An Automatic Well Planner for Complex Well Trajectories

Mathematical Geosciences - A data-driven automatic well planner procedure is implemented to develop complex well trajectories by efficiently adapting to near-well reservoir properties and geometry....     

Late Ordovician evolution of the intracratonic basins in north-west Gondwana

The Palaeozoic intracratonic basins in northwest Gondwana, i.e. the Amazonas, Parnaiba and Acera basins, probably opened during late Caradoc and Ashgill times. The fluviatile sedimentation later changed to littoral at the basinal margins. A transgression from the north-west region of Gondwana slowly overlapped the margins of the intracratonic basins. The transgression reached its maximum in the Rawtheyan (late Ashgill), as evidenced by fossiliferous shallow marine sediments in the Amazonas Basin. The Hirnantian glaciation in north Gondwana lowered the sea level, and in the Amazonas Basin a littoral sedimentation followed on shallow marine strata. From the opening of the basins onwards, a shallow sea probably existed close to the epicontinental basins in north-west Gondwana. The basins were connected via a narrow passage between the Guayana and Ivorian cratons.     

Multi-channel seismic reflection measurements in the Eurasian Basin, Arctic Ocean, from U.S. ice station Fram-IV

We present the first multi-channel seismic reflection data ever collected from the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean. The 200 km data set was acquired by a 20 channel sonobuoy array deployed at U.S. ice drift station FRAM-IV and operated for 34 days about 370 km north of Svalbard in April–May 1982. Cross array drift and ice floe rotation which may constitute the most serious obstacle to the advantage of multi-channel data acquisition did only occur to a minor degree during the experiment and render most of the data set suitable for processing using common mid-point binning.A 0.7–1.4 s (two-way traveltime) thick sedimentary section has been deposited over oceanic crust of mid-Oligocene age below the Barents Abyssal Plain. In the deepest part, sediments are infilling topographic lows which indicate predominantly turbidite deposition. Erosional truncations are only locally present in the central part of the section. Conformable bedforms deposited over gentle basement highs indicate a relatively stable bottom current regime since mid-Oligocene time. Thus the establishment of a deep water connection between the Arctic Ocean and lower latitude water masses appear to have had only minor effect on Eurasian Basin bottom current circulation.Extensive submarine slide scars on the north slope of Yermak Plateau show that mass waste have been a sediment source to the Barents Abyssal Plain.     

On some flare-sensitive high photospheric and low chromospheric lines

During a stay at the Kitt Peak National Observatory the writer has tried to find an influence of flare radiation on the high photospheric and low chromospheric lines of the area occupied by the flare. Observations have been made in the H region and in the region of the H and K lines. When flare emission is present in sunspots some of the faint (molecular) lines seem to be weakened. When a flare appears near the solar limb some of the Evershed-type (chromospheric) lines are strongly influenced.Kitt Peak National Observatory Contribution No. 481.Visiting Astronomer to the Solar Division, Kitt Peak National Observatory, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Land cover in Norway based on an area frame survey of vegetation types

The Norwegian area frame survey of land cover and outfield land resources (AR18X18), completed in 2014, provided unbiased statistics of land cover in Norway. The article reports the new statistics, discusses implications of the data set, and provides potential value in terms of research, management, and monitoring. A gridded sampling design for 1081 primary statistical units of 0.9 km² at 18?km intervals was implemented in the survey. The plots were mapped in situ, aided by aerial photos, and all areas were coded following a vegetation type system. The results provide new insights into the cover and distribution of vegetation and land cover types. The statistic for mire and wetlands, which previously covered 5.8%, has since been corrected to 8.9%. The survey results can be used for environmental and agricultural management, and the data can be stratified for regional analyses. The survey data can also serve as training data for remote sensing and distribution modelling. Finally, the survey data can be used to calibrate vegetation perturbations in climate change research that focuses on atmospheric–vegetation feedback. The survey documented novel land cover statistics and revealed that the national cover of wetlands had previously been underestimated.     

Can mirage phenomena be traced on the sun?

It is suggested, that effects of total reflection and refraction may appear sometimes in various objects on the Sun in connection with grazing incidence towards layers formed by magnetic fields and perhaps also by electrostatic double layers or shock waves. It seems possible that such effects may influence sometimes the contrast of bright structures as well as dark structures at selective wavelengths as well as in white light.     

Crustal structure and tectonic provinces of the Riiser-Larsen Sea area (East Antarctica): results of geophysical studies

About 16,000 km of multichannel seismic (MCS), gravity and magnetic data and 28 sonobuoys were acquired in the Riiser-Larsen Sea Basin and across the Gunnerus and Astrid Ridges, to study their crustal structure. The study area has contrasting basement morphologies and crustal thicknesses. The crust ranges in thickness from about 35 km under the Riiser-Larsen Sea shelf, 26–28 km under the Gunnerus Ridge, 12–17 km under the Astrid Ridge, and 9.5–10 km under the deep-water basin. A 50-km-wide block with increased density and magnetization is modeled from potential field data in the upper crust of the inshore zone and is interpreted as associated with emplacement of mafic intrusions into the continental margin of the southern Riiser-Larsen Sea. In addition to previously mapped seafloor spreading magnetic anomalies in the western Riiser-Larsen Sea, a linear succession from M2 to M16 is identified in the eastern Riiser-Larsen Sea. In the southwestern Riiser-Larsen Sea, a symmetric succession from M24B to 24n with the central anomaly M23 is recognized. This succession is obliquely truncated by younger lineation M22–M22n. It is proposed that seafloor spreading stopped at about M23 time and reoriented to the M22 opening direction. The seismic stratigraphy model of the Riiser-Larsen Sea includes five reflecting horizons that bound six seismic units. Ages of seismic units are determined from onlap geometry to magnetically dated oceanic basement and from tracing horizons to other parts of the southern Indian Ocean. The seaward edge of stretched and attenuated continental crust in the southern Riiser-Larsen Sea and the landward edge of unequivocal oceanic crust are mapped based on structural and geophysical characteristics. In the eastern Riiser-Larsen Sea the boundary between oceanic and stretched continental crust is better defined and is interpreted as a strike-slip fault lying along a sheared margin.     

Remark on rotational motions in flares and prominences

From material secured with the McMath Solar Telescope of the Kitt Peak National Observatory rotational (orbital) motion has been found in a prominence ejected from a rotating flare. A period of rotation of 32 min has been derived from the study of a periodic asymmetry of the AL i 3961 absorption line.Presented at the Physics of Prominences-colloquium at Anacapri, September 29, 1971.