Rehabilitation of asbestos mining waste: a Rehabilitation Prioritisation Index (RPI) for South Africa

The much publicised problem with major asbestos pollution and related health issues in South Africa, has called for action to be taken to negate the situation. The aim of this project was to establish a prioritisation index that would provide a scientifically based sequence in which polluted asbestos mines in Southern Africa ought to be rehabilitated. It was reasoned that a computerised database capable of calculating such a Rehabilitation Prioritisation Index (RPI) would be a fruitful departure from the previously used subjective selection prone to human bias. The database was developed in Microsoft Access and both quantitative and qualitative data were used for the calculation of the RPI value. The logical database structure consists of a number of mines, each consisting of a number of dumps, for which a number of samples have been analysed to determine asbestos fibre contents. For this system to be accurate as well as relevant, the data in the database should be revalidated and updated on a regular basis.     

Accelerating the solution of linear systems appearing in two-phase reservoir simulation by the use of POD-based deflation methods

We explore and develop a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD)-based deflation method for the solution of ill-conditioned linear systems, appearing in simulations of two-phase flow through highly heterogeneous porous media. We accelerate the convergence of a Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) method achieving speed-ups of factors up to five. The up-front extra computational cost of the proposed method depends on the number of deflation vectors. The POD-based deflation method is tested for a particular problem and linear solver; nevertheless, it can be applied to various transient problems, and combined with multiple solvers, e.g., Krylov subspace and multigrid methods.

     

Late Holocene Baltic Sea outflow changes reconstructed using C37:4 content from marine cores

The Baltic Sea is an intra‐continental brackish water body. Low saline surface water, the so‐called Baltic outflow current, exits the Baltic Sea through the Kattegat into the Skagerrak. Ingressions of saline oxygen‐rich bottom water enter the Baltic Sea basins via the narrow and shallow Kattegat and are of great importance for the ecological and ventilation state of the Baltic Sea. Over recent decades, progress has been made in studying Holocene changes in saline water inflow. However, reconstructions of past variations in Baltic Sea outflow changes are sparse and hampered because of the lack of suitable proxies. Here, we used the relative proportion of tetra‐unsaturated C₃₇ ketones (C_37:4 %) in long‐chain alkenones produced by coccolithophorids as a proxy for outflowing Baltic Sea water in the Skagerrak. To evaluate the applicability of the proxy, we compared the biomarker results with grain‐size records from the Kattegat and Mecklenburg Bay in addition to previously published salinity reconstructions from the Kattegat over the last 5000 years. All Skagerrak records showed an increase in C_37:4 % that is accompanied by enhanced bottom water currents in the Kattegat and western Baltic Sea over the past 3500 cal. a BP, indicating an increase in Baltic Sea outflow. This probably reflects higher precipitation in the Baltic Sea catchment area owing to a re‐organization of North Atlantic atmospheric circulation with an increased influence of wintertime Westerlies over the Baltic catchment from the mid‐ to the late Holocene.     

Metamorphism of siliceous dolomites at Naxos,Greece

Siliceous dolomitic marbles at Naxos, Greece, are crystallized in a range of metamorphic temperatures, estimated from 350 to 700 °C and a total pressure of about 6 kb. A number of low variant assemblages of this rock-system have been studied. The sequence of these metamorphic assemblages is a function of increasing metamorphism, and this is in agreement with other fielddata and with experimental data for the chemical system CaO-MgO-SiO₂-H₂O-CO₂ (-HF). The composition of the associated fluid inclusions may be considered reasonably correct in the light of experimentally obtained X _CO2 values for the mineral equilibria, extrapolated for a total pressure of about 6 kb at the interpolated temperatures at the sample locations.     

Trace-element behavior in the W---Sn granite of Regoufe, Portugal

Vein-type W-Sn deposits occur both in and around the Regoufe granite. The muscovite-albite granite hosts several roof pendants of schist along its eastern and northern margins. Biotite, tourmaline and K-feldspar megacrysts are virtually absent from the roof zone of the granite but sulphides are abundant. These sulphides disappear through a transition zone and the granite becomes a tourmaline-bearing porphyritic two-mica granite. Fifty-five rock samples were collected within the granite resulting in a sample density of about 10 samples per km². The analytical results show that the granite is extremely rich in Sn, W, Li and Cs, rich in P, Ta, Rb, F and U, about normal in Cu, Zn and Nb and low in Sr, Ti and Zr in comparison with the global averages for low-Ca granites. Factor analysis was applied to the data and the resulting three factor model could be correlated to the field relations. Factor 1 reflects greisenization and albitization processes. Factor 2 scores are high in the mineralized areas and factor 3 appears to be connected with the transition zone.     

Use of Spherical Trigonometry to Compute Near-Well Flow through Irregular Grid Block Boundaries

This paper concerns the computation of near-well flow in numerical reservoir simulation with unstructured grids. In particular, it uses spherical trigonometry to derive analytical expressions for the flow towards a well modeled as either a number of point sources or a constant-flux line source. The expression for the point source representation is based on projections of the grid block boundaries on spheres with unit radius around the sources. The expression for the line source is based on projection on a prolate spheroid. The computation of the surface area is done through transformation to prolate spheroidal coordinates and subsequent projection on a sphere at infinity. The point source expression for a single source is exact for grid block boundaries with straight edges; the line source expression is an approximation. Both representations are fully volume conserving, such that the sum of the fluxes through the grid block boundaries surrounding a source adds up exactly to the total source flow rate. Both representations can be used to accurately model complicated wells in the form of segments. The point source representation is simpler to implement and not necessarily less accurate than the line source representation.     

Salt Marshes on Substrate Enriched in Organic Matter: The Case of Ombrogenic Atlantic Salt Marshes

Ombrogenic Atlantic salt marshes are defined as areas of halophytic, terrestrial vegetation which are periodically flooded by the tide and have a predominant underlying organic substrate comprising of wood and/or Sphagnum peat that formed under freshwater conditions. The objective of this study was to determine to what extent salt marsh plant ecology and, specifically, vegetation composition and zonation relate to this underlying substrate of organic matter (peat). A vegetation survey was carried out on nine salt marshes, three on peat substrate and two on sand, mud and sand/mud, respectively. In parallel, key edaphic variables were measured including pH, conductivity, organic content, moisture content and nutrients: ammonium, nitrate and phosphorus. Salt marshes on peat substrate are distinct. Ammonium content was twice the maximum reported in other salt marsh studies, while the vegetation composition of salt marshes on peat substrate was significantly different from that of other salt marshes. Salt marshes on peat substrate were found to be higher in species diversity and richness and characterised by a predominantly forb and rush community. However, some common salt marsh species, such as Atriplex portulacoides and Spartina anglica were absent from salt marshes on peat. Ordination analysis revealed that zonation was primarily associated with conductivity on peat substrates. In contrast, moisture plays a greater role in zonation within non-peat salt marshes. The findings confirm that the high organic matter content of ombrogenic Atlantic salt marshes is associated with distinct vegetation composition.     

Hydrothermally grown buddingtonite,an anhydrous ammonium feldspar (NH4AlSi3O8)

Ammonium feldspar was grown hydrothermally from a gel, having a stöchiometric Al₂O₃·6SiO₂ composition. As a source for NH ₄ ⁺ , a 25 percent NH₃ solution was used. Internal Cr/CrN and graphite/methane buffers fixed the fugacity of NH₃ during the experiments. Unit cell parameters of the synthetic ammonium feldspar are a: 0.8824 (5) nm, b: 1.3077 (8) nm, c: 0.7186 (4) nm, β: 116.068 (12)°, V: 0.7448 (34) nm₃. the X-ray power diffraction pattern is measured and indexed in accordance to the space group C2/m. Infrared and thermal gravimetric analyses provide no evidence for the presence of structurally bound water molecules in the crystal structure of synthetic ammonium feldspar. Hydrothermally grown anhydrous ammonium feldspar is shown to be identical to the mineral buddingtonite by the similarity of the data between the synthetic and natural materials. There may be justification for considering natural buddingtonite as an anhydrous feldspar with the ideal formula NH₄Si₃O₈. Reexamination of natural specimens is desirable.     

Taraxerol and Rhizophora pollen as proxies for tracking past mangrove ecosystems

Angola Basin and Cape Basin (southeast Atlantic) surface sediments and sediment cores show that maxima in the abundance of taraxerol (relative to other land-derived lipids) covary with maxima in the relative abundance of pollen from the mangrove tree genus Rhizophora and that in the surface sediments offshore maxima in the relative abundance of taraxerol occur at latitudes with abundant coastal mangrove forests. Together with the observation that Rhizophora mangle and Rhizophora racemosa leaves are extraordinarily rich in taraxerol, this strongly indicates that taraxerol can be used as a lipid biomarker for mangrove input to the SE Atlantic. The proxy-environment relations for taraxerol and Rhizophora pollen down-core show that increased taraxerol and Rhizophora pollen abundances occur during transgressions and periods with a humid climate. These environmental changes modify the coastal erosion and sedimentation patterns, enhancing the extent of the mangrove ecosystem and/or the transport of mangrove organic matter offshore. Analyses of mid-Pleistocene sediments show that interruption of the pattern of taraxerol maxima during precession minima occurs almost only during periods of low obliquity. This demonstrates the complex environmental response of the interaction between precession-related humidity cycles and obliquity-related sea-level changes on mangrove input.