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This presentation covers the various types of natural disasters which are faced by investigators throughout the world. Each geophysical substance is discussed, including earth, air and water, and secondary effects including fire. Additionally, four myths associated with disasters are reviewed.
The nature of the parent rock determines the trace element content of soils. Ultrabasic and basic rocks, which solidified first from the molten magma, incorporated bioessential trace elements such as Co, Ni, Zn and Cr by isomorphous replacement of Fe and Mg in ferromagnesian minerals, while acidic rocks, the last to solidify, tended to be richer in other elements such as Ba and Pb. Cu, Mn and, to a lesser extent, B, Mo and Se are more evenly distributed. The weathering of rocks by pedological and biological processes such as glacial and hydrodynamic comminution, secretion of acids and liganding species by microbes and plants leads to the formation of sands, silts and clays, and finally the incorporation of organic matter causes humification and the formation of soils as we know them. Part of the soil's store of bioessential elements is held in forms that are available to plants. Availability is controlled by the forms of occurrence and the nature of binding of the trace elements in the soil, which in turn is affected by soil acidity, redox balance (drainage) and organic matter content. These and other factors are discussed along with measures for alleviation of deficiency problems. Future progress in this area will depend to a large extent on interdisciplinary research by biologists, chemists, physicists and statisticians.
A hydraulic field test program was performed at a hard rock laboratory (Aspö HRL) on the Swedish east coast to test upscaling theories. The test program investigated the rock volume around a borehole located at a depth of approximately 340 m below sea level. Hydraulic packer tests were performed at various scales, from 2 m to the entire borehole length of 296 m. From this set of data the predictive ability of different upscaling methods could be evaluated. The comparison of the evaluated "true" field scale hydraulic conductivity with the upscaled hydraulic conductivity yielded that the majority of the upscaling methods tested in this paper predict the large scale values with significant accuracy. However, the ability to predict rapidly decreases when the variance of the natural logarithm of hydraulic conductivity of the subsamples is larger than one. Such a variance is consistently found in the crystalline rocks at the tested site at the 2 m scale. However, at scales of 10 m and larger, a variance larger than one is uncommon. Therefore, it is concluded that there exists a smallest possible scale for use of hydraulic pumping test results for estimating the effective hydraulic conductivity at scales typical for regional flow.
Siting wells near streams requires an accurate estimate of the quantity of water derived from the river due to pumping. A number of hydrogeological and hydraulic parameters influence this value. This study estimates stream depletion under steady-state conditions for a variety of hydrogeological systems. A finite differences model was used to analyze several hydrogeological situations, and for each of these the stream depletion was estimated using an advective transport method. An empirical equation for stream depletion was obtained for the case of a stream that partially penetrates the aquifer and a pumping well that is screened over a portion of the aquifer. The derived equation, which is valid for both isotropic and anisotropic conditions, expresses stream depletion as a function of the unit inflow to the river, the discharge of the pumping well, the well screen length, the distance between the river and pumping well, the wetted perimeter, and a new parameter called "overlap," which is defined to be the distance between the riverbed and the top of well screen. The overlap parameter makes it possible to consider indirectly the vertical component of flow, which is accentuated when the well is screened below the streambed. The formula proposed here should be useful in deciding where to locate a pumping well and to decide the appropriate length of its screen.
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Thirty-five different samples from three different sulfur cycles were examined in this stratigraphically oriented study of the Shell 22x-l well (U.S.G.S. C177 core) in the Piceance Basin, Colorado. Carbon isotopic compositions of constituents of Green River bitumens indicate mixing of three main components: products of primary photoautotrophs and their immediate consumers (delta approximately -30% vs PDB), products of methanotrophic bacteria (delta approximately -85%), and products of unknown bacteria (delta approximately -40%). For individual compounds synthesized by primary producers, delta-values ranged from -28 to -32%. 13C contents of individual primary products (beta-carotane, steranes, acyclic isoprenoids, tricyclic triterpenoids) were not closely correlated, suggesting diverse origins for these materials. 13C contents of numerous hopanoids were inversely related to sulfur abundance, indicating that they derived both from methanotrophs and from other bacteria, with abundances of methanotrophs depressed when sulfur was plentiful in the paleoenvironment. gamma-Cerane coeluted with 3 beta(CH3),17 alpha(H),21 beta(H)-hopane, but delta-values could be determined after deconvolution. gamma-Cerane (delta approximately -25%) probably derives from a eukaryotic heterotroph grazing on primary materials, the latter compound (delta approximately -90%) must derive from methanotrophic organisms. 13C contents of n-alkanes in bitumen differed markedly from those of paraffins generated pyrolytically. Isotopic and quantitative relationships suggest that alkanes released by pyrolysis derived from a resistant biopolymer of eukaryotic origin and that this was a dominant constituent of total organic carbon.
We report an experimental study of a binary sand bed under an oscillating water flow. The formation and evolution of ripples is observed. The appearance of a granular segregation is shown to strongly depend on the sand bed preparation. The initial wavelength of the mixture is measured. In the final steady state, a segregation in volume is observed instead of a segregation at the surface as reported before. The correlation between this phenomenon and the fluid flow is emphasised. Finally, different "exotic" patterns and their geophysical implications are presented.
The History of Universe is described in an extremely summarized manner through the use of graphics, from Big bang until today. This is done according to the most recent standard models of Cosmology and Physics of elementary particles; in other words, according to those fields in Physics of a presupposed universal reference. The History of Life is immersed in this universal physical context, in a frame where our knowledge from Geology and Biology can be only terrestrial. The underlying ideas we try to arise are: 1) the transition from a relatively elementary structure to a posterior and a relatively more complex one requires some very special "environmental" conditions; and 2) the new structure can not be described only through its materic constituents, because in cosmic dynamicity new structures and new relationships (of intrinsic respectivity) arise, together with new laws (of extrinsic respectivity). Consequently and as an objective, physical knowledge (for example, elementary particles or atoms) alone in no way can explain biological reality (for example, cell or man).
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The incidence of dental fluorosis in 46,000 children in the Punjab was assessed and compared with the fluoride content of their water supplies. Ten villages were selected for more detailed studies of skeletal as well as dental fluorosis.Factors other than the fluoride contect of the drinking water which were found to influence the incidence and the severity of fluorosis were the chemical composition of the water and in particular its calcium content; the duration of exposure; sex and occupation; nutritional status; and climatic and geological variations. The role of fluoride-containing foodstuffs has yet to be assessed.
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In dryland ecosystems, the timing and magnitude of precipitation pulses drive many key ecological processes, notably soil water availability for plants and soil microbiota. Plant available water has frequently been viewed simply as incoming precipitation, yet processes at larger scales drive precipitation pulses, and the subsequent transformation of precipitation pulses to plant available water are complex. We provide an overview of the factors that influence the spatial and temporal availability of water to plants and soil biota using examples from western USA drylands. Large spatial- and temporal-scale drivers of regional precipitation patterns include the position of the jet streams and frontal boundaries, the North American Monsoon, El Niño Southern Oscillation events, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Topography and orography modify the patterns set up by the larger-scale drivers, resulting in regional patterns (10(2)-10(6) km2) of precipitation magnitude, timing, and variation. Together, the large-scale and regional drivers impose important pulsed patterns on long-term precipitation trends at landscape scales, in which most site precipitation is received as small events (< 5 mm) and with most of the intervals between events being short (< 10 days). The drivers also influence the translation of precipitation events into available water via linkages between soil water content and components of the water budget, including interception, infiltration and runoff, soil evaporation, plant water use and hydraulic redistribution, and seepage below the rooting zone. Soil water content varies not only vertically with depth but also horizontally beneath versus between plants and/or soil crusts in ways that are ecologically important to different plant and crust types. We highlight the importance of considering larger-scale drivers, and their effects on regional patterns; small, frequent precipitation events; and spatio-temporal heterogeneity in soil water content in translating from climatology to precipitation pulses to the dryland ecohydrology of water availability for plants and soil biota.
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The carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of seven of the most abundant alkylporphyrins from the Serpiano oil shale (marine, Triassic) were determined. For the C31 and C32 butanoporphyrins, values of delta 13CPDB and delta 15NAIR averaged -24.0% and -3.1%. In contrast, the C31 and C32 methylpropanoporphyrins, DPEP, and a C30 13-nor etioporphyrin had delta 13C and delta 15N values averaging -27.5 and -3.3%, respectively. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic values for kerogen averaged -30.8 and -0.9, whereas those for total extract averaged -31.6, and -4.0%. The butanoporphyrins apparently derive from a biological source different from that giving rise to the other porphyrins, their 13C enrichment not being related to carbon isotopic fractionation accompanying diagenetic reactions. The delta 15N values for all the porphyrins indicate that the depletion of 15N observed in the kerogen is of primary origin. Consistent with the very high abundance of hopanoids and methyl hopanoids in the aliphatic hydrocarbon fraction, it is suggested that cyanobacterial fixation of N2 may have been the main cause of 15N depletion.
Over the past two decades there has arisen a new branch of biology--space biology. This short review is devoted to a discussion of its achievements. It considers the results of research in the area of gravitation biology, and an account is made of studies in those areas of radiobiology which have relevance to the study of the cosmos. There is a brief summary of the results of the search for the upper and lower limits of the biosphere, and information is presented regarding the measures employed to maintain planetary quarantine. A great deal of attention has been given to the search for extraterrestrial life, one of the most important of problems. The results obtained with the aid of the American Viking probes on Mars are given special attention. The review presents experimental data based both upon data obtained in experiments on biological specimens during space flights of satellites and space vehicles, and also upon the results of laboratory research.
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It is the purpose of this chapter to provide a description of the fate and chemical alterations of organic matter under hydrothermal conditions, with a brief overview of the geographic localities where these processes have been studied to date. Two major but overlapping aspects will be considered: (a) Alteration and degradation processes and reactions, both reductive and oxidative, and (b) synthesis processes and reactions that are primarily reductive.