Legacies from three former manufactured-gas plants: impacts on groundwater quality

Groundwater contamination due to accidental releases of mono- and polycyclic aromatic compounds (MAHs and PAHs) from decommissioned manufactured-gas plants is an ongoing and litigious problem. The MAHs and PAHs are derived from coal tar, which was a by-product of the gas-manufacturing process. While originally designed to contain coal tar, the manufactured-gas plant structures that remain today have often degraded over time and are not completely leak-proof. Over a period of many years, subsurface water has seeped into and out of the structures, resulting in groundwater contamination. This was particularly true once the tops of the structures were removed. In this study, process-based simulations were conducted to estimate the groundwater-quality impacts of accidental releases of dissolved naphthalene (C₁₀H₈) from the sites of three former manufactured-gas plants. The results from one-dimensional, transient, unsaturated, near-surface fluid-flow and solute-transport simulations served as input to three-dimensional saturated subsurface fluid-flow and solute-transport simulations. The simulation results and sensitivity analysis reported here indicate that accidental releases of naphthalene had significant, negative impacts on groundwater quality at each of the three sites. Electronic Publication     

Extraterrestrial intelligence and galactic nuclear activity

After many years of searching, we still have no evidence for the existence of any technological civilization but our own. The conclusion that we are therefore alone in our galaxy has seemed unacceptable, for lack of a plausible explanation. Earlier authors have suggested that there may be Seyfert-like outbursts from the galactic nucleus, with a period of ≈10⁸ years. It is proposed here that this phenomenon could provide the needed explanation for the nonexistence of ETI. The question of why we ourselves have survived is considered.     

Marine policy and disarmament

Disarmament has again become a major public concern in many nations. The main manifestations of this development have been demonstrations and marches and mass media attention to the possible consequences of a nuclear war. Less publicized has been governmental work, including that at the United Nations, in negotiating disarmament treaties.     

Towards identifying sources of subsurface flow: A comparison of components identified by a physically based runoff model and those determined by chemical mixing techniques

A physically-based semidistributed model, TOPMODEL, is applied to a 340 hectare spruce forested catchment in mid-Wales. the model is calibrated to runoff and the subsurface flow is divided into components of flow identified by depth of origin. in addition, chemical mixing techniques are used to provide a hydrograph separation between acidic soil waters and well buffered deep waters. the short-term variations in the components of flow identified by these two approaches compare well.     

Evidence from Mössbauer spectroscopy for intense localization of metamorphic fluid flow during the formation of spaced cleavage

Arenites in the low-grade metasedimentary rocks of the Stirling-Barren Group, Western Australia, contain discrete spaced cleavages. These in part are pure white mica, but up to 30% of the cleavage zones consists of fine-grained quartz resulting from crystal plastic deformation. A modified Gresens analysis shows that the cleavage domains formed by a 50% volume loss associated primarily with SiO₂ and MgO concentration decreases of 58% and 37%, respectively, and a 12% decrease in Fe₂O₃. Mössbauer spectroscopy shows that the Fe²⁺: Fe³⁺ ratio from lithon to cleavage changed from 50:SO to 15:85. This substantial difference cannot be accounted for by loss of iron. The data are best explained by the focusing of a highly oxidizing fluid through the cleavage domains where volumetric fluid rock ratios around 150 to 1 are indicated. In this example advectic processes appear to be important in low-grade regional metamorphism.     

Beach sediment temperature variations through depth and time

Data obtained from a site at mean tide level on Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland, show temperature fluctuations on various timescales. Hourly means differ markedly from month to month but are similar for different depths during the same month. The short-term temperature fluctuations recorded at the surface are largely dissipated at a sediment depth of 20 cm with the proportion of total flux occurring at any depth remaining similar irrespective of the absolute temperature range. It is suggested that temperature flux ratios may provide an objective in situ assessment of beach exposure and/or water flow through sediments. A plea for a standardized methodology is made.     

Soil creep: problems raised by a 23 year study in Australia

In October 1965 and February 1966, 55 Young-pits were installed in tropical Northern Territory (NT) and temperate New South Wales (NSW). Pits were monitored in 1968, 1971 and 1974; also, for the NT only, in 1988. In each region, half of the pits are on weathered granite, and half on sandstone. Local relief is 30m or less, and slopes are up to 20°. Annual rainfall is evenly distributed in the NSW sites (800 mm a⁻¹), but is confined to the five to six month wet season in NT (1200 mm a⁻¹). Six pits suffered external disturbance and so were not analysed. Analysis of 160 rods in 49 undisturbed pits shows: (1) vectorial movement generally not downslope parallel to the ground surface, but dominated by a vertically downward component; (2) significant uphill and vertically upward components of movement for many rods; (3) a weak correlation between total movement and sine of slope; (4) rapid movement during 1965-68, and slow movement thereafter; (5) significantly higher creep rates on the NT granites than on all other sites, perhaps because mound-building termites are especially active there. We conclude that our data do not support soil creep models which assume that all movement is downslope and slope-parallel. Repeated long-term measurements are essential to distinguish long-term creep rates from the short-term effects of disturbance. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The interpretation of reaction textures in Fe‐rich metapelitic granulites of the Musgrave Block,central Australia: constraints from mineral equilibria calculations in the system K2O–FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O–TiO2–Fe2O3

Fe‐rich metapelitic granulites of the Musgrave Block, central Australia, contain several symplectic and coronal reaction textures that post‐date a peak S2 metamorphic assemblage involving garnet, sillimanite, spinel, ilmenite, K‐feldspar and quartz. The earliest reaction textures involve spinel‐ and quartz‐bearing symplectites that enclose garnet and to a lesser extent sillimanite. The symplectic spinel and quartz are in places separated by later garnet and/or sillimanite coronas. The metamorphic effects of a later, D3, event are restricted to zones of moderate to high strain where a metamorphic assemblage of garnet, sillimanite, K‐feldspar, magnetite, ilmenite, quartz and biotite is preserved. Quantitative mineral equilibria calculations in the system K₂O–FeO–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O–TiO₂–Fe₂O₃ (KFMASHTO) using Thermocalc 3.0 and the accompanying internally consistent dataset provide important constraints on the influence of TiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ on biotite‐bearing and spinel‐bearing equilibria, respectively. Biotite‐bearing equilibria are shifted to higher temperatures and spinel‐bearing equilibria to higher pressures and lower temperatures in comparison to the equivalent equilibria in K₂O–FeO–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O (KFMASH). The sequence of reaction textures involving spinel is consistent with a D2 P–T path that involved a small amount of decompression followed predominantly by cooling within a single mineral assemblage stability field. Thus, the reaction textures reflect changes in modal proportions within an equilibrium assemblage rather than the crossing of a univariant reaction. The D3 metamorphic assemblage is consistent with lower temperatures than those inferred for D2.