Performance of a Pier Group Foundation in Swelling Rock

Foundations on claystone with swell potential may experience upward movement and failure. In this case study, the cause of 58 mm upward movement of drilled-in piers is analyzed using survey data, extensometer readings, and moisture content monitoring of claystone at the site. Laboratory swell tests were conducted to characterize the swelling characteristics of the weathered rock. A swell potential analysis for the pier group foundations is presented. The interaction of the pier group with the swelling rock is considered in analyzing the initiation of the upward movement. Furthermore, a novel inverse analysis method is presented to integrate the laboratory swell test results and numerical modeling to identify the representative swell pressures acting on the pier group as well as upward movement of the pier system. The numerical analysis indicates that the studied pier system is expected to have 135 mm heave and its rate of upward movement is compared with field observations. The behavior of the pier group foundation in swelling rock under various pier spacings and superstructure pressures shows that the uplift is considerably less for piers with smaller center-to-center spacing. The results of pier group numerical modeling provide the correlation of upward deformation changes due to center-to-center spacing of the piers, pier diameters and superstructure pressures.     

Diel variation of selenium and arsenic in a wetland of the Great Salt Lake, Utah

Diel (24-h) changes in Se and As concentrations in a freshwater wetland pond bordering the Great Salt Lake (GSL) were examined. Selenium concentrations (filtered and unfiltered) changed on a diel basis, i.e., were depleted during early morning and enriched during daytime over August 17-18. During the May 24-25, 2006 and September 29-30 diel studies, no significant 24-h trends were observed in Se concentrations compared to August, which showed daily maximums up to 59% greater than the daily minimum. Both filtered and unfiltered As concentrations also varied on a diel cycle, with increased concentrations during early morning and decreased concentrations during daytime. Filtered As concentrations increased 110% during the May 24-25, 2006 diel study. Selenium varied in phase with pH, dissolved O₂ (DO), and water temperature (T_w) whereas As varied opposite to Se, pH, DO and T_w. Changes in pH, DO and T_w showed a direct linear correlation (r = 0.74, 0.75, and 0.55, respectively) to filtered Se. Also pH, DO and T_w were inversely correlated to filtered As concentration (r = −0.88, −0.87, and −0.84, respectively). Equilibrium geochemical speciation and sorption models were used to examine the potential oxidation state changes in Se and As, and sorption and desorption reactions corresponding to the observed 24-h variations in pe and pH. In this wetland it was postulated that diel Se variation was driven by sorption and desorption due to photosynthesis-induced changes in pH and redox conditions. Diel variations of As were hypothesized to be linked to pH-driven sorption and desorption as well as co-precipitation and co-dissolution with mineral phases of Mn.     

The thermal stability of sideronatrite and its decomposition products in the system Na2O–Fe2O3–SO2–H2O

The thermal stability of sideronatrite, ideally Na₂Fe³⁺(SO₄)₂(OH)·3(H₂O), and its decomposition products were investigated by combining thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis, in situ high-temperature X-ray powder diffraction (HT-XRPD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (HT-FTIR). The data show that for increasing temperature there are four main dehydration/transformation steps in sideronatrite: (a) between 30 and 40 °C sideronatrite transforms into metasideronatrite after the loss of two water molecules; both XRD and FTIR suggest that this transformation occurs via minor adjustments in the building block. (b) between 120 and 300 °C metasideronatrite transforms into metasideronatrite II, a still poorly characterized phase with possible orthorhombic symmetry, consequently to the loss of an additional water molecule; X-ray diffraction data suggest that metasideronatrite disappears from the assemblage above 175 °C. (c) between 315 and 415 °C metasideronatrite II transforms into the anhydrous Na₃Fe(SO₄)₃ compound. This step occurs via the loss of hydroxyl groups that involves the breakdown of the [Fe³⁺(SO₄)₂(OH)] _∞ ^2? chains and the formation of an intermediate transient amorphous phase precursor of Na₃Fe(SO₄)₃. (d) for T > 500 °C, the Na₃Fe(SO₄)₃ compound is replaced by the Na-sulfate thenardite, Na₂SO₄, plus Fe-oxides, according to the Na₃Fe³⁺(SO₄)₃ → 3/2 Na₂(SO₄) + 1/2 Fe₂O₃ + SO_x reaction products. The Na–Fe sulfate disappears around 540 °C. For higher temperatures, the Na-sulfates decomposes and only hematite survives in the final product. The understanding of the thermal behavior of minerals such as sideronatrite and related sulfates is important both from an environmental point of view, due to the presence of these phases in evaporitic deposits, soils and sediments including extraterrestrial occurrences, and from the technological point of view, due to the use of these materials in many industrial applications.     

Variations of Temperature and Precipitation in Italy from 1866 to 1995

Summary Series of annual and seasonal temperature and precipitation representing respectively northern and southern Italy are compared for trend, interannual variability and periodicity in the period 1866–1995. Temperature and precipitation trends are almost always anticorrelated except in winter in the North where an anomalous behavior is evident till about 1980. The result is that the Italian climate has become warmer and drier especially in the South since about 1930.The interannual variability does not present significant maxima, but only minima that cannot be related tothe start of a trend either for temperature or for precipitation. The power spectra of the series show broad significant peaks containing the quasi-biennial oscillation and other well known periodicities probably due to solar cycles or to the North Atlantic ocean-atmosphere oscillation (NAO). Received December 16, 1998 Revised October 21, 1999     

Red micas from basal ignimbrites of Mt. Vulture (Italy): interlayer content appraisal by a multi-methodic approach

The crystal chemistry of red phlogopites from Mt. Vulture (Italy) ignimbrites has been studied by electron microprobe, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), single crystal structural investigation and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The analysed phlogopite has Fe/(Fe + Mg) ∼ 0.35, TiO₂ (wt%): 2.8–5.0 and H₂O (wt%): 1.24–3.37. Infrared spectra revealed the presence of bands due to the NH₄⁺ and H₂O stretching and bending vibrations. The samples belong to the 1M polytype. The bimodal behaviour of several structural parameters allows red micas to be clustered into two distinct groups: K⁺ ↔ NH₄⁺, H₂O and M³⁺-vacancy substitutions dominate in the first group; M^3+,4+-oxy, in the second group. It has to be pointed out that quantitative analysis of hydrogen (via SIMS) together with the characterization of the local environment of the anionic site (via FTIR) are fundamental in assessing the correct structural formula and the substitution mechanisms in micas. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A new climatology of maximum and minimum temperature (1951–2010) in the Spanish mainland: a comparison between three different interpolation methods

This study presents a new climatology of monthly temperature for mainland Spain (1951–2010), performed with the highest quality and spatially dense, up-to-date monthly temperature dataset available in the study area (MOTEDAS).

Three different interpolation techniques were evaluated: the Local Weighted Linear Regression (LWLR), the Regression-Kriging (RK) and the Regression-Kriging with stepwise selection (RKS), a modification of RK. The performances of the different models were evaluated by the leave-one-out validation procedure, comparing the results from the models with the original data and calculating different error measurements.

The three techniques performed better for T_max than for T_min, and for the cold, rather than warmer months, also at lower altitude than highland areas. The best results were achieved with LWLR applied for the first time on temperatures in the Spanish mainland. This method improved the accuracy of the temperature reconstruction with respect to RK and RKS.

We present a collection of T_max and T_min monthly charts, using the same temperature legend to prevent any visual bias in the interpretation of the results. The dataset is available upon request.     

Models of Jupiter's growth incorporating thermal and hydrodynamic constraints

We model the growth of Jupiter via core nucleated accretion, applying constraints from hydrodynamical processes that result from the disk-planet interaction. We compute the planet's internal structure using a well tested planetary formation code that is based upon a Henyey-type stellar evolution code. The planet's interactions with the protoplanetary disk are calculated using 3-D hydrodynamic simulations. Previous models of Jupiter's growth have taken the radius of the planet to be approximately one Hill sphere radius, RH. However, 3-D hydrodynamic simulations show that only gas within ∼0.25RH remains bound to the planet, with the more distant gas eventually participating in the shear flow of the protoplanetary disk. Therefore in our new simulations, the planet's outer boundary is placed at the location where gas has the thermal energy to reach the portion of the flow not bound to the planet. We find that the smaller radius increases the time required for planetary growth by ∼5%. Thermal pressure limits the rate at which a planet less than a few dozen times as massive as Earth can accumulate gas from the protoplanetary disk, whereas hydrodynamics regulates the growth rate for more massive planets. Within a moderately viscous disk, the accretion rate peaks when the planet's mass is about equal to the mass of Saturn. In a less viscous disk hydrodynamical limits to accretion are smaller, and the accretion rate peaks at lower mass. Observations suggest that the typical lifetime of massive disks around young stellar objects is ∼3 Myr. To account for the dissipation of such disks, we perform some of our simulations of Jupiter's growth within a disk whose surface gas density decreases on this timescale. In all of the cases that we simulate, the planet's effective radiating temperature rises to well above 1000 K soon after hydrodynamic limits begin to control the rate of gas accretion and the planet's distended envelope begins to contract. According to our simulations, proto-Jupiter's distended and thermally-supported envelope was too small to capture the planet's current retinue of irregular satellites as advocated by Pollack et al. [Pollack, J.B., Burns, J.A., Tauber, M.E., 1979. Icarus 37, 587-611].