Investigation of natural and anthropogenic hydrocarbon inputs in sediments using geochemical markers. I. Santos, SP--Brazil

A study on the inputs of organic matter to marine sediments of Santos Bay and Estuary, located in southeastern S?o Paulo State, Brazil, is presented here. The following geochemical markers were identified and quantified: aliphatic hydrocarbons (normal and isoprenoid alkanes), petroleum biomarkers, linear alkylbenzenes (LABs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Sediment samples, collected at 15 sites in the bay and surrounding channels, were extracted and analyzed by gas chromatography with flame ionization and mass spectrometer detectors. Total concentrations varied from 0.17 to 107.80 microg g(-1) for aliphatics, from 47.2 to 2560.1 ng g(-1) for petroleum biomarkers, from 16.9 to 430.6 ng g(-1) for LABs and from 79.6 to 15389.1 ng g(-1) for PAHs. Anthropogenic contributions were apparent, indicating the influences of the Cubatao industrial complex, sewage outfalls along the area, the waste deposit of Santos city and storage facilities for petroleum and derivatives, based on the higher concentrations of geochemical markers detected.     

Late Holocene lake level dynamics inferred from magnetic susceptibility and stable oxygen isotope data: Lake Elsinore, southern California (USA)

Southern California faces an imminent freshwater shortage. To better assess the future impact of this water crisis, it is essential that we develop continental archives of past hydrological variability. Using four sediment cores from Lake Elsinore in Southern California, we reconstruct late Holocene (3800 calendar years B.P.) hydrological change using a twentieth-century calibrated, proxy methodology. We compared magnetic susceptibility from Lake Elsinore deep basin sediments, lake level from Lake Elsinore, and regional winter precipitation data over the twentieth century to calibrate the late Holocene lake sediment record. The comparison revealed a strong positive, first-order relationship between the three variables. As a working hypothesis, we suggest that periods of greater precipitation produce higher lake levels. Greater precipitation also increases the supply of detritus (i.e., magnetic-rich minerals) from the lake's surrounding drainage basin into the lake environment. As a result, magnetic susceptibility values increase during periods of high lake level. We apply this modern calibration to late Holocene sediments from the lake's littoral zone. As an independent verification of this hypothesis, we analyzed ¹⁸O_(calcite), interpreted as a proxy for variations in the precipitation:evaporation ratio, which reflect first order hydrological variability. The results of this verification support our hypothesis that magnetic susceptibility records regional hydrological change as related to precipitation and lake level. Using both proxy data, we analyzed the past 3800 calendar years of hydrological variability. Our analyses indicate a long period of dry, less variable climate between 3800 and 2000 calendar years B.P. followed by a wet, more variable climate to the present. These results suggest that droughts of greater magnitude and duration than those observed in the modern record have occurred in the recent geological past. This conclusion presents insight to the potential impact of future droughts on the over-populated, water-poor region of Southern California.     

Biological effects and subsequent economic effects and losses from marine pollution and degradations in marine environments: Implications from the literature

This paper serves as the missing piece in a more fuller understanding about economic losses from marine pollution, and demonstrates what losses have been estimated in the literature. Biological effects from marine pollution are linked with resulting economic effects and losses. The merging of these two areas is usually absent in studies of marine pollution losses. The literature has examined several effects due to marine pollution: damages due to harvest closures-restrictions, damages from consumption of unsafe seafood, damages due to decreased recreational activity, and damages related to waterfront real estate adjacent to contaminated water. Overall, marine pollution can and has resulted in sizable economic effects and losses. On the basis of the literature there is adequate justification for public policy actions to curb marine pollution, require inspection of seafood for toxic substances, and preserve marine water quality and sensitive marine environments.     

Heightened sensitivity of a poorly buffered high arctic lake to late-Holocene climatic change

A diatom-based paleolimnological investigation was conducted on late Holocene sediments from a poorly buffered lake, informally named “Rock Basin Lake”, on Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada. The fossil diatom record is unlike any other obtained thus far from high arctic regions, exhibiting dynamic assemblage shifts over the entire 3300 yr sedimentary record. Multiple proxies (i.e., diatoms, pH reconstructions, biogenic silica, C/N ratios, total organic carbon) appear to sensitively track rapid limnological changes, which are associated with distinct climate intervals as inferred from other regional proxy records. The highly responsive nature of the diatom assemblages in Rock Basin Lake, relative to those recorded from nearby alkaline sites, appears to be related to this lake's limited ability to buffer changes in pH. The dynamic species responses suggest that the diatoms in Rock Basin Lake are faithfully tracking climatic changes, and that low-alkalinity lakes may provide the most sensitive diatom-based paleolimnological records from high arctic regions.     

A multiphysics and multiscale software environment for modeling astrophysical systems

We present MUSE, a software framework for combining existing computational tools for different astrophysical domains into a single multiphysics, multiscale application. MUSE facilitates the coupling of existing codes written in different languages by providing inter-language tools and by specifying an interface between each module and the framework that represents a balance between generality and computational efficiency. This approach allows scientists to use combinations of codes to solve highly coupled problems without the need to write new codes for other domains or significantly alter their existing codes. MUSE currently incorporates the domains of stellar dynamics, stellar evolution and stellar hydrodynamics for studying generalized stellar systems. We have now reached a “Noah’s Ark” milestone, with (at least) two available numerical solvers for each domain. MUSE can treat multiscale and multiphysics systems in which the time- and size-scales are well separated, like simulating the evolution of planetary systems, small stellar associations, dense stellar clusters, galaxies and galactic nuclei. In this paper we describe three examples calculated using MUSE: the merger of two galaxies, the merger of two evolving stars, and a hybrid N-body simulation. In addition, we demonstrate an implementation of MUSE on a distributed computer which may also include special-purpose hardware, such as GRAPEs or GPUs, to accelerate computations. The current MUSE code base is publicly available as open source at http://muse.li.     

Grinding of mineral mixtures in high-pressure grinding rolls

Attempts at improving comminution machines generally have been directed towards increasing the performance efficiency, particularly increasing throughput rate and decreasing energy consumption. The latest and most successful new comminution technology has been the high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR), which have proved to be highly efficient in energy consumption and to have a relatively high throughput rate at low steel consumption. Already used extensively in cement plants worldwide, the first HPGRs in the mineral industry were installed in plants processing diamond ores. They are now finding their way into the large-scale base-metal mining industry. Since feed constituents in natural ores vary in their physical properties such as hardness, plasticity and brittleness, the present paper is concerned with an investigation of the behavior of a heterogeneous feed as it passes through the HPGR. The effect of feed composition on operational parameters, the energy efficiency of comminution, and energy distribution among the feed components is addressed. Mineral particles with high hardness act as energy transfer agents in the roll gap and enhance the grinding of softer mineral particles in a mixed feed.     

A limit on the number density of bright z≈ 7 galaxies

We present a survey of bright optical dropout sources in two deep, multiwavelength surveys comprising 11 widely separated fields, aimed at constraining the galaxy luminosity function at   z ≈ 7  for sources at  5–10  L * ( z = 6)  . Our combined survey area is 225 arcmin² to a depth of   J _AB= 24.2  (3σ) and 135 arcmin² to   J = 25.3  (4σ). We find that infrared data longwards of 2 μm are essential for classifying optical dropout sources, and in particular for identifying cool Galactic star contaminants. Our limits on the number density of high-redshift sources are consistent with current estimates of the Lyman break galaxy luminosity function at   z = 6  .     

XUV Photometer System (XPS): Improved Solar Irradiance Algorithm Using CHIANTI Spectral Models

Solar soft X-ray (XUV) radiation is highly variable on all time scales and strongly affects Earth’s ionosphere and upper atmosphere; consequently, the solar XUV irradiance is important for atmospheric studies and for space weather applications. Although there have been several recent measurements of the solar XUV irradiance, detailed understanding of the solar XUV irradiance, especially its variability during flares, has been hampered by the broad bands measured in the XUV range. In particular, the simple conversion of the XUV photometer signal into irradiance, in which a static solar spectrum is assumed, overestimates the flare variations by more than a factor of two as compared to the atmospheric response to the flares. To address this deficiency in the simple conversion, an improved algorithm using CHIANTI spectral models has been developed to process the XUV Photometer System (XPS) measurements with its broadband photometers. Model spectra representative of quiet Sun, active region, and flares are combined to match the signals from the XPS and produce spectra from 0.1 to 40 nm in 0.1-nm intervals for the XPS Level 4 data product. The two XPS instruments are aboard NASA’s Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) and Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics, and Dynamics (TIMED) satellites. In addition, the XPS responsivities have been updated for the latest XPS data processing version. The new XPS results are consistent with daily variations from the previous simple conversion technique used for XPS and are also consistent with spectral measurements made at wavelengths longer than 27 nm. Most importantly, the XPS flare variations are reduced by factors of 2 – 4 at wavelengths shorter than 14 nm and are more consistent, for the first time, with atmospheric response to solar flares. Along with the details of the new XPS algorithm, several comparisons to dayglow and photoelectron measurements and model results are also presented to help verify the accuracy of the new XUV irradiance spectra.     

Reanalysis of the Historic AFTAC Bolide Infrasound Database

We have recently digitized and partially reanalyzed the historic bolide infrasonic database. These 10 events were originally detected by the U.S. Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) from ∼1960 to 1974. In this paper we present the first preliminary reanalysis results for two of the 10 bolide events, namely the Revelstoke bolide of 3/31/1965 as well as the Prince Edward Islands (P.E.I). S. African bolide of 8/03/1963, which were among the largest bolides detected during this time period. These bolides have been investigated initially since they are most likely to have had a significant effect on the computed global influx rate of ReVelle (Global Infrasonic Monitoring of Large Bolides, pp 483–490, 2001) as indicated in Brown et al. (Nature, 420:314–316, 2002). We are in the process of recomputing all relevant infrasonic propagation quantities such as plane wave back azimuth, signal velocities, power spectra, spectrograms, as well as energy estimates using multiple techniques. In a future paper we will present a complete digital reanalysis of the AFTAC bolide infrasonic data and its final resulting global bolide influx implications.     

Acoustic-Gravity Waves from Bolide Sources

We have developed a new approach to modeling the acoustic-gravity wave (AGW) radiation from bolide sources. This first effort involves entry modeling of bolide sources that have available satellite data through procedures developed in ReVelle (Earth Moon Planets 95, 441–476, 2004a; in: A. Milani, G. Valsecchi, D. Vokrouhlicky (eds) NEO Fireball Diversity: Energetics-based Entry Modeling and Analysis Techniques, Near-earth Objects: Our Celestial Neighbors (IAU S236), 2007b). Results from the entry modeling are directly coupled to AGW production through line source blast wave theory for the initial wave amplitude and period at (at 10 blast wave radii and perpendicular to the trajectory). The second effort involves the prediction of the formation and or dominance of the propagation of the atmospheric Lamb, edge-wave composite mode in a viscous fluid (Pierce, J. Acoust. Soc. Amer. 35, 1798–1807, 1963) as a function of the source energy, horizontal range and source altitude using the Lamb wave frequency that was deduced directly during the entry modeling and that is used as a surrogate for the source energy. We have also determined that Lamb wave production by bolides at close range decreases dramatically as either the source energy decreases or the source altitude increases. Finally using procedures in Gill (Atmospheric-Ocean Dynamics, 1982) and in Tolstoy (Wave Propagation, 1973), we have analyzed two simple dispersion relationships and have calculated the expected dispersion for the Lamb edge-wave mode and for the excited, propagating internal acoustic waves. Finally, we have used the above formalism to fully evaluate these techniques for four large bolides, namely: the Tunguska bolide of June 30, 1908; the Revelstoke bolide of March 31, 1965; the Crete bolide of June 6, 2002 and the Antarctic bolide of September 3, 2004. Due to page limitations, we will only present results in detail for the Revelstoke bolide.