On the basis of the multi-channel seismic data and the other data, using 2DMove software, the tectonic evolution in three seismic profiles was restored since Pliocene. The tectonic restoration results show that: (1) the initial active center lay in the west slope and then was transferred to east and south via trough center during the evolution process; (2) several main normal faults controlled the evolution of the southern Okinawa Trough; (3) since Late Pliocene, the southern Okinawa Trough has experienced two spreading stages. The early is depression in Early-Middle Pleistocene and the late is back-arc spreading in Late Pleistocene and Holocene, which is in primary oceanic crust spreading stage.

The middle Qilian orogenic belt and Lajishan orogenic belt, both of which were formed in the Caledonian, strike NW-SE direction across southeast Qilian Mountains and their basement consists of pre-Caledonian metamorphic rocks with lozenge-shaped ductile shear zones in the crystalline base-ment. The blunt angle between the conjugated ductile shear zones ranges from 104° to 114°, indicating approximate 210° of the maximum principal stress. The plateau ages of muscovite ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar obtained from the mylonitized rocks in the ductile shear zones of Jinshaxia-Hualong-Keque massif within the middle Qilian massif are (405.1±2.4) Ma and (418.3±2.8) Ma, respectively. The chronology data confirm the formation of ductile shear zones in the Caledonian basement metamorphic rocks during the Cale-donian orogeny. Furthermore, on the basis of basement rock study, precise timing for the closing of the Late Paleozoic volcanic basin (or island-arc basin) and Lajishan ocean basin is determined. This pro-vides us a new insight into the closing of ocean basin in the structural evolution of orogenic belt.

A large number of basic dikes, which indicate an important tectonic-magmatic event in the eastern part of the Central Qilian (祁连) orogenic belt, were found from Maxianshan (马衔山) rock group, Yongjing (永靖) county, Gansu (甘肃) Province, China. According to the research on the characteristics of geology and petrology, the basic dike swarms, widely intruded in Maxianshan rock group, are divided into two phases by the authors. U-Pb isotope of zircons from the basic dikes above two phases is separately determined by LA-ICP-MS in the Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics of Northwest University, China and the causes of formation of the zircons are studied using CL images. The formation age of the earlier phase of metagabbro dikes is (441.1±1.4) Ma (corresponding to the early stage of Early Silurian), and the age of the main metamorphic period is (414.3±1.2) Ma (corresponding to the early stage of Early Devonian). The formation age of the later phase of diabase dike swarms is (434±1.0) Ma (corresponding to the late stage of Early Silurian). The cap- tured-zircons from diabase dike swarms saved some information of material interfusion by Maxianshan rock group (²⁰⁷pb/²⁰⁶pb apparent ages are (2 325±3)-(2 573 ±6) Ma), and some zircons from diabase dike swarms also saved impacted information by tectonic thermal event during the late period of Caledonian movement (²⁰⁶pb/²³⁸U apparent ages are (400±2)-(429±2) Ma). By combining the results of the related studies, the basic dikes within Maxianshan rock group were considered to be formed in the transfer period, from subductional orogeny towards collisional orogeny, which represents geological records of NW-SE extension during regional NE-SW towards intense compression in the Central Qilian block.

The ductile shear zone-type gold deposit is a kind that both the ore-forming mechanism and ore-controlling factors are closely related to the ductile shear zone and its evolution. Ductile shear zone develops in Beishan area, Gansu of Northwest China, and develops especially well in the south belt. The controls of the ductile shear zone on gold deposits are as follows. (1) The regional distribution of gold deposits (and gold spots) is controlled by the ductile shear zone. (2) The ductile-brittle shear zone is formed in the evolution process of ductile shear zone and both are only ore-bearing structures and con-trol the shape, attitude, scale, and distribution of mineralization zones and ore-bodies. (3) Com-presso-shear ductile deformation results in that the main kind of gold mineralization is altered mylonite type and the main alteralization is metasomatic. (4) Ore-bearing fracture systems are mainly P-type ones, some D-type and R-type ones, but only individual R?type and T-type ones. (5) Dynamic differen-tiation and dynamic metamorphic hydrothermal solution resulting from ductile deformation is one of the sources of ore-forming fluid of gold mineralization, and this is identical with that ore-forming ma-terials are mainly from metamorphic rocks, and ore-forming fluid is mainly composed of metamorphic water, and with the fluid inclusion and geo-chemical characteristics of the deposit. (6) There is a nega-tive correlation between the gold abundance and susceptibility anisotropy (P) of the altered mylonite samples from the deposit, which shows that the gold mineralization is slightly later than the structural deformation. All above further expound the ore-forming model of the ductile shear zone type of gold deposits.

In this article, Milkov and Sassen's model is selected to calculate the thickness of the gas hydrate stable zone (GHSZ) and the amount of gas hydrate in the Xisha (西沙) Trough at present and at the last glacial maximum (LGM), respectively, and the effects of the changes in the bottom water temperature and the sea level on these were also discussed. The average thickness of the GHSZ in Xisha Trough is estimated to be 287 m and 299 m based on the relationship between the GHSZ thickness and the water depth established in this study at present and at LGM, respectively. Then, by assuming that the distributed area of gas hydrates is 8 000 km² and that the gas hydrate saturation is 1.2% of the sediment volume, the amounts of gas hydrate are estimated to be -2.76×10¹⁰ m³ and -2.87×10¹⁰ m³, and the volumes of hydrate-bound gases are -4.52×10¹² m³ and -4.71×10¹² m³ at present and at LGM, respectively. The above results show that the thickness of GHSZ decreases with the bottom water temperature increase and increases with the sea level increase, wherein the effect of the former is larger than that of the latter, that the average thickness of GHSZ in Xisha Trough had been reduced by -12 m, and that 1.9×10¹¹ m³ of methane is released from approximately 1.1×10⁹m³ of gas hydrate since LGM. The released methane should have greatly affected the environment.

Having multiple tectonic evolution stages, South China belongs to a superimposed basin in nature. Most marine gas pools became secondary pools. The pool fluid sources serve as the principal pool-controlling factors. On the basis of eight typical petroleum pools, the type, evolution in time-space, and the controlling of petroleum distribution of pool fluid sources are comprehensively analyzed. The main types of pool fluid sources include hydrocarbon, generated primarily and secondly from source rocks, gas cracked from crude oil, gas dissolved in water, inorganic gas, and mixed gases. In terms of evolution, the primary hydrocarbon was predominant prior to Indosinian; during Indosinian to Yen- shanian the secondary gas includes gas cracked from crude oil, gas generated secondarily, gas dissolved in water, and inorganic gas dominated; during Yenshanian to Himalayan the most fluid sources were mixed gases. Controlled by pool fluid sources, the pools with mixed gas sources distributed mainly in Upper Yangtze block, especially Sichuan (四川) basin; the pools with primary hydrocarbon sources distributed in paleo-uplifts such as Jiangnan (江南), but most of these pools became fossil pools; the pools with secondary hydrocarbon source distributed in the areas covered by Cretaceous and Eogene in Middle-Lower Yangtze blocks, and Chuxiong (楚雄), Shiwandashan (十万大山), and Nanpanjiang (南盘江) basins; the pools with inorganic gas source mainly formed and distributed in tensional structure areas.

The Upper Shuaiba Member (USH) is the main force pay bed in the Daleel field in northern Oman; 5 layers including A, B, C, D, and E were divided in profile, and layer D and layer E are the main beds. With the development of exploration in the Daleel oil field, studying the sedimentary systems about their inner composition and the collocation in dimension, and setting up the sedimentary models in the USH are becoming more and more necessary and important to meet the further explora-tion requirement. Based on the data of geology, seism, and paleo-biology, according to the analysis method on carbonatite depositional system, the litho-facies assemblage and sedimentary environment in the USH were studied. Intershoal low-lying sub-facies (where the water depth is 10-50 m) and shallow shoal sub-facies (where the water depth is not more than 10 m) were extinguished in the layer D, and storm deposit was found in layer E1, in which intershoal low-lying sub-facies also developed. The feature of the sedimentary sub-facies and the sedimentary condition were analyzed, and the sedimen-tary model was set up in the article: the carbonatite intershoal low-lying developed under the background of open land in shallow sea, where storm events usually occurred in the Lower Cretaceous in the area.

Satellite remote sensing data are usually used to analyze the spatial distribution pattern of geological structures and generally serve as a significant means for the identification of alteration zones. Based on the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data, which have better spectral resolution (8 bands) and spatial resolution (15 m in PAN band), the synthesis processing techniques were presented to fulfill alteration information extraction: data preparation, vegetation indices and band ratios, and expert classifier-based classification. These techniques have been implemented in the MapGIS-RSP software (version 1.0), developed by the Wuhan Zondy Cyber Technology Co., Ltd, China. In the study area application of extracting alteration information in the Zhaoyuan (招远) gold mines, Shandong (山东) Province, China, several hydorthermally altered zones (included two new sites) were found after satellite imagery interpretation coupled with field surveys. It is concluded that these synthesis processing techniques are useful approaches and are applicable to a wide range of gold-mineralized alteration information extraction.

A high slope is located on the side of the spillway at a hydropower station in Southwest China, which has some weak inter-layers inclining outwards. Parts of the slope show heavy weathering and unloading. There appeared deformation and tensile crack either on the surface or on the afteredge of the slope during excavation, and under a platform (elev. 488 m), two levels of slopes collapsed on the downriver side. Based on the investigation in situ and the analysis of the geological structure, the conceptual model of deformation and failure mechanism was erected for this slope. Furthermore, the deformation characteristics were studied with FLAC^3D numerical simulation. Comprehensive analysis shows that the whole deformation of the slope is unloading rebound in certain depth scope and the whole body does not slide along any weak interlayer. In addition, two parts with prominent local deformation in the shallow layer of the slope show the models of "creep sliding-tensile cracking" and "sliding-tensile cracking", respectively. Based on the above analysis, the corresponding project of support and reinforcement is proposed to make the slope more stable.

A novel calculation model is proposed aiming at the problem of concrete cover cracking induced by reinforcement corrosion. In this article, the relationship between the corrosion depth of the bar and the thickness of the rust layer is established. By deducing the radial displacement expression of concrete, the formula for corrosion depth and corrosion pressure before cracking is proposed. The crack depth of cover in accordance with the maximum corrosion pressure is deduced; furthermore, the corrosion depth and corrosion pressure at the cracking time are obtained. Finally, the theoretical model is validated by several experiments, and the calculated values agree well with the experiment results.

This article presents a computer simulation of stress distribution around tunnels and interaction between tunnels using an elasto-plastic model. A finite element method using ANSYS software has been used for the analyses of one and two tunnels at different overburden depths with different separating distances between the tunnels. The results of numerical analyses indicate that stress distribution and stress concentration around the tunnels vary with the overburden depths. It is found that the coefficients of stress concentration for elasto-plastic medium are smaller than those for elastic one by 1.9%. Furthermore, the interaction between the two tunnels rapidly decreases with the increase of separation distance between them. In addition, for quantitatively describing the interaction between the two tunnels, a critical separation distance is introduced. The critical separation distances between the two tunnels at different overburden depths are 8 m, 12 m, and 14 m respectively. This fact is very important and essential for the design of mining tunnels and to ensure safety in tunnel engineering.