Mineralized Microbiota: A Possible Indicator of Hydrocarbon Flows in the Rift Zone of Iceland

Relationships of mineralized microbiota with the content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in hydrothermal systems are considered. It has been established that the mineralized microbiota can serve as an indicator of hydrothermal hydrocarbon flows in present-day and ancient deposits.     

A canonical theory for short GPS baselines. Part II: the ambiguity precision and correlation

The present contribution is the second of four parts. It considers the precision and correlation of the least-squares estimators of the carrier phase ambiguities. It is shown how the precision and correlation of the double-differenced ambiguities as well as of the widelane ambiguities are effected by the observation weights, by the number of satellites tracked, by the number of observation epochs used, and by the change over time of the relative receiver-satellite geometry. Also the ability of the widelane transformation to decorrelate and to improve the precision is investigated. Received: 16 July 1996 / Accepted: 14 November 1996     

Biochemical and histological alterations in the prawn Macrobrachium lamerrei following exposure to automobile discharge

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), important constituents of petroleum products, are known to enter freshwater systems via industrial effluents. In the present study the possible toxicity of automobile effluent presumably containing PAH was demonstrated in the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium lamarrei. The prawns were exposed for 1, 8, 15 and 28 days to two sublethal concentrations (0.75% and 3.75%) of automobile effluent. A decrease was noted in the total protein content in haemolymph and hepatopancreas of prawns exposed for 28 days to both these sublethal concentrations. SDS-PAGE revealed that the effluent caused reduction in high molecular weight proteins (106-90 kD) of the haemolymph. The exposure to automobile effluent resulted in changes in the lamellar structure of the gills and shrinkage of hepatopancreatic cell types. Thus it is imperative to discard such wastes carefully ensuring that there is no entry into aquatic ecosystems.author for correspondence     

Late Cretaceous rift-related upwelling and melting of the Trindade starting mantle plume head beneath western Brazil

High mantle potential temperatures and local extension, associated with the Late-Cretaceous impact of the Trindade mantle plume, produced substantial widespread and voluminous magmatism around the northern half of the Paraná sedimentary basin. Our previous studies have shown that, above the central and eastern portions of the postulated impact zone where lithosphere extension is minimal, heat conducted by the plume caused large-scale melting of the more fusible parts of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath the margin of the São Francisco craton and the surrounding Brasilía mobile belt. Here we combine geochemical data and field evidence from the Poxoreu Igneous Province, western Brazil to show how more intense lithospheric extension above the western margin of the postulated impact zone permitted greater upwelling and melting of the Trindade plume than further east. Laser ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age determinations indicate that rift-related basaltic magmas of the Poxoreu Igneous Province were emplaced at ? 84 Ma. Our detailed geochemical study of the mafic magmas shows that the parental melts underwent polybaric crystal fractionation within the crust prior to final emplacement. Furthermore, some magmas (quartz-normative) appear to have assimilated upper crust whereas others (nepheline- and hypersthene-normative) appear to have been unaffected by open-system crustal magma chamber processes. Incompatible trace element ratios (e.g. chondrite-normalised La/Nb?=?1) and isotopic ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr?=?0.704 and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd?=?0.51274) of the Hy-normative basalts resemble those of oceanic islands (OIB). We therefore propose that these “OIB-like” magmas were predominantly derived from convecting-mantle-source melts (i.e. Trindade mantle plume). Inverse modelling of rare-earth element (REE) abundances suggests that the initial melts were predominantly generated within the depth range of ?80–100 km, in mantle with a potential temperature of ?1500 °C.     

Detection of Local Inhomogeneities by Means of Cross-borehole Seismic Tomography

—This numerical study is devoted to distortions of local anomalies which are revealed by 2-D and 3-D cross-borehole seismic tomography based on first arrival travel times. The fact that prolonged subvertical anomalies may disappear in the final velocity model is well known. But distortions are also inherent to images of local inhomogeneities. These distortions are accompanied with false anomalies of the opposite sign located just above and below true ones. I offer a semi-empirical explanation of their existence, proving that they are an inherent consequence of observation geometry incompleteness. To improve the quality of the model obtained with cross-borehole tomography, a 3-D acquisition geometry may be used when additional boreholes are positioned around the target object. Results of 3-D tomographic experiments however may be considerably distorted for another reason nonaccounted bending of seismic rays.¶To generate the travel times, a ray-tracing procedure making use of the graph theory was applied. Tomographic inversion was performed by an algorithm based on the assumption of the unknown function smoothness.     

On the Problem of Differential Payment for the Use of Different-Quality Surface Waters in Ukraine

The evolution of views and practical decisions regarding the problem of collecting payment for the use of surface waters with regard to their quality in the former USSR and present-day Ukraine is discussed. A simple and feasible method is proposed for differentitation of regional (basin) rates of payment for the use of surface water in Ukraine with allowance made for its quality assessed based on a system of environmental classifications.     

冬小麦遥感冠层温度监测土壤含水量的试验研究

在冬小麦主要生育期(2002年4月初到5月底),对不灌溉的冬小麦测定了冠层温度、地温、气温以及土壤含水量,计算了冠气温差且分析了冠层温度和冠气温差与不同土层厚度的土壤含水量相关关系。结果表明:14:00的冠层温度能较好地反映20cm土层的土壤含水量变化,但与其它各土层相关性有较大的波动性;14:00的冠气温差能较好地反映40cm以上土层的土壤含水量变化,二者的相关性很高,在20cm、40cm土层,两者相关系数R2分别为0.98866、0.99389,这为用区域遥感数据反演主要生育期冬小麦的冠气温差进而监测区域40cm土壤含水量提供了实验性的依据;拔节期和灌浆期,用14:00冠气温差来拟合各土壤层的土壤含水量有较高的精度,从而为用区域遥感数据监测区域土壤含水量提供了经验性的模型。