Detection and discrimination of sulfate minerals using reflectance spectroscopy

A suite of sulfate minerals were characterized spectrally, compositionally, and structurally in order to develop spectral reflectance-compositional-structural relations for this group of minerals. Sulfates exhibit diverse spectral properties, and absorption-band assignments have been developed for the 0.3-26 μm range. Sulfate absorption features can be related to the presence of transition elements, OH, H₂O, and SO₄ groups. The number, wavelength position, and intensity of these bands are a function of both composition and structure. Cation substitutions can affect the wavelength positions of all major absorption bands. Hydroxo-bridged Fe³⁺ results in absorption bands in the 0.43, 0.5, and 0.9 μm regions, while the presence of Fe²⁺ results in absorption features in the 0.9-1.2 μm interval. Fundamental SO bending and stretching vibration absorption bands occur in the 8-10, 13-18, and 19-24 μm regions (1000-1250, 550-770, and 420-530 cm⁻¹). The most intense combinations and overtones of these fundamentals are found in the 4-5 μm (2000-2500 cm⁻¹) region. Absorption features seen in the 1.7-1.85 μm interval are attributable to HOH/OH bending and translation/rotation combinations, while bands in the 2.1-2.7 μm regions can be attributed to H₂O- and OH-combinations as well as overtones of SO bending fundamentals. OH- and H₂O-bearing sulfate spectra are fundamentally different from each other at wavelengths below ∼6 μm. Changes in H₂O/OH content can shift SO band positions due to change in bond lengths and structural rearrangement. Differences in absorption band wavelength positions enable discrimination of all the sulfate minerals used in this study in a number of wavelength intervals. Of the major absorption band regions, the 4-5 μm region seems best for identifying and discriminating sulfates in the presence of other major rock-forming minerals.     

Disaster risk perception in urban contexts and for people with disabilities: case study on the city of Iquique (Chile)

Natural Hazards - About 15% of the world’s population suffers from some kind of disability. In addition to experiencing high rates of poverty, exclusion and lack of access to education,...     

Challenges for creating a site-specific groundwater-use record for the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system (central USA) from 1900 to 2010

Hydrologic budgets to determine groundwater availability are important tools for water-resource managers. One challenging component for developing hydrologic budgets is quantifying water use through time because historical and site-specific water-use data can be sparse or poorly documented. This research developed a groundwater-use record for the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system (central USA) from 1900 to 2010 that related county-level aggregated water-use data to site-specific well locations and aquifer units. A simple population-based linear model, constrained to 0 million liters per day in 1900, provided the best means to extrapolate groundwater-withdrawal rates pre-1950s when there was a paucity of water-use data. To disaggregate county-level data to individual wells across a regional aquifer system, a programmatic hierarchical process was developed, based on the level of confidence that a well pumped groundwater for a specific use during a specific year. Statistical models tested on a subset of the best-available site-specific water-use data provided a mechanism to bracket historic groundwater use, such that groundwater-withdrawal rates ranged, on average, plus or minus 38% from modeled values. Groundwater withdrawn for public supply and domestic use accounted for between 48 and 74% of total groundwater use since 1901, highlighting that groundwater provides an important drinking-water resource. The compilation, analysis, and spatial and temporal extrapolation of water-use data remain a challenging task for water scientists, but is of paramount importance to better quantify groundwater use and availability.