An assessment of miniaturised electrical imaging equipment to monitor pollution plume evolution in scaled centrifuge modelling

This paper demonstrates the capabilities and limitations of a miniaturised electrical imaging technique (resistivity tomography) developed at Cardiff University to image contaminant plumes in scaled centrifuge models of the vadose zone. For this purpose a generic model of contaminant infiltration into unsaturated sand was designed. The imaging technique produces two-dimensional contoured plots of the resistivity distribution before and during contaminant infiltration experiments. During the experiments, dyed NaCl solution was released into the model and the change in resistivity associated with the contaminant plume evolution was imaged as a function of time and g-level. Capillary pressure was monitored constantly by matrix potential probes (tensiometers) in order to investigate the effect of capillary forces on plume evolution. Tests at 1g (static conditions) and 10g are described in this paper. Comparison of resulting two-dimensional tomography with observed plume geometry at the end of the 1g test showed this imaging technique to be highly effective.

Contaminant plume evolution in the unsaturated sand model was observed to be mainly gravity-driven, with plume migration and geometry being strongly affected by a tenfold increase in gravity in the centrifuge experiment. It is concluded that miniaturised electrical imaging can be a useful tool for monitoring pollution plume evolution during centrifuge tests, but when plume evolution is rapid, the time taken to interrogate each array restricts the effectiveness of the technique in monitoring changes in plume geometry. However, in such cases, resistivity tomography does provide valuable information on residual levels of contaminant fluid retained within the soil after passage of the plume.     

北喜马拉雅淡色花岗岩地球化学: 区域对比、岩石成因及其构造意义

北喜马拉雅出露一系列片麻岩穹窿,这些穹窿被形成于27.5～10Ma的淡色花岗岩侵入.淡色花岗岩的岩石类型为二云母花岗岩,它们的主量元素组成为SiO2=70.97%～74.54%、K2O+Na2O=6.27%～8.09%、K2O/Na2O=0.91～1.36及A/CNK=1.10～1.33.然而,它们在微量元素组成上呈现出较大的变化:Rb=(41～322)×10-6、Sr=(26～139)×10-6、Ba=(135～594)×10-6、(La/Yb)N=0.97～17.31、Eu/Eu=0.29～0.72.北喜马拉雅淡色花岗岩的主量元素和微量元素组成特征类似于高喜马拉雅中新世的二云母花岗岩,而在Ti、Mg、Ca、Ba含量和Rb/Sr比值上明显不同于高喜马拉雅中新世的电气石-白云母花岗岩.北喜马拉雅淡色花岗岩(87Sr/86Sr)t=0.7344～0.8503(t=10Ma),εNd(10Ma)=-12.5～-19.3,与高喜马拉雅淡色花岗岩无明显差异.在岩石成因上,北喜马拉雅和高喜马拉雅中新世淡色花岗岩均起因于构造减压作用,由此导致白云母发生脱水反应诱发高喜马拉雅结晶岩系的深熔.但北喜马拉雅淡色花岗岩形成的地质背景明显不同于高喜马拉雅淡色花岗岩,前者具有较长的时间跨度,开始形成于喜马拉雅渐新世的地壳增厚期,之后形成于中新世穹窿片麻岩的折返时期,而高喜马拉雅淡色花岗岩与中新世高喜马拉雅结晶岩系的构造挤出作用有关.因此,北喜马拉雅和高喜马拉雅淡色     

Elemental concentrations and their distribution in two bituminous coals of different paleoenvironments

The vertical distributions of major and minor elements in two high-volatile bituminous coals of Eastern Tennessee are compared. The coals studied are the Pewee, deposited in a fresh-water environment, and the Upper Grassy Spring, previously thought to be influenced by a late incursion of marine water.X-ray fluorescence analyses were performed on a continuous series of specimens obtained from full-face channel samples representing the entire thickness of each seam. Correlation coefficients (r) for all element pairs show high positive correlations for element pairs normally associated with clay minerals. Equally good correlations were observed for (Si, Ti) and (Al, Ti), suggesting that titanium is associated with clay minerals in both coals. Strontium and phosphorous showed a high positive r factor for both the Upper Grassy Spring and the Pewee.Major differences were found to exist in the concentrations and distributions of sulfur, iron, and arsenic in the Upper Grassy Spring and Pewee seams. The Upper Grassy Spring contains an order of magnitude more sulfur than the Pewee as well as several times as much iron and arsenic. The element concentrations and especially their distributions in the Upper Grassy Spring suggest an earlier time for the marine incursion than previously reported. In fact, there is evidence that this coal deposit may have been influenced by marine conditions from its inception.     

New insights on the binary Asteroid 121 Hermione

We report on the results of a 6-month photometric study of the main-belt binary C-type Asteroid 121 Hermione, performed during its 2007 opposition. We took advantage of the rare observational opportunity afforded by one of the annual equinoxes of Hermione occurring close to its opposition in June 2007. The equinox provides an edge-on aspect for an Earth-based observer, which is well suited to a thorough study of Hermione’s physical characteristics. The catalog of observations carried out with small telescopes is presented in this work, together with new adaptive optics (AO) imaging obtained between 2005 and 2008 with the Yepun 8-m VLT telescope and the 10-m Keck telescope. The most striking result is confirmation that Hermione is a bifurcated and elongated body, as suggested by Marchis, et al. [Marchis, F., Hestroffer, D., Descamps, P., Berthier, J., Laver, C., de Pater, I., 2005. Icarus 178, 450-464]. A new effective diameter of 187 ± 6 km was calculated from the combination of AO, photometric and thermal observations. The new diameter is some 10% smaller than the hitherto accepted radiometric diameter based on IRAS data. The reason for the discrepancy is that IRAS viewed the system almost pole-on. New thermal observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope agree with the diameter derived from AO and lightcurve observations. On the basis of the new AO astrometric observations of the small 32-km diameter satellite we have refined the orbit solution and derived a new value of the bulk density of Hermione of 1.4 + 0.5/−0.2 g cm⁻³. We infer a macroscopic porosity of ∼33 + 5/−20%.     

Morphology and geotechnique of active-layer detachment failures in discontinuous and continuous permafrost, northern Canada

Fifty active-layer detachment failures triggered after forest fire in the discontinuous permafrost zone (central Mackenzie Valley, 65° N.) are compared to several hundred others caused by summer meteorological triggers in continuous permafrost (Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, 80°N). Most failures fall into compact or elongated morphological categories. The compact type occur next to stream channels and have little internal disturbance of the displaced block, whereas the elongated types can develop on any part of the slope and exhibit greater internal deformation. Frequency distributions of length-to-width and length-to-depth ratios are similar at all sites. Positive pore pressures, expected theoretically, were measured in the field at the base of the thawing layer. Effective stress analysis could predict the instability of slopes in both areas, providing cohesion across the thaw plane was set to zero and/or residual strength parameters were employed. The location of the shear planes or zones in relation to the permafrost table and the degree of post-failure secondary movements (including headwall recession and thermokarst development within the failure track) differed between the localities, reflecting dissimilarity in the environmental triggers and in the degree of ground thermal disturbance.     

Physical modelling of gelifluction and frost creep: Some results of a large-scale laboratory experiment

An experimental slope was constructed in a 5 m × 5 m square refrigerated tank. The slope was formed of four sections, each consisting of regolith (soil) collected from a distinct bedrock lithology. The four lithologies utilized were granite, limestone, mudstone and slate. The slope was subjected to freezing and thawing from the surface downwards. Water was supplied at the base of the soil during freezing. Frost heaving and surface downslope soil movement were determined after each of 15 freezing cycles, and the profiles of soil movement with depth for each soil type were measured at the end of the 15th cycle. The experimental soils were non-cohesive; those derived from granite and limestone were respectively sandy and gravelly in texture, while those derived from mudstone and slate were silt-rich. Mass movement in the granite and limestone soils was due mainly to frost creep and was associated with the growth of needle ice. In the mudstone and slate soils, gelifluction was dominant as a result of high moisture contents caused by the melting of segregation ice. Mean per cycle rates of downslope soil transport for the granite, limestone, mudstone and slate soils were 5·8 cm³ cm^?1, 6·9 cm³ cm^?1, 21·2 cm³ cm^?1 and 31·2 cm³ cm^?1 respectively, units referring to the volume of soil passing a unit width of slope per cycle. Mass movement rates were shown to be strongly related to the silt content of the soils.     

Regional patterns in the paragenesis and age of inclusions in diamond, diamond composition, and the lithospheric seismic structure of Southern Africa

The Archean lithospheric mantle beneath the Kaapvaal–Zimbabwe craton of Southern Africa shows ±1% variations in seismic P-wave velocity at depths within the diamond stability field (150–250 km) that correlate regionally with differences in the composition of diamonds and their syngenetic inclusions. Seismically slower mantle trends from the mantle below Swaziland to that below southeastern Botswana, roughly following the surface outcrop pattern of the Bushveld-Molopo Farms Complex. Seismically slower mantle also is evident under the southwestern side of the Zimbabwe craton below crust metamorphosed around 2 Ga. Individual eclogitic sulfide inclusions in diamonds from the Kimberley area kimberlites, Koffiefontein, Orapa, and Jwaneng have Re–Os isotopic ages that range from circa 2.9 Ga to the Proterozoic and show little correspondence with these lithospheric variations. However, silicate inclusions in diamonds and their host diamond compositions for the above kimberlites, Finsch, Jagersfontein, Roberts Victor, Premier, Venetia, and Letlhakane do show some regional relationship to the seismic velocity of the lithosphere. Mantle lithosphere with slower P-wave velocity correlates with a greater proportion of eclogitic versus peridotitic silicate inclusions in diamond, a greater incidence of younger Sm–Nd ages of silicate inclusions, a greater proportion of diamonds with lighter C isotopic composition, and a lower percentage of low-N diamonds whereas the converse is true for diamonds from higher velocity mantle. The oldest formation ages of diamonds indicate that the mantle keels which became continental nuclei were created by middle Archean (3.2–3.3 Ga) mantle depletion events with high degrees of melting and early harzburgite formation. The predominance of sulfide inclusions that are eclogitic in the 2.9 Ga age population links late Archean (2.9 Ga) subduction-accretion events involving an oceanic lithosphere component to craton stabilization. These events resulted in a widely distributed younger Archean generation of eclogitic diamonds in the lithospheric mantle. Subsequent Proterozoic tectonic and magmatic events altered the composition of the continental lithosphere and added new lherzolitic and eclogitic diamonds to the already extensive Archean diamond suite.     

The Hawaii-2 Observatory

A permanent deep ocean scientific research facility-the Hawaii-2 Observatory (H2O)-was installed on the retired HAW-2 commercial submarine telephone cable in September 1998. H2O consists of a seafloor submarine cable termination and junction box in 5000 m of water located halfway between Hawaii and California. The H2O infrastructure was installed from a large research vessel using the Jason ROV and standard over-the-side gear. The junction box provides two-way digital communication at variable data rates of up to 80 kbit/s using the RS-422 protocol and a total of 400 W of power for both junction box systems and user equipment. Instruments may be connected by an ROV to the junction box at 8 wet-mateable connectors. The H2O junction box is a "smart" design, which incorporates redundancy to protect against failure and allows full control of instrument functionality from shore. Initial instrumentation at the H2O site includes broad-band seismometer and hydrophone packages     

Structural parameters for globular clusters in NGC 5128 – III. ACS surface brightness profiles and model fits

We present internal surface brightness profiles, based on Hubble Space Telescope /ACS imaging in the F 606 W bandpass, for 131 globular cluster (GC) candidates with luminosities   L ≃ 10⁴–3 × 10⁶ L_⊙  in the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128. Several structural models are fitted to the profile of each cluster and combined with mass-to-light ratios ( M / L values) from population-synthesis models, to derive a catalogue of fundamental structural and dynamical parameters parallel in form to the catalogues recently produced by McLaughlin & van der Marel and by Barmby et al. for GCs and massive young star clusters in Local Group galaxies. As part of this, we provide corrected and extended parameter estimates for another 18 clusters in NGC 5128, which we observed previously. We show that, like GCs in the Milky Way and some of its satellites, the majority of globulars in NGC 5128 are well fitted by isotropic Wilson models, which have intrinsically more distended envelope structures than the standard King lowered isothermal spheres. We use our models to predict internal velocity dispersions for every cluster in our sample. These predictions agree well in general with the observed dispersions in a small number of clusters for which spectroscopic data are available. In a subsequent paper, we use these results to investigate scaling relations for GCs in NGC 5128.