Surveys of imposex in dogwhelk (Nucella lapillus) populations around oil terminals in Sullom Voe (Shetland) and Scapa Flow (Orkney) have confirmed that the effects of tributyltin (TBT) released from large vessels in coastal waters can be recognised. The impact of large vessels can be separated from the effects of other inputs of TBT in the areas studied. The intensity of the effects was greater in Shetland than in Orkney, reflecting the higher exposure to TBT resulting from the greater volume of traffic using the Shetland terminal, and the more restricted water exchange in that area. A large proportion of the female dogwhelks in Sullom Voe were unable to reproduce. Females in Scapa Flow were still able to reproduce, except for a small proportion close to two fish farm sites where TBT net-treatments were used prior to 1987. 相似文献
Natural gas seepages occur on the United Kingdom's continental shelf and although published reports suggest that they are very rare, the petroleum industry has identified, but not publicly reported, many more. There is also very little data on the flux of gas from seabed seepages, and even less on the contribution of seepages to atmospheric concentrations of gases such as methane.
Potential gas source rocks include Quaternary and Tertiary peats as well as petroliferous source rocks such as the Carboniferous Coal Measures and the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clays. There are also other organic-rich sediments which are potential source rocks. Together these cover a considerable part of the U.K. continental shelf.
Analogue seismic reflection (pinger) profiles acquired during the British Geological Survey's regional mapping programme have been reviewed to identify water column targets including fish and plumes of gas bubbles. The ability to distinguish targets is critical to an assessment of the distribution of gas seepages. Both theoretical predictions of target identity and the habits of shoaling fish have been investigated in order to identify a method of distinction.
Data from seabed seepages and measurements of seepage rates have been used to establish likely ranges of gas flux rates and the sizes of gas bubbles. The likelihood that a rising bubble will survive and escape into the atmosphere is determined primarily by bubble size and water depth; methane, the principal constituent of seepage gas, is relatively unreactive and sparingly soluble.
The studies have enabled a new estimate of the distribution of gas seepages on the U.K. continental shelf, and of the contribution to atmospheric methane levels. The results suggest that natural gas seepages are significantly more important as a source of methane than had hitherto been established. It is estimated that between 120,000 and 3.5 mtonnes of methane per year come from a continental shelf area of about 600,000 km2. This represents between 2% and 40% of the total United Kingdom methane emission. It is suggested that similar contributions arise from other continental shelf areas worldwide, and that geological sources of atmospheric methane are more significant than is generally acknowledged. 相似文献
The Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) represents an ambitious attempt to make the leap between the rhetoric of protecting and preserving the marine environment and action. With degradation of the marine environment from land based activities posing one of the most serious threats to the quality and productivity of the coastal and marine environment, the GPA can only be viewed as a milestone rather than a destination, as so much work remains to be done in this field.States supporting the GPA are entering the most challenging phase of the program, that of implementation. But the international community in taking on this challenge is not without a few signposts. The failure of the Montreal Guidelines to be implemented, provides States with many important lessons. This paper suggests that if the GPA is to have an impact on the complex problem of land-based activities then several tasks need to be grappled with. Substantial financial support needs to be generated, a proactive and cooperative secretariat established and the nexus between the GPA and United Nations Environment Programme Regional Seas Programme examined. The importance of people and training to the capacity building process needs to be recognised and a wider variety of stakeholders engaged in the follow up phase. Pivotal to the aforementioned is the need to generate political will to address the problem, without which the GPA will become yet another dusty volume on the bookshelf. 相似文献
Although best known as a deposit rich in silica and organic matter, the Miocene Monterey Formation actually had long-term
rates of silica and organic Matter accumulation equal to or lower than values in the underlying and overlying detritus-rich
formations in the Santa Barbara coastal area. The factor Mainly influencing the composition of the Monterey Formation in this
area was the slow accumulation of terrigenous debris. In contrast, with greater than average silica abundance within the Monterey
Formation probably resulted from rapid short-term silica accumulation (of hundreds to tens of thousands years duration) rather
than from especially slow accumulation of diluting debris. 相似文献
Fragmentation, or the "coming apart" of magma during a plinian eruption, remains one of the least understood processes in
volcanology, although assumptions about the timing and mechanisms of fragmentation are key parameters in all existing eruption
models. Despite evidence to the contrary, most models assume that fragmentation occurs at a critical vesicularity (volume
percent vesicles) of 75–83%. We propose instead that the degree to which magma is fragmented is determined by factors controlling
bubble coalescence: magma viscosity, temperature, bubble size distribution, bubble shapes, and time. Bubble coalescence in
vesiculating magmas creates permeability which serves to connect the dispersed gas phase. When sufficiently developed, permeability
allows subsequent exsolved and expanded gas to escape, thus preserving a sufficiently interconnected region of vesicular magma
as a pumice clast, rather than fully fragmenting it to ash. For this reason pumice is likely to preserve information about
(a) how permeability develops and (b) the critical permeability needed to insure clast preservation. We present measurements
and calculations that constrain the conditions (vesicularity, bubble size distribution, time, pressure difference, viscosity)
necessary for adequate permeability to develop. We suggest that magma fragments explosively to ash when and where, in a heterogeneously
vesiculating magma, these conditions are not met. Both the development of permeability by bubble wall thinning and rupture
and the loss of gas through a permeable network of bubbles require time, consistent with the observation that degree of fragmentation
(i.e., amount of ash) increases with increasing eruption rate.
Received: 5 July 1995 / Accepted: 27 December 1995 相似文献
Islands at strategic points have often become the core of a modern city, or have been developed as historic heritage sites. This has been especially true when the settlers have been strangers in the land. This paper examines why such a situation has not occurred with Tuti Island at the confluence of the White and Blue Niles in the centre of Sudan's Three Towns capital, even though the first permanent inhabitants at the confluence were strangers and chose Tuti Island for their first settlement. The paper questions whether Tuti can survive as a green eye in its present form with the increasing pressures from the urban areas surrounding it. 相似文献
Estimating concentrations or flow rates along a stream network requires specific models. Two classes of models, recently proposed in the literature, are generalized, to the intrinsic case in particular. We present a global construction by ‘streams’, i.e. on the whole set of paths between sources and outlet. Combining stationary or intrinsic one-dimensional random functions leads to stationary or intrinsic models on segments, with discontinuities at the forks. A construction from outlet to sources, leads to stationary or intrinsic models on each stream, without any discontinuity at the forks. The linear variogram is found as a particular case. The extension to the linear model of coregionalization is immediate, allowing a multivariate modelling of concentrations. To cite this article: C. de Fouquet, C. Bernard-Michel, C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).相似文献
Much of southern and eastern Africa is semi-arid and heavily groundwater dependent. Borehole drilling commenced over a hundred years ago with magnetic and electrical resistivity surveys for borehole siting being introduced from 1936. Formalised training of hydrogeologists led in the 1970s to an almost standard approach to hydrogeological investigation and a period of stability followed, during which some major investigations were carried out. A period of decentralisation and fragmentation has since taken place in many parts of southern and eastern Africa, and groundwater monitoring and management are inadequate in many countries. All but six of the 14 SADC (Southern African Development Community) member states reportedly have an adequate monitoring network in place. However, groundwater demand is increasing and hydrogeologists need to promote the use of appropriate methodologies as an essential part of tackling the severe issues now facing the water sector in the region. 相似文献
In order to constrain the temporal relationship between granite (sensu lato) emplacement and metamorphism, isotope work was carried out on the minerals zircon and apatite (U-Pb), garnet (Pb-Pb) and hornblende (Ar-Ar) from wall rock samples in the Shamva area in Zimbabwe. The area, encompassing parts of the Chinamora and Murehwa batholiths and a wedge-shaped greenstone belt segment in between, is commonly quoted in the literature as an example illustrating pluton emplacement processes and deformational models for the Archean. New U-Pb dating of apatite from a boudinaged pegmatite within mafic schists in the batholith-greenstone contact zone has yielded an age of 2619 +28/-24 Ma. This age is interpreted as the best estimation of the intrusion age of this unit, depending on the assumed closure temperature, and provides an upper age limit for the syntectonic emplacement of the now gneissic granites. Pb-Pb dating of late kinematic garnets in cordierite-bearing rocks within the greenstone belt wall rocks gives an age of 2623NJ Ma. Together, this timing of relatively late, syntectonic plutonism and metamorphic mineral growth at ca. 2.62 Ga compares well with existing zircon crystallization ages for felsic volcanics (2645dž Ma, 2643NJ Ma) and post-tectonic porphyritic monzogranites (2601ᆢ Ma). Ar-Ar hornblende ages for mafic schists from different areas within the greenstone belt wall rocks range between 2621 and 2498 Ma and have been interpreted to indicate mixing between metamorphic ages and cooling ages. The data support a geological model whereby volcanism and sedimentation are associated with an early phase of regional deformation at ca. 2.64 Ga, which may have started earlier and lasted longer, and evolves into the voluminous emplacement of granites (now gneissic granites) in the batholiths at approximately 2.62 Ga. Emplacement of post-tectonic tabular monzogranites takes place at ca. 2.60 Ga. 相似文献