A possible Caledonide arm through the Barents Sea imaged by OBS data

The assembly of the crystalline basement of the western Barents Sea is related to the Caledonian orogeny during the Silurian. However, the development southeast of Svalbard is not well understood, as conventional seismic reflection data does not provide reliable mapping below the Permian sequence. A wide-angle seismic survey from 1998, conducted with ocean bottom seismometers in the northwestern Barents Sea, provides data that enables the identification and mapping of the depths to crystalline basement and Moho by ray tracing and inversion. The four profiles modeled show pre-Permian basins and highs with a configuration distinct from later Mesozoic structural elements. Several strong reflections from within the crystalline crust indicate an inhomogeneous basement terrain. Refractions from the top of the basement together with reflections from the Moho constrain the basement velocity to increase from 6.3 km s⁻¹ at the top to 6.6 km s⁻¹ at the base of the crust. On two profiles, the Moho deepens locally into root structures, which are associated with high top mantle velocities of 8.5 km s⁻¹. Combined P- and S-wave data indicate a mixed sand/clay/carbonate lithology for the sedimentary section, and a predominantly felsic to intermediate crystalline crust. In general, the top basement and Moho surfaces exhibit poor correlation with the observed gravity field, and the gravity models required high-density bodies in the basement and upper mantle to account for the positive gravity anomalies in the area. Comparisons with the Ural suture zone suggest that the Barents Sea data may be interpreted in terms of a proto-Caledonian subduction zone dipping to the southeast, with a crustal root representing remnant of the continental collision, and high mantle velocities and densities representing eclogitized oceanic crust. High-density bodies within the crystalline crust may be accreted island arc or oceanic terrain. The mapped trend of the suture resembles a previously published model of the Caledonian orogeny. This model postulates a separate branch extending into central parts of the Barents Sea coupled with the northerly trending Svalbard Caledonides, and a microcontinent consisting of Svalbard and northern parts of the Barents Sea independent of Laurentia and Baltica at the time. Later, compressional faulting within the suture zone apparently formed the Sentralbanken High.     

The Nearby Field Galaxy Survey

We report on our observing programme to obtain integrated spectrophotometry, intermediate- and high-resolution major-axis spectra, and UBR surface photometry of a representative sample of ∼ 200galaxies in the nearby field. The main goal of this programme is to provide a comparison sample for high-redshift studies and to study the variation in star formation rates (SFRs), star formation history (SFH),excitation, metallicity, and internal kinematics over a wide range of galaxy luminosities and morphological types. In particular, we extend the work of Kennicutt (1992) to lower-luminosity systems. We present the main results of our analysis so far. In these proceedings, we condense the two atlases presented of 1) images and radial surface brightness profiles and colour profiles, and 2) images and integrated spectra into several example images, profiles and spectra, showing the general trends observed. For the original atlases we refer the reader to the electronic distribution on CDROM or as available on the Web at http://www.astro.rug.nl/∼nfgs/. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

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.     

Chemical aspects of quick-clay formation

In connection with the systematical examination of the slope stability in the Go¨ta River Valley in Sweden it was impossible to get a satisfactory explanation of the cause of the high sensitivity of quick clays which could be used in the continued examination as a basis for geotechnical investigations.

It was concluded that the quick-clay problem must be regarded as a problem of colloid chemical nature. Many of the results obtained pointed out the fact that the surface properties of the grains will play an important role, and in this connection the problem with the possible existence of surface-active agents (dispersing agents) in natural quick clays has been studied.

Systematic isolations of dispersing agents have been made by different methods, and the subsequent extracts have been analysed chromatographically. It is found to be easy to isolate dispersing substances by most of the methods tested, but it is very difficult to find any substances with a known composition. Instead, this part of the examination will approach the humic problem. In one case it has been possible to break up the complexes into individual components of known composition, i.e., in the case of fatty acids and soaps. Quick clay contains homologuous series of normal saturated fatty acids and for this reason soaps seem to be components which contribute to the quick-clay formation.     

Climate change: impacts on electricity markets in Western Europe

This paper studies some impacts of climate change on electricity markets, focusing on three climate effects. First, demand for electricity is affected because of changes in the temperature. Second, changes in precipitation and temperature have impact on supply of hydro electric production through a shift in the inflow of water. Third, plant efficiency for thermal generation will decrease because the temperature of water used to cool equipment increases. To find the magnitude of these partial effects, as well as the overall effects, on Western European energy markets, we use the multi-market equilibrium model LIBEMOD. We find that each of the three partial effects changes the average electricity producer price by less than 2%, while the net effect is an increase of only 1%. The partial effects on total electricity supply are small, and the net effect is a decrease of 4%. The greatest effects are found for Nordic countries with a large market share for reservoir hydro. In these countries, annual production of electricity increases by 8%, reflecting more inflow of water, while net exports doubles. In addition, because of lower inflow in summer and higher in winter, the reservoir filling needed to transfer water from summer to winter is drastically reduced in the Nordic countries.     

Evaluating Topological Queries in Linked Data Using DBpedia and GeoNames in Switzerland and Scotland

This article explores the practicability and assesses the quality of searches for Wikipedia pages of topologically related administrative divisions in Switzerland and Scotland via Linked Data. To this end, the quality of searches in the English and German versions of DBpedia is compared, as is that of searches in GeoNames and DBpedia using DBpedia's links to GeoNames or a manually created list of links. In addition, the effects of updates to Swiss municipality borders in the English version of DBpedia on standard quality metrics are studied. It turns out that live searches are practicable with acceptable performance, but that the quality of searches in terms of recall and precision is acceptable only if DBpedia is queried via GeoNames and DBpedia's links to GeoNames are replaced by manually created links. Searches for Scottish unitary authority wards perform poorly for all approaches investigated. Recall and precision are strongly influenced by changes in municipality borders, with a relatively long latency suggesting that, at least in some cases, administrative changes propagate slowly into DBpedia. These results have important implications for those seeking to use location as a means to link data.     

CODE’s five-system orbit and clock solution—the challenges of multi-GNSS data analysis

This article describes the processing strategy and the validation results of CODE’s MGEX (COM) orbit and satellite clock solution, including the satellite systems GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS. The validation with orbit misclosures and SLR residuals shows that the orbits of the new systems Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS are affected by modelling deficiencies with impact on the orbit scale (e.g., antenna calibration, Earth albedo, and transmitter antenna thrust). Another weakness is the attitude and solar radiation pressure (SRP) modelling of satellites moving in the orbit normal mode—which is not yet correctly considered in the COM solution. Due to these issues, we consider the current state COM solution as preliminary. We, however, use the long-time series of COM products for identifying the challenges and for the assessment of model-improvements. The latter is demonstrated on the example of the solar radiation pressure (SRP) model, which has been replaced by a more generalized model. The SLR validation shows that the new SRP model significantly improves the orbit determination of Galileo and QZSS satellites at times when the satellite’s attitude is maintained by yaw-steering. The impact of this orbit improvement is also visible in the estimated satellite clocks—demonstrating the potential use of the new generation satellite clocks for orbit validation. Finally, we point out further challenges and open issues affecting multi-GNSS data processing that deserves dedicated studies.