Boron isotope variations in nature: a synthesis

The large relative mass difference between the two stable isotopes of boron, ¹⁰B and ¹¹B, and the high geochemical reactivity of boron lead to significant isotope fractionation by natural processes. Published ¹¹B values (relative to the NBS SRM-951 standard) span a wide range of 90. The lowest ¹¹B values around — 30 are reported for non-marine evaporite minerals and certain tourmalines. The most ¹¹B-enriched reservoir known to date are brines from Australian salt lakes and the Dead Sea of Israel with ¹¹B values up to +59. Dissolved boron in present-day seawater has a constant world-wide ¹¹B value of + 39.5. In this paper, available ¹¹B data of a variety of natural fluid and solid samples from different geological environments are compiled and some of the most relevant aspects, including possible tracer applications of boron-isotope geochemistry, are summarized.

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Résumé La grande différence relative de masse entre les isotopes stables du bore, ¹⁰B et ¹¹B, et la grande réactivité geochimique du bore ont pour conséquence un fractionnement isotopique naturel important. Les valeurs de ¹¹B publiées (par rapport au standard NBS SRM-951) varient de 90. Les valeurs de ¹¹B les plus basses (–30) correspondent aux evaporites non-marines et à certaines tourmalines. Le réservoir le plus enrichi en ¹¹B est représenté par les saumures des lacs salés d' Australie et par la Mer Morte en Israël, qui ont des valuers de ¹¹B allent jusqu'à + 59. L'eau de mer a une valeur de ¹¹B mondialement constante de + 39.5. Des valeurs de ¹¹B des solutions naturelles ainsi que des roches et minéraux de différentes origines, publiées jusqu'à présent, sont présentées ici. En outre quelques aspects importants concernant la géochimie des isotopes du bore y compris quelques applications sont exposés.

     

Patterns and processes in the California Current System

The California Current System (CCS) is forced by the distribution of atmospheric pressure and associated winds in relation to the west coast of North America. In this paper, we begin with a simplified case of winds and a linear coast, then consider variability characteristic of the CCS, and conclude by considering future change. The CCS extends from the North Pacific Current (～50°N) to off Baja California, Mexico (～15–25°N) with a major discontinuity at Point Conception (34.5°N). Variation in atmospheric pressure affects winds and thus upwelling. Coastal, wind-driven upwelling results in nutrification and biological production and a southward coastal jet. Offshore, curl-driven upwelling results in a spatially large, productive habitat. The California Current flows equatorward and derives from the North Pacific Current and the coastal jet. Dominant modes of spatial and temporal variability in physical processes and biological responses are discussed. High surface production results in deep and bottom waters depleted in oxygen and enriched in carbon dioxide. Fishing has depleted demersal stocks more than pelagic stocks, and marine mammals, including whales, are recovering. Krill, squid, and micronekton are poorly known and merit study. Future climate change will differ from past change and thus prediction of the CCS requires an understanding of its dynamics. Of particular concern are changes in winds, stratification, and ocean chemistry.     

Microphysical modeling of ethane ice clouds in titan’s atmosphere

A time-dependent microphysical model is used to study the evolution of ethane ice clouds in Titan’s atmosphere. The model simulates nucleation, condensational growth, evaporation, coagulation, and transport of particles. For a critical saturation of 1.15 (a lower limit, determined by laboratory experiments), we find that ethane clouds can be sustained between altitudes of 8 and 50 km. Growth due to coalescence is inefficient, limiting the peak in the size distribution (by number) to 10 μm. These clouds vary with a period of about 20 days. This periodicity disappears for higher critical saturation values where clouds remain subvisible. Rainout of ethane due to methane cloud formation raises the altitude of the ethane cloud bottom to near the tropopause and may eliminate ethane clouds entirely if methane cloud formation occurs up to 30 km. However, clouds formed above the troposphere from other gases in Titan’s atmosphere could be sustained even with rainout up to 30 km. Although the optical depth of ethane clouds above 20 km is typically low, short-lived clouds with optical depths of order 0.1-1 can be created sporadically by dynamically driven atmospheric cooling. Ethane cloud particles larger than 25 μm can fall to the surface before total evaporation. However, ethane clouds remain only a small sink for tholin particles. At the peak of their cycle, the optical depth of ethane clouds could be comparable to that of tholin in the near-infrared, resulting in a 5% increase in Titan’s albedo for wavelengths between 1 and 2 μm. A number of factors limit our ablility to predict the ethane cloud properties. These factors include the mixing time in the troposphere, the critical saturation ratio for ethane ice, the existence of a surface reservoir of ethane, the magnitude and timing of dynamically driven temperature perturbations, and the abundance and life cycle of methane clouds.     

Evaluation of coseismic landslide hazard on the proposed Haast-Hollyford Highway,South Island,New Zealand

Coseismic landsliding presents a major hazard to infrastructure in mountains during large earthquakes. This is particularly true for road networks, as historically coseismic landsliding has resulted in road losses larger than those due to ground shaking. Assessing the exposure of current and planned highway links to coseismic landsliding for future earthquake scenarios is therefore vital for disaster risk reduction. This study presents a method to evaluate the exposure of critical infrastructure to landsliding from scenario earthquakes from an underlying quantitative landslide hazard assessment. The method is applied to a proposed new highway link in South Island, New Zealand, for a scenario Alpine Fault earthquake and compared to the current network. Exposure (the likelihood of a network being affected by one or more landslides) is evaluated from a regional-scale coseismic landslide hazard model and assessed on a relative basis from 0 to 1. The results show that the proposed Haast-Hollyford Highway (HHH) would be highly exposed to coseismic landsliding with at least 30–40?km likely to be badly affected (the Simonin Pass route being the worse affected of the two routes). In the current South Island State Highway network, the HHH would be the link most exposed to landsliding and would increase the total network exposure by 50–70% despite increasing the total road length by just 3%. The present work is intended to provide an effective method to assess coseismic landslide hazard of infrastructure in mountains with seismic hazard, and potentially identify mitigation options and critical network segments.     

Desertification in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia

The problem of land degradation in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia is not a new phenomenon, but during the last decade it has grown to be a serious threat to the delicate desert ecosystems, and also to the urban and industrial areas, due to an increase in sand movement. The area under investigation is situated on the Gulf coast north of Jubail and is approximately 20 km in width centered along the coastline. The total area is almost 1000 km². Eight vegetation types were classified according to the dominant and co-dominant species. A comparative study of the vegetation in a fenced, non-grazed area and in an open grazed area showed that the impact of grazing and recreational activities have largely reduced the value of the rangelands. The reduction in species diversity and density leads to an increase in wind and sand dynamics. Exposed roots, giant ripples, changes in the extension of inland sabkhas and new active dunes could be observed in many parts of the study area. It could be proved that most inland sabkhas in the area are pure deflational features with considerable dynamic due to the reduction in vegetation cover during the recent years. The monitoring of vegetation density was carried out during helicopter flights with the help of GPS and a video camera. Image processing on a personal computer allowed accurate calculations of vegetation density. Observations on active dune fields in the area showed that the size of the dune fields almost doubled in 15 months. Tests in small enclosures showed that there is a potential for natural recovery even in severely damaged areas. In just one year without grazing and with average precipitation there is a significant difference in vegetation cover. Strict grazing management and camping regulations are required to prevent further degradation and allow the recovery of damaged ecosystems. Community involvement and education is necessary for the development of an understanding of regulations and the need for preservation.     

Mineralization of pegmatites in parts of the Oban Massif, Southeastern Nigeria： A preliminary analysis

The Oban Basement Massif of southeastern Nigeria is composed of metamorphosed rocks including phyllites, schists, gneisses and amphibolites cut by pegmatitic dykes of varying length and thickness, which intruded the metamorphic rocks. Preliminary geochemical study and analysis of these pegmatites from western Oban Massif at Uyanga, Akwa Ibami, Iwuru I, Iwuru Ⅱ and Igbofia showed that the pegmatites are highly albitized. This is incon-sistent with earlier postulations that the pegmatites in this part of Nige...     

Grim4-C1, -C2p: combination solutions of the global earth gravity field

On the basis of the GRIM4-S1 satellite-only Earth gravity model, being accomplished in a common effort by DGFI and GRGS, a combination solution, called GRIM4-C1, has been derivcd using 1° × 1° mean gravity anomalies and 1° × 1° Seasat altimeter derived mean geoid undulations. In the meantime improvements could be achieved by incorporating more tracking data (GEOSAT, SPOT2-DORIS) into the solution, resulting in the two new parallel versions, the satellite-only gravity model GRIM4-S2 and the combined solution GRIM4-C2p (preliminary). All GRIM4 Earth gravity models cover the spectral gravitational constituents complete up to degree and order 50.In this report the emphasis is on the discussion of the combined gravity models: combination and estimation techniques, capabilities for application in precise satellite orbit computation and accuracies in long wavelength geoid representation. It is shown that with the new generation of global gravity models general purpose satellite-only models are no longer inferior to combination solutions if applied to satellite orbit restitution.     

Turbulent kinetic energy budget in a gravel-bed channel flow

The present experimental investigation focuses on the characteristics of near bed turbulence in a fully rough, uniform open-channel flow over a gravel-type bed. Due to bed topography small scale heterogeneity, the flow is not uniform locally in the near bed region and a double averaging methodology is applied over a length scale much larger than the gravel size. The double-averaged Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE) budget derived in the context of the present flow over a gravel bed differs from the TKE budget written for flow over a vegetation canopy. The non-constant shape of the roughness function measured in our gravel bed leads to an additional bed-induced production term which is null for vertical roughness elements, such as simplified vegetation elements. The experimental estimation of the terms of the TKE budget reveals that the maximum turbulent activity takes place away from the reference plane, near the roughness crests. However, within the interface sublayer the work of the bed induced velocity fluctuations against the Reynolds stress is of the same magnitude as the main turbulence production term. Consequently, the characteristics of the TKE budget have similarities with uniform flows over canopies and strongly differ from uniform flows over smooth and transitionally rough flows over sedimentlike beds.     

Molecular analysis of petroleum derived compounds that adsorb onto gas hydrate surfaces

Field observations have shown that some streams of water, gas and crude oil do not form gas hydrate plugs during petroleum production even when operating within thermodynamic conditions for hydrate formation. Also, when studied under controlled laboratory conditions, some oils are found to form hydrate dispersed systems whereas others form plugs. Oils with low tendency to form hydrate plugs are believed to contain natural hydrate plug inhibiting components (NICs) that adsorb onto the hydrate surface, making them less water-wet and preventing the particles from agglomerating into large hydrate clusters. The molecular structure of the NICs is currently unknown. In this work, hydrate adsorbing components were extracted from crude oils using freon hydrates as an extraction phase. The fractions were found to be enriched in polar material, and more polar material is associated with hydrates generated in biodegraded crude oils than in non-biodegraded oils. Various fractionation schemes and analytical techniques have been applied in the search for molecular characterisation. The average molecular weights were found to be approximately 500 g/mole. GC–MS chromatograms show a large UCM (Unresolved Complex Mixture). Thus, GC–MS has a limited potential for identification of compounds. A commercial biosurfactant was used as a model compound in the search for similar structures in the extracts. The results from analysis of the hydrate adsorbing components suggest that the type and structure are more important for hydrate morphology than the amount of material adsorbed.     

Mariner 9 ultraviolet spectrometer experiment: Observations of ozone on Mars

The Mariner 9 Ultraviolet Spectrometer has observed the 2550 Å ozone spectral absorption feature on Mars. This absorption was previously detected in the south polar region by Mariner 7 in 1969. Mariner 9 did not observe ozone at any time in the equatorial region, nor at the south polar cap during its summer season. However, ozone was found in the north polar region beginning at a latitude of 45°N and extending northward. Ozone later appeared in the southern hemisphere southward of 50°S as the Mars autumnal equinox approached. The presence of ozone on Mars seems to be coupled to the water vapor content of its atmosphere.