Sintered superhard materials

Diamond or cubic boron nitride particles can be sintered into strong masses at high temperatures and very high pressures at which these crystalline forms are stable. Most of the desirable physical properties of the sintered masses, such as hardness and thermal conductivity, approach those of large single crystals; their resistance to wear and catastrophic splitting is superior. The sintered masses are produced on a commercial scale and are increasingly used as cutting tools on hard or abrasive materials, as wire-drawing dies, in rock drills, and in special high-pressure apparatus.     

Mummy cave: prehistoric record from rocky mountains of wyoming

Archeological materials from 8.5 meters of deposits in a stratified rock shelter in the Absaroka Mountains near Yellowstone National Park provide a projectile point sequence and cultutral record beginning more than 9000 years ago, and include evidence of human occupation durnig the Altithermal period.     

Rock avalanches caused by earthquakes: source characteristics

Study of a worldwide sample of historical earthquakes showed that slopes most susceptible to catastrophic rock avalanches were higher than 150 meters and steeper than 25 degrees. The slopes were undercut by fluvial or glacial erosion, were composed of intensely fractured rock, and exhibited at least one other indicator of low strength or potential instability.     

Galileo encounter with 951 gaspra: first pictures of an asteroid

Galileo images of Gaspra reveal it to be an irregularly shaped object (19 by 12 by 11 kilometers) that appears to have been created by a catastrophic collisional disruption of a precursor parent body. The cratering age of the surface is about 200 million years. Subtle albedo and color variations appear to correlate with morphological features: Brighter materials are associated with craters especially along the crests of ridges, have a stronger 1-micrometer absorption, and may represent freshly excavated mafic materials; darker materials exhibiting a significantly weaker 1-micrometer absorption appear concentrated in interridge areas. One explanation of these patterns is that Gaspra is covered with a thin regolith and that some of this material has migrated downslope in some areas.     

Sherman landslide, alaska

Triggered by the earthquake of 27 March 1964, 3 x 10(7) cubic meters of rock fell 600 meters, then slid at high speed 5 kilometers across the nearly level Sherman glacier near Cordova. The landslide has a number of significant new features in addition to those typical of other large landslides that may have slid on a layer of trapped and compressed air.     

Graywacke matrix minerals: hydrothermal reactions with columbia river sediments

Experiments with sands chemically similar to graywackes produced "matrix" minerals at 250 degrees C and a water pressure of 1 kilobar. Starting materials were moderately well sorted sands containing abundant volcanic rock fragments and no detectable clay minerals. The results support the concept that graywacke matrix may form diagenetically by hydration and recrystallization of unstable clasts. Matrix need not be a recrystallized detrial fine fraction. Texture, therefore, is not a reliable criterion for sandstone classification. For graywackes, chemical composition may be more significant.     

姚江流域现代特大洪水沉积物粒度及磁性参数特征

2013年10月受"菲特"台风的影响,浙江余姚境内的姚江流域发生了特大洪水。通过系统采集不同河段高、低河漫滩及泛滥平原的沉积物样品,开展粒度分析和磁性测量,探讨了该地区特大洪水事件在沉积物粒度及磁性参数方面的表征特征。研究表明,沉积物粒度组成以粉沙为主(平均58.72%),黏土次之(23.27%),沙最少(18.01%),主体成分为黏土-沙质粉沙;从低河漫滩、高河漫滩到泛滥平原,沉积物粒度具有变细趋势,但差别不大;频率曲线表现为较宽的单峰,略显正偏;概率累积曲线较为平缓且均为两段式。入城段与城区干流段沉积物中磁性参数χ、SIRM呈现高度的相关性,表明磁性矿物主要由亚铁磁性矿物组成,较高的χ_(ARM)表明沉积物中含有较多的稳定单畴亚铁磁性矿物。区域横向对比结果表明,余姚洪水沉积物在粒度结构上可与同时期形成的嘉兴地区的洪水沉积物作比较,也与良渚古城附近、杭州平原广泛发育的"黄粉土"相近,而与杭州湾高潮滩沉积物明显不同。     

甘蓝型油菜无微量花粉细胞质雄性不育系湘油66A的选育

甘蓝型油菜细胞质雄性不育系湘油66A是利用温敏细胞核雄性不育材料作保持系，对Polima不育系进行改良育成的无微量花粉不育系．对湘油66A及其具有相同核背景的Polima不育系Z04A，温敏核不育系湘油402S和湘油66B的育性比较观察试验表明，几个不育系的不育株率均达到100％，而不育程度有较大的差异，其中以湘油66A最高，两年均表现出稳定的彻底不育特性，其次为Z04A和湘油402S，湘油66B最低．湘油66A经济性状优良，品质优．利用15份资源材料对湘油66A和Z04A进行恢保关系鉴定，结果表明，湘油66A与Z04A具有相同的恢保关系，从中筛选出7份对湘油66A具有完全恢复作用的恢复系．利用这7个恢复系与湘油66A所配的组合在品种比较试验中表现出不同程度的杂种优势，6个组合均比对照增产，增产幅度为2．28％～19．21％，其中有3个组合的增产幅度在10％以上．     

Localization and physical properties experiments conducted by Spirit at Gusev Crater

The precise location and relative elevation of Spirit during its traverses from the Columbia Memorial station to Bonneville crater were determined with bundle-adjusted retrievals from rover wheel turns, suspension and tilt angles, and overlapping images. Physical properties experiments show a decrease of 0.2% per Mars solar day in solar cell output resulting from deposition of airborne dust, cohesive soil-like deposits in plains and hollows, bright and dark rock coatings, and relatively weak volcanic rocks of basaltic composition. Volcanic, impact, aeolian, and water-related processes produced the encountered landforms and materials.     

Prehistoric rock avalanches in the olympic mountains, washington

Rock avalanches blocked streams in the Olympic Mountains southwest of Puget Sound during the past few thousand years. Limiting radiocarbon ages indicated that three or four of six avalanches occurred from 1000 to 1300 years ago or shortly thereafter. Most of the dates were from the outer preserved rings of trees drowned behind avalanche dams. These three or four avalanches may be coeval not only with one another but also with abrupt tectonic deformation in western Washington. No rock avalanches in the Olympic Mountains are known to have resulted from storms or earthquakes during the past century. The avalanches strengthen the case that a large prehistoric earthquake occurred in the Puget Sound region.     

Tree ring correlation between prehistoric landslides and abrupt tectonic events in Seattle, washington

Radiocarbon ages of submerged trees on landslide deposits in Lake Washington, Seattle, indicate that the most recent slides in three separate areas may have occurred simultaneously about 1000 years ago. Tree ring crossdating shows that seven bark-bearing trees from one of these recent slides and a tree 23 kilometers to the northwest in a probable tsunami deposit on the shore of Puget Sound died in the same season of the same year. The close coincidence among the most recent lake landslides, a probable tsunami, abrupt subsidence, and other possible seismic events gives evidence for a strong prehistoric earthquake in the Seattle region.     

Subaqueous explosive eruption and welding of pyroclastic deposits

Silicic tuffs infilling an ancient submarine caldera, at Mineral King in California, show microscopic fabrics indicative of welding of glass shards and pumice at temperatures >500 degrees C. The occurrence indicates that subaqueous explosive eruption and emplacement of pyroclastic materials can occur without substantial admixture of the ambient water, which would cause chilling. Intracaldera progressive aggradation of pumice and ash from a thick, fast-moving pyroclastic flow occurred during a short-lived explosive eruption of approximately 26 cubic kilometers of magma in water >/=150 meters deep. The thickness, high velocity, and abundant fine material of the erupted gas-solids mixture prevented substantial incorporation of ambient water into the flow. Stripping of pyroclasts from upper surfaces of subaqueous pyroclastic flows in general, both above the vent and along any flow path, may be the main process giving rise to buoyant-convective subaqueous eruption columns and attendant fallout deposits.     

Geologic youth of galapagos islands confirmed by marine stratigraphy and paleontology

Six distinctive types of fossiliferous marine deposits occur on the Galádpagos Islands that provide evidence for the age of emergence of the islands above sea level and hence a maximum age for the islands' terrestrial biota. These subtidal to supratidal deposits include (i) volcanic tuffs with fossils, (ii) limestones and sandstones interbedded with basalt, (iii) terrace deposits, (iv) beach rock, (v) supratidal talus deposits, and (vi) recently uplifted tidal and subtidal rocks and sand. With the exception of (vi), the deposits were previously assigned ages varying from Miocene to Pleistocene, but all are less than about 2 million years old. This age, together with independently determined geologic ages, indicate that the islands emerged from the sea relatively recently and that all evolution of the islands' unique terrestrial biota occurred within the past 3 to 4 million years.     

Radar sounding of the Medusae Fossae Formation Mars: equatorial ice or dry, low-density deposits?

The equatorial Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) is enigmatic and perhaps among the youngest geologic deposits on Mars. They are thought to be composed of volcanic ash, eolian sediments, or an ice-rich material analogous to polar layered deposits. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the Mars Express Spacecraft has detected nadir echoes offset in time-delay from the surface return in orbits over MFF material. These echoes are interpreted to be from the subsurface interface between the MFF material and the underlying terrain. The delay time between the MFF surface and subsurface echoes is consistent with massive deposits emplaced on generally planar lowlands materials with a real dielectric constant of approximately 2.9 +/- 0.4. The real dielectric constant and the estimated dielectric losses are consistent with a substantial component of water ice. However, an anomalously low-density, ice-poor material cannot be ruled out. If ice-rich, the MFF must have a higher percentage of dust and sand than polar layered deposits. The volume of water in an ice-rich MFF deposit would be comparable to that of the south polar layered deposits.     

雨季使用的无电力双保险自动报警装置设计

详细介绍了雨季使用的无电力双保险自动报警装置的理论根据、装置组成及其工作过程,对保护山区坡地村民的生命财产安全具有现实意义。     

Phosphorus use efficiency and fertilizers: future opportunities for improvements

The continued supply of phosphate fertilizers that underpin global food production is an imminent crisis. The rock phosphate deposits on which the world depends are not only finite, but some are contaminated, and many are located in geopolitically unstable areas, meaning that fundamental changes will have to take place in order to maintain food production for a growing global population. No single solution exists, but a combination of approaches to phosphorus management is required not only to extend the lifespan of the remaining non-renewable rock phosphate reserves, but to result in a more efficient, sustainable phosphorus cycle. Solutions include improving the efficiency of fertilizer applications to agricultural land, alongside a better understanding of phosphorus cycling in soil-plant systems, and the interactions between soil physics, chemistry and biology, coupled with plant traits. Opportunities exist for the development of plants that can access different forms of soil phosphorus (e.g., organic phosphorus) and that use internal phosphorus more efficiently. The development of different sources of phosphorus fertilizers are inevitably required given the finite nature of the rock phosphate supplies. Clear opportunities exist, and it is now important that a concerted effort to make advances in phosphorus use efficiency is prioritized.     

地面覆盖方式对新垦盐碱地的抑盐和增产效果研究

采用塑料地膜、细沙、秸秆3种覆盖材料,研究了不同地面覆盖方式对新垦盐碱荒地的抑盐、脱盐和玉米的增产效果。结果表明,不同覆盖材料和方式均有显著的增产作用,其中全膜覆盖效果最好,其次是覆细沙5cm,覆秸秆3000kg/hm2。的增产率最小。覆盖处理对O～20cm土层的盐分均有很好的脱盐效果,可减弱休闲季土壤0-40cm土层的返盐。秸秆覆盖和细沙覆盖各层的含水量与覆盖量正相关。     

珠江口盆地番禺低隆起A井区珠海组沉积研究

珠江口盆地番禺低隆起A井区珠海组发育潮汐沉积,以细砂、粉砂和粉砂质泥岩为主,局部含有泥砾。根据A井岩心观察,按岩石学特征出发在珠海组识别出6种岩石相似及3种岩石相组合。据岩相类型和沉积构造特征,可从A井珠海组沉积内识别出3个沉积亚相和3个沉积微相,包括潮下带的潮汐砂坝;潮间带的混合坪微相;三角洲水下平原的水下分流河道。总结出珠海组潮汐影响三角洲的取心段沉积相和沉积演化特征。     

North polar region of Mars: imaging results from viking 2

During October 1976, the Viking 2 orbiter acquired approximately 700 high-resolution images of the north polar region of Mars. These images confirm the existence at the north pole of extensive layered deposits largely covered over with deposits of perennial ice. An unconformity within the layered deposits suggests a complex history of climate change during their time of deposition. A pole-girdling accumulation of dunes composed of very dark materials is revealed for the first time by the Viking cameras. The entire region is devoid of fresh impact craters. Rapid rates of erosion or deposition are implied. A scenario for polar geological evolution, involving two types of climate change, is proposed.     

U and sr isotopes in ground water and calcite, yucca mountain, nevada: evidence against upwelling water

Hydrogenic calcite and opaline silica deposits in fault zones at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, have created considerable public and scientific controversy because of the possible development of a high-level nuclear waste repository at this location. Strontium and uranium isotopic compositions of hydrogenic materials were used to test whether the veins could have formed by upwelling of deep-seated waters. The vein deposits are isotopically distinct from ground water in the two aquifers that underlie Yucca Mountain, indicating that the calcite could not have precipitated from ground water. The data are consistent with a surficial origin for the hydrogenic deposits.