Heat capacity studies of phase transitions in langbeinites II. K2Mg2(SO4)3

Heat capacity measurements have been made on a synthetic sample of langbeinite, K₂Mg₂(SO₄)₃, from 13 to 342 K in an adiabatic calorimeter. Three phase transitions, at 51.0, 54.9 and 63.8 K, have been observed in this material. Our study is the first to report the existence of such phase transitions in K₂Mg₂(S0₄)₃ and disputes predictions that none would take place below 77 K. Two models which have been proposed to explain the transition in potassium langbeinites are discussed in light of these results.     

Chemical treatments for mobilizing arsenic from contaminated aquifer solids to accelerate remediation

Arsenic is a prevalent contaminant at US Superfund sites where remediation by pump and treat systems is often complicated by slow desorption of As from Fe and Al (hydr)oxides in aquifer solids. Chemical amendments that either compete with As for sorption sites or dissolve Fe and Al (hydr)oxides can increase As mobility and improve pump and treat remediation efficiency. The goal of this work was to determine optimal amendments for improving pump and treat at As contaminated sites such as the Vineland Chemical Co. Superfund site in southern New Jersey. Extraction and column experiments were performed using As contaminated aquifer solids (81 ± 1 mg/kg), site groundwater, and either phosphate (NaH₂PO₄·H₂O) or oxalic acid (C₂H₂O₄·2H₂O). In extraction experiments, phosphate mobilized between 11% and 94% of As from the aquifer solids depending on phosphate concentration and extraction time (1 mM–1 M; 1–24 h) and oxalic acid mobilized between 38% and 102% depending on oxalic acid concentration and extraction time (1–400 mM; 1–24 h). In column experiments, phosphate additions induced more As mobilization in the first few pore volumes but oxalic acid was more effective at mobilizing As overall and at lower amendment concentrations. At the end of the laboratory column experiments, 48% of As had been mobilized from the aquifer sediments with 100 mM phosphate and 88% had been mobilized with 10 mM oxalic acid compared with 5% with ambient groundwater alone. Furthermore, simple extrapolations based on pore volumes suggest that chemical treatments could lower the time necessary for clean up at the Vineland site from 600 a with ambient groundwater alone to potentially as little as 4 a with 10 mM oxalic acid.     

The Table Rocks Sandstone: A fluvial, friction-dominated lobate mouth bar sandbody in the Westphalian B Coal Measures, NE England

Westphalian B (Duckmantian) alluvial Coal Measures along the Northumberland coast, NE England, comprise coal-capped coarsening-upward crevasse-splay sequences of shale, siltstone and sandstone, interbedded with a number of major distributary channel sandbodies, including the Table Rocks Sandstone. Lithofacies, architectural analysis and outcrop geometries divide the Table Rocks Sandstone into flaggy sandstone, massive sandstone, heterolithic, and mudstone facies associations, each comprising up to 7 lithofacies types. The three sandy facies associations are characterised by lenticular bed geometries on different scales producing a hierarchy of lensoid packages and associated bounding surfaces, all showing typical offset stacking patterns: (1) lenses, represent individual lenticular cross-bed sets, bounded by 1st order surfaces; (2) packages of lenses, called lens clusters are bounded by 2nd order surfaces, and are the basic architectural building block of the sandy facies associations; and (3) vertically stacked lens clusters called amalgamated lens clusters, bounded by 3rd order surfaces. The Table Rocks sandbody has a laterally extensive, irregular, lobate subsurface plan geometry, it displays a radial palaeocurrent pattern with 180° dispersion, and it forms part of a 14-m thick coarsening-upward regressive sequence. It is interpreted as a composite, lobate crevasse-splay delta system that prograded into a shallow interdistributary fresh to brackish water lake up to 14 m deep. The shallow lake water, fluvial input, and extensive development of traction structures such as cross-bedding and ripple cross-lamination suggests a friction-dominated delta, in which the four facies associations can be interpreted in terms of discrete elements of the mouth bar environment. The flaggy sandstone facies association represents the main, axial part of the mouth bar system, the erosively based massive sandstone facies association major subaqeous distributary channels, the lithologically more variable heterolithic facies association the medial mouth bar, and the mudstone facies association the distal mouth bar fringe and prodelta. Within this environmental setting amalgamated lens clusters are interpreted as small, discrete mouth bar sand lobes, whose offset, imbricate stacking pattern reflects channel spacing and bifurcation, the rate of channel shifting, or shallow depths and lack of accommodation space. Thus, lens clusters are interpreted as discrete growth elements of the mouth bar sand lobes, and lenses as individual bedforms making up these growth elements. Because of the high rate of channel shifting, lack of extensive erosion of the mouth bar lobes, and deposition of low discharge fines, the lobes retained much of their original depositional geometry, thereby providing advantageous gradients for offset deposition and stacking of adjacent sand lobes. Although the delta complex was maintained by frequent crevassing from the feeder channel, and by subsidence due to contemporaneous compaction and/or local tectonism, it was deeply incised on two occasions by subaqeous channels in response to high magnitude floods or falling lake level.     

Superposed lateral ramps in the Pell City thrust sheet, Appalachian thrust belt, Alabama

In the Appalachian thrust belt in Alabama, thrust sheets of Paleozoic strata generally strike northeastward and are imbricated northwestward; four transverse zones cross the regional strike of the thrust belt. The large-scale Pell City thrust sheet ends southwestward at an oblique lateral ramp within the Harpersville transverse zone, where the leading edge of the thrust sheet (the Pell City fault) curves abruptly 55° counterclockwise. The northwest-striking segment of the Pell City fault conforms to the geometry of an oblique lateral ramp in the footwall. Furthermore, the Pell City fault cuts up section in the hanging wall southwestward toward the transverse zone, indicating a hanging-wall lateral ramp emplaced over the footwall oblique lateral ramp.In the hanging wall adjacent to the northwest-trending segment of the Pell City fault, a pervasive train of upright, isoclinal folds (with 50% apparent shortening) trends N15°W, oblique to the regional translation direction. The fold train is limited to the southwestern part of the Pell City thrust sheet; farther northeast, the regional northeasterly strike prevails. The isoclinal folds in the hanging wall indicate contractional crowding perpendicular to the footwall oblique lateral ramp.     

Global correlation of the Vazante Group, São Francisco Basin, Brazil: Re–Os and U–Pb radiometric age constraints

The Vazante Group consists of Precambrian carbonate-dominated platform deposits that extend along more than 300 km in the external zone of the Brasilia Fold Belt of the São Francisco Basin in east central Brazil. The sequence is about 4.8 km thick and contains a preserved glaciomarine diamictite unit (containing dropstone) at the top and a lower diamictite unit at the bottom. Previous C- and Sr-isotope profiles suggested the correlation of the upper diamictite unit with the “Sturtian” glacial event (ca. 750–643 Ma). However, new Re–Os isotope data from the shales associated with the upper diamictites yield radiometric age estimates between 993 ± 46 and 1100 ± 77 Ma. U–Pb measurements on a suite of clear euhedral zircon crystals that were separated from the same shales associated with the upper diamictite and from the arkosic sandstone above the lower diamictite yield ages as young as 988 ± 15 and 1000 ± 25 Ma, respectively. Based on the Re–Os and U–Pb ages, the best age estimate of the Vazante Group is constrained to be 1000–1100 Ma and thus the two diamictite units are not correlative with the Sturtian glaciation(s) but most likely are records of glacial events that occurred during the late Mesoproterozoic.     

Assessment of lightning-related fatality and injury risk in Canada

This article summarizes research completed to assess the risk of lightning-related injuries and fatalities in Canada. Although lightning mortality has declined significantly over the past century, it remains a common meteorological hazard that regularly kills and injures. Based on an analysis of media reports, vital statistics, hospital admission and emergency room visit records, and fire loss data, the authors estimate that on average about 9–10 lightning-related deaths and 92–164 injuries occur each year in Canada. The distribution of casualties reflects current provincial population and cloud-to-ground lightning densities. Consistent with similar studies in other developed nations, most lightning-related fatalities and injuries in Canada occur during the June-August summer season, coincident with peak lightning, and during the Thursday-Saturday period, most likely related to higher rates of participation in outdoor activities. The majority of victims are male, less than 46 years old, and engaged in outdoor recreational activities when injured or killed in a lightning incident. Media reports used in the study were found to underestimate both lightning mortality (36%) and morbidity (20–600%).

Across the pond: container shipping on the North Atlantic in the era of globalisation

This paper describes the development of containerisation in one of the most important theatres of maritime trade, the North Atlantic. As the original hearth of containerisation, it has been an area of experimentation and evolution for a technology that has burst around the world. Although over the last decade the Atlantic has been superceded by the Pacific Ocean as the major market focus for containers, it still is an important market arena. The emergence of global shipping networks is tending to favour the Atlantic once again. The paper provides an analysis of these recent developments. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Comparison of theory and experiment for solute transport in weakly heterogeneous bimodal porous media

In this work, the influence of non-equilibrium effects on solute transport in a weakly heterogeneous medium is discussed. Three macro-scale models (upscaled via the volume averaging technique) are investigated: (i) the two-equation non-equilibrium model, (ii) the one-equation asymptotic model and (iii) the one-equation local equilibrium model. The relevance of each of these models to the experimental system conditions (duration of the pulse injection, dispersivity values…) is analyzed. The numerical results predicted by these macroscale models are compared directly with the experimental data (breakthrough curves). Our results suggest that the preasymptotic zone (for which a non-Fickian model is required) increases as the solute input pulse time decreases. Beyond this limit, the asymptotic regime is recovered. A comparison with the results issued from the stochastic theory for this regime is performed. Results predicted by both approaches (volume averaging method and stochastic analysis) are found to be consistent.     

Controls on at‐a‐station hydraulic geometry in steep headwater streams,Colorado, USA

Detailed hydraulic measurements were made in nine step‐pool, five cascade and one plane‐bed reach in Fraser Experimental Forest, Colorado to better understand at‐a‐station hydraulic geometry (AHG) relations in these channel types. Average values for AHG exponents, m (0·49), f (0·39), and b (0·16), were well within the range found by other researchers working in steep gradient channels. A principal component analysis (PCA) was used to compare the combined variations in all three exponents against five potential control variables: wood, D₈₄, grain‐size distribution (σ), coefficient of variation of pool volume, average roughness‐area (projected wetted area) and bed gradient. The gradient and average roughness‐area were found to be significantly related to the PCA axis scores, indicating that both driving and resisting forces influence the rates of change of velocity, depth and width with discharge. Further analysis of the exponents showed that reaches with m > b + f are most likely dominated by grain resistance and reaches below this value (m < b + f) are dominated by form resistance. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.