Lethal and sublethal effects of dredging on reef corals

Effects of dredging on a coral reef are described. Under water light values at a depth of 12–13 m were reduced from about 30% to less than 1% surface illumination. Colonies of coral species which are inefficient sediment rejectors (Porites astreoides) lost their zooxanthellae and died. Calcification rates in Madracis mirabilis and Agaricia agaricites were observed to decrease by 33%. The period of suppressed calcification exceeds that of environmental disturbance.     

Zur Petrogenese intermediärer effusiver Magmen

Zusammenfassung Die intermediären effusiven Magmen gehen auf ein einziges, auf das olivinbasaltische Magma zurück. Bei dessen langwährendem Eruptionsprozeß aus dem oberen Erdmantel durch die Sialkruste bis zur Oberfläche findet durch Reaktion mit den wall rocks des Grund- und Deckgebirges eine (z.T. selektive) Einschmelzung statt, die zur völligen Syntexis führt. Durch Zunahme von Si, Al und Alkalien aus dem kristallinen Grundgebirge entstehen die übersättigten Vulkanite. Die Desilifizierung der foidführenden Alkaligesteine wird nachDaly undShand durch Assimilation von Kalk, Dolomit und Mergel herbeigeführt.Ungeklärt bleibt hierbei jedoch die Zunahme des Kalis; denn dies war mit seiner Menge dem basischen Ausgangsmagma fremd. An Hand untersuchter Vorkommen in der Rhön und im Kaiserstuhl/Deutschland, im Monzoni-Gebiet/Oberitalien und in der Roccamonfina NW Neapel wird gezeigt, daß es komplexe Vorgänge sind, die die Kali-betonten Alkali-Effusivmagmen schufen. Bereits vor der Syntexis durch Karbonatgesteine waren sie schon einmal gründlich verändert worden durch Assimilation von Alkalisilikatgesteinen des durchbrochenen Grundgebirgssockels.

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The intermediate effusive magmas originate in only one, the olivine basalt magma. During its continuous eruption-process out of the upper mantle through the sial crust to the earth's surface there takes place a (partly selective) assimilation by reaction with the wall rocks of the basement and the sedimentary covering, that leads to a complete syntexis. By increase of silica, alumina and alcalis of the crystalline basement the oversaturated vulcanites are formed. AfterDaly andShand the assimilation of lime, dolomite and marl causes the desilication of the feldspathoid-bearing alcali rocks.Nevertheless the increase of the potassium is indefinite, because it was not in accordance the basic primary magma with regarding its amount. With the aid of investigated rocks of Rhön, Monzoni-district/Upper Italy, Roccamonfina nw. Naples, and Kaiserstuhl there is shown, that complex processes created the potassium-rich alcali-effusive magmas. Already befor syntexis by limestones they were fundamentally transformed by assimilation of alcali-silicate rocks of the broken through basement platform.

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Résumé Les magmas effusives intermédiaires peuvent être ramenés à un seul, le magma olivine-basaltique. Pendant le procès d'éruption lente de celui-ci par l'écorce sialique à la surface il se produit une réaction avec les « wall rocks » du cristallin et du manteau sédimentaire. Cette réaction produit par assimilation des matériaux une syntexis complète. Par augmentation de Si, Al, et des éléments alcalins du socle cristallin se développent les roches volcaniques sursaturées. La désilification des roches alcalines avec feldspathoides se produit d'aprèsDaly etShand par assimilation de calcaires, dolomites et marnes.L'augmentation du potassium reste à expliquer; la grande quantité de potassium n'existe pas dans le magma original basique. Nous avons pu démontrer par la recherche des roches volcaniques de la « Rhön », de « Monzoni » (Italie), de « Roccamonfina » (Naples) et du « Kaiserstuhl » que les réactions, qui produisent les magmas basiques alcalins avec dominance de potassium, sont d'un type très complexe. Ces magmas ont été modifiés à fond avant la syntexis par les roches carbonatiques au cours de l'assimilation des roches alcalo-siliciques du socle cristallin surmonté.

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New safety issues when moving from liquid fuels to natural gas

Natural gas (NG) is produced whenever organic matter is decomposed in the absence of oxygen. The main constituent of natural gas is methane. In contrast to liquid fuels, methane has a boiling point far below normal ambient temperatures. Even the critical temperature is well below ambient. Therefore natural gas must be stored either as compressed natural gas (CNG) at very high pressures at ambient temperatures, or as liquefied natural gas (LNG) at very low temperatures. The basic safety issues are caused by loss of confinement of either CNG or LNG. In both cases the issues are: global greenhouse effects of natural gas (methane); local fire and explosion hazards; and local asphyxiation hazard due to reduced oxygen content in the atmosphere breathed when air is mixed with methane.     

Solar signals in global climatic change

Based on the physical background that varying solar activity should lead to variations of the ‘solar constant’ and that the climate system may respond sensitively even to small solar variations, a correlation analysis is performed where hemispheric and global averages of the annual mean surface air temperature are compared with the variations of a variety of solar forcing parameters: sunspots, related hypotheses including variations of the quasi-eleven-year solar cycle length, solar diameter variations and gravitational effects. This analysis is based on the 1881–1988 period, for the northern hemisphere including proxy data 1671–1988. Cross correlations and correlations moving in time reveal some instability effects which are hard to interpret. The temperature variance components which may be hypothetically explained by solar forcing are small. Similarly, a seasonal and regional signal and signal-to-noise analysis based on a gridded temperature time series 1890–1985 reveals small signals which do not exceed roughly 1.5 K in the arctic winter (maximum) or 0.2-0.3 K on a global average.     

Time of maximum Late Wisconsin glaciation, West Coast of Canada

New data from a deep-sea core in the eastern North Pacific Ocean indicate that the western margin of the Late Wisconsin Cordilleran Ice Sheet began to retreat from its maximum position after 15,600 yr B.P. Ice-rafted detritus is present in the core below the 15,600 yr B.P. level and was deposited while lobes of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced across the continental shelf in Queen Charlotte Sound, Hecate Strait, and Dixon Entrance. The core data are complemented by stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon ages from Quaternary exposures bordering Hecate Strait and Dixon Entrance. These indicate that piedmont lobes reached the east and north shores of Graham Island (part of the Queen Charlotte Islands) between about 23,000 and 21,000 yr B.P. Sometime thereafter, but before 15,000–16,000 yr B.P., these glaciers achieved their greatest Late Wisconsin extent. Radiocarbon ages of late-glacial and postglacial sediments from Queen Charlotte Sound, Hecate Strait, and adjacent land areas show that deglaciation began in these areas before 15,000 yr B.P. and that the shelf was completely free of ice by 13,000 yr B.P.