geomorphometric assessment of spatial sediment connectivity in small alpine catchments abstract complex and rugged topography induces large variations in erosion and sediment delivery in the headwaters of alpine catchments an effective connection of hillslopes with the channel network results in highly efficient sediment transfer processes such as debris flows in contrast morphological conditions producing decoupling of hillslopes from channels e g glacial cirques may exclude large areas of the catchment from sediment delivery to its lower parts moreover an efficient connection between hillslopes and channel network does not always ensure an effective downstream transfer of sediment low slope channel reaches e g in hanging valleys cause sediment deposition which often results in changes of the sediment transport processes typically from debris flow to streamflow with low bedload and suspended load rates the availability of high resolution digital terrain models such as those derived from aerial lidar improves our capability to quantify the topographic controls on sediment connectivity a geomorphometric index based on the approach by borselli et al 2008 was developed and applied to assess spatial sediment connectivity in two small catchments of the italian alps featuring contrasting morphological characteristics the results of the geomorphometric analysis were checked against field evidences showing good performance and thus potential usefulness of the index

archean gold bearing quartz veins at the sigma mine abitibi greenstone belt quebec part i geologic relations and formation of the vein system the sigma deposit consists of an archean gold bearing vein system in metavolcanic rocks intruded by an irregular body of porphyritic diorite both affected by regional deformation and in turn cut by younger undeformed feldspar porphyry dikes the veins cut all rock types and are composed chiefly of quartz and tourmaline with minor amounts of carbonates pyrite chlorite scheelite and free gold they were emplaced during or after a greenschist facies metamorphism postdating the intrusion of feldspar porphyry dikes the veins were not significantly affected by any subsequent metamorphism or tectonism two principal types of veins occur in the mine subvertical veins and subhorizontal veins they are contemporaneous and cogenetic subvertical veins occur within steeply dipping east west trending ductile shear zones along which reverse subvertical displacements have taken place the veins occupy openings created by overriding of undulations and irregularities of foliation and slip planes during progressive shearing movements within the shears subhorizontal veins occupy extensional fractures which developed between ductile shear zones preferentially in the more competent host rocks these veins were formed by one or several episodes of open space filling geologic relations indicate that the mineralized veins were emplaced progressively in a dynamic tectonic environment during and shortly after the formation of ductile shear zones a structural analysis has shown that the ductile shear zones and the two vein types can be related to a single strain ellipsoid of the following orientation the z axis trending north south and horizontal the y axis plunging 10 degrees west and the x axis plunging 80 degrees east the deformation responsible for the generation of ductile shear zones and emplacement of the veins is ascribed to a late north south trending compression postdating regional deformation

gold quartz veins in metamorphic terranes and their bearing on the role of fluids in faulting gold quartz vein fields in metamorphic terranes such as greenstone belts provide evidence for the involvement of large volumes of fluids during faulting and may be products of seismic processes near the base of the seismogenic regime in the val d or district of the abitibi greenstone belt canada quartz tourmaline carbonate veins form a vein field 30 15 km in the hanging wall of a crustal scale fault zone which was the main channelway for upward migration of the deeply generated fluids the veins occur in small high angle reverse faults and in adjacent horizontal extensional fractures extending up to 75 m in intact rocks they have formed incrementally during active reverse faulting in response to crustal shortening at depths corresponding to those at the base of the seismogenic zone in actively deforming crust detailed structural and fluid inclusion studies provide evidence for generally lithostatic but fluctuating fluid pressures p of the order of 200 mpa and for cyclic stress reversals during vein formation and provide good support for the fault valve model a comparison of vein characteristics with standard earthquake rupture parameters suggests that each slip increment along veins in reverse faults was accompanied by a small earthquake 4 m 3 or less the large vein field thus represents both the extent of fluid dispersion in the hanging wall of a crustal scale channelway and the distribution of small earthquakes integrated over the lifetime of the hydrothermal system it is proposed that such small earthquakes along veins in reverse faults are related to large earthquakes m 6 nucleating near the base of the seismogenic regime along the nearby crustal scale fault either as aftershocks or as a precursory smarm

ore controls in the charters towers goldfield ne australia constraints from geological geophysical and numerical analyses the approach taken in this paper namely synthesising a wealth of previous information with new data and a genetic model in combination with integrated numerical analyses led to new insights into the geological controls on the localisation of auriferous veins and residual prospectivity of the charters towers goldfield ne australia the method also has implications for the assessment of other mature goldfields worldwide despite a number of different ore controls having operated within the charters towers goldfield the controlling factors can be linked to a single genetic model for orogenic granitoid hosted lode gold mineralisation in a brittle deformation regime d4 of ne sw to nne ssw shortening under conditions of supralithostatic fluid pressure and low stress difference spatial autocorrelation results suggest district scale alignment of the auriferous veins parallel to and overlapping with the ese wnw to e w striking charters towers ravenswood lineament a major crustal boundary in the basement to the ravenswood batholith at the camp scale auriferous veins have abundance and proximity relationships with nw se nnw sse ne sw and ene wsw oriented lineaments suggesting that structures that controlled gold deposition in one camp did not necessarily control mineralisation in other camps fractal dimensions obtained with the box counting method range from 1 02 to 1 10 whereas veins in the charters towers city camp are characterised by a significantly higher fractal dimension of 1 28 this discrepancy may be taken to imply that most or all outcropping and near surface deposits within the charters towers city camp have been found and that new discoveries are more likely to occur at greater levels of depth or outside the boundaries of this camp the new understanding has implications for the assessment of the residual prospectivity of the charters towers goldfield where large areas of prospective rock types and structures e g approximately 40 of the charters towers ravenswood lineament are hidden under cover this parameter space was inaccessible to the historic prospectors and has received relatively little attention from recent explorers the following steps are suggested for the development of a targeting strategy for lode gold exploration in areas of the goldfield under cover 1 identify from geological and geophysical data the ene wsw 15 and nnw sse 15 striking structures and geological boundaries within a 20 km wide corridor parallel to and centred upon the charters towers ravenswood lineament the potential control on gold deposit distribution at the regional to district scale 2 interpret from geological and geophysical data the distribution of pre middle devonian granitoids within these areas that are the preferred host rocks of the payable gold deposits 3 deduce from geophysical data the ene wsw 15 and nnw sse 15 striking structures that cut or bound the intrusions identified in step 2 4 locate segments along the structures identified in step 3 that deviate most from the geometry of a straight line e g potential bends or splays and or intersect other structures or geological contacts or both and 5 define and rank potential targets within the prospective areas identified in step 4 and systematically test the best ones

measuring gullies by synergetic application of uav and close range photogrammetry a case study from andalusia spain abstract gullies naturally exhibit complex morphologies and hence are difficult to measure photogrammetric methods are promising tools to overcome such problems due to 3d reconstruction from overlapping images without disturbing the surface airborne e g unmanned aerial vehicles uav and terrestrial image acquisition platforms are possible data sources for comprehensive digital gully modelling in this study an approach for the synergetic utilisation of uav and terrestrial images for high resolution 3d model generation is introduced while proper uav mission planning is necessary terrestrial images can be acquired spontaneously and flexibly depending on the encountered terrain conditions to supplement uav data without confining accuracy demands terrestrial images are processed solely with additional information from already existent 3d models and orthophotos from uav image processing during this field campaign uavs are suitable for flexible and frequent gully monitoring however with the case specific flight configuration 3d modelling is restricted at steep gully walls above slope gradients of 50 60 as well as overhanging gully walls due to the limiting birds eye view additional terrestrial images are used to overcome these limitations and fill up data gaps in this study the final merged digital gully model reveals a resolution about 0 5 cm and an accuracy of 1 cm a gully headcut in andalusia spain is analysed to confirm the suitability of the synergetic data utilisation a study period of three months during winter season is investigated to measure multi temporal 3d volume changes the positive volume balance amounts to 5 m 3 for a gully area of 170 m 2 and is caused mainly by anthropogenic interactions concluding the combination of uav and terrestrial data allow for comprehensive gully models with high spatial resolution at frequent intervals

thirty years of studies on badlands from physical to vegetational approaches a succinct review the scientific subjects addressed in the research into badlands since the publication of bryan and yair s book bryan r b and yair a editors 1982 badland geomorphology and piping geo books norwich 408 pp are briefly analysed with a steadily increasing number of papers per year attention to some aspects such as runoff generation piping and the role of lithology and soils varied whereas the percentage of studies on erosion rates increased steadily over time vegetation was not a subject of research in early papers as most of the papers dealing with vegetation were rather descriptive and published in local or limited diffusion media which contrasts with the present situation when about 40 of papers published in international journals about badlands address some aspect of vegetation however the growth in the attention paid to vegetation and erosion rates was not linked to any increase in papers dealing with badland reclamation badlands are now seen as a group of systems with some common features but diverse dynamics depending mainly on climatic and lithological drivers more attention should be paid in the future to investigating the evolution of these landforms over time mostly through modelling studies whereas emerging technologies foster detailed analyses that were not possible formerly although some badland areas determine on and off site environmental issues others are spots of landscape diversity that merit protection rather than reclamation

hyperscale terrain modelling of braided rivers fusing mobile terrestrial laser scanning and optical bathymetric mapping quantifying the morphology of braided rivers is a key task for understanding braided river behaviour in the last decade developments in geomatics technologies and associated data processing methods have transformed the production of precise reach scale topographic datasets nevertheless generating accurate digital elevation models dems remains a demanding task particularly in fluvial systems this paper identifies a threefold set of challenges associated with surveying these dynamic landforms complex relief inundated shallow channels and high rates of sediment transport and terms these challenges the morphological wetted channel and mobility problems respectively in an attempt to confront these issues directly this paper presents a novel survey methodology that combines mobile terrestrial laser scanning and non metric aerial photography with data reduction and surface modelling techniques to render dems from the resulting very high resolution datasets the approach is used to generate and model a precise dense topographic dataset for a 2 5 km reach of the braided rees river new zealand data were acquired rapidly between high flow events and incorporate over 5 x 109 raw survey observations with point densities of 1600 pts m 2 on exposed bar and channel surfaces a detailed error analysis of the resulting sub metre resolution is described to quantify dem quality across the entire surface model this reveals unparalleled low vertical errors for such a large and complex surface model between 0 03 and 0 12 m in exposed and inundated areas of the model respectively copyright 2013 john wiley sons ltd

badland dynamics in the central pyrenees temporal and spatial patterns of weathering processes the genesis and development of badlands is controlled by bedrock lithology topography and climate the development of badlands in the central spanish pyrenees is favoured by the presence of marls and a climate with a marked seasonality the combination of these factors results in active hydrosedimentological processes the aim of the present work was to study the dynamics of badlands in the central pyrenees with a focus on the temporal and spatial patterns of the dominant weathering processes the study area was a small mountain catchment and we focussed on the continuous observation of a number of physical parameters that control regolith development and weathering processes samples collected from different depths at sites with different aspects enabled temporal comparisons of the factors involved in the development of surface regolith that can be considered as indicators of the weathering of the marls these indicators were then related to environmental variables moisture and temperature atterberg limits were established and related to moisture content to explain slope dynamics and related processes finally analyses of carbonate content were performed in the laboratory the results validate the employed methodology supporting our description of weathering processes the established chronological sequence and the relation of these processes to climatic and topographic parameters the results obtained since january 2004 show that the chosen indicators are sensitive to seasonal dynamics variations in temperature and water supply and slope aspect the development and dynamics of regolith on north facing slopes is more active than that on south facing slopes freeze thaw is the main weathering process on north facing slopes while south facing slopes are dominated by the development of crusts associated with wetting drying processes washing effects and lower temperatures upon north facing slopes mean that the dissolution of carbonates is more pronounced in such areas compared with south facing slopes especially within the upper layers of the regolith copyright 2006 john wiley sons ltd

monitoring and modelling morphological change in a braided gravel bed river using high resolution gps based survey recent research in fluvial geomorphology has emphasized the direct monitoring of channel topography as a useful tool to better understand the interrelationship between river form and process and in particular to estimate bedload transport rates and reach scale sediment budgets until recently however this morphometric approach has been limited to comparison of repeatedly surveyed cross sections with the associated problems of low frequency sampling and an emphasis on cross stream as opposed to downstream morphological dynamics recent advances in analytical photogrammetry have however permitted the acquisition of data at sufficient resolutions to represent macroform 101 m and microform 10 m channel geometry in fully three dimensions while inherently spatially distributed the photogrammetric approach to land surveying is however restricted to observable areas of the channel and is thus of limited use in the subaqueous zone especially if flows are turbid or highly coloured this paper presents an alternative approach to the study of three dimensional morphological dynamics of a divided reach of the gravelly river feshie scotland in which topographic survey of both exposed and submerged areas of the reach was undertaken using the global positioning system gps survey results from two field programmes in 1998 and 1999 are presented in which a geotronics geotracer 2000 real time kinematic gps receiving unit was used to survey a 200 80 m reach rapid radial survey methods were employed permitting the collection of 2000 survey points per day giving a mean density over the 13 ha reach of 1 1 points per square metre a detailed assessment of survey errors and dem quality is presented and a limit of detection of c 10 cm proposed as an upper threshold for the identification of significant change between dems preliminary interpretation of channel dynamics in 1998 99 reveals relatively little change to the overall macroscale reach structure dem differencing techniques however highlight important local changes including the progradation of submerged bar fronts bar head aggradation and scour along major channel thalwegs and the erosion of fines from sloughs copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

timing and kinematics of post timiskaming deformation within the larder lake cadillac deformation zone southwest abitibi greenstone belt ontario canada the larder lake cadillac deformation zone is one of several anastomosing zones of high strain within the abitibi greenstone belt in the kirkland lake area ontario the larder lake cadillac de

a continent wide study of australia s uranium potential part i gis assisted manual prospectivity analysis abstract this paper describes the approach to and outcomes of a manual analysis i e a cognitive assessment of spatial and non spatial data of the uranium potential of 90 geological regions in australia for this analysis the 14 principal uranium deposit types recognized by the international atomic energy agency were grouped in six uranium systems models i e surficial sedimentary igneous related metamorphic metasomatic unconformity related and vein related uranium systems on the basis of similar genetic processes environments of ore formation and ingredients mappable at the regional to continent scale the newly proposed uranium systems models are structured according to the mineral systems approach and focus on the critical mineralization processes that must occur for a uranium deposit to form in a particular region our manual prospectivity analysis employed this approach to assess the probability of the critical genetic processes having occurred in each geological region in this semi quantitative probabilistic evaluation technical quality and opportunity ranking schemes were used to rank each geological region based on the probability of occurrence of and potential for high quality uranium deposits and opportunity for securing prospective ground based on this assessment the geological regions with the greatest potential for discovery of potentially recoverable uranium resources are the ashburton broken hill litchfield mcarthur money shoal murphy paterson pine creek and northeast tasmania regions i e quality ranking of 10 0 the gawler and polda regions i e 9 0 and the amadeus georgetown stuart tanami regions i e 8 1 most of these regions contain known unconformity related or sandstone hosted uranium deposits although some of them are pure conceptual plays that have received relatively little attention in terms of uranium exploration maps based on the numerical output of the prospectivity analysis helped to inform area selection decisions and detailed follow up studies and focus time and resources the template developed in this study can easily be modified to suit prospectivity analyses for other metals or a similar investigation in another country as illustrated in part ii the best possible approach to a complex continent wide prospectivity analysis is to harness the strengths of both manual and automated i e sophisticated computational techniques applied to spatial data approaches as these methodologies essentially address each other s limitations

erosion rates in badland areas of the central ebro basin ne spain abstract erosion rates have been estimated for two badland areas in the ebro basin el barranco and la charca plots using direct measurement techniques these measurements were made by means of erosion pins and a microtopographic profile gauge measurements with erosion pins at the el barranco plot indicate highest erosion rates around rills and at rill junctions in contrast at the la charca plot only small differences between erosional rates for rill and interrill areas are observed microtopographic profiles carried out in el barranco show irregular ground lowering greater in rill than in interrill areas at la charca similar denudation rates are observed in rill and interrill areas erosion rates determined with the microtopographic profile gauge were 7 and 19 mm year in el barranco and la charca plot respectively and close to 6 and 17 mm year respectively using erosion pins

an integrated approach to the search for gold in a mature data rich brownfields environment a case study from sigma lamaque quebec abstract the greater than 1300 participants in the 2015 integra gold rush challenge the biggest gold exploration crowdsourcing competition to date were given access to six terabytes of historic data collected at the c 12 moz au sigma lamaque gold deposits val d or district quebec and asked to identify targets with the highest potential for the next big gold discovery at the property this paper describes our approach to exploration targeting at sigma lamaque with particular emphasis on i integrating and interrogating the available data ii identifying mappable expressions key ingredients of ore forming processes using spatial data modelling in particular inversion modelling and advanced filtering of the available geophysical data iii developing a conceptual model in the framework of a mineral systems approach and iv translating the conceptual model into an effective tool for targeting gold in the val d or district

erosion rates in badland areas recorded by collectors erosion pins and profilometer techniques ebro basin ne spain abstract in badland areas of the ebro basin in a semiarid climate two erosion plots 257 m2 5 slope and 128 m2 23 slope on exposed tertiary clays were monitored over two years nov 1991 nov 1993 this material is characterized by high sodium absorption ratios which lead to high soil dispersivity the dominant erosion processes in both plots are rilling and sheet erosion rainfall intensity was recorded at a weather station connected to a data logger sediment production for single events was collected in tanks and ground lowering was measured every six months by erosion pins and microtopographic profile gauge techniques significant runoff was produced only by rainfall events above 5 mm another threshold at 20 mm rain was noted for rainfalls higher than 20 mm the 23 slope plot shows a greater runoff response than the 5 one rainfall events exceeding this threshold showed a higher sediment production for the steeper slope in the relationship between precipitation and sediment concentration an envelope curve can be drawn indicating that any rainfall event of a given amount and intensity has a maximum sediment concentration which we speculate to be a function of the runoff sediment transport capacity runoff response and sediment yield in the studied plots are controlled by the rainfall and soil characteristics and their seasonal variations in both plots the erosion pins show that erosion rates in rill areas are 25 50 higher than in the interrill areas sediment yield recorded by collector devices was higher than the rates measured by erosion pins the erosion rates based on rill cross sections by profilometers were higher than the ones recorded by collectors

quantitative study of piping processes in badland areas of the ebro basin ne spain abstract in the ebro basin piping is an ubiquitous erosion process in badland areas occurring in two main situations on slopes of exposed tertiary clays and in recently incised silty clay holocene valley fill sediments the quantitative importance of the main factors controlling piping processes in those conditions was obtained by statistical analysis based on multiple and stepwise regressions piping erosion is strongly related to a high sodium absorption ratio sar which favours clay dispersion however the statistical analysis indicates that the chemical characteristics and the physical chemical behaviour are a necessary condition but are not sufficient on their own to develop piping processes on the slopes piping is controlled by the physical and chemical properties of the material such as the dispersion index the granulometric fraction smaller than 4 m ph and crack density in the valley fill sediments piping is mainly controlled by the sulphate concentration in the water extract from saturated paste which is also associated with high sar values and the dispersion index in both geomorphic situations piping is always related to high crack density and high topographic gradient

patterns of topographic change in sub humid badlands determined by high resolution multi temporal topographic surveys abstract badlands are highly erodible landscapes with sparse vegetation and rapid runoff responses badland surfaces experience high erosion rates that may have a direct and marked influence on river channel networks and catchment scale sediment budgets erosion rates from badlands have been widely estimated by discrete observations of topographic change measured by erosion pins or profile meters recent developments in survey instrumentation provide the opportunity to build high resolution topographic models over multiple spatial scales at sub centimeter accuracy in this paper we demonstrate how reliable estimates of topographic variables and temporal change can be derived for badlands by repeat terrestrial laser scanning tls surveys undertaken at multiple temporal event to annual scales a total of seven tls surveys were obtained in an experimental sub humid badland located in the central pyrenees data analyses were conducted on two temporal scales a five rainfall events and b three long term spaced over an annual cycle scales our results show a clear erosional pattern for most of the badland at the annual scale i e annual net change at around 6 cm yr 1 aspect surface roughness and slope were significant predictors of topographic change although the sign and magnitude of the change differed at the event scale net topographic change at the event scale varied from 1 8 to 1 4 cm although these patterns could be also affected by swell shrink processes surface roughness was more important at controlling badland geomorphological processes at the event scale than the annual scale our observations suggest that longer term studies may underestimate the importance of surface roughness as a control on badland geomorphology at the annual scale the effect of aspect in the sign of the topographic change was removed and slope becomes more important erosion proved to be dominant on slopes higher than 100 overall the results indicate that coupling of appropriately scaled spatial and temporal data is critical to understand topographic changes and their drivers on badlands although the approach outlined in this paper was only applied to a relatively small area with careful survey design and application of new survey technology it could readily be upscaled to cover entire badland systems such surveys would permit detailed analysis of controls of sedimentological connectivity across badlands and their influence on channel networks and catchment sediment budgets

flood based analysis of high magnitude sediment transport using a non parametric method francke t lopez tarazon j a vericat d bronstert a batalla r j 2008 flood based analysis of high magnitude sediment transport using a non parametric method earth surface processes and landforms 33 13 2064 2077 sponsorship sesam catalan government european social fund

fault fracture density and mineralization a contouring method for targeting in gold exploration abstract a widely observed correlation between high fracture density and mineralization throughout terranes and geological time indicates a fundamental underlying ore forming process in archaean greenstone hosted deposits high density fracturing was accompanied by enhanced fluid flow during fault fracture network development producing regional scale fluid pressure gradients that focussed hydrothermal fluids into preferentially fractured areas fracture density is both increased and decreased during faulting and fault healing and fracture density accumulates over time in zones of high palaeo fluid flow localised zones where the density of fracturing is increased by deformation become permeability nodes for migrating hydrothermal fluids leading to large zones of alteration and gold precipitation the ora banda mining centre in western australia contains significant gold deposits that appear to demonstrate a close association between high density fracturing and gold precipitation fracture density in the ora banda mines was enhanced by fault fault intersections fault contact intersections and changes in fault geometry the mine scale relationships between fracture density and gold mineralization are repeated at smaller and larger scales hence these relationships may be used in targeting for gold exploration contouring the density of fracturing in a region provides a semi quantitative way to rank areas for exploration and uses data from mapping drilling and high quality geophysical data as a basis for analyses fracture density contouring is complementary to other prospectivity analysis methods

geomorphic agents versus vegetation spreading as causes of badland occurrence in a mediterranean subhumid mountainous area abstract previous evidence on the chief role of physical weathering on badland development in the vallcebre area south eastern pyrenees led to the study of the amounts of energy available for the main geomorphic agents and to analyze the results in the light of the patterns of vegetation cover and species distribution in order to explain both the occurrence of these badland forms and their preference for north facing shady hillslopes results showed that the weathering potential provided by freezing is about two orders of magnitude greater than rainfall kinetic energy and that the former strongly depends on hillslope aspect the study of vegetation demonstrated that vegetation is poorer in cover and species composition on shady hillslopes than on sunny ones spontaneous revegetation of these surfaces being restrained by cold thermal conditions rather than by water availability these results show that the occurrence of these badland areas depends on montane climatic attributes that control geomorphic and biological processes and that are different from those that promote the occurrence of badlands in dry mediterranean areas the preference for northern aspects provides evidence for these differences

high resolution topography for understanding earth surface processes opportunities and challenges abstract in the last decade a range of new remote sensing techniques has led to a dramatic increase in terrain information providing new opportunities for a better understanding of earth surface processes based on geomorphic signatures technologies such as airborne and terrestrial lidar light detection and ranging to obtain high resolution topography have opened avenues for the analysis of landslides hillslope and channellization processes river morphology active tectonics volcanic landforms and anthropogenic signatures on topography this review provides an overview of the recent flourishing literature on high resolution topographic analyses underlining their opportunities and critical issues such as their limitations the goal is to provide answers to questions such as what kind of processes can be analyzed through high resolution topographic data and how to do it the review focuses on two different environments natural and engineered landscapes in both contexts high resolution topography offers opportunities to better understand geomorphic processes from topographic signatures particular attention is given to engineered landscapes in which the direct anthropic alteration of processes is significant the last part of the review discusses future challenges

morphology and development of selected badlands in southeast spain implications of climatic change four areas were selected to represent a range of processes characteristic of badland surfaces in southeast spain petrer and monnegre in alicante vera and tabernas in almeria at petrer rilling and swelling processes produce a deeply cracked surface drained by a finely textured network of shallow rills at monnegre piping and rilling are differentially developed on slopes ultimately controlled by basal incision at vera aspect controlled lichen and vegetation cover produce a sequence of badland development within which the relative importance of piping mass movement and rilling varies through the sequence at tabernas simple overland flow is the dominant process but aspect influences rill network density and badland evolution the factors controlling badland development can be grouped into those related to gross morphology to surface cover and runoff generation and to material properties these factors are effective over varying timescales implying that morphological response times differ among the selected badlands

the sediment budget of a highly dynamic mesoscale catchment the river isabena the paper presents the sediment budget of the isabena basin a highly dynamic 445 km2 catchment located in the central pyrenees that is patched by highly erodible areas i e badlands the budget for the period 2007 2009 is constructed following a methodology that allows the interpolation of intermittent measurements of suspended sediment concentrations and enables a subsequent calculation of sediment loads data allow specification of the contribution of each subbasin to the water and sediment yield in the catchment outlet mean annual sediment load was 235 000 t y 1 specific sediment yield reached 2000 t km 2 y 1 a value that indicates very high sedimentary activity especially in the case of villacarli and lascuarre subcatchments were most badlands are located the specific sediment yield obtained for the entire isabena is 527 t km 2 y 1 a high value for such a mesoscale basin results show that a small part of the area i e 1 controls most of the catchment s gross sediment contribution sediment delivery ratio ratio between sediment input from primary sources and basin export has been estimated at around 90 while in channel storage represents the 5 of the annual load on average the high connectivity between sediment sources i e badlands and transfer paths i e streamcourses exacerbates the influence of the local sediment production on the catchment s sediment yield a quite unusual fact for a basin of this scale

exploration targeting for orogenic gold deposits in the granites tanami orogen mineral system analysis targeting model and prospectivity analysis abstract a major challenge for mineral exploration geologists is the development of a transparent and reproducible approach to targeting exploration efforts particularly at the regional to camp scales in terranes under difficult cover where exploration and opportunity costs are high in this study a three pronged approach is used for identifying the most prospective ground for orogenic gold deposits in the paleoproterozoic granite tanami orogen gto in western australia a key input to the analyses is the recent development of a 4d model of the gto architectural evolution that provides new insights on the spatio temporal controls over orogenic gold occurrences in the area in particular on the role of pre mineralization pre 1795 ma d gtoe d gto1 d gto2 architecture in localization of gold deposits and the spatial distribution of rock types in 3d this information is used to build up a model of orogenic gold minerals system in the area which is then integrated into the three mutually independent but complementary mineral prospectivity maps namely a concept driven manual and fuzzy analysis and a data driven automated analysis the manual analysis involved 1 generation of a process based gold mineral systems template to aid target selection 2 manual delineation of targets 3 manual estimation of the probability of occurrence of each critical mineralization process based on the available information and 4 combining the above probabilities to derive the relative probability of occurrence of orogenic gold deposits in each of the targets the knowledge based geological information system gis analysis attempts to replicate the expert knowledge used in the manual approach but queried in a more systematic format to eliminate human heuristic bias this involves representing the critical mineralization processes in the form of spatial predictor maps and systematically querying them through the use of a fuzzy logic model to integrate the predictor maps and to derive the western gto orogenic gold prospectivity map the data driven empirical gis analysis uses no expert knowledge instead it employs statistical measures to evaluate the spatial associations between known deposits and predictor maps to establish weights for each predictor layer then combines these layers into a predictive map using a weights of evidence wofe approach application of a mineral systems approach in the manual analysis and the fuzzy analysis is critical potential high value targets identified by these approaches in the western gto lie largely under cover whereas traditional manual targeting is biased to areas of outcrop or sub crop amenable to direct detection technology such as exploration geochemistry and therefore towards areas that are data rich the results show the power of combining the three approaches to prioritize areas for exploration while the manual analysis identifies and employs human intuition and can see through incomplete datasets it is difficult to filter out human bias and to systematically apply to a large region the fuzzy method is more systematic and highlights areas that the manual analysis has undervalued but lacks the intuitive power of the human mind that refines the target by seeing through incomplete datasets the empirical woe method highlights correlations with favorable host stratigraphy and highlights the control of an early set of structures potentially undervalued in the knowledge driven approaches yet is biased due to the incomplete nature of exploration datasets and lack of abundant gold deposits due to the extensive cover the results indicate that the most prospective areas for orogenic gold in western gto are located in the central part of the study area largely in areas blind to previous exploration efforts according to our study the procedure to follow should be to undertake the analyses in the following order manual prospectivity analysis followed by the conceptual fuzzy approach followed by the empirical gis based method undertaking the manual analysis first is important to prevent explorationists from being biased by the automated gis based outputs it is however emphasized that all of the prospectivity outputs from these three methods are possible and they should not be treated as treasure maps but instead as decision support aids therefore a final manual prospectivity analysis redefined by the mutual consideration of output from all of the methods is required the strategy employed in this study constitutes a new template for best practice in terrane to camp scale exploration targeting that can be applied to different terranes and deposit types particularly in terranes under cover and provides a step forward in managing uncertainty in the exploration targeting process

clay mineralogy as a crucial factor in badland hillslope processes abstract comprehensive and important work has been done in understanding badland processes on both the big scale and more recently on smaller scale in order to understand the subtle differences between sites however most studies lack important information regarding clay mineralogy and their importance for weathering processes type and rate of weathering depend on material physico chemical properties climatic regimes and slope characteristics as weathering progresses the surface conditions change influencing erosion processes usually badland lithologies are reported as sodium rich highly dispersive materials but that is not invariably true the primary objective of this study is to show that clay minerals have an important role in defining surface and subsurface processes on badland hillslopes field studies conducted in dinosaur park badlands alberta canada chinguacousy badlands ontario canada and sestino badlands tuscany italy have shown that there are two dominant clay rich lithologies smectite rich and smectite poor mudrocks different surface crust and weathering profiles were observed on smectite rich mudrocks during two field years with distinct precipitation inputs after a dry fall winter season the popcorn surface was very well developed 2 3 cm the subsurface layer 10 15 cm thick overlaid the layer of smaller shards followed by the unweathered material after a very wet fall winter season the surface layer was denser and thinner 0 5 cm with wider cracks and a thin subsurface layer attached to the crust weathering profiles on smectite poor lithologies did not show any differences with variable climatic conditions a thin surface layer was composed of soft thin and small 0 5 0 3 0 1 cm shards a layer of larger shards overlying unweathered material was beneath it in order to better understand the described occurrences badland materials were monitored in controlled laboratory conditions during an incremental weathering experiment six samples of each material were subjected to 10 cycles of simulated rainfall which duration ranged 10 60 min very short rainfalls 10 20 min can cause swelling of clay minerals in smectite rich materials and formation of popcorn surface during drying periods during subsequent wetting drying periods the crust becomes flatter and denser and desiccation cracks become wider and deeper samples subjected to 50 and 60 min of rainfall showed maximum swelling after only one cycle of rainfall after this swift swelling samples became unstable and dispersive during subsequent wetting dispersion became dominant resulting in flatter surfaces thinner crust and narrower desiccation cracks smectite poor mudrocks appeared to be resistant to variable wetting and drying large shards broke down into smaller due to differential swelling of illite and chlorite once they were reduced to tiny flaky shards the surface became compacted the surface cracks served as the initial pathways for sediment and water movement knowing if the material is smectite rich or smectite poor can help in prediction of processes and the erosion rates the amount intensity and duration of precipitation will determine not only the rate of weathering but also the type of the weathered surface on smectite rich surfaces smectite poor materials appear to be more resistant to change in precipitation

filtering spatial error from dems implications for morphological change estimation abstract scour and fill estimation from digital elevation model dem subtraction or differencing is an increasingly common technique in morphological and sediment transport investigations the technique is commonly used to estimate scour and fill volumes and to produce scour and fill maps that provide process based information to geomorphologists accounting for sources of uncertainty within the dem is of critical importance dem error is spatially variable and has a tendency to be greater at breaks of slope such as bar and bank edges in the past however this has been achieved using a uniform error metric across the dem resulting in over conservative estimates of error in turn this has led to over conservative scour and fill volumes and incorrect process interpretation this paper applies a new approach that permits assessment of spatially distributed error across a dem the method is tested on a sequence of field surveys of the gravel bed river nent cumbria uk the results demonstrate some dramatic differences application of conventional techniques that account for mean error across a dem led to a 15 and 31 underestimation in scour and fill volumes respectively between july and october 1998 whilst for the october 1998 june 1999 subtraction 31 and 13 of scour and fill were underestimated respectively use of a uniform error across a surface captures less change in comparison to a spatially distributed approach furthermore the changes captured using a uniform error are biased toward areas of the channel that have more local topographic variability such as bar and bank edges in contrast the use of a spatially distributed approach provides information on change from flatter surfaces such as bar tops that would otherwise be missed this study also demonstrates that estimates of morphological change can be misleading in the absence of an error filter where the raw survey data is available it is recommended that sediment budgeting studies take account of the spatial variability of error in each dem involved in the subtraction

lithology controls the regional distribution and morphological diversity of montane mediterranean badlands in the upper llobregat basin eastern pyrenees abstract badlands are pervasive in a wide range of environmental conditions across the mediterranean region including arid semiarid and humid environments on montane cold subhumid and humid mediterranean landscapes harsh thermal conditions on north facing hillslopes favour intense bedrock weathering by freezing and impose serious constraints on plant colonization the above are the customary arguments to explain the high abundance of montane badlands on north exposed shady aspects we studied the distribution and morphological diversity of badlands in the upper llobregat basin catalan pyrenees ne spain using remote sensing information high resolution orthophotos and complementary landsat 8 imagery digital elevation data and regional information on lithology badlands extend over about 200 ha in the upper llobregat basin and occur on two different parent materials swelling smectite rich continental garumnian lutites of late cretaceous age and nonswelling illitic marine eocene marls vegetation assessed by remote sensed vegetation greenness is less developed on north facing badland slopes however badland slope aspect distribution varies considerably with lithology while badlands on eocene marls show preferential distribution on north facing shady slopes badland occurrence on garumnian lutites does not reveal clear slope aspect anisotropy patterns lithology also affects slope gradient with badlands on eocene marls showing rougher topography 30 40 average slope angle than on garumnian lutites 20 30 badland morphological differences induced by lithology are discussed in terms of the greater weathering susceptibility and slope instability of the swelling smectite rich garumnian lutites than of the nonswelling eocene marls elevation which broadly controls annual precipitation and winter air temperature within the region shows no clear influence on badland distribution overall our results reveal lithology as the main factor controlling badland distribution and morphological diversity under the montane mediterranean conditions of the upper llobregat basin

morphodynamics of a gully and floodout system in the sneeuberg mountains of the semi arid karoo south africa implications for local landscape connectivity abstract the aim of this study was to investigate sedimentary processes in a discontinuous gully system and to establish how they impacted upon overland flow and erosion in the short term while also considering their impact on long term landscape connectivity this manuscript documents the effect that a series of discontinuous gullies located in the semi arid karoo south africa had on local valley morphology and landscape evolution the longitudinal and cross sectional morphology of two discontinuous gully systems were accurately surveyed in addition the sedimentology of eight cores was described and sediment particle size and percentage organics determined while the activity of the radioactive element 210 pb was measured in three of the cores in contrast to previous studies floodouts on the karoo gullies formed progressively downstream as avulsion occurred on the floodout more quickly than upstream backfilling 210 pb geochronology suggests that the most recent avulsion occurred following one of the wettest seasons on record where double the mean annual rainfall fell in just a few months a series of palaeo floodouts along the length of the gullies suggests that the process of gullying and depositional floodout formation is not restricted to the recent past and is a long term landscape process thus despite the lack of characteristic cut and fill features such as terraces the long term evolution of the karoo landscape may be related to episodic gullying in the short term palaeo and current floodouts alter the overland flow hydrology of the landscape and prevent the local formation of badlands by diverting overland flow away from gully thalwegs this results in the formation of amphitheatre type gullies with laterally eroded areas draining into narrow outlet channels incised into palaeo floodouts

introduction to the special issue mineral prospectivity analysis and quantitative resource estimation abstract this introduction provides an overview of the history present status and future perspective of research in the fields of mineral prospectivity analysis and quantitative resource estimation it also summarizes the papers included in the special issue

three decades of monitoring in the rio cordon instrumented basin sediment budget and temporal trend of sediment yield this paper investigates nearly 30 years of monitoring of sediment fluxes in an instrumented alpine basin rio cordon italy the collected bedload and suspended sediment transport data allows sediment dynamics to be analyzed at different time scales ranging from short single event to long term three decades the rio cordon monitoring station has been operating since 1986 continuously recording water discharge bedload and suspended load at the flood event scale a good relationship was found between peak discharges qpeak and sediment load bedload and suspended load the inter annual sediment yields were analyzed also assessing the contribution of the single floods to the total sediment budget the annual suspended load ranges from 10 to 2524 t yr 1 while the bedload varies from 0 to 1543 t yr 1 the higher annual yields were recorded in the years when large floods occurred highlighting that the sediment budget in the rio cordon is strongly controlled by the occurrence of high magnitude events investigation of the seasonal suspended load contribution demonstrated that from 1986 to 1993 most fine sediments were transported during the snowmelt summer seasons while autumn and snowmelt were the dominant seasons contributing to sediment yield in the periods 1994 2002 and 2003 2014 respectively the mean annual sediment yield from 1986 to 2014 is equal to 103 t km 2 yr 1 and overall bedload accounts for 21 of the total sediment yield the ratio between the sediment transport and the effective runoff of the events allowed the temporal trends of transport efficiency to be inferred highlighting the existence of periods characterized by different sediment availability in particular despite no significant changes in the hydrological variables i e rainfall nearly a decade 1994 2002 with high transport efficiency appears to have occurred after an exceptional event recurrence interval 100 years this event affected the sediment availability at the basin and channel bed scales and provided a legacy influencing the sediment dynamics in the basin over the long term by increasing the transport efficiency for approximately a decade this work benefits from the long lasting monitoring program undertaken in the rio cordon and is the product of long term data series the quasi unique dataset has provided detailed evidence of sediment dynamics over about three decades in a small alpine basin also enabling the effects triggered by an exceptional event to be analyzed

from experimental plots to experimental landscapes topography erosion and deposition in sub humid badlands from structure from motion photogrammetry in the last decade advances in surveying technology have opened up the possibility of representing topography and monitoring surface changes over experimental plots 10 m2 in high resolution 103 points m 1 yet the representativeness of these small plots is limited with structure from motion sfm and multi view stereo mvs techniques now becoming part of the geomorphologist s toolkit there is potential to expand further the scale at which we characterise topography and monitor geomorphic change morphometrically moving beyond previous plot scale work using terrestrial laser scanning tls surveys this paper validates robustly a number of sfm mvs surveys against total station and extensive tls data at three nested scales plots 30 m2 within a small catchment 4710 m2 within an eroding marl badland landscape 1 km2 sfm surveys from a number of platforms are evaluated based on i topography ii sub grid roughness and iii change detection capabilities at an annual scale oblique ground based images can provide a high quality surface equivalent to tls at the plot scale but become unreliable over larger areas of complex terrain degradation of surface quality with range is observed clearly for sfm models derived from aerial imagery recently modelled doming effects from the use of vertical imagery are proven empirically as a piloted gyrocopter survey at 50m altitude with convergent off nadir imagery provided higher quality data than an unmanned aerial vehicle uav flying at the same height and collecting vertical imagery for soil erosion monitoring sfm can provide data comparable with tls only from small survey ranges 5 m and is best limited to survey ranges 10 20 m synthesis of these results with existing validation studies shows a clear degradation of root mean squared error rmse with survey range with a median ratio between rmse and survey range of 1 639 and highlights the effect of the validation method e g point cloud or raster based on the estimated quality

regolith behaviour and physical weathering of clayey mudrock as dependent on seasonal weather conditions in a badland area at vallcebre eastern pyrenees abstract studies on badland areas in the vallcebre basin pyrenees suggest that erosion rates are controlled by the weathering rate of mudrocks to obtain the temporal pattern of physical weathering and its control on the erosive processes monitoring of regolith temperatures at different aspect depth and lithology and periodical determination of regolith moisture and bulk density were carried out changes in surface regolith have also been monitored by means of photographic techniques using an especially designed tripod finally the hydrological and erosive response of the regolith trough the seasons were studied using rainfall simulations the results obtained support and confirm previous knowledge on the role of frost action in mudrock weathering and the role of subsequent regolith development and wetness status on infiltration and runoff generation these seasonal changes of behaviour are so important that they raise serious questions about the validity of observations or experiments carried out in only one season this work confirms that erosion processes are controlled by regolith formation during winter and regolith depletion by storm rainfall erosion during summer spring and early autumn it also raises important points about annual trends of infiltration and erodibility that should be used as guidelines for modelling runoff and sediment production

field observations experiments and modeling of sediment production from freeze and thaw action on a bare weathered granite slope in a temperate region of japan abstract in the present study field observations and model simulations were conducted to examine the process of sediment production due to freeze and thaw action in a temperate climate region two small areas were designated and observations were conducted to determine the mechanisms of sediment production due to freeze and thaw action on a bare weathered granite slope in the tanakami mountains in the southern part of shiga prefecture japan during the cold season from 2004 to 2005 air surface and subsurface temperatures were measured at 10 min intervals the sediment produced on plot 1 was collected and weighed once per week whereas the sediment produced on plot 2 was left untouched until the end of the cold season the freeze and thaw cycle occurred repeatedly with the frozen zone i e temperature 2 year 1 of sediment respectively this difference indicates that sediment cover of the saprolite surface mitigated the destructive effects of freezing during the cold season from 2005 to 2006 a half of plot 1 was covered by broadleaves quercus serrata and the other half was covered by coniferous leaves pinus densiflora plot 2 was covered by no leaves to understand the effects of surface cover on the reduction in sediment production the results showed that surface leaf cover dramatically decreased sediment production due to freeze and thaw action versus the no surface cover a simulation model combining a thermal conductivity analysis and a simple and empirical sediment production model was developed to estimate the amount of sediment produced by the freeze and thaw action the observation results of temperature change and amount of sediment during the first season from 2004 to 2005 were simulated with the model the model assumption that repeated freezing and thawing events are necessary for the production of sediment from saprolite 14 cycles of the freeze and thaw with a freezing threshold of 1 c is supported by comparisons of the simulated results and the observations from an engineering viewpoint a freeze and thaw index that incorporates the freezing depth and the repetition number of freeze and thaw cycles is proposed to estimate total amount of sediment produced from a wide area such as a catchment scale over a long period

preliminary study of the erosion mechanisms in a biancana badland tuscany italy abstract italian badlands are present along the appennini mountains with an annual precipitation which ranges from 400 to 1200 mm the genesis of these badlands has often been studied whereas current processes and erosion rates have only rarely been examined and measured this paper describes a preliminary study on a badland developed in temperate mediterranean climate and located in sw tuscany italy the selected site is characterized by biancane dome shaped features a few meters in height generally having a vegetated nne aspect and severely eroded ssw slope with a sub horizontal basal pediment field rainfall and runoff experiments were carried out field results were substantiated by data collected in specially devised laboratory tests it was concluded that near surface pipes which develop at the point of contact between a surficial layer of weathered and severely fractured regolith and the less fractured and weathered regolith underneath are the main drainage channels while rills play a secondary role soil detachment is largely due to mechanical and chemical slaking of the regolith during infiltration the role of runoff is almost solely transport in particular it was found that the runoff detachment rate is limited by the rate at which the water front penetrates into the regolith

connectivity as a crucial determinant of badland morphology and evolution the way in which threshold behaviour landscape sensitivity and connectivity1 operate together at the meso and macro scale in badlands is initially considered from a theoretical energy utilisation perspective the argument is developed that intrinsic changes to process domain dominance can result in progressive shifts in process connectivity without the need to invoke external climatic or tectonic change from this premise a meso scale closed system model for the evolution of connected states in regionally isolated badlands is developed applicable to systems evolving towards a fixed base level within a less erosive host landscape the model shows how badlands disconnected from regional drainage can develop from a wide range of initial states into a convergent quasi equilibrium followed by a period of complex response as energy is dissipated across thresholds giving rise to a range of equifinal maximum entropy landscapes this classification is illustrated using a range of global badland examples longer term macro scale interruptions to this semi deterministic model of badland relief degradation are also considered from this longer term larger scale perspective it is argued that extrinsic changes to relative relief can be driven by base level changes tectonically isostatically or eustatically induced in which case the continuity and linkages of information within the system are modified by effects which move up through the system bottom up control macro scale climatic changes also alter connectivity by changing the power distribution of prevailing events and by causing long term changes in mean precipitation temperature and e p ratio which affect vegetation and therefore runoff resistance all across the landscape from this perspective longer term climatic change operates in a top down manner the interplay between these two larger scale controls will inevitably determine the pattern of connected states that the landscape experiences through time the top down and bottom up combinations that can lead to either rejuvenation and a return to the stages described for the closed system model or stabilisation enhanced phases of both morphological and geochemical stabilisation are discussed

depositional gaps in abitibi greenstone belt stratigraphy a key to exploration for syngenetic mineralization models of greenstone belt development are crucial for exploration allochthonous models predict belts to be a collage of unrelated fragments whereas autochthonous models allow for prediction of syngenetic mineral deposits within specific stratigraphic intervals superior province greenstone belts consist of mainly volcanic units unconformably overlain by largely sedimentary timiskaming style assemblages and field and geochronological data indicate that the abitibi greenstone belt developed autochthonously we describe major revisions to stratigraphy of the abitibi greenstone belt and the implications of an autochthonous development of the volcanic stratigraphy for exploration for syngenetic mineralization the abitibi greenstone belt is subdivided into seven discrete volcanic stratigraphic episodes on the basis of groupings of numerous u pb zircon ages of pre 2750 2750 to 2735 2734 to 2724 2723 to 2720 2719 to 2711 2710 to 2704 and 2704 to 2695 ma we present revised lithotectonic and or stratigraphic nomenclature using these time intervals including 1 isotopic inheritance in younger episodes which indicates that the older episodes 2750 2735 and 2734 2724 ma had greater extent than is presently seen 2 dikes feeding younger volcanic episodes 2706 ma cutting older volcanic units 2734 2724 ma and 3 2710 to 2704 ma mafic to ultramafic sills intruding the 2719 to 2711 ma episode changes to the nomenclature include the identification of pre 2750 ma volcanic episode supracrustal fragments in the northern and southern abitibi greenstone belt and subdivision of the 2719 to 2711 ma 2710 to 2704 ma and 2704 to 2695 ma episodes into lower and upper parts we present the results of this lithostratigraphic subdivision as the first geochronologically constrained stratigraphic and or lithotectonic map of the abitibi greenstone belt many of the volcanic episodes are intercalated with and capped by a relatively thin sedimentary interface zone dominated by chemical sedimentary rocks stratigraphic and geochronological analysis of these zones indicates discontinuous deposition with localized gaps of 2 to 27 m y between volcanic episodes the zones consist of up to 200 m of iron formation chert breccia heterolithic debris flows of volcanic provenance sandstone and or argillite and conglomerate modeling of the time required for deposition of the volcanic units based on rates of magma production in modern arc and plume environments is on the order of 103 to 104 years whereas the time interval between basalt rhyolite cycles is 106 years the sedimentary interface zones are therefore interpreted as condensed sections zones with very low rates of sedimentation in a basinal setting or zones with negligible rates of sedimentation marked by silicification of existing rock types the sedimentary interface zones are therefore considered submarine correlative conformities disconformities or unconformities separating the equivalent of group level stratigraphic and lithotectonic units the unconformity bounded stratigraphic model provides a new regional to deposit scale interpretive model for use in exploration for syngenetic mineralization

role of erosion processes on the morphogenesis of a semiarid badland area bardenas reales ne spain abstract bardenas reales badlands are located in the middle western sector of the ebro depression northern spain this consists of a big erosional depression with deeply dissected valley bounded by steep slopes labile argillaceous bedrock scarce high intensity rainfall and high temperatures make erosion the dominant morphogenetic process several erosion processes operate in the bardenas reales rilling gullying piping and mass movements the relative role played by these processes on the morphogenesis is largely controlled by physico chemical properties of the materials and climatic conditions precipitation distribution over the year controls the development of mass movements whereas regolith physical chemical properties favor piping gullying and rilling during the rainfall maxima soil erodibility in this area is clearly controlled by the sodium content and the presence of swelling clays these factors determine the distribution and appearance of piping processes cracking in holocene clay deposits devoid of swelling clays is related to high sodium content that confers a dispersive character clay dispersion causes loss of cohesion favoring piping in the rainfall maxima soil loss is significant and controlled by precipitation amount and maximum intensity conversely during periods of cyclonic rain erosion is scarce and mass movements are the dominant process in the slopes underlain by tertiary mudstones mud flows are frequent during the winter months in winter time when rains are of low intensity and evapotranspiration is limited infiltration through cracks is high consequently water content in the regolith may increase until the plastic limit is reached under these conditions and due to the high gradient of the slopes 34 shear strength is surpassed and the clay material is able to slide and flow

archean gold bearing quartz veins at the sigma mine abitibi greenstone belt quebec part ii vein paragenesis and hydrothermal alteration the sigma deposit consists of an archean gold bearing vein system in deformed volcanic rocks intruded by two generations of porphyries the veins cut all rock types and wall rock alteration is superposed on greenschist facies metamorphic assemblages there are two related vein sets subvertical veins in ductile shears and subhorizontal veins in extensional fractures between shear zones this paper reports on the paragenesis of extensional veins and related hydrothermal alteration tension veins are composed chiefly of quartz and tourmaline and subordinate amounts of carbonates chlorite pyrite pyrrhotite scheelite and free gold the veins formed by one or more episodes of open space filling the paragenetic sequence consists essentially of successive deposition of carbonate scheelite tourmaline pyrite pyrrhotite carbonate chlorite and quartz most of the gold and tellurides was introduced into fractures and along grain boundaries of recrystallized vein minerals during a postfilling episode of deformation veins are surrounded by zoned alteration envelopes consisting of an outer zone of cryptic alteration characterized by a chlorite carbonate white mica assemblage and an inner zone of visible alteration characterized by a carbonate white mica outer subzone and a carbonate albite inner subzone alteration zones represent reaction fronts advancing into the wall rocks and resulted from progressive interaction of wall rocks with a single hydrothermal fluid the chlorite carbonate white mica zone is characterized by replacement of epidote by calcite and white mica accompanied by fixation of co 2 and k and by release of small amounts of si in carbonate white mica and carbonate albite subzones of visible alteration chlorite biotite and white mica were replaced by calcite albite and quartz variable amounts of gold tourmaline pyrite pyrrhotite and ilmenite were also introduced visible alteration zones are characterized by additions of ca co 2 na b s p and au and by important losses of mg fe al and h 2 o mass balance calculations show that ca na si co 2 s and b in vein minerals were contributed from the hydrothermal fluid whereas fe mg and al were derived from the walls the development of alteration envelopes began with the infiltration of hydrothermal fluids into open extensional fractures and it ceased before complete filling of the veins when continuous mineral coatings formed along vein walls deposition of carbonate accompanied development of cryptic alteration including initial co 2 additions to the wall rocks subsequent deposition of tourmaline pyrite and pyrrhotite carbonate chlorite accompanied the progressive development of visible alteration which encroached on cryptically altered rocks visible alteration is characterized by additions of ca and co 2 to the wall rocks and by release of mg fe and al later bulk quartz deposition which filled the vein openings generally took place after complete development of the alteration envelopes except for this late quartz deposition of vein minerals is attributed to chemical changes in the fluid resulting from progressive wall rock alteration bulk quartz deposition is attributed to progressive cooling of the hydrothermal fluid

comparing prospectivity modelling results and past exploration data a case study of porphyry cu au mineral systems in the macquarie arc lachlan fold belt new south wales mineral exploration is undertaken in stages with each stage designed to get to the next decision point of whether or not to keep exploring a particular area based on the results at hand as a general rule each consecutive exploration stage is more expensive due to the progressively more drill and study intensive nature of the work required in particular after discovery of a potentially economic mineral deposit as such the distribution of exploration activities and related expenditures essentially serve as a spatial measure of prospectivity as perceived by mineral exploration companies in this study we compare historic 1980 to 2002 porphyry cu au exploration activities and expenditures in part of the ordovician to early silurian macquarie arc australia s most significant porphyry province with total resources greater than 80 moz of au and 13 mt of cu to prospectivity modelling results from a weights of evidence wofe model the outcomes of this spatial and statistical comparison indicate that at 2002 the macquarie arc was by no means a mature exploration destination and that past exploration investment outside the main mining areas was not necessarily effective moreover no spatial correlation was apparent between areas of higher exploration expenditure and greater geological potential for example of the 692 km2 of highly prospective ground covered by the exploration licences examined in this study only 89 km2 c 13 have been explored effectively in that they received some form of drilling interestingly the remaining area 603 km2 or c 87 had not yet been effectively tested as such our analysis confirmed that despite a greater 100 year exploration and mining history much of the prospective ground within the study area remained untested taken as a whole the results of our spatial and statistical comparison are important inputs for assessing the effectiveness of exploration investment and explanation maturity and therefore future exploration decision making the outcomes also have implications for strategic planning of future government legislation helping to manage and maximise the benefits from exploration investment

modeling river bed morphology roughness and surface sedimentology using high resolution terrestrial laser scanning 1 recent advances in technology have revolutionized the acquisition of topographic data offering new perspectives on the structure and morphology of the earth s surface these developments have had a profound impact on the practice of river science creating a step change in the dimensionality resolution and precision of fluvial terrain models the emergence of hyperscale survey methods including structure from motion photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning tls now presents the opportunity to acquire 3 d point cloud data that capture grain scale detail over reach scale extents translating these data into geomorphologically relevant products is however not straightforward unlike traditional survey methods tls acquires observations rapidly and automatically but unselectively this results in considerable noise associated with backscatter from vegetation and other artifacts moreover the large data volumes are difficult to visualize require very high capacity storage and are not incorporated readily into gis and simulation models in this paper we analyze the geomorphological integrity of multiscale terrain models rendered from a tls survey of the braided river feshie scotland these raster terrain models are generated using a new computationally efficient geospatial toolkit the topographic point cloud analysis toolkit topcat this performs an intelligent decimation of point cloud data into a set of 2 5 d terrain models that retain information on the high frequency subgrid topography as the moments of the locally detrended elevation distribution the results quantify the degree of terrain generalization inherent in conventional fluvial dems and illustrate how subgrid topographic statistics can be used to map the spatial pattern of particle size grain roughness and sedimentary facies at the reach scale