Millimeter-scale concentration gradients of hydrocarbons in Archean shales: Live-oil escape or fingerprint of contamination?

Archean shales from the Pilbara in Western Australia contain biomarkers that have been interpreted as evidence for the existence of cyanobacteria and eukaryotes 2.7 billion years (Ga) ago, with far reaching implications for the evolution of Earth’s early biosphere. To re-evaluate the provenance of the biomarkers, this study determined the spatial distribution of hydrocarbons in the original drill core material. Rock samples were cut into millimeter-thick slices, and the molecular content of each slice was analyzed. In core from the Hamersley Group (∼2.5 Ga), C_<13 alkanes had gradually increasing concentrations from the surfaces to the center of the rock while the abundance of steranes, hopanes and C₁₅₊ alkanes decreased with distance from the outer surfaces. In samples from the Fortescue Group (∼2.7 Ga), hydrocarbons were overwhelmingly concentrated on rock surfaces.Two mechanisms are proposed that may have caused the inhomogeneous distribution: diffusion of petroleum products into the rock (contamination model), and leaching of indigenous hydrocarbons out of host shales driven by pressure release after drilling (‘live-oil’ effect). To test these models, the hydrocarbon distributions in the Archean shales are compared with artificially contaminated rocks as well as younger mudstones where leaching of live-oil had been observed.The results show that chromatographic phenomena associated with live-oil escape and contaminant diffusion have strong effects on molecular ratios and maturity parameters, potentially with broad implications for oil-source rock correlation studies and paleoenvironmental interpretations.For the Archean shales, the live-oil effect is consistent with some of the observed patterns, but only the contamination model fully explains the complex chromatographic fingerprints. Therefore, the biomarkers in the Pilbara samples have an anthropogenic origin, and previous conclusions about the origin of eukaryotes and oxygenic photosynthesis based on these samples are not valid.However, the study also identified indigenous molecules. The spatial distribution of particular aromatic hydrocarbons suggests they are syngenetic. Although devoid of biological information, these aromatics now represent the oldest known clearly-indigenous terrestrial liquid hydrocarbons.     

Western migrants in central Europe: Isolated individuals or members of transnational communities?

Migration flows from western Europe, the United States and Canada to east central Europe have received little attention so far. But numbers are now considerable and in the context of globalisation it seems appropriate to conceptualise communities of Westerners in terms of transnational social spaces as defined by Glick Schiller et al. Study of Americans in Prague reveals three main groups: enterprise managers, lifestyle migrants and entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized enterprises. All are engaged in a variety of different processes of community-building, often with clear trends towards a new transnationalism. Yet, the individual attempt to live in two societies is limited by the marked boundaries of the communities and by the degree of social exclusion which they experience from the majority population. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Groundwater deterioration in Nankou—a suburban area of Beijing: data assessment and remediation scenarios

Since the 1980s, high-nitrate concentration in one of the groundwater sampling wells at the Nankou site, northwest of the Beijing Plain, has become a major concern for the local water authority. In a previous study (Sun et?al. in Environ Earth Sci 64(5):1323?C1333, 2011), a hydrogeological structural model was developed based on the borehole logs of this area and the steady, as well as transient groundwater-flow models, were calibrated using the measured hydraulic heads. In this paper, the potential pollution sources in this area are investigated. The chemical analysis of the groundwater is also presented. The results demonstrate that the most likely pollution source is the untreated wastewater discharge from a nearby fertilizer factory. Furthermore, a mass transport model is developed to reproduce the nitrate transport process in the aquifer at the Nankou site under different pollution sources, i.e., a fertilizer factory, river with wastewater and an agriculture field. The combined effects of the river and agriculture fields present a better understanding of the nitrate transport in the local aquifer. In addition, a pumping scenario is designed to clean up the current nitrate concentration. The pumping rate and the well location are first estimated with 2-D analytical solutions of the type curves method. Then a 3-D numerical model is used to calculate the nitrate-concentration changes after the pumping activities start. In the downstream direction of the regional groundwater flow, three pumping wells are set up for the clean-up strategy. The calculated pumping rate in each well is about 1,500 m³/day. After 1?year, the nitrate concentration in the observation well recedes to 68?mg/l from the initial value of 72.9?mg/l, and it will be lower than the limitation value (20?mg/l) after 5,400 days of groundwater extraction. The data assessment and clean-up scenarios reported in this paper are fundamental for the contaminated aquifer management in the future.     

The future of failure: stress or strain?

Strains in rocks can be observed but ancient stresses can only be inferred. We should re-examine the potential of strain geometry as the key to understanding and interpreting common shear structures ranging from faults to plastic shear zones. The concept of failure along zero extension directions can be applied to natural structures in rocks and is predicated on strain compatibility between differently strained volumes. Zero extension directions are considered for two strain configurations, plane strain (k=1) and uniaxial shortening (k=0). The crucial difference between shear fractures, or faults, and plastic yield zones is that the former are preceded by dilatation while the latter are isovolumetric. Volume changes during deformation affect the orientations of zero extension directions and hence of the resulting structures. With isovolumetric strain, yield occurs on planes at 45° to the principal shortening direction in plane strain and at 54.7° to this axis in uniaxial shortening. Uniaxial shortening experiments on rock samples allow estimation of the relative volumetric strains when yield zones initiate. When this volumetric strain is used to estimate the orientation of shear fractures in plane strain, ca 70° dips are predicted for normal faults at high crustal levels, decreasing downwards to 45°.     

Feasibility study of CO_2 geological storage in China

It has been proved to be one effective means to reduce emissions of CO2 to mitigate the worsening global climate change through lots of projects and tests about CO2 geological storage. The sites that are suitable for CO2 geological storage include coal seams that can not be mined, deep saline aquifers, oil fields, and depleted gas fields. The emission of CO2 from fuel combustion is about 3.54 Gt in China in 2003, which is the second biggest in the world. Because the energy consumption in C…     

Impact of household expenditures on CO2 emissions in China: Income-determined or lifestyle-driven?

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between household expenditure and CO₂ emissions among different income groups of urban and rural households in China. Having employed the 2007 Social Accounting Matrix of China, this study examines the direct and indirect CO₂ emissions caused by household demand. The results show that within both urban and rural households, the higher the income level is, the higher the per capita emissions are; the CO₂ emissions per unit expenditure due to savings and taxes are generally much larger than those from consumption of goods and services; and these emissions per unit consumption expenditures mainly come from indirect emissions. To deeply explore the relationships between consumption patterns and CO₂ emissions, two scenarios are established to eliminate the differences in income level and consumption propensity among different groups step by step. Main results indicate that (1) the income gap is the primary cause of the significant differences in emission levels among each group; (2) the difference in consumption propensity is also a notable reason; and (3) the rural higher income groups spend a larger share of their income on those carbon-intensive goods (e.g., electricity, transportation, energy products), thus making their consumption patterns more carbon-intensive, while for the urban, the consumption patterns of lower income groups are more carbon-intensive. Finally, policy recommendations on the reduction of household emissions are also made.

     

Reassessment of global climate risk: non-compensatory or compensatory?

Natural Hazards - Evidence shows the global climate will continue to change over this century and beyond. A clear understanding of the climate change risk is suggested to be the foundation of the...     

Near-orthogonal foliation development in orogens: meaningless complexity,or reflection of fundamental dynamic processes?

Orogenic belts are geometrically complex owing to repeated deformation. Within this complexity, there is evidence that may suggest a common pattern of sequential steeply dipping and gently dipping foliations. Seven possible explanations are presented for the sequential development of these foliations, which can probably be reduced to four of general importance: (1) the passage of thrust sheets over flats and ramps; (2) switching of the maximum and minimum compressive stress orientations during orogenesis; (3) reversal of structural development owing to strong rheological anisotropy; and (4) back-rotation of crenulation hinges during crenulation cleavage development. It is suggested that all four of these reflect fundamental dynamic processes at work to build an orogen, and therefore that sequentially overprinted steeply and gently dipping foliations also reflect such fundamental processes. This illustrates that detailed geometrical analysis at the meso- and microscales can provide valuable input to dynamic models of orogenesis.     

Rainfall in Central Sudan: An asset or a liability?

Sudan has been at the centre of the debate of drought and famine issues over the last 3 or 4 years. While the ideas of a simplistic casual link between these two phenomena has been partially slain, there still remains the desire in some circles to find a scapegoat for famine. Drought remains one of the readiest to hand. Rather than being seen as a basic characteristic of the rainfall resource which requires management, drought is seen as such an abnormality that it provides too convenient an excuse for the failure of agriculture, inadequacy of water supplies, exhaustion of soils and other environmental phenomena that have afflicted Sudan within the last 3–4 years (and longer). Such an attitude is in danger of converting rainfall in Sudan from an asset to a liability. This paper examines rainfall in Sudan as a resource and hence a potential asset. Drought is recognised as an inherent characteristic of that resource and its management discussed. It is suggested that the performance of indigenous traditional adaptive strategies has contrasted favourably with those of Governmental institutions. Reasons for this are given. Some broad options for future perspectives on the effective management of rainfall are outlined.     

Carbonate xenoliths in La Palma: Carbonatite or alteration product?

Carbonate xenoliths containing olivine and rimmed by kaersutitic amphibole were collected in basaltic rocks of the Basal Complex of La Palma. The mineralogical composition and microscopic appearance may suggest a relationship with carbonatites in general, thus a major element, trace element and stable isotope study was conducted to investigate the origin of the carbonate formation. Based on electron microprobe analyses, the carbonate is calcite with up to 6.3 wt% MgO and 7.2 wt% SiO₂. The elevated SiO₂ content may suggest a melt origin for the carbonate. However, the C and O isotope compositions of the carbonate xenoliths (δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O around −1‰ and 13‰, respectively) are similar to those of calcite veins and amygdales in basaltic rocks of the Basal Complexes of La Palma and Fuerteventura and are interpreted as produced by fluid degassing and metasomatism by CO₂-H₂O fluid derived from mobilization of sedimentary material. Trace element contents determined by laser-ablation ICP-MS analyses support the assumed origin, thus, the relationship with carbonatitic melts can be excluded. Based on trace element compositions, the amphibole surrounding the xenoliths is not related genetically to the carbonate. The elevated SiO₂ content of the calcite can be attributed to submicron relics of pyroxene, thus, the use of this feature as an evidence for melt origin is questionable.     

Mechanism of formation of superdeep sedimentary basins: lithospheric stretching or eclogitization?

The superdeep North Caspian, South Caspian, and Barents basins have their sedimentary fill much thicker and the Moho, correspondingly, much deeper than it is required for crustal subsidence by lithospheric stretching. In the absence of large gravity anomalies, this crustal structure indicates the presence under the Moho of a thick layer of eclogite which is denser than mantle peridotite. Crustal subsidence in the basins can be explained by high-grade metamorphism of mafic lower crust. The basins produced by lithospheric stretching normally subside for the first ～100 myr of their history, while at least half of the subsidence in the three basins occurred after that period, which is another evidence against the stretching formation mechanism. According to the seismic reflection profiling data, stretching can be responsible for only a minor part of the subsidence in the Caspian and Barents basins. As for the South Caspian basin, there has been a large recent subsidence event in a setting of compression. Therefore, eclogitization appears to be a realistic mechanism of crustal subsidence in superdeep basins.     

Granulites of the Kolpakovskaya Series in the sredinny range,Kamchatka: A myth or reality?

Geological, mineralogical, and geothermobarometric data testify that the regional metamorphism of the terrigenous protolith of the Kolpakovskaya Series, which composes the stratigraphic basement of the Kamchatka Median Crystalline Massif, corresponded to the kyanite mineral subfacies of the amphibolite facies at temperatures of 560–660°C and pressures of 5.9–6.9 kbar. This metamorphism predetermined wide kyanite development in high-Al garnet-biotite plagiogneisses. The younger granitization and migmatization of the plagiogneisses took place at a decrease in the pressure (depth), as follows from the textures of kyanite reaction replacement by andalusite in both the metamorphic rocks and the vein synmetamorphic granitoids and pegmatites. The temperature of the granitization and migmatization processes in the plagiogneisses was estimated at 620–650°C, and the pressure was evaluated at 1.9–3.0 kbar. Acid leaching that accompanied the granitization and migmatization processes resulted in the intense replacement of biotite by sillimanite (fibrolite) and, to a lesser degree, muscovite in the metamorphic and vein magmatic rocks. The highest temperature orthopyroxene-cordierite-biotite-orthoclase-plagioclase-quartz mineral assemblages were determined to have been formed in the Kolpakovskaya Series at a temperature of 830–840°C not by the regional metamorphism but in contact aureoles around gabbro-granitoid intrusions of the Lavkinskii intrusive complex of Oligocene-Miocene age in garnet-biotite and kyanite-garnet-biotite plagiogneisses of the amphibolite facies and cannot thus be regarded as evidence of an early granulite stage in the metamorphism of these rocks.     

Gold in Egypt: Does the future get worse or better?

Within the Eastern Desert of Egypt, there are more than a hundred vein-type gold deposits and occurrences. Gold was mined in the Dynastic and Roman periods of the Egyptian history and most of the attention was focused entirely on the near-surface high grade parts of these veins. Currently, besides the more problematic sulfide-rich quartz veins, which generally occur in the lower levels of the worked out auriferous quartz veins, some targets including wall-rock alteration, listwaenite, dumps and tailings of ancient mines, by-product gold hosted in volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits and gold-bearing Algoma-type BIF, as well as alluvial gold constitute the new targets for gold in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. In most of these targets, gold displays a bimodal distribution; occurring both as free-milling gold and in the form of sub-microscopic or “invisible” gold in refractory sulfides and sulfoarsenides such as pyrite, chalcopyrite, arsenopyrite, gersdorffite and pentlandite minerals.Characterizing gold in an ore is important in extraction metallurgy. Free-milling gold can be efficiently recovered by crushing, grinding and cyanidation without additional processing. In refractory ores, on the other hand, conventional milling can liberate the sulfides from the gangue allowing a low content of concentrate to be produced by a process such as flotation. However, direct leaching of the concentrate results in poor gold extractions as the cyanide lixiviant is unable to contact the gold locked within the refractory host. Oxidative pretreatment is required for such ores and the methods available for oxidation are roasting (calcination), pressure oxidation, and bacterial oxidation; all oxidize the refractory minerals in the ore to render the gold amenable to cyanidation. While such oxidative methods are capable of achieving reasonable recoveries, they increase the capital and operating costs. An alternative, applicable to the liberation of gold from the refractory host, is to continue the grinding process to reduce the particle size of the host mineral thereby exposing a part of the gold surface for contact with the cyanide solution. A benefit of this technique is that the environmental aspects of the oxidation reaction products are avoided, however the ultra fine grinding also adds more operating costs.Metallurgical studies carried out on some gold deposits, dumps and tailings of ancient gold mines in Egypt, proved that these ores are amenable to percolation leaching (concentration of KCN varies between 0.5 and 1 g/L) for the (− 10 mm) grain size, and consequently heap leaching is a successful technique as the results of these laboratory scale column tests show. In most of these studies, a marked improvement in the percent of gold recovery was gained when the crushed ore is agglomerated by the addition of water, lime and/or cement particularly in ores containing significant quantities of clay minerals and clay-forming minerals (e.g. sericite and muscovite), and by addition of kerosene which passivates the adsorption surfaces on the graphite.Placer gold is recovered by gravity methods utilizing the large difference in specific gravity between gold and commonly associated minerals such as quartz and feldspar. The equipments range from a simple pan to more complex devices used in gold recovery plants and dredges.Modern studies in Egypt point to the presence of different targets of gold; diverse in their gold content, mode of occurrence of gold and the metallurgical treatments required for extracting gold. With the advance of modern techniques such as Electron Microprobe Analyses (EMPA), laser Ablation Microprobe Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (LAM-ICP-MS), gold ores in Egypt should be re-characterized precisely to know the specifications of these ores and consequently predict the metallurgical regime required, and with the high world gold price, it has become necessary to take into consideration the presence of refractory gold ores as one of these targets in Egypt. Generally speaking, laboratory experiments conducted on gold processing in Egypt are encouraging to some extent; however the gold extraction rates of the free milling ores with conventional cyanidation and refractory ores with direct and pretreatment techniques can be improved by modifying the conditions of extraction to be consistent with the results obtained from the re-characterization stage. Otherwise any target for gold and whatsoever the mode of occurrence of gold in this target (i.e. free-milling and/or refractory) could be recovered directly by heap leaching technique and we should accept less than ideal gold recovery for any target when weighed against the capital expenditure required for processes such as roasting, and the continuous grinding processes which might improve recoveries by only a small percentage.     

The Pliocene Yafo Formation in Israel: Hydrogeologically inert or active?

For several decades the “Saqiye beds” (later renamed Yafo Formation) underlying the Coastal Plain aquifer (Kurkar Group) aquifer of Israel, were regarded as an extremely thick, tectonically undisturbed, and absolutely impervious aquiclude. Following intensive groundwater exploitation from the overlying Kurkar Group aquifer, brackish and saline waters were locally encountered in the lower parts of this aquifer and always at the contact with the underlying Yafo Formation aquiclude. The present study revealed that this aquiclude is not a uniform and impervious rock unit, but rather an alternation of pervious and impervious strata within the Yafo Formation containing highly pressured fluids of different — mostly high — salinities. The permeable beds are at an angular unconformity and in direct contact with the overlying Kurkar Group aquifer. The Yafo Formation and the underlying and overlying rock units are dislocated by numerous fault systems, which facilitate accessibility of brines into the Kurkar Group aquifer. The mobilization of the saline fluids and their injection into the Kurkar Group aquifer could be due either to diffusion of saline fluids occurring in the permeable horizons of the Petah Tiqva Member through the clays of the Yafo Formation or to their upconing following intensive pumping in the Coastal Plain aquifer. It could have also been caused by up-dip movement of saline water as the result of overpressure generated by major accumulation of gas in the permeable horizons. Another possible mechanism could be hydraulic contact with pressurized brines up-flowing along fault zones from deep-seated Jurassic or Cretaceous reservoirs. The squeezing of saline interstitial water from the clays of the Yafo Formation into the overlying Kurkar Group aquifer, is of secondary importance for groundwater salinization (its input is comparable with salt input from rain).     

Paleoproterozoic granitoids in the basement of Bangladesh: A piece of the Indian shield or an exotic fragment of the Gondwana jigsaw?

We present the first precise age for Precambrian basement rocks in Bangladesh. These lie within the Dinajpur block, located between the Indian Craton to the southwest and the Shillong Massif to the east. There are no surface outcrops and the rocks were intersected by drill holes. They consist of a suite of tonalitic and granodioritic rocks, variously deformed to granitic gneiss and intruded by younger monzogranite. A tonalite obtained at a depth of 227.48 m in drill hole BH-2 at Maddhapara, in northwestern Bangladesh, records a SHRIMP zircon ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb magmatic age of 1722 ± 6 Ma. Paleoproterozoic rocks with similar magmatic ages are unknown in the adjacent Indian blocks of the Chotanagpur Plateau (Indian Craton) or Shillong Massif. This lack of comparable ages may be due to the paucity of precise radiometric ages from the Indian terrains or, more likely, because there are real age differences, with the buried rocks at Maddhapara representing a separate and discrete microcontinental fragment (the Dinajpur block) that was trapped by the northward migration of India during Gondwana dispersal.     

Critical visceral methods and methodologies: Debate title: Better than text? Critical reflections on the practices of visceral methodologies in human geography

Researchers interested in visceral or bodily methods and methodologies should be prepared to fully engage with the politics of research as well as the social and political context of their studies. Longer-term, intentional, applied, and collaborative projects may be particularly relevant. Finally, visceral methods could be particularly apt for advancing biosocial science and inquiries into body-environment relations.     

The role of questions about migration in UK censuses: A simple matter of counting, or a means of exerting power?

Questions about migration have appeared in various forms in British censuses since 1841, and questions about ethnicity have been included since 1991. A variety of new questions were included in the 2011 Census that increase the amount of information that is gathered about migrants, both internal and international. This paper reviews these questions, exploring their changing nature and reasons why they might be asked. Some of the new questions - notably one on intention to stay in the UK - may be harmful to the wider goal of producing accurate and useful data. More generally, the range of questions suggests a growth in scope for the census from providing an administrative count of the number of people resident in the country, to a parallel role as an instrument in expressing the power of the state. This may erode civil trust in the statistical agencies and consequently lead to poor response rates.