Structure proof and significance of stereoisomeric 28,30-bisnorhopanes in petroleum and petroleum source rocks

Two C₂₈H₄₈-pentacyclic triterpanes were isolated from Monterey shale. X-ray crystallography of a crystal containing both compounds proved their structures as 17β,18α,21α(H)-28,30-bisnorhopane and 17β,18α,21β(H)-28,30-bisnorhopane. Several differences are found between 28,30-bisnorhopanes and the regular hopanes. Unlike the regular hopane epimers, for practical purposes the three epimeric 28,30-bisnorhopanes [17α,21β(H)-, 17β,21α(H)-, and 17β,21β(H)-]cannot be distinguished by their mass spectra. Special conditions are needed to separate them by gas chromatography. The diagenetically first-formed epimer is thought to be 17α,21β(H)- because it predominates in immature shales. The order of thermodynamic stability is 17β,2lα(H) < > 17α,21β(H) > 17β,21β(H), and all three epimers are present in petroleum. 25,28,30-Trisnorhopanes can be analyzed in similar fashion and are found to have similar thermodynamic characteristics. The percent of the ring D/E cis epimer of 28,30-bisnorhopane and/or 25,28,30-trisnorhopane is a useful maturation parameter similar to the 20S/20R sterane ratio. Evidence indicates 25-demethylation of 28,30-bisnorhopane to 25,28,30-trisnorhopane during advanced stages of biodegradation. Hence, percent ring $\text{D}\text{E}$cis 25,28,30-trisnorhopane has an application to maturation assessment in heavily biodegraded oils.     

Influence of plastic fines content on the liquefaction susceptibility of sands: monotonic loading

Acta Geotechnica - The paper presents an experimental study on the effect of plastic fines content on the undrained behavior and liquefaction susceptibility of sand–fines mixtures under...     

Yaxcopoil-1 and the Chicxulub impact

CSDP core Yaxcopoil-1 was drilled to a depth of 1,511 m within the Chicxulub crater. An organic-rich marly limestone near the base of the hole (1,495 to 1,452 m) was deposited in an open marine shelf environment during the latest Cenomanian (uppermost Rotalipora cushmani zone). The overlying sequence of limestones, dolomites and anhydrites (1,495 to 894 m) indicates deposition in various carbonate platform environments (e.g., sabkhas, lagoons). A 100-m-thick suevite breccia (894–794 m) identifies the Chicxulub impact event. Above the suevite breccia is a dolomitic limestone with planktic foraminiferal assemblages indicative of Plummerita hantkeninoides zone CF1, which spans the last 300 ky of the Maastrichtian. An erosional surface 50 cm above the breccia/dolomite contact marks the K/T boundary and a hiatus. Limestones above this contact contain the first Tertiary planktic foraminifera indicative of an upper P. eugubina zone P1a(2) age. Another hiatus 7 cm upsection separates zone P1a(2) and hemipelagic limestones of planktic foraminiferal Zone P1c. Planktic foraminiferal assemblages of Zone Plc to P3b age are present from a depth of 794.04 up to 775 m. The Cretaceous carbonate sequence appears to be autochthonous, with a stratigraphic sequence comparable to late Cretaceous sediments known from outside the Chicxulub crater in northern and southern Yucatan, including the late Cenomanian organic-rich marly limestone. There is no evidence that these sediments represent crater infill due to megablocks sliding into the crater, such as major disruption of sediments, chaotic changes in lithology, overturned or deep dipping megablocks, major mechanical fragmentation, shock or thermal alteration, or ductile deformation. Breccia units that are intercalated in the carbonate platform sequence are intraformational in origin (e.g., dissolution of evaporites) and dykes are rare. Major disturbances of strata by the impact therefore appear to have been confined to within less than 60 km from the proposed impact center. Yaxcopoil-1 may be located outside the collapsed transient crater cavity, either on the upper end of an elevated and tilted horst of the terrace zone, or even outside the annular crater cavity. The Chicxulub site thus records a large impact that predates the K/T boundary impact and mass extinction.     

A model for galactic centres

A rotating Supermassive Magnetized Disk is proposed as a model for all the violent phenomena occurring in the nuclei of galaxies, in the form of quasars, Lacertids, radio galaxies, Seyferts, exploding galaxies, etc. The cold disk feeds a fast-rotating supermassive core (some 10³ Schwarzschild radii in extent), which emits (1) an unsteady thermal wind of filamentary geometry, (2) Low-Frequency magnetic Waves, and (3) relativistic electrons and positrons. The latter reach high -factors by phase-riding the LFWs, emit synchro-Compton radiation on crossing scattered waves (from -ray energies down to radio frequencies), and are eventually focused into two antipodal relativistic beams by their frozen-in toroidal magnetic field. Torsional oscillations between the core and disk give rise to a pulsed injection, and a breathing double-onion shape of the LFW windzone can explain the superluminal jetlike appearance. A big nuclear explosion ends each duty cycle, but many smaller explosions prevent the settling core from collapsing. In this model, the helium production of galactic centres is comparable to the observed cosmic helium.     

Künstliche Geländefärbung als Beispiel für „physikalische Katalyse”

Zusammenfassung Die Erhöhung bzw. Verminderung der Strahlungsabsorption und-reflexion durch farbändernde Oberflächenschichten ist ein physikalisches Analogon zur positiven bzw. negativen Katalyse. Die Konsequenzen einer Farbänderung unter verschiedenen äußeren Bedingungen lassen sich durch Vergleich mit gewissen Grenzfällen charakterisieren.Die Verdunstungsverluste des Feuchtigkeitsgehalts von dunklem Erdboden ließen sich durch Weißbestäubung auf die Hälfte reduzieren. Für die mit abnehmender Schichtdicke zunehmende zusätzliche Heiz- bzw. Kühlleistung pro Farbgewicht gibt es bei gegebener Strahlungsintensität einen materialabhängigen oberen Grenzwert. Die von der färbenden Schicht im Laufe ihrer mittleren Lebensdauer zusätzlich in Wärme verwandelte bzw. daran verhinderte Energie betrug bei unseren Versuchen pro Gewichtsaufwand ein Vielfaches der mit chemischen Umsetzungen verbundenen Energien.

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Summary Increase or decrease of radiation absorption and reflection by change of colour of the superficial layers is considered as a physically analogous case of positive or negative catalysis. The consequences of a colour change under different external conditions can be characterized by comparison with certain boundary cases. Losses of moisture content of dark soil by evaporation could be reduced to the half by covering the surface with white dust. There exists a material dependent upper boundary value of the additional heating or cooling effect per weight unit of colour increasing with decreasing thickness of the layer. With our experiments, the energy additionally transformed into heat or prevented from being transformed into heat by the colouring layer in the course of its life amounted, per unit of weight, to many times the multiple of the energies connected with chemical conversions.

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Résumé L'accroissement et la diminution du pouvoir absorbant et réflexif de couches superficielles changeant de couleur est un phénomène analogue à la catalyse resp. positive et négative. On peut caractériser les conséquences d'un changement de couleur sous différentes conditions extérieures par une comparaison avec certains cas limites.Les pertes d'humidité par évaporation d'un sol sombre ont pu être réduites de moitié par aspersion de poussières blanches. Lorsqu'une couche de couleur diminuant d'épaisseur voit augmenter son pouvoir chauffant ou réfrigérant par unité de poids de couleur, il existe pour une intensité donnée de rayonnement une valeur limite supérieure dépendant de la substance. L'énergie supplémentaire transformée en chaleur, ou celle qui n'a pu l'être, par la couche de couleur au cours de sa vie moyenne s'est élevée dans nos essais à un multiple de celle qui résulte de transformations chimiques, par unité de poids.

     

The effect of mechanical waves on empirical solar models

Empirical solar models contain the effect of heating due to radiative energy loss from acoustic waves. We estimate here the temperature difference between the radiative equilibrium model and the empirical model. At optical depth ₅₀₀₀ = 0.1 this difference is small, but near the temperature minimum (₅₀₀₀ = 10^–4) it reaches between 53 and 83 K. The temperature difference between the equator and the poles caused by a hypothetical difference in the heating is estimated.     

Zum System der Meeresströmungen in den höheren Breiten

Zusammenfassung Es wird gezeigt, daß in den höheren Breiten zwischen dem ozeanischen Stromfeld und der Windverteilung beträchtliche Unterschiede bestehen. Daher wird als Ursache des Strömungssystems nicht das Windfeld, sondern die Süßwasserzufuhr vom Festland angesehen, welche als Salzgehaltsstörung das küstennahe Massenfeld beherrscht und entsprechend dem Theorem nach Bjerknes ein Gradientstromsystem bedingt, welches dem beobachteten entspricht.

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A contribution to the system of ocean currents in the higher latitudes

Summary It is demonstrated that in the high latitudes, considerable differences exist between the oceanic current system and the wind distribution. It is, therefore, supposed that it is not the windfield that gives rise to the existing current system but the supply of fresh water from the continent which, as a salinity disturbance, plays a dominant part in the field of mass near the coast. According to Bjerknes' theorem, the disturbance of salinity conditions a gradient current system; this is in good agreement with the observations.

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Sur le système de courants marins par les hautes latitudes

Résumé On montre qu'il existe par les hautes latitudes de différences considérables entre le système de courants océaniques et la distribution des vents. Pour cette raison, on suppose que c'est l'afflux d'eau douce venant du continent et non le champ du vent qui engendre le système de courants dominant, sous la forme d'une perturbation de salinité, le champ de masse près des côtes. D'après le théorème de Bjerknes le système de courants de gradient est la conséquence nécessaire de la perturbation de salinité ce qui est en bon accord avec les observations faites dans ce domaine.

     

Catabolic and anabolic energy for chemolithoautotrophs in deep-sea hydrothermal systems hosted in different rock types

Active deep-sea hydrothermal vents are hosted by a range of different rock types, including basalt, peridotite, and felsic rocks. The associated hydrothermal fluids exhibit substantial chemical variability, which is largely attributable to compositional differences among the underlying host rocks. Numerical models were used to evaluate the energetics of seven inorganic redox reactions (potential catabolisms of chemolithoautotrophs) and numerous biomolecule synthesis reactions (anabolism) in a representative sampling of these systems, where chemical gradients are established by mixing hydrothermal fluid with seawater. The wide ranging fluid compositions dictate demonstrable differences in Gibbs energies (ΔG_r) of these catabolic and anabolic reactions in three peridotite-hosted, six basalt-hosted, one troctolite-basalt hybrid, and two felsic rock-hosted systems. In peridotite-hosted systems at low to moderate temperatures (<∼45 °C) and high seawater:hydrothermal fluid (SW:HF) mixing ratios (>10), hydrogen oxidation yields the most catabolic energy, but the oxidation of methane, ferrous iron, and sulfide can also be moderately exergonic. At higher temperatures, and consequent SW:HF mixing ratios <10, anaerobic processes dominate the energy landscape; sulfate reduction and methanogenesis are more exergonic than any of the aerobic respiration reactions. By comparison, in the basalt-hosted and felsic rock-hosted systems, sulfide oxidation was the predominant catabolic energy source at all temperatures (and SW:HF ratios) considered. The energetics of catabolism at the troctolite-basalt hybrid system were intermediate to these extremes. Reaction energetics for anabolism in chemolithoautotrophs—represented here by the synthesis of amino acids, nucleotides, fatty acids, saccharides, and amines—were generally most favorable at moderate temperatures (22-32 °C) and corresponding SW:HF mixing ratios (∼15). In peridotite-hosted and the troctolite-basalt hybrid systems, ΔG_r for primary biomass synthesis yielded up to ∼900 J per g dry cell mass. The energetics of anabolism in basalt- and felsic rock-hosted systems were far less favorable. The results suggest that in peridotite-hosted (and troctolite-basalt hybrid) systems, compared with their basalt (and felsic rock) counterparts, microbial catabolic strategies—and consequently variations in microbial phylotypes—may be far more diverse and some biomass synthesis may yield energy rather than imposing a high energetic cost.     

Orbital-scale record of the late Cenomanian–Turonian oceanic anoxic event (OAE-2) in the Tarfaya Basin (Morocco)

High sedimentation rates (up to 12 cm/kyear) of laminated organic carbon-rich biogenic limestones in the Tarfaya Basin provide an unusually high (millennial) resolution record of the late Cenomanian oceanic anoxic event (OAE-2). The global positive carbon-isotope excursion across the Cenomanian–Turonian corresponds to 11 light/dark sedimentary cycles. We interpret these cycles as a response to orbital obliquity variation and estimate the duration of the complete excursion as 440 kyear or one long eccentricity cycle. On this timescale, the main increase in ¹³C values occurred over a short time interval of less than 20 kyear in the late Cenomanian and reached a first maximum approximately 15 kyear prior to the bulk (mainly coccoliths) ¹⁸O-derived sea surface maximum temperature that occurs coeval to the extinction of Rotalipora cushmani. Organic carbon-accumulation rates follow obliquity cycles, reaching a maximum approximately 10 kyear after the last occurrence of R. cushmani, then slowly decreasing during the early Turonian. Thus, the maximum temperature and the maximum organic carbon accumulation in the Tarfaya Basin lagged by at least 15 kyear behind the global carbon-isotope shift and a proposed reduction of atmospheric CO₂ content. The climate change across the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary probably occurred independent of CO₂ levels and may have been controlled by different greenhouse gases (water vapour and methane) and changes in ocean circulation (i.e., opening of the Equatorial Atlantic gateway)     

Preparing a seismic hazard model for Switzerland: the view from PEGASOS Expert Group 3 (EG1c)

The seismic hazard model used in the PEGASOS project for assessing earth-quake hazard at four NPP sites was a composite of four sub-models, each produced by a team of three experts. In this paper, one of these models is described in detail by the authors. A criticism sometimes levelled at probabilistic seismic hazard studies is that the process by which seismic source zones are arrived at is obscure, subjective and inconsistent. Here, we attempt to recount the stages by which the model evolved, and the decisions made along the way. In particular, a macro-to-micro approach was used, in which three main stages can be described. The first was the characterisation of the overall kinematic model, the “big picture” of regional seismogenesis. Secondly, this was refined to a more detailed seismotectonic model. Lastly, this was used as the basis of individual sources, for which parameters can be assessed. Some basic questions had also to be answered about aspects of the approach to modelling to be used: for instance, is spatial smoothing an appropriate tool to apply? Should individual fault sources be modelled in an intraplate environment? Also, the extent to which alternative modelling decisions should be expressed in a logic tree structure has to be considered.