INMARSAT — satellite communications

The International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT) has come into being as a result of conferences by the Inter-governmental Maritime Consultative Organisation (IMCO). Its administration has been set up in London, and the organization has called for tenders for the satellites and ground stations required, and as an interim measure is arranging to use a share of the facilities of existing satellite systems. Its aim is to improve telecommunications facilities for the world's shipping and thus to reduce risks to life and property at sea, increase the efficiency of ship management, and to provide a satellite service, owned by the participating governments, that has been long in demand.     

Pollution — a French perspective

A summary of the various forms of pollution control discussed at an international Anti-Pollution Course held at the French Merchant Marine School in Marseilles on 13–25 June 1977.     

赤潮的监测和防治简介

近海水域有机物污染,引起海水富营养化,是形成赤潮的主要原因。赤潮不仅给渔业生产、海水养殖业带来重大损失,而且破坏了海洋环境,危及人民的健康。近年来,我国沿海赤潮时有发生,应加强对有发生赤潮潜在危险海区的经常性观测和监测;切实控制沿海工业和生活污水的任意排放;科学、合理地开发利用海洋资源;推广科学养殖技术,防止海水养殖自身污染;大力开展有关赤潮科学的研究,特别是赤潮的防治方法和技术研究,避免或减少赤潮造成的危害     

Oil and fishing — conflict in the North Sea

A programme of research is underway at Aberdeen University on the conflicts arising in the North Sea between the fishing and offshore oil and gas industries. This research note summarizes the work that has been undertaken to date and the main aspects on which future work will concentrate.     

Virgin rock temperatures from well logs — accuracy analysis for some advanced inversion models

Temperature data from 18 measurement series obtained during logging of the Oseberg field in the northern North Sea are presented. Because the measurement series are taken at approximately the same depth, they should give identical temperatures after depth correction, and are suitable for assessing the performance of different models used to determine virgin rock temperatures from well log information.We have used this data set to test the properties of the different models given by Shen and Beck (1986). Although these models were built to simulate closely the thermal recovery of a well and are unbiased, the uncertainties in the temperature estimates when applied to real data are found to be no less than those from simpler (biased) models. This fact confirms the conclusion of Hermanrud (1989a) who showed that physical factors other than those presently accounted for significantly influence the thermal recovery of a borehole.     

Tides at Port Mansfield,Laguna Madre,Texas

Abstract

The tides at Port Mansfield are so small (mean diurnal range of about 2 cm) that they are nearly lost in a noisy (meteorological) continuum. Nevertheless, a precise tidal analysis is necessary to provide the data for a determination of the elevation of mean high water, the boundary between private and state ownership in an oil‐producing area with a very flat terrain. Although response tidal analysis has been shown to be somewhat superior to classical harmonic analysis in various previous tests, no advantage is found in these circumstances of extremely low sighal‐to‐noise ratio.     

Formation of chemogenic calcite in super-anoxic seawater — Framvaren, southern Norway

Framvaren, a super-anoxic fjord in southern Norway, contains 7–8 mmoll⁻¹ of sulphide and a total carbonate concentration of 18.5 mmol kg⁻¹ in the bottom water. The chemistry of calcium has been studied, considering sources, biogenic and chemical processes and sedimentary sinks. Calcium associated with the bacteria biomass at the redox interface (18m depth) appears to be the primary source of dissolved calcium in the deep, anoxic water. Excess calcium and high total carbonate cause supersaturation of calcite, which is precipitated chemogenically. Calcite (and presumably some aragonite) is identified both in sediment trap material and the bottom sediments below the depth of supersaturation.     

Artificial upwelling induced by ocean currents —Theory and experiment

A submerged apparatus, which consists of a buoy, several horizontal contraction and expansion tubes (Venturi-type tubes) and a long pipe, is expected to be used to pump the subsurface sea-water (200–300 meter depth) containing abundant nutrients to surface layer (50–100 m) by the dynamic of ocean currents. i.e. an artificial upwelling without energy cost. A preliminary experiment and analysis are undertaken and shows that the capacity of pumping the nutrient-rich sea-water is worth to build a pilot prototype model.     

A comparative analysis of recruitment variability in North Atlantic flatfishes — testing the species range hypothesis

The hypothesis that recruitment variation in flatfishes should be most variable at the northern edge of the species range, least near the centre of the range, and intermediate near the southern limit was tested using stock and recruitment data generated from sequential population analysis for several different flatfish stocks involving four species (plaice Pleuronectes platessa, sole Solea vulgaris from the eastern Atlantic, American plaice Hippoglossoides platessoides, and yellowtail flounder Limanda ferruginae from the western Atlantic). Several groundfish species have been found to conform to this so-called species range hypothesis with the suggestion that density-independent processes predominate at the edges of the distributional range and density-dependent processes dominate in the centre of the range. Our results were generally inconsistent with the hypothesis: the coefficient of variation (CV) of recruitment for plaice in the eastern Atlantic was independent of latitude, the CV of recruitment for sole exhibited a dome-shaped relationship with latitude with the highest CVs occurring at the mid-point of the range, and the CV of recruitment for the western Atlantic stocks exhibited a monotonic decrease with latitude. We extended our latitudinal analyses by assessing both the degree of dependency of recruitment on spawning stock biomass and the spatial and temporal scales of variability in recruitment and pre-recruit survival for the eastern Atlantic stocks. In general our analysis revealed no evidence of a strong stock and recruitment relationship for any of the stocks examined, and previously published analyses revealed no such patterns with latitude. Analysis of both de-trended recruitment and pre-recruit survival time series over the species ranges of sole and plaice revealed strong positive correlations among adjacent stocks and inverse correlations among stocks at the extremes of the range. Recruitment variation in the flatfish stocks examined appears to be dominated by density-independent factors, operating at a local scale, on the egg and larval stages.     

潮汐调和分析与应用研究

基于长江口外鸡骨礁、绿华山潮位站多年实测潮汐资料,开展潮汐调和分析与应用研究。采用最小二乘法计算调和常数,研究不同分潮组合及不同资料长度对调和分析结果的影响。采用规范法及直接预报法计算深度基准面,并分析计算结果。采用余水位订正方法推算潮位,并进行精度验证。结果表明:调和分析精度随分潮个数的增加而提高;采用年实测潮汐资料调和分析的精度总体高于采用多年实测潮汐资料调和分析的精度;采用预报年份相邻的年实测潮汐资料进行潮汐预报精度较高;理论最低潮面计算值,规范法较直接预报法偏小。基于绿华山站与鸡骨礁站实测资料进行余水位推算验证,精度基本满足实用要求。     

Bow impact loading on FPSOs 1—Experimental investigation

Steep wave impact pressures and the structural dynamic response of floating production storage and offloading platform (FPSO) bows are studied using 1:80 scale segmented, instrumented models. The construction of these segmented models is discussed. The ‘new-wave’ theory is adopted and extended to generate steep waves and a limiting form of steep wave that might be found in deep water is proposed. A comparison between linear theoretical, experimental and suggested wave models is made. Experimental results with systemically varying parameters are presented.     

Bow impact loading on FPSOs 2—Theoretical investigation

Steep wave impact pressures and the structural dynamic response of FPSO bows are studied using 1:80 scale instrumented models and time domain simulation. Comparisons are made between experimental and calculated impacts and associated pressures. A simple time history simulation method for bow loading in (non-linear) random seas is developed. Simplified design rules for curved bows are proposed. The rules account for the effect of the size of the loaded area on the average pressure, the rise and decay times of the pressure and the dynamic amplification of the response.     

Growth history of a cold-water coral covered carbonate mound — Galway Mound, Porcupine Seabight, NE-Atlantic

During the past decade, knowledge about the ecology and the environment of giant carbonate mounds has been growing continuously. However, still little is known about their growth dynamics. Three gravity cores from Galway Mound, Belgica Mound Province in the Porcupine Seabight off Ireland, were investigated for their sedimentological, geophysical and geochemical properties to get insight into the long-term development of this cold-water coral covered carbonate mound. These data were supplemented by radiometric age determinations on planktonic foraminifera and coral skeletons. The records from three different settings on Galway Mound reveal a coherent growth history that in general is similar to what is known from other carbonate mounds at the Irish margin. However, whereas other cores are often disturbed by numerous and not correlateable hiatuses, Galway Mound, in contrast, appears to be characterised by only one major hiatus representing a time gap of ~ 250 kyr. Several mechanisms are discussed in this study as possible causes for the observed stratigraphic record at Galway Mound. The most likely explanation is that the hiatus has its origin in a major mass wasting event on an instable, possibly glacial, unit that could have acted as a slip plane. The overall Late Quaternary growth history of Galway Mound fits well into existing cyclical mound development models, pointing to Galway Mound being an ‘actively growing’ mound (“coral bank stage”) at present.