Erhitzungsversuche am Markasit

Zusammenfassung Allen, Crenshaw, Johnston andLarsen (1915) untersuchten den Existenzbereich des Markasits gegenüber thermischer Beanspruchung. Sie konnten eine Modifikationsänderung mit meßbarer Geschwindigkeit his hinunter zur Temperatur von 450° C nachweisen. Umwandlungsversuche bei geringeren Temperaturen waren ergebnislos.Durch Erhitzungsversuche an Erzen von den telethermalen Verdrängungslagerstätten um Aachen wurde gezeigt, daß bei Normaldruck his herab zur Temperatur von etwa 350° C eine Umwandlung mit meßbarer Geschwindigkeit stattfindet. Wahrscheinlich ist also Markasit bei Normaldruck bis 350° C existent gegenüber thermischer Beanspruchung.Die Umwandlungserscheinungen in den verschiedenen Stadien wurden durch Mikrophotographien dargestellt.Als geologisches Thermometer ist das Auftreten von Markasit in natürlichen Paragenesen anwendbar mit folgenden Aussagen:Der mögliche Bildungsbereich der betreffenden Paragenese reicht bei normalem Druck bis zur Temperatur von etwa 350° C.Das Existenzfeld des Markasits gegeniiber rein thermischer Beanspruchung reicht bei normalem Druck bis 350° C, also kann die betreffende Paragenese niemals auf höhere Temperaturen erhitzt gewesen sein.Für die Anregung and fur ihr stets Interesse an meiner Arbeit möchte ich Frau Professor Dr.Schachner and Herrn Doz. Dr.Lindley aufrichtig danken.Auszug aus der Dissertation des Verfassers, TH Aachen 1959.     

Effect of heat treatment on tourmaline from Brazil

The crystal-chemical behaviour of tourmaline from Araçuaí, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, when subjected to heating in air atmosphere has been studied by several techniques, including EMPA, UV–Vis, TGA, and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The tourmaline samples are typically intermediate members of the elbaite-schorl series. The origin of colour and of its change after treatment has been discussed in terms of local disorder, presence of metal transition elements, oxidation of ferrous iron at the octahedral site, and simultaneous trap of the excess electron. These findings may be used to enhance the colour in tourmaline crystals or generate wanted colour changes.     

Similarity solutions for wedge-shaped hydraulic fractures driven into a permeable medium by a constant inlet pressure

Similarity solutions are derived for wedge-shaped hydraulic fractures driven by a constant inlet pressure P₀ into a permeable medium under a uniform confining stress σ. These results describe the seepage-dominated regime in which most of the injected fluid is lost into the permeable walls of the fracture; they complement previous results for the capacitance-dominated regime in which seepage is negligible. Fracture propagation velocity is obtained as an analytical function of fracture length, driving pressure, confining stress, material properties and a single separation constant or eigenvalue which is determined numerically. Self-similar profiles of pressure, opening displacement and fluid velocity along the fracture are presented, together with the self-similar isobars of the two-dimensional pressure field within the permeable medium. Comprehensive results are reported for laminar or turbulent flow of a constant-compressibility liquid or an ideal gas driven by overpressures (P₀?σ)/σ ranging from 10^?2 to 10².     

An integral method for predicting hydraulic fracture propagation driven by gases or liquids

Hydraulic fracture propagation is predicted by a general numerical procedure which satisfies the transport equations in a global or integral sense over the entire fracture and over a small control volume near the leading edge. At each discrete time step the pressure distribution is selected from a four-parameter family of profiles such that the stress intensity is equal to the critical value at the tip of the fracture and the integral equations are satisfied. Comparisons with previous analytical and, numerical solutions indicate accuracy within 10 per cent for a variety of test problems include wedge-shaped and envelope-shaped fractures, laminar and turbulent flows, incompressible liquids and ideal gases, permeable and impermeable media, prescribed inlet pressure and prescribed flow rates. CPU time is typically a few seconds for a tenfold increase in fracture length. The method has been applied to explosively driven and propellant-driven gas fracturing problems as well as the traditional pump-driven hydraulic fracturing problem.     

Analysis of water control in an underground mine under strong karst media influence (Vazante mine,Brazil)

This work presents analysis of groundwater flow conditions and groundwater control measures for Vazante underground mine located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. According to field observations, groundwater flow processes in this mine are highly influenced by the presence of karst features located in the near-surface terrain next to Santa Catarina River. The karstic features, such as caves, sinkholes, dolines and conduits, have direct contact with the aquifer and tend to increase water flow into the mine. These effects are more acute in areas under the influence of groundwater-level drawdown by pumping. Numerical analyses of this condition were carried out using the computer program FEFLOW. This program represents karstic features as one-dimensional discrete flow conduits inside a three-dimensional finite element structure representing the geologic medium following a combined discrete-continuum approach for representing the karst system. These features create preferential flow paths between the river and mine; their incorporation into the model is able to more realistically represent the hydrogeological environment of the mine surroundings. In order to mitigate the water-inflow problems, impermeabilization of the river through construction of a reinforced concrete channel was incorporated in the developed hydrogeological model. Different scenarios for channelization lengths for the most critical zones along the river were studied. Obtained results were able to compare effectiveness of different river channelization scenarios. It was also possible to determine whether the use of these impermeabilization measures would be able to reduce, in large part, the elevated costs of pumping inside the mine.     

Euphotic zone bacterioplankton sources major sedimentary bacteriohopanepolyols in the Holocene Black Sea

Bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs) are lipid constituents of many bacterial groups. Geohopanoids, the diagenetic products, are therefore ubiquitous in organic matter of the geosphere. To examine the potential of BHPs as environmental markers in marine sediments, we investigated a Holocene sediment core from the Black Sea. The concentrations of BHPs mirror the environmental shift from a well-mixed lake to a stratified marine environment by a strong and gradual increase from low values (∼30 μg g⁻¹ TOC) in the oldest sediments to ∼170 μg g⁻¹ TOC in sediments representing the onset of a permanently anoxic water body at about 7500 years before present (BP). This increase in BHP concentrations was most likely caused by a strong increase in bacterioplanktonic paleoproductivity brought about by several ingressions of Mediterranean Sea waters at the end of the lacustrine stage (∼9500 years BP). δ¹⁵N values coevally decreasing with increasing BHP concentrations may indicate a shift from a phosphorus- to a nitrogen-limited setting supporting growth of N₂-fixing, BHP-producing bacteria. In sediments of the last ∼3000 years BHP concentrations have remained relatively stable at about 50 μg g⁻¹ TOC.The distributions of major BHPs did not change significantly during the shift from lacustrine (or oligohaline) to marine conditions. Tetrafunctionalized BHPs prevailed throughout the entire sediment core, with the common bacteriohopanetetrol and 35-aminobacteriohopanetriol and the rare 35-aminobacteriohopenetriol, so far only known from a purple non-sulfur α-proteobacterium, being the main components. Other BHPs specific to cyanobacteria and pelagic methanotrophic bacteria were also found but only in much smaller amounts.Our results demonstrate that BHPs from microorganisms living in deeper biogeochemical zones of marine water columns are underrepresented or even absent in the sediment compared to the BHPs of bacteria present in the euphotic zone. Obviously, the assemblage of molecular fossils in the sediments does not represent an integrated image of the entire community living in the water column. Remnants of organisms living in zones where effective transport mechanisms - such as the fecal pellet express - exist are accumulated while those of others are underrepresented. Our work shows a high stability of BHPs over geological time scales. Largely uniform distributions and only minor changes in structures like an increasing prevalence of saturated over unsaturated BHPs with time were observed. Consequently, sedimentary BHP distributions are less suitable as markers for in situ living bacteria but are useful for paleoreconstructions of bacterioplanktonic communities and productivity changes.     

Impact of temperature on long chain diol and mid-chain hydroxy methyl alkanoate composition in Proboscia diatoms: Results from culture and field studies

Long chain 1,14-diols and 12-hydroxy methyl alkanoates are biomarker lipids for Proboscia diatoms and occur widely in Quaternary sediments. To determine the effect of temperature on the lipid composition of these algae, a new Proboscia sp. culture grown at 8 °C and Proboscia indica cultures grown at 18, 21, 24 and 27 °C were examined. The results were combined with lipid data from a P. indica culture and a Proboscia alata culture, grown at 20 and 2 °C, respectively, from previous studies. The data showed a strong relationship between long chain diol and 12-hydroxy methyl alkanoate composition and growth temperature, i.e. the chain length increases and the degree of unsaturation of long chain 1,14-diols decreases with increasing growth temperature. To determine the effect of temperature on Proboscia lipid compositions in natural environments, we also analyzed fossil long chain 1,14-diols and 12-hydroxy methyl alkanoates in surface sediments derived from Proboscia diatoms living in the water column of the eastern South Atlantic. The results indicate a significant relationship between sea surface temperature and chain length distribution of saturated long chain diols, but also suggest that the relative abundances of unsaturated long chain diols and 12-hydroxy methyl alkanoates in sediments are predominantly determined by factors other than temperature.     

Detecting Randomness in Spatial Point Patterns: A “Stat-Geometrical” Alternative

There are several methods to test the hypothesis of complete spatial randomness of point patterns. This work involves a new geometrical-based strategy to detect spatial arrangements, which takes into account both Euclidean and angular distances, defining a triangle-based network. An asymptotic test based on the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic is proposed to accommodate this situation. To assess the usefulness of this method (Stat-Geo), simulations based on Monte Carlo procedures, conducted using SPLUS, give satisfactory results with a high degree of accuracy. As expected, the new technique proposed in this paper, performs better than traditional ones like distance-based or angle-based, since more information (combining distance and angle) is introduced in the decision-making system. This approach is a very simple way to offer high efficiency results for a low computational cost. Furthermore, this alternative method allows barycentric interpolation of the unsampled points into a two-dimensional simplex (triangular) framework.     

ATLAS, and Wide-Angle Tail Galaxies in ATLAS

Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), ATLAS (Australia Telescope Large Area Survey) is imaging two fields totalling 7 square degrees down to 10 μJy beam^− 1 at 1.4 GHz. We have found 6 wide-angle tail galaxies (WATs), 4 of which have sufficient data to identify associated galaxy overdensities. The largest WAT, at a red-shift of 0.22, appears to be associated with an overdensity of galaxies that is spread over an unusually large extent of 12 Mpc, with a velocity range of 4500 km s^− 1. Here we present the WATs in ATLAS and discuss the implications of these observations for future large-scale radio surveys such as ASKAP-EMU.     

Climatology of thunderstorms in the Baltic countries, 1951–2000

This paper provides an overview of the thunderstorm climate of the Baltic countries during the period of 1951–2000. Our study area is in northeastern Europe and encompasses Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Visual thunderstorm observations at 59 weather stations were used as a data source. The mean annual number of thunderstorm days was 12–29.5. The seasonal cycle of thunderstorm hours with a daily step unexpectedly showed two maxima, whereas the monthly numbers of thunderstorm days had one clear mid-latitude specific peak between June and August. The diurnal cycle of thunderstorm hours showed a peak between 1400 and 1800 local time and a minimum between 0400 and 1000 hours local time. The average annual duration of thunderstorm events was 112 min. The average number of thunderstorm events per thunderstorm day was around 1.1–1.2. Our results showed that the thunderstorm climate of the Baltic countries generally resembles that of other mid-latitude study sites.