Control of Earth system evolution on the formation and enrichment of marine ultra-deep petroleum in China

Taking the Paleozoic of the Sichuan and Tarim basins in China as example,the controlling effects of the Earth system evolution and multi-spherical interactions on the formation and enrichment of marine ultra-deep petroleum in China have been elaborated.By discussing the development of“source-reservoir-seal”controlled by the breakup and assembly of supercontinents and regional tectonic movements,and the mechanisms of petroleum generation and accumulation controlled by temperature-pressure system and fault conduit system,Both the South China and Tarim blocks passed through the intertropical convergence zone(ITCZ)of the low-latitude Hadley Cell twice during their drifts,and formed hydrocarbon source rocks with high quality.It is proposed that deep tectonic activities and surface climate evolution jointly controlled the types and stratigraphic positions of ultra-deep hydrocarbon source rocks,reservoirs,and seals in the Sichuan and Tarim basins,forming multiple petroleum systems in the Ediacaran-Cambrian,Cambrian-Ordovician,Cambrian-Permian and Permian-Triassic strata.The matching degree of source-reservoir-seal,the type of organic matter in source rocks,the deep thermal regime of basin,and the burial-uplift process across tectonic periods collectively control the entire process from the generation to the accumulation of oil and gas.Three types of oil and gas enrichment models are formed,including near-source accumulation in platform marginal zones,distant-source accumulation in high-energy beaches through faults,and three-dimensional accumulation in strike-slip fault zones,which ultimately result in the multi-layered natural gas enrichment in ultra-deep layers of the Sichuan Basin and co-enrichment of oil and gas in the ultra-deep layers of the Tarim Basin.

Earth vitality:An integrated framework for tracking Earth sustainability

The Anthropocene era is characterized by the escalating impact of human activities on the environment,as well as the increasingly complex interactions among various components of the Earth system.These factors greatly affect the Earth's evolutionary trajectory.Despite notable strides in sustainable development practices worldwide,it remains unclear to what extent we have achieved Earth sustainability.Consequently,there is a pressing need to enhance conceptual and methodological frameworks to measure sustainability progress accurately.To address this need,we developed an Earth Vitality Framework that aids in tracking the Earth sustainability progress by considering interactions between spheres,recognizing the equal relationship between humans and nature,and presenting a threshold scheme for all measures.We applied this framework at global and national scales to demonstrate its usefulness.Our findings reveal that the current Earth Vitality Index is 63.74,indicating that the Earth is in a"weak"vitality.Irrational social institutions,unsatisfactory life experiences and the poor state of the biosphere and hydrosphere have remarkably affected the Earth vitality.Additionally,inequality exists between high-income and low-income countries.Although most of the former exhibit poor human-nature interaction,all of them enjoy good human well-being,while the opposite is true for the latter.Finally,we summarize the challenges and possible options for enhancing the Earth vitality in terms of coping with spillover effects,tipping cascades,feedback,and heterogeneity.

Geant4 simulation of multi-sphere spectrometer response function and the detection of 241Am–Be neutron spectrum

This paper is aimed at detecting the neutron spectrum of^(241)Am–Be, a widely used neutron source, with the SP9 ~3He proportional counter, which is a multi-sphere spectrometer system of eight thermal neutron detectors embedded in eight polyethylene(PE) spheres of varying diameters. The transport processes of a neutron in the multi-sphere spectrometer are simulated using the Geant4 code. Two sets of response functions of the PE spheres are obtained for calculating the^(241)Am–Be neutron spectrum.Response Function 1 utilizes the thermal neutron scattering model G4 Neutron HPThermal Scattering for neutron energies of ≤4 eV, and Response Function 2 has no thermal treatment. Neutron spectra of an^(241)Am–Be neutron source are measured and compared to those calculated by using the response functions. The results show that response function with thermal treatment is more accurate and closer to the real spectrum.

Research progresses and prospects of multi-sphere compound extremes from the Earth System perspective

Compound extremes,whose socioeconomic and ecological impacts are severer than that caused by each event occurring in isolation,have evolved into a hot topic in Earth Science in the past decade.In the context of climate change,many compound extremes have exhibited increasing frequency and intensity,and shown novel fashions of combinations,posing more pressing demands and tougher challenges to scientific research and disaster prevention and response.This article,via a perspective of multi-sphere interactions within the Earth System,systematically reviews the status quo,new scientific understanding,and deficiencies regarding the definition,mechanism,change,attribution,and projection of compound extremes.This study also sorts out existing challenges and outlines a potential roadmap in advancing the study on compound extremes with respect to data requirement,mechanistic diagnosis,numerical modeling,attribution and projection,risk assessment,and adaptive response.Further directions of compound extremes studies and key research topics that warrant multi-disciplinary and multisectoral coordinated efforts are also proposed.Given that climate change has reshaped the type of extremes,a transformation from the traditional single-event perspective to a compound-event perspective is needed for scientific research,disaster prevention and mitigation,and climate change adaptation,calling for bottom-up innovation in research objects,ideas,and methods.This article will add value to promoting the research on compound extremes and interdisciplinary cooperations.

Scattering properties of polluted dust in 1.6-μm wavelength

Three typical polluted dust particles （i.e., single coated dust, two-sphere/spheroid system, and coated dust with ag- gregate） including internal and semi-external mixtures are modeled, and their scattering properties at 1.6-μm wavelength are calculated by using the generalized multi-sphere Mie-solution （GMM） method. We investigate the influences of par- ticle size, morphology, and chemical composition on the scattering parameters of polluted dust particles. The analysis results demonstrate that the single scattering albedo of coated dust is much smaller than that of pure dust, especially for the spheroidal black carbon （BC） coated dust. When a dust particle semi-mixes with another aerosol particle to form a two-sphere/spheroid system, its scattering properties are much more sensitive to the size and species of monomers than the monomer shape. If an aggregated BC attaches to the coated dust, the scattering properties of whole particle mainly depend on the host particle （coated dust）.

Calculation of Response Function for Bonner Sphere Spectrometer Based on Geant4

In order to make further studies on fusion neutron diagnosis on HL-2A /HL-2M,we have developed and succeeded in the calculation of the Response Function for a Bonner sphere spectrometer,which consists of eight polyethylene spheres with ^3He proportional counters inside.The response function of the Bonner spectrometer to neutrons is of fundamental importance for its neutron spectrum unfolding procedure and is directly related to the quality of the unfolded spectrum.In this paper,we calculated the response function to neutrons from 10^-9 MeV to100 MeV by Geant4.In order to test the accuracy of the Geant4 simulation,we apply it to measure an ^241Am-Be neutron source,and the measured neutron counts of the spectrometer and simulated counts are found to be highly consistent,with a relative error up to 9.3%.This has proven the calculation of the neutron response of the Bonner sphere spectrometer by Geant4 to be quite accurate.

Coupled simulation of fluid-particle interaction for large complex granules:A resolved CFD-DEM method for modelling the airflow in a vertical fixed bed of irregular sinter particles

A resolved CFD-DEM method is proposed to simulate the fluid-particle interaction for large complex granules.The airflow in a vertical sinter fixed bed is numerically studied using this method.The multi-sphere clumped method is used to create irregular sinter particles in DEM.The immersed boundary method and dynamic cell refinement are applied to describe the fluid flow around particles with higher resolution,by which the fluid-particle interaction can be simulated more accurately.The simulation results presented the packing voidage distributions and the airflow fields in the sinter beds of different single and mixed particle size ranges.The bed pressure drops were simulated and the results were compared with the corresponding experimental ones.The good agreement indicated that the proposed resolved CFD-DEM method is an effective tool to model the fluid-particle interaction for irregular large granules in the gas-solid multi-phase systems.

Mass extinction and Pangea integration during the Paleozoic-Mesozoic transition

The greatest Phanerozoic mass extinction happened at the end-Permian to earliest Triassic. About 95% species, 82% genera, and more than half families became extinct, constituting the sole macro-mass extinction in geological history. This event not only caused the great extinction but also destroyed the 200 Myr-long Paleozoic marine ecosystem, prompted its transition to Mesozoic ecosystem, and induced coal gap on land as well as reef gap and chert gap in ocean. The biotic crisis during the Paleozoic-Mesozoic transition was a long process of co-evolution between geospheres and biosphere. The event sequence at the Permian-Triassic boundary （PTB） reveals two-episodic pattern of rapidly deteriorating global changes and biotic mass ex- tinction and the intimate relationship between them. The severe global changes coupling multiple geospheres may have affect- ed the Pangea integration on the Earth＇s surface spheres, which include： the Pangea integration→enhanced mountain height and basin depth, changes of wind and ocean current systems; enhanced ocean basin depth→the greatest Phanerozoic regression at PTB, disappearance of epeiric seas and subsequent rapid transgression; the Pangea integration→thermal isolation effect of continental lithosphere and decrease of mid-ocean ridges→development of continental volcanism; two-episode volcanism causing LIPs of the Emeishan Basalt and the Siberian Trap （25%251 Ma）→global warming and mass extinction; continental aridification and replacement of monsoon system by latitudinal wind system→destruction of vegetation; enhanced weathering and CH4 emission→negative excursion of δ^13C; mantle plume→crust doming→regression; possible relation between the Illawarra magnetic reversal and the PTB extinction, and so on. Mantle plume produced the Late Permian LIPs and mantle convection may have caused the process of the Pangea integration. Subduction, delamination, and accumulation of the earth＇s cool lithospheric material at the ＂D＂ layer of CMB started mantle plume by heat compensation and disturbed the outer core ther- too-convection, and the latter in turn would generate the mid-Permian geomagnetic reversal. These core and mantle perturbations may have caused the Pangea integration and two successive LIPs in the Permian, and probably finally the mass extinction at the PTB.

Effect of particle type on the shear behaviour of granular materials

In discrete element method(DEM)simulations,multi-sphere(MS)clumped and convex particles are two main particle models that are used to study the mechanical behaviours of granular materials.Of interest is the evaluation of the effect of multiple contacts between clumped particles or single contacts between convex particles on the mechanical behaviours of granular materials.In this context,a series of drained triaxial compression tests were conducted on convex true(CT)ellipsoids and MS ellipsoids with aspect ratios(ARs)ranging from 1.0-2.0.The microscale results indicate that at a given AR,the critical friction angleφ_(c)changes with the particle type,whereas the peak friction angleφ_(p)is nearly independent of the particle type.The anisotropic analysis provides underlying mechanisms of the shear strength evolution from two perspectives.First,the anisotropies of granular materials are essential to shear strength as the deviatoric(q)-to-effective mean(p′)stress ratio can be expressed as the sum of the anisotropies,i.e.,q/p'≈0.4a_(c)+0.4a_(n)+0.6a_(t),where ac,an and at are the normal contact anisotropy,normal contact force anisotropy and tangential contact force anisotropy,respectively.For all samples,a_(c)and a_(n)underpin the shear strength and are influenced by the particle type.The similarφ_(p)displayed by the CT and MS ellipsoids does not translate to similar a_(n)and a_(c)but similar a_(c)+a_(n)for the two particle types.In addition,owing to their larger a_(c)+a_(n),the CT ellipsoids have a higherφ_(c)than the MS ellipsoids.Second,there is a satisfactory linear relationship between q/p'and ac within strong and non-sliding(sn)contacts a_(c)^(sn)(i.e.,q/p′=ka_(c)^(sn)),where k is the fitting parameter.Accordingly,in the peak state,the subtle difference in shear strength is attributed to the greater acsn in the CT ellipsoids than in the MS ellipsoids that is counteracted by the smaller k.However,in the critical state,the greater difference in a_(c)^(sn)between the CT and MS ellipsoids is partially offset by the smaller difference in k,causing a higherφ_(c)in the CT ellipsoids than in the MS ellipsoids.

Effect of local non-convexity on the critical shear strength of granular materials determined via the discrete element method

Multi-sphere clumps are commonly used to simulate non-spherical particles in discrete element method simulations.It is of interest whether the degree of local non-convexity λ affects the mechanical behaviour of granular materials with the same non-convexity η.A series of discrete-element-method biaxial shear tests are conducted on rough particle packings with rη=0.075 and different λ values(ranging from 0.134 to 0.770).The microscale results show that the contact type changes with an increase in λ.However,the critical strength is independent of λ.The evaluation of the contributions of different contact types to the critical shear strength and a detailed analysis of the anisotropies help clarify the microscopic mechanisms that result in the independence of the critical shear strength from λ.

Experimental validation of a Tokamak neutron spectrometer based on Bonner spheres

In order to realize real-time fusion neutron spectrum diagnosis for the HL_2A Tokamak, a Bonner Sphere Spectrometer （BSS） array has been developed, consisting of eight polyethylene spheres （PS） with embedded aHe proportional counters. To validate its spectrometric capability, spectrum measurement of an 241Am-Be neutron source was carried out and is described. The Monte Carlo code Geant4 was used to calculate the response functions, taking this interference into consideration. Finally, the neutron spectrum was unfolded in the energy range from 10-9 MeV to 20 MeV. The unfolded spectrum has remarkable consistency with the ISO 8529-1 standard 2alAm-Be neutron spectrum which is a preliminary demonstration that this BSS is reliable and practical.