Several gateways connected the Mediterranean with the Atlantic during the late Miocene but the timing of closure and therefore their role prior to and during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.97–5.33 Ma) is still under debate. The timing of closure of the Guadalhorce Corridor is especially disputed as the common lack of marine microfossils hampers precise age determination. Here we present new biostratigraphic age constraints on the sediments of the Ronda, Antequera and Arcos regions, which formed the northern part of the Guadalhorce Corridor. The general presence of Globorotalia menardii 4 in the youngest deep‐marine sediments of all three regions indicates a late Tortonian age, older than 7.51 Ma. We conclude that the Guadalhorce Corridor closed during the late Tortonian, well before the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis and that the late Tortonian tectonic uplift of the eastern Betics extended into the western Betics. 相似文献
Crowd-based hydrological observations can supplement existing monitoring networks and allow data collection in regions where otherwise no data would be available. In the citizen science project CrowdWater, repeated water level observations using a virtual staff gauge approach result in time series of water level classes (WL-classes). To investigate the quality of these observations, we compared the WL-class data with “real” (i.e., measured) water levels from the same stream at a nearby gauging station. We did this for nine locations where citizen scientists reported multiple observations using a smartphone app and at 12 locations where signposts were set up to ask citizens to record observations on a paper form that could be left in a letterbox. The results indicate that the quality of the data collected with the app was better than for the forms. A possible explanation is that for each app location, a single person submitted the vast majority of the observations, whereas at the locations of the forms almost every observation was made by a different person. On average, there were more contributions between May and September than during the other months. Observations were submitted for a range of flow conditions, with a higher fraction of high flow observations for the locations were data were collected with the app. Overall, the results are encouraging for citizen science approaches in hydrology and demonstrate that the smartphone application and the virtual staff gauge are a promising approach for crowd-based water level class observations. 相似文献
On June 20, 1971, an instrumented probe designated PAET entered the atmosphere near Bermuda at a velocity of 6.6 km/sec carrying experiments designed for use at planets other than the Earth. Instruments to measure in situ the structure and composition of the atmosphere included accelerometers, pressure and temperature sensors, a mass spectrometer, and a radiometer (to sense characteristic emission from the probe shock layer at high speeds).The experiments were largely successful. The thermal structure of the atmosphere, including two major reversals in gradient, was shown to be well defined to an altitude of 80 km by comparison with more conventional meteorological soundings. The atmospheric mean molecular weight was defined within a percent by the structure experiment. The radiometers defined the bulk composition accurately and the trace quantity of CO2 to one significant figure. The mass spectrometer functioned properly, but failed to give the correct composition because of problems in its sampling system. Oxygen was depleted, apparently by chemical reactions before reaching the spectrometer, and the inlet leak conductance was reduced from its preflight value by an order of magnitude. There is reason to believe that contamination by large molecules from the heat shield was responsible. This experiment should stimulate intensive laboratory work on sampling systems, so that similar problems do not arise in measurements of atmospheric composition at the planets.Results of auxiliary experiments to measure atmospheric water vapor, vehicle dynamics and heating, and communications blackout are also given. 相似文献
Carbon emissions—and hence fossil fuel combustion—must decline rapidly if warming is to be held below 1.5 or 2 °C. Yet fossil fuels are so deeply entrenched in the broader economy that a rapid transition poses the challenge of significant transitional disruption. Fossil fuels must be phased out even as access to energy services for basic needs and for economic development expands, particularly in developing countries. Nations, communities, and workers that are economically dependent on fossil fuel extraction will need to find a new foundation for livelihoods and revenue. These challenges are surmountable. In principle, societies could undertake a decarbonization transition in which they anticipate the transitional disruption, and cooperate and contribute fairly to minimize and alleviate it. Indeed, if societies do not work to avoid that disruption, a decarbonization transition may not be possible at all. Too many people may conclude they will suffer undue hardship, and thus undermine the political consensus required to undertake an ambitious transition. The principles and framework laid out here are offered as a contribution to understanding the nature of the potential impacts of a transition, principles for equitably sharing the costs of avoiding them, and guidance for prioritizing which fossil resources can still be extracted. 相似文献
Unlike the majority of the water in the flooded mine complex of Butte Montana, which includes the highly acidic Berkeley pit
lake, groundwater in the flooded West Camp underground mine workings has a circum-neutral pH and contains at least 8 μM aqueous
sulfide. This article examines the geochemistry and stable isotope composition of this unusual H2S-rich mine water, and also discusses problems related to the colorimetric analysis of sulfide in waters that contain FeS(aq) cluster compounds. The West Camp mine pool is maintained at a constant elevation by continuous pumping, with discharge water
that contains elevated Mn (90 μM), Fe (16 μM), and As (1.3 μM) but otherwise low metal concentrations. Dissolved inorganic
carbon in the mine water is in chemical and isotopic equilibrium with rhodochrosite in the mineralized veins. The mine water
is under-saturated with mackinawite and amorphous FeS, but is supersaturated with Cu- and Zn-sulfides. However, voltammetry
studies show that much of the dissolved sulfide and ferrous iron are present as FeS(aq) cluster molecules: as a result, the free
concentration of the West Camp water is poorly constrained. Concentrations of dissolved sulfide determined by colorimetry
were lower than gravimetric assays obtained by AgNO3 addition, implying that the FeS(aq) clusters are not completely extracted by the Methylene Blue reagent. In contrast, the clusters are quantitatively extracted
as Ag2S after addition of AgNO3. Isotopic analysis of co-existing aqueous sulfide and sulfate confirms that the sulfide was produced by sulfate-reducing
bacteria (SRB). The H2S-rich mine water is not confined to the immediate vicinity of the extraction well, but is also present in flooded mine shafts
up to 3 km away, and in samples bailed from mine shafts at depths up to 300 m below static water level. This illustrates that
SRB are well established throughout the southwestern portion of the extensive (>15 km3) Butte flooded mine complex. 相似文献
Galactic cosmic rays consist of primary and secondary particles. Primary cosmic rays are thought to be energized by first order Fermi acceleration processes at supernova shock fronts within our Galaxy. The cosmic rays that eventually reach the Earth from this source are mainly protons and atomic nuclei, but also include electrons. Secondary cosmic rays are created in collisions of primary particles with the diffuse interstellar gas. They are relatively rare but carry important information on the Galactic propagation of the primary particles. The secondary component includes a small fraction of antimatter particles, positrons and antiprotons. In addition, positrons and antiprotons may also come from unusual sources and possibly provide insight into new physics. For instance, the annihilation of heavy supersymmetric dark matter particles within the Galactic halo could lead to positrons or antiprotons with distinctive energy signatures. With the High-Energy Antimatter Telescope (HEAT) balloon-borne instrument, we have measured the abundances of positrons and electrons at energies between 1 and 50 GeV. The data suggest that indeed a small additional antimatter component may be present that cannot be explained by a purely secondary production mechanism. Here we describe the signature of the effect and discuss its possible origin. 相似文献
In 1995, Sydney Water Corporation undertook an ecological and human health risk assessment for 10 sewage treatment plants (STPs) that discharge primary (6 STPs) and secondary (4 STPs) treated effluents into coastal waters in the Sydney and Illawarra regions, NSW, Australia. A program of toxicity testing of effluent from the 10 STPs was undertaken to determine the toxic effects of the effluents and as a weight-of-evidence study for the risk assessment.
Three types of bioassays were used to test multiple samples of effluent from each STP. Tests used were the sea urchin (Heliocidaris tuberculata) fertilization and larval development bioassays and the amphipod (Allorchestes compressa) survival bioassay.
Comparing between STPs, primary treated effluent was slightly more toxic than secondary treated effluent for all three tests. The highest toxicity was recorded for those STPs that use primary treatment and discharge to the shoreline. Comparing between tests, the sea urchin fertilization bioassay was slightly more sensitive than the sea urchin larval development bioassay, with the amphipod survival bioassay being the least sensitive.
This paper will describe the results of this toxicity testing program and discuss the application of the study results as weight-of-evidence for the risk assessment study. 相似文献