A Full-Scale Porous Reactive Wall for Prevention of Acid Mine Drainage

The generation and release of acidic drainage containing high concentrations of dissolved metals from decommissioned mine wastes is an environmental problem of international scale. A potential solution to many acid drainage problems is the installation of permeable reactive walls into aquifers affected by drainage water derived from mine waste materials. A permeable reactive wall installed into an aquifer impacted by low-quality mine drainage waters was installed in August 1995 at the Nickel Rim mine site near Sudbury, Ontario. The reactive mixture, containing organic matter, was designed to promote bacterially mediated sulfate reduction and subsequent metal sulfide precipitation. The reactive wall is installed to an average depth of 12 feet (3.6 m) and is 49 feet (15 m) long perpendicular to ground water flow. The wall thickness (flow path length) is 13 feet (4 m). Initial results, collected nine months after installation, indicate that sulfate reduction and metal sulfide precipitation is occurring. Comparing water entering the wall to treated water exiting the wall, sulfate concentrations decrease from 2400 to 4600 mg/L to 200 to 3600 mg/L; Fe concentrations decrease from 250 to 1300 mg/L to 1.0 to 40 mg/L; pH increases from 5.8 to 7.0; and alkalinity (as CaCO₃) increases from 0 to 50 mg/L to 600 to 2000 mg/L. The reactive wall has effectively removed the capacity of the ground water to generate acidity on discharge to the surface. Calculations based on comparison to previously run laboratory column experiments indicate that the reactive wall has potential to remain effective for at least 15 years.     

Fabric development in brittle-to-ductile shear zones

Brittle-to-ductile shear zones from two separate geological settings are shown to have nucleated on zones of predominantly brittle deformation. The shear zones are not simply foliated cataclasites, since they contain abundant evidence of dynamic recrystallization of constituent minerals. A small quartz diorite lens in the Borrego Springs shear zone, southern California, contains centimeter-scale cataclasite zones that exhibit a gradual transition into foliated rock. Alteration of magnesiohornblende to actinolite, feldspar to white mica plus quartz, and biotite to chlorite, produced elongate minerals that define the foliation. During the later stages of deformation, intracrystalline slip and dynamic recrystallization of quartz and feldspar were important deformation mechanisms.The widespread occurrence of mineralized dilatant cracks predated the development of meter-to-decimeter-scale ductile shear zones in the Striped Rock granite, southern Virginia. Again, important deformation mechanisms in the final stages of deformation were intracrystalline slip and dynamic recrystallization of quartz.In both field areas the role of fluids has been important from the onset of brittle deformation. Fluids may have enhanced early fracturing in addition to causing the alteration and hydrolytic weakening of host rock minerals and the introduction of new mineral species. Each of these processes is thought to have contributed to the later localization of crystal plastic deformation in the rocks.     

Use of dust storm observations on satellite images to identify areas vulnerable to severe wind erosion

Blowing dust is symptomatic of severe wind erosion and deterioration of soils in areas undergoing dessication and/or devegetation. Dust plumes on satellite images can commonly be traced to sources in marginally arable semiarid areas where protective lag gravels or vegetation have been removed and soils are dry, as demonstrated for the Portales Valley, New Mexico. Images from Landsat and manned orbiters such as Skylab and the Space Shuttle are useful for illustrating the regional relations of airborne dust plumes to source areas. Geostationary satellites such as GOES are useful in tracking the time-histories of episodic dust storms. These events sometimes go unrecognized by weather observers and are the precursors of long-term land degradation trends. In areas where soil maps and meteorological data are inadequate, satellite images provide a means for identifying problem areas where measures are needed to control or mitigate wind erosion.     

Isotopic composition of silicon in meteorites

Samples of bulk meteorites show only mass-dependent fractionation of silicon isotopes. No isotopic anomalies were found. The variation of the ratios ²⁹Si/²⁸Si and ³⁰Si/²⁸Si over the meteorite classes is small; 1%. per mass unit difference. The average Si isotopic composition for each class of meteorites is identical, within analytical uncertainties. This is quite unlike O, whose anomalous isotopic abundances in bulk samples differentiate among the classes of meteorites. The overlapping abundance ranges of Si isotopes among many classes of meteorites suggest closed-system behavior for this element prior to meteorite accretion and allow calculation of an average solar system Si isotope composition.     

Pyrolysis-GC characterization of whole rock and kerogen-concentrate samples of immature Jurassic source rocks from NW-Germany

Nine rock samples from three Jurassic stratigraphic units of a shallow core from NW Germany were analyzed by pyrolysis-gas chromatography. The units contain a mixed Type-II/III kerogen (Dogger-α), a hydrogen-rich Type-II kerogen (Lias-), and a hydrogen-poor Type-III kerogen (Lias-δ). All of the kerogen was immature (R_o = 0.5%). Two sets of kerogen concentrates (“AD”: HCl/HF followed by a density separation, and “A”: only acid treatment) prepared from the rock samples were also analyzed to make a detailed comparison of the pyrolysates of rock and corresponding kerogen-concentrates.Hydrogen-index (HI) values of the kerogen concentrates prepared from organic-carbon poor rock were nearly 200% higher than HI values of the rock samples. Changes in HI were minimal for the samples containing Type-II kerogen. The A and AD samples from the C_org-poor rock yielded pyrolysates with n-alkane series of very different molecular lengths. Pyrograms of the rock samples had n-alkane series extending to n-C₁₄; the chromatograms of the A samples reached the n-C₁₄-nC₂₀ range. The AD samples from C_org-poor rock and all three sample types from the C_org-rich rock had n-alkane series up to n-C₂₉. The benzene/hexane and toluene/heptane ratios for the C_org-poor rock and A samples were far higher than for the AD samples, which had ratios similar to those of all three sample types from the C_org-rich rocks. These results indicate that choice of kerogen preparation method is critical when C_org-poor samples are analyzed.     

Bathymetric patterns of deep-sea gastropod species diversity in 10 basins of the Atlantic Ocean and Norwegian Sea

Bathymetric patterns of macrofaunal species diversity are best documented in the western North Atlantic where diversity is a unimodal function of depth, peaking in the mid-bathyal zone and being depressed in the upper slope and abyss. There are few inter-basin studies of diversity-depth trends that are controlled for taxonomy, sampling gear, and diversity measures. In this paper, we compare gastropod diversity gradients in the North American Basin of the Atlantic to estimates of diversity in 9 other regions: the Norwegian Sea, West European Basin, Guiana Basin, Gambia Basin, Equatorial Mid-Atlantic, Brazil Basin, Angola Basin, Cape Basin and Argentine Basin. All samples were collected with epibenthic sleds, and diversity calculated by the Sanders-Hurlbert normalized expected number of species. While sampling in other regions is generally less complete than in the western North Atlantic, results indicate that a unimodal pattern is not universal. Diversity can increase, decrease or show no relationship with depth. The level of diversity also varies among basins relative to the western North Atlantic, being depressed in the Norwegian Sea, at bathyal depths in the eastern North Atlantic, and below an oxygen minimum zone in the Cape Basin, and generally elevated at tropical latitudes and in abyssal regions where food supply is high. Associations between gastropod diversity and the ecology and geology of basins suggest that productivity, oxygen concentration, hydrographic disturbance and evolutionary-historical processes may be implicated in shaping bathymetric diversity gradients, but specific causes are difficult to discern. Much more intensive sampling, analyses of other major taxa, and more detailed ecological data are necessary to understand deep-sea biogeography at within- and between-basin spatial scales.     

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN BRAZILIAN AMAZONIA: PERSPECTIVES IN US NEWS MEDIA*

While news media play a major role in shaping public opinion and government policy, existing literature suggests that coverage of both the third world and environmental issues is superficial and crisis-oriented. This study uses the example of Amazonian deforestation to explore the quantity and content of coverage in influential American newspapers. We found that coverage included a wide range of (sometimes) contradictory theories regarding the causes of deforestation, and that the amount, but not the nature, of the coverage changed in response to a “crisis.”