Probability of plume interception using conditional simulation of hydraulic head and inverse modeling

A procedure to estimate the probability of intercepting a contaminant groundwater plume for monitoring network design has been developed and demonstrated. The objective of the procedure is to use all available information in a method that accounts for the heterogeneity of the aquifer and the paucity of data. The major components of the procedure are geostatistical conditional simulation and parameter estimation that are used sequentially to generate flow paths from a suspected contaminant source location to a designated monitoring transect. From the flow paths, a histogram is constructed that represents the spatial probability distribution of plume centerlines. With an independent estimate of the plume width, a relationship between the total cost and the probability of detecting a plume can be made. The method uses geostatistical information from hydraulic head measurements and is conditioned by the data and the physics of groundwater flow. This procedure was developed specifically for the design of monitoring systems at sites where very few, if any, hydraulic conductivity data are available.     

Summer phytoplankton production and transport along the shelf break in the Bering Sea

A general model is presented for the production and fate of phytoplankton during summer in two regions over the continental shelf of the Bering Sea. We propose that both regions of productivity are supported by nutrients transported into the area with the Bering Slope Current and that the fate of the phytodetritus produced is significantly affected by advection. We hypothesize that one system of primary productivity is initiated at the Bering Sea shelf-break front and continues into the northern Bering Sea as part of the modified Bering Shelf water mass. Phytodetritus produced in this system is transported north through Anadyr and Shpanberg Straits and we estimate that in 1987 it supplied 26% of the daily carbon demand of the benthos in the Chirikov Basin. The second region of primary productivity is located in the northern Bering Sea. Nutrients from the Anadyr Current, the northern branch of the bifurcated Bering Slope Current, support a highly productive phytoplankton bloom throughout the summer. Phytodetritus produced in this surface bloom is probably advected into the southern Chukchi Sea and deposited in the sediments.     

Ra in the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara

Water column distributions of²²⁶Ra were determined at stations in the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea as part of the 1988 Joint U.S.—Turkish Black Sea Expedition. Black Sea surface water²²⁶Ra concentrations were a factor of three to four lower than measurements made 20 years earlier. The most likely cause is increased removal of²²⁶Ra and Ba [35] due to increased surface biological activity; a secondary effect is decreased fluvial discharge and related dimunition of inputs by desorption from fluvial suspended sediments. The amount of²²⁶Ra missing from the surface waters of the Black Sea over this period is accounted for in the high-porosity surficial “fluff” sediment layer.

Throughout the Black Sea, depth profiles of²²⁶Ra exhibited pronounced maxima of approximately 25 dpm/100 L at aboutσ_θ = 16.2–16.3, in the vicinity of a bacterial maximum, but slightly shallower than the total dissolved Mn and Fe maxima (σ_θ = 16.4–16.5) reported by Lewis and Landing [38]. While the²²⁶Ra maximum may, in part, be linked to the cycling of Mn and Fe oxyhydroxides near theO₂H₂S interface, its distribution appears to be more plausibly explained as a result of the microbial breakdown of particulate organic matter and the subsequent release and partial dissolution of associated barite in this region.

A simple steady-state two-☐ model has been used to obtain a semiquantitative understanding of the behavior of²²⁶Ra in the Black Sea. By incorporating reasonable estimates for the input and removal of²²⁶Ra in the Black Sea, an excellent agreement between predicted and observed (1988)²²⁶Ra concentrations was achieved. The model suggests that the dominant variables controlling the distribution of²²⁶Ra in the Black Sea are riverine input and cycling with Ba.     

Thorium isotopes as analogues for “particle-reactive” pollutants in coastal marine environments

Experiments using radioactive tracers in microcosms of 150 l and 13 m³ volumes, which are designed to mimic Narragansett Bay, indicate that Th isotopes are good analogues for studying the removal behavior of “particle-reactive” pollutants such as Am, Pb, Po, Hg and Cr(III) in coastal environments. The removal of Th isotopes and Fe has been found to be closely linked in microcosms and Narragansett Bay. In addition, the settling velocities of tracer microspheres in the experimental tanks were found to be faster in spring and summer than expected from Stokes' law and similar to those of²³⁴Th-containing particles in Narragansett Bay [5]. It is concluded that aggregation of particles is important in accelerating the removal of surface-reactive elements during the warm season.     

Magnetic components contributing to the NRM of Middle Siwalik red beds

The components of the NRM in Middle Siwalik red beds are carried by two phases of hematite, a red pigment phase and a specular hematite phase. We present evidence in the form of a conglomerate test that the specularite phase carries a remanence acquired during or shortly after deposition. The red pigment, however, post-dates deposition, in many cases by at least one reversal boundary. This secondary component has a higher coercivity but a lower blocking temperature in these rocks and can therefore be selectively removed by thermal demagnetization to reveal a primary magnetization useful for magnetostratigraphic studies.     

Roundoff accumulation at weak horizontal positions

This paper examines computer roundoff error accumulation in the least-squares adjustment of horizontal geodetic networks containing positions of very poor geometry. Roundoff error accumulates at the weak unknowns but does not disturb the solution of well-determined positions. Numerical results are given.     

Secondary geologically meaningless Rb---Sr isochrons, low Sr/Sr initial ratios and crustal residence times of high-grade gneisses

Dark green quartzo-feldspathic charnockitic ortho-gneisses from Arendal, southern Norway, have locally been decoloured in the vicinities of intrusive, undeformed granite sheets and pegmatite dikes. The result is a series of pink rocks which are macroscopically indistinguishable from primary augen granite gneisses. The main mineralogical changes associated with the secondary decolcuration occurred under relatively low-grade conditions, and mainly involved chlorite, serpentine ± actinolitic amphibole ± biotite growth. The alterations were initiated along narrow, irregularly spaced cracks. The primary ( 1540 m.y.) total rock Rb---Sr isotopic systems which relate to the charnockite mineralogy were disturbed, and sometimes reset, during the secondary event which occurred at 1060 m.y. Locality by locality, the decoloured samples yield linear arrays corresponding to 1457 ± 200 m.y., 1303 ± 50 m.y. and 1125 ± 185 m.y. The combined data (n = 19) give an apparent age of 1364 ± 43 m.y. with an ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr initial ratio of 0.7011 ± 0.0018. This apparent age is unrelated to any geological event and there is no overlap at the 2δ level between the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr initial ratio and that defined by the primary event (0.70345 ± 0.00014). Any estimate of crustal residence time based on these decoloured samples would be in error. The weight of evidence is against significant involvement of Rb mobility in the isotopic resetting process which accompanied decolouration. A model involving modification of the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios is preferred.     

A spectral and lag-correlation analysis of turbulence in a deciduous forest canopy

The processes influencing turbulence in a deciduous forest and the relevant length and time scales are investigated with spectral and cross-correlation analysis. Wind velocity power spectra were computed from three-dimensional wind velocity measurements made at six levels inside the plant canopy and at one level above the canopy. Velocity spectra measured within the plant canopy differ from those measured in the surface boundary layer. Noted features associated with the within-canopy turbulence spectra are: (a) power spectra measured in the canopy crown peak at higher wavenumbers than do those measured in the subcanopy trunkspace and above the canopy; (b) peak spectral values collapse to a relatively universal value when scaled according to a non-dimensional frequency comprised of the product of the natural frequency and the Eulerian time scale for vertical velocity; (c) at wavenumbers exceeding the spectral peak, the slopes of the power spectra are more negative than those observed in the surface boundary layer; (d) Eulerian length scales decrease with depth into the canopy crown, then increase with further depth into the canopy; (e) turbulent events below crown closure are more correlated with turbulent events above the canopy than are those occurring in the canopy crown; and (f) Taylor's frozen eddy hypothesis is not valid in a plant canopy. Interactions between plant elements and the mean wind and turbulence alter the processes that produce, transport and remove turbulent kinetic energy and account for the noted observations.     

Photometry of the asteroid 1976 AA at 0.56 and 2.2 μm

We report observations at 0.56 and 2.2 μm of the Apollo asteroid 1976 AA made during its discovery apparition. We derive a 2.2-μm relative spectral reflectance (scaled to unity at 0.56 μm) of R(2.2 μm) = 1.5 ± 0.3. This 2.2-μm reflectance is not compatible with a carbonaceous surface composition. However, it is compatible with a wide variety of meteoritic types including ordinary chondrites, stony irons, and mesosiderites. Thus, 1976 AA may have a silicate surface similar to other Apollo-Amor objects.