Migration of brines in the basement rocks of the Athabasca Basin through microfracture networks (P-Patch U deposit,Canada)     

Julien Mercadier  Antonin Richard  Marie-Christine Boiron  Michel Cathelineau  Michel Cuney 《Lithos》2010,115(1-4):121-136

The unconformity-type uranium deposits of the Athabasca Basin (Saskatchewan, Canada) are hosted near the unconformity between a middle Proterozoic intracratonic sedimentary basin and an Archean to Paleo-Proterozoic metamorphic and plutonic basement. These deposits, which are considered to be the richest U deposits in the world, are the result of massive basinal fluid migrations in the basement rocks.This study shows that basinal brines have strongly penetrated into the basement not only through faults and major pathways but also by way of dense networks of microfractures which favoured the percolation of fluids down to considerable depths (hundred metres below the unconformity) and their chemical modification (salinity increase) by interaction with basement lithologies. These processes are one of the major causes of uranium mobility within the basement rocks and the formation of unconformity-type mineralization.Microfracture networks, which opened during the basinal brine stage (ca. 1600–1400 Ma) are interpreted as sets of mode I cracks corresponding to a specific stage of deformation and occur as fluid inclusion planes after healing. The stress field at that stage (σ₁ = N130–150 °E, subvertical) partly reopened the earlier microcrack networks (σ₁ = N80–110 °E and N130–150 °E, subvertical) issued from the Trans-Hudson Orogeny late retrograde metamorphic stage (ca. 1795–1720 Ma). The circulation of the two types of fluids (carbonic and brines) occurs thus at two distinct events (Trans-Hudson Orogeny late retrograde metamorphism for carbonic fluids and maximal burial diagenesis for brines) but the same main microfissure geometry was used by the fluids. This demonstrates the existence of a similar stress field direction acting before and after the basin formation. Moreover, the brine circulations in the basement acted in a wider volume than the clay-rich alteration halo surrounding the U-ores, generally considered as the main envelope of fluid percolation outside the fault systems. The data on the chemistry of the fluids and on the geometry of their migration at various scales emphasise the fundamental role of the basement in the chemical evolution of highly saline brines linked to unconformity-related uranium mineralization in the Athabasca Basin.  相似文献   

Correlative and comparative characterization of main ion concentrations in laterite groundwater in semi-arid northern Burkina Faso     

Julien Nikiema  Mario Schirmer  Walter Gläßer  Ronald Krieg 《Environmental Earth Sciences》2010,61(1):11-26

About 24 samples from hand-dug wells and boreholes were used to characterize concentrations of the main inorganic ions in a laterite environment under semi-arid climatic conditions in Tikaré, northern Burkina Faso. It was found that the most represented groundwater anion in groundwater was HCO₃ ⁻ with average levels of 49.1 mg/L in the dry season and 33.5 mg/L in the rainy season. The most represented cation was Ca²⁺ with mean concentrations of 13.7 and 9.5 mg/L, respectively. The main processes, which influence the concentrations of these ions, are evaporation (dry season), local enrichment of recharge water in some elements, ion exchange and fixation by clay minerals (in case of K⁺). The best correlations were found between Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ (r = 0.95), Cl⁻ and Na⁺ (r = 0.95), HCO₃ ⁻ and Mg²⁺ (r = 0.89), HCO₃ ⁻ and Ca²⁺ (r = 0.89), and between HCO₃ ⁻ and Na⁺ (r = 0.80). In general, the quality of the groundwater from the different wells sampled for this study was good enough to serve as drinking water. However, there were situations where the quality of water was polluted because of anthropogenic contaminants (mainly NO₃ ⁻, K⁺, Cl⁻) from septic tanks and manure pits located in the vicinity of some sampled wells. In addition, application of fertilizers also represents a potential anthropogenic contamination source with regard to SO₄ ²⁻, Ca²⁺, K⁺, Na⁺, and Mg²⁺. Considering the high concentrations of SO₄ ²⁻, Mg²⁺, Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ found in one borehole, the deeper, fractured aquifers were also likely to be enriched in these elements. In contrast, the shallow aquifers are likely to be contaminated with Cl⁻, NO₃ ⁻ and K⁺. Cl⁻ and K⁺ seem to be locally present in recharge water as shown by their relative higher mean concentrations in the rainy season samples.  相似文献   

An active wave generating–absorbing boundary condition for VOF type numerical model     

Peter Troch  Julien De Rouck 《Coastal Engineering》1999,38(4):2145

The objective of the present work is to discuss the implementation of an active wave generating–absorbing boundary condition for a numerical model based on the Volume Of Fluid (VOF) method for tracking free surfaces. First an overview of the development of VOF type models with special emphasis in the field of coastal engineering is given. A new type of numerical boundary condition for combined wave generation and absorption in the numerical model VOFbreak² is presented. The numerical boundary condition is based on an active wave absorption system that was first developed in the context of physical wave flume experiments, using a wave paddle. The method applies to regular and irregular waves. Velocities are measured at one location inside the computational domain. The reflected wave train is separated from the incident wave field in front of a structure by means of digital filtering and subsequent superposition of the measured velocity signals. The incident wave signal is corrected, so that the reflected wave is effectively absorbed at the boundary. The digital filters are derived theoretically and their practical design is discussed. The practical use of this numerical boundary condition is compared to the use of the absorption system in a physical wave flume. The effectiveness of the active wave generating–absorbing boundary condition finally is proved using analytical tests and numerical simulations with VOFbreak².  相似文献   

The Integration of Scene Understanding within a Geographic Information System: A Prototype Approach for Agricultural Applications     

Mark Gahegan  & Julien Flack 《Transactions in GIS》1999,3(1):31-49

This paper describes progress towards engineering a combined GIS and image understanding system, designed to analyse remotely-sensed imagery in a task-oriented manner, with the task and contextual parameters being supplied by the GIS. The overall aim is to evaluate some of the more recent developments in the field of computer vision and to show how they may be integrated (along with more traditional methods of image interpretation) to improve system performance in terms of object recognition and extraction. Three aspects are reported: (1) Development of a formal notation as the basis of describing the process of transforming data from low level image representations to high level object representations; (2) Design of collaborating low and high level image processes used in this abstraction process and their control via Process Networks encapsulated into frames ; and (3) Use of Dempster-Shafer Decision Theory as the basis for combining different types of evidence to improve the recognition of objects in the scene. Some sample results are presented to illustrate the issues raised and mechanisms for the co-operative processing of data are suggested.  相似文献