TheUrquiola oil spill,La Coruña,Spain: Impact and reaction on beaches and rocky coasts

The supertankerUrquiola grounded, exploded, and burned at the entrance to La Coruña harbor (Spain) on May 12, 1976. A total of 100,000 tons of Persian Gulf crude oil was lost, of which about 30,000 tons washed onto shoreline environments. From May 17 to June 10, 1976, the impact and interaction of oil on fine-sand, coarse-sand, and gravel beaches and on sheltered and exposed rocky coasts was monitored in detail. At 32 localities, the beach was profiled, trenched, extensively sampled, and photographed. Another 67 stations were examined for surficial oil coverage and distribution. The surficial distribution of oil on the beaches was influenced primarily by wave activity, tidal stage, and oil quantity. Heaviest accumulations formed along the high-tide swash line. Within beach sediments, oil was present at distinct oiled sediment layers, which were often deeply buried. The depth of burial was related to wave energy and sediment type. Deepest burial (1 m) was on a high-energy, coarse-sand beach (M_z=0.82φ). Burial on fine-sand beaches was less than 30 cm. The thickness of oiled sediment depended on sedimentary characteristics, the quantity of oil present, wave action, and capillary forces. Oil-soaked sediment, as much as 65-cm thick, occurred on coarse-grained beaches. On fine-sand beaches, oiled sediment was limited to thicknesses of 10 cm or less. On rocky shores, oil distribution was determined primarily by wave energy. Along high-energy, cliffed, or steeply dipping rocky areas, wave reflection kept the oil approximately 5 m offshore and contamination was minimal. In low-energy, sheltered areas, oil readily accumulated, causing apparent environmental damage.     

The Lyngen Gabbro: the lower crust of an Ordovician Incipient Arc

We present evidence for the origin of the Lyngen Gabbro of the Ordovician Lyngen Magmatic Complex in Troms, Northern Norway. The two magmatic suites of the Lyngen Gabbro strike parallel NNE-SSW, and have distinct magmatic signatures. We define these signatures by using major and trace-element analyses together with selected major- and trace-element mineral analyses and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd-isotope whole-rock analyses of gabbroic to tonalitic plutonic rocks from seven detailed cross-sections from this large gabbro-complex. The Western suite of the Lyngen Gabbro precipitated from magma that may have been derived from the same system as the associated volcanic rocks. The gabbros have high An-content (An_>90) of their plagioclases relative to co-existing mafic minerals. Together with somewhat high _Nd(t) values (+6), this implies that the parental magmas were hydrous tholeiites similar to those found in back arc basins today. The Eastern suite, on the other hand, consist of cumulates that were precipitated from melts resembling those of ultra-depleted high-Ca boninitic magmas found in fore-arcs. Extremely high-An plagioclases (An_>95) co-exist with evolved mafic minerals and oxides, and the _Nd(t) values are lower (+4) than in the Western suite. The Eastern suite has no volcanic counterpart, but dikes intersecting the suites have compositions that possibly represent its parental magma. The oceanic Rypdalen Shear Zone generally separates the two suites in the north, but several non-tectonic transitions from boninitic to tholeiitic signatures southwards advocate that the magmatism happened concurrently. The magmatic proximity between the suites, the hydrous magmatism and the absence of a silicic or calc-alkaline mature arc section, suggests that the Lyngen Gabbro formed in the Iapetus Ocean under conditions presently found in incipient arcs later emplaced as outer arc highs.     

Volcanic tremor related to the 1991 eruption of the Hekla volcano,Iceland

Volcanic tremor at the Hekla volcano is directly related to eruptive activity. It starts simultaneously with the eruptions and dies down at the end of them. No tremor at Hekla has been observed during non-eruptive times. The 1991 Hekla eruption began on 17 January, after a short warning time. Local seismograph stations recorded small premonitory earthquakes from 16:30 GMT on. At 17:02 GMT, low-frequency volcanic tremor became visible on the seismograph records, marking the onset of the eruption. The initial plinian phase of the eruption was short-lived. During the first day several fissures were active but, by the second day, the activity was already limited to a segment of one principal fissure. The eruption lasted almost 53 days. At the end of it, during the early hours of 11 March, volcanic tremor disappeared under the detection threshold and was followed by a swarm of small earthquakes. At the start of the eruption, the tremor amplitude rose rapidly and reached a maximum in only 10 min. The tremor was most vigorous during the first hour and started to decline sharply during the next hour, and later on more gently. During the eruption as a whole, the tremor had a continuous declining trend, with occasional increases lasting up to about 2 days. Spectral analysis of the tremor during the first 7 h of the eruption shows that it settled quickly, within a couple of minutes, to its characteristic frequency band, 0.5–1.5 Hz. The spectrum had typically one dominant peak at 0.7–0.9 Hz, and a few subdominant peaks. Hekla tremor likely has a shallow source. Particle motion plots suggest that it contains a significant component of surface waves. The tremor started first when the connection of the magma conduit with the atmosphere was reached, suggesting that degassing may contribute to its generation.     

A Practical Approach to Shallow Petroleum Hydrocarbon Recovery

A practical pumping system for the recovery of free petroleum hydrocarbon product from shallow aquifers has been developed. The system is patterned after suction-lift well point dewatering systems used in the construction industry. Pumping equipment consists of double-diaphragm suction-lift pumps manifolded to up to four recovery wells. Recovery wells are constructed with screens below the water table and sealed wellheads to enable vacuum-assisted flow of fluids to the wells. Pumps utilized are pneumatically driven, can be pumped dry without damage, induce a vacuum on the wells when pumping dry, and provide delivery of pumped fluids to fluid separation and storage facilities. The system is effective in both low- and high-permeability formations due to the wide range in available pumping rates afforded by the pumps.     

Acquisition and processing of data for isotope-ratio-monitoring mass spectrometry

Methods are described for continuous monitoring of signals required for precise analyses of 13C, 18O, and 15N in gas streams containing varying quantities of CO2 and N2. The quantitative resolution (i.e. maximum performance in the absence of random errors) of these methods is adequate for determination of isotope ratios with an uncertainty of one part in 10(5); the precision actually obtained is often better than one part in 10(4). This report describes data-processing operations including definition of beginning and ending points of chromatographic peaks and quantitation of background levels, allowance for effects of chromatographic separation of isotopically substituted species, integration of signals related to specific masses, correction for effects of mass discrimination, recognition of drifts in mass spectrometer performance, and calculation of isotopic delta values. Characteristics of a system allowing off-line revision of parameters used in data reduction are described and an algorithm for identification of background levels in complex chromatograms is outlined. Effects of imperfect chromatographic resolution are demonstrated and discussed and an approach to deconvolution of signals from coeluting substances described.     

BASIC: Baltic Sea cyanobacteria. An investigation of the structure and dynamics of water blooms of cyanobacteria in the Baltic Sea—responses to a changing environment

The blooms of cyanobacteria that develop each summer in the Baltic Sea are composed of two functional groups, namely the small-sized picocyanobacteria (Synechococcus sp.) and the larger, colony-forming, filamentous N₂-fixing cyanobacteria. The former encompassed both red (phycoerythrin-rich) and blue-green (phycocyanin-rich) species. The majority of the picocyanobacteria measured less than 1 μm and this size fraction comprised as much as 80% of the total cyanobacterial biomass and contributed as much as 50% of the total primary production of a cyanobacterial bloom. The picocyanobacteria are incapable of fixing N₂, do not possess gas vesicles and are not toxic. However, a small filamentous Pseudanabaena sp. that could potentially fix N₂ was isolated from the picocyanobacteria fraction. The larger cyanobacteria may form surface scums because they possess gas vesicles that make them buoyant. Although their biomass was less than the picocyanobacteria, they therefore form the more conspicuous and nuisance-forming part of the bloom. The larger cyanobacteria were composed mainly of three different species: Nodularia spumigena, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae and Anabaena sp. These all belong to the heterocystous, N₂-fixing cyanobacteria. N. spumigena and A. flos-aquae were the dominant species; only N. spumigena was toxic. Although individual Nodularia filaments showed a range of different phenotypes, they all belong to one species as judged from 16S rDNA sequencing. Through determination of the genotypes of many individual Nodularia filaments, it was shown that this population was not clonal and that horizontal exchange of genetic information occurs. N. spumigena and A. flos-aquae were different with respect to their photosynthetic and N₂-fixing potentials. Depending on prevailing environmental conditions, these differences would promote the proliferation of one species over the other and hence would determine overall the toxicity of a bloom. Daily integrals of photon irradiance rather than temperature determined the onset of bloom formation. During a bloom, the diazotrophic cyanobacteria fixed N₂ at a rate that was 10–20% in excess of their own demand for N. Picocyanobacteria assimilated most of this excess N as shown by ¹⁵N incorporation. During bloom conditions, the diazotrophic cyanobacteria met about 50% of the N demand of the total cyanobacterial community. The picocyanobacteria were predominantly N-limited while the diazotrophic cyanobacteria were probably iron limited. These findings allow us to understand the formation of toxic cyanobacterial blooms and also to develop tools to predict bloom formation.     

Combining dissolved, suspended and bed load stream geochemistry to explore for volcanic massive sulfide deposits: Big Salmon Complex, northern British Columbia

Exploration successes for volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits, such as Kudz Ze Kayah, Wolverine and Fyre Lake in the Yukon–Tanana Terrane and Slide Mountain Terrane (southern Yukon Territory) have spurred interest in the correlative rocks in the Big Salmon Complex in northern British Columbia. In an effort to further the utility of multi-media stream geochemistry in exploration frontiers that are forested, heavily drift covered, or buried, the primary streams of 19 watersheds from the East Teslin Lake (National Topographic System (NTS): 104N/9, 16) and Teh Creek areas (NTS: 104O/11, 12, 13, 14) of the Big Salmon Complex were analyzed for Cu, Pb, and Zn and other parameters in the dissolved load, suspended load and bed load. Traditionally, exploration based on stream geochemistry has employed the bed load and more recently the dissolved load chemistry, but almost never the suspended load despite strong differences in the geochemical signatures of the three media. Here, we document that copper, lead, and zinc partition into the dissolved, suspended, and bed loads differently and that the magnitude of anomalies is different for each media. The adsorbing capacity of the suspended load may make it a more sensitive indicator of mineral deposits on a regional basis than either the trace-element-poor dissolved load or the bulk-rock-diluted bed load which are likely better indicators of local mineralization. It is clear that each phase contributes unique information about the distribution of elements in the watershed that could be considered in exploration models.We also show that summing standardized element concentrations and summing the sums across media appears to be an effective method to reduce the data without loss of important information. We likewise investigated the utility of calculating major element normalized enrichments for exploration and find that it is a promising approach.     

Factors Influencing Adoption and Implementation of Conservation Development Ordinances in Rural United States

Conservation Development (CD) is a land-use tool to reduce the impacts of development on natural resources, yetthe use of CD is highly variable. We used a collaborative conservation model to examine factors influencing adoption and implementation to improve the future application of CD. We interviewed 2–3 individuals including planners, board members, and developers (n?=?46) from 16 rural communities in the intermountain west and northeast U.S. Motivations to preserve rural character or comply with state statutes drove adoption. Greater capacity such as outside expertise, model regulations, and iterative revisions of ordinances was associated with stronger ordinances. Adoption processes including ample dialog across diverse constituents, especially those overseeing subdivision development, facilitated higher rates of implementation. Concerns over open space management, lack of successful CD examples, and inexperience with CD posed barriers to implementation. Understanding social context revealed the strengths and shortcomings of CD and provided guidance for strategically engaging communities in private lands conservation.     

A new fractal algorithm to model discrete sequences

Employing the properties of the affine mappings, a very novel fractal model scheme based on the iterative function system is proposed. We obtain the vertical scaling factors by a set of the middle points in each affine transform, solving the difficulty in determining the vertical scaling factors, one of the most difficult challenges faced by the fractal interpolation. The proposed method is carried out by interpolating the known attractor and the real discrete sequences from seismic data. The results show that a great accuracy in reconstruction of the known attractor and seismic profile is found, leading to a significant improvement over other fractal interpolation schemes.