The attenuation of chemical elements in acidic leachates from coal mineral wastes by soils

The chemical attenuation of acidity and selected elements (aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, fluorine, iron, manganese, nickel, and zinc) in acidic leachates from coal mineral wastes by four natural subsurface soils has been investigated using laboratory column methods Leachate solutions were allowed to percolate through the soils under simulated natural flow conditions, and the elemental concentrations in the influents and effluents were measured periodically Elemental retentions were substantial for all species except managanese, which was eluted in excess from all soils except the most calcareous Two processes appeared to operate in decreasing influent concentrations: (1) precipitation of solid phases caused by increased pH of the leachate as it percolated through the soil, and (2) adsorption of elements onto exchange and sorption sites naturally present in the soil and on iron and aluminum oxide precipitates formed in situ from leachate components because of the increased pH The soil property most important in retention was its alkalinity Thus, carbonaceous soils provide the best control material for acidic leachates from coal mineral wastes. Results show that natural soils can substantially reduce pollutant fluxes to the environment from acidic coal waste dumps and should be considered when selecting waste disposal sites Performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy     

Eolian deposition determined by the oxygen plasma furnace

The oxygen plasma furnace enables small samples of clastic sediment to be separated from filter papers at low temperatures without physical or chemical alteration of the sediment. This technique provides a suitable treatment for processing very small samples of alpine eolian sediment, enabling their grain size distribution, mineralogy, and origin to be determined.     

Paragenetic relationship of thermal maturation (coalification) and tectonic framework of some Canadian Rocky Mountain coals

Use of the attitude of the optical axis of vitrinite as an indicator of paragenetic relationship of thermal maturation/coalification and tectonics is discussed. A constant angular relationship between the optical axis and bedding plane of coals is observed in seven coal mines in the Canadian Rocky Mountain coal fields. This constant relationship suggests that thermal maturation predated tectonic structures.     

Provincialism and correlations between some properties of vitrinites

Optical and chemical properties for hand-picked samples of vitrinite from a number of British coalfields are correlated and the correlations compared with previously published data. The form of the relationship found for the properties of British vitrinites is generally similar to that exhibited by a number of other sets of analyses, but some significant differences also exist in several of the correlations. For maximum reflectance as a function of carbon content, the present data indicate that at medium and low ranks, maximum reflectance is lower than the level suggested by most previous studies. The relationships of volatile-matter yield to reflectance and carbon content suggest that at low ranks, volatile-matter yield is strongly dependent upon the nature of the coalification history of the vitrinite. Furthermore, these correlations are likely to show provincialism, in that correlations which hold for one coalfield may not be representative of the relationship in other coalfields. Similarly, major differences in relationships involving bireflectance are associated with the tectonic setting at the time of effective coalification. The data presented here indicate that for low-rank coals at least, correlations between properties of vitrinites must take account of provincialism if they are to be sufficiently reliable to be useful. The measurement of a number of rank-sensitive variables can yield additional information about rank, as compared with the use of a single rank-sensitive variable.     

On the specific nature of space

Location referring to the earth's structure is absolute and unique. Relative location, emphasising relationships between places, is the basis of locational analysis. Specific location implies a designation of places in terms of social activities and values. A place is a location invested with social values. Space may be undifferentiated until the accumulation of activities and values begin to map it into a meaningful cultural landscape. The significance of specific places can be extended to regions and to states, in which there is convenience between a territory and a value system. Although experiential, this approach to understanding places is a necessary corrective to the incomplete view of reality of orthodox positivism.     

The early twentieth century Arctic high — fact or fiction?

Reconstructions of monthly mean sea-level grid-point pressure from station pressure data over the Arctic region using an objective technique have revealed two serious errors in the gridded data. First, all gridded data (from the U.S. Historical Weather Map series) for the Arctic Ocean area away from the North Atlantic sector appears to be between 4 and 6 mb too high before about 1931. The semi-permanent Arctic high produced in the early historical map series was the result of a lack of basic station data, and the belief amongst many North American meteorologists of the 1920s and 1930s of the existence of a polar or glacial anticyclone. The second error affects only north-western North America for the years 1899–1909. Here pressure is again too high compared with reconstructed data. The cause of this error is not immediately apparent, but is probably the result of an erroneous correction to sea level for stations in the region. Both errors seriously affect the homogeneity of the gridded Arctic series. The objective scheme used to reveal the errors, can also be used to derive correction factors for the gridded data prior to 1931.     

Towards the detection and attribution of an anthropogenic effect on climate

It has been hypothesized recently that regional-scale cooling caused by anthropogenic sulfate aerosols may be partially obscuring a warming signal associated with changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. Here we use results from model experiments in which sulfate and carbon dioxide have been varied individually and in combination in order to test this hypothesis. We use centered [R (t)] and uncentered [C (t)] pattern similarity statistics to compare observed time-evolving surface temperature change patterns with the model-predicted equilibrium signal patterns. We show that in most cases, the C (t) statistic reduces to a measure of observed global-mean temperature changes, and is of limited use in attributing observed climate changes to a specific causal mechanism. We therefore focus on R (t), which is a more useful statistic for discriminating between forcing mechanisms with different pattern signatures but similar rates of global mean change. Our results indicate that over the last 50 years, the summer (JJA) and fall (SON) observed patterns of near-surface temperature change show increasing similarity to the model-simulated response to combined sulfate aerosol/CO₂ forcing. At least some of this increasing spatial congruence occurs in areas where the real world has cooled. To assess the significance of the most recent trends in R (t) and C (t), we use data from multi-century control integrations performed with two different coupled atmosphere-ocean models, which provide information on the statistical behavior of 'unforced' trends in the pattern correlation statistics. For the combined sulfate aerosol/CO₂ experiment, the 50-year R (t) trends for the JJA and SON signals are highly significant. Results are robust in that they do not depend on the choice of control run used to estimate natural variability noise properties. The R (t) trends for the CO₂-only signal are not significant in any season. C (t) trends for signals from both the CO₂-only and combined forcing experiments are highly significant in all seasons and for all trend lengths (except for trends over the last 10 years), indicating large global-mean changes relative to the two natural variability estimates used here. The caveats regarding the signals and natural variability noise which form the basis of this study are numerous. Nevertheless, we have provided first evidence that both the largest-scale (global-mean) and smaller-scale (spatial anomalies about the global mean) components of a combined CO₂/anthropogenic sulfate aerosol signal are identifiable in the observed near-surface air temperature data. If the coupled-model noise estimates used here are realistic, we can be highly confident that the anthropogenic signal that we have identified is distinctly different from internally generated natural variability noise. The fact that we have been able to detect the detailed spatial signature in response to combined CO₂ and sulfate aerosol forcing, but not in response to CO₂ forcing alone, suggests that some of the regional-scale background noise (against which we were trying to detect a CO₂-only signal) is in fact part of the signal of a sulfate aerosol effect on climate. The large effect of sulfate aerosols found in this study demonstrates the importance of their inclusion in experiments designed to simulate past and future climate change. Received: 10 November 1994 / Accepted: 19 July 1995     

The decay of radar echoes from meteors with particular reference to their use in the determination of temperature fluctuations near the mesopause

The rate of decay of a radar echo from an ionised meteor train will be governed by the diffusion coefficient of the plasma and this in turn will depend on the temperature. Very recently the temperature fluctuations near the mesopause have been monitored by this means, by the recording of the decay times of underdense trains. The usual derivation of the precise expression relating the underdense echo decay time to the temperature contains two important assumptions, (i) that the train is created with a Gaussian ionisation profile, and (ii) that kinetic theory may be applied to calculate the diffusion coefficient. We investigate the effect of these assumptions, showing that the first assumption is unnecessary, an underdense backscatter echo decaying exponentially with a decay time equal to ²/(32²D), where is the wavelength and D the diffusion coefficient, indepndently of the initial distribution. However, the second assumption is shown to be incorrect, and whereas according to kinetic theory D\proptoT^1/2/, where T and are the atmospheric temperature and density, the correct result is D\proptoT/. This leads to an appreciable correction to the results for the temperature fluctuations.     

Evidence for Enhanced Mineral Dissolution in Organic Acid-Rich Shallow Ground Water

Total concentrations of formate, acetate, and isobutyrate varied from less than 5 to greater than 9,000 μmol/l over distances of < 3 m in ground water from a shallow hydrocarbon contaminated aquifer. Laboratory incubations of aquifer material indicate that organic acid concentrations were dependent on the amount of hydrocarbon loading in the sediment and the relative rates of microbial organic acid production and consumption. In heavily contaminated sediments, production greatly exceeded consumption and organic acid concentrations increased. In lightly contaminated sediments rates were essentially equal and organic acid concentrations remained low. Concentrations of dissolved calcium, magnesium, and iron generally were one to two orders of magnitude higher in organic acid-rich ground water than in ground water having low organic acid concentrations. Carbonate and Fe(III)-oxyhydroxide minerals were the likely sources of these elements. Similarly, concentrations of dissolved silica, derived from quartz and k-feldspar, were higher in organic acid-rich ground water than in other waters. The positive relation (r = 0.60, p < .05, n = 16) between concentrations of silica and organic acids suggests that the microbially mediated buildup of organic acids in ground water enhanced quartz/k-feldspar dissolution in the aquifer, although it was not the only factor influencing their dissolution. A model that included organic acid microequivalents normalized by cation microequivalents significantly strengthened the correlation (r = 0.79, p < .001, n = 16) between dissolved silica and organic acid concentrations, indicating that competition between silica and cations for complexation sites on organic acids also influenced quartz/k-feldspar dissolution. Physical evidence for enhanced mineral dissolution in organic acid-rich waters included scanning electron microscopy images of highly corroded quartz and k-feldspar grains from portions of the aquifer containing organic acid-rich ground water. Microporosity generated in hydrocarbon contaminated sediments may adversely affect remediation efforts that depend on the efficient injection of electron acceptors into an aquifer or on the recovery of solutes from an aquifer.     

The effects of soil piping on contributing areas and erosion patterns

Natural piping doubles the dynamic contributing area on the upper Maesnant stream in mid-Wales, mainly through linking points well beyond the riparian zones of seepage to the stream. Both discharge and sediment transport rates in the major pipes are closely related to the size of shallow surface microtopographic hollows in which they lie, and which themselves are largely created by piping erosion. However, pipe dischrges are frequently generated by contributing areas larger than these surface depressions and some pipes run counter to the surface topography. The redistribution and acceleration of hillslope drainage processes by piping has implications for theories of hillslope development, especially through plan-form modifications, and also for channel discharge and erosion.