Man-made storage of water resources—A liability to the ocean environment? Part II

The first part of this article (Mar. Pollut. Bull., 13, 7–12, 1982) described the impact of the seasonal fresh water runoff on bodies of water—such as the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the coastal region—through changes in the salinity and temperature distribution and through changes in the current generated by the density difference between the fresh river water and the ocean. The strength of the current and thus the transport of deep ocean water to the coastal region depends on the amount of fresh water released into the ocean. Therefore modifying the natural seasonal runoff by storing water for power production during the winter interferes with the timing of the physical and dynamic balance of the coastal region. The impact of this interference on the marine life and on the climate of the region is now discussed.     

Perception of urban retailing environments: An empirical analysis of consumer information and usage fields

This article reports on an empirical analysis of consumer information and usage fields in the city of Eindhoven. The main purposes of this study are to investigate the distance, sectoral and directional biases of these fields, to analyse whether the degree of biases is related to personal characteristics of consumers and to identify the factors of the basis on which a model which predicts the probability that a shopping centre will be known by consumers can be developed. The findings of the study suggest that strong distance, sectoral and directional biases are present in the information and usage fields of consumers and that no systematic relationships exist between these characteristics of information and usage fields and personal variables of consumers. Finally, the present studies suggests that a model which describes the formation of consumer choice sets should include spatial factors such as distance, size, intervening opportunities and direction towards the city centre.     

Geologic implications and potential hazards of scour depressions on bering shelf,Alaska

Flat-bottomed depression 50–150 m in diameter and 60–80 cm deep occur in the floor of Norton Sound, Bering Sea. These large erosional bedforms and associated current ripples are found in areas where sediment grain size is 0.063–0.044 mm (4–4.5 φ), speeds of bottom currents are greatest (20–30 cm/s mean speeds under nonstorm conditions, 70 cm/s during typical storms), circulation of water is constricted by major topographic shoals (kilometers in scale), and small-scale topographic disruptions, such as ice gouges, occur locally on slopes of shoals. These local obstructions on shoals appear to disrupt currents, causing separation of flow and generating eddies that produce large-scale scour. Offshore artificial structures also may disrupt bottom currents in these same areas and have the potential to generate turbulence and induce extensive scour in the area of disrupted flow. The size and character of natural scour depressions in areas of ice gouging suggest that large-scale regions of scour may develop from enlargement of local scour sites around pilings, platforms, or pipelines. Consequently, loss of substrate support for pipelines and gravity structures is possible during frequent autumn storms.     

The potential source of lead in the Permian Kupferschiefer bed of Europe and some selected Paleozoic mineral deposits in the Federal Republic of Germany

New lead isotopic compositions have been measured for Paleozoic bedded and vein ore deposits of Europe by the high precision thermal emission (triple filament) technique. Eleven samples have been analyzed from the Upper Permian Kupferschiefer bed with representatives from Poland to England, three samples from the Middle Devonian Rammelsberg deposit and one from the Middle Devonian Meggen deposit, both of which are conformable ore lenses and are in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG); and also two vein deposits from the FRG were analyzed, from Ramsbeck in Devonian host rocks and from Grund in Carboniferous host rocks. For Kupferschiefer bed samples from Germany, the mineralization is of variable lead isotopic composition and appears to have been derived about 250 m.y. ago from 1700 m.y. old sources, or detritus of this age, in Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. Samples from England, Holland, and Poland have different isotopic characteristics from the German samples, indicative of significantly different source material (perhaps older). The isotopic variability of the samples from the Kupferschiefer bed in Germany probably favors the lead containing waters coming from shoreward (where poor mixing is to be expected) rather than basinward (where better mixing is likely) directions. The data thus support the interpretation of the metal source already given by Wedepohl in 1964. Data on samples from Rammelsberg and Meggen tend to be slightly less radiogenic than for the Kupferschiefer, about the amount expected if the leads were all derived from the same source material but 100 to 150 m.y. apart in time. The vein galena from Ramsbeck is similar to that from Rammelsberg conformable ore lenses, both in rocks of Devonian age; vein galena from Grund in Upper Carboniferous country rocks is similar to some bedded Kupferschiefer mineralization in Permian rocks, as if the lead composition was formed at about the same time and from similar source material as the bedded deposits. Although heat has played a more significant role in the formation of some of these deposits (veins and Rammelsberg-Meggen) than in others (Kupferschiefer), there is no indication of radically different sources for the lead, all apparently coming from sedimentary source material containing Precambrian detritus. One feldspar lead sample from the Brocken-Oker Granite is not the same in isotopic composition as any of the ores analyzed.Publication authorized by the Director, U.S. Geological Survey     

Zur Herkunft des Quarzzements. Abschätzung der Quarzauflösung in Silt- und Sandsteinen

The origin of quartz cement in sandstones can be attributed to supplies (1) from the surrounding shales, and (2) to a lower degree from dissolution of quartz on stylolites within the sandstones. A supply from the surrounding shales, which has been shown by the porosity decrease near the upper and lower surfaces of different sandstones (Füchtbauer, 1974), can be explained by the following observations in Upper Triassic and Middle Jurassic sandstones and siltstones of Northern Germany as well as in concretions of Devonian to Upper Cretaceous age from different localities:

1. Quartz grains in silt layers are flattened by dissolution compared with quartz grains of the same size in the adjacent sandstones, the amount of shrinking being about 35 percent (fig. 1).
2. Concretions prevent the enclosed insoluble residues from diagenesis. The main difference between the concretions and the adjacent shale of 31 occurrences examined is the quartz content, which is by 10–50 percent lower in the adjacent shale, due to diagenetical dissolution (fig. 2).

It is suggested that the dissolved silica was brought to the sandstones by the compaction stream of interstitial water percolating through the rock sequence, and that the sandstones acted as sinks triggering the dissolution. Only a small amount of silica, about 10 percent of the silica from dissolved quartz, is provided by the transition montmorillonite — illite. Both sources together would be able to explain the precipitation of 20 percent quartz cement in a sequence composed of 1/3 sandstones and 2/3 shales. In the sandstones mentioned above stylolites can be observed (fig. 3), the amplitudes of which increase from 0,5–1 mm to 2–5 mm with increasing depth, between 1300 and 2600 metres. The real amount of dissolution on each stylolite — about 4 mm — has been calculated using large mica which were collected by the stylolites from the adjacent sandstone. Using this figure, the decrease of porosity in the sandstones shown in fig. 4 can be quantitatively explained by the frequency of stylolite intercalations. It is suggested that this process, which was due to local diffusion, occurred late in diagenesis, when the compaction stream was already insufficient to move large quantities of silica.     

Diffusion of hydrogen through platinum membranes at high pressures and temperatures

The diffusion of hydrogen through platinum membranes has been measured at 450, 500, 550 and 600°C at 2000 bar pressure, using the hydrogen sensor technique. Ag + AgCl + 3 M HC1 was the starting solution inside the platinum tube. Hydrogen diffuses out of the platinum tube into a system containing Fe₂O₃ + Fe₃O₄ + H₂O; that is, a solution with a fixed hydrogen fugacity. After quench, the drop in f_H2 inside the platinum tube was calculated from measurements of pH and chloride molality. f_H2 is initially roughly proportional to $\text{t}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$. Diffusion constants were calculated from these data by numerical integration, and the results can be expressed by logD (cm²/sec) = ? 5489.6/T, K - 4.648.     

Zur Diagenese fluviatiler Sandsteine

Are cement minerals that form during the first stages of diagenesis indicative of the environment of deposition? Discussions of fluvial, marine, and evaporitic sandstones of Triassic and Upper Carboniferous age (fig. 1) indicate that kaolinite, sudoite, and potassium feldspar cements can be regarded as characteristic of freshwater sandstones, whereas (early) chlorite, analcime and albite cements are found in marine and evaporitic sandstones mainly, provided that influences of meteoric water during diagenesis can be excluded. Humid climate favors kaolinite, arid favors potassium feldspar. Early diagenetic siderite concretions develop in coal swamps. Reddish biotites are not resistant during synsedimentary weathering in humid alluvial plains. As a consequence of increasing pH, temperature, and salinity of the interstitial fluids with increasing burial depth, common sequences of cementation include (1) silicates + quartz, (2) carbonates, (3) sulphates, (4) halite (fig. 3). The formation of quartz — the most important cement — is mainly governed by modifications of the micro-environment (e.g. pressure solution). In the Lower Triassic Buntsandstein, lithification due to quartz cementation occurred at a burial depth of about 1000–1200 m in alluvial as well as in brackisch to marine sandstones. Cementation by potassium feldspar (in the alluvial sandstones) and by analcime transforming into albite (in the brackish to evaporitic sandstones) occurred earlier. This was shown by investigations of minus-cement-porosity and contact strength (fig. 2).     

Petrogenesis of basement rocks of the upper rhine region elucidated by rubidium-strontium systematics

Initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios have been plotted against time of formation for various rock-types in the Schwarzwald and Vosges basement areas. These data exhibit strong positive correlations between the two variables. The Schwarzwald data define two distinct trend lines on the diagram, for the time span 500 to 250 Ma ago. The first comprises the data from orthogneisses, diatexites and pre-tectonic granites and documents the Sr isotope evolution in the crust underlying the Sehwarzwald. This region of the crust had a ⁸⁷Rb/⁸⁶Sr ratio of about 1. The other is delineated by data points from the post-tectonic plutons. These form a band corresponding to the development of closed systems with ⁸⁷Rb/⁸⁶Sr ratios of between 10 and 20 as indicated by the slope of the band. The second trend is interpreted as resulting from the formation of large, stable, deep-seated magma chambers formed by segregation of anatectic melts during a phase of tectonism 330Ma ago. The high ⁸⁷Rb/⁸⁶Sr ratios of these magmas arose by fractional crystallization, in response to tectonic decompression, during the coalescence of the presumedly water-saturated melts. Data for rocks from the Vosges, taken from the literature, form a single development line. Its slope corresponds to a ⁸⁷Rb/⁸⁶Sr ratio of about 5 and the line is analogous to the second trend line defined by the Schwarzwald data. The differences in the Rb/Sr systematics between the two areas can be explained as resulting from the deeper level of erosion in the Vosges. An important implication for Rb/Sr studies is that co-magmatic rocks can have very different initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios so that discrepancies in this ratio between rock-types cannot be used to divide plutons into genetic suites. On the other hand essential information is contained in the Rb/Sr systematics of orogenic magmatic rocks, such as the Variscan plutons in the Schwarzwald, that cannot be obtained from geochemical and petrological studies alone.