The occurrence and geochemistry of arsenic in groundwaters of the Newark basin of Pennsylvania

Elevated As concentrations in groundwater in the eastern United States have been recognized predominantly in the accretionary geologic terranes of northern New England. A retrospective examination of more than 18,000 existing groundwater samples from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) Drinking Water and Sampling Information System database indicates that elevated groundwater As concentrations occur throughout the northern half of the Piedmont Province of Pennsylvania. Chemical analyses of 53 samples collected in 2005 from drinking water wells in this area all had detectable As, and 23% of these samples contained elevated (>133 nmol/L or >10 μg/L) concentrations of As. Elevated concentrations of As in the groundwater samples were most common in the Mesozoic sedimentary strata composed of sandstone and red mudstone with interbedded gray shale, and gray to black siltstone and shale. Arsenic was typically not elevated in groundwater of diabase intrusions of the Newark Basin or in crystalline and calcareous aquifers to the north of the Newark Basin. Geochemical parameters such as pH and oxidation–reduction potential can indicate mobility mechanisms of As in some regions. In this area, measured groundwater conditions were predominantly oxidizing (Eh > +50 mV), and more than 85% of samples contained arsenate as the dominant As species. Variations in pH were strongly correlated to the As concentration, with highest As concentrations observed at pH values greater than 6.4. The original source of As is most likely the black and gray shales that contain some arsenian pyrite with groundwater concentrations likely to be controlled by adsorption/desorption reactions with Fe oxides in the red mudstone aquifer materials.     

Bestimmung sehr kleiner Verteilungskoeffizienten von Cs,Na und Ba zwischen Lösung und KCl-Einkristallen mit Hilfe radioaktiver Isotope

Distribution of Cs, Na, and Ba between great monocrystals of KCl and water solution was investigated. Impurity was either labelled by long-lived radioactive isotopes or was activated after growth of the crystals by neutrons in a nuclear reactor. No influence on partition coefficients was caused by using radioactive tracers, e.g. due to raised inclusion of mother liquor. Between impurity concentrations from 3·10^–4 to 10^–1 in the solution the partition coefficients were nearly constant and about 10^–3 for Na, about 10^–4 for Cs, and <5·10^–5 for Ba in KCl at temperatures of 40° C. If different impurity ions were built in simultaneously, the partition coefficients were independent of composition of solution. In case of Cs in KCl capture of Cs increased with increasing temperature.

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Meinem hoehverehrten Lehrer, Herrn Prof. Dr. W. von Engelhart, danke ieh für die freundliehe Überlassung des interessanten Themas. Für die stete Förderung und die zahlreichen fruehtbaren Diskussionen und Anregungen bin ich ihm und Herrn Dr. H. Puchelt zu großem Dank verpflichtet.Dem Bundesnlinisterium für wissensehaftliehe Forsehung danke ieh ffir die großzügige Unterstützung der Arbeit.Herrn Prof. Dr. W. Seelmann-Eggebert und Herrn Dr. V. Schneider vom Kernforsehungszentrum Karlsruhe und Herrn Dr. Bartel von der Kernforsehungsanlage Jülich danke ich für die Unterstützung bei der Neutronenaktivierung und Herrn Dr. J. Ottemann vom Mineralogischen Instigut der Universität Heidelberg für die Untersuchung mit der Elektronenmikrosonde.     

The contribution of atmospheric acid deposition to ocean acidification in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean

The absorption of anthropogenic CO₂ and atmospheric deposition of acidity can both contribute to the acidification of the global ocean. Rainfall pH measurements and chemical compositions monitored on the island of Bermuda since 1980, and a long-term seawater CO₂ time-series (1983–2005) in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda were used to evaluate the influence of acidic deposition on the acidification of oligotrophic waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and coastal waters of the coral reef ecosystem of Bermuda. Since the early 1980's, the average annual wet deposition of acidity at Bermuda was 15 ± 14 mmol m^− 2 year^− 1, while surface seawater pH decreased by 0.0017 ± 0.0001 pH units each year. The gradual acidification of subtropical gyre waters was primarily due to uptake of anthropogenic CO₂. We estimate that direct atmospheric acid deposition contributed 2% to the acidification of surface waters in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean, although this value likely represents an upper limit. Acidifying deposition had negligible influence on seawater CO₂ chemistry of the Bermuda coral reef, with no evident impact on hard coral calcification.     

Nocdap results: On the relationship of extreme waves and currents for design of offshore structures

Simultaneous wind, wave, and current data during 21 storms spanning four winters at Tromsøflaket (230 m depth) were analysed to determine joint probabilities of occurrence. Waves were measured with a Waverider Buoy, winds with a recording anemometer onboard a vessel and currents at up to five depths with Aandera RCM-4 current meters. Measured currents were filtered to separate tidal currents from residual currents. In most of the statistical analyses, the actual current profiles were replaced with a simplified “equivalent” profile (constant above 50 m depth) whose magnitude was chosen to give the same drag load on a single pile as the actual profile when both profiles were combined with wave orbital velocities. The data suggest that the equivalent current is weakly correlated with the wave height. Within the range of the data analysed, an in-line equivalent residual current of 30 cm sec⁻¹ is adequate for design drag force calculations.The data presented here are used to illustrate a procedure for data analysis and are not suitable for use as design criteria.     

Correlative changes in metabolism and DNA damage in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) exposed to benzo[a]pyrene

Juvenile turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) were injected intraperitoneally with either corn oil or 5 mg/kg benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) dissolved in corn oil and sampled I and 3 days after injection. After 1 day, no elevation of 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD) activity was observed, however bile metabolites (BaP-7,8 dihydrodiol representing 70% of the total metabolites) and a single hepatic DNA adduct spot (0.47 adducts/10(8) nucleotides) identified by 32P-postlabelling were formed. No BaP metabolites or DNA adducts were observed in either control or carrier control fish. Fish sampled after 3 days reported 5-fold higher (P < 0.05) levels of EROD activity, a shift in the bile metabolite profile towards BaP phenol formation (1OH and 30H BaP comprising up to 60% of total metabolites detected) and the formation of two adduct spots (0.86 and 0.71 adducts/10(8) nucleotides). These results show that BaP can be metabolised and form hydrophobic DNA adducts in turbot without EROD elevation. Following EROD elevation, a shift in the profile of both BaP metabolites and BaP metabolite-DNA interactions occurs indicative of other oxidative processes.     

Performance of the complete travel-time equation of state at simultaneous high pressure and temperature

The complete travel-time equation of state (CT-EOS) is presented by utilizing thermodynamics relations, such as; $$K_T = K_S (1 + \alpha \gamma T)^{ - 1} , \gamma = \frac{{\alpha K_S }}{{\rho C_P }}, \left. {\frac{{\partial C_P }}{{\partial P}}} \right)_T = - \frac{T}{\rho }\left[ {\alpha ^2 + \left. {\frac{{\partial \alpha }}{{\partial T}}} \right)_P } \right], etc.$$ The CT-EOS enables us to analyze ultrasonic experimental data under simultaneous high pressure and high temperature without introducing any assumption, as long as the density, or thermal expansivity, and heat capacity are also available as functions of temperature at zero pressure. The performance of the CT-EOS was examined by using synthesized travel-time data with random noise of 10^?5 and 10^?4 amplitude up to 4 GPa and 1500 K. Those test conditions are to be met with the newly developed GHz interferometry in a gas medium piston cylinder apparatus. The results suggest that the combination of the CT-EOS and accurate experimental data (10^?4 in travel time) can determine thermodynamic and elastic parameters, as well as their derivatives with unprecedented accuracy, yielding second-order pressure derivatives (?² M/?P ²) of the elastic moduli as well as the temperature derivatives of their first-order pressure derivatives ?² M/?P?T). The completeness of the CT-EOS provides an unambiguous criterion to evaluate the compatibility of empirical EOS with experimental data. Furthermore because of this completeness, it offers the possibility of a new and absolute pressure calibration when X-ray (i.e., volume) measurements are made simultaneously with the travel-time measurements.     

Narrow-line dynamics in Seyfert and starburst nuclei

Rotating disks and expanding supershells of ionized gas are supposed to be kinematical components essential for the formation of emission-like profiles from starburst nuclei and the narrow-line regions of Seyfert galaxies. Simple models predict a few typical features of line profiles by which disks may be recognized.A giant supershell is identified SE of the nucleus of the starburst galaxy NGC 253. We suggest that the variously reported outflow cones in Seyfert nuclei are also induced by superbubble dynamics. Observations of NGC 4151 are shown to be consistent with this scenario.Paper presented at the 11th European Regional Astronomical Meetings of the IAU on New Windows to the Universe, held 3–8 July, 1989, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.     

War and the commons: Assessing the changing politics of violence, access and entitlements in Sri Lanka

There are two antagonistic, but equally influential traditions in the study of the nexus between resource use and violent conflict. One works through a Malthusian frame linking resource scarcity with violence, the other school of thought establishes a nexus between resource abundance and the incentives to use violence for rent monopolisation in a political economy of war or markets of violence. The tacit essentialism inherent in both schools of thought has increasingly come under critical scrutiny by geographers and anthropologists. To escape such essentialism requires a more detailed study of the dynamism of the political economy of (civil) war and its spatial dynamics, the political geographies of violence. In this paper, we study endowments and entitlements of people depending on common-pool or open-access resources in war-affected areas of Sri Lanka. Rural spaces in the war-affected areas became both a strategic retreat for fighters and an important common-pool resource on which a large part of the rural populace depended for their survival. Our research illustrates how the political geographies of war affect access regimes and entitlements to common-pool resources and thereby confine the livelihood opportunities of resource users. These dynamics of the political economy of war cross different scales and go beyond simple place-based struggles, for they are rooted in broader spatial dynamics of warfare creating place-space tensions in the sense that spatial dynamics of military control impinge changing access regimes upon specific places.     

Seismic lamination and anisotropy of the Lower Continental Crust

Seismic lamination in the lower crust associated with marked anisotropy has been observed at various locations. Three of these locations were investigated by specially designed experiments in the near vertical and in the wide-angle range, that is the Urach and the Black Forrest area, both belonging to the Moldanubian, a collapsed Variscan terrane in southern Germany, and in the Donbas Basin, a rift inside the East European (Ukrainian) craton. In these three cases, a firm relationship between lower crust seismic lamination and anisotropy is found. There are more cases of lower-crustal lamination and anisotropy, e.g. from the Basin and Range province (western US) and from central Tibet, not revealed by seismic wide-angle measurements, but by teleseismic receiver function studies with a P–S conversion at the Moho. Other cases of lamination and anisotropy are from exhumed lower crustal rocks in Calabria (southern Italy), and Val Sesia and Val Strona (Ivrea area, Northern Italy). We demonstrate that rocks in the lower continental crust, apart from differing in composition, differ from the upper mantle both in terms of seismic lamination (observed in the near-vertical range) and in the type of anisotropy. Compared to upper mantle rocks exhibiting mainly orthorhombic symmetry, the symmetry of the rocks constituting the lower crust is either axial or orthorhombic and basically a result of preferred crystallographic orientation of major minerals (biotite, muscovite, hornblende). We argue that the generation of seismic lamination and anisotropy in the lower crust is a consequence of the same tectonic process, that is, ductile deformation in a warm and low-viscosity lower crust. This process takes place preferably in areas of extension. Heterogeneous rock units are formed that are generally felsic in composition, but that contain intercalations of mafic intrusions. The latter have acted as heat sources and provide the necessary seismic impedance contrasts. The observed seismic anisotropy is attributed to lattice preferred orientation (LPO) of major minerals, in particular of mica and hornblende, but also of olivine. A transversely isotropic symmetry system, such as expected for sub-horizontal layering, is found in only half of the field studies. Azimuthal anisotropy is encountered in the rest of the cases. This indicates differences in the horizontal components of tectonic strain, which finally give rise to differences in the evolution of the rock fabric.