A search for shocked quartz grains in the Allerød‐Younger Dryas boundary layer          下载免费PDF全文

Annelies Van Hoesel  Wim Z. Hoek  Gillian M. Pennock  Knut Kaiser  Oliver Plümper  Michal Jankowski  Maartje F. Hamers  Norbert Schlaak  Mathias Küster  Alexander V. Andronikov  Martyn R. Drury 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2015,50(3):483-498

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis suggests that multiple airbursts or extraterrestrial impacts occurring at the end of the Allerød interstadial resulted in the Younger Dryas cold period. So far, no reproducible, diagnostic evidence has, however, been reported. Quartz grains containing planar deformation features (known as shocked quartz grains), are considered a reliable indicator for the occurrence of an extraterrestrial impact when found in a geological setting. Although alleged shocked quartz grains have been reported at a possible Allerød‐Younger Dryas boundary layer in Venezuela, the identification of shocked quartz in this layer is ambiguous. To test whether shocked quartz is indeed present in the proposed impact layer, we investigated the quartz fraction of multiple Allerød‐Younger Dryas boundary layers from Europe and North America, where proposed impact markers have been reported. Grains were analyzed using a combination of light and electron microscopy techniques. All samples contained a variable amount of quartz grains with (sub)planar microstructures, often tectonic deformation lamellae. A total of one quartz grain containing planar deformation features was found in our samples. This shocked quartz grain comes from the Usselo palaeosol at Geldrop Aalsterhut, the Netherlands. Scanning electron microscopy cathodoluminescence imaging and transmission electron microscopy imaging, however, show that the planar deformation features in this grain are healed and thus likely to be older than the Allerød‐Younger Dryas boundary. We suggest that this grain was possibly eroded from an older crater or distal ejecta layer and later redeposited in the European sandbelt. The single shocked quartz grain at this moment thus cannot be used to support the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.  相似文献   

Evaluation of Engineered Geothermal Systems as a Heat Source for Oil Sands Production in Northern Alberta     

V. Pathak  T. Babadagli  J. A. Majorowicz  M. J. Unsworth 《Natural Resources Research》2014,23(2):247-265

This paper evaluates the application of geothermal energy by numerically modeling the heat extraction that would result from the injection of cold water into an artificially fractured hot dry rock (HDR). The HDR that would be utilized in Alberta is expected to be granite with a network of pre-existing natural fractures. However, to ensure a continued flow of injected water from the reservoir to the production wells, creation of additional fractures is required. Thus, the properties of these fractures are of prime importance to the efficiency of geothermal energy production. The fracture networks for the simulations were created using a numerical code and were converted into a grid format to be used in a commercial thermal simulator. A new approach to embed a complex fracture system into the numerical model was applied. Various properties of the fractures such as aperture, length, and spacing were changed and their absolute and relative effects on energy production were quantified and the results are presented in this paper. This modeling technique was also verified by comparison with the conventional dual porosity model and by performing a history match with real field data obtained from literature. The applicability of this approach to provide heat for oil sands extraction was investigated using the volumes of water currently needed in northern Alberta. Based on these constraints, numerical simulations were run to evaluate the optimum well spacing that would be required using a three-well configuration. In this simulation, the fracture parameters (density and aperture) were kept fixed assuming that they are not affected by cold water injection. The results of this study suggest that geothermal energy has a potential to be a sustainable form of thermal energy for oil sands extraction in northern Alberta.  相似文献   

Early extension in the Late Archaean northeastern Eastern Goldfields Province,Yilgarn Craton,Western Australia     

J. R. McIntyre  J. E. Martyn 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2013,60(6):975-992

A series of linked extensional detachments, transfer faults, and sediment- and volcanic-filled half-grabens that pre-date regional folding are described in the Late Archaean Margaret anticline, Eastern Goldfields Province, Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia. Coeval structures and rock units include layer-parallel extensional detachments, transfer faults (high-angle rotational faults rooted in the detachments and linking layer-parallel shear zones with varying amounts of extension); felsic intrusions, either as granitoids emplaced in or below the detachments, or as fine-grained intrusive bodies emplaced above the detachments and controlled by the high-angle faults; and half-grabens controlled by the high-angle faults and filled with clastic sedimentary and volcanic rocks. At least 1500 m of section is excised across the detachments. The detachments and high-angle faults are folded by the east-northeast regional compression that formed the Margaret anticline. Extensional deformation in the Margaret anticline is correlated with the regionally recognised felsic magmatism and associated volcanic and volcaniclastic basin fill dated at approximately 2685–2670 Ma across the Eastern Goldfields Province. This suggests the extensional event was province-wide and post-dated initial greenstone deposition (at around 2705 Ma) but pre-dated regional compressive deformation. We suggest the extension is the result of a thermal anomaly in the crust, generated by the insulating effect of a thick pile (of the order of 10 km or greater) of mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks on precursor Archaean felsic crust. The thermal anomaly has generated renewed production of felsic and mafic volcanic rocks, coeval with uplift and extension in the upper crust.  相似文献   

Practical Use of Computationally Frugal Model Analysis Methods          下载免费PDF全文

Mary C. Hill  Dmitri Kavetski  Martyn Clark  Ming Ye  Mazdak Arabi  Dan Lu  Laura Foglia  Steffen Mehl 《Ground water》2016,54(2):159-170

Three challenges compromise the utility of mathematical models of groundwater and other environmental systems: (1) a dizzying array of model analysis methods and metrics make it difficult to compare evaluations of model adequacy, sensitivity, and uncertainty; (2) the high computational demands of many popular model analysis methods (requiring 1000's, 10,000 s, or more model runs) make them difficult to apply to complex models; and (3) many models are plagued by unrealistic nonlinearities arising from the numerical model formulation and implementation. This study proposes a strategy to address these challenges through a careful combination of model analysis and implementation methods. In this strategy, computationally frugal model analysis methods (often requiring a few dozen parallelizable model runs) play a major role, and computationally demanding methods are used for problems where (relatively) inexpensive diagnostics suggest the frugal methods are unreliable. We also argue in favor of detecting and, where possible, eliminating unrealistic model nonlinearities—this increases the realism of the model itself and facilitates the application of frugal methods. Literature examples are used to demonstrate the use of frugal methods and associated diagnostics. We suggest that the strategy proposed in this paper would allow the environmental sciences community to achieve greater transparency and falsifiability of environmental models, and obtain greater scientific insight from ongoing and future modeling efforts.  相似文献   

Eocene post-rift tectonostratigraphy of the Rockall Plateau, Atlantic margin of NW Britain: Linking early spreading tectonics and passive margin response     

Martyn S. Stoker  Geoffrey S. Kimbell 《Marine and Petroleum Geology》2012,30(1):98-125

A regional study of the Eocene succession in the UK sector of the Rockall Plateau has yielded new insights into the early opening history of the NE Atlantic continental margin. Data acquired from British Geological Survey borehole 94/3, on the Rockall High, provides a high-resolution record of post-rift, Early to Mid-Eocene, subaqueous fan-delta development and sporadic volcanic activity, represented by pillow lavas, tuffs and subaerial lavas. This sequence correlates with the East Rockall Wedge, which is one of several prograding sediment wedges identified across the Rockall Plateau whose development was largely terminated in the mid-Lutetian. Linking the biostratigraphical data with the magnetic anomaly pattern in the adjacent ocean basin indicates that this switch-off in fan-delta sedimentation and volcanism was coincident with the change from a segmented/transform margin to a continuously spreading margin during chron C21. However, late-stage easterly prograding sediment wedges developed on the Hatton High during late Mid- to Late Eocene times; these can only have been sourced from the Hatton High, which was developing as an anticline during this interval. This deformation occurred in response to Mid- to Late Eocene compression along the ocean margin, possibly associated with the reorganisation to oblique spreading in the Iceland Basin, which culminated at the end of the Eocene with the formation of the North Hatton Anticline, and the deformation (tilting) of these wedges. A series of intra-Eocene unconformities, of which the mid-Lutetian unconformity is the best example, has been traced from the Rockall Plateau to the Faroe-Shetland region and onto the Greenland conjugate margin bordering the early ocean basin. Whilst there appears to be some correlation with 3rd order changes in eustatic sea level, it is clear from this study that tectonomagmatic processes related to changes in spreading directions between Greenland and Eurasia, and/or mantle thermal perturbations cannot be discounted.  相似文献   

Protecting the hand that feeds us: Seagrass (Zostera marina) serves as commercial juvenile fish habitat     

Chiara M. Bertelli  Richard K.F. Unsworth 《Marine pollution bulletin》2014

Although fisheries are of major economic and food security importance we still know little about specific juvenile habitats that support such production. This is a major issue given the degradation to and lack of protection afforded to potential juvenile habitats such as seagrass meadows. In the present study we investigate the role of seagrass in supporting juvenile fish of commercial value. By assessing seagrass relative to adjacent sand we determined the presence of abundant juvenile fish. Nine commercial species were recorded and the most abundant of these were Plaice, Pollock and Herring. We provide the first quantitative evidence of the presence of juvenile fish of commercial value in seagrass surrounding Great Britain. Although the species that we found in seagrass as juveniles are not obligate seagrass users the resources that seagrass meadows offer to these fish provide significant long-term fitness benefits, potentially enhancing the whole population.  相似文献   

Finite element computation of shape factors for Kirkham's piezometer tube method for hydraulic conductivity of saturated soil     

McD. James  B. Brown  Martyn P. Hodgson 《水文研究》1988,2(3):219-225

The Kirkham piezometer tube method of measuring hydraulic conductivity of saturated soil uses a numerical constant (shape factor) to account for the relative geometrical parameters of the cavity and the soil domain. Published shape factors have mostly been determined using an electrical analogue. In this paper the application of the finite element method to shape factor determination is considered. Convergence is studied and methods of extrapolation evaluated. A determination is made of the size of finite region required to represent adequately the radially unbounded domain assumed for the piezometer method. Computed shape factors were found to be in good agreement with analogue data.  相似文献   

Shear localisation in upper mantle peridotites     

Martyn R. Drury  Reinoud L. M. Vissers  Dirk Van der Wal  Eilard H. Hoogerduijn Strating 《Pure and Applied Geophysics》1991,137(4):439-460

Upper mantle peridotite bodies at the earth's surface contain relict structures and microstructures which provide direct information on the role and the mechanisms of shear localisation in the upper mantle. Deformation which occurred at high temperatures (T>950±50°C) is relatively homogeneous within domains ranging in scale from a few kilometres to a few tens of kilometres. Below 950±50°C strain is localised into centimetre to several hundred metre wide shear zones which commonly contain hydrated mylonitic peridotites. The microstructures developed in the peridotites suggest there is a correlation between the occurrence of shear localisation and the occurrence of strain softening and brittle deformation processes. The most important strain softening processes are inferred to be structural and reaction induced softening. Structural softening processes include dynamic recrystallisation and strain-induced transitions from dislocation creep to some form of grain-size-sensitive (GSS) creep. Reaction induced softening is related to the formation of fine grained polyphase reaction products which deform by GSS creep and the formation of weak sheet silicates such as phlogopite, chlorite, talc and antigorite. From experimental studies these softening processes and brittle deformation processes are inferred to occur mainly at temperatures less than about 910±160°C. This temperature range is inferred to be a significant rheological transition in the upper mantle. Below 910±160°C deformation during orogenesis may be accommodated by an anastomosing network of hydrated mylonitic shear zones with a distinct, perhaps weak, rheology. At higher temperatures strain is accommodated in much wider deformation zones.On the scale of the lithosphere the degree of localisation may be different to that determined at the scale of the periodotite massif. An anastomosing network of hundred metre wide mylonitic shear zones forming 0.05–0.3 by volume fraction of the mantle lithosphere atT<950°C could accommodate inhomogeneous or homogeneous bulk deformation depending on the spatial distribution and ordering of the mylonite zones. The higher temperature deformation at deeper levels in the mantle could be markedly inhomogeneous being concentrated in shear zones with widths in the range of 2–20 km, alternatively these zones may widen significantly during deformation, resulting in a decrease in the degree of localisation with increasing bulk strain.  相似文献   

Lithofacies modelling and sequence stratigraphy in microtidal cool-water carbonates: a case study from the Pleistocene of Sicily, Italy   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Martyn Pedley    Mario Grasso† 《Sedimentology》2002,49(3):533-553

ABSTRACT Quaternary carbonates in SE Sicily were deposited in seamount and short ramp settings during glacio‐eustatically driven highstand conditions. They provide an excellent opportunity to investigate the depositional and erosional aspects of cool‐water carbonate sedimentation in a microtidal marine water body. The derived ramp facies model differs significantly from modern‐day, open‐ocean ramp scenarios in projected facies depth ranges and in the preservation of inshore facies. A sequence stratigraphic study of the carbonates has confirmed many established aspects of carbonate sedimentation (e.g. production usually only occurred during highstands). It has also revealed several new features peculiar to water bodies with little tidal influence, including ‘catch‐up’ surfaces taking the place of transgressive facies, second‐order sequence boundary events being most important as triggers for initiating resedimentation and a virtual absence of sediment shedding to the basin during the terminal lowstand. Production in the carbonate factory lasted for about 0·5 Myr. Despite this, carbonate production was considerable and included both bioconstructional and bioclastic‐dominated facies and the production of abundant lime muds. A model for eustatically controlled cool‐water carbonate production and resedimentation in microtidal marine water bodies is presented. This is considered to be more applicable to Neogene and Quaternary strata in the Mediterranean region than are current open‐ocean models.  相似文献   

西藏高原中南部地壳与上地幔导电性结构   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

叶高峰  金胜  魏文博 《地球科学》2007,32(4):491-498

根据2001年国土资源部"十五"青藏专项研究计划项目"西藏高原南部岩石圈电性结构的大地电磁研究"所完成的吉隆-措勤剖面(800线)以及2004年教育部重大项目"藏南雅鲁藏布江缝合带地区地壳三维电性结构及其构造地质学与动力学意义的研究"所完成的定日-措迈剖面(900线)超宽频带大地电磁测深数据,研究西藏高原中南部地壳及上地幔电性结构特征及雅鲁藏布江缝合带导电性结构特征:800线和900线上地壳范围内主要为高阻区,电阻率在200~3000Ω.m之间,顶面大范围出露,底面一般在15~20km深度处,整体上,高阻区底面由南向北逐渐加深,再向北又逐渐变浅,900线高阻体底界深达30km,而800线高阻体底界更深达38km;地下15~45km深度范围内存在一组电性梯度带,该电性梯度带之下存在一组硕大的高导层,其电阻率小于5Ω.m,高导层由规模不等且不连续的高导体构成.雅鲁藏布江以南的中地壳高导体,规模较小,厚度在10km左右,产状略向北倾;雅鲁藏布江以北的高导体,规模较大,厚度在30km左右,产状向北缓倾;相比之下,900线的高导体厚度较小,顶面深度较浅.通过对岩石电阻率影响因素的讨论,推测高导体的成因是部分熔融或含水流体,判断藏南巨厚的中、下地壳的物质状态是热的、软弱的、塑性的.  相似文献