New tectonic map of Northern-Central-Eastern Asia:Position and evolution of Mesozoic sedimentary basins

The beginning of the XXI century was marked a new rising of the international tectonic cartography as a result of analysis and synthesis of a huge volume of geological information obtained for the territory of Asia especially during the last 30 years. The previous tectonic maps for Asia were created in the 1960 s--1970 s of the last century. Since that time,the national geological surveys have compiled tectonic maps exclusively in the limits of their own state boundaries. The international cooperation of five countries since 2002( Russia,China,Mongolia,Kazakhstan and Republic of Korea) gave a unique possibility to join the data into a united cartographic form as Atlas of Geological Maps( since 2002-Atlas of Geological Maps of Central Asia and since 2007-Atlas of Geological Maps of Northern-Central-Eastern Asia). Both atlases include four maps: geological,tectonic,metallogenic,and energy resources. Tectonic Map of Northern-Central-Eastern Asia and Adjacent Areas at scale 1 ∶ 2 500 000 was the key map for further compilation of the metallogenic and energy resources( coal,oil and gas) maps. By this reason,special attention was given to showing the structure and composition of the Mesozoic sedimentary basins in Northern-Central- Eastern Asia as the most perspective structures for oil-and-gas and coal prospect.     

西昆仑山古近纪隆升变形：时间、证据和争论

西昆仑山新生代隆升变形过程对于中亚的地貌与水系演化、资源和能源矿产分布、气候及环境变迁等都具有重要的影响,然而至今尚没有形成统一的认识。西昆仑山新生代初始隆升与变形的时间存在三种不同观点,分别为古新世、中—晚始新世、渐新世末期—中新世早期。本文通过对塔西南地区地层学、沉积学、物源分析和热年代学的研究综述,详细讨论了西昆仑山古新世、中—晚始新世隆升变形的时间、证据、解释和争议。在此基础上,确定了西昆仑山在古新世发生了隆升变形,中—晚始新世是新生代变形中的一个加速节点。这两期隆升变形分别对应于印度—亚洲大陆初始碰撞、新特提斯洋俯冲板片断离的远程响应,反映了印度板块向北的碰撞拼贴与持续挤压的过程。     

中国西部寒区流域冰川水文调节功能研究

冰川作为固体水库以“削峰填谷”的形式显著调节径流丰枯变化,冰川的水文调节功能对于中国西北干旱区至关重要。使用现有VIC-CAS模型模拟得到中国西部寒区2014—2100年径流预估数据,从趋势和波动变化相结合的视角,基于径流变差系数法,构建了冰川水文调节指数（Glacier_R）,分析了9个寒区流域冰川径流变化的稳定性,详细剖析了历史时期（1971—2010年）和未来到21世纪末这些流域冰川水文调节功能的强弱变化。结果表明：历史时期及RCP2.6和RCP4.5情景下,除长江流域外,青藏高原其余流域的冰川径流减小时间节点为2020s,西北内陆河流域则为2010s。历史时期及RCP2.6和RCP4.5情景下至21世纪末,尽管西部寒区大部分流域的冰川径流呈减少趋势,但波动幅度减小或无明显变化,冰川径流稳定性增强或无变化。总体上,西北内陆河流域的冰川水文调节功能较高,青藏高原流域的冰川水文调节功能较低。RCP2.6和RCP4.5情景下,至21世纪末,西部寒区各流域冰川水文调节功能均呈现减弱趋势,西北内陆河流域减弱更加显著,如RCP4.5情景下,木扎提河冰川水文调节功能降幅达25.4%,而青藏高原各流域的冰川水文调节功能一直处于较低水平。从年代际变化来看,1970s—2010s是寒区流域冰川水文调节功能较强的时期,1980s和2000s两个时段冰川水文调节功能尤强;RCP2.6和RCP4.5情景下,未来到21世纪末,冰川调节功能明显减弱。减弱的时间节点不同,最早为1970s,最晚为2020s。     

A Comparative Study of the Coal‐forming Characteristics of Marginal Sea Basins and Epicontinental Sea Basins

The coal-forming characteristics,as well as the similarities and differences between epicontinental sea basins and continental marginal sea basins developed during different time periods,were analyzed in this study by adopting comparative analysis thoughts and methods.The results obtained in this study revealed that epicontinental basins and marginal sea basins are both characterized by the main development of thin coal seams or extremely thin coal seams.In addition,changes in sea levels were determined to be the main controlling factors for coal formation,and there were similarities in the continent-sea interactions and coal-forming sedimentary systems of the different basins.However,there were also significant differences observed in the sea level change events,basin basement structural characteristics,coal seam stability levels,accumulation and aggregation characteristics,and the migration patterns of coal-forming materials.For example,the marginal sea basins in the South China Sea were found to be characterized by strong tectonic activities,diversity and complexity.The basin structures showed complex patterns of depressions,uplifts and concave or sag uplifts,which tended to lead to greater complexity in the paleogeographic patterns of the coal formations.This had subsequently resulted in complex coal-forming processes and paleogeographic characteristics,in which the coal-forming zones displayed bead-like distributions,and the enrichment areas and centers were scattered.The practical significance of studying the similarities and differences of the coal-forming characteristics between epicontinental basins and marginal sea basins is that the results can potentially be used to guide the predictions of coal-measure coal seam distributions in South China Sea,as well as provide valuable guidance for future explorations of natural gas reservoirs related to coal measures in the South China Sea area.     

Curve‐Number/Green–Ampt mixed procedure for streamflow predictions in ungauged basins: Parameter sensitivity analysis

A procedure combining the Soil Conservation Service‐Curve Number (SCS‐CN) method and the Green–Ampt (GA) infiltration equation was recently developed to overcome some of the drawbacks of the classic SCS‐CN approach when estimating the volume of surface runoff at a sub‐daily time resolution. The rationale of this mixed procedure, named Curve Number for Green–Ampt (CN4GA), is to use the GA infiltration model to distribute the total volume of the net hyetograph (rainfall excess) provided by the SCS‐CN method over time. The initial abstraction and the total volume of rainfall given by the SCS‐CN method are used to identify the ponding time and to quantify the hydraulic conductivity parameter of the GA equation. In this paper, a sensitivity analysis of the mixed CN4GA parameters is presented with the aim to identify conditions where the mixed procedure can be effectively used within the Prediction in Ungauged Basin perspective. The effects exerted by changes in selected input parameters on the outputs are evaluated using rectangular and triangular synthetic hyetographs as well as 100 maximum annual storms selected from synthetic rainfall time series. When applied to extreme precipitation events, which are characterized by predominant peaks of rainfall, the CN4GA appears to be rather insensitive to the input hydraulic parameters of the soil, which is an interesting feature of the CN4GA approach and makes it an ideal candidate for the rainfall excess estimation at sub‐daily temporal resolution at ungauged sites. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving kriging of groundwater level data using nonlinear normalizing transformations—a field application

Abstract

The present research study investigates the application of nonlinear normalizing data transformations in conjunction with ordinary kriging (OK) for the accurate prediction of groundwater level spatial variability in a sparsely-gauged basin. We investigate three established normalizing methods, Gaussian anamorphosis, trans-Gaussian kriging and the Box-Cox method to improve the estimation accuracy. The first two are applied for the first time to groundwater level data. All three methods improve the mean absolute prediction error compared to the application of OK to the non-transformed data. In addition, a modified Box-Cox transformation is proposed and applied to normalize the hydraulic heads. The modified Box-Cox transformation in conjunction with OK is found to be the optimal spatial model based on leave-one-out cross-validation. The recently established Spartan semivariogram family provides the optimal model fit to the transformed data. Finally, we present maps of the groundwater level and the kriging variance based on the optimal spatial model.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor A. Montanari

Citation Varouchakis, E.A., Hristopoulos, D.T., and Karatzas, G.P., 2012. Improving kriging of groundwater level data using nonlinear normalizing transformations—a field application. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57 (7), 1404–1419.     

中国东部中生代产铀火山岩的基本特征

产铀火山岩与非产铀火山岩存在岩石、岩石化学成分、微量元素及稀土元素的特征性差异;中国东部产铀火山洼地均形成于幔隆翼部重力高梯度带基底隆起构造环境,而火山洼地中铀的晚期主成矿作用,则以白垩纪拉张环境下贯入的中基性岩脉为先导,随后与之同步进行。     

Results from a new model of river basin evolution

This paper briefly describes a model of the erosional development of catchments and their channel networks. The model differentiates between the dominant transport processes in hillslope and channels. The development of channels and hillslopes occurs in an integrated manner as a function of physically observable mechanisms. The growth of a river basin is qualitatively described. The model concepts are used to study the basin during periods of growth (transient periods), as well as during dynamic equilibrium. This leads to hypotheses about the relationship between slopes, relief, tectonic uplift, erodability, runoff, and catchment area. It is shown that the model leads to very reasonable and desirable behaviour of hillslopes during retreat and degradation.     

Late Ordovician evolution of the intracratonic basins in north-west Gondwana

The Palaeozoic intracratonic basins in northwest Gondwana, i.e. the Amazonas, Parnaiba and Acera basins, probably opened during late Caradoc and Ashgill times. The fluviatile sedimentation later changed to littoral at the basinal margins. A transgression from the north-west region of Gondwana slowly overlapped the margins of the intracratonic basins. The transgression reached its maximum in the Rawtheyan (late Ashgill), as evidenced by fossiliferous shallow marine sediments in the Amazonas Basin. The Hirnantian glaciation in north Gondwana lowered the sea level, and in the Amazonas Basin a littoral sedimentation followed on shallow marine strata. From the opening of the basins onwards, a shallow sea probably existed close to the epicontinental basins in north-west Gondwana. The basins were connected via a narrow passage between the Guayana and Ivorian cratons.