Astronomical Engineering: A Strategy For Modifying Planetary Orbits

The Sun's gradual brightening will seriously compromise the Earth'sbiosphere within 10⁹ years. If Earth's orbit migrates outward,however, the biosphere could remain intact over the entiremain-sequence lifetime of the Sun. In this paper, we explore thefeasibility of engineering such a migration over a long timeperiod. The basic mechanism uses gravitational assists to (in effect)transfer orbital energy from Jupiter to the Earth, and therebyenlarges the orbital radius of Earth. This transfer is accomplishedby a suitable intermediate body, either a Kuiper Belt object or a mainbelt asteroid. The object first encounters Earth during an inward passon its initial highly elliptical orbit of large ( 300 AU)semimajor axis. The encounter transfers energy from the object to theEarth in standard gravity-assist fashion by passing close to theleading limb of the planet. The resulting outbound trajectory of theobject must cross the orbit of Jupiter; with proper timing, theoutbound object encounters Jupiter and picks up the energy it lost toEarth. With small corrections to the trajectory, or additionalplanetary encounters (e.g., with Saturn), the object can repeat thisprocess over many encounters. To maintain its present flux of solarenergy, the Earth must experience roughly one encounter every 6000years (for an object mass of 10²² g). We develop the details ofthis scheme and discuss its ramifications.     

Paleolimnological assessment of human impacts on an urban South African lake

North End Lake is a polluted and eutrophic freshwater system located in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Since the lake is expected to be used for recreational/tourist purposes by 2010, a rehabilitation program will have to be designed. For this reason, we retrieved a sediment core from the central region of the lake to decipher the effect of historical human impacts on the water body. Pre-disturbance paleolimnological inferences indicate that the lake was likely mesotrophic. After ∼1831, when sheep farming activities were undertaken in the catchment, increases in trophic state and changes in sediment composition were observed. After ∼1937, increases in trace metal levels, organic matter, spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCP) and changes in sediment composition were recorded. The system became eutrophic as indicated by the dominance of the diatom Actinocyclus normanii, a cosmopolitan species often observed in systems where water quality has been dramatically degraded. The conditions worsened after 1986 because of the construction of a storm-water retention system, which intentionally channeled storm-water runoff into the lake. Because of this, extremely high values of fecal coliforms (i.e. 2 × 10⁶ every 100 ml) have been measured in the water column. The paleolimnological information identified the sharp increase in organic content in the uppermost section of the core, and this could be correlated to the operation of the storm-water retention system. Therefore, as an immediate management measure, we suggest that the storm-water retention system should either no longer be utilized, or the storm-water runoff should be treated before disposal into the lake. In addition, an effective sewage system has to be constructed.     

COOLING RATES, SKY VIEW FACTORS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTRA-URBAN AIR TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCES

Intra‐urban cooling rates were monitored for a year in the centre of Göteborg on the Swedish west coast. Five sites with different building geometry ‐ from dense canyon to open space ‐ within a radius of 300 m were analysed. Results showed two modes of cooling during the night. In the first mode, the cooling was site‐dependent ‐the open space cooled the most and the dense canyon the least. In the second mode, which began about 3–4 hours after sunset, all sites cooled at the same rate. Our hypothesis is that in the early part of the evening both radiative divergence and sensible heat dominate the cooling. However, as the evening progresses, a spatially homogeneous inversion is established which controls the radiative cooling, making the cooling independent of both surface geometry and surface type. From April to November the sites cooled rapidly around sunset and the cooling slowly decreased during the rest of the night. However, between December and March, the cooling was less intense, with an almost constant rate during the entire night. It has been suggested that this might be the result of the draining of stored solar heat during the summer and a continuous flux of anthropogenic heating during the winter.     

A derived probability distribution approach to stormwater quality modeling

The closed-form analytical stormwater quality models are developed for simulating urban catchment pollutant buildup and washoff processes. By integrating the rainfall–runoff transformation with pollutant buildup and washoff functions, stormwater quality measures, such as the cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) of pollutant loads, the expected value of pollutant event mean concentrations (EMCs) and the average annual pollutant load can be derived. This paper presents methodologies and major procedures for the development of urban stormwater quality models based on derived probability distribution theory. In order to investigate the spatial variation in model parameters and its impact on stormwater pollutant buildup and washoff processes as well as pollutant loads to receiving waters, an extended form of the original rainfall–runoff transformation which is based on lumped runoff coefficient approach is proposed to differentiate runoff generation mechanisms between the impervious and pervious areas of the catchment. In addition, as a contrast to the aggregated pollutant buildup models formulated with a single lumped buildup parameter, the disaggregated form of the pollutant buildup model is proposed by introducing a number of physically-based parameters associated with pollutant buildup and washoff processes into the pollutant load models. The results from the case study indicate that analytical urban stormwater management model are capable of providing results in good agreement with the field measurements, and can be employed as alternatives to continuous simulation models in the evaluation of long-term stormwater quality measures.     

Fourcade: the Centenary of a Stereoscopic Method of Photographic Surveying

In the Preface to his book, The Four Faces of Fourcade, Clare Storrar (1990) wrote: "It is di.cult to appreciate the breadth and depth of Henry Georges Fourcade's intelligence and creative power. He was an intellectual giant, a phenomenon, whose theoretical and practical achievements have never received proper recognition. These were all the more remarkable because he began his original work on photogrammetry when science in South Africa was in its infancy, and he laboured alone far from libraries and other research facilities. His only higher academic training was in land surveying. He was adept in each of four sciences at various stages in his life, but, mainly because of his natural reserve, his reputation was highly compartmentalised. To foresters he was 'the most brilliant forestry officer of his time' to surveyors, he was exceptionally learned in theory and skilled in practice. Photogrammetry was a new subject, unheard of, except by a handful of scientists. In botany, which he took up seriously at the age of fifty-five, his work was highly regarded by leading botanists in South Africa and in Europe. All stood in awe of his extraordinary talent and ability. Some were frightened of him. But few were able—in fact, not even the best brains were wholly qualified—to grasp fully the tremendous intellectual stature and potential of this protean man."
This paper briefly describes the historic achievements of Henry Georges Fourcade, with the emphasis on his land surveying and, in particular, his photogrammetric contributions to science. The centenary of one of these, his proposal of a stereoscopic method of photographic surveying, occurs in October 2001.     

The physical volcanology of the 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina, southern Peru

Volcán Huaynaputina is a group of four vents located at 16°36'S, 70°51'W in southern Peru that produced one of the largest eruptions of historical times when ~11 km³ of magma was erupted during the period 19 February to 6 March 1600. The main eruptive vents are located at 4200 m within an erosion-modified amphitheater of a significantly older stratovolcano. The eruption proceeded in three stages. Stage I was an ~20-h sustained plinian eruption on 19-20 February that produced an extensive dacite pumice fall deposit (magma volume ~2.6 km³). Throughout medial-distal and distal parts of the dispersal area, a fine-grained plinian ashfall unit overlies the pumice fall deposit. This very widespread ash (magma volume ~6.2 km³) has been recognized in Antarctic ice cores. A short period of quiescence allowed local erosion of the uppermost stage-I deposits and was followed by renewed but intermittent explosive activity between 22 and 26 February (stage II). This activity resulted in intercalated pyroclastic flow and pumice fall deposits (~1 km³). The flow deposits are valley confined, whereas associated co-ignimbrite ash fall is found overlying the plinian ash deposit. Following another period of quiescence, vulcanian-type explosions of stage III commenced on 28 February and produced crudely bedded ash, lapilli, and bombs of dense dacite (~1 km³). Activity ceased on 6 March. Compositions erupted are predominantly high-K dacites with a phenocryst assemblage of plagioclase>hornblende>biotite>Fe-Ti oxides-apatite. Major elements are broadly similar in all three stages, but there are a few important differences. Stage-I pumice has less evolved glass compositions (~73% SiO₂), lower crystal contents (17-20%), lower density (1.0-1.3 g/cm³), and phase equilibria suggest higher temperature and volatile contents. Stage-II and stage-III juvenile clasts have more evolved glass (~76% SiO₂) compositions, higher crystal contents (25-35%), higher densities (up to 2.2 g/cm³), and lower temperature and volatile contents. All juvenile clasts show mineralogical evidence for thermal disequilibrium. Inflections on a plot of log thickness vs area^1/2 for the fall deposits suggest that the pumice fall and the plinian ash fall were dispersed under different conditions and may have been derived from different parts of the eruption column system. The ash appears to have been dispersed mainly from the uppermost parts of the umbrella cloud by upper-level winds, whereas the pumice fall may have been derived from the lower parts of the umbrella cloud and vertical part of the eruption column and transported by a lower-altitude wind field. Thickness half distances and clast half distances for the pumice fall deposit suggests a column neutral buoyancy height of 24-32 km and a total column height of 34-46 km. The estimated mass discharge rate for the ~20-h-long stage-I eruption is 2.4᎒⁸ kg/s and the volumetric discharge rate is ~3.6᎒⁵ m³/s. The pumice fall deposit has a dispersal index (Hildreth and Drake 1992) of 4.4, and its index of fragmentation is at least 89%, reflecting the dominant volume of fines produced. Of the 11 km³ total volume of dacite magma erupted in 1600, approximately 85% was evacuated during stage 1. The three main vents range in size from ~70 to ~400 m. Alignment of these vents and a late-stage dyke parallel to the NNW-SSE trend defined by older volcanics suggest that the eruption initiated along a fissure that developed along pre-existing weaknesses. During stage I this fissure evolved into a large flared vent, vent 2, with a diameter of approximately 400 m. This vent was active throughout stage II, at the end of which a dome was emplaced within it. During stage III this dome was eviscerated forming the youngest vent in the group, vent 3. A minor extra-amphitheater vent was produced during the final event of the eruptive sequence. Recharge may have induced magma to rise away from a deep zone of magma generation and storage. Subsequently, vesiculation in the rising magma batch, possibly enhanced by interaction with an ancient hydrothermal system, triggered and fueled the sustained Plinian eruption of stage I. A lower volatile content in the stage-II and stage-III magma led to transitional column behavior and pyroclastic flow generation in stage II. Continued magma uprise led to emplacement of a dome which was subsequently destroyed during stage III. No caldera collapse occurred because no shallow magma chamber developed beneath this volcano.     

Microbial–silica interactions in Icelandic hot spring sinter: possible analogues for some Precambrian siliceous stromatolites

Silicified deposits, such as sinters, occur in several modern geothermal environments, but the mechanisms of silicification (and crucially the role of microorganisms in their construction) are still largely unresolved. Detailed examination of siliceous sinter, in particular sections of microstromatolites growing at the Krisuvik hot spring, Iceland, reveals that biomineralization contributes a major component to the overall structure, with approximately half the sinter thickness attributed to silicified microorganisms. Almost all microorganisms observed under the scanning electron microscope (SEM) are mineralized, with epicellular silica ranging in thickness from < 5 μm coatings on individual cells, to regions where entire colonies are cemented together in an amorphous silica matrix tens of micrometres thick. Within the overall profile, there appears to be two very distinct types of laminae that alternate repeatedly throughout the microstromatolite: ‘microbial’ layers are predominantly consisting of filamentous, intact, vertically aligned, biomineralized cyanobacteria, identified as Calothrix and Fischerella sp.; and weakly laminated silica layers which appear to be devoid of any microbial component. The microbial layers commonly have a sharply defined base, overlying the weakly laminated silica, and a gradational upper surface merging into the weakly laminated silica. These cyclic laminations are probably explained by variations in microbial activity. Active growth during spring/summer allows the microorganisms to keep pace with silicification, with the cell surfaces facilitating silicification, while during their natural slow growth phase in the dark autumn/winter months silicification exceeds the bacteria’s ability to compensate (i.e. grow upwards). At this stage, the microbial colony is probably not essential to microstromatolite formation, with silicification presumably occurring abiogenically. When conditions once again become favourable for growth, recolonization of the solid silica surface by free‐living bacteria occurs: cell motility is not responsible for the laminations. We have also observed that microbial populations within the microstromatolite, some several mm in depth, appear viable, i.e. they still have their pigmentation, the trichomes are not collapsed, cell walls are unbroken, cytoplasm is still present and they proved culturable. This suggests that the bulk of silicification occurred rapidly, probably while the cells were still alive. Surprisingly, however, measurements of light transmittance through sections of the microstromatolite revealed that photosynthetically active light (PAL) only transmitted through the uppermost 2 mm. Therefore the ‘deeper’ microbial populations must have either: (i) altered their metabolic pathways; (ii) become metabolically inactive; or (iii) the deeper populations may be dominated by different microbial assemblages from that of the surface. From these collective observations, it now seems unequivocal that microstromatolite formation is intimately linked to microbial activity and that the sinter fabric results from a combination of biomineralization, cell growth and recolonization. Furthermore, the similarities in morphology and microbial component to some Precambrian stromatolites, preserved in primary chert, suggests that we may be witnessing contemporaneous biomineralization processes and growth patterns analogous to those of the early Earth.     

The effects of surface area, grain size and mineralogy on organic matter sedimentation and preservation across the modern Squamish Delta, British Columbia: the potential role of sediment surface area in the formation of petroleum source rocks

Surface sediment samples were collected from the Squamish River Delta, British Columbia, in order to determine the role of sediment surface area in the preservation of organic matter (OM) in a paralic sedimentary environment. The Squamish Delta is an actively prograding delta, located at the head of Howe Sound.Bulk total organic carbon (TOC) values across the Squamish Delta are low, ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 wt.%. The carbon/total nitrogen ratio (C_org/N) ranges from 6 to 17, which is attributed to changes in OM type and facies variations. The <25-μm fraction has TOC concentrations up to 2.0 wt.%, and a C_org/N ratio that ranges from 14 to 16. The 53–106-μm fraction has higher TOC concentrations and C_org/N ratios relative to the 25–53-μm fraction. The C_org/N ratio ranges from 9 to 18 in the 53–106-μm fraction and 5.5–10.5 in the 25–53-μm fraction. Surface area values for bulk sediments are low (0.5–3.0 m²/g) due to the large proportion of silt size material. Good correlation between surface area and TOC in bulk samples suggests that OM is adsorbed to mineral surfaces. Similar relationships between surface area and TOC were observed in size-fractionated samples. Mineralogy and elemental composition did not correlate with TOC concentration.The relationships between surface area, TOC and total nitrogen (TN) can be linked to the hydrodynamic and sedimentological conditions of the Squamish Delta. As a result, the Squamish Delta is a useful modern analogue for the formation of petroleum source rocks in ancient deltaic environments, where TOC concentrations are often significantly lower than those in source rocks formed in other geological settings.     

Riometer observations in the polar caps of solar cosmic ray events during the IQSY

During the period of the IQSY, January 1964 through December 1965, the sun remained quiet, accelerating few energetic particles. There were many instances during the IQSY when lowenergy detectors on satellites and space probes registered small intensity increases. However, few of these events were associated with protons of energies exceeding 10 MeV. Moreover, the maximum intensities (E _p > 500 keV) were typically 1–8/cm²sec ster. Most of these events were below the threshold of riometer detection.The largest solar cosmic ray event observed in 1964 by polar-based riometers was that of March 16. This event was observed by 30 and 50 Mc/s riometers at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, and Shepherd Bay, N.W.T., Canada.The largest event in 1965 occurred on February 5 and was the largest during the IQSY. It was associated with a class 2 flare at about 1750 UT, February 5. The propagation time between the sun and Earth was about one hour. This event was well observed by satellites, space probes, and riometers.This paper discusses primarily the 5 February 1965 event. Some discussion is also given to the 16 March 1964 event, other small events during the IQSY, and the recent event in March 1966.