Development and decay of a lithalsa in Northern Québec: A geomorphological history     

Fabrice Calmels  Michel Allard  Georg Delisle 《Geomorphology》2008,97(3-4):287-299

The complete life cycle of a permafrost mound is reconstructed from its growth until its degradation. The study site is a lithalsa, which is the subject of a long-term monitoring that includes geocryological observations, measurements of permafrost properties on cores, ground temperature measurements, and observations of landform changes. The landform likely grew as a palsa under cold climatic conditions in the past. The peat cover was subsequently eroded. Early stages of degradation are witnessed since 2003 as a new thermokarst pond is starting to form though mound collapse. Settlement of the structure has been observed, and a rim ridge has begun to form. Ultimately, the lithalsa shall disappear and be replaced by a circular thermokarst pond surrounded by a rampart, similar to many other ones in the study area. The monitoring of the thermal regime of the lithalsa illustrates the pattern of internal warming and points to the causes of its degradation.  相似文献   

Pseudo-feathery dunes in the Kumtagh Desert   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  

Zhibao Dong  Jianjun Qu  Xunming Wang  Guangqiang Qian  Wanyin Luo  Zhenhai Wei 《Geomorphology》2008,100(3-4):328-334

The Kumtagh Desert is the last explored desert in China. The unique patterns on aerial photographs and satellite images have led previous researchers to the conclusion that the Kumtagh Desert is the only place over the world where typical feathery dunes are developed, and that some unique wind regimes are at work. Recent field investigation reveals that the feathery patterns in fact reflect the albedo contrasts between the seif dunes, bright dune-like drifts and the dark inter-dune lag sediments. The wind regime in the area containing the so-called feathery dunes is typical of the regime that produces seif dunes that were considered to be shafts of the feathery dunes, and the vanes of the feathery dunes are in fact bright dune-like drifts with indistinct height from the surroundings rather than true transverse dunes. Further analysis indicates that the sediments of seif dunes, dune-like drifts and dark inter-dune flats differ in grain size distribution, mineralogy, reflectance spectrum and particle micro-morphology. Sediments that constitute seif dunes and dune-like drifts are finer and poorly rounded, contain relatively more quartz, and hence have higher albedo, while the sediments that constitute the dark inter-dune flats are coarser and better rounded, contain far less quartz but relatively more andesite and dacite, and hence have lower albedo. As a result, what was originally perceived as unique feathery dunes are in fact only pseudo-feathery dunes composed primarily of seif dunes. This discovery also demonstrates that blowing sand drifts can form dune-like patterns that remain visible for long periods of time. It is important to distinguish between the patterns of true dunes and those of dune-like drifts (pseudo-dunes) that cause albedo contrasts in interpreting remote sensing images.  相似文献   

Response of bankfull discharge to discharge and sediment load in the Lower Yellow River   总被引：11，自引：0，他引：11  

Baosheng Wu  Guangqian Wang  Junqiang Xia  Xudong Fu  Yuanfeng Zhang 《Geomorphology》2008,100(3-4):366-376

This paper presents a study on the response of bankfull discharge to incoming discharge and sediment load based on long-term hydrological and bankfull discharge data measured on the lower reaches of the Yellow River. The analysis indicated that the bankfull discharge was a function of the preceding 5 to 6 years' flow regimes, revealing that bankfull channel dimensions were a result of the accumulative effect of several consecutive years' flow discharge and sediment load conditions. In other words, the mean relaxation time was about 5 to 6 years for channel adjustment. Theoretical methods for the prediction of bankfull discharge were developed, in which the response time or the relaxation time was fully considered. Testing of the methods using data observed at five hydrologic stations in the lower reaches of the Yellow River from 1960 to 2003 showed that the proposed methods can predict the variation of bankfull discharge in response to changes in the incoming discharge and sediment load. The proposed methods hold promise for predicting the magnitude and trend of channel response to other rivers undergoing aggradation or degradation from changes in hydrologic or sediment regime.  相似文献   

青藏铁路冻土路基温度场随机有限元分析   总被引：17，自引：7，他引：10  

祁长青  吴青柏  施斌  徐洪钟 《工程地质学报》2005,13(3):330-335

从一阶Taylor展开式入手,结合冻土温度场计算有限元法,推导了冻土路基温度场随机有限元方程及有关计算公式,并对青藏铁路北麓河试验段冻土路基温度场进行了随机有限元分析,结果表明温度标准差与温度场的分布趋势大致相同,在垂直方向上,最大值都出现在路基上部,向下逐渐减小,但两者分布范围略有不同,路基内部标准差的分布范围明显较大,在一定深度处达到均化。  相似文献   

白垩纪世界与大洋红层   总被引：38，自引：2，他引：36  

王成善  胡修棉 《地学前缘》2005,12(2):11-21

白垩纪代表着地质历史中的一种极端的温室气候,已被国际地球科学界视为研究地球系统科学的典型范例。文中在评述白垩纪沉积作用、古气候、古海洋研究中取得的重要进展基础上,重点介绍推动白垩纪研究核心问题之一的黑色页岩和大洋缺氧事件以及由中国学者提出的白垩纪大洋红层和富氧作用。大洋缺氧事件与大洋红层的研究因其与碳氧循环、古气候和古海洋变化的紧密关系,已经成为国际白垩纪研究中的热点问题,并在今后一段时期内继续引领着白垩纪古海洋、古气候变化研究的不断深入。  相似文献   

Modelling the incomplete Paschen–Back effect in the spectra of magnetic Ap stars     

M. J. Stift  F. Leone  E. Landi Degl'Innocenti 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2008,385(4):1813-1819

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Unraveling the patterns of late Holocene debris-flow activity on a cone in the Swiss Alps: Chronology, environment and implications for the future     

Markus Stoffel  Delphine Conus  Michael A. Grichting  Igor Livre  Gilles Maître 《Global and Planetary Change》2008,60(3-4):222-234

Debris-flow activity on the forested cone of the Ritigraben torrent (Valais, Swiss Alps) was assessed from growth disturbances in century-old trees, providing an unusually complete record of past events and deposition of material. The study of 2246 tree-ring sequences sampled from 1102 Larix decidua Mill., Picea abies (L.) Karst. and Pinus cembra ssp. sibirica trees allowed reconstruction of 123 events since AD 1566. Geomorphic mapping permitted identification of 769 features related to past debris-flow activity on the intermediate cone. The features inventoried in the study area covering 32 ha included 291 lobes, 465 levées and 13 well-developed debris-flow channels. Based on tree-ring records of disturbed trees growing in or next to the deposits, almost 86% of the lobes identified on the present-day surface could be dated. A majority of the dated material was deposited over the last century. Signs of pre-20th century events are often recognizable in the tree-ring record of survivor trees, but the material that caused the growth anomaly in trees has been completely overridden or eroded by more recent debris-flow activity.Tree-ring records suggest that cool summers with frequent snowfalls at higher elevations regularly prevented the release of debris flows between the 1570s and 1860s; the warming trend combined with greater precipitation totals in summer and autumn between 1864 and 1895 provided conditions that were increasingly favorable for releasing events from the source zone. Enhanced debris-flow activity continued well into the 20th century and reconstructions show a clustering of events in the period 1916–1935 when warm–wet conditions prevailed during summer in the Swiss Alps. In contrast, very low activity is observed for the last 10-yr period (1996–2005) with only one debris-flow event recorded on August 27, 2002. Since sediment availability is not a limiting factor, this temporal absence of debris-flow activity is due to an absence of triggering events, which not only shifted from June and July to August and September over the 20th century, but also seemed to be initiated primarily by persistent precipitation rather than summer thunderstorms. From the reconstructions, based on RCM simulations, there are indications that debris-flow frequencies might continue to decrease in the future, as precipitation events are projected to occur less frequently in summer but become more common in spring or autumn.  相似文献   

Erosion and Accretion of a Placer Mining Beach of SW Indian Coast     

K. Rajith  N. P. Kurian  K. V. Thomas  T. N. Prakash  T. S. S. Hameed 《Marine Geodesy》2013,36(2):128-142

The erosion/accretion pattern in a placer mining beach on the southwest Indian coast was monitored for five years to study the role of different driving forces. The beach has maximum width during the fair weather months and least in the rough monsoon months. Apart from hydrodynamic processes, sand mining and presence of sea wall are found to be the driving forces for erosion/accretion. Impact of sand mining is not felt on the beach when the mining is within an optimum level, equivalent to the natural replenishment. It is concluded that, though sand mining will cause erosion in the innershelf, the time taken for a measurable impact can be long if the mining volumes are much less than the annual volume changes.  相似文献   

Integration of a Multi-Stage Bulk Materials Acquisition System from the Viewpoint of Dock Operations     

Hong Tau Lee 《Marine Georesources & Geotechnology》2013,31(3):207-219

Abstract

A multi-stage bulk materials acquisition system is examined from the viewpoint of dock operations. The whole process can be divided into four stages and treated as four subsystems: ships scheduling planning, material yard planning, dock arrangement, and material discharging. Since the structure and the complexity of each subsystem is different, the solution approaches applied are also different with respect to each. To increase operations efficiency and data consistency, an integration of the subsystems by coordinating the operations sequence and data communications for the four subsystems is discussed. The four subsystems are illustrated by using the material docks of China Steel Corporation, and the models developed in this research are also validated. The results indicate that the models developed are capable of deriving solutions better than the existing ones. Although the discussions are confined to China Steel Corporation, the models can be applied to other companies with similar operations.  相似文献   

Determining the effects of depositional processes on consolidation behavior of sediment using shear-wave velocity     

Wisam R. Muttashar  Edward Woolery 《Marine Georesources & Geotechnology》2013,31(9):1032-1043

Abstract

Compression behavior of sediments is crucial to geological engineering applications for ascertaining the deformation characteristics of the particular depositional environments. Unfortunately, obtaining the geotechnical parameters required to assess the compression behavior of sediments can be a costly and time-consuming undertaking. This study developed a general prediction equation that simulates the compression behavior of sediments. This developed equation is an exponential decline model that relates an increase of the shear-wave velocity to an increase of the mean effective stress. Consequently, the decrease of void ratio is presented as a continuous function of the shear-wave velocity. For this research, laboratory-derived sediment samples created to mimic actual sediments were isotopically consolidated during a consolidated undrained triaxial compression tests. The samples were prepared in the laboratory by mixing different percentages of fines and controlling the ratio of clay-to-silt fractions. Shear-wave velocity tests were performed during this consolidation testing using bender elements. The experimental constants needed for the prediction equation were well correlated to the depositional factors specifically characterized by percent fines, silt percent, and liquid limit that define better complexity of depositional processes.  相似文献