Merger origin for the velocity and density substructure in elliptical galaxies     

Marc Balcells  Peter J. Quinn 《Astrophysics and Space Science》1989,156(1-2):133-140

We study the dynamics of mergers between two unequal elliptical systems with self-consistent numerical simulations. We present comparisons of our models to real ellipticals in a variety of properties, which include the mean central surface brightness, the shape of the surface brightness profile, and the type of rotation curve and dispersion profile. Several proofs are given that the cores of smaller, denser ellipticals sink to the remnant's centre virtually undisturbed, and create a core-within-a-core structure with definite signatures in the surface brightness profile and the velocity dispersion profile. Ellipticals with anomalous cores appear to be a natural outcome of this type of merger.  相似文献   

Sedna and the Oort Cloud around a migrating Sun     

Nathan A. Kaib  Rok Roškar  Thomas Quinn 《Icarus》2011,215(2):491-507

Recent numerical simulations have demonstrated that the Sun’s dynamical history within the Milky Way may be much more complex than that suggested by its current low peculiar velocity (Sellwood, J.A., Binney, J.J. [2002]. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 336, 785-796; Roškar, R., Debattista, V.P., Quinn, T.R., Stinson, G.S., Wadsley, J. [2008]. Astrophys. J. 684, L79-L82). In particular, the Sun may have radially migrated through the galactic disk by up to 5-6 kpc (Roškar, R., Debattista, V.P., Quinn, T.R., Stinson, G.S., Wadsley, J. [2008]. Astrophys. J. 684, L79-L82). This has important ramifications for the structure of the Oort Cloud, as it means that the Solar System may have experienced tidal and stellar perturbations that were significantly different from its current local galactic environment. To characterize the effects of solar migration within the Milky Way, we use direct numerical simulations to model the formation of an Oort Cloud around stars that end up on solar-type orbits in a galactic-scale simulation of a Milky Way-like disk formation. Surprisingly, our simulations indicate that Sedna’s orbit may belong to the classical Oort Cloud. Contrary to previous understanding, we show that field star encounters play a pivotal role in setting the Oort Cloud’s extreme inner edge, and due to their stochastic nature this inner edge sometimes extends to Sedna’s orbit. The Sun’s galactic migration heightens the chance of powerful stellar passages, and Sedna production occurs around ∼20-30% of the solar-like stars we study. Considering the entire Oort Cloud, we find its median distance depends on the minimum galactocentric distance attained during the Sun’s orbital history. The inner edge also shows a similar dependence but with increased scatter due to the effects of powerful stellar encounters. Both of these Oort Cloud parameters can vary by an order of magnitude and are usually overestimated by an Oort Cloud formation model that assumes a fixed galactic environment. In addition, the amount of material trapped in outer Oort Cloud orbits (a > 20,000 AU) can be extremely low and may present difficulties for traditional models of Oort Cloud formation and long-period comet production.  相似文献   

Influences of agricultural landuse and seasonal changes in abiotic conditions on invertebrate colonisation of riparian leaf detritus in intermittent streams     

David J. Reid  P. S. Lake  Gerry P. Quinn 《Aquatic Sciences - Research Across Boundaries》2013,75(2):285-297

The structure and function of agricultural stream reaches with sparse riparian and floodplain vegetation differ from those of forested reaches, but may be ‘reset’ as these streams flow through reaches with forested riparian zones. We investigated whether invertebrate colonisation of River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) leaf packs in lowland intermittent streams was influenced by the adjacent reach-scale landuse (cleared farmland or forested reserve) within an agricultural catchment in Victoria, Australia. Further, we examined the influence of seasonal changes in hydrology and associated changes in abiotic conditions on the colonisation of leaves by repeating experiments over two summers and one spring. Across these experiments, there were no consistent differences in the structure of communities that colonised leaves in farmland and reserve reaches. In both seasons, most leaf colonists were collectors and few were shredders in both farmland and reserve reaches. Relative abundances of gastropod grazers were much higher in summer than in spring. The structure of invertebrate communities colonising leaves in the different reaches converged over time when streams flowed in spring, but diverged over time as the streams dried and abiotic conditions within disconnected pools became increasingly harsh in summer. Thus, patterns of leaf pack colonisation were influenced by the regional climate causing large seasonal changes in hydrology, but not by reach-scale landuse. The large-scale disturbances of agricultural landuse across the catchment and a supra-seasonal drought probably contributed to low diversities of invertebrate communities in the streams.  相似文献   

Hydraulic testing using a versatile straddle packer system for improved transmissivity estimation in fractured-rock boreholes     

Patryk Quinn  John A. Cherry  Beth L. Parker 《Hydrogeology Journal》2012,20(8):1529-1547

Equipment has been developed for straddle packer testing in fractured-rock boreholes to conduct four types of tests (constant-head step tests, slug tests, constant-rate pumping tests, and recovery tests) without deflating the packers or adjusting equipment in the hole between tests. The goal is to achieve improved accuracy and precision in the determination of transmissivity (T). Water-pressure measurements are recorded using pressure transducers positioned above and below the test interval to identify connections from the test interval to the open borehole. Insights concerning the nature of test conditions are gathered with this equipment to assess errors related to deviations from assumptions inherent in the mathematical models used to determine T, including validation of the Darcian flow assumption, validation of slug test assumptions, cross-connection to the open borehole, inadequate borehole development, and dual permeability, thereby giving greater confidence in the calculated T values. When the errors indicated above are minimized, the constant-head step tests, slug tests and constant-rate pumping/recovery tests give nearly identical values. This multiple-test approach to fractured-rock studies increases confidence in test results, which is important when the goal is characterization of fracture networks for contaminant transport and fate assessment.  相似文献   

Viscosity of the lithosphere of Enceladus     

Quinn R. Passey 《Icarus》1983,53(1):105-120

High resolution Voyager II images of Enceladus reveal that some regions on its surface are highly cratered; the most heavily cratered surfaces probably date back to a period of heavy bombardment. The forms of many of the craters on Enceladus are similar to those of fresh lunar craters, but many of the craters are much shallower in depth, and the floors of some craters are bowed up. The flattering of craters and bowing up of the floors are indicative of viscous relaxation of the topography. Analysis of the forms of the flattened craters suggests that the viscosity at the top of the lithosphere, in the most heavily cratered regions, is between 10²⁴ and 10²⁵ P. The exact time scale for the collapse of the craters is not known, but probably was between 100 my and 4 gy. The flattened craters are located in distinct zones that are adjacent to zones, of similar age, where craters have not flattened. The zones where flattened craters occur possibly are regions in which the heat flow was (or is) higher than that in the adjacent terrains. Because the temperature at the top of the lithosphere of Enceladus would be less than or equal to that of Ganymede and Callisto, if it is covered by a thick regolith, and because the required viscosity on Enceladus is one to two orders of magnitude less than that for Ganymede and Callisto, it can be concluded that the lithospheric material on Enceladus is different from that of Ganymede and Callisto. Enceladus probably has a mixture of ammonia ice and water ice in the lithosphere, whereas the lithospheres of Ganymede and Callisto are composed primarily of water ice.  相似文献   

The distribution and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Narragansett Bay surface sediments   总被引：9，自引：0，他引：9  

Hartmann PC  Quinn JG  Cairns RW  King JW 《Marine pollution bulletin》2004,48(3-4):351-358

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured in 41 surface sediments from Narragansett Bay, RI. All the analytes generally decrease down bay from the Seekonk, Providence and Taunton Rivers at the head of the bay. Total PAHs ranged from 0.569 to 216 microg/g with 27% exceeding the effects range median (ERM) of 44.8 microg/g and 73% of the stations exceeding the effects range low (ERL) of 4.02 microg/g (Long et al., 1995). Based on principal component analysis, the major source of the contaminants in Narragansett Bay was the Providence River while the coves and Taunton River/Mt. Hope Bay appeared to only have a limited influence on the open bay. PAH source ratios indicate that creosote and/or coal may be the most significant contributor of pyrogenic high molecular weight PAHs in Narragansett Bay, along with significant contributions from diesel exhaust.  相似文献   

Introductory perspective on the COREF Project     

Yasufumi  Iryu  Hiroki  Matsuda  Hideaki  Machiyama  Werner E.  Piller  Terrence M.  Quinn  Maria  Mutti 《Island Arc》2006,15(4):393-406

Abstract Coral reefs are tropic to subtropic, coastal ecosystems comprising very diverse organisms. Late Quaternary reef deposits are fossil archives of environmental, tectonic and eustatic variations that can be used to reconstruct the paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic history of the tropic surface oceans. Reefs located at the latitudinal limits of coral‐reef ecosystems (i.e. those at coral‐reef fronts) are particularly sensitive to environmental changes – especially those associated with glacial–interglacial changes in climate and sealevel. We propose a land and ocean scientific drilling campaign in the Ryukyu Islands (the Ryukyus) in the northwestern Pacific Ocean to investigate the dynamic response of the corals and coral‐reef ecosystems in this region to Late Quaternary climate and sealevel change. Such a drilling campaign, which we call the COREF (coral‐reef front) Project, will allow the following three major questions to be evaluated: (i) What are the nature, magnitude and driving mechanisms of coral‐reef front migration in the Ryukyus? (ii) What is the ecosystem response of coral reefs in the Ryukyus to Quaternary climate changes? (iii) What is the role of coral reefs in the global carbon cycle? Subsidiary objectives include (i) the timing of coral‐reef initiation in the Ryukyus and its causes; (ii) the position of the Kuroshio current during glacial periods and its effects on coral‐reef formation; and (iii) early carbonate diagenetic responses as a function of compounded variations in climate, eustacy and depositional mineralogies (subtropic aragonitic to warm‐temperate calcitic). The geographic, climatic and oceanographic settings of the Ryukyu Islands provide an ideal natural laboratory to address each of these research questions.  相似文献   

A preliminary investigation of the hydrocarbon content of groundwater of Kuwait     

E. Al-Awadi  A. Mukhopadhyay  M. Quinn  T. Saeed  A. Hauser 《Environmental Geology》2001,41(3-4):330-340

  相似文献   

The AVA (amplitude-versus-angle) signature of small-scale reflector topography     

Rosemary K. Quinn  Roger A. Clark †  Jürgen W. Neuberg ‡ 《Geophysical Prospecting》2001,49(1):59-70

Routine amplitude‐versus‐offset or amplitude‐versus‐angle (AVA) analysis is founded on the predicted reflectivity of a planar boundary between isotropic homogeneous half‐spaces, yet many real boundaries of interest to hydrocarbon exploration may violate these assumptions. Here, we evaluate consequences of boundary roughness, i.e. small‐scale, sub‐resolution topography, on the reflecting boundary, to find whether sub‐resolution topography can deceive routine AVA analysis and produce misleading hydrocarbon indicators. We use noise‐free synthetic CMP and stacked‐section seismograms, generated with a Kirchhoff‐integral method, for offsets up to 4000 m. The reflecting boundary was at 2000 m depth below a single overburden layer, and comprised isolated mounds or channels (sinusoidal cross‐section, 5–40 m high and 100–750 m wide), and more complex roughness (simulated with seven 1.5–2 km long bathymetric profiles across modern‐day river‐beds, with dune and bar features up to approximately 20 m or 20 ms TWT vertical relief, and 10–100 m or more lateral extent). Flat‐boundary responses were taken as the ‘reference’ against which to compare waveforms and amplitudes through semblance analysis, AVA intercept A and slope B cross‐plots, and inferred Poisson's ratios. Physical properties of the media were based on shales and brine‐ or oil‐sands from an offshore UK oilfield. For the CMP centred on the topographic feature, isolated mounds and channels produced correlated excursions of A and B from the flat‐boundary response (by approximately 35–200%), simulating the familiar ‘background trend’ but sometimes oblique to it. Inferred Poisson's ratios were around 0.3, but for some channels often fell as low as 0.2, potentially interpretable as gas sand. For complex boundary topographies on a shale/brine‐sand model, AVA parameters were extracted for 29 CMPs, 100 m apart along each of seven profiles. On a cross‐plot, they spanned the flat‐boundary response on a linear trend B = (0.01 ± 0.02) – (1.72 ± 0.09)A, similar to reported real data and a realistic ‘mudrock trend’ but with outliers both above and below it that could be interpreted as ‘real’ weak anomalies. Poisson's ratios were 0.30 ± 0.01, between the expected values for brine‐ and oil‐sand. This suggests that boundary roughness may contribute to observed trends on cross‐plots and possibly small, but potentially laterally extensive, false AVA anomalies may also be induced.  相似文献   

Analytical procedures to classify organic pollutants in natural waters, sediments, and benthic organisms   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  

Jinshu Zheng  James G. Quinn 《海洋学报(英文版)》1988,7(2):226-236

Procedures are described to extract, fractionate and analyze organic pollutants in environmental samples. The methods are based on organic solvent extraction to isolate the pollutants, liquid-solid adsorption chromatography to separate the various pollutants into four fractions, and analyses of the fractions using glass capillary gas-chromatography. Based on a number of considerations, the procedures were found suitable for the analyses of trace level organic pollutants in a variety of sample types. The data from these studies has provided important information on the biogeochemistry of organic pollutants in the aquatic environment.  相似文献