Modelling biofilm growth in the presence of carbon dioxide and water flow in the subsurface

The concentration of greenhouse gases – particularly carbon dioxide (CO₂) – in the atmosphere has been on the rise in the past decades. One of the methods which have been proposed to help reduce anthropogenic CO₂ emissions is the capture of CO₂from large, stationary point sources and storage in deep geological formations. The caprock is an impermeable geological layer which prevents the leakage of stored CO₂, and its integrity is of utmost importance for storage security. Due to the high pressure build-up during injection, the caprock in the vicinity of the well is particularly at risk of fracturing. Biofilms could be used as biobarriers which help prevent the leakage of CO₂ through the caprock in injection well vicinity by blocking leakage pathways. The biofilm could also protect well cement from corrosion by CO₂-rich brine.     

Urban social vulnerability assessment with physical proxies and spatial metrics derived from air- and spaceborne imagery and GIS data

Risk management in urban planning is of increasing importance to mitigate the growing amount of damage and the increasing number of casualties caused by natural disasters. Risk assessment to support management requires knowledge about present and future hazards, elements at risk and different types of vulnerability. This article deals with the assessment of social vulnerability (SV). In the past this has frequently been neglected due to lack of data and assessment difficulties. Existing approaches for SV assessment, primarily based on community-based methods or on census data, have limited efficiency and transferability. In this article a new method based on contextual analysis of image and GIS data is presented. An approach based on proxy variables that were derived from high-resolution optical and laser scanning data was applied, in combination with elevation information and existing hazard data. Object-oriented image analysis was applied for the definition and estimation of those variables, focusing on SV indicators with physical characteristics. A reference Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) was created from census data available for the study area on a neighbourhood level and tested for parts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. For the evaluation of the proxy-variables, a stepwise regression model to select the best explanatory variables for changes in the SVI was applied. Eight out of 47 variables explained almost 60% of the variance, whereby the slope position and the proportion of built-up area in a neighbourhood were found to be the most valuable proxies. This work shows that contextual segmentation-based analysis of geospatial data can substantially aid in SV assessment and, when combined with field-based information, leads to optimization in terms of assessment frequency and cost.     

The role of S in the evolution of the parental cores of the iron meteorites

Most iron meteorites presumably formed from the cores of parent bodies having more or less chondritic bulk compositions. Consideration of the behavior of S during condensation and core formation indicates that these cores, at least in the case of groups having high or moderate volatile contents (IIAB, IIIAB), contained a substantial amount of S. When elemental fractionations observed in these iron meteorite groups are compared to model calculations of fractional crystallization it becomes evident that at least the IIAB parent melt, and very likely the IIIAB parent melt as well, did not contain the full S complement of the parent body. We consider three possible scenarios to account for the S depletion: (1) Outgassing of S during parent body differentiation; this was probably only possible if the parent body contained organic material, which is improbable for IIIAB. (2) Liquid immiscibility. Our fractional crystallization model would predict curved log Xvs. log Ni relationships in this case, which for many elements are not observed. (3) Formation of metastable liquid layers by episodic melting during core formation. This is based on the fact that the difference in melting temperature between a FeFeS eutectic and FeNi metals is ～500 K. Two melting episodes would tend to form distinct liquid layers that maintain their identities over the crystallization lifetime of the core.Solidification of the cores parental to the main iron meteorite groups should also produce a significant number of sulfide meteorites. The scarcity of sulfide-rich meteorites can be attributed to their lower mechanical resistance to space attrition, higher ablation during atmospheric passage, and faster weathering on earth.     

Predicting the Peak in World Oil Production

The US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently predicted that world oil production could continue to increase for more than three decades, based on the recent US Geological Survey (USGS) evaluation of world oil resources and a simple, transparent model. However, it can be shown that this model is not consistent with actual oil production records in many different regions, particularly that of the US, from which it was derived. A more careful application of the EIA model, using the same resource estimates, indicates that at best non-OPEC oil production can increase for less than two decades, and should begin to decline at the latest sometime between 2015 and 2020. OPEC at this point will completely control the world oil market and will need to meet increased demand as well as compensate for declining production of non-OPEC producers. OPEC could control the market even sooner than this, given its larger share of proven oil reserves, probable difficulties in transforming non-OPEC undiscovered reserves into proven reserves, and the converging interests of all oil producers as reserves are depleted. This has significant implications for the world economy and for US national security.     

Neue Anschauungen über die Rolle von Schichtfugen und Klüften in der karsthydrographischen Entwicklung

Zusammenfassung Über die Gebundenheit der Karsthydrographie an Klüfte oder Schichtfugen herrschen je nach den Sprachgebieten unterschiedliche Meinungen vor. Allgemein ging man jedoch an der Tatsache vorbei, daß das Wasser bei Druckfließen, also unter phreatischen Bedingungen, kein aggressives CO₂ mehr zur Verfügung hat und daher nicht korrodieren kann. Korrosion war daher nur für die vadose Zone erklärbar, und auch nur dann, wenn das Wasser den Gleichgewichtskalkgehalt von 60 bis 90 mg/Liter, je nach Höhenlage, nicht erreicht, was unter bedecktem Karst kaum jemals der Fall ist. Genaue Untersuchungen im 100 km langen Hölloch (Schweiz) (Bögli 1953, 1960, 1966, 1968) und an andern, vor allem französischen Höhlen (Chevalier 1944), ergeben, daß sich das unterirdische Gewässernetz zum größeren Teil anfänglich unter phreatischen Bedingungen entwickelt, was aber nur durch Mischungskorrosion (Bögli 1963 b, 1964 a, 1964 b) möglich ist, die nicht auf eine CO₂-Zufuhr von außen angewiesen ist. Durch Inkasion (Nachbruch, Einsturz), die an der primären Hohlraumbildung meist nicht beteiligte Kluftflächen herausarbeitet, wird die schichtgebundene Entstehung meist verdeckt, was zu falschen Folgerungen führt. In der vadosen Zone folgt das Wasser vorwiegend offenen Klüften oder einer undurchlässigen Schicht und fließt auf kürzestem Weg dem Karstwasserkörper zu.

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Up to now the connection between the hydrology of karst and joints on the one and bedding planes on the other hand is much discussed. But in every case the corrosion of limestone appeared impossible in the phreatic zone because free CO₂ is missing in waterfilled galleries. Intensive investigations in the 62.2 miles of galleries in the Hölloch (Switzerland,Bögli 1953, 1960, 1966, 1968) and in many other caves, in particular in France (Chevalier 1944), demonstrate that on the base of corrosion by mixed water the pattern of underground watercourses is predominantly formed under phreatic conditions in pressure flows and on bedding planes. This fact is frequently masked by incasion (roof fall, lat. incadere = to break down in a cavity) removing joints and fractures which have never participated on the primary forming of galleries. In the vadose zone the underground watercourses generally follow open joints and flow on the nearest way to the groundwater.

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Résumé Le rapport entre l'hydrographie karstique et soit les diaclases d'une part, soit les joints de stratification de l'autre est une question assez discutée, surtout en dehors de la France. Mais en tout cas on ne se rend normalement pas compte qu'en conduit forcé l'eau n'emporte pas du CO₂ aggressif plus loin que quelques mètres à l'intérieur de la terre, sauf dans les réseaux déjà assez élargis. L'élargissement demande alors d'une part des conditions vadoses, c'est-à-dire la présence de l'air avec du CO₂, de l'autre de l'eau qui n'a pas encore atteint la concentration d'équilibre de 60 à 90 mg CO₃Ca par litre selon l'altitude. Mais les recherches avancées dans les 100 km du Hölloch (Muotatal, Suisse,Bögli 1953, 1960, 1966, 1968) et dans maintes autres cavernes, surtout en France (Chevalier 1944), prouvent, que les réseaux souterrains se développent au contraire primairement en grandes parties dans la zone noyée en conduit forcé et sur des joints de stratification. Cela demande alors un autre type de corrosion, la corrosion par mélange des eaux qui ne dépend pas de l'adduction de CO₂ d'en dehors de l'eau (Bögli 1963 b, 1964 a, 1964 b). La naissance des galeries sur des joints de stratification est très souvent cachée par incasion (lat. incadere = s'effondrer dans une cavité) qui fait ressortir des diaclases et le clivage qui ne participent en rien à la naissance de la galerie souterraine, ce qui a provoqué des conclusions eronnées.

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Volcanism in the Sumisu Rift, I. Major element, volatile, and stable isotope geochemistry

A bimodal volcanic suite with KAr ages of 0.05–1.40 Ma was collected from the Sumisu Rift using alvin. These rocks are contemporaneous with island arc tholeiite lavas of the Izu-Ogasawara arc 20 km to the east, and provide a present day example of volcanism associated with arc rifting and back-arc basin initiation. Major element geochemistry of the basalts is most similar to that of basalts found in other, more mature back-arc basins, which indicates that back-arc basins need not begin their magmatic evolution with lavas bearing strong arc signatures.Volatile concentrations distinguish Sumisu Rift basalts from island arc basalts and MORB. H₂O contents, which are at least four times greater than in MORB, suppress plagioclase crystallization. This suppression results in a more mafic fractionating assemblage, which prevents Al₂O₃ depletion and delays the initiation of Fe₂O_3^(tot) and TiO₂ enrichment. However, unlike arc basalts,Fe^3+/ΣFe ratios are only slightly higher than in MORB and are insufficient to cause magnetite saturation early enough to suppress Fe₂O_3^(tot) and TiO₂ enrichment. Thus, major element trends are more similar to those of MORB than arcs.H₂O, CO₂ and S are undersaturated relative to pure phase solubility curves, indicating exsolution of an H₂O-rich mixed gas phase. HighH₂O/S, highδD, and low (MORB-like)δ³⁴S ratios are considered primary and distinctive of the back-arc basin setting.     

Anisotropy in the continental upper mantle: possible evidence from explosion seismology

Summary. Peculiarities of propagation in the upper mantle of western Europe are documented by profiles of stations recording body waves generated by explosions. Azimuthal variations of travel times and amplitudes of P waves and possible birefringence of S waves may be associated with an anisotropic layer at depths where the lithosphere-asthenosphere transition is supposed to be.     

Titan's surface and rotation: new results from Voyager 1 images

We present an analysis of images of Saturn's moon Titan, obtained by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on November 8-12, 1980. Orange filter (590-640 nm) images were photometrically corrected and a longitudinal average removed from them, leaving residual images with up to 5% contrast, and dominated by surface reflectivity. The resultant map shows the same regions observed at 673 nm by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Many of the same albedo features are present in both datasets, despite the short wavelength (600 nm) of the Voyager 1 images. A very small apparent longitudinal offset over the 14 year observation interval places tight constraints on Titan's rotation, which appears essentially synchronous at 15.9458±0.0016 days (orbital period =15.945421±0.000005 days). The detectability of the surface at such short wavelengths puts constraints on the optical depth, which may be overestimated by some fractal models.