A comparison of the reactions to government taxation measures of twentieth century mining companies and nineteenth century pastoralists

This paper compares pastoralists in South Australia in the nineteenth century with Australian mining companies in the twentieth century as they resist the efforts of government to extract a greater proportion of the wealth created in the exploitation of natural resources. In effect, in both cases the struggle relates to the allocation of economic rent between private and corporate capital on the one hand, and the owners of the resources, the people of Australia, on the other. It is difficult not to be impressed by the similarities in the ideologies, objectives and strategies of these two groups of resource exploiters, separated though they are by over one hundred years.     

Agricultural policy reforms and sustainable land management: a New Zealand case study

This paper examines the link between poverty and land management within the context of New Zealand's almost total removal of subsidies to agriculture since 1984. The impact of these policy changes is explored through the findings from a detailed study of sixteen farms in the North Island hill country. Stress is identified as a primary link between social damage and environmental degradation. This link reinforces the impact of other linkages expressed in reduced production, lower stocking rates, and reduced capital inputs. Deregulation is claimed to be good. This paper shows that in certain circumstances this is not so.     

Late Quaternary kinematics of the Pallatanga strike-slip fault (Central Ecuador) from topographic measurements of displaced morphological features

The northeast-trending Pallatanga right-lateral strike-slip fault runs across the Western Cordillera connecting N50E-N70E trending normal faults in the Gulf of Guayaquil with N-S reverse faults in the Interandean Depression. Over most of its length, the fault trace has been partly obscured by erosional processes and can be inferred in the topography only at the large scale. Only the northern fault segment, which follows the upper Rio Pangor valley at elevations above 3600 m, is prominent in the morphology. Valleys and ridges cut and offset by the fault provide an outstanding record of right-lateral cumulative fault displacement. The fault geometry and kinematics of this particular fault segment can be determined from detailed topographic levellings. The fault strikes N30E and dips 75 to the NW. Depending on their size and nature, transverse morphological features such as tributaries of the Rio Pangor and intervening ridges, reveal right-lateral offsets which cluster around 27 ± 11m, 41.5 ± 4 m, 590 ± 65 m and 960 ± 70 m. The slip vector deduced from the short-term offsets shows a slight reverse component with a pitch of about 11.5 SW. The 41.5 ± 4 m displacements are assumed to be coeval with the last glacial termination, yielding a mean Holocene slip-rate of 2.9- 4.6 mm yr⁻¹. Assuming a uniform slip rate on the fault in the long term, the 27 m offset appears to correlate with an identified middle Holocene morphoclimatic event, and the long term offsets of 590 m and 960 m coincide with the glacial terminations at the beginning of the last two interglacial periods.     

Mineralized and unmineralized calderas in Spain; Part II, evolution of the Rodalquilar caldera complex and associated gold-alunite deposits

The Rodalquilar caldera complex is located in the western part of the Cabo de Gata volcanic field in southeastern Spain and is the first documented example of epithermal gold-alunite mineralization within a caldera in Europe. The Rodalquilar caldera is an oval collapse structure having a maximum diameter of 8 km and formed at 11 Ma from eruption of the Cinto ash-flow tuff. The oval Lomilla caldera, with a diameter of 2 km, is nested within the central resurgent dome of the older Rodalquilar caldera. The Lomilla caldera resulted from the eruption of the Lazaras ash-flow tuff which was ponded within the moat of the Rodalquilar caldera. The last phase of volcanic activity in the caldera complex was the emplacement of hornblende andesite flows and intrusions. This magmatic event resulted in structural doming of the caldera, opening of fractures and faults, and provided the heat source for the large hydrothermal systems which deposited quartz-alunite type gold deposits and base metal vein systems. The gold-alunite deposits are enclosed in areas of intense acid sulfate alteration and localized in ring and radial faults and fractures present in the east wall of the Lomilla caldera. Like other acid-sulfate type deposits, the Rodalquilar gold-alunite deposits are closely related in time and space to porphyritic, intermediate composition magma emplaced along caldera structures but unrelated to the caldera forming magmatic system.     

A revised estimate of the life span for Lake Nasser

A number of estimates of the potential life span of Lake Nasser located in Egypt and Sudan have been made in the past several years. Published estimates range from as little as 20 years (Sterling 1970) to over 1500 years (Makary 1982). The wide range of differing values is a function of many variables, including computation method, input data, and theoretical assumptions underlying the mathematical approach taken. Such a broad range of values is typical of sedimentation studies performed for areas that lack an adequate historic data base.One of the chief constraints to development of a reliable estimate the Lake Nasser's case has been lack of sufficient historical data on which to construct a useful data base. Enough information of this type has been collected since the reservoir's formation in 1964 to permit a realistic assessment of its life span. Granted the obvious need to determine the useful lifetime of this or any other reservoir, it is now possible to assess the reliability of the current official estimate for Lake Nasser. By applying appropriate modifications and additional data to the official estimate, an improved estimate was made.The time forecasted for filling of the reservoir by the official estimate is 362 years, somewhat less than the original design life of 500 years. By taking into account changes in the hydrological regime of the Nile after 1964 and another compaction factor, an estimate of 535 years was made. The additional time before filling estimated in the revision is significant for decision rules governing operation of the Aswan High Dam.     

Geophysical exploration for epithermal gold deposits

Epithermal gold deposits are highly variable in form, ranging from thin quartz veins to large disseminated deposits, and are located in a variety of geological environments. Consequently, they exhibit a wide range of geophysical signatures. Hydrothermal alteration accompanying these deposits causes pronounced changes in the physical properties of the rocks. Magnetic susceptibility and remanence decrease; the potassium content commonly increases causing an increase in radioactivity; the electrical resistivity changes by up to two orders of magnitude; and the density increases or decreases depending on the nature of the host rock and alteration processes.Airborne magnetic surveys are effective in delineating major structures which may control the locations of epithermal gold deposits, and also in detecting magnetic lows or “flat zones” resulting from the destruction of magnetite by hydrothermal alteration. Radiometric surveys may detect potassium enrichment accompanying this alteration. Filtering and image-processing techniques are particularly useful in enhancing magnetic and radiometric data to reveal subtle structures and alteration systems.Ground geophysical techniques can play an important in defining drill targets. Well controlled gravity surveys may assist in the delineation of major structures, basement highs and alteration zones. Buried conductive alteration systems can be defined by resistivity, electromagnetic and magnetotelluric methods. Resistive gold-bearing silicified zones and shallow quartz vein systems are commonly detectable by conventional galvanic or inductive resistivity techniques.Geophysical surveys over a number of epithermal gold deposits are presented, including Bimurra-Conway (northeast Queensland, Australia), Gold Ridge (Solomon Islands), Ohui (Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand), McLaughlin (California, USA), Rhyolite Creek (Victoria, Australia) and Mt Aubrey (New South Wales, Australia).Provided there is a clear appreciation of survey objectives and a good understanding of the changes in physical properties which rocks undergo during hydrothermal alteration, geophysics can make a substantial contribution to epithermal gold exploration.     

Heat flow in the Ozark Plateau, Arkansas and Missouri: relationship to groundwater flow

Heat flow values were calculated from direct measurements of temperature and thermal conductivity at thirteen sites in the Arkansas-Missouri Ozark Plateau region. These thirteen values are augmented by 101 estimates of heat flow, based on thermal conductivity measurements and temperature gradients extrapolated from bottom-hole temperatures. The regional heat flow profile ranges from 9 mW m⁻² to over 80 mW m⁻², but at least two distinct thermal regimes have been identified. Seven new heat flow determinations are combined with three previously published values for the St. Francois Mountains (SFM), a Precambrian exposure of granitic and rhyolitic basement rocks, average 47 mW m⁻². Radioactive heat production of 76 samples of the exposed rocks in the SFM averages 2.4 μW m⁻² and a typical continental basement contribution of 14 mW m⁻² is implied. Conversely, the sedimentary rock sequence of the plateau is characterized by an anomalously low heat flow, averaging approximately 27 mW m⁻². Groundwater transmissivity values that are based on data from 153 wells in deep regional aquifers demonstrate an inverse relationship to the observed heat flow patterns. The areas of high transmissivity that correspond to areas of low total heat flux suggest that the non-conservative vertical heat flow within the Ozark sedimentary sequence can be attributed to the effects of groundwater flow.     

The application of cellular automata to the erosion of landforms

Two approaches to modelling surface erosion are described which can be used to explain the development of geomorphological features. The first approach uses non-linear wave theory and shows how surface gradient discontinuities can arise as the erosion of an initially smooth surface proceeds. For isotropic erosion, surface shapes may be predicted by a simple application of the Huyghens wavefront construction and Snell's law at media boundaries. A second approach uses a computational cellular method. The general shapes predicted by the computer simulations are shown to agree with those determined from the wave approach. The application of the cellular method to problems of geomorphological interest are discussed.     

Rainfall estimation using raingages and radar — A Bayesian approach: 1. Derivation of estimators

Procedures for estimating rainfall from radar and raingage observations are constructed in a Bayesian framework. Given that the number of raingage measurements is typically very small, mean and variance of gage rainfall are treated as uncertain parameters. Under the assumption that log gage rainfall and log radar rainfall are jointly multivariate normal, the estimation problem is equivalent to lognormal co-kriging with uncertain mean and variance of the gage rainfall field.The posterior distribution is obtained under the assumption that the prior for the mean and inverse of the variance of log gage rainfall is normal-gamma 2. Estimate and estimation variance do not have closed-form expressions, but can be easily evaluated by numerically integrating two single integrals. To reduce computational burden associated with evaluating sufficient statistics for the likelihood function, an approximate form of parameter updating is given. Also, as a further approximation, the parameters are updated using raingage measurements only, yielding closed-form expressions for estimate and estimation variance in the Gaussian domain.With a reduction in the number of radar rainfall data in constructing covariance matrices, computational requirements for the estimation procedures are not significantly greater than those for simple co-kriging. Given their generality, the estimation procedures constructed in this work are considered to be applicable in various estimation problems involving an undersampled main variable and a densely sampled auxiliary variable.