Characterization of acid river dilution and associated trace element behavior through hydrogeochemical modeling: A case study of the Banyu Pahit River in East Java, Indonesia

Kawah Ijen volcano in East Java, Indonesia emits hyperacid (pH ≈ 0) brines rich in toxic elements including F, Al, Cd and Tl, which are transported downstream by the Banyu Pahit River, which is eventually used to irrigate farmland on the Asambagus Plain. The fate and behavior of major and trace elements are investigated, in the region of greatest change to the Banyu Pahit River, where thermal springs and the neutral Kali Sat and Kali Senggon Rivers increase its discharge 6-fold and pH increases from 1.9 to 4.5 with the development of abundant precipitates. The conservative behavior of Cl, F and SO₄ allows determination of the proportions of the mixing constituents at each confluence. Comparing a mass balance model based on the resulting proportions with measured concentrations demonstrates conservative behavior for most cations, with the exception of Si, Zr, Sn and Ba, which precipitate as amorphous silica, barite, and Zr and Sn phases, respectively. Iron is added as particulate Fe-(oxy)hydroxide in mixing with thermal spring outflow, and dissolves in the lower pH water. This also contributes Co, Cd, Mn, Y, and the rare earth elements, which are desorbed from the Fe-(oxy)hydroxide upon entering the acid water. Subsequent saturation in Fe-(oxy)hydroxide after mixing with the neutral rivers leads to a reverse response. Still, element behavior is close to conservative, which means that the volcanogenic toxic element load is almost entirely transferred to the Asambagus Plain with ensuing environmental and health impacts. This study shows that compositions of these acid waters can be understood and reproduced in a thermodynamic model, but only when fine-tuned using measured compositions and field observations. Therefore, the model’s utility in assessing the fate of toxic elements and in planning the environmental mitigation is limited.     

Source, attenuation and potential mobility of arsenic at New Britannia Mine, Snow Lake, Manitoba

This study was to investigate the source, mobility and attenuation of As at the New Britannia Mine, Snow Lake, Manitoba. One major source of As contamination was determined to be an arsenopyrite residue stockpile (ARS) containing refractory Au in a waste rock impoundment. It appears that As is still moving through glacial clay at the base of the ARS into a confined aquifer even though the pile was capped in the year 2000. Arsenic is also being mobilized from a deposit of tailings, which formed following spills by previous owners, Nor Acme. Arsenic from the tailings is being mobilized by oxidation of arsenopyrite and reduction of arsenate to the more mobile arsenite by arsenate-reducing bacteria. This contamination is affecting a shallow unconfined aquifer and surface water flowing from the tailings through wetlands towards Snow Lake. Arsenic is being attenuated by adsorption to hydrated ferric oxides (HFO) in the tailings, wetland soils and aquatic plants. Although As in surface water, soils and plants along the flow path from the mine to Snow Lake are above Canadian drinking water guidelines, efficient natural attenuation by HFO in soils and plants of the wetlands have limited the concentration in Snow Lake to below drinking water standards.     

Experimental constraints on the origins of primitive potassic lavas from the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt

Primitive magmas in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) span a wide geochemical range that includes calc-alkaline basalt and basaltic andesite, potassic shoshonites, and intraplate alkaline basalts, indicating that the subarc mantle wedge is chemically heterogeneous. The aim of this study is to experimentally constrain the origins of potassic lavas that have erupted along the volcanic front in the TMVB. We used a piston-cylinder apparatus to determine the P–T–H₂O near-liquidus phase relations for two primitive potassic lavas: a hornblende trachybasalt (shoshonite) from Cerro La Pilita in the central TMVB and a high-K calc-alkaline basalt from Ayutla in the western TMVB. Experiments were conducted at mantle pressures (0.8–2.5 GPa) and temperatures (1,100–1,400 °C) with 1.5–6 wt% H₂O. Results show that both samples were last equilibrated with an olivine + clinopyroxene assemblage at upper mantle pressures. Integrating our results with trace element characteristics, we conclude that the potassic magmas formed by a complex, multistage process in which melts from the hottest part of the mantle wedge either reequilibrated with clinopyroxene-rich veins in the shallow upper mantle or caused melting of such veins by advective heating. We combine our results with previous experiments on TMVB lavas to provide an along-arc perspective of melt equilibration depths in the mantle wedge. The results suggest that although melts may initially form deep in the wedge, they commonly reequilibrate with heterogeneous mantle at shallower depths. Primitive, medium-K basaltic andesites in the TMVB form by reequilibration with harzburgite, which we infer to be a common lithology in the upper mantle, whereas some potassic magmas like the ones studied here form through reequilibration with or melting of veins of olivine + clinopyroxene ± phlogopite. Though somewhat rare at the volcanic front relative to the more abundant medium-K volcanic rocks, the potassic magmas are an important lava type for revealing mantle chemical heterogeneities.     

Urban tree planting programs, function or fashion? Los Angeles and urban tree planting campaigns

Tree planting programs are being implemented in many US cities (most notably New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago) on the basis of the multiple environmental and health benefits they may provide. However, the magnitude and even the direction of the impacts of trees on specific urban environments have seldom been directly measured. In addition, there has been little research on the historical, cultural, political or institutional origins of such programs, or on their implementation process. Pending questions include the degree to which these programs are integrated in the existing frameworks of city government and infrastructure management, how they are paid for, and the kinds of collaborations between nonprofit organizations, the public, and public agencies at all levels they may require in order to succeed. This paper reports on an interdisciplinary research project examining the Million Tree Program of the City of Los Angeles.     

NanoSIMS: Technical Aspects and Applications in Cosmochemistry and Biological Geochemistry

The NanoSIMS ion probe is a new‐generation SIMS instrument, characterised by superior spatial resolution, high sensitivity and multi‐collection capability. Isotope studies of certain elements can be conducted with 50–100 nm resolution, making the NanoSIMS an indispensable tool in many research fields. We review technical aspects of the NanoSIMS ion probe and present examples of applications in cosmochemistry and biological geochemistry. This includes isotope studies of presolar (stardust) grains from primitive meteorites and of extraterrestrial organics, the search for extinct radioactive nuclides in meteoritic materials, the study of lunar samples, as well as applications in environmental microbiology, cell biology, plant and soil science, and biomineralisation.     

Effects of alkaline-activated fly ash and Portland cement on soft soil stabilisation

This paper studies the effects of sodium-based alkaline activators and class F fly ash on soil stabilisation. Using the unconfined compressive strength test (UCS), the effectiveness of this binder is compared with that of a common cement-based binder. Influence of the activator/ash ratio, sodium oxide/ash ratio and sodium hydroxide concentration was also analysed. Sodium hydroxide concentrations of 10, 12.5 and 15 molal were used for the alkaline-activated specimens (AA), with activator/ash ratios between 1 and 2.5 and ash percentages of 20, 30 and 40 %, relatively to the total solids (soil + ash). UCS was determined at curing periods of 7, 28, 90 and 365 days, and the most effective mixtures were analysed for mineralogy with XRD. The results showed a clear increase in strength with decreasing activator/ash ratio (up to a maximum of 43.4 MPa), which is a positive result since the activator is the most expensive component in the mixture. Finally, UCS results of the cement and AA samples, at 28 days curing, were very similar. However, AA results proved to be just between 20 and 40 % of the maximum UCS obtained at 1 year curing, while cement results at 28 days are expected to be between 80 and 90 % of its maximum.     

Vulnerability Studies: A Bibliometric Review

This article presents a bibliometric analysis of the vulnerability research field. We analyze 200 articles on vulnerability published between 1973 and 2012, in the context of the United States. The intent of this article is to compare the levels of activity of several academic disciplines and bodies of work in vulnerability scholarship and to examine which topics are most studied in them. Topic code use was assessed using the qualitative research data analysis tool Atlas.ti, which permits users to locate, code, and annotate article text fragments. Article categorization was measured both by coding first author organizational affiliation and using the ISI Web of Knowledge journal citation reports categorization scheme that assigns journals to a discipline; each article was coded by its journal category.     

Determining the impact of the Holocene highstand at the coastal‐fluvial interface,Shoalhaven River,south‐eastern Australia

With enhanced rates of sea‐level rise predicted for the next century, the upstream extent of sea‐level influence across coastal plains is a topic of public importance. Australian coastal rivers provide a testing ground for exploring this issue because the area is tectonically stable, was not glaciated, and experienced a Holocene highstand between 7.4 and 2 ka of up to 1.5 m above Australian Height Datum (AHD). In the Shoalhaven River of New South Wales, investigation of a confined bedrock reach at Wogamia, 32 km inland, has identified a unit of dark, cohesive silt and sand with marine diatoms, shell fragments, and enhanced pyrite content, interpreted as estuarine. The unit is up to 13 m thick, thickens downstream, and is overlain by fluvial channel and floodplain deposits. The estuarine unit on‐laps a remnant Pleistocene terrace and extends to approximately +2.2 m AHD. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon ages suggest that estuarine deposition commenced prior to 7.8 ka cal bp , predating the highstand by ~ 500 years, and that marine influence in the area continued to 5.3 ± 0.7 ka. During this period, a delta probably persisted at Wogamia, where a narrow upstream reach opens out, and subsequently advanced to fill the broad Shoalhaven coastal embayment. Although the effect of sea‐level rise depends on many factors, the results suggest that, during a highstand at or above present sea level, a strong marine influence may extend for tens of kilometres inland and penetrate confined bedrock reaches landward of coastal embayments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differential melt scaling for oblique impacts on terrestrial planets

Analytical estimates of melt volumes produced by a given projectile and contained in a given impact crater are derived as a function of impact velocity, impact angle, planetary gravity, target and projectile densities, and specific internal energy of melting. Applications to impact events and impact craters on the Earth, Moon, and Mars are demonstrated and discussed. The most probable oblique impact (45°) produces ～1.6 times less melt volume than a vertical impact, and ～1.6 and 3.7 times more melt volume than impacts with 30° and 15° trajectories, respectively. The melt volume for a particular crater diameter increases with planetary gravity, so a crater on Earth should have more melt than similar-size craters on Mars and the Moon. The melt volume for a particular projectile diameter does not depend on gravity, but has a strong dependence on impact velocity, so the melt generated by a given projectile on the Moon is significantly larger than on Mars. Higher surface temperatures and geothermal gradients increase melt production, as do lower energies of melting. Collectively, the results imply thinner central melt sheets and a smaller proportion of melt particles in impact breccias on the Moon and Mars than on Earth. These effects are illustrated in a comparison of the Chicxulub crater on Earth, linked to the Cretaceous–Tertiary mass extinction, Gusev crater on Mars, where the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed, and Tsiolkovsky crater on the Moon. The results are comparable to those obtained from field and spacecraft observations, other analytical expressions, and hydrocode simulations.