Survey of Environmental Ethics on Project Activities

The concepts of project activity and environmental ethics are analyzed. It indicates that project activity is a kind of ＂creation＂ event transforming nature, and is bound to generate a series of bad consequences, such as environmental pollution, biosphere destruction, natural resource waste and ignoring ecological value. Environmental ethics takes natural environment as research object, advocates valuing nature own value, and initiates concerning ethical responsibility of project activity on natural environment. Finally, we put forward countermeasures to ethical issues, such as sustainable development and enhancing ethic education of project.

Soil Geochemistry Changes Induced by a Foreign Soil Reconstruction Project in Three Gorges Reservoir Region of China

Fertile topsoil was added onto the surface of barren slope land in Three Gorges Reservoir region of China in an anthropogenic process known as the foreign soil reconstruction project. The main goal of this paper was to reveal the influence of anthropogenic activities on pedogenic processes and soil classifications. Chemical weathering indices and comparative analysis were applied to discuss changes in geochemical compositions and weathering features of purplish soils(Cambisols) before and after the project. Results showed that:(1) The foreign soil reconstruction project slightly altered the major element composition of topsoil and improved the soil structure. Although the distributions of major elements in the original topsoil, original subsoil, foreign topsoil and newly constructed topsoil were all similar to that in upper continental crust, newly constructed topsoil was the most similar soil.(2) The chemical index of alteration was more sensitive than the weathering index of Parker at indicating chemical weathering status of purplish soil. The chemical weathering status of newly constructed topsoil was higher than that of the original topsoil and lower than that of foreign topsoil.(3) Anthropogenic activities may provide a promising new thought for the anthropogenic soil classification system. The scope and subgroups of Anthrosols should be extended and strengthened. Or there may be a need to combine Anthrosols and Technosols orders to create a new soil order. The results may be used for optimizing soil mellowing engineering activities and enriching the soil classification system.

The Active Participation of ASIAA in the SMA Project

This is a progress report of a major project that Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics is actively engaged. The two 6m sub millimeter telescopes are being built in Taiwan. The construction of the antennas, which has been contracted to Aeronautic Research Laboratory, has made good progress lately. The first reflector is completed. The mounts are also nearly finished. The antennas are expected to be completed and tested in late 1999. Our receiver lab has been built up from scratch. It is finishing the assembly of the first SMA receiver. It is also fabricating its first Nb AlO x Nb junction of 230 GHz. Our two telescopes are scheduled to join the two SAO telescopes presently at Mauna Kea in the spring of year 2000.

Influences of the Three Gorges Project on seismic activities in the reservoir area

Reservoir-induced earthquakes related with the construction of the Three Gorges Project have attracted great concerns of the public. Since the first water impoundment on May 25, 2003, a number of earthquakes have occurred during the water storage stages, in which the largest was the Badong M5.1 earthquake on December 16, 2013. In this paper, the relationships between seismic activities, b value, seismic parameters, and reservoir water level fluctuations are studied. In addition, based on the digital seismic waveform data obtained since 2000, the focal depth changes and focal mechanism characteristics before and after the water impoundment are studied as well. These provide us important information to understand the earthquake mechanisms. The results show that these earthquakes are typical reservoir-induced earthquakes, which are closely related to water infiltration, pore pressure, and water level fluctuations.The majority of the micro and small earthquakes are caused by karst collapse, mine collapse, bank reformation, superficial unloading, and so on. The larger earthquakes are related to the fault structures to some extent. Due to the persistent effects of water impoundment on the seismic and geological environments around the reservoir and water infiltration into the rocks, the influences on the crustal deformation field, gravity field, seepage field, and fault medium-softening action may vary gradually from a higher strength to a weaker one. Therefore, it is possible that small earthquakes and few medium earthquakes(M≤5.5) will occur in the reservoir area in the future.