Discovery of Potassium-Bearing Cuttings from the Well Yangta 4 in the Kuqa Depression and Seam Division

The world petroleum exploration suggests that,about70%of the world’s potash resources were discovered during oil and gas exploration(Zheng et al.,2007).The Kuqa depression in the Tarim basin is abundant with petroleum exploration data,and

Character of Sedimentation in the Potassium-Bearing Basin of the Gremyachinskoye Field(The Volga Monocline)

1 Introduction The Gremyachinskoye potassium salt field lies within the Safronovskaya area and is confined to the preoverthrust zone–the 20-25 kilometer band conventionally recognized in the southern termination of the Volga

Geological Characteristics of Potassium-Bearing Salt Layers in the Well Block Quele of the Kuqa Depression and their Significance

Potash is one of the long-term scare deposits in China,and potash prospecting has long been listed as a key brainstorm project for our nation and geological prospecting units.There have been considerable studies in search for potash deposits in the Kuqa depression of the Tarim basin(Jackson et al.,1991;Gemmer et al.,2004;Vendeville,2005;Vendeville and Jackson,1992a,1992b),

Biotransformation of Earthworm Activity on Potassium-Bearing Mineral Powder

This study analyzes the biotransformation of earthworms on K in potassium-bearing mineral powder （PBMP） under different PBMP recruitments. A mixture of PBMP （10% to 60% mass fraction） and decaying cow dung was used as feed for breeding the earthworms to study the potassium-releasing ability of earthworms on PBMP in soil. The mixture containing 20% and 30% PBMP resulted in good growth and propagation of the earthworms as well as higher conversion rates of potassium. Therefore, the optimum recruitments of mineral powder are 20% and 30%. The mixture of cow dung and PBMP was compared with the mixture of cow dung and corresponding proportions of quartz powder to analyze the conversion rate of earthworms on PBMP in different combinations. After the earthworms were raised with the mixture of cow dung and PBMP （8 ： 2 and 7 ： 3） for 30 d, the contents of rapidly available K and effective K were 10 824.3±35.9 and 11 688.4±16.1 mg.k-1 as well as 10 079.6±62.2 and 10 247.5±172.7 mg.kg-1, respectively. After the earthworms were raised with the mixture of cow dung and quartz powder （8 ： 2 and 7 ： 3） for 30 d, the contents of rapidly available K and effective K were 10 623.3±41.1 and 11 385.5±13.5 mg.kg-1 as well as 9 834.2±51.8 and 9 907.6±11.4 mg.kg-1, respectively. Thus, the contents of rapidly available K and effective K in the mixture of cow dung and PBMP were significantly higher compared with those in the mixture of cow dung and quartz powder （P〈0.05）. The increment contents of rapidly available K and effective K were 201.0 and 302.9 mg.kg1 as well as 245.4 and 339.9 mg-kg1, respectively. Therefore, earthworms can activate and trans-form K into effective K through feeding, digestion, absorption, and excretion. The results pro- vided a new idea of using earthworms to release potassium in low-grade potassium-bearing rocks and obtain the rapidly available K and effective K needed by plants.

Differences in the gene expressive quantities of carbonic anhydrase and cysteine synthase in the weathering of potassium-bearing minerals by Aspergillus niger

We investigated the differences in the gene expression of carbonic anhydrase （CA） and cysteine synthase （CysM） between two weathering conditions, with either soluble potassium or insoluble potassium. We cultured a strain of A. niger by adopting a variant Czapek medium （using NazHPO4 as a substitute for KzHPO4） in two groups, Group A （containing silicate minerals bearing potassium but without KC1） and Group B （with KCI） . We extracted the mRNAs of CA and CysM from these two groups and performed real-time quantitative polymerase chain reactions （RT-qPCR）. We constructed relative standard curves by using glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase （GAPDH） as the reference to confirm a consistent amplification effi- ciency of the target genes （CA and CysM） and the reference gene and quantified the gene expression of the targets in a relative manner. Our results showed that CA and CysM in Group A were upregulated for 1.7 times and 11.7 times, respectively, com- pared with those in Group B. Furthermore, we also analyzed some metabolic pathways and functions of the A. niger-induced weathering of potassium-bearing minerals, which involved the synthesizing of these two enzymes. Thus our work provides materials for further study of the roles of A. niger in the metabolic regulation during the weathering process of potassi- um-beating minerals.

Evaluating the Precise (39)Ar/(40)Ar Dating of Multiple Mineral Potassic Phases in Ultra-alkaline Rocks: Applications to Mantle Systematics

A suite of potassium-bearing minerals from the Walgidee Hills lamproite intrusion in the Kimberley region of Western Australia was selected for 39Ar/40Ar dating. These included wadeite, jeppeite, priderite, potassium richterite, and phlogopite. All recorded excellent plateau ages, with the mean age of the combined data set being 17.3±0.3 Ma. Phlogopite recorded the largest uncertainty, whereas, of the other minerals,wadeite gave the best precision. Although rare to absent in common magmatic rocks, these minerals are widely distributed in alkaline complexes and in lamproite, kimberlite and orangeite intrusions. The results indicate this suite of minerals is excellent for 39Ar/40Ar dating and that they can be used singly or in combination to obtain the precise magmatic crystallization ages of ultra-alkaline rocks. Because of the stability of potassium richterite at mantle depths, 39Ar/40Ar dating of MARID(micaamphibole-rutile-ilmenite-diopside) xenoliths should be a more widely-applied technique to investigating mantle geodynamics.