Strong heat flow variability in an active shallow gas environment, Dnepr palaeo-delta, Black Sea

The Dnepr palaeo-delta on the north-western continental slope of the Black Sea is a prolific seepage zone characterised by a highly variable heat flow ranging from 24 to 88 mW/m². New thermal data were collected at 33 closely spaced stations in order to better understand the apparent relation between heat flow variability and seepage features. Strong relief gradients and associated landslide shaping may explain first-order heat flow variability but, locally, thermal parameters appear to be controlled by fluid and gas migrations. High heat flow anomalies are found at sites where faults and diapirs offer pathways for warm fluid flow from deeper sedimentary levels. Low heat flow is most strongly expressed at ridge crests near seepage sites but is also found where seeps are absent. Reduced heat flow and nonlinear temperature-depth variations are interpreted to result from natural or induced gas ebullition of saturated shallow gas covered by a thin, relatively impermeable sedimentary seal. The presence of sealed gas pockets, in particular at ridge crests, is supported by methane pore-water analysis and a shallow gas front widely observed in the study area.     

FICUS,a new in-situ probe for resistivity measurements in unconsolidated marine sediments

Physical properties of shallow sediments measured at a particular site can not easily be extrapolated over a given profile. The number of samples required to define sediment properties adequately can then become time-consuming and expensive. Laboratory and in-situ experimentations have shown that electrical probing provides a useful complementary technique to extrapolate results from cores. These experiments have pointed out the need for quantitative, easily-transportable and fast resistivity measurements combining high vertical resolution with azimuthal resolution and full coverage, in the shallow subsurface. A new prototype probe called FICUS (Formation Imaging and Coring for Unconsolidated Sediments) has been developed to bridge this gap. FICUS is designed to provide in-situ high resolution electrical resistivity images of the upper few meters of shallow unconsolidated sediments.Laboratory experiments have been completed to test the feasibility of this technique to provide resistivity images of unconsolidated sediments. Laboratory images agree with theoretical predictions from numerical modelling. The obtained cm-scale resolution could be used for petrophysical and sedimentary purposes. The probe may offer additional information about changes in porosity and pore morphology caused by climatic cycles, since electrical resistivity is known to be especially sensitive to these changes. The probe could also allow to detect and map organic pollutants in the future.     

On the formation of short-lived,toxic, water-soluble compounds during illumination of crude oil on seawater

The toxicity of various oil extracts has been studied using cod eggs as test organisms. The most toxic effect was observed when the eggs were kept underneath the water/oil interface during irradiation. This supports the notion that toxic primary photoproducts with a short life-time are generated when oil on seawater is illuminated.     

Numerical simulation of artificial ground freezing in a fluid-saturated rock mass with account for filtration and mechanical processes

This study is devoted to the numerical simulation of the artificial ground freezing process in a fluid-saturated rock mass of the potassium salt deposit. A coupled model of nonstationary thermal conductivity, filtration and thermo-poroelasticity, which takes into account dependence of the physical properties on temperature and pressure, is proposed on the basis of the accepted hypotheses. The considered area is a cylinder with a depth of 256 meters and diameter of 26.5 meters and includes 13 layers with different thermophysical and filtration properties. Numerical simulation was carried out by the finite-element method. It has been shown that substantial ice wall formation occurs non-uniformly along the layers. This can be connected with geometry of the freezing wells and with difference in physical properties. The average width of the ice wall in each layer was calculated. It was demonstrated that two toroidal convective cells induced by thermogravitational convection were created from the very beginning of the freezing process. The effect of the constant seepage flow on the ice wall formation was investigated. It was shown that the presence of the slow flow lead to the delay in ice wall closure. In case of the flow with a velocity of more than 30 mm per day, closure of the ice wall was not observed at all in the foreseeable time.     

A smoothing algorithm to enhance finite-element tsunami modelling: An application to the 5 February 1783 Calabrian case,Italy

Numerical simulations are essential tools for studying tsunami generation and evolution and finite-element (FE) methods are widely used, especially because of their capability in modeling water waves in basins with complex bathymetry and irregular coastlines. This paper presents the numerical simulation of an historical Italian tsunami that affected the Tyrrhenian coasts of Calabria and Sicily on 5 February 1783 following a strong destructive earthquake that was the first of a terrible sequence of seismic shocks terrifying the Calabrian population for more than two months. The numerical model is an FE model based on the nonlinear nondispersive shallow-water approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations. Since FE discretization schemes may lead to solutions undesirably affected by noise over coarse grids, in this study numerical noise is controlled by suitably smoothing the FE solution at regular time steps t _s. The performance of our smoothing algorithm is tested for significant linear cases for which an analytical solution is available.     

Inhomogeneities in the circumstellar envelope of the A0E herbig star AB aur

Simultaneous high-resolution spectroscopy in H andUBVRI polarimetric observations are proposed as an effective method for the search for circumstellar inhomogeneities in A0-type Herbig stars. The new results for AB Aur are presented as a successful example of the use of this method. The analysis of about 100 CCD H profiles (R = 30 000) and more than 150 polarimetric measurements obtained in January, 1994 allowed to discover a long-lived stream-like inhomogeneity in the circumstellar gaseous envelope.