Sampling for Purgeable Organic Compounds Using Positive-Displacement Piston and Centrifugal Submersible Pumps: A Comparative Study

Positive-displacement piston pumps that minimize sample agitation have no apparent advantage over centrifugal submersible pumps when used to collect ground water samples for analysis of low concentrations of purge-able organic compounds. Analytical uncertainties inherent in laboratory environments appear to influence analytical results of low-concentration purgeable organic compound samples more than either pump type or sampling team. Centrifugal submersible pumps are at least equally efficient as positive-displacement piston pumps in the recovery of carbon tetrachloride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, and chloroform after sampling and analytical influences are made constant.     

Cation ordering of orthopyroxenes from the Skaergaard Intrusion: implications for the subsolidus cooling rates and permeabilities

 We have determined the quenched cation ordering states of five orthopyroxene crystals collected from the marginal border group and the lower zone a and b of the Skaergaard intrusion, and modeled these data to retrieve their closure temperatures (T _c) of Fe–Mg ordering and cooling rates. According to existing thermal models for the Skaergaard pluton, conductive cooling dominated the high and low temperature regimes, which were separated by an intermediate temperature regime in which the cooling was controlled primarily by convective fluid circulation. The cooling rates retrieved from the quenched cation ordering states of the orthopyroxene crystals strictly apply to temperatures around the closure temperatures of the ordering states, ∼340–400^° C, which fall at the transition from convective to the lower temperature conductive cooling. The cooling rates obtained from the cation ordering states of orthopyroxene vary from ∼1 to 270 K/ka. These results agree well with a thermal model calculated using an assumed average permeability of 10^-12 cm² for the pluton, but not completely with a model calculated on the basis of an average permeability of 10^-13 cm², although both values produced shifts of δ¹⁸O that are comparable to those observed in the pluton. Received: 27 February 1995/Accepted: 20 July 1995     

Morphotectonics of the Mongolia-Siberian mountain belt

The mountains of north-eastern Inner Asia comprise the Mongolia-Siberian orogenic belt which has a complex structure. The southern flank of the belt consists of a chain of large domal uplifts. The Baikal rift zone is located on the northern flank. The central segment is composed of zones of linear warping. The tectonic landforms rest on a large domal basement uplift. The morphology of the latter is paragenetically connected with the shape of the asthenolith underlying the belt. The neotectonic zones are also connected with the deep structure elements.The Mongolia-Siberian mountain belt is a group of orogenic forms typical of intracontinental mountain areas.     

Measurements of solar occulation: the error in a naive retrieval if the constituent's concentration changes

The stratospheric concentrations of many minor constituents change rapidly at sunrise or sunset. If this happens, there is an inherent error when retrieving the vertical profiles of the constituents from measurements of their absorption of sunlight. For retrievals of NO at sunset the error can be estimated from in-situ measurements alone, without appeal to a model of stratospheric photochemistry. Below 20 km this error can approach 100% so that the retrieved NO is zero. But at 40 km, and at 25 km when the absorption is strong and Lorentzian, it can be less than 20%. Precise calculations of the error, even if small, require model calculations of the sunset and sunrise changes. With a model, we have calculated the error for NO, NO₂, OH and ClO.