Heavy metal concentrations in shallow marine sediments affected by submarine tailings disposal and artisanal gold mining,Buyat-Ratototok district,North Sulawesi,Indonesia

Trace element concentrations in shallow marine sediments of the Buyat-Ratototok district of North Sulawesi, Indonesia, are affected by submarine disposal of industrial gold mine tailings and unregulated dumping of tailings and wastewater from small-scale gold mining using mercury amalgamation. Industrial mine tailings contained 590–690 ppm arsenic, 490–580 ppm antimony, and 0.8–5.8 ppm mercury. Tailings-affected sediment As and Sb concentrations were 20–30 times higher than in muddy sediments not contaminated with tailings, and 50–60 times higher than pre-mining average. Highest mercury concentrations were observed in sediments affected by small-scale mining using mercury amalgamation (5–29 ppm). Concentrations of most other trace elements were comparable in sediments affected by both types of mining and were slightly higher than regional averages for sediments collected before the onset of industrial mining. Elevated concentrations of both As and Sb in approximately equal proportions suggest tailings dispersal of at least 3.5 km. Mercury released from artisanal gold mining dispersed up to 4 km from river mouths. Slight increases in concentrations of non-mercury trace elements in areas affected by artisanal mining over pre-industrial mining concentrations were probably caused by increased rates of erosion. Electronic supplementary material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at and is accessible for authorized users.     

Inter-annual and seasonal variations in hydrological parameters and its implications on chlorophyll a distribution along the southwest coast of Bay of Bengal

Seasonal and inter-annual variability of hydrological parameters and its impact on chlorophyll distribution was studied from January 2009 to December 2011 at four coastal stations along the southwest Bay of Bengal. Statistical analysis(principal component analysis(PCA), two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) and correlation analysis)showed the significant impact of hydrological parameters on chlorophyll distribution in the study area. The ranges of different parameters recorded were 23.8–33.8°C(SST), 4.00–36.00(salinity), 7.0–9.2(p H), 4.41–8.32 mg/L(dissolved oxygen), 0.04–2.45 μmol/L(nitrite), 0.33–16.10 μmol/L(nitrate), 0.02–2.51 μmol/L(ammonia),0.04–3.32 μmol/L(inorganic phosphate), 10.09–85.28 μmol/L(reactive silicate) and 0.04–13.8 μg/L(chlorophyll).PCA analysis carried out for different seasons found variations in the relationship between physico-chemical parameters and chlorophyll in which nitrate and chlorophyll were positively loaded at PC1(principal component1) during spring inter-monsoon and at PC2(principal component 2) during other seasons. Likewise correlation analysis also showed significant positive relationship between chlorophyll and nutrients especially with nitrate(r=0.734). Distribution of hydrobiological parameters between stations and distances was significantly varying as evidenced from the ANOVA results. The study found that the spatial and temporal distribution of chlorophyll was highly dependent on the availability of nutrients especially, nitrate in the southwest Bay of Bengal coastal waters.     

Heavy metal contamination from gold mining recorded in Porites lobata skeletons, Buyat-Ratototok district, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Shallow marine sediments and fringing coral reefs of the Buyat-Ratototok district of North Sulawesi, Indonesia, are affected by submarine disposal of tailings from industrial gold mining and by small-scale gold mining using mercury amalgamation. Between-site variation in heavy metal concentrations in shallow marine sediments was partially reflected by trace element concentrations in reef coral skeletons from adjacent reefs. Corals skeletons recorded silicon, manganese, iron, copper, chromium, cobalt, antimony, thallium, and lead in different concentrations according to proximity to sources, but arsenic concentrations in corals were not significantly different among sites. Temporal analysis found that peak concentrations of arsenic and chromium generally coincided with peak concentrations of silica and/or copper, suggesting that most trace elements in the coral skeleton were incorporated into detrital siliciclastic sediments, rather than impurities within skeletal aragonite.     

Controls on carbon cycling in two contrasting temperate zone estuaries: The Tyne and Tweed, UK

In order to evaluate the respiration–photosynthesis dynamics in two contrasting North Sea estuaries, pH, temperature, alkalinity, chlorophyll-a (chl-a), and isotopic ratios of dissolved inorganic carbon (δ¹³C_DIC) and dissolved oxygen (δ¹⁸O_DO) were measured in the Tyne (July 2003) and Tweed (July 2003 and December 2003) estuaries. Using a concentration-dependent isotope mixing line, δ¹³C_DIC values in the Tweed (July 2003) demonstrated mostly conservative behaviour across the estuary, reflecting mixing between riverine and marine sources, although some samples were slightly more ¹³C-enriched than predicted δ¹³C_DIC values. Low pCO₂ (less than 2 times atmospheric pressure) and ¹⁸O-depleted δ¹⁸O_DO signatures below equilibrium with the atmosphere provided further evidence for net autotrophy in the Tweed estuary in summer 2003. Conversely, in the Tyne during the summer and in the Tweed during the winter higher pCO₂ (up to 6.5 and 14.4 times atmospheric partial pressure in the Tweed and Tyne, respectively), slightly ¹³C-depleted δ¹³C_DIC and ¹⁸O-enriched δ¹⁸O_DO values indicated heterotrophy as the dominant process. The relatively large releases of CO₂ observed during these two estuarine surveys can be attributed to significant oxidation of terrigenous organic matter (OM). This study therefore demonstrates the usefulness of combined δ¹⁸O_DO and δ¹³C_DIC isotopes in examining the relationship between respiration–photosynthesis dynamics and the fate of terrestrially derived OM during estuarine mixing.     

Ore Controls and Metallogenesis of Au-Ag Deposits at Atalla Mine, Central Eastern Desert of Egypt

Gold-silver deposits in the Atalla area occur as hydrothermal quartz veins in NE–SW pre-existing fractures within the Atalla granitic pluton. The orientation of such quartz veins has been attributed to extensional behavior related to the Atalla Shear Zone (ASZ). The Atalla area is covered by a variety of lithologies that are (from oldest to youngest): metasedimentary rocks, metavolcanic rocks, ophiolite assemblage (serpentinites/talc-carbonates), Atalla granite and Dokhan volcanic rocks. Microscopically, Atalla granite ranges in composition from granodiorite to monzogranite. Whole-rock geochemistry constrains the calc-alkaine affinity of the Atalla granite that was intruded within an orogenic (syn-collision) tectonic regime. The ore minerals are represented by gold/silver (electrum), pyrite (Py1 & Py2), arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, galena, covellite and goethite. The temperature of ore formation ranges from 240 to 285°C and the estimated fluid pressure is in the range of 20–100 MPa. Based on the geological setting, ore textures and fluid characteristics; the Atalla Au-Ag deposits are considered to be orogenic in nature, formed from a continental collision (~653-590 Ma), synchronous with the emplacement of calc-alkaline magmatism during the evolutionary history of the Arabian Nubian Shield (ANS). The initial ore-forming fluid was primarily derived from a metamorphic source related to ophiolitic-serpentinite rocks under deep regional conditions of greenschist-amphibolite facies, where the Atalla granitic eruption provided the required temperature conditions for the metamorphic process to take place. Under such conditions, the transportation of ore metals as bisulfide complexes is favoured. The deposition of ore minerals was triggered by fluid-wallrock interaction through fracture pathways in conjunction with a temperature-pressure drop that is likely to have been related to uplift into the crustal levels.     

Site Characterization Using Solar Hα Images

A Multi-Application Solar Telescope (MAST) is proposed to be installed at the lake site (Lake Fatehsagar) of Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO) in India. The lake site Observatory of USO is located on a small island in the middle of the lake. To determine the optimum size of the MAST (for use with an adaptive optics system), it was decided to quantify the seeing conditions prevailing at the lake site during the different months of the year. For this purpose, we have used short-exposure (3 ms) high-resolution Hα (6563 Å) images (spatial scale of ～0.55 arc sec per pixel) of the Sun taken in burst mode with the 15-cm refractor Spar telescope located at the lake site of USO. Spectral ratio technique as reported by von der Lühe (1984, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A1, 510) has been used to estimate the Fried’s parameter (r ₀) at this site, which gives the quantitative measure of astronomical seeing. This study has been carried out daily on an hourly basis during 4:30?–?10:30 UT over the months January?–?June of the years 2005 and 2006 to understand the diurnal and seasonal variations in r ₀ at this site. It is noteworthy that the lake was almost dry during the observing period in 2005, while it overflowed during our observations in 2006 because of abundant monsoon rains. The seeing in the presence of water shows improvement in r ₀ by about 1.0 cm with respect to the previous year’s dry condition and mean r ₀ varies between 4.0 and 4.5 cm as evident from the data obtained between January and June, 2006.     

消泡压力对消泡率的影响及基于数值模拟的消泡器结构优化设计

在泡沫钻进过程中,现有的消泡器往往不能很好地达到消泡的目的。笔者建立了消泡器室内试验台,进行了消泡压力对消泡器消泡能力的影响试验,通过测试不同压力与不同泵转速确定了消泡压力与消泡率的关系,同时借助FLUENT软件对消泡器的扩散管和消泡管内部的压力分布,进行了数值模拟与分析。根据分析结果对消泡器进行了优化设计,将消泡管的长度从15cm增加至65cm。对改进后的消泡器进行室内试验,其消泡率达到80%左右。     

Dynamics of Sunspot Light Bridges as Revealed by High-Resolution Images from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Hinode</Emphasis>

We present G-band and Ca ii H filtergrams of two sunspot light bridges in NOAA AR 10953 taken from the 50-cm Solar Optical Telescope onboard the Japanese space satellite Hinode on 1 May 2007. The two light bridges differ in structure, with one of them resembling the filamentary penumbra and the other possessing a dark central lane running along the axis of the bridge having a width of 170 km, which is close to the diffraction limit of the telescope. Velocity measurements of the light bridges using proper motion displacements of inhomogeneities, averaged over the entire time series, show a nonuniform flow with velocities peaking at 250 and 180 m s⁻¹ for the two bridges, respectively. We report observations of an archlike structure over one of the light bridges in the Ca images. Brightness enhancements are seen traveling along this arch as well as along the light bridge. Observations suggest that these enhancements over light bridges could possibly be a signature of lower chromospheric heating.