Geology of the lunar farside crater Necho

The lunar farside crater Necho (30 km diameter) displays intricate morphological and structural characteristics. The highland setting provides a complex impact site when compared with the relatively uniform setting of mare craters. Therefore, the effects of pre-impact topography and structure play a dominant role in Necho's formation and modification. Necho's bright ejecta, extensive rays, fresh morphology, and lack of superposed craters indicate that it is extremely young. The asymmetric distribution of ejecta materials may be due to substrate effects, topographic shalowing, or oblique impact.Necho's interior is divided into five physiographic units based on morphologic differences: three floor units (Necho does not display a true flat floor), one hilly central unit, and the wall unit which includes terraces and smooth walls. The interior of the crater also exhibits an unusual asymmetry in the prevalence of terraced units on the western wall. Interior morphology and terrace orientations are probably the result of pre-impact effects. Structural and topographic orientations associated with three large pre-existing degraded craters dominate the impact site.     

The anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility in biotite, muscovite and chlorite single crystals

The anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of single crystals of biotite, muscovite and chlorite has been measured in order to provide accurate values of the magnetic anisotropy properties for these common rock-forming minerals. The low-field AMS and the high-field paramagnetic susceptibility are defined. For the high-field values, it is necessary to combine the paramagnetic deviatoric tensor obtained from the high-field torque magnetometer with the paramagnetic bulk susceptibility measured from magnetization curves of the crystals. This leads to the full paramagnetic susceptibility ellipsoid due to the anisotropic distribution of iron cations in the silicate lattice. The ellipsoid of paramagnetic susceptibility, which was obtained for the three phyllosilicates, is highly oblate in shape and the minimum susceptibility direction is subparallel to the crystallographic c-axes. The anisotropy of the susceptibility within the basal plane of the biotite has been evaluated and found to be isotropic within the accuracy of the instrumental measurements. The degree of anisotropy of biotite and chlorite is compatible with previously reported values while for muscovite the smaller than previously published values. The shape of the chlorite AMS ellipsoid for all the samples is near-perfect oblate in contrast with a wide distribution of oblate and prolate values reported in earlier studies. Reliable values are important for deriving models of the magnetic anisotropy where it reflects mineral fabrics and deformation of rocks.     

Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Costs over the Life Cycle of Wood and Alternative Flooring Materials

Increased use of wood can substitute more energy demanding products and thus contribute to a long-term solution to the global warming problem. The aim of this article is to provide an empirical study on this substitution impact, its cost-effectiveness, and which methodological assumptions that are of highest importance for the results obtained. We have made a case study where we compare use of various flooring materials. The results show that floor covering in solid oak causes lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the other materials. The difference can be ranked in the following order, after their potential for reduction in GHG emissions: Carpet in wool, carpet in polyamide, vinyl, and linoleum. At 2% pro anno discount rate, the avoided GHG emission in tons per m³ of oak flooring used is 0.1–1.9 for linoleum, and 11.8–15.5 for wool carpets. Unless the solution in solid oak is on total less expensive over the lifetime of the building, only the price of avoided emissions from a substitution between solid oak and carpet in wool is reasonable, compared to present carbon fees. The assumptions that influence the result most are choice of discount rate, carbon fixation on forest area, and waste handling. Empirical case studies like this indicate GHG emission reduction potentials caused by substitution, but should be complemented by dynamic input/output analyses and econometric studies. To analyse the flow of CO₂ over time, they should also be linked to forest management models.     

Characterization of fluid inclusions from mineralized pegmatites of the Damara Belt,Namibia: insight into late-stage fluid evolution and implications for mineralization

Mineralogy and Petrology - Mineralized NYF and LCT pegmatites occur throughout the northeast-trending Neoproterozoic Damara Belt, Namibia. Mineralization in the pegmatites varies geographically,...     

Sea Level Rise in Miami Beach: Vulnerability and Real Estate Exposure

Sea level rise threatens coastal communities throughout the United States, and South Florida is on the front line. The iconic and built-up city of Miami Beach, Florida, has a well-developed, high-value property market, and the municipality has been lauded for proactively taking action to adapt to anticipated sea level rise. Moving beyond hyperbole and piecemeal evidence, we compile a comprehensive inventory of adaptation and mitigation measures implemented by various municipal agencies. We employ these data sets to measure exposure and readiness for the entire city and make a preliminary effort to develop a city vulnerability index. Our findings reveal that exposure throughout the city is high and that readiness is concentrated near stormwater drainage systems, leading to high vulnerability along the coast. When we compare the spatial patterns of the vulnerability index and the residential property values, we find a mismatch. The most vulnerable regions are characterized by high income, transiency, and an apparent unresponsiveness to sea level rise. No doubt our findings illustrate a lag effect, but if sea level rise increases, the real estate market could reach a tipping point unless state and federal agencies also fund more comprehensive adaptation.     

Vulnerability of population and transportation infrastructure at the east bank of Delaware Bay due to coastal flooding in sea-level rise conditions

Catastrophic flooding associated with sea-level rise and change of hurricane patterns has put the northeastern coastal regions of the United States at a greater risk. In this paper, we predict coastal flooding at the east bank of Delaware Bay and analyze the resulting impact on residents and transportation infrastructure. The three-dimensional coastal ocean model FVCOM coupled with a two-dimensional shallow water model is used to simulate hydrodynamic flooding from coastal ocean water with fine-resolution meshes, and a topography-based hydrologic method is applied to estimate inland flooding due to precipitation. The entire flooded areas with a range of storm intensity (i.e., no storm, 10-, and 50-year storm) and sea-level rise (i.e., current, 10-, and 50-year sea level) are thus determined. The populations in the study region in 10 and 50 years are predicted using an economic-demographic model. With the aid of ArcGIS, detailed analysis of affected population and transportation systems including highway networks, railroads, and bridges is presented for all of the flood scenarios. It is concluded that sea-level rise will lead to a substantial increase in vulnerability of residents and transportation infrastructure to storm floods, and such a flood tends to affect more population in Cape May County but more transportation facilities in Cumberland County, New Jersey.     

Age-metallicity relation for F-stars

We derived the age-metallicity relation for the solar neighbourhood from theuvby, H photometry of F-stars using the evolutionary models of Hejlesen (1980). It is shown that disk formation is divided into two phases according to the fast and slow collapse which accompany the initial rapid enrichment and slow increase of the metallicity of the galactic disk, respectively.Paper presented at the IAU Third Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting, held in Kyoto, Japan, between 30 September–6 October, 1984.     

Domoic acid excretion in dungeness crabs, razor clams and mussels

Domoic acid (DA) is a neurotoxic amino acid produced by several marine algal species of the Pseudo-nitzschia (PN) genus. We studied the elimination of DA from hemolymph after intravascular (IV) injection in razor clams (Siliqua patula), mussels (Mytilus edulis) and Dungeness crabs (Cancer magister). Crabs were also injected with two other organic acids, dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and kainic acid (KA). For IV dosing, hemolymph was repetitively sampled and DA concentrations measured by HPLC-UV. Toxicokinetic analysis of DA in crabs suggested most of the injected dose remained within hemolymph compartment with little extravascular distribution. This observation is in sharp contrast to results obtained from clams and mussels which exhibited similarly large apparent volumes of distribution despite large differences in overall clearance. These findings suggest fundamentally different storage and elimination processes are occurring for DA between bivalves and crabs.     

Biodiversity of meiofauna in the intertidal khe nhan mudflat,can gio mangrove forest,vietnam with special emphasis on free living nematodes

The ecological aspect of meiofaunal communities in Can Gio mangrove forest, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam has not been investigated before. The composition, distribution, density and biodiversity of meiofaunal communities were studied along an intertidal transect at the Khe Nhan mudflat. Each time, three replicate samples were collected in four stations along a transect following the water line from low tide level up to the mangrove forest edge. In total, 18 meiofaunal taxa were found with the dominant taxa belonging to Nematoda, Copepoda, Sarcomastigophora and Polychaeta. The densities of meiofauna ranged from 1156 inds/10 cm² to 2082 inds/10 cm². The increase in densities from the mangrove forest edge towards the low water line was significant. Along the mudflat transect, the biodiversity (expressed by different indices) was relatively high at different taxonomic levels but did not vary significantly along the mudflat except for taxa richness. Eighty nematode genera belonging to 24 families with Comesomatidae having the highest abundance 33.8 % were found.Theristus andNeochromadora decreased in densities from the lower water line towards the mangrove forest edge, whileParacomesoma andHopperia are typical and more abundant at the middle of the mudflat.Halalaimus increased from high on the mudflat to the low water line.