Optimization and Parametrical Investigation to Assess the Reconstitution of Different Types of Indian Sand Using Portable Travelling Pluviator     

V.?Srinivasan  Shubham?Srivastava  Priyanka?GhoshEmail author 《Geotechnical and Geological Engineering》2016,34(1):59-73

By using the air pluviation technique, it is aimed to achieve the desired relative density with uniform void ratio throughout the specimen in order to maintain the homogeneity and to avoid the spatial variability. Further, in order to achieve the maximum deposition intensity, a systematic optimization study has been carried out rigorously in a test tank to determine the diameter of the orifice to be employed for the sieve plates of different porosity and the number of sieve plates to be installed in the diffuser sieve sets. The study has been conducted with four different patterns of sieves with different porosity to achieve a wide range of relative densities for four different uniformly graded Indian sands. The dynamic penetrometer which is considered to be one of the cost effective instruments has been efficiently used to determine the soil resistance at various locations of the test tank for every given height of fall in order to check the uniformity of placement density throughout the sand bed. The study reveals that the sand beds of different relative densities could be achieved using different patterns of diffuser sieves at optimum sand flow rate without compromising the uniformity. The effect of height of fall as well as porosity of diffuser sieves on the relative density of different sands has been studied in detail. The deposition intensity and the relative density obtained from the present study are compared with the values available in the literature.  相似文献   

Reconstruction of Holocene paleohydrological and sedimentological characteristics of Umm Ar-Rimam basin (northern Kuwait)     

Adeeba?Al-HurbanEmail author  Michael?J.?Duane 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2016,9(13):621

The paleohydrological and sedimentological characteristics of a playa lake in northern Kuwait (Arabian Gulf) are reconstructed using sedimentological, geochemical, and isotopic techniques. The sequence consists of up to 8 cycles of S-poor, alluvial sediments capped by a thin organic soil interbedded with gravity-fall calcrete sediments. The succession is locally derived from mainly Quaternary sediments and is regressive with upsection filling of the subsiding basin by cycles of sheetwash flow in response to climatic change. There is no natural, open-water lake water as indicated by low total organic carbon (TOC) data, but the presence of incised calcrete yardangs suggests that more extensive open-water conditions were operative in the past. Stable isotope (δ¹⁸O‰ and δ¹³C‰) values of the authigenic carbonates indicate the following three distinct processes: evaporation, meteoric fluid infiltration, and rapid per-descensum flow (rapid downward movement of water and playa sediment through pipes) through a porous, clastic sequence. Because evaporites are scarce, other factors besides evaporation action control chemical and isotopic compositions of the per-decensum lake fluids. Consequently, the isotopic composition cannot be interpreted exclusively as an indicator of salinity or evaporation ratio. The degassing of CO₂ during groundwater discharge may explain the enriched carbon isotope values for the authigenic carbonates precipitated in the sediments. Hydrologically closed lake water bodies tend to show low negative carbonate oxygen and carbon isotopic signatures. Isotopically negative δ¹³C values imply a strong input of soil-zone carbon to the groundwater of the top 60 cm of the sediment. Lakes that are hydrologically closed and evaporate or equilibrate with atmospheric CO₂ will tend to have low negative δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C values in the carbonates as reported by Talbot (Chem Geol: Isotope Geosci Sect 80(4):261–279, 1990). Biologically active lakes will tend toward lower δ¹³C of dissolved carbon due to the photosynthetic effects of ¹²C withdrawal as reported by Dunagan and Driese (J Sed Res 69:772–783, 1999). Increased biological activity during sedimentation may account for low carbon isotope values where plants were abundant, but in shrinkage-dominated systems (those of clay-rich soil subjecting to wet-dry conditions), carbon isotopes will be largely inherited from the calcretic limestones in the land extending landward of the coast and not influenced by coastal processes (known as hinterland), such as Umm Ar-Rimam depression. This basin does not fit the classic shallow playa-type basins of the Arabian Peninsula but rather the recharge playas of the southwestern USA.  相似文献   

Impact-generated carbonate melts in the Talemzane impact structure (Laghouat,Algeria)     

R.?SahouiEmail author  D.?Belhai  A.?Jambon 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2016,9(14):641

The 1750-m-diameter, bowl-shaped Talemzane impact structure in Algeria is emplaced in Senonian or Eocene flint-bearing limestones. Field studies reveal a thin layer of light-colored polymict breccia with rounded, dark inclusions beneath a limestone megablock zone located at the top of the crater rim. The matrix of the rounded, dark inclusions consists of Si-rich glass and microcrystalline calcite. The latter is characterized by high contents of Si and Al suggesting rapid crystallization of the calcite from a melt. Backscattered electron imagery shows textural evidence for liquid immiscibility between the CaCO₃-rich and Si-rich glass of the matrix in the form of intermingling of calcite with Si-rich glass, coalesced blebs within silicate glass, individual calcite blebs within Si-rich glass, carbonate spherical globules in fresh Si-rich-glass, and sharp menisci between silicate and calcite blebs. These features are interpreted as evidence of impact melting of limestone and flint. The low totals of the Si-Al-Mg-rich glasses suggest that they contain significant amounts of volatiles. X-ray diffraction analyses indicate partial alteration of the Si-Mg-Al-rich glass to phyllosilicates.  相似文献   

Groundwater pricing for farms and water user association sustainability     

H.?AbdelhafidhEmail author  M.?S.?Bachta 《Arabian Journal of Geosciences》2016,9(8):525

Tunisia has invested heavily in irrigation schemes to secure water supply. The management of irrigation systems has been denied to local water user associations (WUA). These WUAs are assimilated to a natural monopoly. They sell water to farmers at the unit operational cost (marginal production cost). Such a price does not allow for budgetary balance, which leads to a chronic deficit of these WUA. It also does not reflect the scarcity of the resource, a situation that contributed to irrigated area expansion, an increase in the agricultural water demand, and misallocation of the resource. Low cost recovery results in poor maintenance, infrastructure deterioration, and water distribution inefficiency. The purpose of this paper is two folds: (i) to propose an alternative price scheme which ensures cost recovery and water use efficiency and (ii) to examine the impact of this new price on the farms’ surplus. To achieve this goal, we assumed that irrigation’s water price increase will be necessary. A field survey of 75 farmers in the center of Tunisia was conducted to estimate the irrigation water demand function. We also used the data collected on 36 WUAs in the region to estimate the irrigation water production cost function using the OLS method for both demand and cost functions, and the peak and the non-peak irrigated demand functions (i.e., summer and winter). The methodology consisted of maximizing social surplus to derive optimal prices for both seasons. The main results show that an increase in price in the range of 11 to 15 % in the winter and 50 to 75 % in the summer results in 11 % decrease of the annual quantity consumed and in a 2 % increase in the social surplus.  相似文献   

Preface     

Makio?C.?HondaEmail author  Hiroaki?Saito  Eitarou?Oka  Toshi?Nagata 《Journal of Oceanography》2016,72(3):339-339

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Seasonal variations in the nitrogen isotopic composition of settling particles at station K2 in the western subarctic North Pacific     

Yoshihisa?MinoEmail author  Chiho?Sukigara  Makio?C.?Honda  Hajime?Kawakami  Kazuhiko?Matsumoto  Masahide?Wakita  Minoru?Kitamura  Tetsuichi?Fujiki  Kosei?Sasaoka  Osamu?Abe  Jan?Kaiser  Toshiro?Saino 《Journal of Oceanography》2016,72(6):819-836

Intensive observations using hydrographical cruises and moored sediment trap deployments during 2010 and 2012 at station K2 in the North Pacific Western Subarctic Gyre (WSG) revealed seasonal changes in δ ¹⁵N of both suspended and settling particles. Suspended particles (SUS) were collected from depths between the surface and 200 m; settling particles by drifting sediment traps (DST; 100–200 m) and moored sediment traps (MST; 200 and 500 m). All particles showed higher δ ¹⁵N values in winter and lower in summer, contrary to the expected by isotopic fractionation during phytoplankton nitrate consumption. We suggest that these observed isotopic patterns are due to ammonium consumption via light-controlled nitrification, which could induce variations in δ ¹⁵N(SUS) of 0.4–3.1 ‰ in the euphotic zone (EZ). The δ ¹⁵N(SUS) signature was reflected by δ ¹⁵N(DST) despite modifications during biogenic transformation from suspended particles in the EZ. δ ¹⁵N enrichment (average: 3.6 ‰) and the increase in C:N ratio (by 1.6) in settling particles suggests year-round contributions of metabolites from herbivorous zooplankton as well as TEPs produced by diatoms. Accordingly, seasonal δ ¹⁵N(DST) variations of 2.4–7.0 ‰ showed a significant correlation with primary productivity (PP) at K2. By applying the observed δ ¹⁵N(DST) vs. PP regression to δ ¹⁵N(MST) of 1.9–8.0 ‰, we constructed the first annual time-series of PP changes in the WSG. This new approach to estimate productivity can be a powerful tool for further understanding of the biological pump in the WSG, even though its validity needs to be examined carefully.  相似文献   

Dynamical downscaling of future sea level change in the western North Pacific using ROMS     

Zhao-Jun?LiuEmail authorView author&#;s OrcID profile  Shoshiro?Minobe  Yoshi?N.?Sasaki  Mio?Terada 《Journal of Oceanography》2016,72(6):905-922

The future regional sea level (RSL) rise in the western North Pacific is investigated by dynamical downscaling with the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) with an eddy-permitting resolution based on three global climate models—MIROC-ESM, CSIRO-Mk3.6.0, and GFDL-CM3—under the highest greenhouse-gas emission scenario. The historical run is forced by the air-sea fluxes calculated from Coordinated Ocean Reference Experiment version 2 (COREv2) data. Three future runs—ROMS-MIROC, ROMS-CSIRO, and ROMS-GFDL—are forced with an atmospheric field constructed by adding the difference between the climate model parameters for the twenty-first and twentieth century to fields in the historical run. In all downscaling, the RSL rise along the eastern coast of Japan is generally half or less of the RSL rise maxima off the eastern coast. The projected regional (total) sea level rises along the Honshu coast during 2081–2100 relative to 1981–2000 are 19–25 (98–104), 6–15 (71–80), and 8–14 (80–86) cm in ROMS-MIROC, ROMS-CSIRO, and ROMS-GFDL, respectively. The discrepancies of the RSL rise along the Honshu coast between the climate models and downscaling are less than 10 cm. The RSL changes in the Kuroshio Extension (KE) region in all downscaling simulations are related to the changes of KE (northward shift or intensification) with climate change.  相似文献   

New data on the most ancient early quaternary glaciation in Gornyi Altai     

V.?S.?ZykinEmail author  V.?S.?Zykina  L.?G.?Smolyaninova 《Doklady Earth Sciences》2016,466(1):20-23

The data presented in this work introduce substantial corrections into the Upper Cenozoic stratigraphy and geological history of Gornyi Altai. They provide evidence for the most ancient Early Pleistocene glaciation in this region. This follows from finds of faceted boulders buried in the Bashkaus Formation. Pale-omagnetic investigations revealed in the latter a wide zone of negative polarity corresponding to the Matuyama Chron in the magnetostratigraphic scale and made it possible to correlate the formation with the Lower Pleistocene in the standard stratigraphic scale. It is shown that global cooling at the beginning of the Quaternary Period stimulated development of glaciation on the southern slope of the Kuraiskii Range exceeding in size its present-day scale.  相似文献   

Soil-water dynamics and tree water uptake in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico (USA): a stable isotope study     

Casey?Gierke  B.?Talon?NewtonEmail author  Fred?M.?Phillips 《Hydrogeology Journal》2016,24(4):805-818

In the southwestern United States, precipitation in the high mountains is a primary source of groundwater recharge. Precipitation patterns, soil properties and vegetation largely control the rate and timing of groundwater recharge. The interactions between climate, soil and mountain vegetation thus have important implications for the groundwater supply. This study took place in the Sacramento Mountains, which is the recharge area for multiple regional aquifers in southern New Mexico. The stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen were used to determine whether infiltration of precipitation is homogeneously distributed in the soil or whether it is partitioned among soil-water ‘compartments’, from which trees extract water for transpiration as a function of the season. The results indicate that “immobile” or “slow” soil water, which is derived primarily from snowmelt, infiltrates soils in a relatively uniform fashion, filling small pores in the shallow soils. “Mobile” or “fast” soil water, which is mostly associated with summer thunderstorms, infiltrates very quickly through macropores and along preferential flow paths, evading evaporative loss. It was found that throughout the entire year, trees principally use immobile water derived from snowmelt mixed to differing degrees with seasonally available mobile-water sources. The replenishment of these different water pools in soils appears to depend on initial soil-water content, the manner in which the water was introduced to the soil (snowmelt versus intense thunderstorms), and the seasonal variability of the precipitation and evapotranspiration. These results have important implications for the effect of climate change on recharge mechanisms in the Sacramento Mountains.  相似文献   

Numerical evaluation of mean-field homogenisation methods for predicting shale elastic response     

M.?Goodarzi  M.?RouainiaEmail author  A.?C.?Aplin 《Computational Geosciences》2016,20(5):1109-1122

Homogenisation techniques have been successfully used to estimate the mechanical response of synthetic composite materials, due to their ability to relate the macroscopic mechanical response to the material microstructure. The adoption of these mean-field techniques in geo-composites such as shales is attractive, partly because of the practical difficulties associated with the experimental characterisation of these highly heterogeneous materials. In this paper, numerical modelling has been undertaken to investigate the applicability of homogenisation methods in predicting the macroscopic, elastic response of clayey rocks. The rocks are considered as two-level composites consisting of a porous clay matrix at the first level and a matrix-inclusion morphology at the second level. The simulated microstructures ranged from a simple system of one inclusion/void embedded in a matrix to complex, random microstructures. The effectiveness and limitations of the different homogenisation schemes were demonstrated through a comparative evaluation of the macroscopic elastic response, illustrating the appropriate schemes for upscaling the microstructure of shales. Based on the numerical simulations and existing experimental observations, a randomly distributed pore system for the micro-structure of porous clay matrix has been proposed which can be used for the subsequent development and validation of shale constitutive models. Finally, the homogenisation techniques were used to predict the experimental measurements of elastic response of shale core samples. The developed methodology is proved to be a valuable tool for verifying the accuracy and performance of the homogenisation techniques.  相似文献