Increase In Sand Content Research Articles

Effects of Irrigation Rate and Media on Growth of Acer rubrum L. in Large Containers

Abstract Acer rubrum L. seedlings were grown in 38 1 (# 10) containers with 4 irrigation rates of 50%, 100%, 200%, 400% replacement of net evaporation and 3 media types of 100% pine bark; pine bark:sand (4:1 by vol); pine bark:sand (3:2 by vol). A spray stake irrigation system was used to irrigate. Height growth was not affected by irrigation rate. Caliper growth increased cubicly and linearly with increased irrigation rate during the first and second years, respectively. Media affected height and caliper growth the second year only. Height and caliper growth increased linearly with increased sand content. An increase in irrigation rate produced a larger root system, while an increase in sand content increased primary and secondary root growth.

Geotechnical properties of fine-grained calcareous sediments for engineering purposes

A comprehensive study was undertaken to evaluate the geotechnical properties of natural fine-grained calcareous sediments in the Dammam-Dhahran area. The availability of large quantities of this type of sediment in the region is limited because it was intensively consumed within the last few years. Therefore, the work herein was conducted on mixes of sand and natural calcareous sediment to evaluate their properties and thereafter to find out if such mixes could provide a suitable alternative source for future construction projects. Mixes were prepared with different percentages of sand. The test results indicated that the properties of the blended samples could be changed or improved. An increase in sand content produced an increase in the maximum dry density and a decrease in optimum moisture content. The values of the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) were also observed to be significantly increased with a high percentage of sand.

Effect of Clay Content in Soil on Boron Uptake and Yield of Wheat

AbstractThe effect of total B content in soil on B uptake by wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and its effects on yield were studied for three soil‐sand mixtures at soil‐to‐soil + sand ratios of 1:3, 2:3, and 1. The results indicate that the higher the clay content of a soil, the lower is the B activity in solution for any given amount of B added. It was suggested that the soil adsorption sites act as a pool to which B can be stored or removed depending on the change in solution B concentration in soil. The B uptake by the plants is higher as the sand content increases, for any total amount of B added. However, the experimental results from all three soil‐sand mixtures lie on the same line when the B content in the shoot is plotted against B activity in soil solution (r2 = 0.9695). The dry matter of the plants was decreased with both an increase in total amount of B added and an increase in the sand content for any given amount of total B. As found for B uptake, the relative dry matter weight and the relative yield values lie on the same linear line when they are plotted against B activity in soil solution from all three soil systems. This indicates that the yield responds to B activity in soil solution only.

Depth-Gradient Analysis and Biotic Succession in Colony Creek Cycle (Late Pennsylvanian) of North Texas: ABSTRACT

The Colony Creek Shale (Canyon Group) in north Texas contains a vertical succession of lithologies and biotas deposited during regression from deep water to shallow water and strandline deposition. Stratigraphic successions in the Colorado River valley and the Brazos River valley of the outcrop belt are similar, showing that regression was of regional extent. A thin layer of platy, phosphatic black shale containing an ammonoid fauna occurs at the base of the Colony Creek and is diagnostic of deep-water deposition. This unit is similar to deposits of maximum transgression (stillstand) of many Pennsylvanian cycles. The overlying shoaling-upward portions of the Colony Creek are characterized by upward increase in sand content, increasing numbers and thicknesses of sand beds, and culmination in a horizon of subaerial exposure. Statistical analysis reveals a continuum of communities in the shales of the Colony Creek. These communities represent the continuing response of organisms to shoaling but are partly the result of an increase in sand content within the shales. The basal phosphatic black shale contains a community distinguished by its ammonoids. The overlying gray shales contain a diverse pleurotomariid community, which grades upward into a Neospirifer-productid community. In shoal-water deposits a distinct Neospirifer-myalinid community appears. The top of the sequence contains a molluscan community in sand substrates, which is characterized by Permophorus. The brachiopod Crurithyris is dominant in most shales in the succession and is not depth controlled. This succession of lithologies and biotas is ypical of cyclothem deposits in other regions of North America and in Europe. End_of_Article - Last_Page 146------------

Stratigraphic Framework and Petroleum Potential of Northeastern Baltimore Canyon Trough, Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf

Geologic data from 29 wells in the Baltimore Canyon Trough were released to the public as of 1982, and provide sufficient information for establishing Upper Jurassic through Cenozoic rock-stratigraphic units. Most of the units are lithologically similar to formations on the Scotian Shelf and are, therefore, considered in this study to be the Scotian Shelf homotaxial equivalents. The oldest rocks penetrated by exploratory wells in the Baltimore Canyon Trough are of Late Jurassic age and are correlative to the Scotian Shelf Mohawk, Mic Mac, and Abenaki Formations. The Mohawk(?) sandstone and Mic Mac shale equivalents in the Baltimore Canyon Trough represent lower delta plain to predominantly prodelta environments, and the Abenaki-equivalent limestone represents a shelf-margin carbonate buildup. Delta progradation continued during the Early Cretaceous, and lower delta-plain and delta-front sand and shale, equivalent to the Scotian Shelf Missisauga Formation, were deposited. A destructional phase of the delta is represented by the Naskapi equivalent, a calcareous shale. Inundation by the sea was incomplete, however, and channel and distributary-mouth-bar sands (Logan Canyon equivalent) were deposited. A final marine transgression began during the Late Cretaceous and resulted in the deposition of mudstone, which is considered equivalent to the Sco ian Shelf Dawson Canyon Formation. Marine conditions prevailed through much of the remainder of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic in both the Scotian Shelf and Baltimore Canyon Trough areas. Lithologic similarities between Cenozoic units of the Scotian Shelf and Baltimore Canyon Trough are less significant. Although both basins exhibit an upward increase in sand content, the Scotian Shelf Cenozoic strata are more sandy than those in the Baltimore Canyon Trough. In ascending order, the Baltimore Canyon Trough Cenozoic section consists of the uppermost Dawson Canyon equivalent, a chalk unit, a mudstone unit, an unconsolidated sand unit, and an uppermost clay unit. Stratigraphic traps may be present in the Baltimore Canyon Trough Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous deltaic sandstones and shelf-margin carbonates. The deltaic units contain channel and distributary-mouth-bar sandstones, which may be potential reservoirs. Seals may be formed by lateral and vertical contacts against the prodelta, interdistributary bay, and marine shales. The Abenaki stratigraphic-reef trend provides another potential target. Source rocks, reservoir rocks, and traps may be associated with the trend, but its potential can only be defined by future drilling.

Physical Characteristics of Shallow Methane Reservoirs of Northern Great Plains: ABSTRACT

Sedimentary rocks deposited during the Upper Cretaceous Eagle-Telegraph Creek regression provide an excellent opportunity to examine shallow biogenic gas reservoirs in the northern Great Plains. In central Montana, coastal sandstones of the Eagle Sandstone are highly porous (25%) and permeable (200 to 300 md) conventional reservoirs. Reservoir quality is adversely affected by the formation of authigenic minerals End_Page 711------------------------------ and enhanced by the development of dissolution porosity in silicate grains and carbonate cement. Upward-coarsening sandstone sequences, 3 to 30 m thick, contained in the Eagle-Telegraph Creek-equivalent Gammon Shale, accumulated tens to hundreds of kilometers seaward (eastward) of the strand. These sandstones are transitional between conventional reservoirs and low-permeability reservoirs. Near the bottom of each sequence, porosity averages 15% and permeability averages 1 md. Upward through each sand accumulation, loss of allogenic clay and increasing sand content and grain size enhance reservoir properties. Porosity and permeability attain 25% and 150 md near the top of each sequence. Reservoir quality is controlled by allogenic clay content, intensity of bioturbation, precipitation of authigenic minerals, and the dissolution of cements and detrital grains. The greatest volume of natural gas occurs in low-permeability mudstones of the Gammon Shale, which are identical to offshore equivalents of the Milk River Formation in southeastern Alberta. The reservoirs are silty shales containing discontinuous lenses and laminae of silt or very fine sand, a few millimeters or less in thickness. Effective porosity is confined to passageways within the laminae or to spaces among loosely packed clay platelets between clastic grains. Porosities range between 10 and 20%, permeabilities are commonly less than 0.1 md, pore-entrance diameters are normally 0.1 µ or less. Because of the amount and composition of allogenic clay, the reservoirs are highly water sensitive and display very high water-saturation values. Although economic flow rates are only chieved through fracturing, subsequent production has been predictable and profitable. End_of_Article - Last_Page 712------------

Trend surface analysis of major late Wisconsinan till sheets, Brantford–Woodstock area, southern Ontario

Linear and quadratic trend surfaces were computed for textural, carbonate, clast, and heavy mineral properties of the Catfish Creek (Nissouri Stadial), Port Stanley (Port Bruce Stadial), Tavistock (Port Bruce Stadial), and Wentworth (Port Huron Stadial) tills.Catfish Creek Till pebble grade material provided trend surfaces reflecting the underlying bedrock. However, an overall lack of regional trends in Catfish Creek Till is consistent with field observations that indicate remarkable uniformity for this till over several hundred square kilometres, a phenomenon that is believed to reflect the high energy of this ice sheet. Carbonates in Port Stanley Till were found to increase from east to west as the Silurian–Devonian contact was crossed. Tavistock Till was found to have increasing sand content and decreasing silt content from northwest to southeast owing to incorporation of underlying glaciofluvial sediments; pebble trends reflect the underlying bedrock for the most part. Wentworth Till trend surfaces for carbonates and pebbles show high dolomite near the Niagara Escarpment to the east and northeast with a dilution of dolomite and influx of limestone to the southwest.The strong relationship of the trend surfaces to substrate materials indicates the basal nature of the tills and the local origin of most glacial deposits. Pebble lithologies provide much information about local bedrock and drift prospectors should give close consideration to coarse fragments.

Texture of Tills, Central Massachusetts

ABSTRACT The complex bedrock terrane of New England is the source of complexity in the texture of tills blanketing the region, and the variety in interpretations of the glacial history of the region seems to stem from this areal diversity of textures within till units. This study was conducted to determine if careful quantitative analysis of till matrix textures could provide a criterion to unequivocally distinguish the lower, compact upper, and loose upper tills from place to place, and indicate the age or mode of deposition of the tills. Some clues were garnered from the analyses to aid in interpretation and correlation of the till units, but an unequivocal criterion for identifying them was not found. Also, the data did not support exclusively either the one-glacier or two-glacier hypot eses currently under debate. Statistical treatment of the particle-size distribution of thirty-three samples of till classified in the field as lower till, compact upper till, or loose upper till indicate that the lower and undifferentiated upper till from the study area are distinctly different. (Undifferentiated upper till refers to the combined data from the loose and compact phases.) The loose and compact phases of the upper till are also different from each other, but display a considerable amount of overlap in parameters. In general, the till units (lower, compact upper, loose upper) become coarser grained, better sorted, and coarse skewed in stratigraphic-order from bottom to top, indicating a decrease in clay content and an increase in sand content from bottom to top. Textural analysis, however, fails as definitive tool when samples from wide-spread areas of New England are compared, because the variation in particle-size distribution from different bedrock terranes is sufficiently large to cause extensive overlap in the clusters defined by the till types as they are plotted on various kinds of scatter plots.

Sequence Elements in Stratigraphic Analysis of Lower Colorado (Cretaceous) Strata, West-Central Saskatchewan: ABSTRACT

Sedimentary rocks referable to the Lower Colorado subgroup are fairly well defined in the subsurface as that predominantly argillaceous sequence delimited by the base of the Speckled Shale Formation (Turonian) and the top of the Mannville-Blairmore succession (middle Albian). The sequence exhibits pronounced lateral variation and locally discernible diachronism of sandstone bodies; both the lowermost Joli Fou Formation and the uppermost Big River Formation display a northerly increase in sand content, whereas the lenticular sandstone bodies of the Viking Formation, which separates them over most of the study area, become progressively finer grained on the north, so that the formation may no longer be differentiated. The Lower Colorado succession may be described in terms of repetition of 5 principal sequence elements, each characterized by the predominance of particular gross lithologies and associated internal sedimentary structures: (1) a mudstone element, including structureless mudstones and mudstones containing lenses and intermittent layers of siltstone; (2) a siltstone element, in which lenticular and wavy-layered siltstones and fine-grained sandstones alternate with structureless mudstones; (3) a silty sandstone element, consisting of sandstones with varying proportions of silt-grade material and thin, discontinuous mudstone interlayers, displaying disruption of flaser layering, due to burrowing activities of organisms, as well as loading and injection phenomena; (4) a sandstone element, hich may exhibit dune-scale, inclined laminae, horizontal laminae, ripple cross-laminae, and trough cross-laminae; and (5) a conglomeratic element, with pebbly sandstones, conglomerates, and pebbly mudstones. Subordinate lithologies, such as coquinoidal limestones, sideritic oolites, concentrations of iron sulfides, and accumulations of phosphatic bodies, also are present. The use of sequence elements in stratigraphic analysis provides a systematic approach to description of End_Page 541------------------------------ lithologic variation, an aid to local correlation of sequences, and a basis for environmental interpretation. Type (3) elements are of particular economic importance as the main reservoir rock of the hydrocarbon-bearing Viking Formation. End_of_Article - Last_Page 542------------

A study of relative erodibility of a group of Mississippi gully soils

In attempting to correlate watershed characteristics with reservoir sediment in a 1951 study, unexplained variation was found. It was thought that basic differences in soil erodibility between watersheds might account for a part of this variation. Accordingly studies were made to determine erodibility difference between soils, using several methods and using gully soils, free of vegetative influences. No absolute measure of erodibility seemed available. A laboratory rainmaker was used on cores of undisturbed soil and compared with a wet sieving aggregate stability method on pulverized soil Both were contrasted with natural rain splash losses on 9‐inch diameter cores of undisturbed soil.Soil losses by laboratory splash technique generally compared very well with results by the aggregate stability method. The results from these two methods did not compare well with splash erosion caused by 29 months of actual rain except from the sandy material. The high percentage of natural rain at intensities below the critical value for detaching cemented soils was thought responsible.It appears that soils vary widely in their resistance to erosion as determined by any method. It further appears that relative erodibility may be varied depending upon the choice of methods of applying the erosion producing energy. Although no generally accepted standard method of assessing erodibility is yet available it is encouraging that different soils show widely different erosion rates. Therefore there is a possibility of deriving a method adequate to express erosion susceptibility differences. Loose sandy material from different geologic sources had about the same erosion potential regardless of method of evaluation. In general splash erosion increased with increase in sand content of the soil material. Aggregate stability decreased with increasing sand content.

The White Pine copper deposit, Ontonagon County, Michigan

Copper, largely in the mineral chalcocite, is found in the lowermost beds of the Nonesuch shale over many square miles near White Pine, Ontonagon County, Mich. The Nonesuch shale, of late Keweenawan age, is about 600 feet thick and is composed largely of gray siltstone. It overlies 2,300 to 5,500 feet of red sandstones and conglomerates, the Copper Harbor conglomerate. This formation, in turn, overlies the middle Keweenawan Portage Lake lava series, in which occur the famous native-copper deposits of the south shore of Lake Superior. The White Pine mine is 45 to 70 miles west-southwest of the principal native copper mines.The copper-bearing beds at White Pine are primarily in the lower 20to 25 feet of the Nonesuch shale. This cupriferous zone is divided in local usage into four stratigraphic units, which are, in ascending order, the lower sandstone (the uppermost bed of the Copper Harbor conglomerate), the parting shale, the upper sandstone, and the upper shale. The sequence of beds is almost identical in the upper and parting shales, suggesting cyclic sedimentation. This sequence and the distribution of sedimentary facies are attributed to two submergences, separated by an emergence, of a deltaic area.Practically all the copper occurs in the upper and parting shales, except in a small area near the White Pine fault where it is abundant in the upper and lower sandstones. It is present in five different layers in amounts that average from 1 to 3 percent. The total amount of copper in each bed is generally higher where the bed is thick, and thickness, in turn, seems to be greatest in areas that were hollows away from the main channel or channels of the ancient delta. Copper content of the shale beds typically decreases as their sand content increases. The extent of individual copper-bearing beds 1 to 3 feet thick is measurable in square miles.The local occurrence of copper in the upper and lower sandstone beds can be reasonably explained as the result of hydrothermal transportation from the White Pine fault up the dip of the relatively permeable sandstone to the crest of an adjacent anticline. Distribution of copper in the parting and upper shales, on the other hand, seems to be completely independent of local structure, faults, and rock permeability. For the area as a whole the control is lithologic and stratigraphic. Probably the copper was dropped into or precipitated within the original mud; it may conceivably have replaced with exquisite detail something else that was so deposited.

The White Pine Copper Deposit, Ontonagon County, Michigan

Copper, largely in the mineral chalcocite, is found in the lowermost beds of the Nonesuch shale over many square miles near White Pine, Ontonagon County, Mich. The Nonesuch shale, of late Keweenawan age, is about 600 feet thick and is composed largely of gray siltstone. It overlies 2,300 to 5,500 feet of red sandstones and conglomerates, the Copper Harbor conglomerate. This formation, in turn, overlies the middle Keweenawan Portage Lake lava series, in which occur the famous native-copper deposits of the south shore of Lake Superior. The White Pine mine is 45 to 70 miles west-southwest of the principal native copper mines.The copper-bearing beds at White Pine are primarily in the lower 20to 25 feet of the Nonesuch shale. This cupriferous zone is divided in local usage into four stratigraphic units, which are, in ascending order, the lower sandstone (the uppermost bed of the Copper Harbor conglomerate), the parting shale, the upper sandstone, and the upper shale. The sequence of beds is almost identical in the upper and parting shales, suggesting cyclic sedimentation. This sequence and the distribution of sedimentary facies are attributed to two submergences, separated by an emergence, of a deltaic area.Practically all the copper occurs in the upper and parting shales, except in a small area near the White Pine fault where it is abundant in the upper and lower sandstones. It is present in five different layers in amounts that average from 1 to 3 percent. The total amount of copper in each bed is generally higher where the bed is thick, and thickness, in turn, seems to be greatest in areas that were hollows away from the main channel or channels of the ancient delta. Copper content of the shale beds typically decreases as their sand content increases. The extent of individual copper-bearing beds 1 to 3 feet thick is measurable in square miles.The local occurrence of copper in the upper and lower sandstone beds can be reasonably explained as the result of hydrothermal transportation from the White Pine fault up the dip of the relatively permeable sandstone to the crest of an adjacent anticline. Distribution of copper in the parting and upper shales, on the other hand, seems to be completely independent of local structure, faults, and rock permeability. For the area as a whole the control is lithologic and stratigraphic. Probably the copper was dropped into or precipitated within the original mud; it may conceivably have replaced with exquisite detail something else that was so deposited.