Natural Processes and Anthropogenic Activity in the Indus River Sedimentary Environment in Pakistan: A Critical Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1109
Author(s):  
Usman Khan ◽  
Hammad Tariq Janjuhah ◽  
George Kontakiotis ◽  
Adnan Rehman ◽  
Stergios D. Zarkogiannis
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Sedimentary Environment ◽  
Anthropogenic Activity ◽  
Indus River ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Weathered Soil ◽  
Physical And Chemical ◽  
Water Canals ◽  
Mining Exploration

The Indus River is Asia’s longest river, having its origin in the Tibet Mountain northwest of Pakistan. Routed from northern Gilgit and flowing to the plains, the river passes through several provinces and is connected by numerous small and large tributaries. The river was formed tectonically due to the collusion of the Indian and Eurasian plates, which is referred to as the Indus suture Plains zone (ISPZ). The geological setting of the study area is mainly composed of igneous and metamorphic rocks. The river passed through a variety of climatic zones and areas, although the predominant climate is subtropic arid and sub arid to subequatorial. Locally and globally, anthropogenic activities such as building, dams, and water canals for irrigation purposes, mining exploration, and industries and factories all affected the physical and chemical behaviors of the sediments in various rivers. The main effect of human activities is the reworking of weathered soil smectite, a chemical weathering indicator that rises in the offshore record about 5000 years ago. This material indicates increased transport of stronger chemically weathered material, which may result from agriculture-induced erosion of older soil. However, we also see evidence for the incision of large rivers into the floodplain, which is also driving the reworking of this type of material, so the signal may be a combination of the two. Sediments undergo significant changes in form and size due to clashing with one another in the high-charge river.

THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL WEATHERING ON IRON SLAG FROM STANDISH, NY

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria L. Leonard ◽  
◽  
Rachel M. Kelk ◽  
Dori J. Farthing
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Iron Slag ◽  
Physical And Chemical ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Ground-Based MAX-DOAS Observations of Tropospheric NO2 and HCHO During COVID-19 Lockdown and Spring Festival Over Shanghai, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 488
Author(s):  
Aimon Tanvir ◽  
Zeeshan Javed ◽  
Zhu Jian ◽  
Sanbao Zhang ◽  
Muhammad Bilal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Anthropogenic Activity ◽  
Hysplit Model ◽  
Vertical Column ◽  
Weekly Cycle ◽  
Spring Festival ◽  
Level 1 ◽  
Reduced Mobility ◽  
The Impact

Reduced mobility and less anthropogenic activity under special case circumstances over various parts of the world have pronounced effects on air quality. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of reduced anthropogenic activity on air quality in the mega city of Shanghai, China. Observations from the highly sophisticated multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscope (MAX-DOAS) instrument were used for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and formaldehyde (HCHO) column densities. In situ measurements for NO2, ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM2.5) and the air quality index (AQI) were also used. The concentration of trace gases in the atmosphere reduces significantly during annual Spring Festival holidays, whereby mobility is reduced and anthropogenic activities come to a halt. The COVID-19 lockdown during 2020 resulted in a considerable drop in vertical column densities (VCDs) of HCHO and NO2 during lockdown Level-1, which refers to strict lockdown, i.e., strict measures taken to reduce mobility (43% for NO2; 24% for HCHO), and lockdown Level-2, which refers to relaxed lockdown, i.e., when the mobility restrictions were relaxed somehow (20% for NO2; 22% for HCHO), compared with pre-lockdown days, as measured by the MAX-DOAS instrument. However, for 2019, a reduction in VCDs was found only during Level-1 (24% for NO2; 6.62% for HCHO), when the Spring Festival happened. The weekly cycle for NO2 and HCHO depicts no significant effect of weekends on the lockdown. After the start of the Spring Festival, the VCDs of NO2 and HCHO showed a decline for 2019 as well as 2020. Backward trajectories calculated using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model indicated more air masses coming from the sea after the Spring Festival for 2019 and 2020, implying that a low pollutant load was carried by them. No impact of anthropogenic activity was found on O3 concentration. The results indicate that the ratio of HCHO to NO2 (RFN) fell in the volatile organic compound (VOC)-limited regime.

scholarly journals Striking forest revival at the end of the Roman Period in north-western Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Lambert ◽  
A. Penaud ◽  
M. Vidal ◽  
C. Gandini ◽  
L. Labeyrie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Sedimentary Environment ◽  
Pollen Grains ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Freshwater Microalgae ◽  
Environmental Signals ◽  
The North ◽  
North Western

AbstractThe Holocene period (last 11,700 years BP) has been marked by significant climate variability over decadal to millennial timescales. The underlying mechanisms are still being debated, despite ocean–atmosphere–land connections put forward in many paleo-studies. Among the main drivers, involving a cluster of spectral signatures and shaping the climate of north-western Europe, are solar activity, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) varying atmospheric regimes and North Atlantic oceanic gyre dynamics. Over the last 2500 years BP, paleo-environmental signals have been strongly affected by anthropogenic activities through deforestation and land use for crops, grazing, habitations, or access to resources. Palynological proxies (especially pollen grains and marine or freshwater microalgae) help to highlight such anthropogenic imprints over natural variability. Palynological analyses conducted in a macro-estuarine sedimentary environment of north-western France over the last 2500 years BP reveal a huge and atypical 300 year-long arboreal increase between 1700 and 1400 years BP (around 250 and 550 years AD) that we refer to as the ‘1.7–1.4 ka Arboreal Pollen rise event’ or ‘1.7–1.4 ka AP event’. Interestingly, the climatic 1700–1200 years BP interval coincides with evidence for the withdrawal of coastal societies in Brittany (NW France), in an unfavourable socio-economic context. We suggest that subpolar North Atlantic gyre strengthening and related increasing recurrence of storminess extremes may have affected long-term coastal anthropogenic trajectories resulting in a local collapse of coastal agrarian societies, partly forced by climatic degradation at the end of the Roman Period.

Middle-to late Holocene environmental changes based on a multi-proxy lagoonal record, Klisova lagoon, Greece

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandros Emmanouilidis ◽  
Konstantinos Panagiotopoulos ◽  
Katerina Kouli ◽  
Pavlos Avramidis
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Anthropogenic Activity ◽  
Palynological Analysis ◽  
Drilling Site ◽  
Geomorphological Changes ◽  
Shallow Water Depth

<p>Coastal wetlands are dynamic environments prone to climatic and anthropogenic forcing and ideal settings to study past climatic and environmental changes.  In the eastern Mediterranean region and particularly in Greece, the climate presents high spatiotemporal diversity, while human activity is a significant factor in shaping the landscape. This study presents a sediment record from Klisova lagoon, situated in central Greece, at the eastern part of Messolonghi lagoon complex. The area is recorded from antiquity to have great anthropogenic activity. The paleoenvironmental synthesis was based on standard sedimentological analysis (grain size, TOC, magnetic susceptibility), joint micropaleontological and palynological analysis, X-ray Fluorescence scanning, and radiocarbon dating. The Bayesian age-depth model is based on radiocarbon dating and yields an age of 4700 cal BP for the base of the recovered sediment sequence. For the last 4700 years, the freshwater influx, the progradation of the Evinos river delta and related geomorphological changes control the environmental conditions (e.g. depth and salinity) in the lagoon system. Prior to 4000 cal BP, a relatively shallow water depth, significant terrestrial/freshwater input and increased weathering in the lagoon area are inferred. Elemental proxies and increased dinoflagellate and foraminifera abundances, which indicate marine conditions with prominent freshwater influxes, point to the gradual deepening of the lagoon recorded at the drilling site up to 2000 cal BP. The marine and freshwater conditions equilibrium sets at 1300 cal BP, and the lagoonal system seems to reach its present state. Maxima of anthropogenic pollen indicators during the Mycenaean (~3200 cal BP), Hellenistic (~ 2200 cal BP) and Late Byzantine (~ 800 cal BP) periods suggest intervals of increased anthropogenic activities in the study area.  </p>

scholarly journals Fault “Corrosion” by Fluid Injection: A Potential Cause of the November 2017 MW 5.5 Korean Earthquake

Geofluids ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Westaway ◽  
Neil M. Burnside
Keyword(s):  
Time Delays ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Fluid Injection ◽  
Anthropogenic Activity ◽  
Geothermal System ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Seismogenic Fault ◽  
Subsurface Environment ◽  
Anthropogenic Seismicity ◽  
Physical And Chemical

The November 2017 MW 5.5 Pohang earthquake is one of the largest and most damaging seismic events to have occurred in the Korean peninsula over the last century. Its close proximity to an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) site, where hydraulic injection into granite had taken place over the previous two years, has raised the possibility that it was anthropogenic; if so, it was by far the largest earthquake caused by any EGS project worldwide. However, a potential argument that this earthquake was independent of anthropogenic activity considers the delay of two or three months before its occurrence, following the most recent injection into each of the wells. A better understanding of the physical and chemical processes that occur following fluid injection into granite is thus warranted. We show that hydrochemical changes occurring while surface water, injected into granite, reequilibrates chemically with its subsurface environment, can account for time delays for earthquake occurrence of such duration, provided the seismogenic fault was already critically stressed, or very close to the condition for slip. This candidate causal mechanism counters the potential argument that the time delay militates against an anthropogenic cause of the Pohang earthquake and can account for its relatively large magnitude as a consequence of a relatively small-volume injection. The resulting analysis places bounds on combinations of physical and chemical properties of rocks, injected volume, and potential postinjection time delays for significant anthropogenic seismicity during future EGS projects in granite.

scholarly journals Microplastics Determination in the Rivers with Different Urbanisation Variances: A Case Study in Kuching City, Sarawak, Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-125
Author(s):  
Georgina Johnson ◽  
Wen San Hii ◽  
Samuel Lihan ◽  
Meng Guan Tay
Keyword(s):  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
River System ◽  
Anthropogenic Activity ◽  
Domestic Waste ◽  
Shape Identification ◽  
Suburban Areas ◽  
Sampling Locations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Main Factor

The presence of microplastics in aquatic systems is mainly due to the anthropogenic activities such as domestic waste dumping. Undeniably, rivers either in urban or suburban areas are always a waste dumpling sites from the surrounding residences. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between microplastic abundance and different degree of urbanization across Kuching in Sarawak. Three sampling locations with different degrees of urbanisation had been studied across Kuching. A total of 137 pieces of microplastics were collected along the study and analysed using stereoscopic microscope for the shape identification and FTIR spectrophotometer for functional groups present in the microplastics. Filament was the most abundant microplastics shape found, whereas the IR results showed that ethylenevinylacetate (9%), polyamides or nylon (15%), polypropylene (42%), poly(methylmethacrylate) (16%) and polystyrene (18%) were found in the study. The most abundant microplastics in the water samples was polypropylene (42%), whereas ethylenevinylacetate (9%) was the least. The degree of urbanisation does not directly relate to the microplastic present in the river system in Kuching City, but the anthropogenic activity is the main factor that affecting the microplastic abundance in the river.   Keywords: anthropologenic activity, FTIR, microplastics, polymer identification, urban, sub-urban

scholarly journals Trilobites from the Rickard Hill facies of the Saugerties Member of the Schoharie Formation, eastern New York (upper Emsian and Lower Devonian): a case study in taphonomy and sequence stratigraphy from glacial erratics

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 269-284
Author(s):  
Martin A. Becker ◽  
Rebecca B. Chamberlain ◽  
Harry M. Maisch ◽  
Alex Bartholomew ◽  
John A. Chamberlain
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New Jersey ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Lower Devonian ◽  
New York State ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
York State ◽  
Hudson Valley ◽  
Faunal Abundance ◽  
Physical And Chemical

Glacial erratics belonging to the Rickard Hill facies (RHF) of the Saugerties Member of the Schoharie Formation (upper Emsian: Lower Devonian) occur scattered throughout the Piedmont of northern New Jersey and Lower Hudson Valley of New York. These RHF glacial erratics contain an assemblage of trilobites belonging to: Anchiopella anchiops, Burtonops cristatus, Calymene platys, Terataspis grandis, cf. Trypaulites sp. and cf. Coniproetus sp. This RHF glacial erratic trilobite assemblage consists predominately of disarticulated cephala and pygidia that were originally preserved as part of a localized, third-order eustatic sea level lag deposit in the Helderberg Mountains region of central New York State and subsequently transported in glacially plucked blocks by the Hudson-Champlain Lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet southward into New Jersey. Physical and chemical weathering during glacial erosion, transportation and deposition of the RHF glacial erratics has revealed some anatomical features of these trilobites in high detail along with other invertebrates. This unique sequence of weathering reveals additional characteristics that bear upon issues of bathymetric controls on upper Schoharie Formation lithology, trilobite faunal abundance and taphonomy during the upper Emsian (Lower Devonian) of eastern New York State.  

scholarly journals Lithogenic hydrogen supports microbial primary production in subglacial and proglacial environments

2020 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. e2007051117
Author(s):  
Eric C. Dunham ◽  
John E. Dore ◽  
Mark L. Skidmore ◽  
Eric E. Roden ◽  
Eric S. Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Primary Production ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Enrichment Culture ◽  
Mineral Surfaces ◽  
Silicate Mineral ◽  
Weathering Processes ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Lag Times ◽  
Carbonate Catchment ◽  
Physical And Chemical

Life in environments devoid of photosynthesis, such as on early Earth or in contemporary dark subsurface ecosystems, is supported by chemical energy. How, when, and where chemical nutrients released from the geosphere fuel chemosynthetic biospheres is fundamental to understanding the distribution and diversity of life, both today and in the geologic past. Hydrogen (H2) is a potent reductant that can be generated when water interacts with reactive components of mineral surfaces such as silicate radicals and ferrous iron. Such reactive mineral surfaces are continually generated by physical comminution of bedrock by glaciers. Here, we show that dissolved H2 concentrations in meltwaters from an iron and silicate mineral-rich basaltic glacial catchment were an order of magnitude higher than those from a carbonate-dominated catchment. Consistent with higher H2 abundance, sediment microbial communities from the basaltic catchment exhibited significantly shorter lag times and faster rates of net H2 oxidation and dark carbon dioxide (CO2) fixation than those from the carbonate catchment, indicating adaptation to use H2 as a reductant in basaltic catchments. An enrichment culture of basaltic sediments provided with H2, CO2, and ferric iron produced a chemolithoautotrophic population related to Rhodoferax ferrireducens with a metabolism previously thought to be restricted to (hyper)thermophiles and acidophiles. These findings point to the importance of physical and chemical weathering processes in generating nutrients that support chemosynthetic primary production. Furthermore, they show that differences in bedrock mineral composition can influence the supplies of nutrients like H2 and, in turn, the diversity, abundance, and activity of microbial inhabitants.

scholarly journals Metal Oxide Nanoparticles and their Nanocomposite-based Materials as Photocatalysts in the Degradation of Dyes

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 6557-6579
Keyword(s):  
Metal Oxide ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Metal Oxide Nanoparticles ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Oxide Nanoparticles ◽  
Synthetic Dyes ◽  
Characterization Methods ◽  
Degradation Of Dyes ◽  
Physical And Chemical

The introduction of inorganic and organic pollutants into water bodies has become a serious issue globally. The waste streams released from the textile, plastic, leather, paper, pharmaceutical, and food industries introduce different natural and synthetic dyes into the aquatic system. Nanomaterials play a significant role in the photocatalytic degradation of dyes present in wastewater. Inorganic metal oxide nanoparticles have many improved physical and chemical properties and attracted much attention in photocatalytic activities. Dyes have been released in our aquatic bodies due to many anthropogenic activities and caused life-threatening problems. Various conventional methods were reported to remove dyes from water and wastewater; the photocatalytic method is one of the efficient and cost-effective. The present review article includes detailed information on photocatalysis, the potential of metal oxide and their composite materials as photocatalysts in the degradation of toxic dyes, and some common synthetic and characterization methods used for metal oxide-based nanoparticles.

HIGH RESOLUTION MINERALOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SEDIMENTS - LAKE BOLĂTĂU-FEREDEU (ROMANIA)

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-210
Author(s):  
Máté Karlik ◽  
◽  
Ildikó GYOLLAI ◽  
Anna VANCSIK ◽  
Krisztián FINTOR ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Mineralogical Characterization ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Geochemical Conditions ◽  
Formation Conditions ◽  
Physical And Chemical ◽  
Microbial Mediation

The catchment (bedrock and soil) and sediments of lake Bolătău, Romania were studied by high resolution multi-methodological investigations to characterize paleoenvironmental and formation conditions. Particle size analyses, optical and cathodoluminescence microscopy, FTIR-ATR and Raman spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, and XRF were applied for microtextural, chemical, micro-mineralogical and embedded organic material characterization and distribution of the sediments, especially concerning geochemical conditions, like pH and redox potential change. Our results support physical and chemical weathering in the process of soil formation with appearance of the new minerals appear (10Å sized phyllosilicates and clay minerals). Comparison of these studies offer possible differentiation of syn- and diagenetic mineralization, the clarification of debris contribution, microbial mediation and complex mineralization via decomposition of cell and extracellular polymeric substance. Based on the analyses on the abrasives, a suboxic environment prevailed in the depositional area and considerable microbial contribution is proposed via accumulation of lake sediments.

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