Nannostructure and significance of fish coprolites in phosphorites

Phosphatic coprolites (0.5–2 cm long) occurring in Cretaceous-Eocene phosphorites of Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, and Egypt were investigated for their petrology by using SEM. They exhibit a homogeneous porous apatite structure with a few fish remains. The nannostructures of the coprolites consist of inframicron-sized and botryoid-type apatite microparticles. Spherical cavities and cavity-infill cavity-infilled inframicron-sized apatite globules are typical in the coprolites and are apparently formed by extracellular precipitation of phosphate around microbial organisms. We presume that the coprolites studied here may belong to fishes, whose excrements contain abundant organic matter and phosphate. Phosphatization of excrements appears to be a microbial process controlled by the microenvironment.

The nannostructures observed in the coprolites investigated here differ significantly from the nannostructures of other studied phosphatic grains (pellets and coated grains) in the same samples which are mostly heterogeneous and consist of ovoid-type apatite particles. In the case they are not reworked, the centimetre to decimetre thick coprolite beds in phosphorites indicate a lack of detrital input and strong bottom water currents at the sediment-water interface during deposition and subsequent phosphatization of the excrements.     

Analytical treatment of the two-body problem with slowly varying mass

The present work is concerned with the two-body problem with varying mass in case of isotropic mass loss from both components of the binary systems. The law of mass variation used gives rise to a perturbed Keplerian problem depending on two small parameters. The problem is treated analytically in the Hamiltonian frame-work and the equations of motion are integrated using the Lie series developed and applied, separately by Delva (1984) and Hanslmeier (1984). A second order theory of the two bodies eject mass is constructed, returning the terms of the rate of change of mass up to second order in the small parameters of the problem.     

Comparison of Satellite Altimetric Gravity and Global Geopotential Models with Shipborne Gravity in the Red Sea

The determination of high-resolution geoid for marine regions requires the integration of gravity data provided by different sources, e.g. global geopotential models, satellite altimetry, and shipborne gravimetric observations. Shipborne gravity data, acquired over a long time, comprises the short-wavelengths gravitation signal. This paper aims to produce a consistent gravity field over the Red Sea region to be used for geoid modelling. Both, the leave-one-out cross-validation and Kriging prediction techniques were chosen to ensure that the observed shipborne gravity data are consistent as well as free of gross-errors. A confidence level equivalent to 95.4% was decided to filter the observed shipborne data, while the cross-validation algorithm was repeatedly applied until the standard deviation of the residuals between the observed and estimated values are less than 1.5 mGal, which led to the elimination of about 17.7% of the shipborne gravity dataset. A comparison between the shipborne gravity data with DTU13 and SSv23.1 satellite altimetry-derived gravity models is done and reported. The corresponding results revealed that altimetry models almost have identical data content when compared one another, where the DTU13 gave better results with a mean and standard deviation of ?2.40 and 8.71 mGal, respectively. A statistical comparison has been made between different global geopotential models (GGMs) and shipborne gravity data. The Spectral Enhancement Method was applied to overcome the existing spectral gap between the GGMs and shipborne gravity data. EGM2008 manifested the best results with differences characterised with a mean of 1.35 mGal and a standard deviation of 11.11 mGal. Finally, the least-squares collocation (LSC) was implemented to combine the shipborne gravity data with DTU13 in order to create a unique and consistent gravity field over the Red Sea with no data voids. The combined data were independently tested using a total number of 95 randomly chosen shipborne gravity stations. The comparison between the extracted shipborne gravity data and DTU13 altimetry anomalies before and after applying the LSC revealed that a significant improvement is procurable from the combined dataset, in which the mean and standard deviation of the differences dropped from ?3.60 and 9.31 mGal to ?0.39 and 2.04 mGal, respectively.     

Mechanisms Controlling the Undrained Strength Behavior of Remolded Ariake Marine Clays

The soft clay of Ariake Bay, in western Kyushu, Japan covers several hundred square kilometers. Ariake clay consists of the principal clay minerals namely smectite, illite, kaolinite and vermiculite, and other minerals in lesser quantity. The percentage of the principal clay mineral can vary significantly. The percent clay size fraction and the salt concentration can also vary significantly. In view of the importance of undrained shear strength in geotechnical engineering practice, its behavior has been studied with respect to variation in salt concentration. Basically two mechanisms control the undrained strength in clays, namely (a) cohesion or undrained strength is due to the net interparticle attractive forces, or (b) cohesion is due to the viscous nature of the double layer water. Concept (a) operates primarily for kaolinitic soil, and concept (b) dominates primarily for montmorillonitic soils. In Ariake clay, different clay minerals with different exchangeable cations and varying ion concentration in the pore water and varying nonclay size fraction are present. In view of this while both concepts (a) and (b) can coexist and operate simultaneously, one of the mechanisms dominates. For Isahaya clay, concept (a), factors responsible for an increase in level of flocculation and attractive forces result in higher undrained strength. Increase in salt concentration increases the remolded undrained strength at any moisture content. For Kubota and Kawazoe clays, concept (b) factors responsible for an expansion of diffuse double layer thickness, resulting in higher viscous resistance, increase the undrained shear strength, that is, as concentration decreases, the undrained strength increases at any moisture content. The liquid limit of Isahaya clay increases with increase in ion concentration and a marginal decrease is seen for both Kubota and Kawazoe clays, and their behavior has been explained satisfactorily.     

Undrained Monotonic Response and Instability of Medium-Dense Sandy Soil

A series of undrained monotonic triaxial compression tests were performed on natural, medium-dense (relative density (RD) = 50%) Chlef sand containing 0.5% of non-plastic fines, under different confining pressures of 50 kPa, 100 kPa, and 200 kPa. This article focuses on distinctive states of the monotonic undrained response of sands, namely the critical state, the phase transformation state, the quasi-steady state, and the state of undrained instability (onset of flow liquefaction). Specimens were prepared using dry funnel pluviation and wet deposition to investigate the effect of the initial sand fabric on these states. The present data suggest that the initial fabric of the sand appears to have a significant effect on the undrained behavior in the early stages of shearing, with its influence vanishing at large strains. Wet deposition specimens demonstrate considerably larger undrained instability state strength than their dry funnel pluviation counterparts, and a unique critical state locus is reached by both dry funnel pluviation and wet deposition.     

Simulation of free surface flow around a VLCC hull using viscous and potential flow methods

Numerical simulations have been carried out to determine the incompressible free surface flow around a VLCC hull form for which experimental results are available. A commercial viscous flow finite volume code using the two-phase Eulerian–Eulerian fluid approach and a potential flow code based on the Rankine source method have been used in this study. The simulation conditions are the ones for which experimental results exist. The shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model has been used in the viscous flow code. A tetrahedral unstructured grid was used with the viscous flow code for meshing the computational domain, while quadrilateral structural patches were used with the potential flow code for meshing the VLCC hull surface and the water surface around it. The results compare well with the available experimental data and they allow an understanding of the differences that can be expected from viscous and potential flow methods as a result of their different mathematical formulations, which make their complementary application useful for determining the total ship resistance.     

Managing excess capacity in small-scale fisheries: Perspectives from stakeholders in three Southeast Asian countries

The management of fishing capacity—in both inland and marine fisheries—is a major policy concern in most countries in Southeast Asia. Excess capacity leads to a number of negative impacts, such as resource use conflicts, overfishing, environmental degradation, economic wastage, and security threats. This paper presents the results of a regional study that examined various approaches to managing excess fishing capacity in small-scale fisheries in Southeast Asia. More specifically, the paper presents an analysis of perceptions of stakeholders in Cambodia, Philippines and Thailand regarding preferred solutions to addressing excess capacity. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy guidance for addressing excess fishing capacity based on the stakeholder-preferred solutions.     

Characterization of some bacterial strains isolated from the Egyptian eastern and northern coastlines with antimicrobial activity of Bacillus zhangzhouensis OMER4

Marine microorganisms were considered to be important sources of marine bioactive compounds. The major objective of the study was to isolate and characterize bacteria with antimicrobial activities from the various marine environment of Egypt. In this respect, thirty-five bacterial isolates were recovered from sediment samples collected from different spots along the Egyptian Red Sea coastline and Alexandria coastline during the summer season of 2017 and 2018. According to the morphological, phys...     

Spatial and temporal variation of rainwater stable isotopes in Egypt and the east Mediterranean

Summary ?By analyzing normalized variables, it was found that the latitudinal secular variations of the rainwater deuterium fractionation ratio δ²H, oxygen fractionation ratio δ¹⁸O, vapor pressure, and surface temperature were almost non-linear, occurred in parallel, and decreased with latitude. The rate of depletion around the equator is asymmetric and smaller to the south of 45° S than to the north of 45° N. In the east Mediterranean, the rate of change of δ¹⁸O with height was found to be −.2‰ per 100 m and that of δ²H is comparable with the dry lapse rate in the atmosphere. Analysis of the annual time series of δ²H at Alexandria has indicated that variations show sinusoidal waveform with a major cycle of two years that accounts for 68% of the total variance. Although the quasi-biannual cycle in the atmosphere has small amplitude in the lower layers of the atmosphere at East Mediterranean latitudes, the major cycle in annual series of δ²H or δ¹⁸O may be linked to the quasi-biannual oscillation in the atmosphere. It was also found that the first three Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) account for 72% of the seasonal variation of δ²H and share 68% of the seasonal variation of δ¹⁸O. Share of variances of monthly EOF in the months of the year indicate that the main underlying factors that cause fractionation processes for δ²H and δ¹⁸O are similar across the east Mediterranean especially in late winter and early spring. Received May 13, 2002; revised July 8, 2002; accepted August 6, 2002     

Perceived and actual risks of drought: household and expert views from the lower Teesta River Basin of northern Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - Disaster risk perception and risk appraisal are essential in formulating an appropriate disaster risk reduction policy. This study examines the actual vs perceived drought risks...