Not for the first time. In an interview yesterday evening in German TV Mr. Bush said in reply to a question "I think NATO is vital". He was translated as saying "I glaube die NATO ist vital". Study your dictionaries and report back to me.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/21/2005 09:38:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

Here is a list of words related to geology and geotechnics, German > English. A one-off only, if you want more you'll have to go to my resources site. Some of these are, of course, not gospel, but a surprisingly large amount are, especially in their specific fields. Some will not make any sense whatsoever out of context.

Abbildungsvorschrift          Projection
abflußlos                     Endorheic
abflußloses System            endorheic system
Abfragebox                    Prompt
Abschiebung                   normal fault
Absenktrichter                drawdown cone
Absenkung                     Drawdown
Abstich                       depth-to-water
Ackerbau                      Agriculture
aerobe Atmung                 aerobic respiration
Aktionsbox                    command button
Aktivkohle                    activated charcoal
Aquifermächtigkeit            aquifer thickness
auf der sicheren Seite        Conservative
Auffächerung                  Delta
Aufpunkt                      model point
Aufschlusstiefe               exposure depth
Ausbauplan                    well development diagram
Ausbauradius                  casing radius
ausgelaugt                    Leached
Ausnutzungsgrad               utilisation factor
Aussteifung                   Bracing
Auswahlfeld                   drop-down list box
Auswertebereich               evaluation range
bauliche Anlage               Structure
Begasungssystem               aeration system
Beiwert                       Factor, coefficient
Bemessungsgröße               design value
Benzoesäure                   benzoic acid
Benzol                        Benzene
Beobachtungsbrunnen           monitoring well
Beobachtungspegel             observation gauge
Betonschale                   concrete shell
Bewehrte-Erde                 reinforced earth
Beweidung                     Grazing
Biegebemessung                bending dimensioning
Biegung                       Bend
bindigen Böden                cohesive soils
Bioventing-Anlage             bioventing system
Bioventing-Anlage             bioventing facility
Blockgleitmethode             wedge method
Bodeneigengewicht             soil self-weight
Bodenkennwert                 soil property
Bodenkunde                    Pedology
Bodenluftabsaugung            soil air extraction
Bodenpressung                 soil pressure
Bodenprofil                   soil column
Bodenverunreinigung           soil contamination
Bohrprofil                    stratigraphic log
Böschungsbruchberechnung      slope stability analysis
Breitengrad                   Latitude
Brunnenspeicherung            wellbore storage
Combo-Box                     Combo box
Darcy'schen Gesetz            Darcy's Law
Darstellung                   Visualisation
Deckungsgleichheit            Congruence
Digitalisiergenauigkeit       digitalization precision
Digitalisierung               Digitisation
Direktinjektion               direct injection
Doppelpfeil                   Pointer
dreiaxialen Druckversuch      triaxial compression test
Druckgefälle                  pressure gradient
Druckleitung                  Penstock
Drucksetzungskurve            load-settlement curve
Druckstollen                  head-race tunnel
durchgehende Platte für einen
Nagel                         continuous face-plate for a single nail
durchgehender Gewinnung von
gekernten Proben              continuous core sample recovery
Durchlässigkeit               Permeability
Durchlässigskeitsbeiwert      coefficient of permeability
Durchstanzen                  Punching
Durchstoßpunkte               piercing points
Ebene                         Theme
Eigengewicht                  self-weight
Eigenkapazität
(Brunnenspeicherung)          wellbore storage
Einbringung                   Introduction
einspringend                  Re-entrant
Eintretenswahrscheinlichkeit  probability of occurrence
Einzelparameter               individual parameters
Elastizität                   Elasticity
Empfehlungen des
Arbeitsausschusses            Recommendations of the 
Ufereinfassungen              Committee for Waterfront Structures
Entlastung                    Unloading
Entnahmerate                  extraction rate
entzerrt                      Rectified
Erdbebenbelastung             seismic load
Erddruck                      earth pressure
Erddruckkraft                 earth pressure
Erdruhedruck                  at-rest earth pressure
Erdwärme                      geothermal heat
Erdwärmesonde                 heat exchanger
Ersatzboden                   equivalent soil
Ersatzkraft                   equivalent force
Extremereigniss               extreme event
Fallleitung                   Penstock
Fentons Reagenz               Fenton’s reagent
Fischpässe                    fish passages
Flächenlast                   distributed load
flächentreue                  equal area
Flächenumgrenzungen           area boundaries
Förderbrunnen                 extraction well
Form der Darstellung          Presentation format
Formbeiwert                   shape factor
Ganglinie                     Hydrograph
GC- Chromatogramm             GC chromatogram
geflochtene Flüsse            braided rivers
Geländebruch                  general failure
Geogitter                     Geogrid
georeferenziert               Georeferenced
Georeferenzierung             Georeferencing
gesättigten Bodenzone         saturated zone
gespannt                      Confined
gespannter Grundwasserleiter  confined aquifer
gewonnen Bodenprobe           recovered soil sample
Gleiten                       Sliding
Gleitfläche                   slip plane
Gleitflächenwinkel            slip surface angle
Grenztiefe                    limit depth
Großwinkel-Störung            high-angle fault
Grundablass                   bottom-outlet
Grundbruch                    bearing capacity failure
Grundbruchberechnung          bearing capacity analysis
Grundbruchsicherheit          safety against bearing capacity failure
Grundrechenarten              basic mathematical operations
Grundwasserfließgefälle I     groundwater flow gradient I
Grundwassergleichenplan       groundwater contour diagram
Grundwasserleiter             Aquifer
Grundwassermessstelle         groundwater monitoring well
Gutachten                     Report
halblogarithmisch             semi-logarithmic
Hangendblock                  hanging wall
Harnisch                      Slickensides
Heizkraftwerk                 co-generation power station
helvetische Decke             helvetic alpine nappe
Hilfslinie                    reference line
H-Kraft                       normal force
Hochwasserentlastungsanlage   Spillway
homogen                       Homogeneous
hydraulischer Grundbruch      hydraulic heave
Imbrikationsfächer            imbricate fan
Immissionsrichtwert           immission guide value
Impressum                     editorial information
Infobox                       message box
insitu-Behandlungsverfahren   in-situ treatment method
instationär                   Transient
Isohyete                      isohyetal line
isotrop                       Isotropic
Jährlichkeit                  recurrence interval
Kegelschnittprojektion        conic projection
Kenngröße                     Parameter
Kernweite                     kernel width
Kleinwinkel-Störung           low-angle fault
Kompressibilität              Compressibility
Konsolidierungsgrad           consolidation ratio
Kontaminationsverschleppung   contaminant entrainment
Korngerüst                    grain skeleton
Korreleationskoeffizient      correlation coefficient
Länge                         Longitude
Längengrad                    Longitude
längentreue                   equal length
LCKW                          VOC
Leitfähigkeit                 Conductivity
Leitwand                      guide wall
Liegendblock                  footwall block
Linienelement                 line element
Luftfeuchtigkeit              Humidity
manipulieren                  Modify
Massenerhaltungsgesetz        law of mass conservation
Maßketten                     dimension lines
Messdatenerfassungssystem     data acquisition system
Messpunkt                     measuring point
Messrechner                   logging computer
metamorphen Kernkomplex       metamorphic core-complex
Mittelmeridian                central meridian
Mündung                       Mouth
Nachweis                      Verification
Nagelwand                     Nail wall
Nebenfluß                     Tributary
Niederschlag                  Precipitation
Norddeutschen Tiefebene       North German Plain
Nullebene                     base level
Oberflächengeothermie         shallow geothermal energy
Oberrheintal                  Upper Rhine Valley
ORC                           Oxygen Release Compounds
Ortschaften                   Settlements
Ortsdurchfahrt                urban connector
Ortshöhe                      geodetic altitude
PAK                           PAH
Passpunkten                   register points
POK (Pegeloberkante)          Ga(u)ge datum
Porenraum                     pore space
Porenwasserdruck-
Stauchungslinie               porewater pressure-compression curve
Pumpprobe                     pumped sample
Punktobjekt                   point object
Punktthema                    point theme
Quellfluss                    source river
Quellstärke                   source strength
radialsymmetrisch             radial-symmetric
Rasterdatei                   raster file
Rasterdaten                   raster data
reaktiver Gase                reactive gases
Ruhewasserspiegel             at-rest water level
Rumpfflaeche                  Peneplain
sandig                        Sandy
Sanierungsschwellenwert       remediation trigger value
Sanierungsvarianten           remediation variants
Säulenversuch                 column test
Säure-Basekapazität           acid - alkali capacity
Schallschutzmaßnahme          noise abatement measure
Scherweg                      Shear path
Schichtserie                  stratigraphic sequence
Schiefstellung                Tilting
schluffig                     Silty
Schneckenbohrung              auger drilling
Schwäbischen Alb              Swabian Alb
Seeablagerung                 lacustrine deposit
Seitendruckspannung           lateral pressure stress
Sicherheitsabfrage            confirmation prompt
Sickerlinie                   phreatic line
Skalierungsfaktor             scaling factor
Soloplatte                    isolated face-plate
Sonnenscheindauer             sunshine duration
Spannungspfad                 stress path
Spannungsverhältnis-
Stauchungslinie               stress ratio-strain curve
Speicherkoeffizient           storage coefficient
Standardabweichung            standard deviation
ständigen Last                permanent load
Steifemodul                   constrained modulus
Stichtagsmessung              reference date measurement
Stoffgesetz                   constitutive equation
Störung                       Fault
Störungsstufe                 Scarp
Streckenlast                  line load
streckentreu                  equal distance
Streifenfundament             strip foundation
Stützflüssigkeit              supporting fluid
Stützkraft                    support force
Stützpunkte                   Vertices
Süddeutschen Molassebecken    South German molasses basin
Summenkurve                   cumulative frequency curve
syn-sedimentäre
Wachstumsstörung              synsedimentary growth fault
Tanklager                     fuel depot
technischem Sauerstoff        industrial oxygen
Teilsicherheitskonzept        partial safety factor concept
Tieflöffelbagger              backhoe excavator
Toluol                        Toluene
tonig                         Clayey
Tragfähigkeit                 bearing capacity
Tragfähigkeitsbeiwert         bearing capacity factor
Transmissivität               Transmissivity
Trichlorethen                 Trichloroethene
Trockenheit                   Aridity
Turbinenleitung               Penstock
Überschiebungssystem          thrust system
Überschreitungswahr-
scheinlichkeit                Exceedance probability
Überschüsse                   Overshoots
Übertritt                     step-over
Umgehungsgerinne              Spillway
ungesättigten Bodenzone       unsaturated zone
ungespannter GW-leiter        unconfined aquifer
Unterschüsse                  Undershoots
veränderliche Last            changeable load
veränderliche Lastgröße       changeable load
verdrängt                     Supplanted
Verfestigungsgrad             average consolidation ratio
verödet                       Desolate
Verschiebungsfaktor           displacement factor
Vertices                      Vertices
V-Kraft                       shear force
Vollrohr                      blank casing
vorbelastet                   Overconsolidated
Vorfeldmessstelle             catchment monitoring well
Vorfluter                     higher order water course
Vorland-Überschiebungsgürtel  foreland fold-and-thrust belt
Vorpsrung                     Salient
Wärmepumpe                    heat pump
Wasserhaushalt                hydrologic balance
Wasserkraft                   Hydropower
wasserrechtlich               Riparian
Wiederbelastung               Reloading
winkeltreu                    equal angle
Xylole                        Xylene
Zeitreihe                     time series
Zeitsetzung                   time-settlement
zentralafrikanischen Republik Central African Republic
Zerfallskonstante             decay constant
zerklüftet                    Convoluted
Ziehfalte                     drag fold
Zulaufstollen                 head-race tunnel
Zusammendrückbarkeit          Compressibility
Zustandserfassung             register a nominal condition

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/17/2005 03:15:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

I should, of course, have mentioned that you can also purchase the previuosly mentioned map from the GSA. This is the folded version, which will cost you $120.00 as a member or $150.00 as a non-member (of the GSA). The rolled version is $5.00 more expensive, respectively. The only (big) snag here is that the rolled version can only be delivered within North America (US, Canada, Mexico), "Due to international postal regulations"!! I'd like to know what those international postal regulations are

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/16/2005 09:01:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

The USGS Office of Communication yesterday announced the publication by the GSA (Geological Society of America) of a new geologic map of North America. In light of advances in geological sciences in the 40! (forty) years since the last definitve map was published, it's about time. Just imagine, when the last map was published, plate tectonics was not yet widely accepted, and certainly not taught at universities, and impact craters were known as mere "anomalies" (I think the term "crypto-volcanic structures" may have just come into use about this time).

The maps can be downloaded here.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/16/2005 07:21:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Study in Science may help change the broad understanding of how they are formed

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, have produced new findings that may help alter commonly held beliefs about how chains of undersea mountains formed by volcanoes, or "seamounts," are created. Such mountains can rise thousands of feet off the ocean floor in chains that span thousands of miles across the ocean.

Since the mid-20th century, the belief that the earth's surface is covered by large, shifting plates--a concept known as plate tectonics--has shaped conventional thinking on how seamount chains develop. Textbooks have taught students that seamount patterns are shaped by changes in the direction and motion of the plates. As a plate moves, stationary "hot spots" below the plate produce magma that forms a series of volcanoes in the direction of the plate motion.

Now, Anthony Koppers and Hubert Staudigel of Scripps have published a study that counters the idea that hot spots exist in fixed positions. The paper in the Feb. 11 issue of Science shows that hot spot chains can change direction as a result of processes unrelated to plate motion. The new research adds further to current scientific debates on hot spots and provides information for a better understanding of the dynamics of the earth's interior.

To investigate this phenomenon, Staudigel led a research cruise in 1999 aboard the Scripps research vessel Melville to the Pacific Ocean's Gilbert Ridge and Tokelau Seamounts near the international date line, a few hundred miles north of American Samoa and just south of the Marshall Islands.

Gilbert and Tokelau are the only seamount trails in the Pacific that bend in sharp, 60-degree angles--comparable in appearance to hockey sticks--similar to the bending pattern of the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain (which includes the Hawaiian Islands).

Assuming that these three chains were created by fixed hot spots, the bends in the Gilbert Ridge and Tokelau Seamounts should have been created at roughly the same time period as the bend in the Hawaii-Emperor chain, the conventional theory holds.

Koppers, Staudigel and a team of student researchers aboard Melville spent six weeks exploring the ocean floor at Gilbert and Tokelau. They used deep-sea dredges to collect volcanic rock samples from the area.

For the next several years, Koppers used laboratory instruments to analyze the composition of the rock samples and calculate their ages.

"It was quite a surprise that we found the Gilbert and Tokelau seamount bends to have completely different ages than we expected," said Koppers, a researcher at the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps. "We certainly didn't expect that they were 10 and 20 million years older than previously thought."

Instead of forming 47 million years ago, as did the Hawaiian-Emperor bend, the Gilbert chain was found to be 67 million years old and the Tokelau 57 million years old.

"I think this really hammers it in that the origin of the alignment of these seamount chains may be much more complicated than we previously believed, or the alignment may not have anything to do with plate motion changes," said Staudigel.

Although they do not have positive proof as yet, Koppers and Staudigel speculate that local stretching of the plate may allow magma to rise to the surface or that hot spots themselves might move. Together with plate motion, these alternate processes may be responsible for the resulting pattern of seamounts.

Koppers and Staudigel will go to sea again next year to seek additional clues to the hot spot and seamount mysteries.

"Seamount trails are thousands of kilometers long and even if we are out collecting for several weeks, we still only cover a limited area," said Koppers. "One of the things holding us back in developing a new theory is that the oceans are humongous and our database is currently very small we are trying to understand a very big concept."

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Read the original, with graphics, here.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/16/2005 12:43:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

The latest toy from ESA is a map of Europe. It is made up of a set of true-colour Envisat satellite mosaics. Each member country of the EU can be downloaded separately. Below are the UK and Germany. Click to enlarge or go here to view all of Europe and get your own.

UK

Germany

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/08/2005 08:24:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

All up the north-east coast, from Hartlepool, just north of the Tees, to Northumberland, you can see seacoal on the beaches. The coal originates from outcrops below the North Sea. It is reworked and washed up on the shores of north-east England. This is something like what you will see:

Seacoal on the beach at Hartlepool

It is generally fine-to-medium grained, but can also be quite coarse. I've even collected handpieces up to about fist-sized. It gets a lot thicker than this and is much more widespread when the tide is right out. The exact extent depends somewhat on the tides and winds. The deposits can reach several inches thick between each tide. See the lens cap in the next picture:

Close up of seacoal

The seacoal is collected from the beaches by seacoal hawkers. When I was a lad in Hartlepool we just called them "'awkers". Not necessarily derogatory, as many assume, a hawker is simply somebody that collects things. Seacoal is cheaper than normal mined coal, or it was back then. When I was a child we would sometimes buy seacoal, at other times, when we were really skint, we would go to the beach to collect some ourselves. We had to take care not to get caught by the hawkers, they weren't too keen on it. I used to like the pungent coal and sea-salt smell when we burned on our open hearth. The hawkers still operate, although there are people trying to destroy their living and way of life. If you see them, and particularly if you live in Hartlepool, spare a thought for them, and stick up for them instead of putting them down, it is a bitter and hard way of earning a living.

In April 2001, The Guardian newspaper carried an excellent article by the same name by Jonathan Tulloch. Read the Boys from the Black Stuff here.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/06/2005 02:42:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

I came across this amusing little toy whilst paying a reciprocal visit to fluffy as a cat. You can generate a map of the world showing the countries you have visited. Makes me look damn near cosmopolitan ... Although it looks as though I'm gonna have to get to South America and Africa somewhen.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/06/2005 12:31:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

There are lots of these around here. In fact, you find them all over the country. A lot of them look more or less ramshackle and are in varying states of disrepair. The architecture ranges from quite open, as in this one, to completely enclosed, but with windows (well, usually clear plastic flaps). They are generally located on the edge of a woods, or in a wood, on the edge of a clearing. Hunters use them to watch out for prey. Some use them for animal- or bird-spotting. I've been thinking of hijacking one for some photography.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/05/2005 10:45:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

The ironstone mined from the Eston Hills once helped power the industrial revolution. Looking north from the northern edge in this picture you can see as far as Hartlepool Bay and the Headland. The nuclear power station can be seen centre left (the big, squarish block). To the right is the North Sea. Actually, the picture shows more of Teesbay than Teeside.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/05/2005 05:37:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

It's not too often that I get to write about translation and geotechnical engineering in the same post. My monthly Ground Engineering reports on a case of (apparently) material fatigue causing failure on Junttan PM 20 piling rig undercarriage track beam.

In a statement issued in November (2004) customers were requested to immediately inspect the rigs in accordance with a service information bulletin and were warned that if the units were misused and "not inspected on a regular basis, then cracks may appear and, ultimately, the component may break [sic]".

The daily inspection recommendation was later withdrawn after Junttan confessed that the component in question was "not the easiest component to inspect". Their UK agent said the statement "was incorrectly translated from Finnish to English and daily checking would be impossible to implement." Apparently, this mistranslation caused a lot of alarm amoing some contractors using the rigs.

If you own one of these rigs it is now recommended you inspect on a weekly basis.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 2/03/2005 12:36:00 AM 0 comments links to this post