Ecofeminism in the twenty-first century

This paper considers the influence of ecofeminism on policy concerning gender (in)equality and the environment during the past 20 years. It reviews the broad contours of the ecofeminist debate before focusing on the social construction interpretation of women's relationship with the environment. It will argue that there have been substantial policy shifts in Europe and the UK in both the environmental and equalities fields, and that this is in part a result of lobbying at a range of scales by groups informed by ecofeminist debates. Nevertheless, the paper cautions that these shifts are largely incremental and operate within existing structures, which inevitably limit their capacity to create change. As policy addresses some of the concerns highlighted by ecofeminism, academic discourse and grass roots activity have been moving on to address other issues, and the paper concludes with a brief consideration of contemporary trajectories of ecofeminism and campaigning on issues that link women's, feminist and environment concerns.     

A groundwater tracing investigation as an aid of locating groundwater monitoring stations on the Mitchell Plain of southern Indiana

. A groundwater tracing study was conducted on the Mitchell Plain of southern Indiana to aid in the design of a karst groundwater monitoring program for a proposed landfill facility. Fluorescein and rhodamine WT dyes were introduced into sinkholes at the project site. On-site fluorometric analyses and concentration-dependent sampling were utilized at springs and a local stream for data resolution while minimizing delays between tracing events. As a result of this investigation, springs including a submerged spring that drain groundwater from the site have been identified and two groundwater monitoring stations have been established. The submerged spring was discovered in the streambed at intersections between prominent joints and solution-enlarged bedding-plane partings. It could not have been identified readily during a typical karst hydrogeologic inventory, nor would it have been detected by analyzing charcoal dye receptors with a spectrofluorophotometer.     

The organic geochemistry of black sedimentary barite: significance and implications of trapped fatty acids

Fatty acids isolated in sedimentary black barite (BaSO₄) from Arkansas and Nevada were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. The dominant or major fatty acids found in these beds of barite are C_16:0, C_18:0, and C_18:1. The occurrence and distribution of these acids in this type of rock may serve as “molecular fingerprints” of microbial biogeochemical processes. The organic matter and associated microorganisms are shown to be trapped within the finely crystalline barite, thus forming a closed system for microbial diagenesis.Important differences that occur in the distribution of the lesser or minor fatty acids probably result from: (1) the nature of the progenitor organic detritus in the environment of barite deposition: and (2) the subsequent degree of microbiological alteration of the parent organic debris swept into and trapped in the depositional environment.Three general models of sedimentary environments are proposed in which anoxic conditions may prevail and where barium sulfate (BaSO₄) may precipitate: (1) in a silled basin with semi-restricted circulation; (2) on an outer continental shelf where the slope is encroached upon by water of the oxygen minimum layer; (3) on a low-energy, inner shelf or semi-restricted embayment impinged by a wedge of anoxic water.The major geochemical and geological parameters which are believed to be the significant factors controlling the formation and high grade of these organic-rich, black bedded barites are: (1) a unique source of barium-rich fluid that only contains trace amounts of other elements; (2) the presence of an anoxic bottom environment within the depositional basin; (3) a reflux source of sulfate ion; (4) an adequate source of organic matter.The results of this study may serve as guidelines for future exploration in similar, untested sedimentary basins, especially those with rocks of middle Paleozoic age.     

Spatial gaps in arc volcanism: The effect of collision or subduction of oceanic plateaus

One of the major processes in the formation and deformation of continental lithosphere is the process of arc volcanism. The plate-tectonic theory predicts that a continuous chain of arc volcanoes lies parallel to any continuous subduction zone. However, the map pattern of active volcanoes shows at least 24 areas where there are major spatial gaps in the volcanic chains (> 200 km). A significant proportion (~ 30%) of oceanic crust is subducted at these gaps. All but three of these gaps coincide with the collision or subduction of a large aseismic plateau or ridge.The idea that the collision of such features may have a major tectonic impact on the arc lithosphere, including cessation of volcanism, is not new. However, it is not clear how the collision or subduction of an oceanic plateau perturbs the system to the extent of inhibiting arc volcanism. Three main factors necessary for arc volcanism are (1) source materials for the volcanics—either volatiles or melt from the subducting slab and/or melt from the overlying asthenospheric wedge, (2) a heat source, either for the dehydration or the melting of the slab, or the melting within the asthenosphere and (3) a favorable state of stress in the overlying lithosphere. The absence of any one of these features may cause a volcanic gap to form.There are several ways in which the collision or subduction of an oceanic plateau may affect arc volcanism. The clearest and most common cases considered are those where the feature completely resists subduction, causing local plate boundaries to reorganize. This includes the formation of new plate-bounding transform faults or a flip in subduction polarity. In these cases, subduction has slowed down or stopped and the lack of source material has created a volcanic gap.There are a few cases, most notably in Peru, Chile, and the Nankai trough, where the dip of subduction is so shallow that effectively no asthenospheric wedge exists to produce source material for volcanism. The shallow dip of the slab may be a buoyant effect of the plateau imbedded in the oceanic lithosphere.The cases which are the most enigmatic are those where subduction is continuous, the oceanic plateau is subducted along with the slab, and the dip of the slab is clearly steep enough to allow arc volcanism; yet a volcanic gap exists. In these areas, the subducted plateau may have a fundamental effect on the physical process of arc volcanism itself. The presence of a large topographic feature on the subducting plate may affect the stress state in the are by increasing the amount of decoupling between the two plates. Alternatively, the subduction of the plateau may change the chemical processes at depth if either the water-rich top of the plateau with accompanying sediments are scraped off during subduction or if the ridge is compositionally different.     

Rare earth element abundances in rocks and minerals from the Fiskenaesset Complex,West Greenland

Rare earth element (REE) abundances determined by activation analysis in rocks, plagioclase and mafic separates from the Fiskenaesset Complex are presented together with data on major and trace elements in the minerals. The REE data for the rocks and plagioclases are distinct from those of many other anorthositic complexes and the abundances are some of the lowest recorded for plagioclase from terrestrial anorthosites. The bulk and trace element compositions of the Fiskenaesset plagioclases show a number of similarities to those of lunar plagioclases. The plagioclases show a positive Eu anomaly of about 10 and a depletion in the heavy REE relative to the light ones. The mafic separates are enriched in the heavy REE relative to the light ones, and show no Eu anomaly except in one sample with a positive anomaly not attributable to plagioclase contamination. It is estimated, from experimental partition coefficient data, that the REE pattern in the magma at an early stage of fractionation was La (17×) to Lu (0.7× chondrites) with a possible positive Eu anomaly. This highly fractionated REE pattern may be attributed to partial melting of a garnet-bearing source.     

Organic and inorganic geochemistry of some coastal plain rivers of the southeastern United States

In a comprehensive study of the distribution of organic and inorganic constituents in natural waters, the chemical compositions of several rivers flowing through the Coastal Plain of southeast Georgia (the Satilla River, in particular) have been investigated. These streams are generally characterized by low suspended load, low ionic strength, low pH values, and a predominance of organic over inorganic constituents. The dominance of sodium and chloride among inorganic ions indicates that rainfall is a major factor in determining the distribution of major elements in these waters. The low pH values and the relatively high concentrations of iron and aluminum appear to result from the high concentrations of organic matter. Chemical analysis (total acidity, carboxyl groups, amino acid residues, and CHN analysis) and spectroscopic analysis (i.r. and NMR) indicate that river water organic matter is chemically similar to soil fulvic acids.The dominance of organic matter over inorganic constituents and the resultant low pH values of these waters are in direct contrast with the chemical compositions of most of the rivers of the world which have been previously studied. Many large tributaries draining from the low relief tropical basins of the Amazon and other tropical rivers are expected to show similar characteristics; however, none of these has been studied extensively.     

Low-temperature behavior of single-domain through multidomain magnetite

We have investigated the low-temperature behavior of a suite of ‘grown’ synthetic and natural magnetites that span single-domain (SD) and multidomain (MD) behavior. Synthetic samples had been grown in the laboratory either in an aqueous medium or in glass. Natural samples included SD magnetites occurring in plagioclase and truly MD magnetites in the form of large octahedra. In all experiments a sample was first given a saturation remanence at room temperature; next, moment was measured continuously during cooling and warming between 230 K and 60 K. Similar to results reported earlier by other workers, magnetic memory is large in SD samples, whereas truly MD samples are almost completely demagnetized by cycling between room temperature and 60 K. Pseudo-single-domain samples exhibit behavior that is intermediate with respect to that of the SD and truly MD states. When data from this study are combined with data obtained by Hartstra [10] from sized, natural magnetites, it is found that the percentage of total remanence that survives cycling between room temperature and 60 K decreases linearly with the logarithm of grain size and, thus, with increasing number of domains. This relation suggests that memory can provide a reasonable estimate of grain size in those magnetite-bearing rocks for which these samples provide good analogues. Remarkably, some of the large natural octahedra provide a magnified view of MD response to low temperatures and thus reveal two surprising and intriguing types of behavior. First, below approximately 180 K these octahedra demagnetize through a series of large Barkhausen jumps. Second, near 117 K these same octahedra exhibit a ‘wild zone’, where magnetic moment executes large, random excursions. We interpret these two phenomena as direct evidence for the unpinning and irreversible displacement of domain walls in response to the drop in coercivity and, possibly, the broadening of domain walls as temperatures drop toward the isotropic point. One implication of this behavior is that cooling to progressively lower temperatures could provide an effective method for stepwise removal of paleomagnetic components carried by MD grains, even without passage through the isotropic point of magnetite.