The Stratigraphy,Sedimentology, and Fossils of the Haughton Formation: A Post-Impact Crater-Fill,Devon Island,N.W.T., Canada

Abstract— After the impact that formed Haughton crater, 22.4 ± 1.4 Ma ago (early Miocene), the cavity filled with water and began to accumulate lacustrine sediments. These preserve detailed evidence of pre-impact stratigraphy and post-impact morphology and development of the crater, as well as of the climatic and biotic regime in which it lay. In this report we formally designate these sediments as the Haughton Formation, of which only a 48 m thick remnant covering approximately 7 km² still exists. Dolomite-rich, poorly-sorted silt, fine sand, and mud are the principal lithologies. The formation unconformably overlies a blanket of allochthonous impact breccia forming the floor of the original crater. Presence of a debris-flow deposit in the base of the sequence indicates that lacustine deposition began very shortly after crater formation. The Haughton Formation contains a moderately diverse and highly endemic vertebrate fauna as well as palynomorphs and plant macrofossils that indicate a cool-temperate climatic regime. A small percentage of reworked Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary palynomorphs point to the former existence of the Eureka Sound Formation in the drainage area of the crater. In addition, the distribution of the lake beds indicates the absence of an inner ring on the west side of the crater, and the 3° to 3.5° inward dip of Haughton strata implies that the central mass has subsided approximately 300 to 350 m since deposition began.     

Computing the steady oceanic circulation using an optimization approach

The traditional method for computing the steady oceanic circulation has been by stepping an oceanic model forward in time until transients are damped by friction. An alternative method, which has the potential for being more economical is to minimize the sum of the squares of the residuals of the steady model equations. A variety of algorithms might be considered for computing the minimum; attention here is focused on preconditioned conjugate-gradient descent with the gradient computed using an adjoint model. The choice of varibles, i.e. the preconditioning transformation used in the optimization process, is found to be critical to the efficiency of the method. An appropriate preconditioning transformation can be suggested by a heuristic analysis similar to that commonly used to test the stability of numerical models. The method is demonstrated within the context of the barotropic vorticity equation.     

Choline sulfate (ester) in marine higher fungi

Choline sulfate (ester) was isolated from the marine imperfect fungus Zalerion maritimum (Linder) Anastasiou, and was subsequently revealed by comparative thin-layer chromatography in eighteen additional isolates of marine fungi including Z. maritimum and ten species of Ascomycetes. The possible role of choline sulfate in the metabolism of marine fungi is discussed in the light of its demonstrated roles in terrestrial higher fungi. The IR and NMR spectral characteristics of choline sulfate (ester) are reported for the first time.     

Random dynamic response of a tethered buoyant platform production riser

A new normal mode spectral analysis method is presented for calculating r.m.s. riser deflections, bending stresses and lower ball joint angles. Forces on the riser consist of: (a) non-linear fluid drag taking account of the relative velocity due to tethered buoyant platform (TBP) motion, riser elastic deflection and wave induced fluid velocity, (b) wave induced fluid acceleration, (c) inertia forces due to TBP acceleration, and (d) buoyancy. The non-linear fluid drag forces are linearized using Tung and Wu's approximation based on the r.m.s. relative fluid velocity and current. A wide range of results is presented for risers in water depths up to 1000 m and it is observed that 6 normal modes are sufficient for calculating bending stresses. A static analysis is also presented for bending stresses due to wave and current induced drag forces and riser offset.     

Resonant heave motion of semisubmersible vessels

This paper is concerned with nonlinear resonant heave motion of a semisubmersible vessel at the survival draft. Due to the small potential of the hulls at deep draft the resonant motion is governed almost entirely by nonlinear drag forces on the hull and bracing members.Long period ocean swell following a storm can excite semisubmersiblesat resonance in heave and delay the resumption of drilling activities.The paper presents a simple closed form solution for determining the heave motion at the natural period which agrees well with other theoretical and experimental results.     

Artificial beach growth for breakwater protection at the Port of Timaru, east coast, South Island, New Zealand

The paper concerns beach growth by trapping longshore drift to form a protective beach seaward of the principal “weather” breakwater at the Port of Timaru, east coast, South Island. This “spending beach” concept was aproached by evaluating downdrift extension and considerable progradation of an existing accumulation at South Beach which is a product of harbour development since 1879 and which was held in quasi-stability by ongoing extractions of the net surplus littoral drift of coarse sands and gravels (averaging 60,000 m³ yr⁻¹).A one-line model was adapted from sand beach conditions and scaled to the morphology and processes of the mixed sand and gravel beaches at Timaru. Calibration of the model was performed from related research into the rates and temporal pattern of longshore drift on South Beach. A hundred year history of shoreline progradation against the harbour structures was utilised to verify the model.The concept offered a high benefit: cost ratio for a small engineering intervention provided shoreline forms and behaviour could be specified sufficiently for planning, statutory consent, engineering, economic and environmental impact assessment purposes. A 150 m long spur groin near the harbour entrance would trap about 12 ha of sand and gravel in about 8 years. The new shore would be better aligned to the dominant swell and storm waves than the present shore, so reducing long term net drift rates.Construction of the scheme commenced in May 1987 and progress to date is detailed.     

Analytical Solutions for Flow Fields near Drain-and-Gate Reactive Barriers

Permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) are a popular technology for passive contaminant remediation in aquifers through installation of reactive materials in the pathway of a plume. Of fundamental importance are the degree of remediation inside the reactor (residence time) and the portion of groundwater intercepted by a PRB (capture width). Based on a two-dimensional conformal mapping approach (previously used in related work), the latter is studied in the present work for drain-and-gate (DG) PRBs, which may possess a collector and a distributor drain (“full” configuration) or a collector drain only (“simple” configuration). Inherent assumptions are a homogeneous unbounded aquifer with a uniform far field, in which highly permeable drains establish constant head boundaries. Solutions for aquifer flow fields in terms of the complex potential are derived, illustrated, and analyzed for doubly symmetric DG configurations and arbitrary reactor hydraulic resistance as well as ambient groundwater flow direction. A series of practitioner-friendly charts for capture width is given to assist in PRB design and optimization without requiring complex mathematics. DG PRBs are identified as more susceptible to flow divergence around the reactor than configurations using impermeable side structures (e.g., funnel-and-gate), and deployment of impermeable walls on drains is seen to mitigate this problem under certain circumstances.     

Fluorite solubility equilibria in selected geothermal waters

Calculation of chemical equilibria in 351 hot springs and surface waters from selected geothermal areas in the western United States indicate that the solubility of the mineral fluorite, CaF₂, provides an equilibrium control on dissolved fluoride activity. Waters that are undersaturated have undergone dilution by non-thermal waters as shown by decreased conductivity and temperature values, and only 2% of the samples are supersaturated by more than the expected error. Calculations also demonstrate that simultaneous chemical equilibria between the thermal waters and calcite as well as fluorite minerals exist under a variety of conditions.Testing for fluorite solubility required a critical review of the thermodynamic data for fluorite. By applying multiple regression of a mathematical model to selected published data we have obtained revised estimates of the pK (10,96), ΔG^o_f (?280.08 kcal/mole), ΔH^o_f (?292.59 kcal/mole), S° (16.39 cal/deg/mole) and C^o_P (16.16 cal/deg/mole) for CaF₂ at 25°C and 1 atm. Association constants and reaction enthalpies for fluoride complexes with boron, calcium and iron are included in this review. The excellent agreement between the computer-based activity products and the revised pK suggests that the chemistry of geothermal waters may also be a guide to evaluating mineral solubility data where major discrepancies are evident.