The impact of slow growth policies on local economies: Through housing boom and bust

This case study considers the economic implications of various growth policies in the Sacramento region over the last decade. Counties and cities throughout the Sacramento region have varying policies and attitudes toward residential and commercial growth. Over the last decade we have seen extremes in development in the region, from the Roseville area which experienced a residential and retail explosion, to Davis, which has restricted growth to relatively few projects. Growth has impacted property and sales tax revenue, and city and county expenditures. Changes in the housing market and the economy over the past few years have had a large impact on new construction activity. This paper examines how cities and counties in the Sacramento region have weathered the housing boom and bust, based on their growth policies during the past decade. The relationship between growth policies, measured by building permits, local government revenue, housing markets, and employment is assessed. Comparisons are presented through charts and panel data regression. Rapid development leads to higher levels of sales tax revenue, coupled with greater volatility in sales tax revenue. Employment rises more quickly in areas that have a high level of non-residential construction relative to residential construction.     

High salinity fluid inclusions in the Yinshan polymetallic deposit from the Le–De metallogenic belt in Jiangxi Province, China: Their origin and implications for ore genesis

A fluid inclusion investigation of the polymetallic mineralization at Yinshan from the Le–De metallogenic belt in Jiangxi Province of China has been carried out using petrographic and microthermometric techniques. The data obtained here indicate that three major types of fluids were involved during the formation of the deposit. They are type I vapor-rich, type II liquid-rich and type III halite-bearing inclusions within the H₂O–NaCl system. The high salinity fluids represented by type III inclusions, being unusual to the distal part of an intrusion-centered ore-forming system such as Yinshan, have been interpreted as the product of direct exsolution of a crystallizing magma, rather than a result of fluid immiscibility from a low salinity fluid. Evidence used to support such an interpretation includes the mode of homogenization of type III inclusions exclusively via halite dissolution, spatial separation of type I and type III inclusions on microscopic scale, the consistent phase ratios within the inclusions concerned, and considerable deviation in homogenization temperature for both type I and type III inclusions. Trapping conditions for type I inclusions were estimated to be around 440 °C and 260 bars, while type III inclusions were constrained to be trapped at least above 900 bars and > 500 °C. The formation temperatures for type II inclusions range from 270 to 390 °C if a lithostatic pressure of 260 bars is assumed. Pressure fluctuation determined by this fluid inclusion study coupled with decreases in salinity and temperature as result of the potential fluid mixing are supposed to have played an important role in triggering the precipitation of ore minerals from the hydrothermal solution.     

The timing of regional Lateglacial events and post-glacial sedimentation rates from Lake Superior

We analyze both new and previously published paleomagnetic records of secular variation (PSV) from Lake Superior sediment cores and compare these records to correlated rhythmite (varve) thickness records to determine post-glacial sedimentation rates and to reassess the termination of glaciolacustrine varves in the basin. The results suggest that offshore sedimentation rates have exhibited considerable spatial variation over the past 8000 years, particularly during the mid-Holocene. We attribute offshore, mid-Holocene sedimentation changes to alterations in whole basin circulation, perhaps precipitated by a greater dominance of the Gulf of Mexico air mass during the summer season. Nearshore bays are characterized by high sedimentation rates for at least 1000 years after varve cessation and during a period between around 4500 and 2000 cal. BP. After 2000 cal. BP, sedimentation rates subsided to earlier rates. The increases between 4500 and 2000 cal. BP are probably due to lake level fall after the Nipissing II highstand.The older glaciolacustrine varve thickness records suggest that the influx of glacially derived sediment ended abruptly everywhere in the lake, except near the Lake Nipigon inlets. Multiple sediment cores reveal 36 anomalously thick varves, previously ascribed to the formation of the Nakina moraine, which were deposited just prior to varve cessation in the open lake. The PSV records support the observation that the cessation of these thick varves is a temporally correlative event, occurring at 9035±170 cal. BP (calibrated years before 1950, ca 7950–8250 ¹⁴C BP). This date would correlate to the eastern diversion of Lake Agassiz and glacial meltwater into Lake Ojibway.     

CO2- and LREE-rich mantle below eastern Australia: a REE and isotopic study of alkaline magmas and apatite-rich mantle xenoliths from the Southern Highlands Province,Australia

Alkaline magmatism in the Southern Highlands Province, New South Wales, Australia is associated with continental rifting. Near-primary liquids have a wide range in Nd and Sr isotope composition that indicates gross isotopic and chemical heterogeneities in a mantle source region depleted in light rare earth elements (LREE) for much of Earth's history. The large-ion lithophile element and LREE-enriched nature of the primary lavas ((Ce)_N = 95–182 and (Yb)_N = 8.5–13.3) is consistent with an enriched mantle source region. This elemental enrichment may be accomplished by veining of the subcontinental mantle with volatile-rich phases like amphibole, apatite and carbonate which provide the volatile flux necessary to trigger anatexis.Degassing of mantle CO₂ has led to migration of LREE-enriched fluids and local transformation of the lherzolitic mantle to pyroxenite veined by apatite ± kaersutite ± mica ± diopside. The mantle veining event may be related to upwelling of silica-undersaturated incompatible element-enriched magmas similar to the host magma of the Kiama xenoliths. In a relatively short period of time (100 m.y.), the Sr and Nd isotopes in essentially LREE-depleted mantle have evolved in response to low Sm/Nd and low Rb/Sr ratios, and now define a near-vertical vector on a isotope-isotope plot. From this rather unique signature we can infer that CO₂- and LREE-rich, Rb-poor mantle is a potentially suitable mantle source region for the genesis of alkali-potassic volcanic rocks characterized by a narrow range in⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio and a wide range in¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd ratio (e.g. Leucite Hills).     

Effects of erosion control structures along a portion of the northern Chesapeake Bay shoreline

A 6.500-meter reach of western Chesapeake Bay shoreline (lower Mayo Peninsula) lost about 1.1×10⁶ cubic meters of sediment (equivalent to 170 cubic meters lost per meter of shoreline) between 1846 and 1932, when the first aerial photographs show the shoreline already substantially protected by a system of groins and intermittent bulkheading. These structures have eliminated the fastland as a source of erodable material, and have starved the supply of sand for littoral drift, thus limiting the extent of the beaches to the remaining groin fields. Volumes of sediment involved in these impacts are small in the overall sediment budget. Bulkheads produce no deficit in the budget since scouring of the beaches on their seaward sides makes up for the decreased erosion of protected fastland. Groins trap little of the potential littoral drift (computed to be about 10⁴ cubic meters per meter of shoreline per year). The sand supply in the remaining beaches is nearly equivalent to the annual loss of sediment from the entire shoreline system due to the long-term rate of erosion of the shoreline and nearshore between 1846 and 1932.     

Mantle metasomatism—precursor to continental alkaline volcanism

REE distributions of an unusual suite of mantle-derived amphibole/apatite rich xenoliths have very steep, LREE-enriched chondrite-normalised patterns with no Eu anomalies. These are closely analogous to REE distributions of carbonatitic and kimberlitic rocks. A wide range in absolute abundances of REE reflects the varied mineral assemblages of this xenolith suite and, together with other trace element and volatile concentrations, supports an origin by fractionation of, or separation from, a volatile-charged LIL-enriched (possibly kimberlitic/carbonatitic) magma. Such a magma could be a medium for volatile transfer, addition of Ti, V, K and P, and LREE enrichment within the upper mantle. It is postulated that such metasomatism in the upper mantle is a necessary precursor to continental alkaline volcanism.Geochemical modelling based on REE suggests that a pyrolite source +0.35% apatite (total of 0.5% apatite), with amphibole accounting for all K₂O, can yield basanitic liquids with approximately 1–10% partial melting if the source is LREE-enriched (La about 20 times chondrite and Yb about 4.5–5 times chondrite).REE and trace element contents of the host rocks indicate that little exchange of these elements has occurred between xenolith and host magma during transport and emplacement.     

Rb/Sr evidence for the nature of the mantle, thermal events and volcanic activity of the Southeastern Australian continental margin

Rb/Sr isotopic data are presented for three different mantle-derived rock types from a single quarry in the Kiama area in southeastern Australia. These rocks comprise a latite (249 Ma), a basanitic dyke (191 Ma) and mantle-derived xenoliths entrained in the basanitic dyke. Interpretation of the Rb/Sr data with other geochemical results shows that significant crustal contamination of either the latite or the basanite is unlikely. It is suggested that metasomatic mantle events may closely coincide with the production of basaltic magma. Basaltic activity in this area in the late Permian, early Jurassic and Tertiary would imply that a high heat flow may have persisted in southeastern Australia over this time span.⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values of the rocks studied are within the range of intraplate basalts worldwide and support the concept of a REE-enriched upper mantle beneath eastern Australia.     

Some genetic implications of silica and aluminosilicates in peat and coal

The inorganic content of Okefenokee peat, in the absence of a significant detrital contribution, is a function of sponge spicule, phytolith, and diatom abundance in addition to the degree of organic matter decomposition and the frequency of fires. The detrital component (quartz) dominates ash composition where it is present.No clear correlation has been observed between the inorganic content of coals examined in this study and their maceral composition. Vitrinite-rich coals have a wide range of ash yield. These observations suggest that the minerals have been introduced detritally rather than accumulated as a result of peat degradation. Quartz in the coals appears to be detrital, and the presence of 2m₁ mica indicates that there is also a detrital contribution to the clay minerals present.     

Vitamin B12-Catalyzed Dechlorination of Perchloroethylene Present as Residual DNAPL

The goal of this study was the cleanup of residual solvents in the saturated zone using an in situ biochemical treatment. Perchloroethylene (PCE) was chosen as a model compound because it is the most commonly found organic ground water contaminant. A mixture of vitamin B₁₂ with titanium citrate was pumped as the remedial solution through a column containing 100 μL of PCE residual. The rate of reaction was found to be first order with respect 10 the concentration of PCE and to the concentration of vitamin B₂. At 10 ppm B₁₂, more than 85 percent PCM was degraded to trichloroelhylene (TCE) and dichloroelhylene (DCE) in two hours. The presence of low to moderate concentrations of organic carbon had no significant effect on the reaction. Vitamin B₁₂ reduced by titanium citrate was found lo be compatible with the survival of anaerobic bacteria. The four major advantages of the biochemical system over the use of anaerobic bacteria are that (1) the rate is faster: (2) there is no need for the careful balance of nutrients or the addition of an extraneous carbon source: (3) there is no restriction in the concentration range of the compound to be treated; and (4) the remedial solution is mobile, even in the presence of organic carbon.