Bio-climatic imprints on a Holocene loess palaeosol from China     

He Xiubin  Tian Junliang  Tang Keli  Sun Jianzhong  John A Matthews 《Journal of Asian Earth Sciences》2004,22(5):455

Micromorphology, heavy minerals, pollen and soil properties were examined in a typical Holocene loess profile in the north of the Loess Plateau, consisting of a palaeosol (locally known as the Ansai palaeosol) underlain by the Malan loess and overlain by modern loess. The palaeosol consists of an upper humus-rich (AB) horizon over a clay-rich (Bt) horizon. The humus-rich horizon is intensely weathered, contains precipitated calcitic material derived from the overlying modern loess, and has both high pollen content and diversity. Clay coatings in the clay-rich horizon indicate formation by eluviation–illuviation of clay. Pedogenetic characteristics and pollen analysis imply that the vegetation during the time of most intensive soil development is likely to have been a warm-temperate forest. A complex interpretation of the loess–palaeosol sequence recognizes several development stages. The phase of soil development, maximum and minimum limiting ages for which are ca. 8800 and 4400 ¹⁴C years BP, involved continuing but reduced loess deposition, and successive Holocene bio-climatic environment overprinted new features on the palaeosol.  相似文献   

Bearing capacity of rock over mined cavities in Nottingham   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

A.C Waltham  G.M Swift 《Engineering Geology》2004,75(1):15-31

A significant geohazard is created in Nottingham, UK, by hundreds of man-made caves cut in the weak sandstone beneath the city centre. Stability of the caves has been assessed by a single full-scale loading test, by numerical modelling with FLAC and by physical modelling in plaster. For typical caves 4 m wide, bearing capacity of the rock roof rises from 2 MPa where it is 1 m thick to 8 MPa where 3 m thick. Stability decreases over wider caves and where the loading pad edge is over the edge of the cave. Numerical modelling of a very wide cave revealed the failure mechanisms and also showed that an internal support wall increased roof bearing capacity by 50%. Local building regulations that require 3-5 m of rock cover over the sandstone caves appear to be conservative. In stronger rocks, including karstic limestone, a guideline that cover thickness exceeds 70% of the cave width appears to be appropriate.  相似文献   

Privatizing conditions of production: trade agreements as neoliberal environmental governance     

James McCarthy 《Geoforum》2004,35(3):327-341

Recent multilateral trade agreements are among the major manifestations of neoliberalism. They are also emerging as some of the most important sites of environmental governance in the 21st century. I argue here that these trade agreements, particularly the sweeping new protections they provide for investors, are redefining property rights and environmental governance in fundamental ways. I suggest that in addition to furthering the centuries-long process of the enclosure of nature under capitalism, the neoliberal agenda of NAFTA and similar trade agreements also involves something new: the privatization, or primitive accumulation, of conditions of production as an accumulation strategy. I explore these dynamics through examination of two cases, one in the United States and one in Mexico. I also explore the roles of social movements in these dynamics.  相似文献   

The neoliberalization of ecosystem services: wetland mitigation banking and problems in environmental governance   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Morgan M. Robertson 《Geoforum》2004,35(3):361-373

Wetland mitigation banking is an American neoliberal environmental policy that has created a functioning market in `ecosystem services', commodities defined using the holistic measures of ecological science. The development of this market is discussed as a project of environmental governance, defined as the nation-state's regulation of ecological relations within its territory towards stabilizing capitalist relations of power and accumulation. I argue that the wetland banking industry serves as a bellwether that presages problems that other strategies of neoliberal environmental governance will experience. Ethnographic, economic and ecological data from the Chicago-area wetland banking industry inform a discussion of two major obstacles to neoliberal strategy: the problem of relying on ecological science to define the unit of trade, and the problem of aligning the somewhat independent relations of law, politics, markets and ecosystems across an array of spatial scales. Theoretical guidance is sought from recent work on `social natures' and from the Regulationist approach to institutional political economics.  相似文献   

Environmental geochemistry of Zarshuran Au-As deposit, NW Iran   总被引：2，自引：1，他引：2  

Soroush Modabberi  Farid Moore 《Environmental Geology》2004,46(6-7):796-807

Zarshuran deposit is the most famous and important As-Au mine in Iran. However, there is no information on the impact of mining activity on the surrounding environment, especially on water systems. This paper attempts to document the concentration of arsenic and associated elements in waters and sediments resulting from the mining history of Zarshuran, a period covering hundreds of years. Water and sediment samples collected from Zarshuran Stream indicate high content of some potentially toxic elements, especially of As which ranges from 0.028 to 40 ng/l in water and 182 to 36,000 mg/kg in sediment samples. Mining activity, exposure of a large volume of mining wastes to weathering, and the anomalously high background of trace metals in the mining area are considered to be the main sources of heavy metal pollution.  相似文献   

Bearing capacity of unsaturated expansive soils     

Yongfu Xu 《Geotechnical and Geological Engineering》2004,22(4):611-625

It is difficult to determine the bearing capacity of a foundation in unsaturated expansive soil, although this is most important. The bearing capacity of unsaturated expansive soil is related to the drying and wetting environment. Swelling pressure occurs when the soil volume change is constrained as an expansive soil is inundated. The expansive lateral pressure, induced by the swelling pressure is similar to the passive earth pressure. By considering the effect of the expansive lateral pressure in Terzaghi's bearing capacity formula, the bearing capacity of unsaturated expansive soil is derived. Because it is very difficult to measure suction in situ, the bearing capacity is expressed using the expansive lateral pressure offers a feasible approach to calculate the bearing capacity of a foundation in unsaturated expansive soil, when suction is not measured. Plate load tests to measure the bearing capacity in situ were performed for the foundation in natural soil and saturated soil immersed by water. The verification of the bearing capacity formulae presented in this paper is conducted by comparing the predicted results with the results of the plate load tests on unsaturated expansive soils in Handan and Bingxia, China.  相似文献   

The structural role of Ti in aluminosilicate liquids in the glass transition range: insights from heat capacity and shear viscosity measurements     

Mathieu Roskosz  M.J Toplis 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2004,68(3):591-606

The shear viscosities and 1 bar heat capacities of glasses and melts along the 67mol% silica isopleth in the system SiO₂-Al₂O₃-Na₂O-TiO₂ have been determined in the temperature ranges 780-1140 K and 305-1090 K respectively. Anomalous behaviour of both these properties is observed for compositions rich in TiO₂ and/or Al₂O₃, an observation attributed to liquid-liquid phase separation followed by anatase crystallization. For samples which do not show anomalous behaviour, it is found that the partial molar heat capacity of the TiO₂ component previously determined in Al-free compositions reproduces our heat capacities to within 1.3%. Viscosity data show that addition of TiO₂ tends to increase viscosity and melt fragility at constant temperature. Furthermore, heat capacity and viscosity data may be combined within the framework of the Adam-Gibbs theory to extract values of the configurational entropy of the liquids and qualitative estimates of the variation of the average energy barrier to viscous flow. Configurational entropy at 900K is inferred to decrease upon addition of TiO₂, in contrast to previous results from Al-free systems. The compositional limit separating normal from anomalous behaviour, as well as the data for homogenous melts have been used to constrain the structural role of Ti in these samples. Our data are consistent with a majority of Ti in five-fold coordination associated with a titanyl bond, in agreement with previous spectroscopic studies. Furthermore, we find no evidence for a Ti-Al interaction in our samples, and we are led to the conclusion that Al and Ti are incompletely mixed, a hypothesis consistent with the observed reduction of configurational entropy upon addition of TiO₂, suggesting an important role of medium range order in controlling the variations in thermodynamic properties.  相似文献   

环境同位素记录中共生碳酸盐氧同位素分馏差值的影响          下载免费PDF全文

曾承  余俊清 《盐湖研究》2004,12(2):14-18

湖泊化学沉积碳酸盐δ18O是研究区域气候演变的重要环境指标之一。青海湖等闭流湖泊的研究结果证实,在对δ18O环境记录进行共生碳酸盐氧同位素分馏效应校正时,应依据具体情况,采用0-1‰的分馏差值。由高温实验结果推断出的常温分馏差值(4‰-7‰)不能被应用到自然条件下湖泊共生碳酸盐氧同位素分馏效应的校正。  相似文献   

Changes in soil organic carbon and other physical soil properties along adjacent Mediterranean forest, grassland, and cropland ecosystems in Turkey   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  

F. Evrendilek  I. Celik  S. Kilic 《Journal of Arid Environments》2004,59(4):811

Cultivation, overgrazing, and overharvesting are seriously degrading forest and grassland ecosystems in the Taurus Mountains of the southern Mediterranean region of Turkey. This study investigated the effects of changes on soil organic carbon (SOC) content and other physical soil properties over a 12-year period in three adjacent ecosystems in a Mediterranean plateau. The ecosystems were cropland (converted from grasslands in 1990), open forest, and grassland. Soil samples from two depths, 0–10 and 10–20 cm, were collected for chemical and physical analyses at each of cropland, open forest, and grassland ecosystems. SOC pools at the 0–20 cm depth of cropland, forest, and grassland ecosystems were estimated at 32,636, 56,480, and 57,317 kg ha⁻¹, respectively. Conversion of grassland into cropland during the 12-year period increased the bulk density by 10.5% and soil erodibility by 46.2%; it decreased SOM by 48.8%, SOC content by 43%, available water capacity (AWC) by 30.5%, and total porosity by 9.1% for the 0–20 cm soil depth (p<0.001). The correlation matrix revealed that SOC content was positively correlated with AWC, total porosity, mean weight diameter (MWD), forest, and grassland, and negatively with bulk density, pH, soil erodibility factor, and cropland. The multiple regression (MLR) models indicated that any two of the three ecosystems and one of the two soil depths accounted for 86.5% of variation in mean SOC values ((p<0.001).  相似文献   

Dynamic theory of rigid-plasticity     

Meiketsu  Binh Xuan  Noboru  Katsuhisa 《Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering》2005,25(7-10):635-647

This paper deals with an analysis method for the response and motion of soil-like rigid-plastic bodies under seismic loading conditions. A continuity condition to determine the acceleration distribution within the rigid-plastic body when the failure occurs during seismic motions is proposed. Combining this continuity condition of acceleration and the ‘Generalized Limit Equilibrium Method (GLEM)’, the responses of the earth structure during seismic motions as well as the permanent displacements can be obtained, where GLEM is one of the limit equilibrium methods proposed by the authors for static problems and providing the approximate solution for Kötter's equation. The theoretical formulation of the method, the illustrative examples, and some comparisons between the analytical and experimental results are demonstrated.  相似文献