Progress in defining the solar wind sputter rate on protoplanets and interplanetary matter

Solar wind sputtering of exposed surfaces in heliocentric orbits is considered for bodies ranging in size from planets down to micrometeoroids. Erosion rates derived from APOLLO sample lunar regolith studies are presented together with the results of computer modelling of surface topographical alteration in order to characterize the sputter erosion process on Solar System bodies bombarded by the solar wind. The consensus of recent measurements leads to a rate of between 0.025 to 0.045 Å yr^?1 near the lunar equator.     

Observing lingering hyporheic storage using electrical resistivity: variations around stream restoration structures,Crabby Creek,PA

Time‐lapse geophysical surveys can map lingering hyporheic storage by detecting changes in response to saline tracer. Tracer tests were conducted in Crabby Creek, an urban stream outside Philadelphia, to examine the influence of stream restoration structures and variable sediment thickness. We compared electrical resistivity surveys with extensive well sampling (57 wells) in two 13.5‐m‐long reaches, each with a step drop created by a J‐hook. The two step drops varied in tracer behaviour, based on both the well data and the geophysical data. The well data showed more variation in arrival time where the streambed sediment was thick and was more uniform where sediment was thin. The resistivity in the reach with thin sediment showed lingering tracer in the hyporheic zone both upstream and downstream from the J‐hook. In the second reach where the sediment was thicker, the lingering tracer in the hyporheic zone was more extensive downstream from the J‐hook. The contrasting results between the two reaches from both methods suggested that sediments influenced hyporheic exchange more than the step at this location. Resistivity inversion differed from well data in both reaches in that it showed evidence for tracer after well samples had returned to background, mapping lingering tracer either upstream or downstream of a step. We conclude that resistivity surveys may become an important tool for hyporheic zone characterization because they provide information on the extent of slow moving fluids in the hyporheic zone, which have the potential to enhance chemical reactions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Offshore Atlas Project: Methodology and Results

The Offshore Atlas Project (OAP) grouped 4,325 Miocene and older and 5,622 Pliocene and Pleistocene productive sands in the Gulf of Mexico into 91 chronostratigraphic hydrocarbon plays to aid the oil and gas industry with regional hydrocarbon exploration and field development. OAP has produced a two-volume atlas series entitled Atlas of Northern Gulf of Mexico Gas and Oil Reservoirs. Volume 1 comprises Miocene and older reservoirs, while volume 2 comprises Pliocene and Pleistocene reservoirs. Chronozones (Reed et al., 1987) were used to define geologic ages in the Gulf of Mexico. A chronozone is a time-stratigraphic unit defined by a particular benthic foraminifera biostratigraphic zone. The 26 chronozones identified by Reed et al. (1987) were further grouped into 14 Cenozoic and 2 Mesozoic chronozones for OAP. A composite type log (CTL), which shows the chronostratigraphic relationship of all productive sands in a field, was constructed for each of the 876 proved federal fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Depositional facies (retrogradational, aggradational, progradational, and submarine fan)were next identified on each CTL. The four facies were identified primarily according to characteristic SP-curve shapes, paleoecozones, and sand content. The chronozones and depositional facies identified on each CTL were then correlated among fields across the Gulf of Mexico. All productive sands correlated to the same chronozone and depositional facies were then identified as a unique play. Both federal and state fields in the Gulf of Mexico contain original proved reserves (sum of cumulative production and remaining proved reserves) estimated at 12.481 Bbbl of oil and condensate and 156.466 Tcf of gas (40.322 Bboe [sum of liquids and energy equivalent gas]). Of this, 9.943 Bbbl of oil and condensate and 122.263 Tcf of gas (31.698 Bboe) have been produced. Miocene plays contain the most total original proved reserves with 41.9 %, followed by Pleistocene plays (36.2 %), Pliocene plays (18.6 %), Mesozoic plays (2.9 %), and Oligocene plays (0.4 %). Miocene plays have produced the largest amount of total hydrocarbons, as well, at 43.5 % followed by Pleistocene plays (36.5 %), Pliocene plays (19.1 %), Oligocene plays (0.5 %), and Mesozoic plays (0.4 %). Just over two-thirds of the Gulf of Mexico's total original proved reserves are contained in progradational facies (67.4 %),with the remainder comprising submarine-fan facies (18.5 %), aggradational facies (9.9 %), retrogradationalfacies (2.4 %), combination facies (1.7 %), and caprock and reef reservoirs (0.1 %). Total cumulative production from the different facies closely mimics the distribution of original proved reserves. Of the 91 plays, the lower Pleistocene progradational play (LPL P.1) contains the most original proved gas reserves (10.5 %) and has produced the most gas (11.4 %). However, the upper upper Miocene eastern progradational play (UM3 P.1B) contains the most original proved oil and condensate reserves (18.9 %) and has produced the most oil and condensate (21.4%). Several technical studies resulting from OAP have been published. Hunt and Burgess (1995) described the distribution of OAP plays deposited by the ancestral Mississippi River delta system in the north-central Gulf of Mexico over the past 24 million years. The lower Miocene plays are restricted to the westernmost portion of the Louisiana shelf. In the late middle Miocene, the depocenter migrated east of the present-day Mississippi River delta. During the late upper Miocene, the depocenter began migrating back to the west and prograded basinward, and it continued to do so throughout the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Lore and Batchelder (1995) discussed how OAP plays can be used to find exploration targets and assess undiscovered resources. As an exploration tool, OAP play maps can be used to identify conceptual submarine-fan plays downdip of established shallow water producing facies, and to identify wells where a known producing facies or chronozone has not yet been reached. As an assessment tool, the extensive data sets associated with each OAP play can be used to infer statistically the size of undiscovered resources in a play to determine if exploration in that play is economically justifiable. Lore et al. (1995) estimated the amount of undiscovered conventionally recoverable resources in the Gulf of Mexico, basing their assessment on previous work performed for OAP. Mean level estimates show that, by far, submarine-fan plays have the greatest potential for additional oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, with 75.1 % and 70.4 % of the total oil and gas resources, respectively. Mean level estimates for the 13 OAP Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene chronozones show that upper Pleistocene plays have the most oil resource potential (24.3 %), while lower Pleistocene plays have the most gas resource potential (20.6 %).     

Metabolic patterning of biosilicification

Here we show a discernibly unique biosilicification pattern for live, metabolically active Synechococcus cyanobacterial cell surfaces compared to dead Synechococcus cells under identical experimental conditions. The live cell treatments showed signs of cell division and the growth of fimbriae indicating metabolic activity during the 5-day silicification experiment. Live treatment cells were also recultivable after the experiments confirming their continued viability. The metabolically active live cyanobacteria treatment bound twice the amount of colloidal SiO₂ and held it more tightly compared to the dead cell treatment. Further, biosilicification of the live, actively metabolizing bacteria was unipolar, leaving the core surface largely unencrusted. In contrast, biosilicification of the dead cells was heterogeneous, occurring across the entire cell surface with no observable localized pattern. The directed biosilicification localization of live cell surfaces is likely a bacterial strategy to protect the cell functionality against the potentially inhibitory effects of mineral encrustation. Localization of silica biominerals to the polar end of the cell is also consistent with reported bacteria regulated cell polarity, which, under the experimental pH of 3, would enable localized differential attraction between the charged colloidal silica (+) particles and the bacterial cell polar surface (−). Our results show a novel metabolically-linked distinct colloidal SiO₂ biomineralization fingerprint, suggesting a putative biomineralization signature.     

Titan's diverse landscapes as evidenced by Cassini RADAR's third and fourth looks at Titan

Cassini's third and fourth radar flybys, T7 and T8, covered diverse terrains in the high southern and equatorial latitudes, respectively. The T7 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) swath is somewhat more straightforward to understand in terms of a progressive poleward descent from a high, dissected, and partly hilly terrain down to a low flat plain with embayments and deposits suggestive of the past or even current presence of hydrocarbon liquids. The T8 swath is dominated by dunes likely made of organic solids, but also contain somewhat enigmatic, probably tectonic, features that may be partly buried or degraded by erosion or relaxation in a thin crust. The dark areas in T7 show no dune morphology, unlike the dark areas in T8, but are radiometrically warm like the dunes. The Huygens landing site lies on the edge of the T8 swath; correlation of the radar and Huygens DISR images allows accurate determination of its coordinates, and indicates that to the north of the landing site sit two large longitudinal dunes. Indeed, had the Huygens probe trajectory been just 10 km north of where it actually was, images of large sand dunes would have been returned in place of the fluvially dissected terrain actually seen—illustrating the strong diversity of Titan's landscapes even at local scales.