full-sky broadband visible-light photometric maps for over 5 years. These have an angular resolution of about 0.5° and differential photometric stability of about 1% throughout this time. When individual bright stars are removed from the maps and an empirical sidereal background subtracted, the residue is dominated by the zodiacal light. The unprecedented sky coverage and duration of these measurements enables a definitive characterization of the Gegenschein. This article describes the analysis method for these data, presents a movie with time of the Gegenschein brightness distribution, determines empirical formulae describing its average shape, and discusses its variation with time. These measurements unambiguously confirm previous reports that the Gegenschein surface-brightness distribution has a decided peak in the antisolar point, which rises above a broader background.  相似文献