Low abundance of the dinoflagellates,Pfiesteria piscicida, P. shumwayae, andCryptoperidiniopsis spp., in South Carolina tidal creeks and open estuaries

The toxicPfiesteria complex are a group of dinoflagellates that have received considerable attention in recent years as causative factors in fish kill or lesion events in North Carolina estuaries and in the Pocomoke River of Chesapeake Bay. In response to the potentialPfiesteria threat, the South Carolina Task Group on Harmful Algae was formed in late 1997 and implemented programs to monitor harmful algal blooms and respond to fish kills or lesion events with particular emphasis on the Bushy Park (Cooper River, Charleston) region, a site of annually recurrent menhaden lesion events.Pfiesteria piscicida, Pfiesteria shumwayae, andCryptoperidiniopsis spp. were documented in South Carolina estuaries. Routine monitoring and fish kill or lesion event sampling consistently indicated low abundances compared to estimates from similar programs in North Carolina and Maryland that sampled areas with a history ofPfiesteria toxic activity. The finding thatPfiesteria-like organism (PLO) abundances were always low in samples collected during menhaden lesion events in Bushy Park suggested other causes for lesion progression, althoughPfiesteria spp. could not be ruled out as a factor in lesion initiation. Based on the previously demonstrated positive relationship between PLO abundance, chlorophylla, and inorganic nutrient concentrations (in laboratory experiments and North Carolina field observations), we hypothesized that the relatively low abundance ofPfiesteria spp. and other PLO (e.g.,Cryptoperidiniopsis) in South Carolina estuaries is related to the relatively low supply of phytoplankton prey, as supported by interstate comparisons in chlorophylla concentrations. Nitrate concentrations were generally much lower in South Carolina estuaries. Estuarine eutrophication may be an important consideration in explaining interstate differences in susceptibility toPfiesteria-related toxic events.     

Thermal modeling of the Southern Alps,New Zealand

Finite-element modeling of the thermal regime across the Southern Alps of New Zealand has been carried out along two profiles situated near the Franz Josef and Haast valleys. The modeling involves viscous deformation beneath the Southern Alps, including both uplift and erosion, and crustal/lithospheric thickening, as a result of crustal shortening extending to 20 mm/y of a 25-km thick crust. Published uplift rates and crustal thickness variations along the two profiles are used to constrain the modeled advection of crustal material, and results are compared with the recent heat flow determinations, 190±50 mW/m² in the Franz Josef valley and 90±25 mW/m² in the Haast valley. Comparisons of the model with published K–Ar and fission track ages, show that the observed heat flow in the Franz Josef valley is consistent with observed zircon fission track ages of around 1 Ma, if the present-day uplift rate is close to 10 mm/y. Major thermal differences between the Franz Josef and Haast profiles appear to be due to different uplift and erosion rates. There is weak evidence that frictional heating close to the Alpine fault zone is not significant. The modeling provides explanations for the distribution of seismicity beneath the Southern Alps, and predicts a low surface heat flow over the eastern foothills due to the dominant thermal effect of crustal thickening beneath this region. Predicted temperatures at mid-crustal depth beneath the zone of maximum uplift rate are 50–100°C cooler than those indicated in previously published models, which implies that thermal weakening of the crust may not be the main factor causing the aseismicity of the central Southern Alps. The results of the modeling demonstrate that the different types of reset age data in the region within 25 km of the Alpine fault are critical for constraining models of the deformation and the thermal regime beneath the Southern Alps.     

Projective ordination by SIMCA: A dynamic strategy for cost-efficient environmental monitoring around offshore installations

A method for environmental monitoring using benthic species profiles as input is developed in this work. The method, referred to as projective ordination, utilises local principal component modelling (SIMCA) to obtain a cross-validated model which spans the natural variation in a region around offshore oil-producing installations. The borderline between regions with disturbed and non-disturbed species communities is subsequently decided from the residual distribution. This distribution is used to design an approximate F-test for assessing whether a community at a particular sampling location is disturbed or not. If so, the nature of the disturbance is determined by projecting the data on the PC model.Projective ordination utilises information from previous surveys to define the permissible variation in species communities, i.e. the limit of the natural variation. In addition, the method is dynamic, in a sense that the sampling locations may vary from survey to survey.Furthermore, our analysis shows that the customary number of replicate samples per station can be reduced. Modelling with only four randomly chosen replicates out of the complete set of five for each sampling location, does not affect the model significantly. On the other hand, taking only 3 replicates into account leads to significant divergences.A model based on the 1990 and 1993 surveys at the Statfjord field is presented as an example of the technique.     

A Sample-Freezing Drive Shoe for a Wire Line Piston Core Sampler

Loss of fluids and samples during retrieval of cores of saturated, noncohesive sediments results in incorrect measures of fluid distributions and an inaccurate measure of the stratigraphic position of the sample. To reduce these errors, we developed a hollow drive shoe that freezes in place the lowest 3 inches (75 mm) of a 1.88-inch-diameter (48 mm), 5-foot-long (1.5 m) sediment sample taken using a commercial wire line piston core smapler. The end of the core is frozen by piping liquid carbon dioxide at ambient temperature through a steel tube from a bottle at the land surface to the drive shoe where it evaporates and expands, cooling the interior surface of the shoe to about - 109°F (- 78°C). Freezing a core end takes about 10 minutes. The device was used to collect samples for a study of oil-water-air distributions, and for studies of water chemistry and microbial activity in unconsolidated sediments at the site of an oil spill near Bemidji, Minnesota. Before freezing was employed, samples of sandy sediments from near the water table sometimes flowed out of the core barrel as the sampler was withdrawn. Freezing the bottom of the core allowed for the retention of all material that entered the core barrel and lessened the redistribution of fluids within the core. The device is useful in the unsaturated and shallow saturated zones, but does not freeze cores well at depths greater than about 20 feet (6 m) below water, possibly because the feed tube plugs with dry ice with increased exhaust back-pressure, or because sediment enters the annulus between the core barrel and the core barrel liner and blocks the exhaust.     

Chemical constraints on the petrogenesis of mildly alkaline lavas from Vestmannaeyjar,Iceland: the Eldfell (1973) and Surtsey (1963–1967) eruptions

The Vestmannaeyjar archipelago is composed of alkalic lavas erupted at the southern end of the active, southward propagating, Eastern Volcanic Zone. Recent eruptions include the most primitive (Surtsey) and most evolved (Eldfell) compositions found in this area. We studied time-stratigraphic sample suites from both eruptions to characterize the magmatic environment of Vestmannacyjar. All samples are nearly homogeneous in radiogenic isotopic ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr 0.70304 to 0.70327;¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd 0.51301 to 0.50307;²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb 18.96 to 19.18;²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb 15.50 to 15.53;²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb 38.47 to 38.76; KH Park and A Zindler, in preparation). Compositional trends of lavas from the two eruptions are not consistent with fractionation in a near-surface environment, but indicate rather moderate pressure evolution of small magma batches. At Eldfell, mugearite lavas can be modeled by 30% closed-system fractional crystallization of olivine+plagioclase+clinopyroxene+Fe–Ti oxides from parental hawaiite. The phase proportions are consistent with an experimentally determined moderate pressure (8 kbar) cotectic in mildly alkaline systems (Mahood and Baker 1986). Compositional variations of Surtsey lavas can be modeled by crystallization of clinopyroxene+olivine+plagioclase+minor Fe–Ti oxides. The presence of sodic plagioclase megacrysts and clinopyroxene with 8 wt% Al₂O₃ in xenoliths from Surtsey lavas are consistent with a moderate pressure fractionation event. Based on major-element and REE data the most primitive Surtsey lavas formed by small degrees of melting of a lherzolite source. The alkaline nature of Vestmannaeyjar lavas is not the result of assimilation of lower crustal melts (cf. Oskarsson et al. 1985; Steinthorsson et al. 1985).     

The early history of the earth—moon system

The study of the Earth—Moon system provides the connecting link between purely astronomical studies of the origin of the solar system and its planets, and geophysical and biological studies of the evolution of the Earth's geology, its surface features, atmosphere and hydrosphere, and of terrestrial life.A coherent account is presented here, based on the hypothesis that the Moon formed separately and was later captured by the Earth. The adoption of this hypothesis, together with the observed depletion of iron in the Moon, sets some important constraints on the development of condensation and agglomeration phenomena in the primeval solar nebula, which led to the formation of planetesimals, and ultimately to planets.Capture of the Moon also defines a severe heating event within the Earth, whereby its kinetic energy of rotation is largely dissipated internally by the mechanism of tidal friction. From this melting event dates the geologic, atmospheric, and oceanic history of the Earth. An attempt is made to account for the unique development of the Earth, especially in relation to Mars and Venus, its neighboring planets.     

Why image Uranus?

A review of visual and photographic data on the appearance of Uranus indicates that markings frequently occur on the planet. The featureless images obtained by the Stratoscope II balloon telescope are possibly the result of the broad spectral band that was used. Difference, or ratio, picture techniques which enhance color or polarization contrasts are proposed as the basis for Uranus imagery on the '79 MJU Mission. An attempt is made to predict the aspect of Uranus at high resolution on the basis of what is currently known about the Uranus atmosphere. The planet should have no visible surface, the tops of a thick NH₃ cloud layer should exist near the 3–4 bar level and there is a very uncertain possibility of a thin, broken CH₄ cloud layer near 300 mbar. It is proposed that if the choice of an MJU imaging system rests on Uranus objectives alone (i.e., excluding the satellites) then the system should emphasize photo-polarimetric observations between 5500 and 10 000 Å. If, however, the total mission objectives are the basis of choice then a high resolution imaging system, based on the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn system, but including a solid state silicon array would be a more suitable choice. The performance of such a system at Uranus is analyzed.     

Comets,ice ages,and ecological catastrophes

A total mass 10¹⁴ g added to the Earth's upper atmosphere in the form of small particles of high albedo for visual wavelengths would produce an inverse greenhouse effect, shielding ground level from sunlight but permitting infrared radiation from the ground to escape into space. Such a mass of small particles might be acquired by the Earth in a close approach to a cometary nucleus. Ice ages and ecodisasters, such as that which occurred 6.5×10⁷ years ago, could arise from the effects of such an addition of small particles.Supported in part by the National Science Foundation [PHY76-83685] at Caltech.     

Near-infrared spectra of the Galilean satellites: Observations and compositional implications

We have obtained reflectivity spectra of the trailing and leading sides of all four Galilean satellites with circular variable filter wheel spectrometers operating in the 0.7- to 5.5-μm spectral interval. These observations were obtained at an altitude of 41,000 ft from the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. Features seen in these data include a 2.9-μm band present in the spectra of both sides of Callisto; the well-known 1.5-μm and 2.0-μm combination bands and the previously more poorly defined 3.1-μm fundamental of water ice observed in the spectra of both sides of Europa and Ganymede; and features centered at 1.35 ± 0.1, 2.55 ± 0.1, and 4.05 ± 0.05 μm noted in the spectra of both sides of Io. In an effort to interpret these data, we have compared them with laboratory spectra as well as synthetic spectra constructed with a simple multiple-scattering theory. We attribute the 2.9-μm feature of Callisto's spectra primarily to bound water, with the product of fractional abundance of bound water and mean grain radius in micrometers equaling approximately 3.5 × 10^?1 for both sides of the satellite. The fractional amounts of water ice cover on the trailing side of Ganymede, its leading side, and the leading side of Europa were found to be 50 ± 15, 65 ± 15, and 85% or greater, respectively. The bare ground areas on Ganymede have reflectivity properties in the 0.7- to 2.5-μm spectral region comparable to those of Callisto's surface and also have significant quantities of bound water, as does Callisto. Interpretation of the spectrum for the trailing side of Europa is complicated by magnetospheric particle bombardment which causes a perceptible broadening of strong bands, but the ice cover on this side is probably comparable to that on the leading side. These irradiation effects may be responsible for much of the difference in the visual geometric albedos of the two sides of Europa. Minor, but significant, amounts of ferrous-bearing material (either ferrous salts or alkali feldspars but not olivines or pyroxenes) account for the 1.35-μm feature of Io. The two longer wavelength bands are most likely attributable to nitrate salts. Ferrous salts and nitrates can jointly also account for much of the spectral variation in Io's visible reflectivity, thereby eliminating the need to postulate large quantities of sulfur. The absence of noticeable features near 3-μm wavelength in Io's spectra leads to upper bounds of 10% on the fractional cover of water and ammonia ice and 10^?3 on the relative abundance of bound water and hydroxylated material on Io. The two sides of Io have similar compositions. We suggest that the systematic increase in fractional water ice cover from Callisto to Ganymede to Europa is bought about by variations in efficiencies of recoating the satellite's surface by interior water brought to the surface, and by the deposition of extrinsic dust. The most important component of the latter is debris, derived from the outer irregular satellites of Jupiter, which impacts the Galilean satellites at relatively low velocities. Europa has the largest water ice cover because its crust is thinnest and thus the frequency of water recoating is the greatest, and because it is farthest from the sources of low-velocity dust. While models which depict Io's surface as consisting primarily of very fine-grained ice are no longer viable, we are unable to definitively distinguish between the salt assemblage and alkali feldspar models. The salt model can better account for Io's reflectivity spectrum from 0.3 to 5 μm, but the absence of appreciable quantities of bound water and hydroxylated material may not be readily understood within the context of that model.