Investigation of Failure Mechanisms and Migration of Organic Chemicals at Wilsonville, Illinois

Ground water contamination was discovered in 1981 in a monitoring well at the Earthline disposal facility near Wilsonville, Illinois. Organic chemicals had migrated at a rate 100 to 1000 times greater than predicted when the site received its permit to operate in 1978. Postulated failure mechanisms included migration through previously unmapped permeable zones, subsidence of an underground mine, organic-chemical and clay-mineral interactions, acid-mine drainage and clay interactions, trench-cover settlement, and erosion.
In this investigation, the Illinois State Geological Survey found the primary reason for the rapid migration: the presence of previously undetermined fractures and joints in glacial till. The inaccurate predictions of hydraulic conductivity were based on laboratory-determined values that did not adequately measure the effects of fractures and joints on the transit time calculations. Field-measured hydraulic conductivity values were generally 10 to 1000 times greater than their laboratory-measured counterparts, thus largely accounting for the discrepancy between predicted and actual migration rates in the transit time calculations. The problem was compounded, however, by the burial of liquid wastes and by trench covers that allowed excess surface runoff to enter the trenches. Organic-chemical and clay-mineral interactions may also have exacerbated the problem in areas where liquid organic wastes were buried.     

A literature review of the saturation state of seawater with respect to calcium carbonate and its possible significance for scale formation on OTEC heat exchangers

An investigation has been made of available data on the saturation state of seawater with respect to calcium carbonate and its possible significance for scale formation on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) heat exchangers. Pertinent oceanographic data is lacking at or near potential OTEC sites for the calculation of the degree of saturation of seawater with respect to calcium carbonate. Consequently, only “extrapolated” saturation values can be used. These indicate that near surface seawater is probably supersaturated, with respect to the calcium carbonate phases calcite and aragonite, at all potential OTEC sites. The deep seawater that would be brought to the surface at the potential Atlantic Ocean sites is also likely to be supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate. The deep seawater at the potential Pacific Ocean sites may be slightly undersaturated.The fact that OTEC heat exchangers will be operating in seawater, which is supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate, means that if nucleation of calcite or aragonite occurs on the heat exchanger surfaces, significant growth rates of calcium carbonate scale may be expected. The potential for calcium carbonate nucleation is highest at cathodic metal surface locations, which are produced as the result of aluminum corrosion in seawater. Consequently, corrosion and scale formation may be closely related. What the possible effects of biofouling may be on this process are not known.     

The chemistry of orthophosphate uptake from seawater on to calcite and aragonite

The chemistry of orthophosphate uptake from synthetic seawater onto the surfaces of synthetic calcite, aragonite and low-magnesium biogenic calcite has been studied, in order to elucidate the kinetics of the process (generally believed to be the major control of dissolved reactive phosphate in carbonate-rich marine sediments). Our results differ from those obtained by others, who have studied orthophosphate uptake in low ionic strength solutions and at much higher supersaturations relative to apatite.In both ‘free drift’ and chemostat experiments, Mg and F have only a minor effect on the reaction rate. Even at constant solution composition the rate of orthophosphate uptake was found to decrease by 10⁶ over a two week period. The data from the ‘free drift’ experiments can be fitted to the Elovich equation. This indicates that the kinetics observed for this reaction can be explained by an exponential decrease in available surface reaction sites and/or a linear increase in the activation energy associated with chemisorption as the reaction proceeds.     

油田开发中后期岩相单元的细分研究

油田开发中后期建立在原小层对比和沉积微相基础上的储层地质模型已不能适应调整挖潜和剩余油分布研究的要求,需要在小层划分的基础上,进一步细分到岩相单元。本文以大庆长垣南部葡北油田葡I组油层为例提出岩相单元的概念,通过现代沉积研究论证岩相单元细分的可行性,结合密井网测井曲线分析旋回性、隔夹层分布的稳定性及目前经济技术和采油工艺等,探讨细分单元的基本原则。最后提出岩相单元细分的基本方法。     

Organic matter in deepwater sediments of the Northern Gulf of Mexico and its relationship to the distribution of benthic organisms

Sediment samples were selected from 28 sites across the deep (212–3527 m) northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) as part of the Deep Gulf of Mexico Benthos (DGoMB) program, and analyzed for geochemical parameters related to organic carbon (OC) distribution and characteristics. The results of this study indicate that the OC content of sediments in the deep northern GOM is controlled by several factors; including water depth, overlying water productivity, sediment carbonate content, sediment oxygen exposure time, OC sources, and regional influences. The best correlation between sediment OC content, on a CaCO₃-free basis, and other parameters examined was an inverse correlation of OC with water depth. The OC/SA ratio had a wide range of values and, along with variable sources of sedimentary OC, indicated that the organism-available concentration of metabolizable organic matter may not be simply related to sedimentary OC content. This was perhaps reflected in the observation that benthic macrofaunal and meiofaunal biomass abundances were well correlated with sedimentary OC, but the abundance of bacteria in sediments was not.     

Faith and Doubt in an American Working Landscape: The Importance of Scale,Work, and Place in Rural Development Planning

The term “working landscape” (WL) is increasingly used by American planners and policy makers to describe the rural places and livelihoods they aim to shape. This paper draws from a mixed-methods study of WL language as a collective action frame in the state of Vermont, where WL has been formalized into policy. Natural resource leaders and professionals share a common definition of WL that is supported by four key beliefs. However, interviews conducted in two representative farming communities suggest that landuse practitioners have not adopted WL language, and in some cases are skeptical of its meaning. The analysis explores potential explanations for the failure of the WL collective action frame to resonate across scales. The paper argues for a bottom-up planning approach that produces working landscapes policies that allow for diverse forms of work and accommodate the specificities of place.     

Terrestrial discharge influences microbioerosion and microbioeroder community structure in coral reefs

Microbioerosion rates and microbioeroder community structure were studied in four Kenyan protected coral-reef lagoons using shell fragments of Tridacna giant clams to determine their response to the influence of terrestrial run-off. Fourteen different microbioeroder traces from seven cyanobacteria, three green algae and four fungi species were identified. The river discharge-impacted reef and ‘pristine’ reef showed similar composition but higher microbioeroder abundance and total cyanobacteria- and chlorophyte-bioeroded areas when compared with the other study reefs. Cyanobacteria dominated during the north-east monsoon (NEM) relative to the south-east monsoon (SEM) season, with algae and cyanobacteria being major microbioeroders in the river-impacted and pristine reefs. The rate of microbioerosion varied between 4.3 g CaCO3 m^?2 y^?1 (SEM) and 134.7 g CaCO₃ m^?2 y^?1 (NEM), and was highest in the river-impacted reef (127.6 g CaCO₃ m^?2 y^?1), which was almost double that in the pristine reef (69.5 g CaCO₃ m^?2 y^?1) and the mangrove-fringed reef (56.2 g CaCO₃ m^?2 y^?1). The microbioerosion rates measured in this study may not be high enough to cause concern with regard to the health and net carbonate production of Kenya’s coral reefs. Nevertheless, predicted increases in the frequency and severity of stresses related to global climate change (e.g. increased sea surface temperature, acidification), as well as interactions with local disturbances and their influence on bioerosion, may be increasingly important in the future.     

Origin of earliest planetary crust: role of compositional convection

The formation of earliest stable planetary crust poses the following dilemma. All surface crusts formed by direct quenching of planetary-scale magma are mafic and dense, and will founder. All felsic crystals light enough to float will form only after protracted differentiation and will grow too slowly to be separated from their parent magma on the short timescale of near-surface residence. Early crust must be intrinsically stable to accretionary bombardment in order to survive, hence it must float. One solution is to make pop-up felsic crust on a rapid time scale by collecting the lighter evolved liquid, not the crystals. Such a liquid is produced by solute rejection at depth from growing mafic crystals, and it rises by compositional convection. It stirs and cools the magma and reduces the accretionary thermal maximum, perhaps to zero. It has a high viscosity and high barrier to nucleation, hence may coalesce metastably. Near the surface, rapid crystallization will follow spontaneous nucleation. Rafts and rockbergs will coalesce to form the earliest crust. On the moon, this is anorthositic. On the earth, the presence of water enhances the silica content of the network-rich liquid and gives rise to tonalite. Existing ancient tonalites may reflect an original tonalitic crust. Modern oceanic rhyolites and trondhjemites may owe their existence to a similar process of liquid collection, and could therefore serve as a test of the crust-forming hypothesis.