The study presents the insights of the tectonic development and geological settings of the Atlantic Ocean supported by cartographic visualization in Generic Mapping Tools (GMT). The aim is to study ...geologic situation and trends in the tectonic development of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Atlantic Ocean seafloor. The objective is to find out impact of various factors (such as volcanic, tectonic, hydrothermal and sedimentary processes) that sculpt seafloor geomorphology, and correlation between early history of crust formation, geological processes and present submarine landforms. Other assignments in this work refer to mutual comparison of raster grids on sedimentation, topography, geology, seafloor fabric and highlighting similarities among the landforms and sediment thickness. Asymmetry in crustal accretion is explained by the tectonic history of the lithosphere formation. Correlation between plate subduction and development of the submarine landforms is explained by the Earth's crust extension resulting in formation of cracks, elongations, faults, rifts. Ocean seafloor geomorphology is shaped by a variety of factors that impact its form at different scales. These drivers (tectonic evolution, oceanic currents, hydrology, sedimentation) have effects on geomorphic landforms of the seafloor in context of historic geological development and during Quaternary. Technical part of this work was performed by GMT scripting toolset with all maps plotted in American polyconic projection. The results are received by overlay, cartographic analysis and synthesis of the multi-source geodata through mapping and interpreting grids (ETOPO1, EGM96, GlobSed, crustal age). This work contributes to expand the knowledge on geological and tectonic development of the Atlantic Ocean seabed in order to complete the view of its submarine geomorphology
The study presents geospatial analysis of the seabed distribution of North Sea sediments. Data include thematic datasets with a high-resolution: GlobSed 5-arc-minute total sediment thickness grid ...combined with GEBCO regional bathymetric grid and geophysical grids showing EGM2008 geoid undulations and marine free-air gravity. The data have been processed using GMT. The data analysis revealed variations in the occurrence and distribution of sediment materials as well as its relationship with topography and regional geophysical settings, marine free-air gravity and geoid. Analysis of the topographic map was performed to describe the structural features of the seafloor. Ridges, large-scale sandbanks, shallow coastal areas and local depressions illustrate uneven bathymetry with northward increasing depths. The highest recorded value is 12,779.642 m located in the northern ares in the SW coast of Norway. Moderate values of sediment thickness (5,000-6,000 m) stretching in NW direction clearly correlate with the marine gravity anomaly isolines with values 10-20 mGal which points at the local relief forms in central basin of the North Sea. The subsidence of the outer shelf of the North Sea and increase of sediment thickness is notable in the central depressions and northern areas: Faroe Islands and Rockall Plateau. The sediment thickness shows the relationship with the topography increasing toward high latitudes. It is also associated with the isostatic sink of the submarine relief in the peripheral areas of the Arctic Ocean. Topographic compensation for the seafloor subsidence by increasing sediment thickness explains local dislocations connected with submarine geomorphology. This study also demonstrated that accurate GMT-based cartographic visualization of the oceanic seafloor using high-resolution multi-source raster grids is crucial to better understand spatial distribution of the marine sediments in the northern latitudes of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The study details geological analysis of the South China Sea region. South China Sea is a marginal sea located in unique geographical region of west Pacific Ocean. It has a complex tectonics history ...being developed at subduction zone of three tectonic plates: Eurasian, Pacific and Indian. Geologically, South China Sea is rich in mineral resources and has high geological prospects. Within the scope of the study, the review of the general settings of the study area (bathymetry, geology, tectonics and sedimentation) is accomplished by the report on the current activities, methods and research clusters. Current directions in the marine geological research in the South China Sea area are presented. Research methods of the seafloor surveying and mapping currently undertaken in the South China Sea region are described: systematic measurement by multi-beam echo-sounders, altimetric measurements, GPS positioning, application of the unmanned underwater vehicles, GIS mapping, data analysis, dredging and drilling. The results include maps visualized by means of Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) showing geological and geophysical settings in the South China Sea region, bathymetry and model of the marine free-air gravity. Research development and recent progress in marine geologic investigations are reported with focus on current activities in the coastal area of the South China Sea region.
The presented research aimed to perform geophysical modelling (gravity and geoid) and to evaluate the spatio-temporal variation of the marine geological data (distribution and depth of earthquakes) ...using combination of the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) and available sources from the International Seismological Centre (ISC-EHB) that produce data on earthquakes as part of seismic survey and regional research projects. The target study area is a Philippine Sea basin (PSB) with two focused marginal areas: Philippine Trench and Mariana Trench, two hadal trenches located in the places of the tectonic plates subduction. Marine free-air gravity anomaly in the PSP shows higher values (>80 mGal) of the gravity fields structure at the volcanic areas and Philippine archipelago. Current study presented comparative geophysical analysis, and mapping free-air gravity and geoid in the Philippine Sea basin area. As a result of this study, the average level of earthquakes located in the Philippine Trench and Mariana Trench areas were compared, and those located in the Philippine archipelago are determined to be in the souther-western part (area of west Mindanao, south-west Visayas islands), while Luzon Islands shown shallower located earthquakes. The results on the Mariana Trench segment shown shallower located earthquakes compared of the other marginal regions of the Philippine Sea Basin. Current paper contributes to the studies on natural hazards through visualization and analysis of the earthquakes activities (occurrence and magnitude intensity), due to increasing interest to the problems of seismicity in the Pacific Ocean, which may have environmental effects causing harmful consequences and possible risks for coastal population of the Philippine islands through aftershocks and tsunami.
In this paper, an image analysis framework is formulated for Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI/TIRS) scenes using the R programming language. The libraries of R are ...shown to be effective in remote sensing data processing tasks, such as classification using k-means clustering and computing the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The data are processed using an integration of the RStoolbox, terra, raster, rgdal and auxiliary packages of R. The proposed approach to image processing using R is designed to exploit the parameters of image bands as cues to detect land cover types and vegetation parameters corresponding to the spectral reflectance of the objects represented on the Earth’s surface. Our method is effective at processing the time series of the images taken at various periods to monitor the landscape dynamics in the middle part of the Congo River basin, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Whereas previous approaches primarily used Geographic Information System (GIS) software, we proposed to explicitly use the scripting methods for satellite image analysis by applying the extended functionality of R. The application of scripts for geospatial data is an effective and robust method compared with the traditional approaches due to its high automation and machine-based graphical processing. The algorithms of the R libraries are adjusted to spatial operations, such as projections and transformations, object topology, classification and map algebra. The data include Landsat-8 OLI-TIRS covering the three regions along the Congo river, Bumba, Basoko and Kisangani, for the years 2013, 2015 and 2022. We also validate the performance of graphical data handling for cartographic visualization using R libraries for visualising changes in land cover types by k-means clustering and calculation of the NDVI for vegetation analysis.
Evaluating soil strength by geophysical methods using P-waves was undertaken in this study to assess the effects of changed binder ratios on stabilization and compression characteristics. The ...materials included dredged sediments collected in the seabed of Timrå region, north Sweden. The Portland cement (Basement CEM II/A-V, SS EN 197-1) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) were used as stabilizers. The experiments were performed on behalf of the Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) Biorefinery Östrand AB pulp mill. Quantity of binder included 150, 120 and 100 kg. The properties of soil were evaluated after 28, 42, 43, 70, 71 and 85 days of curing using applied geophysical methods of measuring the travel time of primary wave propagation. The P-waves were determined to evaluate the strength of stabilized soils. The results demonstrated variation of P-waves velocity depending on stabilizing agent and curing time in various ratios: Low water/High binder (LW/HB), High water/Low binder (HW/LB) and percentage of agents (CEM II/A-V/GGBFS) as 30%/70%, 50%/50% and 70%/30%. The compression characteristics of soils were assessed using uniaxial compressive strength (UCS). The P-wave velocities were higher for samples stabilized with LW/HB compared to those with HW/LB. The primary wave propagation increased over curing time for all stabilized mixes along with the increased UCS, which proves a tight correlation with the increased strength of soil solidified by the agents. Increased water ratio gives a lower strength by maintained amount of binder and vice versa.
Abstract Marine sediments can be stabilized by ultra high-strength binders: cement, Cement Kiln Dust (CKD) and slag. The properties of the stabilized soil indicate potential to their reuse. This ...study investigated the performance of the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) in the marine sediments stabilized by binder (cement, CKD, slag), tested by ultrasonic P-waves. Materials include 194 specimens collected from the port of Gothenborg. The experiment was performed in Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI). The UCS of specimens stabilized by different ratio of binders (cement, CKD, slag) was tested by resonance frequencies of the elastic P-waves. The significant increase in the UCS (>1500 kPa) was recorded for the highest values of CKD and cement, and low values of slag. The correlation profiles of low water/high binder (L W /H B ) cement/slag (40/60%) were controlled by curing time. The slag–cement–CKD simplex tests demonstrated UCS of samples with low/high water content and various binder ratio of cement (kg/m 3 ). The ratio of cement binder and curing time play a critical role in the increase of UCS followed by mechanical properties of specimens and intensity of stress. The highest values exceed 1000 m/s in P-waves. The results shown high accuracy (97%) and non-contacting approach for testing UCS of sediments. Seismic methods can be applied to test the UCS of the stabilized sediments, and also in-situ via seismic CPT, surface testing or cross hole seismic testing.
The main purpose of this article is to present the use of R programming language in cartographic visualization demonstrating using machine learning methods in geographic education. Current trends in ...education technologies are largely influenced by the possibilities of distance-learning, e-learning and selflearning. In view of this, the main tendencies in modern geographic education include active use of open source GIS and publicly available free geospatial datasets that can be used by students for cartographic exercises, data visualization and mapping, both at intermediate and advanced levels. This paper contributes to the development of these methods and is fully based on the datasets and tools available for every student: the R programming language and the free open source datasets. The case study demonstrated in this paper show the examples of both physical geographic mapping (geomorphology) and socio-economic geography (regional mapping) which can be used in the classes and in self-learning. The objective of this research includes geomorphological modelling of the terrain relief in Italy and regional mapping. The data include dem SRTM90 and datasets on regional borders of Italy embedded in R packages 'maps' and 'mapdata'. Modelling references to the characteristics of slope, aspect, hillshade and elevation, their visualization using R packages: 'raster' and 'tmap'. Regional mapping of Italy was made using main package 'ggmap' with the 'ggplot2' as a wrapper. The results present five thematic maps (slope, aspect, hillshade, elevation and regions of Italy) created in R language. Traditionally used in statistical analysis, R is less known as a perfect tool in geographic education. This paper contributes to the development of methods in geographic education by presenting new technologies of the machine learning methods of mapping.
The author presents a geospatial analysis of the Peru-Chile Trench located in the South Pacific Ocean by the Generic Mapping Tool (GMT) scripting toolset used to process and model data sets. The ...study goal is to perform geomorphological modelling by the comparison of two segments of the trench located in northern (Peruvian) and southern (Chilean) parts. The aim of the study is to perform automatic digitizing profiles using GMT and several scripting modules. Orthogonal cross-section profiles transecting the trench in a perpendicular direction were automatically digitized, and the profiles visualized and compared. The profiles show variations in the geomorphology of the trench in the northern and southern segments. To visualize geological and geophysical settings, a set of the thematic maps was visualized by GMT modules: free-air gravity anomaly, geoid, geology and bathymetry. The results of the descriptive statistical analysis of the bathymetry in both segments show that the most frequent depths for the Peruvian segment of the Peru-Chile Trench range from -4,000 to -4,200 (827 recorded samples) versus the range of -4,500 to -4,700 m for the Peruvian segment (1,410 samples). The Peruvian segment of the trench is deeper and its geomorphology steeper with abrupt slopes compared to the Chilean segment. A comparison of the data distribution for both segments gives the following results. The Peruvian segment has the majority of data (23%) reaching 1,410 (-4,500 m to -4,700 m). This peak shows a steep pattern in data distribution, while other data in the neighbouring diapason are significantly lower: 559 (-4,700 m to -5,000 m) and 807 (-4,200 m to -4,400 m). The Chilean segment has more unified data distribution for depths of -6,000 m to -7,000 m. This paper presents GMT workflow for the cartographic automatic modelling and mapping deep-sea trench geomorphology.
In this paper, we propose an advanced scripting approach using Python and R for satellite image processing and modelling terrain in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. Data include Landsat 9 OLI/TIRS C2 L1 ...and the SRTM digital elevation model (DEM). The EarthPy library of Python and 'raster' and 'terra' packages of R are used as tools for data processing. The methodology includes computing vegetation indices to derive information on vegetation coverage and terrain modelling. Four vegetation indices were computed and visualised using R: the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index 2 (EVI2), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) and Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index 2 (ARVI2). The SAVI index is demonstrated to be more suitable and better adjusted to the vegetation analysis, which is beneficial for agricultural monitoring in Côte d'Ivoire. The terrain analysis is performed using Python and includes slope, aspect, hillshade and relief modelling with changed parameters for the sun azimuth and angle. The vegetation pattern in Côte d'Ivoire is heterogeneous, which reflects the complexity of the terrain structure. Therefore, the terrain and vegetation data modelling is aimed at the analysis of the relationship between the regional topography and environmental setting in the study area. The upscaled mapping is performed as regional environmental analysis of the Yamoussoukro surroundings and local topographic modelling of the Kossou Lake. The algorithms of the data processing include image resampling, band composition, statistical analysis and map algebra used for calculation of the vegetation indices in Côte d'Ivoire. This study demonstrates the effective application of the advanced programming algorithms in Python and R for satellite image processing.