Estimates of future impacts of degrading streams in the deep loess soil region of western Iowa on private and public infrastructure costs

In the beginning of the 20th century, many streams in western Iowa were channelized to reduce flooding and to open swamp land to cultivation. Channel straightening accomplished its goal. However, it resulted in greater streamflow velocities, causing stream channels to degrade. This degradation has resulted in significant loss of land and damage to transportation and communications infrastructure in western Iowa and in several states in the United States. Baumel et al. (1994; Impact of Degrading Western Iowa Streams on Private and Public Infrastructure Costs. Final Report Iowa DOT HR-352, Stream Stabilization in Western Iowa) estimated the historical cost of this degradation on land loss and damage to transportation and communications infrastructure in western Iowa. The purpose of this paper is to extend the Baumel et al. analysis to estimate future degradation costs on 141 streams in western Iowa. It also presents two types of degradation cost estimates. One is a time neutral cost that does not consider the dates on which the degradation costs are incurred. The second is a time value cost which considers the dates on which the costs are incurred and then discounts these costs back to 1992 dollars. The time value costs are the more accurate estimates of the cost of future degradation in 1992 dollars and should be used to evaluate stream stabilization project proposals.     

The particulate load of the Red River,St Ives Bay: Its geochemical composition and the effect of its discharge plume on the behaviour of a resident wild dolphin

A resident wild dolphin is reported to avoid the discharge plume from the Red River which empties into the northern end of St Ives Bay. The river effluent is found to contain a high load of finely divided metalliferous particles rich in iron but also containing significant amounts of Sn, As, Cu and Zn. It is suggested that the echo-location system and/or chemosensory system of the dolphin may be affected by this discharge causing the animal to avoid the area of the effluent.     

Controls of the chemical composition of particle populations in a macrotidal estuary (Tamar Estuary, U.K.)

The chemical composition of suspended particulate material (SPM) in the Tamar Estuary and its response to tidal sediment resuspension at the turbidity maximum have been investigated. The results discriminate four regions: (1) the outer estuary where spatial changes in the composition of SPM reflect the dispersal of estuarine particles modified by in situ generation of organic particles, (2) the middle estuary where the composition of SPM is mainly determined by hydrodynamic mixing although there is some evidence of in situ chemical reactivity, (3) the upper estuary where sharply distinct and temporally variable SPM compositions are centred at the turbidity maximum; these are largely the result of particle-selective accumulation, sedimentation and resuspension processes rather than of local particle-water chemical exchanges, and (4) the fluvial estuary where the SPM composition reflects the influx of riverine particles.     

Petrology of the Campbell Island Volcanics, Southwest Pacific Ocean

The disposition and petrology of a fractionated alkali olivine basalt—peralkaline rhyolite suite from subantarctic Campbell Island are discussed. These rocks (Campbell Island Volcanics: new name) are flows and high-level intrusions derived from two centres of igneous activity. Their age is Upper Miocene and they evolved over a period of 5 Ma. A gabbro intrusion pre-dates volcanism by 5 Ma. The ages of the flows and high-level intrusions cannot be separated, although the intrusions are chemically distinct as they contain all the intermediate members of the suite (mugearite and benmoreite). Similar La/Ce and Zr/Nb ratios for flows and high-level intrusions suggest a co-magmatic origin. Chemical variations indicate that the suite resulted from low-pressure mafic then felsic-dominated fractional crystallisation, which is substantiated for intermediate members of the suite by least-squares and Rayleigh fractionation modelling. One flow of alkali olivine basalt clearly pre-dates other volcanic rocks, and is thus regarded as being genetically unrelated.Although chemically similar to alkali olivine basalt and hawaiite, variations in the mineral chemistry and modal mineralogy of gabbro indicates a prolonged period of in-situ fractionation and re-equilibration.     

Effects of age on the chemical structure of paleosol humic acids and fulvic acids

Humic acids and fulvic acids were extracted from six paleosols in Southern Italy. Humic acids (HAs) constituted between 96.5 and 99.2% of the total extracts; the remaining materials consisted of fulvic acids (FAs). Radiocarbon ages of the HAs ranged from about 6,000 to close to 29,000 years B.P., δ¹³C values averaged $\text{?25.6 ± 0.3‰}$ The HAs were characterized by chemical (elemental and functional group analyses) and spectroscopic (IR, ESR, ¹³CNMR, E₄/E₆ ratios) methods. FAs were characterized by chemical methods, E₄/E₆ ratios and IR spectra.The chemical and spectroscopic analyses showed practically no differences in the chemical structure and composition of the six HAs and FAs, so that age appeared to have little effect on these parameters. The paleosols were found to be closed systems with low polysaccharide and protein contents, thus providing unfavorable substrates for microbial activity. The preservation of the humic materials in the paleosols may have been due to low biological activity and/or to retention by amorphous minerals. The HAs did not appear to be affected by temperatures higher than 170–200°C over the 23,000 year period which we observed.     

The abundance of water and rock in Jupiter as derived from interior models

Models of Jupiter's interior were computed using a new molecular hydrogen equation of state, and a more precise algorithm for computing gravitational moments. Models with H/H_e ratios of 13.5, 11.25, and 10 were computed, and it was found that the models had rocky cores of 16 to 18 Earth masses and envelopes with 20 to 50 Earth masses of water. Models with temperatures of less than 180°K at 1 bar had water-to-rock ratios which were less than the solar value, thus removing a difficulty of previous computations. Models were also constructed in which rock was put into the envelope in place of water. It was found that, to a good approximation, a given mass of rock will replace an equal mass of water. At present the two cases are indistinguishable.     

On inhomogeneous scattering models of Titan's atmosphere

The spectrum of Titan from 4800 to 11 000 Å has many CH₄ absorption bands which cover a range of intensities of several orders of magnitude. Yet even the strongest of these bands in Titan's spectrum has considerable residual central intensity. Some investigators have concluded that these strong CH₄ bands must be highly saturated, but recent laboratory measurements of the bands made at room temperature show that curve-of-growth saturation is very small. At the presumed low pressures and temperatures in Titan's atmosphere, we show that saturation is very dependent on the band model parameters. However, in either a simple reflecting layer model or in a homogeneous scattering model saturation cannot be the principal cause of the filling in of these strong CH₄ bands if our best estimates of the band model parameters are correct. We find that an inhomogeneous scattering model atmosphere with fine “Axel dust” above most ot the CH₄ gas is needed to fill in the band centers. The calculated spectrum of one particular model of this class is compared to observations of Titan. Our essential conclusion is that Titan does have most of its scattering particles above most of the CH₄ gas which has an abundance of at least 2 km-am. This large abundance of CH₄ is necessary to produce the 6420-Å feature recently discovered in Titan's spectrum.     

A Framework for Modeling Uncertainty in Spatial Databases

Geographic Information Systems and spatial databases are inherently suited for fuzziness, because of the uncertainty inherent in the assimilation, storage, and representation of spatial data. These objects may also have naturally occurring imprecise boundaries. It is difficult to store and represent these objects while continuing to demonstrate the uncertainty inherent in the objects. This paper describes a fuzzy object–oriented framework to model spatial objects with either precise or uncertain boundaries that will also provide for fuzzy querying of these objects. A prototype system, FOOSBALL, which implements this framework is also discussed.