Diffuse Emission of Hydrogen from Poás Volcano,Costa Rica,America Central

We report the results of four soil H₂ surveys carried out in 2000–2003 at Poás volcano, Costa Rica, to investigate the soil H₂ distribution and evaluate the diffuse H₂ emission as a potential surveillance tool for Poás volcano. Soil gas H₂ contents showed a wide range of concentration from 0.2 to 7,059 ppmV during the four surveys. Maps of soil gas H₂ based on Sequential Gaussian Simulation showed low H₂ concentration values in the soil atmosphere (<0.7 ppmV) for most of the study area, whereas high soil gas H₂ values were observed inside the active crater of Poás. A significant increase in soil gas H₂ concentration was observed inside the active crater during 2001 and 2002 with respect to year 2000, followed by a decrease in 2003. The observed spatial and temporal variations of soil H₂ concentration have been well correlated with seismicity, microgravimetry and fumarolic chemistry changes which occurred during this study. These observations evidence changes in the shallow magmatic-hydrothermal system of Poás, and it might be related to a potential magmatic intrusion during the period 1998–2004. Therefore, monitoring diffuse H₂ emission of Poás has become an important geochemical tool for the monitoring of its volcanic activity.     

Mitigation of asphaltics deposition during CO2 flood by enhancing CO2 solvency with chemical modifiers

CO₂ injected in the reservoir of McElroy Field, TX, for a CO₂ flood was in the supercritical state. Supercritical CO₂ fluid is capable of extracting light and intermediate hydrocarbons from rocks but is unable to extract heavy hydrocarbons and asphaltics. Therefore, plugging of asphaltics in reservoir rocks and a consequent reduction in injectivity and recovery may result when CO₂ only is used in enhanced oil recovery. By adding common solvents as chemical modifiers, the flooding fluid shows marked improvement in solvency for heavy components of crudes due to its increased density and polarity. Numerous supercritical CO₂ fluid extractions of dolomite rock from the Grayburg Formation containing known amount of spiked McElroy crude oil have been carried out to evaluate extraction efficiencies of CO₂ and CO₂ with chemical modifiers at various temperatures and pressures. All experiments show that extraction efficiency increases with increasing CO₂ pressure but decreases with increasing temperature. Addition of chemical modifiers to CO₂ also shows improved extraction efficiency and reduced asphaltic deposits. Under the pressure and temperature similar to McElroy reservoir conditions; chemically modified CO₂ yielded almost 3 times as much oil extracts as those in extractions with CO₂ only. It also reduced the asphaltics content in extracted rocks to nearly one half; indicating its potential for mitigating asphaltics plugging of formation rocks     

Escaping the Territorially Trapped East Asian Developmental State Thesis

Using a multiscalar approach, there has been a recent increase in geographic critiques of the East Asian developmental state thesis (DST). These critiques argue that the existing DST literature is epistemologically caught in a territorial trap. There has been less concern, however, about the methodology related to this research. In this article, I suggest that scholars consider not only the epistemological perspective but also the methodological dimension to effectively exploit the less territorially trapped DST research. Based on these analyses, this article emphasizes that interdisciplinary research using a multiscalar methodology and epistemology is required to better explain economic development in East Asia.     

A fixed full-matrix method for determining ice sheet height change from satellite altimeter: an ENVISAT case study in East Antarctica with backscatter analysis

A new method, called the fixed full-matrix method (FFM), is used to compute height changes at crossovers of satellite altimeter ground tracks. Using the ENVISAT data in East Antarctica, FFM results in crossovers of altimeter heights that are 1.9 and 79 times more than those from the fixed half method (FHM) and the one-row method (ORM). The mean standard error of height changes is about 14 cm from ORM, which is reduced to 7 cm by FHM and to 3 cm by FFM. Unlike FHM, FFM leads to uniform errors in the first-half and second-half height-change time series. FFM has the advantage in improving the accuracy of the change of height and backscattered power over ORM and FHM. Assisted by the ICESat-derived height changes, we determine the optimal threshold correlation coefficient (TCC) for a best correction for the backscatter effect on ENVISAT height changes. The TCC value of 0.92 yields an optimal result for FFM. With this value, FFM yields ENVISAT-derived height change rates in East Antarctica mostly falling between \(-3\) and 3 cm/year, and matching the ICESat result to 0.94 cm/year. The ENVISAT result will provide a constraint on the current mass balance result along the Chinese expedition route CHINARE.     

The impact of the risk environment and energy prices to the budget of Korean households

Energy is closely related to environmental risk. A rising fuel price in the 1970s had hurt consumers and caused disturbance to the natural environment. Households could not afford high imported energy prices and thus resorted to fuel wood. Land competed for fuel wood and agricultural crops, and thus high fuel prices strained the environment with respect to the use of land. If human health and safe housing were included in environmental risk, a high energy price would induce broader environmental risk. Households with limited income would not be able to use expensive fossil energy to warm their houses and would depend on only electric mats or blankets to keep warm. Such insufficient warming methods would not only threaten their health but would also worsen the condition of their houses. The abrupt increase in energy prices in 2007 and 2008 had significantly impacted environmental risk. It forced low income households to spend more on energy, leaving less for other expenditure segments, but had left high income households generally intact. This contrasting effect between different income groups had increased the sustainability of the energy risks at the high prices. This study shows how risks associated with the household economy have increased in response to the recent dramatic increases in energy prices. We develop a method for assessing risk by using the variance of ratios of energy expenditure to current income. We then examine how differently the economic change has increased risk across expenditure segments. We find energy expenditure as the biggest contributor to the risk. In addition, we illustrate how energy expenditure has changed the risk profile for each income group, with the first group (i.e., the lowest income group) experiencing the greatest increase. This group hurts the most during days of high energy prices.     

Fossil wood diversity gradient and Far-East Asia palaeoclimatology during the Late Triassic – Cretaceous interval

Mesozoic fossil floras are distributed over eastern Asia (China, Mongolia, Siberia, Korea and Japan) according to a regular latitudinal pattern. Two floras are usually distinguished, a northern type and a southern type, the distribution of which oscillated during the Mesozoic. In Japan, this regular pattern is disrupted by a sharp inflexion of the boundary between the two floras. Two competing hypotheses have been proposed to explain this disruption. One hypothesis advocates later tectonic motion clouding the original pattern, while the other hypothesis proposes that a warm oceanic current allowed the southern flora to grow much further north in coastal areas. We used fossil wood, a biotic component that has not previously been used, for a palaeobiogeographical study of the region. The observed fossil wood diversity at the generic level does not fit with the hypothesis of a warm oceanic current, unless this hypothesis is modified to include alternating warm northbound and cold southbound oceanic currents. Our results provide new evidence for the palaeoecology of the Mesozoic continental biota in Far-East Asia.     

Generation of hazard-consistent ground motion

This paper presents an integrated approach for evaluating seismic hazard and establishing ground motion at a site. In this approach, we combine the advantage of probabilistic and deterministic seismic hazard analyses and generate synthetic ground motion by considering the characteristics of seismic source, path attenuation, and local soil condition. Furthermore, uncertainties in seismic and soil parameters are taken into account. The proposed approach can be used to establish site-specific ground motion for engineering applications.     

Chandra observations of Tycho’s supernova remnant

We present a newChandra observation of Tycho’s supernova remnant with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer. Multicolor Xray imaging reveals new details of the outer shock and ejecta. At energies between 4 and 6 keV, the outline of the outer shock is clearly revealed in X-rays for the first time. The distribution of the emission from lines of Si and Fe are confirmed to have a different morphology from each other, and the Si ejecta are shown to extend to the blast shock at several locations. Characteristic spectra of the outer shock and ejecta are also presented.