Loess is widely deposited in arid and semi-arid areas characterized by low dry density, developed pore space, loose structure, which not commensurate with high structural strength shear the state. Many natural phenomena experimental results show that intact loess very sensitive to change of water content, a slight increase content can cause rapid reduction strength. Abundant information availab...

Malan loess is a wind-formed sediment in arid and semi-arid regions an important constituent of the Earth’s critical zone. Therefore, study relationship between microstructure heat transfer great significance for in-depth understanding mechanism accurate prediction properties intact loess. In order to quantitatively characterize processes two-phase medium solid particles gas pores loess, this u...

[1] We studied soils on high-purity limestones of Quaternary age on the western Atlantic Ocean islands of Barbados, the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas. Potential soil parent materials in this region, external to the carbonate substrate, include volcanic ash from the island of St. Vincent (near Barbados), volcanic ash from the islands of Dominica and St. Lucia (somewhat farther from Barbados), th...

The neodymium isotopic composition of the silicate fraction of Holocene pelagic sediments from the North Pacific define two provinces: a central North Pacific province characterized by unradiogenic and remarkably homogeneous end (--10.2 +_ 0.5) and a narrow circum-Pacific marginal province characterized by more radiogenic and variable end (--4.2 + 3.8). The silicate fraction in the central Nort...

The paper presents a detailed experimental investigation of particle breakage in three kinds loess, i.e., sandy silty loess and clayey loess. It is firstly found that can occur within oedometer test, which results better-graded soil at the end test. Initial stresses for both are less than 0.5 MPa, about 2 MPa relative (Br) used to evaluate degree, it all tested, Br increases with increasing loa...

This study was aimed to identify optimal indicators for microtopography-oriented soil quality assessment. Twenty-two soil physicochemical and biological parameters were investigated at 93 sampling points in five different microtopographic units in semiarid regions of the Loess Plateau, where the principal functions of eroded agriculture soils are related to productivity and anti-erosion ability...

A magnificent repository of Late Pleistocene terrestrial megafauna fossils is contained in ice-rich loess deposits of Alaska and Yukon, collectively eastern Beringia. The stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope compositions of bone collagen from these fossils are routinely used to determine paleodiet and reconstruct the paleoecosystem. This approach requires consideration of changes in...

Paleoenvironmental and paleogeomagnetic tracing studies from Chinese loess 10Be have progressed in recent years (Zhou et al. 2007a,b, 2010). In this approach, 10Be flux determined from sediment concentration and accumulation rate may be used to recover information about paleomonsoon rainfall rates as well as past variations in the geomagnetic field strength. However, these methods require that ...