Polyester mooring for the Mad Dog spar—design issues and other considerations

The Mad dog project will use a polyester mooring system on the drilling and production truss spar. This will be the first use of a permanent polyester mooring system on a Floating Production System (FPS) outside of Brazil and the first time polyester has been used on a spar. As such, there were many challenges, which include:

• Regulatory approval.

• Designing a mooring system which is dominated by current loadings.

• Largest polyester rope break load ever required.

• Rope design qualification and testing.

• Quality control and assurance.

• Inspection, Maintenance, Repair and Retirement (IMRR) of such a mooring system.

This paper will focus on the design issues, rope design, manufacturing, qualification and testing, and the IMRR plan that was developed to provide the assurance that the polyester mooring system could be safely operated over the 20-year field life.     

Prediction and observation of a model gravity platform on Drammen clay

The results of five centrifuge tests of a stiff circular model platform on overconsolidated undisturbed Drammen clay are reported from Manchester University together with predictions computed at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute. Towards failure the models developed high shear strain and softening local to the base, accompanied by a permanent settlement or shakedown. A total stress transfer from edge to centre caused a rapid increase of excess pore pressure under the centre, having a high vertical gradient. These features, and failure values which decreased with increase in eccentricity of loading, conformed with previous observations on reconstituted clays. Comparison of observations with predictions highlights the sensitivity of the analytical method to the fineness of the finite element mesh just below the base. The predictions also indicated a sensitivity of the failure load to the degree of overconsolidation associated with a given undrained shear strength. The elastic type analysis did not predict the degree of shakedown which was associated with plastic displacement of clay from just under the base.     

Variability of heat shock proteins and glutathione S-transferase in gill and digestive gland of blue mussel,Mytilus edulis

Glutathione S-transferase (GST) and heat shock proteins (hsps) 40, 60, 70 and 90 were determined by immunoblotting using actin as an internal control in Mytilus edulis from one station outside (site1) and three stations within (sites 2-4) Cork Harbour, Ireland. Comparisons were made between gill and digestive gland and between sites. Gill shows generally higher hsp 60, 70 and 90 while digestive gland has higher hsp 40. Site 1 showed higher gill hsps 40 and 70 than sites 2-4 while gill GST was higher in sites 3 and 4 than 1 and 2. Comparison with sites in the North Sea (site 5: outside Tj?rn? in The Koster archipelago in the Skagerack) and Baltic Sea (site 6: Ask? island) also revealed lower hsps 40 and 70 in site 6 (low salinity) than site 5 (high salinity) although hsps 60, 70 and 90 were detectable in digestive gland unlike sites 1-4. Previously, only hsp 70 had been studied at these sites [Mar. Environ. Res. 39. (1995), 181]. At the mRNA level, gill hsp 70 is 80-fold higher at Tj?rn? than Ask?. These data suggest that, while salinity may slightly decrease hsp 40 and 70, both hsp 70 and GST are selectively up-regulated by approx. 10- and 3-fold, respectively, at Tj?rn? compared to the other sites which we attribute to exposure to more widely fluctuating pollution levels.     

Final dissolved organic carbon broad community intercalibration and preliminary use of DOC reference materials

A broad community intercalibration exercise for accurate measurement of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in seawater has been carried out over a period of 5 years. A set of 10 natural samples with DOC content from 40 to 200 μM C were accompanied by two glucose standards and a “zero C” blank; all sealed in glass ampoules. Samples were sent to all interested analysts for “blind” analysis; 62 laboratories in 17 countries participated. A total of 59 separate analyses were determined to be acceptable by screening criteria based on standards and blank; another nine sets of analyses did not pass the screening. The majority of the analyses, both those passing and those that did not, were performed with high temperature combustion (HTC) methods, six sets of analyses were done using wet chemical oxidation methods.From the 53 sets of acceptable HTC analyses, the coefficient of variation (%CV) for analytical comparability of the samples was 10% (“community precision”). It is estimated that the individual replicate injection precision for most instruments was approximately 2% and that no additional variability was caused by differences within the ampoules of individual samples. The additional variability over 2% was likely a result of both random and systematic differences in analytical capabilities from instrument to instrument and from day to day for individual instruments. With an arbitrary selection after the fact, smaller subsets of analysts can show comparability better than 10% and duplicate or triplicate runs on different days of the full sets of samples in several laboratories showed comparability in the 2–6.5% range. Experienced oceanic analysts, with internal or shared reference materials, can now show reproducibility and comparability at a level closer to 2%.Preliminary use of DOC reference materials by 14 participants showed day-to-day reproducibilities for their laboratories in the 2–6% range in most cases; several with poorer reproducibility do not normally perform DOC analyses on samples with concentrations as low as the deep ocean reference used here. Use of these reference materials can also give a demonstration of comparability between laboratories. For credibility of DOC analyses, it is necessary for analysts to use community reference materials and report results of their analytical performance with these references.This paper does not identify individual data nor should it be considered an evaluation of individual laboratories or analysts. The purpose is to show the summary picture of the international community of DOC analysts as it existed in the mid- to late 1990s.     

Factors influencing the abundance of deep pelagic bioluminescent zooplankton in the Mediterranean Sea

Measurements of the density of deep pelagic bioluminescent zooplankton (BL) were made with the Intensified Silicon Intensifier Target (ISIT) profiler in the Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, Ionian Seas and the Strait of Sicily from ～300 m to near seafloor. Mean BL densities ranged from 2.61 m^?3 at 500–1000 m depth in the Adriatic Sea to 0.01 m^?3 at 4000–5000 m depth in the E Ionian Sea. We investigated drivers of spatial variation of deep pelagic BL density. Linear regression was applied between surface chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration and underlying BL density. Chl a values were determined from satellite derived 100 km radius composites (six 10-day means per ISIT deployment, over preceding 60 days). At 500–1000 m depth we found a significant positive relationship between mean BL density and mean Chl a in the period prior to 0–10 days (at 1% level) and prior to 10–40 days (at 5% level). Beyond 40 days no relationship between BL density and Chl a was found at this depth. At depths 1000–1500 m BL density values were low and no significant relationship with Chl a was detected. Generalised additive modelling (GAM) was used to assess the influence of benthic hotspots (seamount; cold water coral mound; mud volcano) on overlying BL density. A reduction in BL density was found downstream of the Palinuro seamount from 300 to 600 m. No effect on BL density in the overlying water column was detected from the presence of cold water corals. Higher BL densities were detected over the W Madonna dello Ionio mud volcano than at other sites sampled in the NW Ionian Sea. We find surface Chl a to be a good predictor of BL density in the mesopelagic zone; below this depth we hypothesise that processes affecting the efficiency of particle export to deep water may exert greater influence on BL density.     

Influence of hydrogeology,microbiology and landscape history on the geochemistry of acid hypersaline waters,N.W. Victoria

There is now evidence that naturally occurring acid–water is more abundant than previously thought and that it has been important in the geologic past. Understanding the processes leading to the formation of such systems is required to appreciate the role of acid systems in geologic processes and to develop indicators for recognizing the geologic/environmental importance of these systems in the past. This paper characterizes the hydrogeology, hydrogeochemistry, microbial biogeochemistry and landscape attributes of acid–groundwater surface water systems in Australia with an emphasis on a well studied playa-lake system, Lake Tyrrell, Murray Valley. A model for the origin of these acid brines is presented and the importance of acid-brine producing systems is speculated upon. Data include porewater and groundwater geochemical measurements (collected during a 10 day field campaign) and results from geochemical modeling and graphics (e.g., Piper diagrams and x–y plots of seawater evaporation trajectories). Key characteristics of the system are (1) aquifer materials have low acid buffering capacities, (2) saline groundwater flowing onto playa surfaces is an oxic, H₂SO₄ solution, (3) authigenic minerals include combinations of jarosite [KFe₃(SO₄)₂(OH)₆], alunite [KAl₃(SO₄)₂(OH)₆] and Fe oxides that can form as evaporite minerals, (4) a source for solutes can be marine aerosols and (5) the formation of ironstones. Groundwater acidification by various processes including sulfide oxidation and ferrolysis, and at many different times, are the unique aspects for evolution of these acid brines and they can be considered another end member of the Eugster–Jones–Hardie model for the evolution of brines in closed basins. Acid–hypersaline groundwater and playa systems such as Lake Tyrrell may be an example of expected changes in the hydrogeochemistry of terrestrial water during late-stage continental denudation under arid conditions. Historically these systems may have been integral to the formation of opal, bauxite, some low temperature ore deposits, of authigenic K-feldspars, and continental redbeds. Natural acid saline systems, such as those in Australia, may also be representative of acid saline systems on Mars.     

Geochemical, mineralogical and isotopic signatures of the Semikan, West Kasrık “Turkish” phosphorites from the Derik–Mazıdağı–Mardin area, SE Anatolia

The geochemistry and mineralogy of a condensed section, ~6 m thick of the West Kasrik member (Coniacian–Santonian) near the uplifted northern flank of the Mardin–Derik anticline (south-eastern Turkey) was studied. The only deposit exploited in Turkey is found in this area. The sediment textures as well as the mineralogical and the geochemical results collectively suggest that these recycled phosphorites accumulated in areas of intensive very early diagenesis of the sediments in highly oxic bottom waters, and almost no detrital apport. The total concentration of redox-sensitive trace metals is very low (<600 μg/g); in addition the structural CO₂ and F/P₂O₅ are unusually high (~5 wt % and 0.14, respectively). REE distribution shows a clear “seawater” pattern with a strongly negative Ce-anomaly (0.20 ± 0.02) and heavy REE enrichment (Lu_N/La_N = 1.50 ± 0.12), however their total concentration is very low. The low REE contents, quite unexpected in recycled phosphorites, are explained by the scarcity of terrigenous components which leads to minimal incorporation of REEs from detrital clastic phases in the CFA fraction. Weathering previously suggested as responsible for the high P enrichment of the Mazidagi phosphorites is rather improbable in the samples we studied, in view of their high structural CO₂, high F/P₂O₅, high (La/Nd)_N and (La/Sm)_N ratios, and high Sr/P and Ca/P of separated CFA fractions that all negate post-depositional weathering. More likely, the high P enrichment of some rocks (P₂O₅ content reaches 34%) was produced by sedimentary and early diagenetic processes acting in oxygenated areas of starved sedimentation on and around tectonic highs.     

Sampling of Mars analogue materials in a laboratory environment

Acta Geotechnica - Two laboratory test series were performed with the aim of ensuring the proper functionality of the key sampling mechanisms installed aboard the Mars rover ExoMars, currently...     

Clearing enhances dust devil formation

In the southwest of Western Australia, the large scale replacement of native perennial vegetation with agriculture based on winter growing annual species leads to a significant change in the surface albedo and roughness. Whilst the redistribution of the surface energy balance impacts on cloud climatology, the reduced roughness of the agricultural area has enhanced the injection of aerosols into the atmosphere through the increased potential for dust devils. Although the native vegetation experiences a higher sensible heat flux, it is the reduced frictional drag of the cleared agricultural lands that enhances the potential for dust devil formation and thus provides an additional source of atmospheric aerosols.