Rates and patterns of erosion on inter-tidal shore platforms,Kaikoura Peninsula,South Island,New Zealand

This paper presents measured rates of erosion on shore platforms at Kaikoura Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand. Surface lowering rates were measured with a micro-erosion meter and traversing micro-erosion meter. The mean lowering rate for all shore platforms was 1·130 mm a⁻¹. Differences in lowering rates were found between different platform types and lithologies. The rate of surface lowering on Type A (sloping) mudstone platforms was 1·983 mm a⁻¹, and 0·733 mm a⁻¹ on Type B mudstone platforms (subhorizontal). On limestone platforms the lowering rate was 0·875 mm a⁻¹. A previously reported cross-shore pattern of surface lowering rates from Kaikoura was not found. Rates were generally higher on the landward margins and decreased in a seaward direction. Season is shown statistically to influence erosion rates, with higher rates during summer than winter. The interpretation given to this is that the erosive process is subaerial weathering in the form of wetting and drying and salt weathering. This is contrary to views of shore platform development that have favoured marine processes over subaerial weathering. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Radium mass-balance in Jamaica Bay, NY: Evidence for a substantial flux of submarine groundwater

A mass balance for the naturally-occurring radium isotopes (²²⁴Ra, ²²³Ra, ²²⁸Ra, and ²²⁶Ra) in Jamaica Bay, NY, was conducted by directly estimating the individual Ra contributions of wastewater discharge, diffusion from fine-grained subtidal sediments, water percolation through marshes, desorption from resuspended particles, and water exchange at the inlet. The mass balance revealed a major unknown source term accounting for 19–71% of the total Ra input, which could only be resolved by invoking a source from submarine groundwater. Shallow (< 2 m depth) groundwater from permeable sediments in Jamaica Bay was brackish and enriched in Ra relative to surface bay waters by over two orders of magnitude. To balance Ra fluxes, a submarine groundwater input of 0.8 × 10⁹–9.0 × 10⁹ L d^− 1 was required. This flux was similar for all four isotopes, with individual estimates varying by less than a factor of 2. Our calculated groundwater flux was 6- to 70-fold higher than the fresh groundwater discharge to the bay estimated by hydrological methods, but closely matched direct flow rates measured with seepage meters. This suggests that a substantial portion of the discharge consisted of recirculated seawater. The magnitude of submarine groundwater discharge varied seasonally, in the order: summer > autumn > spring. Chemical analyses suggest that the recirculated seawater component of submarine groundwater delivers as much dissolved nitrogen to the bay as the fresh groundwater flux.     

Thallium: A potential guide to mineral deposits

Several recent studies have suggested that rocks associated with mineral deposits of hydrothermal origin are generally enriched in Rb. TI is similar in its geochemical characteristics to Rb, but its use as a potential guide to ore deposits has not been suggested. Although TI has the same size and valency as Rb, it is concentrated more in residual melts than Rb and K because the TI-O bond is more covalent and weaker than either the Rb-O or K-O bonds.A new method which is rapid and precise has been developed by one of the authors for the determination of TI in geological materials at the ppb level. About 350 rocks from 4 mineralized areas in northeastern Washington and central Montana were analyzed for TI by this method. Most of these rocks were also analyzed for SiO₂, A1₂O₃,Fe₂O₃, MgO, CaO, Na₂O, K₂O, TiO₂, P₂O₅, MnO, Ag, As, Au, Ba, Co, Cu, F, Li, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sr, Sb, Sn, Sr, Te, U, W, and Zn. The ore deposits of the areas studied include the gold-silver deposits of the Republic district, the uranium deposit of the Midnite mine, the coppermolybdenum deposit of Mount Tolman, and the gold deposits of the North Moccasin mining district.In all the mineralized areas there is significantly more TI in hydrothermally altered rocks than in unaltered rocks. The very high abundance of TI in the altered rocks of the North Moccasin gold district, and the significant positive correlations of TI and K and TI and Rb in the mineralized rocks of the other three areas suggest that TI was concentrated in hydrothermal fluids. In altered rocks the average K/Rb and K/TI ratios are lower, and the Rb/Sr and TI/Sr ratios are higher.Often the abundance of TI and the K/TI and TI/Sr ratios are more useful in delineating mineralized areas than the abundance of Rb and the K/Rb and Rb/Sr ratios. The ternary relationships between TI and several other elements, especially Rb, K, Ba, and Sr, show mineralized rocks to fall near the TI apices or near the TI-Rb or TI-K boundaries.     

Number of information and its relation to the cosmological constant resulting from Landauer’s principle

In this study, we have investigated the geometrical and physical properties of stationary axisymmetric solutions. The expressions for the axial-vector and the gravitational energy and momentum densities are obtained in the context of teleparallel equivalent of general relativity. The obtained results are compared with that obtained previously in the context of Møller’s tetrad theory of gravitation. We discussed special cases of these solutions.     

The initial conditions of isolated star formation – V. ISOPHOT imaging and the temperature and energy balance of pre-stellar cores

ISO data taken with the long-wavelength imaging photo-polarimeter ISOPHOT are presented of 18 pre-stellar cores at three far-infrared wavelengths, 90, 170 and 200 μm. Most of the cores are detected clearly at 170 and 200 μm, but only one is detected strongly at 90 μm, indicating that mostly they are very cold, with typical temperatures of only ∼     . Colour temperature images are constructed for each of the cores. Most of the cores are seen either to be isothermal, or to have associated temperature gradients from the core centres to their edges, with all except one being cooler at the centre. We compare the data with previous ISOCAM absorption data, and calculate the energy balance for those cores in common between the two samples. We find that the energy radiated by each core in the far-infrared is similar to that absorbed at shorter wavelengths. Hence there is no evidence for a central heating source in any of the cores – even those for which previous evidence for core contraction exists. This is all consistent with external heating of the cores by the local interstellar radiation field, confirming their pre-stellar nature.     

Probing pulsar winds using inverse Compton scattering

We investigate the effects of inverse Compton scattering by electrons and positrons in the unshocked winds of rotationally-powered binary pulsars. This process can scatter low energy target photons to produce gamma rays with energies from MeV to TeV. The binary radio pulsars PSR B1259−63 and PSR J0045−73 are both in close eccentric orbits around bright main sequence stars which provide a huge density of low energy target photons. The inverse Compton scattering process transfers momentum from the pulsar wind to the scattered photons, and therefore provides a drag which tends to decelerate the pulsar wind. We present detailed calculations of the dynamics of a pulsar wind which is undergoing inverse Compton scattering, showing that the deceleration of the wind of PSR B1259−63 due to ‘inverse Compton drag' is small, but that this process may confine the wind of PSR J0045−73 before it attains pressure balance with the outflow of its companion star. We calculate the spectra and light curves of the resulting inverse Compton emission from PSR B1259−63 and show that if the size of the pulsar wind nebula is comparable to the binary separation, then the γ-ray emission from the unshocked wind may be detectable by atmospheric Cherenkov detectors or by the new generation of satellite-borne γ-ray detectors such as INTEGRAL and GLAST. This mechanism may therefore provide a direct probe of the freely-expanding regions of pulsar winds, previously thought to be invisible.     

Activity in colliding galaxies

A substantial body of evidence now exists that indicates that there is a connection between the observed activity in galaxies and the apparent involvement of these active galaxies in tidal interactions with other galaxies. To investigate this phenomenon, we are studying the morphologies and environments of various interacting galaxies showing evidence of activity. In particular, we present here some preliminary results from our investigations of the claimed interaction-activity connection for a sample of colliding radio galaxies endowed with a bent radio jet morphology. We find that the timing of the jet activity is consistent with a tidal-triggering hypothesis. Our results therefore lend further support to the idea that the galactic activity observed in some interactive galaxies is in fact collision-induced.     

Dynamic response of marine risers by single wave and spectral analysis methods

This paper uses the Galerkin method in the solution of the marine riser differential equation and compares the dynamic bending stresses in a tension-leg-platform riser calculated by the linearised single wave and linearised spectral analysis methods.The results show that it is possible to make some rational assessment of approximate peak values of bending stress in the spectral method.The analysis methods are applicable to any riser system subject to horizontal exciting forces due to fluid and vessel motion.