State–church relationships in Germany: past and present

In the wake of the Reformation, the bitterest religious wars were fought on the territories of what is now Germany. It was here, however, that the rule “cuius region, eius religio” was found as well which can be interpreted as a first step towards religious tolerance. Germany has been characterised by a religious dualism between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant (Lutheran and Reformed) Church since then. Both had the status of state churches until the First World War. Since then, they are still by far the dominant religious communities in the country but they regard themselves wrongly to be Volkskirchen (people’s churches). They, as well as a number of smaller religious communities, enjoy the status of a corporation under public law. This status includes the right to collect church tax from members through state channels. The federal German state system is mirrored by a similar federal character of the Protestant Church, which is a union of regional churches. When Germany was reunited in 1990, the Volkskirche principle was reintroduced in East Germany although Christians had become a minority there due to 40 years of strong influence of Communism. Secularisation and pluralisation have changed the religious landscape in Germany especially after 1960. The two big churches have lost large numbers of members, and new religious communities have arrived. In the light of Europe growing together, the Protestant Church in Germany, being the largest in numbers in Europe, has initiated stronger cooperation between the different Protestant churches in the European countries, many of which are organised as national churches. Islam has come to Germany mainly through Turkish labour migrants. The country has only recently changed its self-perception into being a society with a large immigrant minority, which is to stay; therefore it will certainly take some time until Muslims are fully accommodated.

Geochemical variations in the Cocos Plate subducting beneath Central America: implications for the composition of arc volcanism and the extent of the Galápagos Hotspot influence on the Cocos oceanic crust

New geochemical data from the Cocos Plate constrain the composition of the input into the Central American subduction zone and demonstrate the extent of influence of the Galápagos Hotspot on the Cocos Plate. Samples include sediments and basalts from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1256 outboard of Nicaragua, gabbroic sills from ODP Sites 1039 and 1040, tholeiitic glasses from the Fisher Ridge off northwest Costa Rica, and basalts from the Galápagos Hotspot Track outboard of Central Costa Rica. Site 1256 basalts range from normal to enriched MORB in incompatible elements and have Pb and Nd isotopic compositions within the East Pacific Rise MORB field. The sediments have similar ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and only slightly more radiogenic ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb isotope ratios than the basalts. Altered samples from the subducting Galápagos Hotspot Track have similar Nd and Pb isotopic compositions to fresh Galápagos samples but have significantly higher Sr isotopic composition, indicating that the subduction input will have a distinct geochemical signature from Galápagos-type mantle material that may be present in the wedge beneath Costa Rica. Gabbroic sills from Sites 1039 and 1040 in East Pacific Rise (EPR) crust show evidence for influence of the Galápagos Hotspot ∼100 km beyond the morphological hotspot track.     

Monthly air temperature trends in Switzerland 1901–2000 and 1975–2004

Summary We analysed long-term temperature trends based on 12 homogenised series of monthly temperature data in Switzerland at elevations between 316 m.a.s.l. and 2490 m.a.s.l for the 20^th century (1901–2000) and for the last thirty years (1975–2004). Comparisons were made between these two periods, with changes standardised to decadal trends. Our results show mean decadal trends of +0.135 °C during the 20^th century and +0.57 °C based on the last three decades only. These trends are more than twice as high as the averaged temperature trends in the Northern Hemisphere. Most stations behave quite similarly, indicating that the increasing trends are linked to large-scale rather than local processes. Seasonal analyses show that the greatest temperature increase in the 1975–2004 period occurred during spring and summer whereas they were particularly weak in spring during the 20^th century. Recent temperature increases are as much related to increases in maximum temperatures as to increases in minimum temperature, a trend that was not apparent in the 1901–2000 period. The different seasonal warming rates may have important consequences for vegetation, natural disasters, human health, and energy consumption, amongst others. The strong increase in summer temperatures helps to explain the accelerated glacier retreat in the Alps since 1980. Authors’ addresses: Martine Rebetez, WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Michael Reinhard, Laboratory of Ecological Systems (ECOS), EPFL Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.     

Heavy-ion irradiation on crystallographically oriented cordierite and the conversion of molecular CO2 to CO: a Raman spectroscopic study

Crystallographically oriented sections of natural gemstone quality cordierite single-crystals have been irradiated with swift heavy ions of GeV energy and various fluences. Irradiation effects on the crystal lattice were investigated by means of Raman spectroscopy. Raman line scans along the trajectory of the ions reveal a close correlation of beam parameters (such as fluence and energy loss dE/dx along the ion path) to strain due to associated changes in lattice dimensions and defect concentration. The luminescence background also scales with the ion fluence and suggests the formation of point defects, which could also account for the macroscopically observable colouration of the irradiated samples. In addition, changes in the amount and nature of volatile species inside the structural channels are observed. They also scale with dE/dx and confirm the previously postulated irradiation-induced conversion of CO₂ to CO. Irradiations along the crystallographic a-, b- and c-axis reveal no significant anisotropy effect with respect to lattice alterations. The polarisation characteristics of the Raman-active modes confirm the preferred molecular alignment of CO and CO₂ along the a-axis direction.     

Mineralogical and chemical characteristics of some natural jarosites

This paper presents a detailed study of the mineralogical, microscopic, thermal, and spectral characteristics of jarosite and natrojarosite minerals. Systematic mineralogic and chemical examination of a suite of 32 natural stoichiometric jarosite and natrojarosite samples from diverse supergene and hydrothermal environments indicates that there is only limited solid solution between Na and K at low temperatures, which suggests the presence of a solvus in the jarosite-natrojarosite system at temperatures below about 140 °C. The samples examined in this study consist of either end members or coexisting end-member pairs of jarosite and natrojarosite. Quantitative electron-probe microanalysis data for several natural hydrothermal samples show only end-member compositions for individual grains or zones, and no detectable alkali-site deficiencies, which indicates that there is no hydronium substitution within the analytical uncertainty of the method. In addition, there is no evidence of Fe deficiencies in the natural hydrothermal samples. Hydronium-bearing jarosite was detected in only one relatively young supergene sample suggesting that terrestrial hydronium-bearing jarosites generally are unstable over geologic timescales.Unit-cell parameters of the 20 natural stoichiometric jarosites and 12 natural stoichiometric natrojarosites examined in this study have distinct and narrow ranges in the a- and c-cell dimensions. There is no overlap of these parameters at the 1σ level for the two end-member compositions. Several hydrothermal samples consist of fine-scale (2-10 μm) intimate intergrowths of jarosite and natrojarosite, which could have resulted from solid-state diffusion segregation or growth zoning due to variations in the Na/K activity ratio of hydrothermal solutions.     

Determination of flow exits in the Soultz borehole GPK2 by using the brine displacement method

The article presents a method to derive synthetic flow logs from low rate injection tests in wells, which are otherwise not accessible for logging. The tests were carried out in the 5 km deep geothermal well GPK2 in the Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) project of Soultz-sous-Forêts (France) and were aimed at characterizing the status of the well before chemical treatments. The method consists of injecting water at constant flow rates into the well initially filled with brine. The wellhead pressure record of this test is transformed into log of the flow velocity versus depth by a technique described in the paper. Applying this method to borehole GPK2, three outlets could be detected and quantified within the cased and uncased section of this borehole. The outlet in the cased section at 3860 m absorbed 15% of the total flow. This depth corresponds to a known casing restriction, which makes the borehole inaccessible for logging operations. The two other outlets are at the casing shoe at 4420 m (15%) and at 4670 m (70%).     

Sensitivity of the last glacial inception to initial and surface conditions

We investigate the sensitivity of simulations of the last glacial inception (LGI) with respect to initial (size of the Greenland ice sheet) and surface (state of ocean/vegetation) conditions and two different CO₂ reconstructions. Utilizing the CLIMBER-2 Earth system model, we obtain the following results: (a) ice-sheet expansion in North America at the end of the Eemian can be reduced or even completely suppressed when pre-industrial or Eemian ocean/vegetation is prescribed. (b) A warmer surrounding ocean and, in particular, a large Laurentide ice sheet reduce the size of the Greenland ice sheet before and during the LGI. (c) A changing ocean contributes much stronger to the expansion of the Laurentide ice sheet when we apply the CO₂ reconstruction according to Barnola et al. (Nature 329:408–414, 1987) instead of Petit et al. (Nature 399:429–436, 1999). (d) In the fully coupled model, the CO₂ reconstruction used has only a small impact on the simulated ice sheets but it does impact the course of the climatic variables. (e) For the Greenland ice sheet, two equilibrium states exist under the insolation and CO₂ forcing at 128,000 years before present (128 kyear BP); the one with an ice sheet reduced by about one quarter as compared to its simulated pre-industrial size and the other with nearly no inland ice in Greenland. (f) Even the extreme assumption of no ice sheet in Greenland at the beginning of our transient simulations does not alter the simulated expansion of northern hemispheric ice sheets at the LGI.     

A Sustainability Framework for Enhancing the Long-Term Success of Lulucf Projects

Collateral impacts of land use and land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) projects, especially those concerning social and environmental aspects, have been recognized as important by the Marrakech Accords. The same applies to the necessity of assessing and, if possible, of quantifying the magnitude of these impacts. This article aims to define, clarify and structure the relevant social, economic and environmental issues to be addressed and to give examples of indicators that ought to be included in the planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and ex post evaluation of LULUCF projects. This is being done by providing a conceptual framework for the assessment of the sustainability of such projects that can be used as a checklist when dealing with concrete projects, and that in principle is applicable to both Annex I and non-Annex I countries. Finally, a set of recommendations is provided to further develop and promote the proposed framework.     

Change of black shale organic material surface area during oxidative weathering: Implications for rock-water surface evolution

Black shale oxidative weathering plays a significant role in a variety of processes including acid mine drainage and atmospheric CO₂ control. The modeling of weathering is highly dependent on reactive surface area. In this study it is shown that black shale oxidative weathering is regulated mainly by the external, geometrical surface area of rock polyhedrons and the organic matter’s (OM) internal surface area. The internal rock surface area decreases dramatically during OM dissolution from ∼15 m²/g to ∼5 m²/g. A linear relationship was found between the decrease of internal rock surface area and quantity of OM dissolved. Optical roughness analyses of black and bleached shale surface area reveal the formation of macropores due to the dissolution of mesoporous and probably microporous OM. However, due to deconsolidation, the geometrical external rock polyhedron surface area increases during weathering. Black shale polyhedrons show a doubling of their external surface area as OM decreases. This provokes an increase of the shale volume which is easily accessible by fluids. The increase of the external rock surface area seems to be self-accelerating during weathering. The upscaling of external and internal rock surface area evolution during weathering presented in this study demonstrates the possible application of these results to the improved understanding of a chemical transport in a variety of natural systems.