Central Basin (central + basin)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Analysis and objective mapping of extreme daily rainfall in Catalonia

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
M. Carmen Casas
Abstract The main objective of this study is to determine the maximum daily precipitation in Catalonia for several established return periods with a high spatial resolution. For this purpose, the maximum daily rainfall annual series from 145 pluviometric stations of the Instituto Nacional de Meteorología (INM) (Spanish Weather Service) in Catalonia have been analyzed. Using the L-moments method of Hosking, every series has been fitted by the extreme value distribution function of Gumbel. From this fitting, the maximum daily precipitation for each of the pluviometric stations corresponding to return periods between 2 and 500 years, have been determined. Applying the Cressman method, the spatial analysis of these values has been achieved. Monthly precipitation climatological data, obtained from the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, have been used as the initial field for the analysis. The maximum daily precipitation at 1 km2 spatial resolution on Catalonia has been objectively determined by the method employed, and structures with wavelength longer than approximately 35 km can be identified. The results show that places where the maximum daily precipitation values are expected are the zone of Guilleries in the Transversal Range, in the highest zones of the Catalan Pyrenees and Cape Creus zone at the northeastern end of Catalonia and in the south, around the Prelittoral Mountain Range between the Mountains of Prades and Montsià. A good fit between the distribution of minimum values and the driest Catalan areas has been found, the lowest values being on the western end of the Central Basin. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society. [source]


Overpressure and petroleum generation and accumulation in the Dongying Depression of the Bohaiwan Basin, China

GEOFLUIDS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2001
X. Xie
Abstract The occurrence of abnormally high formation pressures in the Dongying Depression of the Bohaiwan Basin, a prolific oil-producing province in China, is controlled by rapid sedimentation and the distribution of centres of active petroleum generation. Abnormally high pressures, demonstrated by drill stem test (DST) and well log data, occur in the third and fourth members (Es3 and Es4) of the Eocene Shahejie Formation. Pressure gradients in these members commonly fall in the range 0.012,0.016 MPa m,1, although gradients as high as 0.018 MPa m,1 have been encountered. The zone of strongest overpressuring coincides with the areas in the central basin where the principal lacustrine source rocks, which comprise types I and II kerogen and have a high organic carbon content (>2%, ranging to 7.3%), are actively generating petroleum at the present day. The magnitude of overpressuring is related not only to the burial depth of the source rocks, but to the types of kerogen they contain. In the central basin, the pressure gradient within submember Es32, which contains predominantly type II kerogen, falls in the range 0.013,0.014 MPa m,1. Larger gradients of 0.014,0.016 MPa m,1 occur in submember Es33 and member Es4, which contain mixed type I and II kerogen. Numerical modelling indicates that, although overpressures are influenced by hydrocarbon generation, the primary control on overpressure in the basin comes from the effects of sediment compaction disequilibrium. A large number of oil pools have been discovered in the domes and faulted anticlines of the normally pressured strata overlying the overpressured sediments; the results of this study suggest that isolated sandstone reservoirs within the overpressured zone itself offer significant hydrocarbon potential. [source]


Regionalization of methane emissions in the Amazon Basin with microwave remote sensing

GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2004
John M. Melack
Abstract Wetlands of the Amazon River basin are globally significant sources of atmospheric methane. Satellite remote sensing (passive and active microwave) of the temporally varying extent of inundation and vegetation was combined with field measurements to calculate regional rates of methane emission for Amazonian wetlands. Monthly inundation areas for the fringing floodplains of the mainstem Solimões/Amazon River were derived from analysis of the 37 GHz polarization difference observed by the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer from 1979 to 1987. L-band synthetic aperture radar data (Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1) were used to determine inundation and wetland vegetation for the Amazon basin (<500 m elevation) at high (May,June 1996) and low water (October 1995). An extensive set of measurements of methane emission is available from the literature for the fringing floodplains of the central Amazon, segregated into open water, flooded forest and floating macrophyte habitats. Uncertainties in the regional emission rates were determined by Monte Carlo error analyses that combined error estimates for the measurements of emission and for calculations of inundation and habitat areas. The mainstem Solimões/Amazon floodplain (54,70°W) emitted methane at a mean annual rate of 1.3 Tg C yr,1, with a standard deviation (SD) of the mean of 0.3 Tg C yr,1; 67% of this range in uncertainty is owed to the range in rates of methane emission and 33% is owed to uncertainty in the areal estimates of inundation and vegetative cover. Methane emission from a 1.77 million square kilometers area in the central basin had a mean of 6.8 Tg C yr,1 with a SD of 1.3 Tg C yr,1. If extrapolated to the whole basin below the 500 m contour, approximately 22 Tg C yr,1 is emitted; this mean flux has a greenhouse warming potential of about 0.5 Pg C as CO2. Improvement of these regional estimates will require many more field measurements of methane emission, further examination of remotely sensed data for types of wetlands not represented in the central basin, and process-based models of methane production and emission. [source]


Geophysical evidence for Holocene lake-level change in southern California (Dry Lake)

BOREAS, Issue 1 2010
BROXTON W. BIRD
Bird, B. W., Kirby, M. E., Howat, I. M. & Tulaczyk, S. 2009: Geophysical evidence for Holocene lake-level change in southern California (Dry Lake). Boreas, 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2009.00114.x. ISSN 0300-9483. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) data are used in combination with previously published sediment cores to develop a Holocene history of basin sedimentation in a small, alpine lake in southern California (Dry Lake). The GPR data identify three depositional sequences spanning the past 9000 calendar years before present (cal. yr BP). Sequence I represents the first phase of an early Holocene highstand. A regression between <8320 and >8120 cal. yr BP separates Sequence I from Sequence II, perhaps associated with the 8200 cal. yr BP cold event. Sequence II represents the second phase of the early-to-mid Holocene highstand. Sequence IIIa represents a permanent shift to predominantly low lake stands beginning ,5550 cal. yr BP. This mid-Holocene shift was accompanied by a dramatic decrease in sedimentation rate as well as a contraction of the basin's area of sedimentation. By ,1860 cal. yr BP (Sequence IIIb), the lake was restricted to the modern, central basin. Taken together, the GPR and core data indicate a wet early Holocene followed by a long-term Holocene drying trend. The similarity in ages of the early Holocene highstand across the greater southern California region suggests a common external forcing , perhaps modulation of early Holocene storm activity by insolation. However, regional lake level records are less congruous following the initial early Holocene highstand, which may indicate a change in the spatial domain of climate forcing(s) throughout the Holocene in western North America. [source]


Origin and Accumulation of Natural Gases in the Upper Paleozoic Strata of the Ordos Basin in Central China

ACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 1 2009
Yangming ZHU
Abstract: The natural gases in the Upper Paleozoic strata of the Ordos basin are characterized by relatively heavy C isotope of gaseous alkanes with ,13C1 and ,13C2 values ranging mainly from ,35, to ,30, and ,27, to ,22,, respectively, high ,13C excursions (round 10) between ethane and methane and predominant methane in hydrocarbon gases with most C1/(C1 -C5) ratios in excess of 0.95, suggesting an origin of coal-derived gas. The gases exhibit different carbon isotopic profiles for C1 -C4 alkanes with those of the natural gases found in the Lower Paleozoic of this basin, and believed to be originated from Carboniferous-Permian coal measures. The occurrence of regionally pervasive gas accumulation is distinct in the gently southward-dipping Shanbei slope of the central basin. It is noted that molecular and isotopic composition changes of the gases in various gas reservoirs are associated with the thermal maturities of gas source rocks. The abundances and ,13C values of methane generally decline northwards and from the basin center to its margins, and the effects of hydrocarbon migration on compositional modification seem insignificant. However, C isotopes of autogenetic calcites in the vertical and lateral section of reservoirs show a regular variation, and are as a whole depleted upwards and towards basin margins. Combination with gas maturity gradient, the analysis could be considered to be a useful tool for gas migration. [source]