He only wanted more time
Away from the darkest door
But his luck it gave in
As the dawn light crept in
And he lay on the floor

From the hundred year war to the crimea
With a lance and a musket and a roman spear
To all of the men who have stood with no fear
In the service of the king

Before you met your fate be sure you
Did not forsake your lover
May not be around anymore

In the USA it's Memorial Day.

With thanks to Joe Strummer, who will also be rembered today.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/30/2005 05:25:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

The world famous Carnets de Géologie has announced the publication of a new "memoir":

Lambert B., Laporte-Galaa C. (2005).- Discoaster zonation of the Miocene of the Kutei Basin, East Kalimantan, Indonesia (Mahakam Delta Offshore).- Carnets de Géologie - Notebooks on Geology, Brest, Memoir 2005/01 (G2005_M01), 64 p., 27 fig., 17 pl.

Abstract:
Thirteen time-stratigraphic associations of the nannofossil Discoaster have been defined and used in the Miocene Kutei Basin of eastern Borneo to establish a regional stratigraphic framework. The methodology used is discussed and the fossils employed are figured and annotated. Their aid in resolving the timing, stages and details of delta construction is presented graphically.

Introduction:
The Kutei basin has been known as a prolific petroleum province since the first discoveries onshore at the end of the 19th century. For some fifteen years (1970-1985) a comprehensive regional stratigraphic framework for the Neogene sequence of the Kutei basin could not be established because of a lack of reliable faunal markers. The deficiency was caused by a scarcity of planktonic foraminifera in the predominant delta facies and the absence of large benthonic forms with significant stratigraphic value.

In the final years of the "eighties" Total attempted the use of calcareous nannofossils to resolve this problem. A new methodology was developed to take into account the obstructive characteristics of the sediments in the region: deltaic clays, silts and sands; and the quality of the materials available for study: for the most part, "cuttings".

The first investigations found nannofossils of the genus Discoaster in the shales of the "prodelta" facies, commonly far seaward of the shelf edge. They were and are the unique representatives of calcareous nannoplankton encountered. Their presence is sporadic and specimens are always sparsely dispersed in a huge amount of fine detritus.

Nevertheless, thirteen discrete time-stratigraphic associations have been recognized, defined, and described. They represent all but the lowermost stage of the Miocene, which was not reached by wells in the area. Their relationships to the nannofossil zonation considered "Standard" (Martini, Bukry) are indicated. Their use facilitated the determination of age relationships and permitted the correlation of a number of wells scattered widely in the Kutei basin.

The complete memoir can be accessed here (html). It can also be downloaded in PDF format.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/26/2005 05:39:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

My German book dealer sent me an e-mail this morning with a few new books, amongst them, the above mentioned. You all know the Ediacara by now, the final geological era of the Precambrian, that is, the latest Proterozoic. They (my book dealer) say that this is the only book for the general public so far dealing with the Ediacara system and its fauna. All other works are scientific in nature. Although the author's (M. McMenamin) theories on the systematics of the fossils discussed are the cause of some discussion amongst scientists, they recommend the book for its description of the fauna of the various classical locations and the very good photography. It is available through Amazon.de for €20.00.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/23/2005 11:36:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Deutsch:
1. Gebirgsmassiv: geschlossene Gebirgseinheit.
2. Tiefengesteinsmassiv (= großer Plutonkörper) -> Pluton.
3. Grundgebirgsmassiv: durch Hebung und langzeitige Abtragung freigelegter geschlossener Komplex gefalteter und metamorphisierter Gesteine.
4. Im Deckengebrige auftretendes autochtones Massiv -> Deckensysteme.
Nach Murawski, 1992

English:
1. Mountain heights forming a compact group (OED).
2. 'Pre-existing resistant masses, "stable blocks" or massifs, which are often the denuded relics of former mountain systems' (Woolridge and Morgan, Geomorphology, 1937).
3. 'The Carboniferous Limestone 'massif', in the Pin Dale area of Derbyshire' (Eden et al, BGS, 1964).
4. 'St. George's Land, the "massif" of palaeogeographical reconstruction. The origin of the massif as an upwarp above depositional level lay in the Caledonian movements' (George in Owen, ed., Upper Palaeozoic and Post-Palaeozoic Rocks of Wales, 1974).
Changed after Challinor, 1986

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/21/2005 08:34:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

A recently published article in Environmental Microbiology reveals that indigenous microbiota of the Galician shore is readily able to degrade crude oil. Scientists from the Estación Experimental del Zaidín (Spanish Council for Research, CSIC) in Granada investigated in situ crude oil degradation after the Prestige oil spill in November 2002.

After a spill, hydrocarbons are subjected to physicochemical processes such as evaporation or photochemical oxidation which produce changes in oil composition. But the most important process acting on the spilled oil is biodegradation. It is well established that most crude oils are biodegradable to a great extent, especially components as short linear alkanes or simple aromatic hydrocarbons. However, the heavy fraction, made of long-chain saturated and polyaromatic hydrocarbons and a considerable fraction of asphaltenes and resins, is generally recalcitrant to degradation.

The team’s goal was to assess the response of the natural bacterial population after the spill and to detect evidences of crude oil degradation taking place at the contaminated sites. They used stable isotopes (13C/12C) to determine the origin of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in control and contaminated coastal marine water samples. Due to its biological origin, crude oil is very depleted in 13C. Therefore, its biodegradation product CO2 will also be more 13C depleted as compared with the typical marine DIC and atmospheric dissolved CO2.

The sampling area is an energetic system poor in organic mater. Consequently, the anomalous DIC isotopic composition of certain samples taken along the shore of a contaminated island in the Cíes archipelago showed degradation of a depleted 13C source such as the Prestige crude oil, pointing out to a natural population oxidizing this carbon source into CO2. This could be reproduced in the laboratory using water samples taken from the contaminated shore, although the process required nitrogen and phosphorus amendment, these two elements being limited in marine ecosystems. The results confirmed the presence of a microbiota readily able to degrade the contaminant.

Further analysis of specific organisms present in contaminated beaches revealed the presence of several populations able to degrade polycyclic aromatic compounds such as phenanthrene or naphthalene, especially in those sites that had recently been restored after an important contamination episode. Authors concluded that, probably due to the contamination record of the past in that coast, indigenous populations had evolved to select for organisms able to grow and degrade components of crude oil.

To read this article at the source go to Blackwell Publishing

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/18/2005 06:25:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

The ancient sea was more like a giant salty lake than a rolling ocean, report scientists from Imperial College London in the May edition of the Journal of the Geological Society. A new computer model that simulates how tides in North West Europe would have behaved 300 million years ago shows a sea with so little movement that it was unlike any on Earth today.

Using information on the ancient land masses and the tidal pull of the Moon, the new computer modelling system reveals a picture of a Palaeozoic ocean in which even basic lifeforms would have struggled to survive. Without tides, shallow coastal water is not mixed up, preventing life-saving oxygen from being circulated.

This shortage of oxygen causes lifeforms such as plankton to die and the decay of these lifeforms uses up further oxygen, contributing to the creation of an environment unable to support life. The Palaeozoic period lasted from 570 to 245 million years ago.

Dr Peter Allison, from the Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering and one of the authors of the study, said: "It is very difficult to understand how these huge ancient seas behaved, since we have no examples of this sort of water body on Earth today.

"We have used a new computer model to deduce the tidal range in ancient seas and show that they were almost tideless. Understanding the behaviour of these vast shallow expanses is critical to our knowledge of the ancient climate and environments and to understand how early marine life evolved and diversified," says Dr Allison.

According to the researchers' estimates, the new computer programme can model the behaviour of the sea many times faster than existing modelling systems. The model, developed by Dr Chris Pain, Dr Matthew Piggott and Martin Wells, has great potential for examining other patterns of ocean behaviour.

PhD student Martin Wells adds: "The modelling technology developed here at Imperial is a novel and fascinating means of investigating the ancient Earth. Although this is 'blue-skies' research now, we are validating an exciting new modelling technology which will ultimately help us to predict climate change."

Journal of the Geological Society, 1 May 2005. Title: "Large sea, small tides: the Late Carboniferous seaway of NW Europe" pp. 417-420

Authors: Wells, Martin R 1; Allison, Peter A 1; Piggott, Matthew D 1; Pain, Christopher C 1; Hampson, Gary J 1; De Oliveira, Cassiano R E 2

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/09/2005 10:30:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT and Dartmouth scientists have identified a previously unrecognized, active fault in the Nepalese Himalayas. The discovery, published in the April 21 issue of Nature, provides new insights into how the mountains evolved and helps explain why the transition between the high Himalayan Ranges and their gently sloping foothills is so abrupt.

"This project started with the simple observation that the landscape of the central Nepalese Himalaya seems to be telling us something about deformation at depth in the Earth's crust," said Cameron Wobus, lead author on the paper and a graduate student in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

"The interdisciplinary approach we've taken to the problem has confirmed this intuition, and has demonstrated the existence of a surface-breaking thrust fault many kilometers north of where most geologists believe active deformation is focused. It's an exciting development and it forces us to think more creatively about how mountain ranges like the Himalaya evolve."

Wobus' co-authors are EAPS Professors Kelin Whipple and Kip Hodges, and Assistant Professor Arjun Heimsath of Dartmouth.

The newly discovered fault is at the southern edge of the high Himalayan ranges in central Nepal, about 60 miles northwest of Katmandu. Farther south, the landscape is characterized by gently sloping hills. The researchers discovered that there is a sharp change in both erosion and rock uplift rates across the fault. The erosion rates to the north are four times higher than those to the south.

As a result, they speculate that there may be a feedback mechanism between erosion and tectonic deformation. Hodges notes that this is a new perspective on mountain building. "Rapid erosion related to the Indian monsoon is most intense at the approximate position of the newly discovered fault. Our hypothesis is that the modern geodynamics of the range front is indicative of coordinated high precipitation and active deformation. And it would be a very exciting development if we are right that deformational processes close to the surface of the Earth are interdependent with climatic processes."

Such a relationship is consistent with theory, according to Whipple, but "definitive field evidence for this sort of dynamic feedback has been elusive. Our work in Nepal moves us toward a better resolution of the strength of climate-tectonics interactions and the temporal and spatial scales over which they operate."

###

The work was funded principally by the National Science Foundation's Tectonics program, with additional funds from the NSF's Continental Dynamics program.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/09/2005 05:56:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

This is the result you've all been waiting for, the Hartlepool general election result 2005:

Iain Wright         (Labour)                           18,251 (51.5%)
Jody Dunn           (Liberal Democrat)                 10,773 (30.4%)
Amanda Vigar        (Conservative)                      4,058 (11.5%)
George Springer     (UKIP)                              1,256  (3.5%)
Frank Harrison      (Socialist Labour)                    373  (1.0%)
Iris Ryder          (Green)                               288  (0.8%)
John Hobbs          (Independent)                         275 (0.77%)
Jedediah Headbanger (Official Monster Raving Loony Party) 162 (0.45%)


106 votes rejected


Labour hold.
Majority 7,478.
Turnout 52 percent.

The mayor was elected at the same time and the old mayor, Stuart Drummond, who made a name for himself by campaigning as Ang'us the Monkey the first time round, was comfortably re-elected. In the meantime, he has turned out to be a sensible chap with a hand for the job, and is quite popular (with the dubious exception of the party politicians).

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/07/2005 12:08:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

"Natural attenuation" versus Strafrecht

Christof Weber, Barbara Strobel und Stephan Weber haben ein Artikel zum Thema Natural Attenuation und Strafrecht, "Wo sind die Grenzen?", in der TerraTech 1-2/2005, Zeitschrift für Altlasten und Bodenschutz, veröffentlicht. Unter anderen geht es darum, dass viele Kommunen und andere Verantwortlichen inzwischen in der Glaube sind, NA wäre die Lizenz zum Nichtstun, was KW- (und häufig andere) Verschmutzungen betrifft. Immerhin geht es nicht selten um Millionenbeträge. Dass das strafrechtliche Konsequenzen haben kann, sind sie sich dabei wohl nicht bewusst. Der Artikel kann auch bei Orga Lab als pdf-Datei heruntergeladen werden.

Mir geht es hier erst mal um einige Definitionen, die im besagten Artikel erläutert werden:

Monitored natural attenuation (MNA) soll das natürliche Rückhaltevermögen von Böden gegenüber Schadstoffen beschreiben. Hier werden in erster Linie die physikalischen Eigenschaften (Viskosität, Dichte, Oberflächenspannung, etc.) der Schadstoffe in Relation zu den lokalen Bodeneigenschaften (Porenvolumen, Adsoprtionseigenschaften, etc.) gesetzt.

Ferner werden die Möglichkeiten des Ökosystems Boden zum Abbau bzw. zur Metabolisierung von Schadstoffen mit dem Begriff „intrinsic bioremediation“ (IB), also dem „natürlichen Abbau“ beleuchtet. Hier gilt es in erster Linie zu bestimmen, welche Randparameter (Wassergehalt, bakterielle Populationsdichte und Diversität, Nährstoffsituation etc.) erfüllt sind bzw. sein müssen, damit potenziell abbaubare Stoffe auch einem zeitnahen Abbau unterliegen.

Schließlich werden mit dem Begriff „enhanced natural attenuation“ (ENA) noch Parameter bestimmt, die sowohl das natürliche Rückhaltevermögen als auch das natürliche Abbaupotential des Bodenkörpers durch gezielte Eingriffe optimieren.

In Neudeutsch werden die o.g. Begriffe meist auch so angegeben, also entweder ausgeschrieben, oder mit der entsprechende Kürzel (MNA, ENA, IB). Für den zweifelhaften Fall, dass sie doch mal aus Altdeutsch erscheinen, folgt eine Liste mit möglichen Alternativen:

   IB  <-> intrinsic bioremediation      <-> natürlichen Abbau <-> natürliche Schadstoffminderung
   MNA <-> monitored natural attenuation <-> kontrollierte natürliche Abbau
   ENA <-> enhanced natural attenuation  <-> unterstützte natürliche Abbau

Es gibt auch andere Varianten, aber wohl alle irgendwie mit Verbindungen aus "natürlich", "Abbau", "Schadstoffminderung" und ähnliches. Der besonders tückische Auftraggeber verwendet sogar alle, abwechselnd, in einem Dokument, um den Übersetzer zu verwirren.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/04/2005 10:32:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

This came up on two fora in the space of a week, from two different people, in exactly the same piece of text. The morals of asking for help on test translations without specifying that it is such is quite controversially debated in parts of the translating community.

It is quite difficult to localise even in the German original. With the help of a colleague, I pinned it down to this: "Verschießen des Bodens: kleinräumig wechselnde Bodenklassen, die Hauptbodenklasse muß geschätzt werden und die Bodenzahl geschätzt werden." This in "Bodenkundliche Geländeübungen im Raum Göttingen" at Göttingen University.

It also gets a mention in this publication by the Succow Stiftung:

                  "Arme Böden – reiche Landschaften
        Zur Zukunft landwirtschaftlicher Grenzertragsstandorte
     Extensiver Ackerbau auf Sandböden aus pflanzenbaulicher Sicht."

The explanation given by the Government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern explains this particularly well, I find:
"Regional betrachtet, konzentrieren sich Grenzstandorte vor allem in den Gebieten südlich Schwerins (Griese Gegend), im Bereich der Mecklenburger Seenplatte sowie im Uecker-Randow-Kreis (Abb. 1). Ferner sind sie oft am unmittelbaren Küstensaum bestimmend. Die größten Anteile an Sandböden sind in den Agrarregionen II und V anzutreffen. Sandböden werden auch als leichte Böden bezeichnet, weil sie leicht zu bearbeiten sind. In den Endmoränen und reliefstarken Gebieten wechseln die Bodenarten jedoch sehr stark. Man spricht in diesem Zusammenhang vom „Verschießen“ der Böden. Daher finden sich Grenzstandorte auch in Gebieten mit überwiegend guten Böden."

So it is principally the result of glaciation and topography. It is very common in the extensive once-glaciated areas of north Germany. I have carried out a great number of geotechnical and environmental site investigations in this region. Just as in the UK and a large part of North America, the area has been subjected to a large number of glacials and interglacials. Massive drift deposits, moraines, etc., cover the area. There have been several minor, fast moving glacials and interglacials, which modelled the present landscape, formed deep gorges and valleys and, later, buried these valleys under drift. The soils in these regions can vary within the space of a few metres from loam to coarse sand to boulder clay, etc.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 5/02/2005 04:20:00 AM 0 comments links to this post