Biodegradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Fractured, Unsaturated Dolomite at a Field Site

Gasoline constituents were detected in unsaturated soil and rock during abandonment of a leaky underground storage tank (UST). The unsaturated sequence beneath the former UST consists of 90 feet of silty till, fractured dolomite, and friable sand-stone. Pore gas probes were installed in each of the unsaturated units, both in the source area and in a background on-site location. Pore gas samples were collected to evaluate the nature, extent, and fate of residual hydrocarbons in the vadose zone. Pore gas from the till and dolomite in the source area was enriched in petroleum hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide, and was depleted in oxygen, relative to pore gas from the background area. During two years of ground water monitoring at the site, methyl tertiary butyl ether was periodically detected in the ground water beneath the source area as pulses of recharge passed through the unsaturated zone, but no other gasoline constituents were detected. Apparently, the most degradable fraction of the gasoline (aromatic hydrocarbons) is being attenuated in the vadose zone before the water table is reached.     

Seismic Source Characteristics of Nuclear Explosions in Water-filled Cavities

—?During the period from 1975 to 1979, the former Soviet Union conducted a series a six nuclear explosions in a water-filled cavity in salt which was created in 1968 by a tamped 27?kt explosion at a depth of 597?m at the Azgir test site at the north end of the Caspian Sea. Broadband, near-regional seismic data recorded from these tests have been processed and analyzed in an attempt to characterize the seismic source characteristics of these explosions and assess their relevance to the cavity decoupling evasion scenario. The results of these analyses indicate that the explosions in the water-filled cavity were not decoupled, but rather show evidence of enhanced seismic coupling with respect to that which would be expected from tamped explosions of the same yields in salt. Theoretical finite difference simulations of these tests have been conducted in which the complex, nonlinear interactions between the shock effects in both the water and surrounding salt medium have been explicitly modeled. The results of these simulations indicate that the most prominent yield dependent features of the observed seismic source functions can be largely explained by the dynamic interactions between the expanding and contracting steam bubbles generated by the explosions in water and the shock-wave reflections from the cavity wall. More specifically, it has been found that the shock-wave reflection from the cavity wall retards the expansion of the steam bubble in a yield dependent fashion relative to that expected in the open ocean, resulting in a smaller maximum bubble radius and a shorter bubble oscillation period.     

Collaborative Visioning or Urban Planning as Therapy? The Politics of Public‐Private Policy Making

One aspect of a recent restructuring of urban economies, societies, and spaces has been a change in urban planning practice. Planning is increasingly privatized and decentralized in U.S. cities. Private planning consultants are often hired by public‐private coalitions in order to shape the future of cities, while the planning processes they institute are frequently claimed to be consensus‐based, collaborative, and inclusionary, rather than elite‐centered and expert‐driven. This paper discusses the use of “visioning”—an increasingly popular technique that develops goals for the future of a city through consensus‐based meetings, open to all parties—as developed by New Century Lexington, a public‐private planning initiative in Lexington, Kentucky. It argues that: (1) new public‐private planning procedures, incorporating collaborative techniques, frequently become the institutional sites of political struggle over how future urban geographies are produced; (2) in order to understand the role of visioning in contemporary urban politics and in policy making outcomes, we must recognize the sociospatial context in which it is deployed; and (3) in the case of New Century, the way in which local elites controlled the mechanics of the visioning process made dissent difficult and, therefore, produced a vision of the future largely parallel to their standard economic development models.     

Dynamic processes occurring at the Craq-manganite (γ-MnOOH) interface: simultaneous adsorption, microprecipitation, oxidation/reduction, and dissolution

The complex interaction between Cr^III_aq and manganite (γ-MnOOH) was systematically studied at room temperature over a pH range of 3 to 6, and within a concentration range of 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻² M CrOH²⁺_aq. Solution compositional changes during batch reactions were characterized by inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry. The manganites were characterized before and after reaction with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution field-emission SEM, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy analysis. Fluid-cell atomic force microscopy was used to follow these metal-mineral interactions in situ. The reactions are characterized by (1) sorption of Cr^III and the surface-catalyzed microprecipitation of Cr^III-hydroxy hydrate on manganite surfaces, (2) the acidic dissolution of the manganite, and (3) the simultaneous reductive dissolution of manganite coupled with the oxidation of Cr^III_aq to highly toxic Cr^VI_aq. Cr^III-hydroxy hydrate was shown to precipitate on the manganite surface while still undersaturated in bulk solution. The rate of manganite dissolution increased with decreasing pH due both to acid-promoted and Mn-reduction-promoted dissolution. Cr oxidation also increased in the lower pH range, this as a result of its direct redox coupling with Mn reduction. Neither Mn^II nor Cr^VI were ever detected on manganite surfaces, even at the maximum rate of their generation. At the highest pHs of this study, Cr^III_aq was effectively removed from solution to form Cr^III-hydroxy hydrate on manganite surfaces and in the bulk solution, and manganite dissolution and Cr^VI_aq generation were minimized. All interface reactions described above were heterogeneous across the manganite surfaces. This heterogeneity is a direct result of the heterogeneous semiconducting nature of natural manganite crystals and is also an expression of the proximity effect, whereby redox processes on semiconducting surfaces are not limited to next nearest neighbor sites.     

A Sample-Freezing Drive Shoe for a Wire Line Piston Core Sampler

Loss of fluids and samples during retrieval of cores of saturated, noncohesive sediments results in incorrect measures of fluid distributions and an inaccurate measure of the stratigraphic position of the sample. To reduce these errors, we developed a hollow drive shoe that freezes in place the lowest 3 inches (75 mm) of a 1.88-inch-diameter (48 mm), 5-foot-long (1.5 m) sediment sample taken using a commercial wire line piston core smapler. The end of the core is frozen by piping liquid carbon dioxide at ambient temperature through a steel tube from a bottle at the land surface to the drive shoe where it evaporates and expands, cooling the interior surface of the shoe to about - 109°F (- 78°C). Freezing a core end takes about 10 minutes. The device was used to collect samples for a study of oil-water-air distributions, and for studies of water chemistry and microbial activity in unconsolidated sediments at the site of an oil spill near Bemidji, Minnesota. Before freezing was employed, samples of sandy sediments from near the water table sometimes flowed out of the core barrel as the sampler was withdrawn. Freezing the bottom of the core allowed for the retention of all material that entered the core barrel and lessened the redistribution of fluids within the core. The device is useful in the unsaturated and shallow saturated zones, but does not freeze cores well at depths greater than about 20 feet (6 m) below water, possibly because the feed tube plugs with dry ice with increased exhaust back-pressure, or because sediment enters the annulus between the core barrel and the core barrel liner and blocks the exhaust.     

Chemical analyses of ten stony meteorites

A group of stony meteorites, mainly unequilibrated chondrites ( and , 1965), has been analysed chemically. The chemical analyses of ten meteorites are given in this paper. Detailed studies of the petrology and mineralogy of these meteorites are in progress.     

Posidonia oceanica re-implantation technology of the marine gardeners is now operational on a large scale

Posidonia oceanica meadows form the most representative community of the Mediterranean shores. However, Posidonia oceanica meadows are fragile and in a bad way because of pollution and other nuisances. In several areas, Posidonia meadows have been replaced with vast deserts of dead ‘mattes’ or sand and mud.We owe to Cooper, now dead, the idea of using derelicts of Posidonia to regenerate the meadows in the areas where the aggressive factors were eliminated. For that purpose he perfected a kind of concrete frame called ‘constraint’ which offers optimal conditions for these cuttings to take root.So a study of scientific evaluation of Cooper's method has been undertaken in an experimental field of about 10 000 m² in the bay of Cannes. The ‘constraints’ were implanted over a period of 10 years, which gives particularly favourable conditions for studying their development. The work consisted of quantifying the vitality and the capacity of development of these cuttings with the help of classical tests such as the number of foliar bundles by surface unit, the biomass, the productivity, the number of running rhizomes and the surface of conquered ground. The results prove the effectiveness of the method which is now operational on a large scale.We can now foresee and hope for a reconquest of the ruined bottoms, provided of course we first remove the causes of the disappearance of the natural meadows of Posidonia oceanica.     

Glacial morphology and post-glacial contourites in northern Prince Gustav Channel (NW Weddell Sea,Antarctica)

We present the results of a marine geophysical investigation of the northern Prince Gustav Channel. By comparative analysis of multibeam bathymetric data, single channel seismic reflection profiles, underway chirp sonar data, ADCP current data and sediment coring, we define the main morphological elements of the area. In particular we define the glacial morphogenesis in relation to the excavation of inner shelf basins and troughs along structural discontinuities and lithologic boundaries. We identify streamlined surfaces that testify to the grounding of ice and past ice flow directions. These glacial forms are found only on glacial tills preserved in the deepest part of the basins, while net erosion to bedrock has occurred elsewhere. Since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the relict glacial morphology has been draped by hemipelagic and diatomaceous mud, and bottom currents have played a major role in focusing sedimentation within small depocentres, that we define as contouritic drifts. Based on shallow sediment architecture and supported by direct measurements, we propose that the direction of bottom water flow is from the outer shelf into the Prince Gustav channel as a result of a combination of tidal currents and ice shelf-related thermohaline circulation.     

Spatial variations in the Jovian 20-micrometer flux

The 17–28 μm brightness temperature of the center of the disk of Jupiter is 136 ± 4 K. Model calculations yield an effective temperature of 142 ± 4 K at the center of the disk for a helium to hydrogen ratio He/H₂ of 0. This corresponds to an effective temperature of the entire disk of 136 ± 5 K. The NEB, SEB, and STeB are shown to emit an excess flux at 20 μm when compared to the neighboring zones. The hot belts were grey in color at the time of the observations and were the source of excess 5-μm flux as well (Keay et al. 1973). The relationships between 5-μm and 20-μm flux excesses and the cloud structures are discussed.     

Discovery of asteroid 1976 AA

Asteroid 1976 AA was discovered as a result of a continuing systematic search for planet-crossing asteroids. It is the first asteroid to be thoroughly investigated by means of photometry and radiometry on its discovery apparition. It is also the first asteroid found with a semimajor axis and period less than that of the Earth and the first Earth-crossing asteroid which does not cross the orbit of either Mars or Venus. We estimate that there might be several tens of objects to absolute magnitude 18, which are exclusively Earth crossing. Some of these objects might be exceptionally easy to reach by spacecraft.