利用宽频带台阵资料研究华北地区地壳及上地幔间断面结构

Intense tectonic renovation has occurred in the eastern continent of china since Mesozoic, as evidenced by the high heat flow, widespread magma extrusion and volcanic activities, and development of large sedimentary basins. To explain the cause and mechanism for the tectonic process in this period, some researchers have put forward various models, such as mantle plume, subduction of the Pacific slab, Yangtze Block-North China Block collision, etc. Their seismological evidence, however, is still scarce..During the period from 2000 to 2003, large temporary seismic arrays were established in North China by the Institute of the Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Total 129 portable seismic stations were linearly emplaced across the western and eastern boundaries of the Bohai Bay Basin, and accumulated a large amount of high-quality data. Moreover, abundant data were also collected at the capital digital seismic network established in the ninth five-year period of national economic and social development. These provide an unprecedented opportunity for us to study the deep structure and associated geodynamic mechanism of lithospheric processes in North China using seismological techniques.Seismology is a kind of observation-based science. The development of seismic observations greatly promotes the improvement of seismologic theory and methodology. At the beginning of this thesis, I review the history of seismic observation progress, and present some routine processing techniques used in the array seismology. I also introduce two popular seismic imaging methods (receiver function method and seismic tomography).Receiver function method has been widely used to study the crustal and upper mantle structures, and many relevant research results have been published. In this thesis I elaborate the theory of this method, including the basic concept of receiver functions and the methodology for data pre-processing, stacking and migration. I also address some problems often encountered in practical applications of receiver function imaging.By using the teleseismic data collected at the temporary seismic arrays in North China, in particular, the traveltime information of P-to-S conversion and multiple reverberations of the Moho discontinuity, I obtain the distributions of the crustal thickness and the poisson ratio at the northwest boundary area of the Bohai Bay Basin and discuss the geological implications of the results.Through detailed intestigations on the crustal structural feature around the middle part of the Tanlu fault, considerable disparity in poisson ratios is found in the western and eastern sides of the Tanlu fault. Moreover, an obvious Moho offset is coincidently observed at the same surface location. A reasonable density model for the Tanlu fault area is also derived by simulating the observed gravity variations. Both receiver function study and gravity anomaly modeling suggest that the crustal difference between the western and eastern sides of the Tanlu fault is mainly resulted from their different compositions.With common conversion point imaging of receiver functions, I estimate the depths of the upper and lower boundaries of the mantle transition zone, i.e., the 410 and 660 km discontinuities, beneath most part of the North China continent The thickness of the transition zone (TTZ) in the study area is calculated by subtracting the depth of .410 km discontinuity from that of the 660km discontinuity. The resultant TTZ is 10-15 km larger in the east than in the west of the study area. Phase transitions at the 410 km and the 660 km discontinuities are known to have different Clapeyron slopes. Therefore, the TTZ is sensitive to the temperature changes in the transition zone. Previous studies have shown that the TTZ would be smaller in the mantle plume areas and become larger when the remnants of subducted slabs are present The hypothesis of mantle plume cannot give a reasonable interpretation to the observed TTZ beneath North China, Instead, the receiver function imaging results favor a dynamic model that correlates the thermal structure of the mantle transition zone and associated upper mantle dynamics of North China to the Pacific plate subduction process.

Radio tomography: A new experimental technique

Pryse, Sian, 'Radio tomography: A new experimental technique', Surveys in Geophysics (2003) 24 pp.1-38 RAE2008

Quaternary geology of the German North Sea and Western Irish Sea Mud Belt: revised stratigraphies, geotechnical properties, sedimentology and anthropogenic impacts

The climatic development of the Mid to Late Quaternary (last 400,000 years) is characterised by fluctuation between glacial and interglacial periods leading to the present interglacial, the Holocene. In comparison to preceding periods it was believed the Holocene represented a time of relative climatic stability. However, recent work has shown that the Holocene can be divided into cooler periods such as the Little Ice Age alternating with time intervals where climatic conditions ameliorated i.e. Medieval Warm Period, Holocene Thermal Optimum and the present Modern Optimum. In addition, the Holocene is recognised as a period with increasing anthropogenic influence on the environment. Onshore records recording glacial/interglacial cycles as well as anthropogenic effects are limited. However, sites of sediment accumulation on the shallow continental shelf offer the potential to reconstruct these events. Such sites include tunnel valleys and low energy, depositional settings. In this study we interrogated the sediment stratigraphy at such sites in the North Sea and Irish Sea using traditional techniques, as well as novel applications of geotechnical data, to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental record. Within the German North Sea sector a combination of core, seismic and in-situ Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) data was used to identify sedimentary units, place them within a morphological context, relate them to glacial or interglacial periods stratigraphically, and correlate them across the German North Sea. Subsequently, we were able to revise the Mid to Late Quaternary stratigraphy for the North Sea using this new and novel data. Similarly, Holocene environmental changes were investigated within the Irish Sea at a depositional site with active anthropogenic influence. The methods used included analyses on grain-size distribution, foraminifera, gamma spectrometry, AMS 14C and physical core logging. The investigation revealed a strong fluctuating climatic signal early in the areas history before anthropogenic influence affects the record through trawling.

Inversion from redundant data

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Prograded Holocene beach-ridges with superimposed dunes in north-east Ireland: mechanisms and timescales of fine and coarse beach sediment decoupling and deposition

Two depositional models to account for Holocene gravel-dominated beach ridges covered by dunes, occurring on the northern coast of Ireland, are considered in the light of infrared-stimulated luminescence ages of sand units within beach ridges, and 14C ages from organic horizons in dunes. A new chronostratigraphy obtained from prograded beach ridges with covering dunes at Murlough, north-east Ireland, supports a model of mesoscale alternating sediment decoupling (ASD) on the upper beach, rather than macroscale sequential sediment sourcing to account for prograded beach ridges and covering dunes. The ASD model specifies storm or fair-weather sand beach ridges forming at high-tide positions (on an annual basis at minimum), which acted as deflationary sources for landward foredune development. Only a limited number of such late-Holocene beach ridges survive in the observed prograded series. Beach ridges only survive when capped by storm-generated gravel beaches that are deposited on a mesoscale time spacing of 50–130 years. The morphodynamic shift from a dissipative beach face for dune formation to a reflective beach face for gravel capping appears to be controlled by the beach sand volume falling to a level where reflective conditions can prevail. Sediment volume entering the beach is thought to have fluctuated as a function of a forced regression associated with the falling sea level from the mid-Holocene highstand (ca. 6000 cal. yr BP) identified in north-east Ireland. The prograded beach ridges dated at ca. 3000 to 2000 cal. yr BP indicate that the Holocene highstand’s regressive phase may have lasted longer than previously specified.

High-pressure deformation mechanism in scolecite: A combined computational-experimental study

Pressure-induced structural modifications in scolecite were studied by means of in situ synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and density functional computations. The experimental cell parameters were refined up to 8.5 GPa. Discontinuities in the slope of the unit-cell parameters vs. pressure dependence were observed; as a consequence, an increase in the slope of the linear pressure-volume dependence is observed at about 6 GPa, suggesting an enhanced compressibility at higher pressures. Weakening and broadening of the diffraction peaks reveals increasing structural disorder with pressure, preventing refinement of the lattice parameters above 8.5 GPa. Diffraction patterns collected during decompression show that the disorder is irreversible. Atomic coordinates within unit cells of different dimensions were determined by means of Car-Parrinello simulations. The discontinuous rise in compressibility at about 6 GPa is reproduced by the computation, allowing us to attribute it to re-organization of the hydrogen bonding network, with the formation of water dimers. Moreover we found that, with increasing pressure, the tetrahedral chains parallel to c rotate along their elongation axis and display an increasing twisting along a direction perpendicular to c. At the same time, we observed the compression of the channels. We discuss the modification of the Ca polyhedra under pressure, and the increase in coordination number (from 4 to 5) of one of the two Al atoms, resulting from the approach of a water molecule. We speculate that this last transformation triggers the irreversible disordering of the system.

Isotopic composition of tropospheric and soil N2O from successive depths of agricultural plots with contrasting crops and nitrogen amendments

Agricultural soils are the dominant contributor to increases in atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O). Few studies have investigated the natural N and O isotopic composition of soil N2O. We collected soil gas samples using horizontal sampling tubes installed at successive depths under five contrasting agricultural crops (e.g., unamended alfalfa, fertilized cereal), and tropospheric air samples. Mean d 15N and d 18O values of soil N2O ranged from -28.0 to +8.9‰, and from +29.0 to +53.6‰. The mean d 15N and d 18O values of tropospheric N2O were +4.6 ± 0.7‰ and +48.3 ± 0.2‰, respectively. In general, d values were lowest at depth, they were negatively correlated to soil [N2O], and d 15N was positively correlated to d 18O for every treatment on all sampling dates. N2O from the different agricultural treatments had distinct d 15N and d 18O values that varied among sampling dates. Fertilized treatments had soil N2O with low d values, but the unamended alfalfa yielded N2O with the lowest d values. Diffusion was not the predominant process controlling N2O concentration profiles. Based on isotopic and concentration data, it appears that soil N2O was consumed, as it moved from deeper to shallower soil layers. To better assess the main process(es) controlling N2O within a soil profile, we propose a conceptual model that integrates data on net N2O production or consumption and isotopic data. The direct local impact of agricultural N2O on the isotopic composition of tropospheric N2O was recorded by a shift toward lower d values of locally measured tropospheric N2O on a day with very high soil N2O emissions.