Geophysical and geochemical models of the Earth's shields and rift zones

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, D.H.

1977-01-01

This report summarizes a collection of, synthesis of, and speculation on the geophysical and geochemical models of the earth's stable shields and rift zones. Two basic crustal types, continental and oceanic, and two basic mantle types, stable and unstable, are described. It is pointed out that both the crust and upper mantle play a strongly interactive role with surface geological phenomena ranging from the occurrence of mountains, ocean trenches, oceanic and continental rifts to geographic distributions of earthquakes, faults, and volcanoes. On the composition of the mantle, there is little doubt regarding the view that olivine constitutes a major fraction of the mineralogy of the earth's upper mantle. Studies are suggested to simulate the elasticity and composition of the earth's lower crust and upper mantle

Technology and human purpose: the problem of solids transport on the Earth's surface

Science.gov (United States)

Haff, P. K.

2012-11-01

Displacement of mass of limited deformability ("solids") on the Earth's surface is opposed by friction and (the analog of) form resistance - impediments relaxed by rotational motion, self-powering of mass units, and transport infrastructure. These features of solids transport first evolved in the biosphere prior to the emergence of technology, allowing slope-independent, diffusion-like motion of discrete objects as massive as several tons, as illustrated by animal foraging and movement along game trails. However, high-energy-consumption technology powered by fossil fuels required a mechanism that could support fast advective transport of solids, i.e., long-distance, high-volume, high-speed, unidirectional, slope-independent transport across the land surface of materials like coal, containerized fluids, minerals, and economic goods. Pre-technology nature was able to sustain regional- and global-scale advection only in the limited form of piggybacking on geophysical flows of water (river sediment) and air (dust). The appearance of a mechanism for sustained advection of solids independent of fluid flows and gravity appeared only upon the emergence of human purpose. Purpose enables solids advection by, in effect, simulating a continuous potential gradient, otherwise lacking, between discrete and widely separated fossil-fuel energy sources and sinks. Invoking purpose as a mechanism in solids advection is an example of the need to import anthropic principles and concepts into the language and methodology of modern Earth system dynamics. As part of the emergence of a generalized solids advection mechanism, several additional transport requirements necessary to the function of modern large-scale technological systems were also satisfied. These include spatially accurate delivery of advected payload, targetability to essentially arbitrarily located destinations (such as cities), and independence of structure of advected payload from transport mechanism. The latter property

Fundamentals of Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Lowrie, William

1997-10-01

This unique textbook presents a comprehensive overview of the fundamental principles of geophysics. Unlike most geophysics textbooks, it combines both the applied and theoretical aspects to the subject. The author explains complex geophysical concepts using abundant diagrams, a simplified mathematical treatment, and easy-to-follow equations. After placing the Earth in the context of the solar system, he describes each major branch of geophysics: gravitation, seismology, dating, thermal and electrical properties, geomagnetism, paleomagnetism and geodynamics. Each chapter begins with a summary of the basic physical principles, and a brief account of each topic's historical evolution. The book will satisfy the needs of intermediate-level earth science students from a variety of backgrounds, while at the same time preparing geophysics majors for continued study at a higher level.

Improved geophysical excitation of length-of-day constrained by Earth orientation parameters and satellite gravimetry products

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Nan; Li, Jiancheng; Ray, Jim; Chen, Wei

2018-05-01

At time scales shorter than about two years, non-tidal LOD variations are mainly excited by angular momentum exchanges between the atmospheric, oceanic, and continental hydrological fluid envelopes and the underlying solid Earth. But, neither agreement among different geophysical models for the fluid dynamics nor consistency with geodetic observations of LOD has reached satisfactory levels. This is mainly ascribed to significant discrepancies and uncertainties in the theories and assumptions adopted by different modeling groups, in their numerical methods, and in the accuracy and coverage of global input data fields. Based on careful comparisons with more accurate geodetic measurements and satellite gravimetry products (from satellite laser ranging, SLR), observed length-of day (LOD) and C20 geopotential time series can provide strong constraints to evaluate or form combined geophysical models. In this study, wavelet decomposition is used to extract several narrow-band components to compare in addition to considering the total signals. We then make refinements to the least difference combination (LDC) method proposed by Chen et al. (2013b) to form multi-model geophysical excitations. Two combination variants, called the weighted mean combination (WMC2 and WMC4), are also evaluated. All the multi-model methods attempt to extract the best-modeled frequency components from each geophysical model by relying on geodetic excitation and the C20 series as references. The comparative performances of the three combinations LDC, WMC2 and WMC4 and the original single models are determined. We find that (1) the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) and Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology Ocean Model (MPIOM) give a more reliable view of the ocean redistributions than the Ocean Model for Circulation and Tides (OMCT) used by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), especially for the annual component; (2) C20 series from SLR can provide a

Geophysical Field Theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eloranta, E.

2003-11-01

The geophysical field theory includes the basic principles of electromagnetism, continuum mechanics, and potential theory upon which the computational modelling of geophysical phenomena is based on. Vector analysis is the main mathematical tool in the field analyses. Electrostatics, stationary electric current, magnetostatics, and electrodynamics form a central part of electromagnetism in geophysical field theory. Potential theory concerns especially gravity, but also electrostatics and magnetostatics. Solid state mechanics and fluid mechanics are central parts in continuum mechanics. Also the theories of elastic waves and rock mechanics belong to geophysical solid state mechanics. The theories of geohydrology and mass transport form one central field theory in geophysical fluid mechanics. Also heat transfer is included in continuum mechanics. (orig.)

Solid state nuclear track detection: a useful geological/geophysical tool

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khan, H.A.; Qureshi, A.A.

1994-01-01

Solid State Nuclear Track Detection (SSNTD) is a relatively new nuclear particle detection technique. Since its inception, it has found useful application in almost every branch of science. This paper gives a very brief review of the role it has played in solving some geological/geophysical problems. Since the technique has been found useful in a wide spectrum of geological/geophysical applications, it was simply not possible to discuss all of these in this paper due to severe space restrictions. However, an attempt has been made to discuss the salient features of some of the most prominent applications in the geological and geophysical sciences. The paper has been divided into two parts. Firstly, applications based on radon measurements by SSNTDs have been described. These include: Uranium/thorium and mineral exploration, search for geothermal energy sources, study of volcanic processes, location of geological faults and earthquake prediction, for example. Secondly, applications based on the study of spontaneous fission tracks in geological samples have been described briefly. The second group of applications includes: fission track dating (FTD) of geological samples, FTD in the study of emplacement times, provenance studies, and thermal histories of minerals. Necessary references have been provided for detailed studies of (a) the applications cited in this paper, and (b) other important geological/geophysical applications, which unfortunately could not be covered in the present paper. (author)

Building Thematic and Integrated Services for European Solid Earth Sciences: the EPOS Integrated Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Harrison, M.; Cocco, M.

2017-12-01

EPOS (European Plate Observing System) has been designed with the vision of creating a pan-European infrastructure for solid Earth science to support a safe and sustainable society. In accordance with this scientific vision, the EPOS mission is to integrate the diverse and advanced European Research Infrastructures for solid Earth science relying on new e-science opportunities to monitor and unravel the dynamic and complex Earth System. EPOS will enable innovative multidisciplinary research for a better understanding of the Earth's physical and chemical processes that control earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, ground instability and tsunami as well as the processes driving tectonics and Earth's surface dynamics. To accomplish its mission, EPOS is engaging different stakeholders, to allow the Earth sciences to open new horizons in our understanding of the planet. EPOS also aims at contributing to prepare society for geo-hazards and to responsibly manage the exploitation of geo-resources. Through integration of data, models and facilities, EPOS will allow the Earth science community to make a step change in developing new concepts and tools for key answers to scientific and socio-economic questions concerning geo-hazards and geo-resources as well as Earth sciences applications to the environment and human welfare. The research infrastructures (RIs) that EPOS is coordinating include: i) distributed geophysical observing systems (seismological and geodetic networks); ii) local observatories (including geomagnetic, near-fault and volcano observatories); iii) analytical and experimental laboratories; iv) integrated satellite data and geological information services; v) new services for natural and anthropogenic hazards; vi) access to geo-energy test beds. Here we present the activities planned for the implementation phase focusing on the TCS, the ICS and on their interoperability. We will discuss the data, data-products, software and services (DDSS) presently under

The Earth's heterogeneous mantle a geophysical, geodynamical, and geochemical perspective

CERN Document Server

Khan, Amir

2015-01-01

This book highlights and discusses recent developments that have contributed to an improved understanding of observed mantle heterogeneities and their relation to the thermo-chemical state of Earth's mantle, which ultimately holds the key to unlocking the secrets of the evolution of our planet. This series of topical reviews and original contributions address 4 themes. Theme 1 covers topics in geophysics, including global and regional seismic tomography, electrical conductivity and seismic imaging of mantle discontinuities and heterogeneities in the upper mantle, transition zone and lower mantle. Theme 2 addresses geochemical views of the mantle including lithospheric evolution from analysis of mantle xenoliths, composition of the deep Earth and the effect of water on subduction-zone processes. Theme 3 discusses geodynamical perspectives on the global thermo-chemical structure of the deep mantle. Theme 4 covers application of mineral physics data and phase equilibrium computations to infer the regional-scale ...

The EPOS Implementation Phase: building thematic and integrated services for solid Earth sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Cocco, Massimo; Epos Consortium, the

2015-04-01

integrating RI elements. This integration requires a significant coordination between, among others, disciplinary (thematic) communities, national RIs policies and initiatives, as well as geo- and IT-scientists. The RIs that EPOS is coordinating include: i) regionally-distributed geophysical observing systems (seismological and geodetic networks); ii) local observatories (including geomagnetic, near-fault and volcano observatories); iii) analytical and experimental laboratories; iv) integrated satellite data and geological information services v) new services for natural and anthropogenic hazards. Here we present the successful story of the EPOS Preparatory Phase and the progress towards the implementation of both integrated core services (ICS) and thematic core services (TCS) for the different communities participating to the integration plan. We aim to discuss the achieved results and the approach followed to design the implementation phase. The goal is to present and discuss the strategies adopted to foster the implementation of TCS, clarifying their crucial role as domain-specific service hubs for coordinating and harmonizing national resources/plans with the European dimension of EPOS, and their integration to develop the new ICS. We will present the prototype of the ICS central hub as a key contribution for providing multidisciplinary services for solid Earth sciences as well as the glue to keep ICT aspects integrated and rationalized across EPOS. Finally, we will discuss the well-defined role of the EPOS-ERIC Headquarter to coordinate and harmonize national RIs and EPOS services (through ICS and TCS) looking for an effective commitment by national governments. It will be an important and timely opportunity to discuss the EPOS roadmap toward the operation of the novel multidisciplinary platform for discoveries to foster scientific excellence in solid Earth sciences.

Rapid Ice-Sheet Changes and Mechanical Coupling to Solid-Earth/Sea-Level and Space Geodetic Observation

Science.gov (United States)

Adhikari, S.; Ivins, E. R.; Larour, E. Y.

2015-12-01

Perturbations in gravitational and rotational potentials caused by climate driven mass redistribution on the earth's surface, such as ice sheet melting and terrestrial water storage, affect the spatiotemporal variability in global and regional sea level. Here we present a numerically accurate, computationally efficient, high-resolution model for sea level. Unlike contemporary models that are based on spherical-harmonic formulation, the model can operate efficiently in a flexible embedded finite-element mesh system, thus capturing the physics operating at km-scale yet capable of simulating geophysical quantities that are inherently of global scale with minimal computational cost. One obvious application is to compute evolution of sea level fingerprints and associated geodetic and astronomical observables (e.g., geoid height, gravity anomaly, solid-earth deformation, polar motion, and geocentric motion) as a companion to a numerical 3-D thermo-mechanical ice sheet simulation, thus capturing global signatures of climate driven mass redistribution. We evaluate some important time-varying signatures of GRACE inferred ice sheet mass balance and continental hydrological budget; for example, we identify dominant sources of ongoing sea-level change at the selected tide gauge stations, and explain the relative contribution of different sources to the observed polar drift. We also report our progress on ice-sheet/solid-earth/sea-level model coupling efforts toward realistic simulation of Pine Island Glacier over the past several hundred years.

Building thematic and integrated services for solid Earth sciences: the EPOS integrated approach

Science.gov (United States)

Cocco, Massimo; Consortium, Epos

2016-04-01

Services (ICS) to provide a novel research platform to different stakeholders; designing the access to distributed computational resources (ICS-d); ensuring sustainability and governance of TCS and EPOS-ERIC. The research infrastructures (RIs) that EPOS is coordinating include: i) distributed geophysical observing systems (seismological and geodetic networks); ii) local observatories (including geomagnetic, near-fault and volcano observatories); iii) analytical and experimental laboratories; iv) integrated satellite data and geological information services; v) new services for natural and anthropogenic hazards; vi) access to geo-energy test beds. Here we present the activities planned for the implementation phase focusing on the TCS, the ICS and on their interoperability. We will discuss the data, data-products, software and services (DDSS) presently under implementation, which will be validated and tested during the project lifetime. Particular attention will be given to showing the progress toward the establishment of EPOS-ERIC Headquarter, to coordinate and harmonize national RIs and EPOS services, and the ICS central hub as a key contribution for providing multidisciplinary services for solid Earth science as well as the glue to keep ICT aspects integrated and rationalized across EPOS. It will be an important and timely opportunity to discuss the EPOS roadmap toward the operation of the novel multidisciplinary platform for discoveries to foster scientific excellence in solid Earth science.

Expanding Earth and declining gravity: a chapter in the recent history of geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Kragh, H.

2015-05-01

Although speculative ideas of an expanding Earth can be found before World War II, it was only in the 1950s and 1960s that the theory attracted serious attention among a minority of earth scientists. While some of the proponents of the expanding Earth adopted an empiricist attitude by disregarding the physical cause of the assumed expansion, others argued that the cause, either fully or in part, was of cosmological origin. They referred to the possibility that the gravitational constant was slowly decreasing in time, as first suggested by P. Dirac in 1937. As a result of a stronger gravitation in the past, the ancient Earth would have been smaller than today. The gravitational argument for an expanding Earth was proposed by P. Jordan and L. Egyed in the 1950s and during the next 2 decades it was discussed by several physicists, astronomers and earth scientists. Among those who for a period felt attracted by "gravitational expansionism" were A. Holmes, J. Tuzo Wilson and F. Hoyle. The paper examines the idea of a varying gravitational constant and its impact on geophysics in the period from about 1955 to the mid-1970s.

Results of measurement of tiles and deformations of the earth surface in the Garni geophysical observatory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agalovyan, L.A.; Hakhverdyan, L.A.; Pashayan, R.A.; Harutyunyan, L.V.

2017-01-01

The data on tiltmeter-deformational observations carried out in the adit of Garni Geophysical Observatory were given for the period of 2015-2016. The primary processing of tiltmeter-deformational observations aiming to create charts of daily and average daily movements of earth crust in the N-S and E-W direction is done. Potential modern movements of earth crust in the territory of Armenia were revealed as a result of correlation with seismicity of the region

Radioactivity and geophysics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Radvanyi, P.

1992-01-01

The paper recalls a few steps of the introduction of radioactivity in geophysics and astrophysics: contribution of radioelements to energy balance of the Earth, age of the Earth based on radioactive disintegration and the discovery of cosmic radiations

Physics of the Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Stacey, Frank D.; Davis, Paul M.

he fourth edition of Physics of the Earth maintains the original philosophy of this classic graduate textbook on fundamental solid earth geophysics, while being completely revised, updated, and restructured into a more modular format to make individual topics even more accessible. Building on the success of previous editions, which have served generations of students and researchers for nearly forty years, this new edition will be an invaluable resource for graduate students looking for the necessary physical and mathematical foundations to embark on their own research careers in geophysics. Several completely new chapters have been added and a series of appendices, presenting fundamental data and advanced mathematical concepts, and an extensive reference list, are provided as tools to aid readers wishing to pursue topics beyond the level of the book. Over 140 student exercises of varying levels of difficulty are also included, and full solutions are available online at www.cambridge.org/9780521873628.

Post flooding damage assessment of earth dams and historical reservoirs using non-invasive geophysical techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Sentenac, Philippe; Benes, Vojtech; Budinsky, Vladimir; Keenan, Helen; Baron, Ron

2017-11-01

This paper describes the use of four geophysical techniques to map the structural integrity of historical earth reservoir embankments which are susceptible to natural decay with time. The four techniques that were used to assess the post flood damage were 1. A fast scanning technique using a dipole electromagnetic profile apparatus (GEM2), 2. Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) in order to obtain a high resolution image of the shape of the damaged/seepage zone, 3. Self-Potential surveys were carried out to relate the detected seepage evolution and change of the water displacement inside the embankment, 4. The washed zone in the areas with piping was characterised with microgravimetry. The four geophysical techniques used were evaluated against the case studies of two reservoirs in South Bohemia, Czech Republic. A risk approach based on the Geophysical results was undertaken for the reservoir embankments. The four techniques together enabled a comprehensive non-invasive assessment whereby remedial action could be recommended where required. Conclusions were also drawn on the efficiency of the techniques to be applied for embankments with wood structures.

Defect structure of cubic solid solutions of alkaline earth and rare earth fluorides

NARCIS (Netherlands)

DenHartog, HW

1996-01-01

In this paper we will consider the disorder in some cubic solid solutions consisting of one of the alkaline earth fluorides and one of the rare earth fluorides. This is an attractive group of model materials, because these materials have a rather simple overall cubic structure. We will discuss the

Introduction to the physics of fluids and solids

CERN Document Server

Trefil, James S

2010-01-01

Written by a well-known science author, this introductory text explores the physics of solids and the field of hydrodynamics. It focuses on modern applications, rather than mathematical formalism, with particular emphasis on geophysics, astrophysics, and medical physics. Suitable for a one-semester course, it is geared toward advanced undergraduate physics students and graduate science students. It also serves as a helpful reference for professional astronomers, chemists, and engineers. Geophysical topics include the circulation of the atmosphere, vibrations of the earth, and underground nucle

Geophysical, petrological and mineral physics constraints on Earth's surface topography

Science.gov (United States)

Guerri, Mattia; Cammarano, Fabio; Tackley, Paul J.

2015-04-01

Earth's surface topography is controlled by isostatically compensated density variations within the lithosphere, but dynamic topography - i.e. the topography due to adjustment of surface to mantle convection - is an important component, specially at a global scale. In order to separate these two components it is fundamental to estimate crustal and mantle density structure and rheological properties. Usually, crustal density is constrained from interpretation of available seismic data (mostly VP profiles) based on empirical relationships such those in Brocher [2005]. Mantle density structure is inferred from seismic tomography models. Constant coefficients are used to interpret seismic velocity anomalies in density anomalies. These simplified methods are unable to model the effects that pressure and temperature variations have on mineralogical assemblage and physical properties. Our approach is based on a multidisciplinary method that involves geophysical observables, mineral physics constraints, and petrological data. Mantle density is based on the thermal interpretation of global seismic tomography models assuming various compositional structures, as in Cammarano et al. [2011]. We further constrain the top 150 km by including heat-flow data and considering the thermal evolution of the oceanic lithosphere. Crustal density is calculated as in Guerri and Cammarano [2015] performing thermodynamic modeling of various average chemical compositions proposed for the crust. The modeling, performed with the code PerpleX [Connolly, 2005], relies on the thermodynamic dataset from Holland and Powell [1998]. Compressional waves velocity and crustal layers thickness from the model CRUST 1.0 [Laske et al., 2013] offer additional constrains. The resulting lithospheric density models are tested against gravity (GOCE) data. Various crustal and mantle density models have been tested in order to ascertain the effects that uncertainties in the estimate of those features have on the

Geomagnetism solid Earth and upper atmosphere perspectives

CERN Document Server

Basavaiah, Nathani

2011-01-01

This volume elaborates several important aspects of solid Earth geomagnetism. It covers all the basics of the subject, including biomagnetism and instrumentation, and offers a number of practical applications with carefully selected examples and illustrations.

FIN-EPOS - Finnish national initiative of the European Plate Observing System: Bringing Finnish solid Earth infrastructures into EPOS

Science.gov (United States)

Vuorinen, Tommi; Korja, Annakaisa

2017-04-01

FIN-EPOS consortium is a joint community of Finnish national research institutes tasked with operating and maintaining solid-earth geophysical and geological observatories and laboratories in Finland. These national research infrastructures (NRIs) seek to join EPOS research infrastructure (EPOS RI) and further pursue Finland's participation as a founding member in EPOS ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). Current partners of FIN-EPOS are the University of Helsinki (UH), the University of and Oulu (UO), Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI) of the National Land Survey (NLS), Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), CSC - IT Center for Science and MIKES Metrology at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. The consortium is hosted by the Institute of Seismology, UH (ISUH). The primary purpose of the consortium is to act as a coordinating body between various NRIs and the EPOS RI. FIN-EPOS engages in planning and development of the national EPOS RI and will provide support in EPOS implementation phase (IP) for the partner NRIs. FIN-EPOS also promotes the awareness of EPOS in Finland and is open to new partner NRIs that would benefit from participating in EPOS. The consortium additionally seeks to advance solid Earth science education, technologies and innovations in Finland and is actively engaging in Nordic co-operation and collaboration of solid Earth RIs. The main short term objective of FIN-EPOS is to make Finnish geoscientific data provided by NRIs interoperable with the Thematic Core Services (TCS) in the EPOS IP. Consortium partners commit into applying and following metadata and data format standards provided by EPOS. FIN-EPOS will also provide a national Finnish language web portal where users are identified and their user rights for EPOS resources are defined.

Plan for Living on a Restless Planet Sets NASA's Solid Earth Agenda

Science.gov (United States)

Solomon, Sean C.; Baker, Victor R.; Bloxham, Jeremy; Booth, Jeffrey; Donnellan, Andrea; Elachi, Charles; Evans, Diane; Rignot, Eric; Burbank, Douglas; Chao, Benjamin F.; Chave, Alan; Gillespie, Alan; Herring, Thomas; Jeanloz, Raymond; LaBrecque, John; Minster, Bernard; Pittman, Walter C., III; Simons, Mark; Turcotte, Donald L.; Zoback, Mary Lou C.

What are the most important challenges facing solid Earth science today and over the next two decades? And what is the best approach for NASA, in partnership with other agencies, to address those challenges? A new report, Living on a Restless Planet, provides a blueprint for answering these questions. The top priority for a new spacecraft mission in the area of solid Earth science over the next 5 years, according to this report, is a satellite dedicated to Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). At the request of NASA, the Solid Earth Science Working Group (SESWG) developed a strategy for the highest priority objectives in solid Earth science for the space agency over the next 25 years. The strategy addresses six challenges that are of fundamental scientific importance, have strong implications for society, and are amenable to substantial progress through a concerted series of scientific observations from space.

Use of the radon gas as a natural geophysical tracer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pena, P.; Balcazar, M.; Flores R, J.H.; Lopez M, A.

2006-01-01

In this work it is denoted the applications of the radon gas like a natural geophysical radiotracer in the different branches of the Earth Sciences (Geology, geophysics and geochemistry). It importance resides in its employment like one additional tool to register the possible occurrence of seismic events by means of radon anomalies that are presented in land movements (volcanic eruptions and presence of geothermal areas), as well as its potential in environmental works whose purpose is the evaluation of the feather of contamination in the underground water and the porous media for spills of hydrocarbons. The measurement techniques to determine the concentration of radon was carried out by means of Solid Detectors of Nuclear tracks, as well as by Liquid scintillation, Clipperton, Honeywell, AlphaGUARD. The towns where these techniques its were applied were: Mexico City, Estado de Mexico (Toluca, ININ), Jalisco (The Spring), Guerrero coast. (Author)

The Thermal Conductivity of Earth's Core: A Key Geophysical Parameter's Constraints and Uncertainties

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Q.

2018-05-01

The thermal conductivity of iron alloys at high pressures and temperatures is a critical parameter in governing ( a) the present-day heat flow out of Earth's core, ( b) the inferred age of Earth's inner core, and ( c) the thermal evolution of Earth's core and lowermost mantle. It is, however, one of the least well-constrained important geophysical parameters, with current estimates for end-member iron under core-mantle boundary conditions varying by about a factor of 6. Here, the current state of calculations, measurements, and inferences that constrain thermal conductivity at core conditions are reviewed. The applicability of the Wiedemann-Franz law, commonly used to convert electrical resistivity data to thermal conductivity data, is probed: Here, whether the constant of proportionality, the Lorenz number, is constant at extreme conditions is of vital importance. Electron-electron inelastic scattering and increases in Fermi-liquid-like behavior may cause uncertainties in thermal conductivities derived from both first-principles-associated calculations and electrical conductivity measurements. Additional uncertainties include the role of alloying constituents and local magnetic moments of iron in modulating the thermal conductivity. Thus, uncertainties in thermal conductivity remain pervasive, and hence a broad range of core heat flows and inner core ages appear to remain plausible.

The Earth System Model

Science.gov (United States)

Schoeberl, Mark; Rood, Richard B.; Hildebrand, Peter; Raymond, Carol

2003-01-01

The Earth System Model is the natural evolution of current climate models and will be the ultimate embodiment of our geophysical understanding of the planet. These models are constructed from components - atmosphere, ocean, ice, land, chemistry, solid earth, etc. models and merged together through a coupling program which is responsible for the exchange of data from the components. Climate models and future earth system models will have standardized modules, and these standards are now being developed by the ESMF project funded by NASA. The Earth System Model will have a variety of uses beyond climate prediction. The model can be used to build climate data records making it the core of an assimilation system, and it can be used in OSSE experiments to evaluate. The computing and storage requirements for the ESM appear to be daunting. However, the Japanese ES theoretical computing capability is already within 20% of the minimum requirements needed for some 2010 climate model applications. Thus it seems very possible that a focused effort to build an Earth System Model will achieve succcss.

Integrated Solid Earth Science: the right place and time to discover the unexpected? (Arthur Holmes Medal Lecture)

Science.gov (United States)

Cloetingh, Sierd

2013-04-01

-level. Those cycles were detected as a result of the pioneering work on the stratigraphic record of sedimentary basins and continental margins from all over the world by Peter Vail, Bilal Haq and others from Exxon. It was at this time, that sedimentary basins became a frontier in the integration of quantitative geology and geophysics. Sedimentary basins do not only provide a powerful source of information on the evolution of the underlying lithosphere and climate fluctuations, but also contain mankind's main reservoirs of geo-energy and geo-resources. It was Peter Ziegler, head of global geology at Shell International, who was the prime mentor in my somewhat unexpected scientific journey in sedimentary basins. These became the main research target of the Tectonics research group I established in 1988 in Amsterdam. In these years it became increasingly evident that the rheology of the lithosphere exerts a crucial control on the evolution of basins, but also on continental topography. It is on this topic that the cooperation over more than two decades with Evgenii Burov, addressing issues like the rheological structure of Europe's lithosphere, rift shoulder uplift and the interplay of lithospheric folding and mantle-lithosphere interactions, has, been very fruitful. Another unexpected milestone has been the opportunity to build up, parallel to the research efforts in field studies and numerical modeling, an analogue tectonic laboratory in our group. This brings me to another issue, also completely unforeseen: the integration of earth science in Europe, particularly taking off after the disappearance of the Iron Curtain. For my group, the latter marked the beginning of a very fruitful cooperation in particular with the groups of Frank Horvath in Budapest and Cornel Dinu in Bucharest, addressing the fascinating solid Earth dynamics of the Carpathians and Pannonian basin. Over the last few years, it has been become evident that integration in the solid earth science is the way to

Solar Wind Monitor--A School Geophysics Project

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Ian

2018-01-01

Described is an established geophysics project to construct a solar wind monitor based on a nT resolution fluxgate magnetometer. Low-cost and appropriate from school to university level it incorporates elements of astrophysics, geophysics, electronics, programming, computer networking and signal processing. The system monitors the earth's field in…

The effects of the solid inner core and nonhydrostatic structure on the earth's forced nutations and earth tides

Science.gov (United States)

De Vries, Dan; Wahr, John M.

1991-01-01

This paper computes the effects of the solid inner core (IC) on the forced nutations and earth tides, and on certain of the earth's rotational normal modes. The theoretical results are extended to include the effects of a solid IC and of nonhydrostatic structure. The presence of the IC is responsible for a new, almost diurnal, prograde normal mode which involves a relative rotation between the IC and fluid outer core about an equatorial axis. It is shown that the small size of the IC's effects on both nutations and tides is a consequence of the fact that the IC's moments of inertia are less than 1/1000 of the entire earth's.

To Measure Probable Physical Changes On The Earth During Total Solar Eclipse Using Geophysical Methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gocmen, C.

2007-01-01

When the total solar eclipse came into question, people connected the eclipse with the earthquake dated 17.08.1999. We thought if any physical parameters change during total solar eclipse on the earth, we could measure this changing and we did the project 'To Measure Probable Physical Changes On The Earth During Total Solar Eclipse Using Geophysical Methods' We did gravity, magnetic and self-potential measurements at Konya and Ankara during total solar eclipse (29, March, 2006) and the day before eclipse and the day after eclipse. The measurements went on three days continuously twenty-four hours at Konya and daytime in Ankara. Bogazici University Kandilli Observatory gave us magnetic values in Istanbul and we compare the values with our magnetic values. Turkish State Meteorological Service sent us temperature and air pressure observations during three days, in Konya and Ankara. We interpreted all of them

Physics of the earth crust

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lauterbach, R.

1977-01-01

This book deals in 12 chapters, amongst other things, with the subjects: Structure of the crust and the upper earth mantle, geology and geophysics of sea beds, satellite and aero-methods of geophysics, state of the art of geothermal research, geophysical potential fields and their anomalies, applied seismology, electrical methods of geophysics, geophysics in engineering and rock engineering, borehole geophysics, petrophysics, and geochemistry. (RW) [de

Developments in geophysical exploration methods

CERN Document Server

1982-01-01

One of the themes in current geophysical development is the bringing together of the results of observations made on the surface and those made in the subsurface. Several benefits result from this association. The detailed geological knowledge obtained in the subsurface can be extrapolated for short distances with more confidence when the geologi­ cal detail has been related to well-integrated subsurface and surface geophysical data. This is of value when assessing the characteristics of a partially developed petroleum reservoir. Interpretation of geophysical data is generally improved by the experience of seeing the surface and subsurface geophysical expression of a known geological configuration. On the theoretical side, the understanding of the geophysical processes themselves is furthered by the study of the phenomena in depth. As an example, the study of the progress of seismic wave trains downwards and upwards within the earth has proved most instructive. This set of original papers deals with some of ...

Artificial intelligence and dynamic systems for geophysical applications

CERN Document Server

Gvishiani, Alexei

2002-01-01

The book presents new clustering schemes, dynamical systems and pattern recognition algorithms in geophysical, geodynamical and natural hazard applications. The original mathematical technique is based on both classical and fuzzy sets models. Geophysical and natural hazard applications are mostly original. However, the artificial intelligence technique described in the book can be applied far beyond the limits of Earth science applications. The book is intended for research scientists, tutors, graduate students, scientists in geophysics and engineers

Space Geodesy: The Cross-Disciplinary Earth science (Vening Meinesz Medal Lecture)

Science.gov (United States)

Shum, C. K.

2012-04-01

Geodesy during the onset of the 21st Century is evolving into a transformative cross-disciplinary Earth science field. The pioneers before or after the discipline Geodesy was defined include Galileo, Descartes, Kepler, Newton, Euler, Bernoulli, Kant, Laplace, Airy, Kelvin, Jeffreys, Chandler, Meinesz, Kaula, and others. The complicated dynamic processes of the Earth system manifested by interactions between the solid Earth and its fluid layers, including ocean, atmosphere, cryosphere and hydrosphere, and their feedbacks are linked with scientific problems such as global sea-level rise resulting from natural and anthropogenic climate change. Advances in the precision and stability of geodetic and fundamental instrumentations, including clocks, satellite or quasar tracking sensors, altimetry and lidars, synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR), InSAR altimetry, gravimetry and gradiometry, have enabled accentuate and transformative progress in cross-disciplinary Earth sciences. In particular, advances in the measurement of the gravity with modern free-fall methods have reached accuracies of 10-9 g (~1 μGal or 10 nm/s2) or better, allowing accurate measurements of height changes at ~3 mm relative to the Earth's center of mass, and mass transports within the Earth interior or its geophysical fluids, enabling global quantifications of climate-change signals. These contemporary space geodetic and in situ sensors include, but not limited to, satellite radar and laser altimetry/lidars, GNSS/SLR/VLBI/DORIS, InSAR, spaceborne gravimetry from GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment twin-satellite mission) and gradiometry from GOCE (Global Ocean Circulation Experiment), tide gauges, and hydrographic data (XBT/MBT/Argo). The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) study, the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), substantially narrowed the discrepancy between observation and the known geophysical causes of sea-level rise, but significant uncertainties

Conceptual Design of Geophysical Microsatellite

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matviyenko, S.A.

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The article covers the issue of Earth gravitational field (EGF parameters measurement from space. The radiophysical method of measurement of gravitational frequency shift of electromagnetic radiation using existent GNSS and its two variants are developed by the author. The designlayout drawing of geophysical microsatellite, which implements the radiophysical method of EGF measurement and provides Earth plasmasphere and magnetosphere monitoring, is offered.

Application of TOPEX Altimetry for Solid Earth Deformation Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyongki Lee

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This study demonstrates the use of satellite radar altimetry to detect solid Earth deformation signals such as Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA. Our study region covers moderately flat land surfaces seasonally covered by snow/ice/vegetation. The maximum solid Earth uplift of ~10 mm yr-1 is primarily due to the incomplete glacial isostatic rebound that occurs around Hudson Bay, North America. We use decadal (1992 - 2002 surface height measurements from TOPEX/POSEIDON radar altimetry to generate height changes time series for 12 selected locations in the study region. Due to the seasonally varying surface characteristics, we first perform radar waveform shape classification and have found that most of the waveforms are quasi-diffuse during winter/spring and specular during summer/fall. As a result, we used the NASA £]-retracker for the quasi-diffuse waveforms and the Offset Center of Gravity or the threshold retracker for the specular waveforms, to generate the surface height time series. The TOPEX height change time series exhibit coherent seasonal signals (higher amplitude during the winter and lower amplitude during the summer, and the estimated deformation rates agree qualitatively well with GPS vertical velocities, and with altimeter/tide gauge combined vertical velocities around the Great Lakes. The TOPEX observations also agree well with various GIA model predictions, especially with the ICE-5G (VM2 model with differences at 0.2 ¡_ 1.4 mm yr-1, indicating that TOPEX has indeed observed solid Earth deformation signals manifested as crustal uplift over the former Laurentide Ice Sheet region.

Development and implementation of the software for visualization and analysis of data geophysical loggers

Science.gov (United States)

Gordeev, V. F.; Malyshkov, S. Yu.; Botygin, I. A.; Sherstnev, V. S.; Sherstneva, A. I.

2017-11-01

The general trend of modern ecological geophysics is changing priorities towards rapid assessment, management and prediction of ecological and engineering soil stability as well as developing brand new geophysical technologies. The article describes researches conducted by using multi-canal geophysical logger MGR-01 (developed by IMCES SB RAS), which allows to measure flux density of very low-frequency electromagnetic radiation. It is shown that natural pulsed electromagnetic fields of the earthen lithosphere can be a source of new information on Earth's crust and processes in it, including earthquakes. The device is intended for logging electromagnetic processes in Earth's crust, geophysical exploration, finding structural and lithological inhomogeneities, monitoring the geodynamic movement of Earth's crust, express assessment of seismic hazards. The data is gathered automatically from observation point network in Siberia

Direct measurement of thermal conductivity in solid iron at planetary core conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Konôpková, Zuzana; McWilliams, R Stewart; Gómez-Pérez, Natalia; Goncharov, Alexander F

2016-06-02

The conduction of heat through minerals and melts at extreme pressures and temperatures is of central importance to the evolution and dynamics of planets. In the cooling Earth's core, the thermal conductivity of iron alloys defines the adiabatic heat flux and therefore the thermal and compositional energy available to support the production of Earth's magnetic field via dynamo action. Attempts to describe thermal transport in Earth's core have been problematic, with predictions of high thermal conductivity at odds with traditional geophysical models and direct evidence for a primordial magnetic field in the rock record. Measurements of core heat transport are needed to resolve this difference. Here we present direct measurements of the thermal conductivity of solid iron at pressure and temperature conditions relevant to the cores of Mercury-sized to Earth-sized planets, using a dynamically laser-heated diamond-anvil cell. Our measurements place the thermal conductivity of Earth's core near the low end of previous estimates, at 18-44 watts per metre per kelvin. The result is in agreement with palaeomagnetic measurements indicating that Earth's geodynamo has persisted since the beginning of Earth's history, and allows for a solid inner core as old as the dynamo.

Immobilization of Radioactive Rare Earth oxide Waste by Solid Phase Sintering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Byung Gil; Park, Hwan Seo; Kim, Hwan Young; Lee, Han Soo; Kim, In Tae

2010-01-01

In the pyroprocessing of spent nuclear fuels, LiCl-KCl waste salt containing radioactive rare earth chlorides are generated. The radioactive rare earth oxides are recovered by co-oxidative precipitation of rare earth elements. The powder phase of rare earth oxide waste must be immobilized to produce a monolithic wasteform suitable for storage and ultimate disposal. The immobilization of these waste developed in this study involves a solid state sintering of the waste with host borosilicate glass and zinc titanate based ceramic matrix (ZIT). And the rare-earth monazite which synthesised by reaction of ammonium di-hydrogen phosphate with the rare earth oxides waste, were immobilized with the borosilicate glass. It is shown that the developed ZIT ceramic wasteform is highly resistant the leaching process, high density and thermal conductivity.

Fluorescence line-narrowing studies of rare earths in disordered solids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hall, D.W.

1982-01-01

This dissertation is made up of two experimental studies dealing with apparently diverse topics within the subject of rare earths (RE) in solids. The first study, described in Part II, concerns the vibrations of a disordered host material about an optically active rare-earth ion as manifested by vibrationally-assisted-electronic, or vibronic transitions. Part III of the dissertation describes an investigation of the influence of site anisotropy on the purely electronic, laser transition of Nd 3+ in glass. These two studies are bound together by the common experimental technique of laser-induced fluorescence line narrowing (FLN). By exciting fluorescence with monochromatic light of well-characterized polarization, one may select and observe the response of a single subset of the optically active ions and obtain information that is usually masked by the inhomogeneous nature of disordered solids

The earth's shape and gravity

CERN Document Server

Garland, G D; Wilson, J T

2013-01-01

The Earth's Shape and Gravity focuses on the progress of the use of geophysical methods in investigating the interior of the earth and its shape. The publication first offers information on gravity, geophysics, geodesy, and geology and gravity measurements. Discussions focus on gravity measurements and reductions, potential and equipotential surfaces, absolute and relative measurements, and gravity networks. The text then elaborates on the shape of the sea-level surface and reduction of gravity observations. The text takes a look at gravity anomalies and structures in the earth's crust; interp

ForM@Ter: a solid Earth thematic pole

Science.gov (United States)

Ostanciaux, Emilie; Jamet, Olivier; Mandea, Mioara; Diament, Michel

2014-05-01

Over the last years, several notable initiatives have been developed to provide Solid Earth sciences with an efficient research e-infrastructure. The EPOS project (European Plate Observing System) was included in the EFSRI roadmap in 2008. The 7th European frame program funded an e-science environment such as the Virtual Earthquake and Seismology Research Community in Europe (VERCE). GEO supports the development of the Geohazard SuperSites and Natural Laboratories portal, while the ESA SSEP project (SuperSites exploitation plateform) is developing as an Helix Nebula usecase. Meanwhile, operational use of space data for emergency management is in constant progress, within the Copernicus services. This rich activity is still leaving some gaps between the data availability and its scientific use, either for technical reasons (big data issues) or due to the need for a better support in term of expert knowledge on the data, of software availability, or of data cost. French infrastructures for data distribution are organized around National Observatory Services (in situ data), scientific services participating to the International association of geodesy data centres and wider research infrastructures such as the Réseau Sismologique et géodésique Français (RESIF) that is contributing to EPOS. The need for thematic cooperative platforms has been underlined over tha last years. In 2009, after a scientific prospective of the French national space agency (CNES) it becomes clear the urgent need to create thematic centres designed to federate the scientific community of Earth observation. Four thematic data centres are currently developing in France in the field of ocean , atmosphere, critical zone and solid Earth sciences. For Solid Earth research, the project - named ForM@Ter - was initiated at the beginning of 2012 to design, with the scientific community, the perimeter, structure and functions of such a thematic centre. It was launched by the CNES and the National

Potential of the solid-Earth response for limiting long-term West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat

Science.gov (United States)

Konrad, Hannes; Sasgen, Ingo; Pollard, David; Klemann, Volker

2016-04-01

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is assumed to be inherently unstable because it is grounded below sea level in a large part, where the bedrock deepens from today's grounding line towards the interior of the ice sheet. Idealized simulations have shown that bedrock uplift due to isostatic adjustment of the solid Earth and the associated sea-level fall may stop the retreat of such a marine-based ice sheet (Gomez et al., 2012). Here, we employ a coupled model for ice-sheet dynamics and solid-Earth dynamics, including a gravitationally consistent description of sea level, to investigate the influence of the viscoelastic Earth structure on the WAIS' future stability (Konrad et al. 2015). For this, we start from a steady-state condition for the Antarctic Ice Sheet close to present-day observations and apply atmospheric and oceanic forcing of different strength to initiate the retreat of the WAIS and investigate the effect of the viscoelastic deformation on the ice evolution for a range of solid-Earth rheologies. We find that the climate forcing is the primary control on the occurrence of the WAIS collapse. However, for moderate climate forcing and a weak solid-Earth rheology associated with the West Antarctic rift system (asthenosphere viscosities of 3x10^19 Pa s or less), we find that the combined effect of bedrock uplift and gravitational sea-level fall limits the retreat to the Amundsen Sea embayment on millennial time scales. In contrast, a stiffer Earth rheology yields a collapse under these conditions. Under a stronger climate forcing, weak Earth structures do not prevent the WAIS collapse; however, they produce a delay of up to 5000 years in comparison to a stiffer solid-Earth rheology. In an additional experiment, we test the impact of sea-level rise from an assumed fast deglaciation of the Greenland Ice Sheet. In cases when the climatic forcing is too weak to force WAIS collapse by itself, the additional rise in sea-level leads to disintegration of the WAIS

Geophysical and atmospheric evolution of habitable planets.

Science.gov (United States)

Lammer, Helmut; Selsis, Frank; Chassefière, Eric; Breuer, Doris; Griessmeier, Jean-Mathias; Kulikov, Yuri N; Erkaev, Nikolai V; Khodachenko, Maxim L; Biernat, Helfried K; Leblanc, Francois; Kallio, Esa; Lundin, Richard; Westall, Frances; Bauer, Siegfried J; Beichman, Charles; Danchi, William; Eiroa, Carlos; Fridlund, Malcolm; Gröller, Hannes; Hanslmeier, Arnold; Hausleitner, Walter; Henning, Thomas; Herbst, Tom; Kaltenegger, Lisa; Léger, Alain; Leitzinger, Martin; Lichtenegger, Herbert I M; Liseau, René; Lunine, Jonathan; Motschmann, Uwe; Odert, Petra; Paresce, Francesco; Parnell, John; Penny, Alan; Quirrenbach, Andreas; Rauer, Heike; Röttgering, Huub; Schneider, Jean; Spohn, Tilman; Stadelmann, Anja; Stangl, Günter; Stam, Daphne; Tinetti, Giovanna; White, Glenn J

2010-01-01

The evolution of Earth-like habitable planets is a complex process that depends on the geodynamical and geophysical environments. In particular, it is necessary that plate tectonics remain active over billions of years. These geophysically active environments are strongly coupled to a planet's host star parameters, such as mass, luminosity and activity, orbit location of the habitable zone, and the planet's initial water inventory. Depending on the host star's radiation and particle flux evolution, the composition in the thermosphere, and the availability of an active magnetic dynamo, the atmospheres of Earth-like planets within their habitable zones are differently affected due to thermal and nonthermal escape processes. For some planets, strong atmospheric escape could even effect the stability of the atmosphere.

[Comments on “Solid earth geophysics” and “More on South American geophysics”] More on S.A. geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, Surendra P.

I would like to add to the analyses of J. Urrutia Fucugauchi (Eos, 63, June 8, 1982, p. 529) and C. Lomnitz (Eos, 63, September 21, 1982, p. 786) on South American geophysics. I believe that the lack of a proper infrastructure and of funds on a medium- to long-term basis and the existence of a highly bureaucratic setup constitute further causes of the slow progress of geophysics in Latin America. Although it is true, as C. Lomnitz correctly points out, that in Mexico there has been an increase in funding over the past decade, it has not been applied on carefully planned long-term projects. Instead, the individual projects have received ‘short quantum’ of money input. Thus, all of a sudden, there is a ‘big’ investment for purchasing costly equipment, but no adequate follow-up efforts are made to be able to use it efficiently. Further, the research projects are bound to fail because the excessive bureaucratic set-up makes it difficult to obtain parts or accessories in a reasonable time. The ‘outside’ companies are very eager to sell costly equipment to Latin America, but they do very little to provide adequate technical support to see that such equipment is properly calibrated and kept operational for any reasonable time. In most cases their job is over when the equipment is sold.

The International Solid Earth Research Virtual Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, G.; Pierce, M.; Rundle, J.; Donnellan, A.; Parker, J.; Granat, R.; Lyzenga, G.; McLeod, D.; Grant, L.

2004-12-01

We describe the architecture and initial implementation of the International Solid Earth Research Virtual Observatory (iSERVO). This has been prototyped within the USA as SERVOGrid and expansion is planned to Australia, China, Japan and other countries. We base our design on a globally scalable distributed "cyber-infrastructure" or Grid built around a Web Services-based approach consistent with the extended Web Service Interoperability approach. The Solid Earth Science Working Group of NASA has identified several challenges for Earth Science research. In order to investigate these, we need to couple numerical simulation codes and data mining tools to observational data sets. This observational data are now available on-line in internet-accessible forms, and the quantity of this data is expected to grow explosively over the next decade. We architect iSERVO as a loosely federated Grid of Grids with each country involved supporting a national Solid Earth Research Grid. The national Grid Operations, possibly with dedicated control centers, are linked together to support iSERVO where an International Grid control center may eventually be necessary. We address the difficult multi-administrative domain security and ownership issues by exposing capabilities as services for which the risk of abuse is minimized. We support large scale simulations within a single domain using service-hosted tools (mesh generation, data repository and sensor access, GIS, visualization). Simulations typically involve sequential or parallel machines in a single domain supported by cross-continent services. We use Web Services implement Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) using WSDL for service description and SOAP for message formats. These are augmented by UDDI, WS-Security, WS-Notification/Eventing and WS-ReliableMessaging in the WS-I+ approach. Support for the latter two capabilities will be available over the next 6 months from the NaradaBrokering messaging system. We augment these

Solid state chemistry of rare earth oxides. Final report, September 1, 1950--July 31, 1977

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eyring, L.

1977-07-01

Work under Contract E(11-1)-1109 and its antecedents has been primarily for the purpose of obtaining detailed thermodynamic, kinetic and structural information on the complex rare earth oxides of praseodymium and terbium. These systems exhibit homologous series of ordered phases, order-disorder transformations, wide-range nonstoichiometric phases, chemical hysteresis in two-phase regions and many other solid state reaction phenomena. Fluorite-related materials of importance to ERDA occur as nuclear fuels, radiation power sources, insulators and solid electrolytes. The rare earth oxides serve directly as model systems for such similar materials and, in a more general sense, they serve as models of solids in general since they exhibit nearly the full range of solid state properties

Analyze satellite-tracking laser data in order to study satellite ephemerides, solid-Earth and ocean tides and laser system performance

Science.gov (United States)

Gaposchkin, E. M.

1981-01-01

The decrease in the semimajor axis of Lageos is considerably larger than expected. Gravitational effects, reference system effects, solar radiation pressure, Earth albedo pressure, neutral atmospheric drag, the Poynting Robertson Effect, and electrodynamic effects were used in explaining the observations. Quick look data provided are used to determine the Earth's polar motion and length of day. This process is routine, and provides these geophysical data every five days.

Tidal Friction in the Earth and Ocean

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, R. D.

2006-12-01

"Tidal Friction" is a classic subject in geophysics, with ties to some of the great scientists of the Victorian era. The subject has been reinvigorated over the past decade by space geodesy, and particularly by the Topex/Poseidon satellite altimeter mission. In fact, the topic has now taken on some significance in oceanography, with potential implications for problems of mixing, thermocline maintenance, and the thermohaline circulation. Likewise, tidal measurements have become sufficiently precise to reveal new information about the solid earth. In this respect, the tidal force is an invaluable "probe" of the earth, at frequencies well outside the seismic band. This talk will "follow the energy" of tides while noting some important geophysical implications at each stage. In the present earth-moon-sun configuration, energy for tides is extracted from the earth's rotation. Ancient eclipses bear witness to this, and the discrepancy between Babylonian (and other) observations and tidal predictions yields unique information about the mantle and the overlying fluid envelope. Complementary information comes from tidal anelasticity estimates, which are now available at frequencies ranging from semidiurnal to fortnightly, monthly, and 18.6 years. These data, when combined with various kinds of gravity measurements, are relevant to the present-day sea-level problem. Solid-earth tidal dissipation represents less than 5% of the system total. As has long been realized, the largest energy sink is the ocean. About 70% of the oceanic dissipation occurs in shallow seas (the traditional sink) and 30% in the deep ocean, generally near rugged bottom topography. The latter represents a substantial amount of power, roughly 1 gigawatt, available for generation of internal tides and other baroclinic motions. Experiments like HOME are helping unravel the links between barotropic tides, internal tides, turbulence, and mixing. The latter opens possible linkages to climate, and recent work

Acceleration Processes in the Earth’s Magnetosphere.

Science.gov (United States)

1985-05-17

Hada, T. and T. Terasawa, Nonlinear evolution of low frequency waves in the foreshock region of earth’s bow shock, American Geophysical Union...low-frequency waves in the earth’s foreshock , American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, December 1984. 14) Ogino, T., R.J. Walker and M. Ashour

Innovation of floating time domain electromagnetic method in the case of environmental geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Nurjanah, Siti; Widodo

2017-07-01

Geophysics has some methods that can be used to reveal the subsurface structure of the earth. The physical features obtained from the acquisition then analyzed and interpreted, so that it can be a great lead to interpret the physical contents, determine its position and its distribution. Geophysical methods also can be used to help the environment contamination survey which is referred to environmental geophysics. There are many sources of pollution that can harm the nature, for example, the source in the form of solid waste, liquid waste containing heavy metals, or radioactive, and etc. As time passes, these sources might settle in any sedimentary area and become sediments. Time Domain Electromagnetic (TDEM) is a trustworthy method to detect the presence of conductive anomaly due to sediment accumulation. Innovation of floating TDEM created to maximize the potential of the method, so that it can be used in aquatic environments. The configuration of TDEM modified using pipes and tires during the process of measurements. We conducted numerical simulation using Marquardt and Occam Algorithms towards synthetic model to ensure the capability of the proposed design. The development of this innovation is expected to be very useful to repair the natural conditions, especially in the water.

Using earthquakes to uncover the Earth's inner secrets: interactive exhibits for geophysical education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Nostro

2005-01-01

Full Text Available The Educational & Outreach Group (E&O Group of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV designed a portable museum to bring on the road educational activities focused on seismology, seismic hazard and Earth science. This project was developed for the first edition of the Science Festival organized in Genoa, Italy, in 2003. The museum has been mainly focused to school students of all ages and explains the main topics of geophysics through posters, movie and slide presentations, and exciting interactive experiments. This new INGV museum has been remarkably successful, being visited by more than 8000 children and adults during the 10 days of the Science Festival. It is now installed at the INGV headquarters in Rome and represents the main attraction during the visits of the schools all year round.

Estimation of solid earth tidal parameters and FCN with VLBI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krásná, H.

2012-01-01

Measurements of a space-geodetic technique VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) are influenced by a variety of processes which have to be modelled and put as a priori information into the analysis of the space-geodetic data. The increasing accuracy of the VLBI measurements allows access to these parameters and provides possibilities to validate them directly from the measured data. The gravitational attraction of the Moon and the Sun causes deformation of the Earth's surface which can reach several decimetres in radial direction during a day. The displacement is a function of the so-called Love and Shida numbers. Due to the present accuracy of the VLBI measurements the parameters have to be specified as complex numbers, where the imaginary parts describe the anelasticity of the Earth's mantle. Moreover, it is necessary to distinguish between the single tides within the various frequency bands. In this thesis, complex Love and Shida numbers of twelve diurnal and five long-period tides included in the solid Earth tidal displacement modelling are estimated directly from the 27 years of VLBI measurements (1984.0 - 2011.0). In this work, the period of the Free Core Nutation (FCN) is estimated which shows up in the frequency dependent solid Earth tidal displacement as well as in a nutation model describing the motion of the Earth's axis in space. The FCN period in both models is treated as a single parameter and it is estimated in a rigorous global adjustment of the VLBI data. The obtained value of -431.18 ± 0.10 sidereal days differs slightly from the conventional value -431.39 sidereal days given in IERS Conventions 2010. An empirical FCN model based on variable amplitude and phase is determined, whose parameters are estimated in yearly steps directly within VLBI global solutions. (author) [de

Recent advances in rare earth doped alkali-alkaline earth borates for solid state lighting applications

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, Shefali; Verma, Kartikey; Kumar, Deepak; Chaudhary, Babulal; Som, Sudipta; Sharma, Vishal; Kumar, Vijay; Swart, Hendrik C.

2018-04-01

As a novel class of inorganic phosphor, the alkali-alkaline earth borate phosphors have gained huge attention due to their charming applications in solid-state lighting (SSL) and display devices. The current research drive shows that phosphors based on the alkali-alkaline earth borates have transformed the science and technology due to their high transparency over a broad spectral range, their flexibility in structure and durability for mechanical and high-laser applications. Recent advances in various aspects of rare-earth (RE) doped borate based phosphors and their utilizations in SSL and light emitting diodes are summarized in this review article. Moreover, the present status and upcoming scenario of RE-doped borate phosphors were reviewed in general along with the proper credential from the existing literature. It is believed that this review is a sole compilation of crucial information about the RE-doped borate phosphors in a single platform.

Zero drift and solid Earth tide extracted from relative gravimetric data with principal component analysis

OpenAIRE

Hongjuan Yu; Jinyun Guo; Jiulong Li; Dapeng Mu; Qiaoli Kong

2015-01-01

Zero drift and solid Earth tide corrections to static relative gravimetric data cannot be ignored. In this paper, a new principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm is presented to extract the zero drift and the solid Earth tide, as signals, from static relative gravimetric data assuming that the components contained in the relative gravimetric data are uncorrelated. Static relative gravity observations from Aug. 15 to Aug. 23, 2014 are used as statistical variables to separate the signal and...

ForM@Ter: a French Solid Earth Research Infrastructure Project

Science.gov (United States)

Mandea, M.; Diament, M.; Jamet, O.; Deschamps-Ostanciaux, E.

2017-12-01

Recently, some noteworthy initiatives to develop efficient research e-infrastructures for the study of the Earth's system have been set up. However, some gaps between the data availability and their scientific use still exists, either because technical reasons (big data issues) or because of the lack of a dedicated support in terms of expert knowledge of the data, software availability, or data cost. The need for thematic cooperative platforms has been underlined over the last years, as well as the need to create thematic centres designed to federate the scientific community of Earth's observation. Four thematic data centres have been developed in France, covering the domains of ocean, atmosphere, land, and solid Earth sciences. For the Solid Earth science community, a research infrastructure project named ForM@Ter was launched by the French Space Agency (CNES) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), with the active participation of the National institute for geographical and forestry information (IGN). Currently, it relies on the contributions of scientists from more than 20 French Earth science laboratories.Preliminary analysis have showed that a focus on the determination of the shape and movements of the Earth surface (ForM@Ter: Formes et Mouvements de la Terre) can federate a wide variety of scientific areas (earthquake cycle, tectonics, morphogenesis, volcanism, erosion dynamics, mantle rheology, geodesy) and offers many interfaces with other geoscience domains, such as glaciology or snow evolution. This choice motivates the design of an ambitious data distribution scheme, including a wide variety of sources - optical imagery, SAR, GNSS, gravity, satellite altimetry data, in situ observations (inclinometers, seismometers, etc.) - as well as a wide variety of processing techniques. In the evolving context of the current and forthcoming national and international e-infrastructures, the challenge of the project is to design a non

The Expanding Marketplace for Applied Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Carlson, N.; Sirles, P.

2012-12-01

While the image of geophysics for the proverbial "layman" often seems limited to volcanoes and earthquakes, and to the geoscientist this image enlarges to include oil or minerals exploration and whole earth studies, there has been a steady increase in the application of geophysics into the realm of "daily life", such as real estate deals, highway infrastructure, and flood protection. This expansion of applications can be attributed to the improved economics from advances in equipment and interpretation. Traditional geophysical methods that at one time often only fit within the budgets of oil, gas, and minerals exploration programs can now be economically applied to much smaller scale needs like contaminant mapping, landfill delineation, and levee investigations. A real-world, economic example of this expanding marketplace is our company, which began very small and was aimed almost exclusively at the minerals exploration market. Most of our growth has been in the last 10 years, when we have expanded to five offices and a staff with almost 40 geoscientist degrees (21 in geophysics); much of this growth has been in the non-oil, non-minerals arenas. While much of our work still includes minerals exploration, other projects this year include wind-farm foundation studies, cavity detection above underground nuclear tests, landfill studies, acid mine drainage problems, and leaks in evaporation ponds. A methodology example of this expanding market is the induced polarization (IP) survey, once primarily used for minerals exploration, particularly large porphyry copper deposits, but now efficient enough to also use in environmental studies. The IP method has been particularly useful in delineating and characterizing old, poorly documented landfills, and recent research suggests it may also be useful in monitoring the accelerated biodegradation processes used in some cases to rehabilitate the sites. Compared to temperature monitoring systems, IP may be more useful in providing

Early geophysical maps published by A. Petermann

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kozák, Jan; Vaněk, Jiří

2012-01-01

Roč. 56, č. 4 (2012), s. 1109-1122 ISSN 0039-3169 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30120515 Keywords : August Petermann * Geographische Mitteilungen * geophysical maps Subject RIV: DC - Siesmology, Volcanology, Earth Structure Impact factor: 0.975, year: 2012

The Earth's Magnetism: An Introduction for Geologists

Science.gov (United States)

Harlan, Stephen S.

2007-03-01

Roberto Lanza and Antonio Meloni Springer; XII + 278 pp.; ISBN: 3-540-27979-2 2006; $79.95. The nature of the geomagnetic field is one of the cornerstones of the study of the geophysical properties of the Earth. Despite the importance of geomagnetism to the understanding of the Earth and to the various subdisciplines of geophysics, and despite its being an essential part of any Earth scientist's education, it has been suggested that most geophysics textbooks and curricula devote only limited attention to the subject. With this in mind, Roberto Lanza and Antonio Meloni have authored The Earth's Magnetism: An Introduction for Geologists with the goal of producing a textbook that would provide a holistic approach to the subject and a general overview of many of the fundamental subjects that compose geomagnetism and its applications to geology. The text is meant to supplement more substantial treatments of various subjects and the geomagnetic literature.

Sea-level and solid-Earth deformation feedbacks in ice sheet modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Konrad, Hannes; Sasgen, Ingo; Klemann, Volker; Thoma, Malte; Grosfeld, Klaus; Martinec, Zdeněk

2014-05-01

The interactions of ice sheets with the sea level and the solid Earth are important factors for the stability of the ice shelves and the tributary inland ice (e.g. Thomas and Bentley, 1978; Gomez et al, 2012). First, changes in ice extent and ice thickness induce viscoelastic deformation of the Earth surface and Earth's gravity field. In turn, global and local changes in sea level and bathymetry affect the grounding line and, subsequently, alter the ice dynamic behaviour. Here, we investigate these feedbacks for a synthetic ice sheet configuration as well as for the Antarctic ice sheet using a three-dimensional thermomechanical ice sheet and shelf model, coupled to a viscoelastic solid-Earth and gravitationally self-consistent sea-level model. The respective ice sheet undergoes a forcing from rising sea level, warming ocean, and/or changing surface mass balance. The coupling is realized by exchanging ice thickness, Earth surface deformation and sea level periodically. We apply several sets of viscoelastic Earth parameters to our coupled model, e.g. simulating a low-viscous upper mantle present at the Antarctic Peninsula (Ivins et al., 2011). Special focus of our study lies on the evolution of Earth surface deformation and local sea level changes, as well as on the accompanying grounding line evolution. N. Gomez, D. Pollard, J. X. Mitrovica, P. Huybers, and P. U. Clark 2012. Evolution of a coupled marine ice sheet-sea level model, J. Geophys. Res., 117, F01013, doi:10.1029/2011JF002128. E. R. Ivins, M. M. Watkins, D.-N. Yuan, R. Dietrich, G. Casassa, and A. Rülke 2011. On-land ice loss and glacial isostatic adjustment at the Drake Passage: 2003-2009, J. Geophys. Res. 116, B02403, doi: 10.1029/2010JB007607 R. H. Thomas and C. R. Bentley 1978. A model for Holocene retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Quaternary Research, 10 (2), pages 150-170, doi: 10.1016/0033-5894(78)90098-4.

The Australian Computational Earth Systems Simulator

Science.gov (United States)

Mora, P.; Muhlhaus, H.; Lister, G.; Dyskin, A.; Place, D.; Appelbe, B.; Nimmervoll, N.; Abramson, D.

2001-12-01

Numerical simulation of the physics and dynamics of the entire earth system offers an outstanding opportunity for advancing earth system science and technology but represents a major challenge due to the range of scales and physical processes involved, as well as the magnitude of the software engineering effort required. However, new simulation and computer technologies are bringing this objective within reach. Under a special competitive national funding scheme to establish new Major National Research Facilities (MNRF), the Australian government together with a consortium of Universities and research institutions have funded construction of the Australian Computational Earth Systems Simulator (ACcESS). The Simulator or computational virtual earth will provide the research infrastructure to the Australian earth systems science community required for simulations of dynamical earth processes at scales ranging from microscopic to global. It will consist of thematic supercomputer infrastructure and an earth systems simulation software system. The Simulator models and software will be constructed over a five year period by a multi-disciplinary team of computational scientists, mathematicians, earth scientists, civil engineers and software engineers. The construction team will integrate numerical simulation models (3D discrete elements/lattice solid model, particle-in-cell large deformation finite-element method, stress reconstruction models, multi-scale continuum models etc) with geophysical, geological and tectonic models, through advanced software engineering and visualization technologies. When fully constructed, the Simulator aims to provide the software and hardware infrastructure needed to model solid earth phenomena including global scale dynamics and mineralisation processes, crustal scale processes including plate tectonics, mountain building, interacting fault system dynamics, and micro-scale processes that control the geological, physical and dynamic

Integration of geotechnical and geophysical techniques for the characterization of a small earth-filled canal dyke and the localization of water leakage

Science.gov (United States)

Bièvre, Grégory; Lacroix, Pascal; Oxarango, Laurent; Goutaland, David; Monnot, Guy; Fargier, Yannick

2017-04-01

This paper investigates the combined use of extensive geotechnical, hydrogeological and geophysical techniques to assess a small earth dyke with a permanent hydraulic head, namely a canal embankment. The experimental site was chosen because of known issues regarding internal erosion and piping phenomena. Two leakages were visually located following the emptying of the canal prior to remediation works. The results showed a good agreement between the geophysical imaging techniques (Electrical Resistivity Tomography, P- and SH-waves Tomography) and the geotechnical data to detect the depth to the bedrock and its lateral variations. It appeared that surface waves might not be fully adapted for dyke investigation because of the particular geometry of the studied dyke, non-respectful of the 1D assumption, and which induced depth and velocity discrepancies retrieved from Rayleigh and Love waves inversion. The use of these classical prospecting techniques however did not allow to directly locate the two leakages within the studied earth dyke. The analysis of ambient vibration time series with a modified beam-forming algorithm allowed to localize the most energetic water flow prior to remediation works. It was not possible to detect the leakage after remediation works, suggesting that they efficiently contributed to significantly reduce the water flow. The second leakage was not detected probably because of a non-turbulent water flow, generating few energetic vibrations.

Use of the radon gas as a natural geophysical tracer; Utilizacion del gas radon como un trazador geofisico natural

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pena, P.; Balcazar, M.; Flores R, J.H.; Lopez M, A. [ININ, 52045 Ocoyoacac, Estado de Mexico (Mexico)

2006-07-01

In this work it is denoted the applications of the radon gas like a natural geophysical radiotracer in the different branches of the Earth Sciences (Geology, geophysics and geochemistry). It importance resides in its employment like one additional tool to register the possible occurrence of seismic events by means of radon anomalies that are presented in land movements (volcanic eruptions and presence of geothermal areas), as well as its potential in environmental works whose purpose is the evaluation of the feather of contamination in the underground water and the porous media for spills of hydrocarbons. The measurement techniques to determine the concentration of radon was carried out by means of Solid Detectors of Nuclear tracks, as well as by Liquid scintillation, Clipperton, Honeywell, AlphaGUARD. The towns where these techniques its were applied were: Mexico City, Estado de Mexico (Toluca, ININ), Jalisco (The Spring), Guerrero coast. (Author)

Multiscale geophysical imaging of the critical zone

Science.gov (United States)

Parsekian, Andy; Singha, Kamini; Minsley, Burke J.; Holbrook, W. Steven; Slater, Lee

2015-01-01

Details of Earth's shallow subsurface—a key component of the critical zone (CZ)—are largely obscured because making direct observations with sufficient density to capture natural characteristic spatial variability in physical properties is difficult. Yet this inaccessible region of the CZ is fundamental to processes that support ecosystems, society, and the environment. Geophysical methods provide a means for remotely examining CZ form and function over length scales that span centimeters to kilometers. Here we present a review highlighting the application of geophysical methods to CZ science research questions. In particular, we consider the application of geophysical methods to map the geometry of structural features such as regolith thickness, lithological boundaries, permafrost extent, snow thickness, or shallow root zones. Combined with knowledge of structure, we discuss how geophysical observations are used to understand CZ processes. Fluxes between snow, surface water, and groundwater affect weathering, groundwater resources, and chemical and nutrient exports to rivers. The exchange of gas between soil and the atmosphere have been studied using geophysical methods in wetland areas. Indirect geophysical methods are a natural and necessary complement to direct observations obtained by drilling or field mapping. Direct measurements should be used to calibrate geophysical estimates, which can then be used to extrapolate interpretations over larger areas or to monitor changing processes over time. Advances in geophysical instrumentation and computational approaches for integrating different types of data have great potential to fill gaps in our understanding of the shallow subsurface portion of the CZ and should be integrated where possible in future CZ research.

Introductory mathematics for earth scientists

CERN Document Server

Yang, Xin-She

2009-01-01

Any quantitative work in earth sciences requires mathematical analysis and mathematical methods are essential to the modelling and analysis of the geological, geophysical and environmental processes involved. This book provides an introduction to the fundamental mathematics that all earth scientists need.

Sustainable urban development and geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Lanbo; Chan, L. S.

2007-09-01

The new millennium has seen a fresh wave of world economic development especially in the Asian-Pacific region. This has contributed to further rapid urban expansion, creating shortages of energy and resources, degradation of the environment, and changes to climatic patterns. Large-scale, new urbanization is mostly seen in developing countries but urban sprawl is also a major social problem for developed nations. Urbanization has been accelerating at a tremendous rate. According to data collected by the United Nations [1], 50 years ago less than 30% of the world population lived in cities. Now, more than 50% are living in urban settings which occupy only about 1% of the Earth's surface. During the period from 1950 to 1995, the number of cities with a population higher than one million increased from 83 to 325. By 2025 it is estimated that more than 60% of 8.3 billion people (the projected world population [1]) will be city dwellers. Urbanization and urban sprawl can affect our living quality both positively and negatively. In recent years geophysics has found significant and new applications in highly urbanized settings. Such applications are conducive to the understanding of the changes and impacts on the physical environment and play a role in developing sustainable urban infrastructure systems. We would like to refer to this field of study as 'urban geophysics'. Urban geophysics is not simply the application of geophysical exploration in the cities. Urbanization has brought about major changes to the geophysical fields of cities, including those associated with electricity, magnetism, electromagnetism and heat. An example is the increased use of electromagnetic waves in wireless communication, transportation, office automation, and computer equipment. How such an increased intensity of electromagnetic radiation affects the behaviour of charged particles in the atmosphere, the equilibrium of ecological systems, or human health, are new research frontiers to be

SIAM conference on inverse problems: Geophysical applications. Final technical report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-12-31

This conference was the second in a series devoted to a particular area of inverse problems. The theme of this series is to discuss problems of major scientific importance in a specific area from a mathematical perspective. The theme of this symposium was geophysical applications. In putting together the program we tried to include a wide range of mathematical scientists and to interpret geophysics in as broad a sense as possible. Our speaker came from industry, government laboratories, and diverse departments in academia. We managed to attract a geographically diverse audience with participation from five continents. There were talks devoted to seismology, hydrology, determination of the earth`s interior on a global scale as well as oceanographic and atmospheric inverse problems.

Activities and Plan of the Center for Geophysics (Beijing from WDC to WDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fenglin Peng

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In this report we introduce the development of the WDC for Geophysics, Beijing included our activities in the electronic Geophysical Year (eGY and in the transition period from WDC to WDS. We also present our future plans. We have engaged in the development of geophysical informatics and related data science. We began the data visualization of geomagnetic fields in the GIS system. Our database has been expanded from geomagnetic data to the data of solid geophysics, including geothermal data, gravity data, and the records of aurora sightings in ancient China. We also joined the study of the history of the development of geophysics in China organized by the Chinese Geophysical Society (CGS.

Research for the physics and structure of earth's crust in Romania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghitulescu, T.P.; Popescu, M.N.

1987-10-01

Systematic research for the deciphering of the physic and structure of Earth's crust in our country by geophysical methods were performed in the frame of Romanian Geological Institute since 1925. We put into evidence the principle achievements obtained by the geological and geophysical research for the mineral resources existing in the Romanian earth's crust. (authors)

The European Plate Observing System (EPOS) Services for Solid Earth Science

Science.gov (United States)

Cocco, Massimo; Atakan, Kuvvet; Pedersen, Helle; Consortium, Epos

2016-04-01

The European Plate Observing System (EPOS) aims to create a pan-European infrastructure for solid Earth science to support a safe and sustainable society. The main vision of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) is to address the three basic challenges in Earth Sciences: (i) unravelling the Earth's deformational processes which are part of the Earth system evolution in time, (ii) understanding the geo-hazards and their implications to society, and (iii) contributing to the safe and sustainable use of geo-resources. The mission of EPOS is to monitor and understand the dynamic and complex Earth system by relying on new e-science opportunities and integrating diverse and advanced Research Infrastructures in Europe for solid Earth Science. EPOS will enable innovative multidisciplinary research for a better understanding of the Earth's physical and chemical processes that control earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, ground instability and tsunami as well as the processes driving tectonics and Earth's surface dynamics. EPOS will improve our ability to better manage the use of the subsurface of the Earth. Through integration of data, models and facilities EPOS will allow the Earth Science community to make a step change in developing new concepts and tools for key answers to scientific and socio-economic questions concerning geo-hazards and geo-resources as well as Earth sciences applications to the environment and to human welfare. EPOS has now started its Implementation Phase (EPOS-IP). One of the main challenges during the implementation phase is the integration of multidisciplinary data into a single e-infrastructure. Multidisciplinary data are organized and governed by the Thematic Core Services (TCS) and are driven by various scientific communities encompassing a wide spectrum of Earth science disciplines. These include Data, Data-products, Services and Software (DDSS), from seismology, near fault observatories, geodetic observations, volcano observations

Modeling of the Earth's gravity field using the New Global Earth Model (NEWGEM)

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Yeong E.; Braswell, W. Danny

1989-01-01

Traditionally, the global gravity field was described by representations based on the spherical harmonics (SH) expansion of the geopotential. The SH expansion coefficients were determined by fitting the Earth's gravity data as measured by many different methods including the use of artificial satellites. As gravity data have accumulated with increasingly better accuracies, more of the higher order SH expansion coefficients were determined. The SH representation is useful for describing the gravity field exterior to the Earth but is theoretically invalid on the Earth's surface and in the Earth's interior. A new global Earth model (NEWGEM) (KIM, 1987 and 1988a) was recently proposed to provide a unified description of the Earth's gravity field inside, on, and outside the Earth's surface using the Earth's mass density profile as deduced from seismic studies, elevation and bathymetric information, and local and global gravity data. Using NEWGEM, it is possible to determine the constraints on the mass distribution of the Earth imposed by gravity, topography, and seismic data. NEWGEM is useful in investigating a variety of geophysical phenomena. It is currently being utilized to develop a geophysical interpretation of Kaula's rule. The zeroth order NEWGEM is being used to numerically integrate spherical harmonic expansion coefficients and simultaneously determine the contribution of each layer in the model to a given coefficient. The numerically determined SH expansion coefficients are also being used to test the validity of SH expansions at the surface of the Earth by comparing the resulting SH expansion gravity model with exact calculations of the gravity at the Earth's surface.

Earth Rotation Dynamics: Review and Prospects

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Benjamin F.

2004-01-01

Modem space geodetic measurement of Earth rotation variations, particularly by means of the VLBI technique, has over the years allowed studies of Earth rotation dynamics to advance in ever-increasing precision, accuracy, and temporal resolution. A review will be presented on our understanding of the geophysical and climatic causes, or "excitations", for length-of-day change, polar motion, and nutations. These excitations sources come from mass transports that constantly take place in the Earth system comprised of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, mantle, and the cores. In this sense, together with other space geodetic measurements of time-variable gravity and geocenter motion, Earth rotation variations become a remote-sensing tool for the integral of all mass transports, providing valuable information about the latter on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Future prospects with respect to geophysical studies with even higher accuracy and resolution will be discussed.

Analyzing Earth Science Research Networking through Visualizations

Science.gov (United States)

Hasnain, S.; Stephan, R.; Narock, T.

2017-12-01

Using D3.js we visualize collaboration amongst several geophysical science organizations, such as the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). We look at historical trends in Earth Science research topics, cross-domain collaboration, and topics of interest to the general population. The visualization techniques used provide an effective way for non-experts to easily explore distributed and heterogeneous Big Data. Analysis of these visualizations provides stakeholders with insights into optimizing meetings, performing impact evaluation, structuring outreach efforts, and identifying new opportunities for collaboration.

The relationship of fractals in geophysics to 'the new science'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Turcotte, Donald L.

2004-01-01

Many phenomena in geophysics satisfy fractal statistics, examples range from the frequency-area statistics of earthquakes to the time series of the earth's magnetic field. Solutions to classical differential equations cannot give this type of behavior. Several 'cellular automata' models have successfully reproduced the observed statistics. For example, the slider-block model for earthquakes. Stephen Wolfram's recent book A New Kind of Science sets forth a 'new science' based on cellular automata. This paper discusses the role of cellular automata in geophysics

Looking Forward to the electronic Geophysical Year

Science.gov (United States)

Kamide, Y.; Baker, D. N.; Thompson, B.; Barton, C.; Kihn, E.

2004-12-01

During the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958), member countries established many new capabilities pursuing the major IGY objectives of collecting geophysical data as widely as possible and providing free access to these data for all scientists around the globe. A key achievement of the IGY was the establishment of a worldwide system of data centers and physical observatories. The worldwide scientific community has now endorsed and is promoting an electronic Geophysical Year (eGY) initiative. The proposed eGY concept would both commemorate the 50th anniversary of the IGY in 2007-2008 and would provide a forward impetus to geophysics in the 21st century, similar to that provide by the IGY fifty years ago. The eGY concept advocates the establishment of a series of virtual geophysical observatories now being deployed in cyberspace. We discuss plans to aggregate measurements into a readily accessible database along with analysis, visualization, and display tools that will make information available and useful to the scientific community, to the user community, and to the general public. We are examining the possibilities for near-realtime acquisition of data and utilization of forecast tools in order to provide users with advanced space weather capabilities. This program will provide powerful tools for education and public outreach concerning the connected Sun-Earth System.

Nuclear and subnuclear geophysics. Neutrinos from the Earth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fiorentini, G.

2005-01-01

The deepest hole that has ever been dug is about 12 km deep, a mere dent in planetary terms. Geochemists analyze samples from the Earth's crust and from the top of the mantle. Seismology can reconstruct the density profile throughout all Earth, but not its composition. In this respect, our planet is mainly unexplored. Geo-neutrinos, the antineutrinos from the progenies of U, Th and 40 K decays in the Earth, bring to the surface information from the whole planet, concerning its content of radioactive elements. Their detection can shed light on the sources of the terrestrial heat flow, on the present composition and on the origin of the Earth. They represent a new probe of our planet which is becoming practical as a consequence of two fundamental advances that occurred in the last few years: the development of extremely low background neutrino detectors and the progress in understanding neutrino propagation. (author)

Surface exploration geophysics applied to the moon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ander, M.E.

1984-01-01

With the advent of a permanent lunar base, the desire to explore the lunar near-surface for both scientific and economic purposes will arise. Applications of exploration geophysical methods to the earth's subsurface are highly developed. This paper briefly addresses some aspects of applying this technology to near surface lunar exploration. It is noted that both the manner of application of some techniques, as well as their traditional hierarchy as assigned on earth, should be altered for lunar exploration. In particular, electromagnetic techniques may replace seismic techniques as the primary tool for evaluating near-surface structure

Geophysical considerations of geothermics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hayakawa, M

1967-01-01

The development and utilization of geothermal energy is described from the standpoint of geophysics. The internal temperature of the Earth and the history and composition of magmas are described. Methods of exploration such as gravity, magnetic, thermal and electrical surveys are discussed, as are geochemical and infrared photogrammetric techniques. Examples are provided of how these techniques have been used in Italy and at the Matsukawa geothermal field in Japan. Drilling considerations such as muds, casings and cementing materials are discussed. Solutions are proposed for problems of environmental pollution and plant expansion.

Geophysical Investigation of the 618-10 and 618-11 Burial Grounds, 300-FF-2 Operable Unit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bergstrom, K.A.; Bolin, D.J.; Mitchell, T.H.

1997-09-01

This document summarizes the results of geophysical investigations conducted at two radioactive solid waste burial grounds, 618-10 and 618-11. The burial grounds are located approximately 4.5 miles and 7 miles north of the 300 Area, respectively. These sites are within the 300-FF-2 Operable Unit, where geophysical techniques are being used to characterize the distribution of solid waste in the subsurface as part of the Limited Field Investigations for this operable unit

Geophysical Exploration Technologies for the Deep Lithosphere Research: An Education Materials for High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, H.; Xu, C.; Luo, S.; Chen, H.; Qin, R.

2012-12-01

The science of Geophysics applies the principles of physics to study of the earth. Geophysical exploration technologies include the earthquake seismology, the seismic reflection and refraction methods, the gravity method, the magnetic method and the magnetotelluric method, which are used to measure the interior material distribution, their structure and the tectonics in the lithosphere of the earth. Part of the research project in SinoProbe-02-06 is to develop suitable education materials for carton movies targeting the high school students and public. The carton movies include five parts. The first part includes the structures of the earth's interior and variation in their physical properties that include density, p-wave, s-wave and so on, which are the fundamentals of the geophysical exploration technologies. The second part includes the seismology that uses the propagation of elastic waves through the earth to study the structure and the material distribution of the earth interior. It can be divided into earthquake seismology and artifice seismics commonly using reflection and refraction. The third part includes the magnetic method. Earth's magnetic field (also known as the geomagnetic field)extends from the Earth's inner core to where it meets the solar wind, a stream of energetic particles emanating from the Sun. The aim of magnetic survey is to investigate subsurface geology on the basis of anomalies in the Earth's magnetic field resulting from the magnetic properties of the underlying rocks. The magnetic method in the lithosphere attempts to use magnetic disturbance to analyse the regional geological structure and the magnetic boundaries of the crust. The fourth part includes the gravity method. A gravity anomaly results from the inhomogeneous distribution of density of the Earth. Usually gravity anomalies contain superposed anomalies from several sources. The long wave length anomalies due to deep density contrasts are called regional anomalies. They are

Common interests bind AGU and geophysical groups around the globe

Science.gov (United States)

McEntee, Christine

2012-02-01

In continuation of our work to strengthen alliances with key organizations in the Earth and space science community, AGU president Michael McPhaden, president-elect Carol Finn, and I held a series of meetings with leaders from other science societies during the 2011 Fall Meeting. Over the course of 2 days we met with leaders from the Geophysical Society of America, European Geosciences Union, Japan Geosciences Union, Ethiopian Geophysical Union, Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, Chinese Geophysical Society, and Asociación Latinoamericana de Geofísica Espacial. This gave us a valued opportunity to discuss the common interests and challenges we all face and to learn from each other's experience. The meetings allowed AGU to strengthen existing cooperative agreements and reach new levels of understanding between us and other societies. Additionally, we met with representatives from the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute to discuss their intention to establish a geophysical union modeled after AGU.

Smartphones - the Geophysics Lab in Your Students' Pocket

Science.gov (United States)

Salaree, A.; Stein, S.; Saloor, N.; Elling, R. P.

2017-12-01

Many interesting topics are hard to demonstrate in geophysics classes without costly equipment and logistic hassles. For instance, the speed of P-waves in the Earth's crust is usually calculated using printed seismic sections from published studies, giving students little insight into the recording process. This is mainly due to the complex, costly, and weather-dependent logistics of conducting seismic reflection experiments using arrays of - either purchased or borrowed - expensive seismometers and recording units. Smartphones, which students own and are (perhaps unduly) comfortable with, have many otherwise expensive instruments as built-in sensors. These instruments are nifty tools that make labs easier, faster, and more fun. We use smartphones in several labs in an introductory geophysics class. In one, students use their phones to measure the latitude and longitude of a point on campus. Combining the data shows a nice spread of positions illustrating the precision of measurements, spatial trends in the scatter, and even differences between Android and iPhone data. Hence concepts about data that are often presented with ideal theoretical examples emerge from the students' measurements. Another uses the phones' accelerometers and available software to measure the speed of P-waves using a linear array of smartphones/seismometers along a table, similar to the procedure used in reflection seismology. In a third, students used their smartphones in an elevator to measure the acceleration of gravity in a moving reference frame, and thus explore key concepts that arise in many geophysical applications. These three applications illustrate the potential for using smartphones in a wide variety of geophysics teaching, much as their value is being increasingly recognized in other educational applications. Here are some links to an instructions document and a video from the seismic experiment: Instructions: http://www.earth.northwestern.edu/ amir/202/smartphone

What can earth tide measurements tell us about ocean tides or earth structure?

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, T. F.

1978-01-01

Current experimental problems in Earth tides are reviewed using comparisons of tidal gravity and tilt measurements in Europe with loading calculations are examples. The limitations of present day instrumentation and installation techniques are shown as well as some of the ways in which they can be improved. Many of the geophysical and oceanographic investigations that are possible with Earth tide measurements are discussed with emphasis on the percentage accuracies required in the measurements in order to obtain new information about Earth or its oceans.

Development of a Model of Geophysical and Geochemical Controls on Abiotic Carbon Cycling on Earth-Like Planets

Science.gov (United States)

Neveu, M.; Felton, R.; Domagal-Goldman, S. D.; Desch, S. J.; Arney, G. N.

2017-12-01

About 20 Earth-sized planets (0.6-1.6 Earth masses and radii) have now been discovered beyond our solar system [1]. Although such planets are prime targets in the upcoming search for atmospheric biosignatures, their composition, geology, and climate are essentially unconstrained. Yet, developing an understanding of how these factors influence planetary evolution through time and space is essential to establishing abiotic backgrounds against which any deviations can provide evidence for biological activity. To this end, we are building coupled geophysical-geochemical models of abiotic carbon cycling on such planets. Our models are controlled by atmospheric factors such as temperature and composition, and compute interior inputs to atmospheric species. They account for crustal weathering, ocean-atmosphere equilibria, and exchange with the deep interior as a function of planet composition and size (and, eventually, age).Planets in other solar systems differ from the Earth not only in their bulk physical properties, but also likely in their bulk chemical composition [2], which influences key parameters such as the vigor of mantle convection and the near-surface redox state. Therefore, simulating how variations in such parameters affect carbon cycling requires us to simulate the above processes from first principles, rather than by using arbitrary parameterizations derived from observations as is often done with models of carbon cycling on Earth [3] or extrapolations thereof [4]. As a first step, we have developed a kinetic model of crustal weathering using the PHREEQC code [5] and kinetic data from [6]. We will present the ability of such a model to replicate Earth's carbon cycle using, for the time being, parameterizations for surface-interior-atmosphere exchange processes such as volcanism (e.g., [7]).[1] exoplanet.eu, 7/28/2017.[2] Young et al. (2014) Astrobiology 14, 603-626.[3] Lerman & Wu (2008) Kinetics of Global Geochemical Cycles. In Kinetics of Water

Development of Geophysical Ideas and Institutions in Ottoman Empire

Science.gov (United States)

Ozcep, Ferhat; Ozcep, Tazegul

2015-04-01

In Anatolia, the history of geophysical sciences may go back to antiquity (600 BC), namely the period when Thales lived in Magnesia (Asia Minor). In the modern sense, geophysics started with geomagnetic works in the 1600s. The period between 1600 and 1800 includes the measurement of magnetic declination, inclination and magnetic field strength. Before these years, there is a little information, such as how to use a compass, in the Kitab-i Bahriye (the Book of Navigation) of Piri Reis, who is one of the most important mariners of the Ottoman Empire. However, this may not mean that magnetic declination was generally understood. The first scientific book relating to geophysics is the book Fuyuzat-i Miknatissiye that was translated by Ibrahim Müteferrika and printed in 1731. The subject of this book is earth's magnetism. There is also information concerning geophysics in the book Cihannuma (Universal Geography) that was written by Katip Celebi and in the book Marifetname written by Ibrahim Hakki Erzurumlu, but these books are only partly geophysical books. In Istanbul the year 1868 is one of the most important for geophysical sciences because an observatory called Rasathane-i Amire was installed in the Pera region of this city. At this observatory the first systematic geophysical observations such as meteorological, seismological and even gravimetrical were made. There have been meteorological records in Anatolia since 1839. These are records of atmospheric temperature, pressure and humidity. In the Ottoman Empire, the science of geophysics is considered as one of the natural sciences along with astronomy, mineralogy, geology, etc., and these sciences are included as a part of physics and chemistry.

Uncertainty analysis of atmospheric friction torque on the solid Earth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haoming Yan

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The wind stress acquired from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP climate models and QSCAT satellite observations are analyzed by using frequency-wavenumber spectrum method. The spectrum of two climate models, i.e., ECMWF and NCEP, is similar for both 10 m wind data and model output wind stress data, which indicates that both the climate models capture the key feature of wind stress. While the QSCAT wind stress data shows the similar characteristics with the two climate models in both spectrum domain and the spatial distribution, but with a factor of approximately 1.25 times larger than that of climate models in energy. These differences show the uncertainty in the different wind stress products, which inevitably cause the atmospheric friction torque uncertainties on solid Earth with a 60% departure in annual amplitude, and furtherly affect the precise estimation of the Earth's rotation.

Geophysical survey aimed at selecting the radioactive waste repository site (Czech republic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dušan Dostál

2007-01-01

Full Text Available G IMPULS Praha has been executing a set of geophysical measurements for the Radioactive Waste Repository Authority of the Czech Republic from 2001 (the work continues to be carried out. The measurements are aimed at studying the behaviour of the rock massif, focusing on the Excavation Damaged or Disturbed Zone (EDZ and on selecting an appropriate area for the radioactive material repository site. The geophysical studies use a complex of methods as follows: Airborne geophysical measurement (regional studies, Seismic measurement (detailed studies, G.P.R. (detailed studies, Resistivity tomography (detailed studies, Geoelectric measurement and magnetic survey (stray earth currents. The paper informs about first results and conclusions. The airborne work was executed as a part of the complex study of „GEOBARIERA“ the group and the geophysical measurements of EDZ were executed in co-operation with the Czech Geological Survey.

Crisp clustering of airborne geophysical data from the Alto Ligonha pegmatite field, northeastern Mozambique, to predict zones of increased rare earth element potential

Science.gov (United States)

Eberle, Detlef G.; Daudi, Elias X. F.; Muiuane, Elônio A.; Nyabeze, Peter; Pontavida, Alfredo M.

2012-01-01

The National Geology Directorate of Mozambique (DNG) and Maputo-based Eduardo-Mondlane University (UEM) entered a joint venture with the South African Council for Geoscience (CGS) to conduct a case study over the meso-Proterozoic Alto Ligonha pegmatite field in the Zambézia Province of northeastern Mozambique to support the local exploration and mining sectors. Rare-metal minerals, i.e. tantalum and niobium, as well as rare-earth minerals have been mined in the Alto Ligonha pegmatite field since decades, but due to the civil war (1977-1992) production nearly ceased. The Government now strives to promote mining in the region as contribution to poverty alleviation. This study was undertaken to facilitate the extraction of geological information from the high resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric data sets recently acquired through a World Bank funded survey and mapping project. The aim was to generate a value-added map from the airborne geophysical data that is easier to read and use by the exploration and mining industries than mere airborne geophysical grid data or maps. As a first step towards clustering, thorium (Th) and potassium (K) concentrations were determined from the airborne geophysical data as well as apparent magnetic susceptibility and first vertical magnetic gradient data. These four datasets were projected onto a 100 m spaced regular grid to assemble 850,000 four-element (multivariate) sample vectors over the study area. Classification of the sample vectors using crisp clustering based upon the Euclidian distance between sample and class centre provided a (pseudo-) geology map or value-added map, respectively, displaying the spatial distribution of six different classes in the study area. To learn the quality of sample allocation, the degree of membership of each sample vector was determined using a-posterior discriminant analysis. Geophysical ground truth control was essential to allocate geology/geophysical attributes to the six classes

Geophysics education on the Internet: Course production and assessment of our MOOC, "Deep Earth Science"

Science.gov (United States)

Okuda, Y.; Tazawa, K.; Sugie, K.; Sakuraba, H.; Hideki, M.; Tagawa, S.; Cross, S. J.

2016-12-01

Recently, massive open online courses (MOOC or MOOCs) have gained wide-spread attention as a new educational platform delivered via the internet. Many leading institutions all over the world have provided many fascinating MOOC courses in various fields. Students enrolled in MOOCs study their interested topic in a course not only by watching video lectures, reading texts, and answering questions, but also by utilizing interactive online tools such as discussion boards, Q&A sessions and peer assessments. MOOC is also gaining popularity as a way to do outreach activity and diffuse research results. Tokyo Institute of Technology provided its 1st MOOC, "Introduction to Deep Earth Science Part1" on edX, which is one of the largest MOOC providers. This four-week-long course was designed for 1st year college students and with two learning goals in this course; 1) to introduce students to the fascinating knowledge of solid Earth, 2) to provide an opportunity to use scientific thinking as well as to show how interesting and exciting science can be. This course contained materials such as 1) structure of inside of the Earth 2) internal temperature of the earth and how it is estimated and 3) chemical compositions and dynamics inside the earth. After the end of the provision of Part1, this course was re-made as "Introduction to Deep Earth Science"(so to speak, Part2) on the basis of opinions obtained from students who have attended our course and student teaching assistants (TA) who have run and produced this course. In this presentation, we will explain our MOOC making model, which is a team based course creation effort between the course instructor, Tokyo Tech Online Education Development Office (OEDO) staff and TA students. Moreover, we will share details and feedback of Part1 received from some of the 5000 enrolled students from 150 counties and regions, and report the implementation of Part2 in the light of challenges resulted from Part1.

Earth and atmospheric remote sensing; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, Apr. 2-4, 1991

Science.gov (United States)

Curran, Robert J. (Editor); Smith, James A. (Editor); Watson, Ken (Editor)

1991-01-01

The papers presented in this volume address the technical aspects of earth and atmospheric remote sensing. Topics discussed include spaceborne and ground-based applications of laser remote sensing, advanced applications of lasers in remote sensing, laser ranging applications, data analysis and systems for biospheric processes, measurements for biospheric processes, and remote sensing for geology and geophysics. Papers are presented on a space-qualified laser transmitter for lidar applications, solid state lasers for planetary exploration, automated band selection for multispectral meteorological applications, aerospace remote sensing of natural water organics, and remote sensing of volcanic ash hazards to aircraft.

Geophysical excitation of nutation - comparison of different models

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Vondrák, Jan; Ron, Cyril

2014-01-01

Roč. 11, č. 3 (2014), s. 193-200 ISSN 1214-9705 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-15943S Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z1003909 Institutional support: RVO:67985815 Keywords : rotation of the Earth * geophysical excitations * geomagnetic jerks * celestial pole offsets * free core nutation Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics Impact factor: 0.389, year: 2014

Serious games for Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Lombardo, Valerio; Rubbia, Giuliana

2015-04-01

Childhood stage is indispensable in the education of human beings and especially critical to arise scientific interest in children. We discuss the participatory design of a didactic videogame, i.e. a "serious" game to teach geophysics and Earth sciences to high and low-school students. Geophysics is the application of the laws and techniques of physics to uncover knowledge about the earth's dynamic processes and subsurface structure. It explores phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis to improve our understanding of the earth's physical processes and our ability to predict reoccurrences. Effective mitigation of risks from catastrophic geologic hazards requires knowledge and understanding of local geology and geologic processes. Scientific outreach can be defined as discourse activity, whose main objective is to communicate some knowledge previously produced in scientific contexts to a non-expert massive audience. One of the difficulties science educators need to overcome is to explain specific concepts from a given discipline in a language simple and understandable for their audience. Digital games today play a large role in young people's lives. Games are directly connected to the life of today's adolescents. Therefore, digital games should be included and broached as a subject in the classroom. The ardor and enthusiasm that digital games evoke in teenagers has indeed brought many researchers, school leaders and teachers to the question "how video games" can be used to engage young people and support their learning inside the classroom. Additionally, studies have shown that digital games can enhance various skills such as the ability to concentrate, stamina, tactical aptness, anticipatory thinking, orientation in virtual spaces, and deductive reasoning. Thus, videogames become an effective didactic mechanism and should have a place in the classroom. The project aims to explore the potentials of entertainment technologies in educational processes

``An Earth-Shaking Experience''

Science.gov (United States)

Achenbach, Joel

2005-03-01

Last month's annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco drew an estimated 11,000 scientists, teachers, journalists and geophysics groupies. The schedule of talks could be found in a bound volume as thick as a phone book. You never see a geophysicist in ordinary life, but apparently the world is crawling with them. They came to talk about everything from the ozone layer to the big wad of iron at the center of the Earth. Also about other planets. And magnetic fields. Solar wind. Water on Mars. To be at this convention was to be immersed to the eyebrows in scientific knowledge. It is intellectually fashionable to fetishize the unknown, but at AGU, a person will get the opposite feeling-that science is a voracious, relentless and tireless enterprise, and that soon there may not remain on this Earth an unturned stone.

Geophysical Study of Lithologies Attributes At Isihor Village, Edo ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

These attributes include depth, thickness of lithologies or rock types beneath the sea level or earth's surface. Geophysical prospect of lithologies in this studied area is vital for many economic and environmental reasons for examples a large portion of the world's fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal are found in stratified ...

Practices to enable the geophysical research spectrum: from fundamentals to applications

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, S.; Cockett, R.; Heagy, L. J.; Oldenburg, D.

2016-12-01

In a geophysical survey, a source injects energy into the earth and a response is measured. These physical systems are governed by partial differential equations and their numerical solutions are obtained by discretizing the earth. Geophysical simulations and inversions are tools for understanding physical responses and constructing models of the subsurface given a finite amount of data. SimPEG (http://simpeg.xyz) is our effort to synthesize geophysical forward and inverse methodologies into a consistent framework. The primary focus of our initial development has been on the electromagnetics (EM) package, with recent extensions to magnetotelluric, direct current (DC), and induced polarization. Across these methods, and applied geophysics in general, we require tools to explore and build an understanding of the physics (behaviour of fields, fluxes), and work with data to produce models through reproducible inversions. If we consider DC or EM experiments, with the aim of understanding responses from subsurface conductors, we require resources that provide multiple "entry points" into the geophysical problem. To understand the physical responses and measured data, we must simulate the physical system and visualize electric fields, currents, and charges. Performing an inversion requires that many moving pieces be brought together: simulation, physics, linear algebra, data processing, optimization, etc. Each component must be trusted, accessible to interrogation and manipulation, and readily combined in order to enable investigation into inversion methodologies. To support such research, we not only require "entry points" into the software, but also extensibility to new situations. In our development of SimPEG, we have sought to use leading practices in software development with the aim of supporting and promoting collaborations across a spectrum of geophysical research: from fundamentals to applications. Designing software to enable this spectrum puts unique

3D geophysical inversion for contact surfaces

Science.gov (United States)

Lelièvre, Peter; Farquharson, Colin

2014-05-01

Geologists' interpretations about the Earth typically involve distinct rock units with contacts (interfaces) between them. In contrast, standard minimum-structure volumetric inversions (performed on meshes of space-filling cells) recover smooth models inconsistent with such interpretations. There are several approaches through which geophysical inversion can help recover models with the desired characteristics. Some authors have developed iterative strategies in which several volumetric inversions are performed with regularization parameters changing to achieve sharper interfaces at automatically determined locations. Another approach is to redesign the regularization to be consistent with the desired model characteristics, e.g. L1-like norms or compactness measures. A few researchers have taken approaches that limit the recovered values to lie within particular ranges, resulting in sharp discontinuities; these include binary inversion, level set methods and clustering strategies. In most of the approaches mentioned above, the model parameterization considers the physical properties in each of the many space-filling cells within the volume of interest. The exception are level set methods, in which a higher dimensional function is parameterized and the contact surface is determined from the zero-level of that function. However, even level-set methods rely on an underlying volumetric mesh. We are researching a fundamentally different type of inversion that parameterizes the Earth in terms of the contact surfaces between rock units. 3D geological Earth models typically comprise wireframe surfaces of tessellated triangles or other polygonal planar facets. This wireframe representation allows for flexible and efficient generation of complicated geological structures. Therefore, a natural approach for representing a geophysical model in an inversion is to parameterize the wireframe contact surfaces as the coordinates of the nodes (facet vertices). The geological and

Recycling of rare earths from Hg-containing fluorescent lamp scraps by solid state chlorination

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lorenz, Tom; Froehlich, Peter; Bertau, Martin; Golon, Katja

2015-01-01

Solid state chlorination with NH 4 Cl comprises a method for rare earth recycling apart from pyro- or hydrometallurgical strategies. The examined partially Hg-containing fluorescent lamp scraps are rich in rare earths like La, Ce, Tb and Gd, but especially in Y and Eu. By mixing with NH 4 Cl and heating up to NH 4 Cl decomposition temperature in a sublimation reactor, Y and Eu could be transferred selectively into their respective metal chlorides with high yields. The yield and selectivity depend on temperature and the ratio of NH 4 Cl to fluorescent lamp scraps, which were varied systematically.

Notes on the history of geophysics in the Ottoman Empire

Science.gov (United States)

Ozcep, F.; Ozcep, T.

2014-09-01

In Anatolia, the history of geophysical sciences may go back to antiquity (600 BC), namely the period when Thales lived in Magnesia (Asia Minor). In the modern sense, geophysics started with geomagnetic works in the 1600s. The period between 1600 and 1800 includes the measurement of magnetic declination, inclination and magnetic field strength. Before these years, there is a little information, such as how to use a compass, in the Kitab-i Bahriye (the Book of Navigation) of Piri Reis, who is one of the most important mariners of the Ottoman Empire. However, this may not mean that magnetic declination was generally understood. The first scientific book relating to geophysics is the book Fuyuzat-i Miknatissiye that was translated by Ibrahim Müteferrika and printed in 1731. The subject of this book is earth's magnetism. There is also information concerning geophysics in the book Cihannuma (Universal Geography) that was written by Katip Celebi and in the book Marifetname written by Ibrahim Hakki Erzurumlu, but these books are only partly geophysical books. In Istanbul the year 1868 is one of the most important for geophysical sciences because an observatory called Rasathane-i Amire was installed in the Pera region of this city. At this observatory the first systematic geophysical observations such as meteorological, seismological and even gravimetrical were made. There have been meteorological records in Anatolia since 1839. These are records of atmospheric temperature, pressure and humidity. In the Ottoman Empire, the science of geophysics is considered as one of the natural sciences along with astronomy, mineralogy, geology, etc., and these sciences are included as a part of physics and chemistry.

Distributed visualization of gridded geophysical data: the Carbon Data Explorer, version 0.2.3

Science.gov (United States)

Endsley, K. A.; Billmire, M. G.

2016-01-01

Due to the proliferation of geophysical models, particularly climate models, the increasing resolution of their spatiotemporal estimates of Earth system processes, and the desire to easily share results with collaborators, there is a genuine need for tools to manage, aggregate, visualize, and share data sets. We present a new, web-based software tool - the Carbon Data Explorer - that provides these capabilities for gridded geophysical data sets. While originally developed for visualizing carbon flux, this tool can accommodate any time-varying, spatially explicit scientific data set, particularly NASA Earth system science level III products. In addition, the tool's open-source licensing and web presence facilitate distributed scientific visualization, comparison with other data sets and uncertainty estimates, and data publishing and distribution.

Introducing Multisensor Satellite Radiance-Based Evaluation for Regional Earth System Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Matsui, T.; Santanello, J.; Shi, J. J.; Tao, W.-K.; Wu, D.; Peters-Lidard, C.; Kemp, E.; Chin, M.; Starr, D.; Sekiguchi, M.;

Earth Sciences annual report, 1987

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Younker, L.W.; Donohue, M.L.; Peterson, S.J.

1988-12-01

The Earth Sciences Department at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducts work in support of the Laboratory's energy, defense, and research programs. The Department is organized into ten groups. Five of these -- Nuclear Waste Management, Fossil Energy, Containment, Verification, and Research -- represent major programmatic activities within the Department. Five others -- Experimental Geophysics, Geomechanics, Geology/Geological Engineering, Geochemistry, and Seismology/Applied Geophysics -- are major disciplinary areas that support these and other laboratory programs. This report summarizes work carried out in 1987 by each group and contains a bibliography of their 1987 publications

Contextualizing Earth Science Professional Development Courses for Geoscience Teachers in Boston: Earth Science II (Solid Earth)

Science.gov (United States)

Pringle, M. S.; Kamerer, B.; Vugrin, M.; Miller, M.

2009-12-01

Earth Science II: The Solid Earth -- Earth History and Planetary Science -- is the second of two Earth Science courses, and one of eleven graduate level science Contextualized Content Courses (CCC), that have been developed by the Boston Science Partnership as part of an NSF-funded Math Science Partnership program. A core goal of these courses is to provide high level science content to middle and high school teachers while modeling good instructional practices directly tied to the Boston Public Schools and Massachusetts science curriculum frameworks. All of these courses emphasize hands-on, lab-based, inquiry-driven, student-centered lessons. The Earth Science II team aimed to strictly adhere to ABC (Activity Before Concept) and 5E/7E models of instruction, and limited lecture or teacher-centered instruction to the later “Explanation” stages of all lessons. We also introduced McNeill and Krajick’s Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) model of scientific explanation for middle school classroom discourse, both as a powerful scaffold leading to higher levels of accountable talk in the classroom, and to model science as a social construct. Daily evaluations, dutifully filled out by the course participants and diligently read by the course instructors, were quite useful in adapting instruction to the needs of the class on a real-time basis. We find the structure of the CCC teaching teams - university-based faculty providing expert content knowledge, K-12-based faculty providing age appropriate pedagogies and specific links to the K-12 curriculum - quite a fruitful, two-way collaboration. From the students’ perspective, one of the most useful takeaways from the university-based faculty was “listening to experts model out loud how they reason,” whereas some of the more practical takeaways (i.e., lesson components directly portable to the classroom?) came from the K-12-based faculty. The main takeaways from the course as a whole were the promise to bring more hands

Earth Sciences Division annual report 1981

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1982-09-01

Separate abstracts were prepared for the 59 papers of the 1981 annual report of the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. The general topics covered included nuclear waste isolation, geophysics and reservoir engineering, and geosciences

Marine geophysics. By E.J.W. Jones

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Rao, D.G.

.Earth-Science Reviews 52 2001 381–384 www.elsevier.comrlocaterearscirev Book reviews Marine Geophysics E.J.W. Jones, University College, London, UK, Wiley, Chichester, West Sussex PO19IUD, England, 1999, 466 pp. As a practicing marine geophysicist working... principles, theory, state-of-the-art instruments, latest techniques in data acquisition, processing and interpretation. The book contains 16 chapters, in which the author has done commendable job in presenting the best examples of case studies in critical...

Quantitative Analysis of Piezoelectric and Seismoelectric Anomalies in Subsurface Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Eppelbaum, Lev

2017-04-01

, A., 2000, Seismic-electric effect method on guided and reflected waves. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Part A: Solid Earth and Geodesy, 25, No.4, 333-336. Butler, K.E., Russell, R.D., Kepic A.W. and Maxwell, M., 1994. Mapping of a stratigraphic boundary by its seismoelectric response. SAGEEP '94 Conference Proceedings, 689-699. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2010. Archaeological geophysics in Israel: Past, Present and Future. Advances in Geosciences, 24, 45-68. Dupuis, J.C., Butler, K.E., Kepic, A.W. and Harris, B.D., 2009. Anatomy of a seismoelectric conversion: Measurements and conceptual modeling in boreholes penetrating a sandy aquifer. Journal of Geophysical Research, 114, B10306, doi:10.1029/2008JB005939 Eppelbaum, L.V., 2011. Study of magnetic anomalies over archaeological targets in urban conditions. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 36, No. 16, 1318-1330. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2014. Geophysical observations at archaeological sites: Estimating informational content. Archaeological Prospection, 21, No. 2, 25-38. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2015. Quantitative interpretation of magnetic anomalies from thick bed, horizontal plate and intermediate models under complex physical-geological environments in archaeological prospection. Archaeological Prospection, 23, No. 2, 255-268. Eppelbaum, L.V., Alperovich, L., Zheludev, V. and Pechersky, A., 2011. Application of informational and wavelet approaches for integrated processing of geophysical data in complex environments. Proceed. of the 2011 SAGEEP Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, 24, 24-60. Eppelbaum, L.V., Itkis, S.E. and Khesin, B.E., 2000. Optimization of magnetic investigations in the archaeological sites in Israel, In: Special Issue of Prospezioni Archeologiche "Filtering, Modeling and Interpretation of Geophysical Fields at Archaeological Objects", 65-92. Eppelbaum, L.V., Khesin, B.E. and Itkis, S.E., 2001. Prompt magnetic investigations of archaeological remains in areas of infrastructure development: Israeli

Using Geophysical Data in the Texas High School Course, Geology, Meteorology, and Oceanography

Science.gov (United States)

Ellins, K.; Olson, H.; Pulliam, J.; Schott, M. J.

2002-12-01

Science educators working directly with scientists to develop inquiry-based instructional materials in Earth science yield some of the best results. The TEXTEAMS (Texas Teachers Empowered for Achievement in Mathematics and Science) Leadership Training for the Texas high school science course, Geology, Meteorology and Oceanography (GMO) is one example of a successful program that provides high-quality training to master teachers using geophysical data collected by scientists at The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG). TEXTEAMS is a certification program of professional development and leadership training sponsored by the National Science Foundation that is part of the Texas Statewide Systemic Initiative. UTIG scientists teamed with science educators at the Charles A. Dana Center for Mathematics and Science Education at UT and the Texas Education Agency to develop inquiry-based instructional materials for eight GMO modules. Our learning activities help students and teachers understand how Earth scientists interpret the natural world and test their hypotheses, and provide opportunities for the use of technology in classroom science learning; they are aligned with national and state teaching standards. Examples of TEXTEAMS GMO learning activities that use geophysical data. 1. Neotectonics: radiocarbon dates and elevation above current sea level of raised coral reefs in the New Georgia Islands are used to calculate rates of tectonic uplift and as a basis for the development of a conceptual model to explain the pattern of uplift that emerges from the data. 2. Large Igneous Provinces:geophysical logging data collected on ODP Leg 183 (Kerguelen Plateau) are analyzed to identify the transition from sediment to basement rock. 3. The Search for Black Gold: petroleum exploration requires the integration of geology, geophysics, petrophysics and geochemistry. Knowledge gained in previous GMO modules is combined with fundamental knowledge about economics to

Exotic geophysical phenomena observed in an environmental neutron flux study using EAS PRISMA detectors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alekseenko Victor

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Some exotic geophysical events are observed by a global net of electron-neutron detectors (en-detectors developed in the framework of the PRISMA EAS project. Our en-detectors running both on the Earth's surface and underground are continuously measuring the environmental thermal neutron flux. Thermal neutrons are in equilibrium with media and are therefore sensitive to many geophysical phenomena, which are exotic for people studying ultra high-energy cosmic rays or carrying out low background experiments deep underground.

Earthquake swarms and the semidiurnal solid earth tide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Klein, F W

1976-01-01

Several correlations between peak earthquake activity during swarms and the phase and stress orientation of the calculated solid earth tide are described. The events correlating with the tide are clusters of swarm earthquakes. Swarm clusters from many sequences recorded over several years are used. Significant tidal correlations (which have less than a 5% chance of being observed if earthquakes were random) are found in the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, the central Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the Imperial Valley and northern Gulf of California, and larger (m/sub b/ greater than or equal to 5.0) aftershocks of the 1965 Rat Islands earthquake. In addition, sets of larger single earthquakes on Atlantic and north-east Pacific fracture zones are significantly correlated with the calculated solid tide. No tidal correlation, however, could be found for the Matsushiro Japan swarm of 1965 to 1967. The earthquake-tide correlations other than those of the Reykjanes Peninsula and Mid-Atlantic Ridge can be interpreted as triggering caused by enhancement of the tectonic stress by tidal stress, i.e. the alignment of fault and tidal principal stresses. All tidal correlations except in the Aleutians are associated with oceanic rifts or their landward extensions. If lithospheric plates are decoupled at active rifts, then tidal stresses channeled along the lithospheric stress guide may be concentrated at ridge-type plate boundaries. Tidal triggering of earthquakes at rifts may reflect this possible amplification of tidal strains in the weakened lithosphere at ridges. 25 figures, 2 tables.

Unleashing Geophysics Data with Modern Formats and Services

Science.gov (United States)

Ip, Alex; Brodie, Ross C.; Druken, Kelsey; Bastrakova, Irina; Evans, Ben; Kemp, Carina; Richardson, Murray; Trenham, Claire; Wang, Jingbo; Wyborn, Lesley

2016-04-01

Geoscience Australia (GA) is the national steward of large volumes of geophysical data extending over the entire Australasian region and spanning many decades. The volume and variety of data which must be managed, coupled with the increasing need to support machine-to-machine data access, mean that the old "click-and-ship" model delivering data as downloadable files for local analysis is rapidly becoming unviable - a "big data" problem not unique to geophysics. The Australian Government, through the Research Data Services (RDS) Project, recently funded the Australian National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) to organize a wide range of Earth Systems data from diverse collections including geoscience, geophysics, environment, climate, weather, and water resources onto a single High Performance Data (HPD) Node. This platform, which now contains over 10 petabytes of data, is called the National Environmental Research Data Interoperability Platform (NERDIP), and is designed to facilitate broad user access, maximise reuse, and enable integration. GA has contributed several hundred terabytes of geophysical data to the NERDIP. Historically, geophysical datasets have been stored in a range of formats, with metadata of varying quality and accessibility, and without standardised vocabularies. This has made it extremely difficult to aggregate original data from multiple surveys (particularly un-gridded geophysics point/line data) into standard formats suited to High Performance Computing (HPC) environments. To address this, it was decided to use the NERDIP-preferred Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) 5, which is a proven, standard, open, self-describing and high-performance format supported by extensive software tools, libraries and data services. The Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) 4 API facilitates the use of data in HDF5, whilst the NetCDF Climate & Forecasting conventions (NetCDF-CF) further constrain NetCDF4/HDF5 data so as to provide greater inherent interoperability

Evidences of the expanding Earth from space-geodetic data over solid land and sea level rise in recent two decades

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenbin Shen

2015-07-01

Full Text Available According to the space-geodetic data recorded at globally distributed stations over solid land spanning a period of more than 20-years under the International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2008, our previous estimate of the average-weighted vertical variation of the Earth's solid surface suggests that the Earth's solid part is expanding at a rate of 0.24 ± 0.05 mm/a in recent two decades. In another aspect, the satellite altimetry observations spanning recent two decades demonstrate the sea level rise (SLR rate 3.2 ± 0.4 mm/a, of which 1.8 ± 0.5 mm/a is contributed by the ice melting over land. This study shows that the oceanic thermal expansion is 1.0 ± 0.1 mm/a due to the temperature increase in recent half century, which coincides with the estimate provided by previous authors. The SLR observation by altimetry is not balanced by the ice melting and thermal expansion, which is an open problem before this study. However, in this study we infer that the oceanic part of the Earth is expanding at a rate about 0.4 mm/a. Combining the expansion rates of land part and oceanic part, we conclude that the Earth is expanding at a rate of 0.35 ± 0.47 mm/a in recent two decades. If the Earth expands at this rate, then the altimetry-observed SLR can be well explained.

Moving Beyond IGY: An Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY) Concept

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, D. N.; Barton, C. E.; Rodger, A. S.; Thompson, B. J.; Fraser, B.; Papitashvili, V.

2003-12-01

, etc.) and international cyber infrastructure. Moreover, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) has supported the eGY concept, which can smoothly be incorporated into various existing `'International Year'' initiatives - such as the International Polar Year, International Heliophysical Year, or International Year of the Planet Earth.

Deep Interior: The first comprehensive geophysical investigation of an asteroid

Science.gov (United States)

Asphaug, E.; Belton, M.; Klaasen, K.; McFadden, L.; Ostro, S.; Safaeinili, A.; Scheeres, D.; Sunshine, J.; Yeomans, D.

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) come closer to Earth than any other celestial body, and their compositions are represented on Earth by thousands of well-studied meteorites. Yet we understand neither their origin, evolution, nor their geophysical behavior. These secrets are locked up in their unexplored interiors. Goal 1 of the NASA Strategic Plan emphasizes the requirement to catalogue and understand NEOs down to 1 km diameter. Goal 4 urges us to understand natural processes at work in the low gravity environment. Goal 5 expresses the need to explore the solar system and to learn how planets originated and evolved. In response to the NASA Strategic Plan we are proposing a NASA Discovery mission whose primary science objective is to greatly advance the realization of these Goals by conducting the first investigation of the global geophysics of an asteroid. Radio reflection data from 5 km orbit about a 1 km NEO will provide a tomographic 3D image of electromagnetic properties. Mechanical properties will be examined in the simplest possible way, using explosions to initiate seismic cratering events and to expose diverse interior units for spectroscopic analysis. Deep Interior is the lowest-risk, lowest cost path towards attaining the required characterization of NEOs. It breaks new ground for future missions to asteroids and comets and facilitates the design of reliable NEO technologies. Our science goals are as follows, and the techniques (radio science, imaging, IR spectroscopy, active surface science) will be described at this meeting: Asteroid Interiors. Radio, gravity, and seismology experiments give a complete first picture of an asteroid's deep interior, resolving inclusions, voids and unit boundaries at ˜ 30 m scales, and determining global and regional mechanical properties. Surface Geophysics. Blast experiments explore the structure and mechanics of the upper meters, demonstrate microgravity cratering, trigger natural geomorphic events, and expose subsurface

Proceedings of the Fourth meeting on earth sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

This document collects some scientific research works on earth sciences developed in Ecuador. The main topics are: geology and mineral resources, geophysics and vulcanology, geo techniques and natural risks, oil and environment

SAGE (Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience): Learning Geophysics by Doing Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Jiracek, G. R.; Baldridge, W. S.; Biehler, S.; Braile, L. W.; Ferguson, J. F.; Gilpin, B. E.; Pellerin, L.

2005-12-01

SAGE, a field-based educational program in applied geophysical methods has been an REU site for 16 years and completed its 23rd year of operation in July 2005. SAGE teaches the major geophysical exploration methods (including seismics, gravity, magnetics, and electromagnetics) and applies them to the solution of specific local and regional geologic problems. These include delineating buried hazardous material; mapping archaeological sites; and studying the structure, tectonics, and water resources of the Rio Grande rift in New Mexico. Nearly 600 graduates, undergraduates, and professionals have attended SAGE since 1983. Since 1990 REU students have numbered 219 coming from dozens of different campuses. There have been 124 underrepresented REU students including 100 women, 14 Hispanics, 7 Native Americans, and 3 African Americans. Tracking of former REU students has revealed that 81% have gone on to graduate school. Keys to the success of SAGE are hands-on immersion in geophysics for one month and a partnership between academia, industry, and a federal laboratory. Successful approaches at SAGE include: 1) application of the latest equipment by all students; 2) continued updating of equipment, computers, and software by organizing universities and industry affiliates; 3) close ties with industry who provide supplemental instruction, furnish new equipment and software, and alert students to the current industry trends and job opportunities; 4) two-team, student data analysis structure that simultaneously addresses specific geophysical techniques and their integration; and 5) oral and written reports patterned after professional meetings and journals. An eight member, 'blue ribbon' advisory panel from academia, industry, and the federal government has been set up to maintain the vitality of SAGE by addressing such issues as funding, new faculty, organization, and vision. SAGE is open to students from any university (or organization) with backgrounds including

The Teach for America RockCorps, Year 2: Using Authentic Research Experiences in Geophysics for STEM Teachers to Inspire Earth Science-Themed Lessons in High School Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Parsons, B.; Kassimu, R.; Borjas, C. N.; Griffith, W. A.

2016-12-01

Brooke Parsons1, Rahmatu Kassimu2, Christopher Borjas3, and W. Ashley Griffith31Uplift Hampton Preparatory High School, Dallas, TX, 75232 2H. Grady Spruce High School, Dallas, TX, 75217 3Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019 As Earth Science courses appear in fewer high school curricula, we seek to find creative ways to integrate Earth Science themes as contextual examples into other K-12 STEM courses in order to develop (A) Earth Science literacy, and (B) a pipeline of young talent into our field. This presentation details the efforts of the 2nd year Teach for America (TFA) Rock Corps, a five year NSF-sponsored partnership between TFA and the University of Texas at Arlington designed to provide STEM teachers with genuine research opportunities using components that can be extrapolated to develop dynamic Geophysics-themed lesson plans and materials for their classrooms. Two teachers were selected from the Dallas-Fort Worth region of TFA to participate in original research modeling off-fault damage that occurs during earthquakes in a lab setting using a Split-Hopkinson-Pressure Bar (SHPB). In particular, we simulate a coseismic transient stress perturbation in a fault damage zone by combining traditional SHPB with a traveling harmonic oscillator: Two striker bars attached by an elastic spring are launched with a gas gun allowing us to create the double stress pulse expected during an earthquake rupture. This research affords teachers inspiration to implement Geophysics-themed lesson plans for their courses, Physics/Pre-AP Physics and Chemistry. The physics course will adopt principles of seismic wave propagation to teach concepts of impulse, momentum, conservation of energy, harmonic motion, wave velocity, wave propagation, and real world applications of waves. The chemistry course will implement geochemistry themed techniques into applying the scientific method, density, isotopic composition, p

Research on the Earth's Interior Conducted by Russia after IGY: The Geotraverse Project and "Intermargins"

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A G Rodnikov

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Fifty years have passed since the International Geophysical Year (IGY of 1957.58, one of the most important and noble initiatives in the history of science and in the history of humanity in general. IGY became the model for subsequent international scientific initiatives in various fields of solid Earth research, including the Upper Mantle Project (1961.71, the Geodynamic Project (1971.80, the Geotraverse Project (1987.2003, and the "InterMARGINS" Project (2003. The Russian investigations as part of the Geotraverse Project and "InterMARGINS" were aimed at research into the deep structure of the continental margins of East Eurasia, which are characterized by high seismicity, volcanism, and natural cataclysms hazardous to people living there.

''Radon-emanometry'' applied to internal geophysics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seidel, J.L.

1982-02-01

An experimental set-up for in ground radon 222 measurements has been realised with solid state track detectors (cellulose nitrates CN85 and LR115). A preliminary study of radon activity variations has been conducted over various sites expecting using radon as one of forerunner geophysical parameters of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes predictions. The first data obtained in the field are presented: Etna (Sicily), Krafla (Iceland), Poas and Arenal (Costa Rica), Colima and Paricutin (Mexico) for active volcanoes, Ech Cheliff (Algeria) and Alsace (France) for sismotectonic areas [fr

Earth Sciences Division annual report 1989

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1990-06-01

This Annual Report presents summaries of selected representative research activities from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory grouped according to the principal disciplines of the Earth Sciences Division: Reservoir Engineering and Hydrology, Geology and Geochemistry, and Geophysics and Geomechanics. We are proud to be able to bring you this report, which we hope will convey not only a description of the Division's scientific activities but also a sense of the enthusiasm and excitement present today in the Earth Sciences.

Lunar geophysics, geodesy, and dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, J. G.; Dickey, J. O.

2002-01-01

Experience with the dynamics and data analyses for earth and moon reveals both similarities and differences. Analysis of Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) data provides information on the lunar orbit, rotation, solid-body tides, and retroreflector locations.

NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Earth Rotation : Solved and Unsolved Problems

CERN Document Server

1986-01-01

The idea for organl.zl.ng an Advanced Research Workshop entirely devoted to the Earth rotation was born in 1983 when Professor Raymond Hide suggested this topic to the special NATO panel of global transport mechanism in the Geosciences. Such a specialized meeting did not take place since the GEOP research conference on the rotation of the Earth and polar motion which was held at the Ohio State University (USA) in 1973. In the last ten years, highly precise measurements of the Earth's rotation parameters and new global geophysical data have become available allowing major advance to be made in the under­ standing of the various irregularities affecting the Earth's rotation. The aim of the workshop was to bring together scientists who have made important contributions in this field during the last decade both at the observational and geophysical interpretation levels. The confe­ rence was divided into four main topics. The first session was dedicated to the definition, implementation and maintenance of the te...

Russian Meteorological and Geophysical Rockets of New Generation

Science.gov (United States)

Yushkov, V.; Gvozdev, Yu.; Lykov, A.; Shershakov, V.; Ivanov, V.; Pozin, A.; Afanasenkov, A.; Savenkov, Yu.; Kuznetsov, V.

2015-09-01

To study the process in the middle and upper atmosphere, ionosphere and near-Earth space, as well as to monitor the geophysical environment in Russian Federal Service for Hydrology and Environmental Monitoring (ROSHYDROMET) the development of new generation of meteorological and geophysical rockets has been completed. The modern geophysical research rocket system MR-30 was created in Research and Production Association RPA "Typhoon". The basis of the complex MR-30 is a new geophysical sounding rocket MN-300 with solid propellant, Rocket launch takes place at an angle of 70º to 90º from the launcher, which is a farm with a guide rail type required for imparting initial rotation rocket. The Rocket is spin stabilized with a spin rate between 5 and 7 Hz. Launch weight is 1564 kg, and the mass of the payload of 50 to 150 kg. MR-300 is capable of lifting up to 300 km, while the area of dispersion points for booster falling is an ellipse with parameters 37x 60 km. The payload of the rocket MN-300 consists of two sections: a sealed, located below the instrument compartment, and not sealed, under the fairing. Block of scientific equipment is formed on the platform in a modular layout. This makes it possible to solve a wide range of tasks and conduct research and testing technologies using a unique environment of space, as well as to conduct technological experiments testing and research systems and spacecraft equipment. New Russian rocket system MERA (MEteorological Rocket for Atmospheric Research) belongs to so called "dart" technique that provide lifting of small scientific payload up to altitude 100 km and descending with parachute. It was developed at Central Aerological Observatory jointly with State Unitary Enterprise Instrument Design Bureau. The booster provides a very rapid acceleration to about Mach 5. After the burning phase of the buster the dart is separated and continues ballistic flight for about 2 minutes. The dart carries the instrument payload+ parachute

Deep-Earth Equilibration between Molten Iron and Solid Silicates

Science.gov (United States)

Brennan, M.; Zurkowski, C. C.; Chidester, B.; Campbell, A.

2017-12-01

Elemental partitioning between iron-rich metals and silicate minerals influences the properties of Earth's deep interior, and is ultimately responsible for the nature of the core-mantle boundary. These interactions between molten iron and solid silicates were influential during planetary accretion, and persist today between the mantle and liquid outer core. Here we report the results of diamond anvil cell experiments at lower mantle conditions (40 GPa, >2500 K) aimed at examining systems containing a mixture of metals (iron or Fe-16Si alloy) and silicates (peridotite). The experiments were conducted at pressure-temperature conditions above the metallic liquidus but below the silicate solidus, and the recovered samples were analyzed by FIB/SEM with EDS to record the compositions of the coexisting phases. Each sample formed a three-phase equilibrium between bridgmanite, Fe-rich metallic melt, and an oxide. In one experiment, using pure Fe, the quenched metal contained 6 weight percent O, and the coexisting oxide was ferropericlase. The second experiment, using Fe-Si alloy, was highly reducing; its metal contained 10 wt% Si, and the coexisting mineral was stishovite. The distinct mineralogies of the two experiments derived from their different starting metals. These results imply that metallic composition is an important factor in determining the products of mixed phase iron-silicate reactions. The properties of deep-Earth interfaces such as the core-mantle boundary could be strongly affected by their metallic components.

Geophysical anatomy of counter-slope scarps in sedimentary flysch rocks (Outer Western Carpathians)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Tábořík, Petr; Lenart, J.; Blecha, V.; Vilhelm, J.; Turský, O.

2017-01-01

Roč. 276, JAN 1 (2017), s. 59-70 ISSN 0169-555X Institutional support: RVO:67985891 Keywords : multidisciplinary geophysical survey * deep-seated landslide * integrated interpretation * counter-slope scarp * underground discontinuities * flysch rock Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography OBOR OECD: Physical geography Impact factor: 2.958, year: 2016

Earth Sciences Division annual report 1981. [Lead abstract

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1982-09-01

Separate abstracts were prepared for the 59 papers of the 1981 annual report of the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. The general topics covered included nuclear waste isolation, geophysics and reservoir engineering, and geosciences. (KRM)

A New Social Contract for Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Malone, T. F.

2002-12-01

The Golden Age for geophysical research that followed the IGY set the stage for a new era of interaction among science, technology, and society. World population and the average economic productivity of individuals have both continued to grow exponentially during the past 50 years with the result that by the 1980s the demands of the human economy on the finite renewable resources of planet Earth were approximately equal to the natural regenerative capacities of planetary ecosystems. These demands are now "overshooting" those regenerative powers by about 20 per cent (1). The result could be a collapse in the life-supporting capacity of global ecosystems during coming decades, with tragic implications for civilized society. Novel modes of collaboration among all disciplines and all sectors of society are urgently needed to transform a potential catastrophe into the attractive vision that is now within reach as a result of rapidly expanding human knowledge, emerging technologies for sharing that knowledge (2), and the set of ethical principles for sustainable development contained in the Earth Charter (3). This prospect challenges geophysicists and scholars in all disciplines to forge a new and broadly based contract with society (4). 1. Wackernagel M. et al. 2002. "Tracking the ecological overshoot of the human economy." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 99, Issue 14, 9266-9271, July 9. 2. Malone T. and Yohe G. 2002. "Knowledge partnerships for a sustainable, equitable, and stable society." J. of Knowledge Management, Vol. 6, No. 4, October (in press). 3. www.earthcharter.org 4. Malone T. 1997. "Building on the legacies of the Intenational Geophysical Year." Transactions, AGU, Vol.78, No. 15, pp. 185-191.

Geophysical borehole logging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCann, D.; Barton, K.J.; Hearn, K.

1981-08-01

Most of the available literature on geophysical borehole logging refers to studies carried out in sedimentary rocks. It is only in recent years that any great interest has been shown in geophysical logging in boreholes in metamorphic and igneous rocks following the development of research programmes associated with geothermal energy and nuclear waste disposal. This report is concerned with the programme of geophysical logging carried out on the three deep boreholes at Altnabreac, Caithness, to examine the effectiveness of these methods in crystalline rock. Of particular importance is the assessment of the performance of the various geophysical sondes run in the boreholes in relation to the rock mass properties. The geophysical data can be used to provide additional in-situ information on the geological, hydrogeological and engineering properties of the rock mass. Fracturing and weathering in the rock mass have a considerable effect on both the design parameters for an engineering structure and the flow of water through the rock mass; hence, the relation between the geophysical properties and the degree of fracturing and weathering is examined in some detail. (author)

HMF-Geophysics - An Update

Science.gov (United States)

Crook, N.; Knight, R.; Robinson, D.

2007-12-01

There is growing recognition of the challenges we face, in many parts of the world, in finding and maintaining clean sources of water for human consumption and agricultural use, while balancing the needs of the natural world. Advancements in hydrologic sciences are needed in order to develop an improved understanding of the controls on the quantity, movement, and quality of water, thus enhancing our ability to better protect and manage our water resources. Geophysical methods can play a central role in these investigations. CUAHSI (Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences) is developing, with the support of the National Science Foundation, a Hydrologic Measurement Facility (HMF), which contains a Geophysics module, referred to as HMF-Geophysics. The Geophysics module will support and advance the use of geophysics for hydrologic applications. Currently in second year of a 3 year pilot study, the main aim of HMF-Geophysics is to develop the infrastructure necessary to provide geophysical techniques and the expertise to apply them correctly for the hydrological community. The current working model consists of a central HMF-Geophysics facility and a number of volunteer nodes. The latter consists of individuals at universities who have volunteered to be part of HMF-Geophysics by using their equipment, and/or software, and expertise, in research partnerships with hydrologists. In response to an inquiry the central facility takes on the evaluation of the potential of geophysics to the area of research/watershed. The central facility can then undertake a feasibility study to determine how/if geophysical methods could be of use, and to evaluate the "value-added" by geophysics to the science. Once it is clear that the geophysics can contribute in a significant way to addressing the science questions the central facility works with the hydrologist to set up the next step. Our assumption is that at this point, the hydrologist (perhaps with a

Large natural geophysical events: planetary planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knox, J.B.; Smith, J.V.

1984-09-01

Geological and geophysical data suggest that during the evolution of the earth and its species, that there have been many mass extinctions due to large impacts from comets and large asteroids, and major volcanic events. Today, technology has developed to the stage where we can begin to consider protective measures for the planet. Evidence of the ecological disruption and frequency of these major events is presented. Surveillance and warning systems are most critical to develop wherein sufficient lead times for warnings exist so that appropriate interventions could be designed. The long term research undergirding these warning systems, implementation, and proof testing is rich in opportunities for collaboration for peace

EDITORIAL: A physicist's journey to the centre of the Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Hipkin, Roger

1999-07-01

It is a paradox that, despite it being the planet on which all our experience is founded, the bulk Earth is as inaccessible as a remote galaxy. In South African diamond mines, man has penetrated about 3 km into the solid Earth; intact core from boreholes has been recovered from about 7 km and, in the Kola Peninsula of northern Russia, drill chippings have been sluiced up from about 13 km. Nevertheless, even if we had the resources to pepper the outer layer with exploratory boreholes, direct observation of the remaining 99% of the Earth's volume will always remain an impossibility. And yet we know some quite detailed properties of the interior of the Earth. Contrary to primitive cosmologies inspired by watching volcanoes erupt, and although below 2890 km there is a core of molten steel, we know that only in rare, shallow and isolated pockets are the rocks of the Earth's interior molten. The interior of the Earth is like an onion-skin: properties (density, electrical conductivity, sound speed etc) change mainly with depth. Taking the Earth's response to stress as one example, the material behaves like a brittle elastic solid only to depths of about 10-20 km. Below that, Earth materials exhibit the properties of both a solid and a liquid: to short-period effects like sound waves, they respond as a conventional solid but, when subjected to long-period stress, they can also flow like a liquid with a very high viscosity. Viscosity is initially controlled by the increasing mobility of atoms as temperature increases (viscosity decreases from about 1025 Pa s in the upper 20 km to about 1020 Pa s at a depth of 250 km); but atomic mobility is then offset by the counteracting effects of increasing pressure (viscosity increases to perhaps 1023 Pa s at 2500 km). We also have a quantitative physical picture of Earth behaviour stretching back over 4.5 billion years, despite having only 4500 years of recorded scientific observations about the Earth. Using the same physics that

Earth Sciences Division annual report, 1976

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hornady, B.; Duba, A.

1977-01-01

This compilation lists abstracts of papers, internal reports, and talks presented during 1976 at national and international meetings by members of the Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Subjects include: coal gasification, gas stimulation, geothermal fields, oil shale retorting, radioactive waste management, geochemistry, geophysics, seismology, explosive phenomenology, and miscellaneous studies

Cosmic radiation and the Earth rotation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pil'nik, G.P.

1986-01-01

On the basis of classical astronomical observations of time, waves of nonuniformity in the Earth rotation were found. The wave with the period of 159sup(m).566 is very close to the period of global oscillations of the Sun surface 160sup(m).r-1 and to the period of the Germinga gamma-ray radiatnon 159sup(m).96. The necessity is pointed out of a detailed study of the Earth rotation in the days of great developments of astrophysical and geophysical research

Methodology for Time-Domain Estimation of Storm-Time Electric Fields Using the 3D Earth Impedance

Science.gov (United States)

Kelbert, A.; Balch, C. C.; Pulkkinen, A. A.; Egbert, G. D.; Love, J. J.; Rigler, E. J.; Fujii, I.

2016-12-01

Magnetic storms can induce geoelectric fields in the Earth's electrically conducting interior, interfering with the operations of electric-power grid industry. The ability to estimate these electric fields at Earth's surface in close to real-time and to provide local short-term predictions would improve the ability of the industry to protect their operations. At any given time, the electric field at the Earth's surface is a function of the time-variant magnetic activity (driven by the solar wind), and the local electrical conductivity structure of the Earth's crust and mantle. For this reason, implementation of an operational electric field estimation service requires an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort between space science, real-time space weather operations, and solid Earth geophysics. We highlight in this talk an ongoing collaboration between USGS, NOAA, NASA, Oregon State University, and the Japan Meteorological Agency, to develop algorithms that can be used for scenario analyses and which might be implemented in a real-time, operational setting. We discuss the development of a time domain algorithm that employs discrete time domain representation of the impedance tensor for a realistic 3D Earth, known as the discrete time impulse response (DTIR), convolved with the local magnetic field time series, to estimate the local electric field disturbances. The algorithm is validated against measured storm-time electric field data collected in the United States and Japan. We also discuss our plans for operational real-time electric field estimation using 3D Earth impedances.

Making interdisciplinary solid Earth modeling and analysis tools accessible in a diverse undergraduate and graduate classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, T. W.

2011-12-01

I present results from ongoing, NSF-CAREER funded educational and research efforts that center around making numerical tools in seismology and geodynamics more accessible to a broader audience. The goal is not only to train students in quantitative, interdisciplinary research, but also to make methods more easily accessible to practitioners across disciplines. I describe the two main efforts that were funded, the Solid Earth Research and Teaching Environment (SEATREE, geosys.usc.edu/projects/seatree/), and a new Numerical Methods class. SEATREE is a modular and user-friendly software framework to facilitate using solid Earth research tools in the undergraduate and graduate classroom and for interdisciplinary, scientific collaboration. We use only open-source software, and most programming is done in the Python computer language. We strive to make use of modern software design and development concepts while remaining compatible with traditional scientific coding and existing, legacy software. Our goals are to provide a fully contained, yet transparent package that lets users operate in an easy, graphically supported "black box" mode, while also allowing to look under the hood, for example to conduct numerous forward models to explore parameter space. SEATREE currently has several implemented modules, including on global mantle flow, 2D phase velocity tomography, and 2D mantle convection and was used at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and at a 2010 CIDER summer school tutorial. SEATREE was developed in collaboration with engineering and computer science undergraduate students, some of which have gone on to work in Earth Science projects. In the long run, we envision SEATREE to contribute to new ways of sharing scientific research, and making (numerical) experiments truly reproducible again. The other project is a set of lecture notes and Matlab exercises on Numerical Methods in solid Earth, focusing on finite difference and element methods. The

SQUID use for Geophysics: finding billions of dollars

Science.gov (United States)

Foley, Catherine

2014-03-01

Soon after their discovery, Jim Zimmerman saw the potential of using Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices, SQUIDs, for the study of Geophysics and undertook experiments to understand the magnetic phenomena of the Earth. However his early experiments were not successful. Nevertheless up to the early 1980's, some research effort in the use of SQUIDs for geophysics continued and many ideas of how you could use SQUIDs evolved. Their use was not adopted by the mining industry at that time for a range of reasons. The discovery of high temperature superconductors started a reinvigoration in the interest to use SQUIDs for mineral exploration. Several groups around the world worked with mining companies to develop both liquid helium and nitrogen cooled systems. The realisation of the achievable sensitivity that contributed to successful mineral discoveries and delineation led to real financial returns for miners. By the mid 2000's, SQUID systems for geophysics were finally being offered for sale by several start-up companies. This talk will tell the story of SQUID use in geophysics. It will start with the early work of the SQUID pioneers including that of Jim Zimmerman and John Clarke and will also cover the development since the early 1990's up to today of a number of magnetometers and gradiometers that have been successfully commercialised and used to create significant impact in the global resources industry. The talk will also cover some of the critical technical challenges that had to be overcome to succeed. It will focus mostly on magnetically unshielded systems used in the field although some laboratory-based systems will be discussed.

Using Interactive Visualization to Analyze Solid Earth Data and Geodynamics Models

Science.gov (United States)

Kellogg, L. H.; Kreylos, O.; Billen, M. I.; Hamann, B.; Jadamec, M. A.; Rundle, J. B.; van Aalsburg, J.; Yikilmaz, M. B.

2008-12-01

The geological sciences are challenged to manage and interpret increasing volumes of data as observations and simulations increase in size and complexity. Major projects such as EarthScope and GeoEarthScope are producing the data needed to characterize the structure and kinematics of Earth's surface and interior at unprecedented resolution. At the same time, high-performance computing enables high-precision and fine- detail simulation of geodynamics processes, complementing the observational data. To facilitate interpretation and analysis of these datasets, to evaluate models, and to drive future calculations, we have developed methods of interactive visualization with a special focus on using immersive virtual reality (VR) environments to interact with models of Earth's surface and interior. VR has traditionally been used primarily as a presentation tool allowing active navigation through data. Reaping the full intellectual benefits of immersive VR as a tool for accelerated scientific analysis requires building on the method's strengths, that is, using both 3D perception and interaction with observed or simulated data. Our approach to VR takes advantage of the specialized skills of geoscientists who are trained to interpret geological and geophysical data generated from field observations. Interactive tools allow the scientist to explore and interpret geodynamic models, tomographic models, and topographic observations, while feature extraction tools support quantitative measurement of structures that emerge from numerical simulations or field observations. The use of VR technology enables us to improve our interpretation of crust and mantle structure and of geodynamical processes. Mapping tools based on computer visualization allow virtual "field studies" in inaccessible regions, and an interactive tool allows us to construct digital fault models for use in numerical models. Using the interactive tools on a high-end platform such as an immersive virtual reality

Earth Science Community IT Resources through a Unified Data and Analysis Portal

Science.gov (United States)

Bock, Y.; Webb, F. H.; Kedar, S.; Pierce, M.; Scharber, M.; Argus, D. F.; Aydin, G.; Chang, R.; Dong, D.; Fang, P.; Granat, R. A.; Jamason, P.; Newport, B. J.; Owen, S. E.; Parker, J. W.; Prawirodirdjo, L.; Vernon, F.; Wadsworth, G.

2006-12-01

We are in the process of merging the capabilities of three NASA-funded projects under the umbrella of the NASA Access Project, "Modeling and On-the-fly Solutions for Solid Earth Sciences (MOSES)" to facilitate data mining and modeling of rapidly expanding multi-disciplinary geoscience data sets. (1) The SCIGN- REASoN project is focused on the combination, validation, archive, and delivery of high-level data products and data mining capabilities from space geodetic measurements, in particular from over 600 CGPS stations in Western North America; (2) The QuakeSim project is developing linked Web service environments for supporting high performance models of crustal deformation from a variety of geophysical sensors, including GPS and seismic instruments; (3) The SENH-Applications GPS/Seismic integration project has developed a prototype real-time GPS/seismic displacement meter for seismic hazard mitigation and monitoring of critical infrastructure. The focus of the MOSES project is to enable direct interaction between modelers and data/data-product providers using Web services, within a unified portal architecture. Modeling applications include, for example, time series analysis of continuous and real-time data (e.g., RDAHMM and st_filter programs) and fault dislocation modeling (e.g., Simplex program). Community resources include access to extensive infrastructure and distributed data archive holdings, an on-line map server/client linked to a GIS database, a "GPS Explorer" data portal that is extensible to heterogeneous data sets, and "Geophysical Resource Web Services." We present the current capabilities of the unified data and analysis portal, and provide a few examples of combinations of independent geophysical measurements.

Critical zone architecture and processes: a geophysical perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Holbrook, W. S.

2016-12-01

The "critical zone (CZ)," Earth's near-surface layer that reaches from treetop to bedrock, sustains terrestrial life by storing water and producing nutrients. Despite is central importance, however, the CZ remains poorly understood, due in part to the complexity of interacting biogeochemical and physical processes that take place there, and in part due to the difficulty of measuring CZ properties and processes at depth. Major outstanding questions include: What is the architecture of the CZ? How does that architecture vary across scales and across gradients in climate, lithology, topography, biology and regional states of stress? What processes control the architecture of the CZ? At what depth does weathering initiate, and what controls the rates at which it proceeds? Based on recent geophysical campaigns at seven Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) sites and several other locations, a geophysical perspective on CZ architecture and processes is emerging. CZ architecture can be usefully divided into four layers, each of which has distinct geophysical properties: soil, saprolite, weathered bedrock and protolith. The distribution of those layers across landscapes varies depending on protolith composition and internal structure, topography, climate (P/T) and the regional state of stress. Combined observations from deep CZ drilling, geophysics and geochemistry demonstrate that chemical weathering initiates deep in the CZ, in concert with mechanical weathering (fracturing), as chemical weathering appears concentrated along fractures in borehole walls. At the Calhoun CZO, the plagioclase weathering front occurs at nearly 40 m depth, at the base of a 25-m-thick layer of weathered bedrock. The principal boundary in porosity, however, occurs at the saprolite/weathered bedrock boundary: porosity decreases over an order of magnitude, from 50% to 5% over an 8-m-thick zone at the base of saprolite. Porosity in weathered bedrock is between 2-5%. Future progress will depend on (1

Karst aquifer characterization using geophysical remote sensing of dynamic recharge events

Science.gov (United States)

Grapenthin, R.; Bilek, S. L.; Luhmann, A. J.

2017-12-01

Geophysical monitoring techniques, long used to make significant advances in a wide range of deeper Earth science disciplines, are now being employed to track surficial processes such as landslide, glacier, and river flow. Karst aquifers are another important hydrologic resource that can benefit from geophysical remote sensing, as this monitoring allows for safe, noninvasive karst conduit measurements. Conduit networks are typically poorly constrained, let alone the processes that occur within them. Geophysical monitoring can also provide a regionally integrated analysis to characterize subsurface architecture and to understand the dynamics of flow and recharge processes in karst aquifers. Geophysical signals are likely produced by several processes during recharge events in karst aquifers. For example, pressure pulses occur when water enters conduits that are full of water, and experiments suggest seismic signals result from this process. Furthermore, increasing water pressure in conduits during recharge events increases the load applied to conduit walls, which deforms the surrounding rock to yield measureable surface displacements. Measureable deformation should also occur with mass loading, with subsidence and rebound signals associated with increases and decreases of water mass stored in the aquifer, respectively. Additionally, geophysical signals will likely arise with turbulent flow and pore pressure change in the rock surrounding conduits. Here we present seismic data collected during a pilot study of controlled and natural recharge events in a karst aquifer system near Bear Spring, near Eyota, MN, USA as well as preliminary model results regarding the processes described above. In addition, we will discuss an upcoming field campaign where we will use seismometers, tiltmeters, and GPS instruments to monitor for recharge-induced responses in a FL, USA karst system with existing cave maps, coupling these geophysical observations with hydrologic and

Auroral phenomenology and magnetospheric processes earth and other planets

CERN Document Server

Keiling, Andreas; Bagenal, Fran; Karlsson, Tomas

2013-01-01

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series. Many of the most basic aspects of the aurora remain unexplained. While in the past terrestrial and planetary auroras have been largely treated in separate books, Auroral Phenomenology and Magnetospheric Processes: Earth and Other Planets takes a holistic approach, treating the aurora as a fundamental process and discussing the phenomenology, physics, and relationship with the respective planetary magnetospheres in one volume. While there are some behaviors common in auroras of the diffe

Fulbright update

Science.gov (United States)

Opportunities to teach or perform postdoctoral research in the earth and atmospheric sciences under the Senior Scholar Fulbright awards program for 1984-1985 (Eos, March 1, 1983, p. 81) are available in 14 countries, according to the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.The countries and the specialization opportunities are Algeria, any specialization; Australia, mineral processing research; India, any specialization in geology or geophysics; Israel, environmental studies; Korea, any specialization; Lebanon, geophysics, geotectonics, and structural geology; Morocco, research methods in science education; Pakistan, geology, marine biology, and mineralogy; Poland, mining technology; Sudan, geology and remote sensing; Thailand, planning and environmental change; USSR, any specialization; Yugoslavia, any research specialization; and Zimbabwe, exploration geophysics and solid earth geophysics.

Press conference bring excitement of geophysical research to the public

Science.gov (United States)

Leifert, Harvey

“A Flare to Remember.” “Starbucks for Starfish.” “Earth's Rotation Slows for El Niño.” What do these catchy headlines have in common? They all resulted from presentations at AGU's Spring Meeting in Boston, Mass. Yes, geophysical science can be big news when presented in a way that is interesting to general audiences.Proof? Well, the “Flare to Remember” headline (in the Dallas Morning News) reported the discovery, via the SOHO spacecraft, that a solar flare had produced, deep inside the Sun, seismic disturbances of a magnitude never experienced on Earth. Researchers Valentina Zharkova of Glasgow University and Alexander Kosovichev of Stanford gave media representatives a preview of their session, supported by visual aids, in the AGU press briefing room.

Electromagnetic forward modelling for realistic Earth models using unstructured tetrahedral meshes and a meshfree approach

Science.gov (United States)

Farquharson, C.; Long, J.; Lu, X.; Lelievre, P. G.

2017-12-01

Real-life geology is complex, and so, even when allowing for the diffusive, low resolution nature of geophysical electromagnetic methods, we need Earth models that can accurately represent this complexity when modelling and inverting electromagnetic data. This is particularly the case for the scales, detail and conductivity contrasts involved in mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and development, but also for the larger scale of lithospheric studies. Unstructured tetrahedral meshes provide a flexible means of discretizing a general, arbitrary Earth model. This is important when wanting to integrate a geophysical Earth model with a geological Earth model parameterized in terms of surfaces. Finite-element and finite-volume methods can be derived for computing the electric and magnetic fields in a model parameterized using an unstructured tetrahedral mesh. A number of such variants have been proposed and have proven successful. However, the efficiency and accuracy of these methods can be affected by the "quality" of the tetrahedral discretization, that is, how many of the tetrahedral cells in the mesh are long, narrow and pointy. This is particularly the case if one wants to use an iterative technique to solve the resulting linear system of equations. One approach to deal with this issue is to develop sophisticated model and mesh building and manipulation capabilities in order to ensure that any mesh built from geological information is of sufficient quality for the electromagnetic modelling. Another approach is to investigate other methods of synthesizing the electromagnetic fields. One such example is a "meshfree" approach in which the electromagnetic fields are synthesized using a mesh that is distinct from the mesh used to parameterized the Earth model. There are then two meshes, one describing the Earth model and one used for the numerical mathematics of computing the fields. This means that there are no longer any quality requirements on the model mesh, which

High-pressure densified solid solutions of alkaline earth hexaborides (Ca/Sr, Ca/Ba, Sr/Ba) and their high-temperature thermoelectric properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gürsoy, M.; Takeda, M.; Albert, B.

2015-01-01

Solid solutions of alkaline earth hexaborides were synthesized and densified by spark plasma sintering at 100 MPa. The high-temperature thermoelectric properties (Seebeck coefficients, electrical and thermal diffusivities, heat capacities) were measured between room temperature and 1073 K. CaB 6 , SrB 6 , BaB 6 and the ternary hexaborides Ca x Sr 1−x B 6 , Ca x Ba 1−x B 6 , Sr x Ba 1−x B 6 (x = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75) are n-type conducting compounds over the whole compositional and thermal ranges. The values of the figure of merit ZT for CaB 6 (ca. 0.3 at 1073 K) were found to be significantly increased compared to earlier investigations which is attributed to the densification process. - Highlights: • Solid solutions of alkaline earth hexaborides were synthesized. • High-temperature thermoelectric properties of mixed calcium borides are excellent. • Spark plasma source densification results in high ZT values. • Borides are rare-earth free and refractory materials

Advances in geophysics

CERN Document Server

Sato, Haruo

2013-01-01

The critically acclaimed serialized review journal for over 50 years, Advances in Geophysics is a highly respected publication in the field of geophysics. Since 1952, each volume has been eagerly awaited, frequently consulted, and praised by researchers and reviewers alike. Now in its 54th volume, it contains much material still relevant today--truly an essential publication for researchers in all fields of geophysics.Key features: * Contributions from leading authorities * Informs and updates on all the latest developments in the field

Sintered cobalt-rare earth intermetallic product

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benz, M.C.

1975-01-01

A process is described for preparing novel sintered cobalt--rare earth intermetallic products which can be magnetized to form permanent magnets having stable improved magnetic properties. A cobalt--rare earth metal alloy is formed having a composition which at sintering temperature falls outside the composition covered by the single Co 5 R intermetallic phase on the rare earth richer side. The alloy contains a major amount of the Co 5 R intermetallic phase and a second solid CoR phase which is richer in rare earth metal content than the Co 5 R phase. The specific cobalt and rare earth metal content of the alloy is substantially the same as that desired in the sintered product. The alloy, in particulate form, is pressed into compacts and sintered to the desired density. The sintered product is comprised of a major amount of the Co 5 R solid intermetallic phase and up to about 35 percent of the product of the second solid CoR intermetallic phase which is richer in rare earth metal content than the Co 5 R phase

Why publish with AGU?

Science.gov (United States)

Graedel, T. E.

The most visible activity of the American Geophysical Union is its publication of scientific journals. There are eight of these: Journal of Geophysical Research—Space Physics (JGR I), Journal of Geophysical Research—Solid Earth (JGR II), Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans and Atmospheres (JGR III), Radio Science (RS), Water Resources Research (WRR), Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics (RGSP), and the newest, Tectonics.AGU's journals have established solid reputations for scientific excellence over the years. Reputation is not sufficient to sustain a high quality journal, however, since other factors enter into an author's decision on where to publish his or her work. In this article the characteristics of AGU's journals are compared with those of its competitors, with the aim of furnishing guidance to prospective authors and a better understanding of the value of the products to purchasers.

Rare earth germanates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bondar', I.A.; Vinogradova, N.V.; Dem'yanets, L.N.

1983-01-01

Rare earth germanates attract close attention both as an independent class of compounds and analogues of a widely spread class of natural and synthetic minerals. The methods of rare earth germanate synthesis (solid-phase, hydrothermal) are considered. Systems on the basis of germanium and rare earth oxides, phase diagrams, phase transformations are studied. Using different chemical analysese the processes of rare earth germanate formation are investigated. IR spectra of alkali and rare earth metal germanates are presented, their comparative analysis being carried out. Crystal structures of the compounds, lattice parameters are studied. Fields of possible application of rare earth germanates are shown

Geophysical Monitoring of Hydrological and Biogeochemical Transformations associated with Cr(VI) Bioremediation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hubbard, Susan; Williams, Kenneth H.; Conrad, Mark E.; Faybishenko, Boris; Peterson, John; Chen, Jinsong; Long, Philip E.; Hazen, Terry C.

2008-01-01

Understanding how hydrological and biogeochemical properties change over space and time in response to remedial treatments is hindered by our ability to monitor these processes with sufficient resolution and over field relevant scales. Here, we explored the use of geophysical approaches for monitoring the spatiotemporal distribution of hydrological and biogeochemical transformations associated with a Cr(VI)bioremediation experiment performed at Hanford, WA. We first integrated hydrological wellbore and geophysical tomographic datasets to estimate hydrological zonation at the study site. Using results from laboratory biogeophysical experiments and constraints provided by field geochemical datasets, we then interpreted time-lapse seismic and radar tomographic datasets, collected during thirteen acquisition campaigns over a three year experimental period, in terms of hydrological and biogeochemical transformations. The geophysical monitoring datasets were used to infer: the spatial distribution of injected electron donor; the evolution of gas bubbles; variations in total dissolved solids (nitrate and sulfate) as a function of pumping activity; the formation of precipitates and dissolution of calcites; and concomitant changes in porosity. Although qualitative in nature, the integrated interpretation illustrates how geophysical techniques have the potential to provide a wealth of information about coupled hydrobiogeochemical responses to remedial treatments in high spatial resolution and in a minimally invasive manner. Particularly novel aspects of our study include the use of multiple lines of evidence to constrain the interpretation of a long-term, field-scale geophysical monitoring dataset and the interpretation of the transformations as a function of hydrological heterogeneity and pumping activity

Biological and geophysical feedbacks with fire in the Earth system

Science.gov (United States)

Archibald, S.; Lehmann, C. E. R.; Belcher, C. M.; Bond, W. J.; Bradstock, R. A.; Daniau, A.-L.; Dexter, K. G.; Forrestel, E. J.; Greve, M.; He, T.; Higgins, S. I.; Hoffmann, W. A.; Lamont, B. B.; McGlinn, D. J.; Moncrieff, G. R.; Osborne, C. P.; Pausas, J. G.; Price, O.; Ripley, B. S.; Rogers, B. M.; Schwilk, D. W.; Simon, M. F.; Turetsky, M. R.; Van der Werf, G. R.; Zanne, A. E.

2018-03-01

Roughly 3% of the Earth’s land surface burns annually, representing a critical exchange of energy and matter between the land and atmosphere via combustion. Fires range from slow smouldering peat fires, to low-intensity surface fires, to intense crown fires, depending on vegetation structure, fuel moisture, prevailing climate, and weather conditions. While the links between biogeochemistry, climate and fire are widely studied within Earth system science, these relationships are also mediated by fuels—namely plants and their litter—that are the product of evolutionary and ecological processes. Fire is a powerful selective force and, over their evolutionary history, plants have evolved traits that both tolerate and promote fire numerous times and across diverse clades. Here we outline a conceptual framework of how plant traits determine the flammability of ecosystems and interact with climate and weather to influence fire regimes. We explore how these evolutionary and ecological processes scale to impact biogeochemical and Earth system processes. Finally, we outline several research challenges that, when resolved, will improve our understanding of the role of plant evolution in mediating the fire feedbacks driving Earth system processes. Understanding current patterns of fire and vegetation, as well as patterns of fire over geological time, requires research that incorporates evolutionary biology, ecology, biogeography, and the biogeosciences.

A new research project on the interaction of the solid Earth and the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Science.gov (United States)

Fukuda, Y.; Nishijima, J.; Kazama, T.; Nakamura, K.; Doi, K.; Suganuma, Y.; Okuno, J.; Araya, A.; Kaneda, H.; Aoyama, Y.

2017-12-01

A new research project of "Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas" funded by JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) has recently been launched. The title of the project is "Giant reservoirs of heat/water/material: Global environmental changes driven by Southern Ocean and Antarctic Ice Sheet", and as a five years project, is aiming to establish a new research area for Antarctic environmental system science. The project consists of 7 research topics, including Antarctic ice sheet and Southern ocean sciences, new observation methodology, modeling and other interdisciplinary topics, and we are involved in the topic A02-2, "Interaction of the solid Earth and the Antarctic Ice Sheet". The Antarctic ice sheet, which relates to the global climate changes through the sea level rise and ocean circulation, is an essential element of the Earth system for predicting the future environment changes. Thus many studies of the ice sheet changes have been conducted by means of geomorphological, geological, geodetic surveys, as well as satellite gravimetry and satellite altimetry. For these studies, one of the largest uncertainties is the effects of GIA. Therefore, GIA as a key to investigate the interaction between the solid Earth and the ice sheet changes, we plan to conduct geomorphological, geological and geodetic surveys in the inland mountain areas and the coastal areas including the surrounding areas of a Japanese station Syowa in East Antarctica, where the in-situ data for constraining GIA models are very few. Combining these new observations with other in-site data, various satellite data and numerical modeling, we aim to estimating a precise GIA model, constructing a reliable ice melting history after the last glacial maximum and obtaining the viscoelastic structure of the Earth's interior. In the presentation, we also show the five years research plans as well. This study was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 17H06321.

SESAR: Addressing the need for unique sample identification in the Solid Earth Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Lehnert, K. A.; Goldstein, S. L.; Lenhardt, C.; Vinayagamoorthy, S.

2004-12-01

The study of solid earth samples is key to our knowledge of Earth's dynamical systems and evolution. The data generated provide the basis for models and hypotheses in all disciplines of the Geosciences from tectonics to magmatic processes to mantle dynamics to paleoclimate research. Sample-based data are diverse ranging from major and trace element abundances, radiogenic and stable isotope ratios of rocks, minerals, fluid or melt inclusions, to age determinations and descriptions of lithology, texture, mineral or fossil content, stratigraphic context, physical properties. The usefulness of these data is critically dependent on their integration as a coherent data set for each sample. If different data sets for the same sample cannot be combined because the sample cannot be unambiguously recognized, valuable information is lost. The ambiguous naming of samples has been a major problem in the geosciences. Different samples are often given identical names, and there is a tendency for different people analyzing the same sample to rename it in their publications according to local conventions. This situation has generated significant confusion, with samples often losing their "history", making it difficult or impossible to link available data. This has become most evident through the compilation of geochemical data in relational databases such as PetDB, NAVDAT, and GEOROC. While the relational data structure allows linking of disparate data for samples published in different references, linkages cannot be established due to ambiguous sample names. SESAR is a response to this problem of ambiguous naming of samples. SESAR will create a common clearinghouse that provides a centralized registry of sample identifiers, to avoid ambiguity, to systematize sample designation, and ensure that all information associated with a sample would in fact be unique. The project will build a web-based digital registry for solid earth samples that will provide for the first time a way to

An Exploration Geophysics Course With an Environmental Focus for an Urban Minority Institution

Science.gov (United States)

Kenyon, P. M.

2004-12-01

A hands-on exploration geophysics field course with an environmental focus has been developed with NSF support for use at the City College of New York in Manhattan. To maximize access for the students, no prerequisites beyond introductory earth science and physics are required. The course is taught for three hours on Saturday mornings. This has resulted in it attracting not only regular City College students, but also earth science teachers studying for alternate certification or Master's degrees. After a brief introduction to the nature of geophysics and to concepts in data processing, the course is taught in four three-week modules, one each on seismology, resistivity surveying, electromagnetic ground conductivity, and magnetic measurements. Each module contains one week of theory, a field experience, computer data analysis, and a final report. Field exercises are planned to emphasize teamwork and include realistic urban applications of the techniques. Student surveys done in conjunction with this course provide insights into the motivations and needs of the mostly minority students taking it. In general, these students come to the course already comfortable with teamwork and with working in the field. The questionnaires indicate that their greatest need is increased knowledge of the methods of geophysics and of the problems that can be attacked using it. Most of the students gave high ratings to the course, citing the fieldwork as the part that they most enjoyed. The results of these surveys will be presented, along with examples of the field exercises used. The computer analysis assignments written for this course will also be available.

A Bayesian trans-dimensional approach for the fusion of multiple geophysical datasets

Science.gov (United States)

JafarGandomi, Arash; Binley, Andrew

2013-09-01

We propose a Bayesian fusion approach to integrate multiple geophysical datasets with different coverage and sensitivity. The fusion strategy is based on the capability of various geophysical methods to provide enough resolution to identify either subsurface material parameters or subsurface structure, or both. We focus on electrical resistivity as the target material parameter and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), electromagnetic induction (EMI), and ground penetrating radar (GPR) as the set of geophysical methods. However, extending the approach to different sets of geophysical parameters and methods is straightforward. Different geophysical datasets are entered into a trans-dimensional Markov chain Monte Carlo (McMC) search-based joint inversion algorithm. The trans-dimensional property of the McMC algorithm allows dynamic parameterisation of the model space, which in turn helps to avoid bias of the post-inversion results towards a particular model. Given that we are attempting to develop an approach that has practical potential, we discretize the subsurface into an array of one-dimensional earth-models. Accordingly, the ERT data that are collected by using two-dimensional acquisition geometry are re-casted to a set of equivalent vertical electric soundings. Different data are inverted either individually or jointly to estimate one-dimensional subsurface models at discrete locations. We use Shannon's information measure to quantify the information obtained from the inversion of different combinations of geophysical datasets. Information from multiple methods is brought together via introducing joint likelihood function and/or constraining the prior information. A Bayesian maximum entropy approach is used for spatial fusion of spatially dispersed estimated one-dimensional models and mapping of the target parameter. We illustrate the approach with a synthetic dataset and then apply it to a field dataset. We show that the proposed fusion strategy is

An integrated approach for estimating global glacio isostatic adjustment, land ice, hydrology and ocean mass trends within a complete coupled Earth system framework

Science.gov (United States)

Schumacher, M.; Bamber, J. L.; Martin, A.

2016-12-01

Future sea level rise (SLR) is one of the most serious consequences of climate change. Therefore, understanding the drivers of past sea level change is crucial for improving predictions. SLR integrates many Earth system components including oceans, land ice, terrestrial water storage, as well as solid Earth effects. Traditionally, each component have been tackled separately, which has often lead to inconsistencies between discipline-specific estimates of each part of the sea level budget. To address these issues, the European Research Council has funded a five year project aimed at producing a physically-based, data-driven solution for the complete coupled land-ocean-solid Earth system that is consistent with the full suite of observations, prior knowledge and fundamental geophysical constraints. The project is called "GlobalMass" and based at University of Bristol. Observed mass movement from the GRACE mission plus vertical land motion from a global network of permanent GPS stations will be utilized in a data-driven approach to estimate glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) without introducing any assumptions about the Earth structure or ice loading history. A Bayesian Hierarchical Model (BHM) will be used as the framework to combine the satellite and in-situ observations alongside prior information that incorporates the physics of the coupled system such as conservation of mass and characteristic length scales of different processes in both space and time. The BHM is used to implement a simultaneous solution at a global scale. It will produce a consistent partitioning of the integrated SLR signal into its steric (thermal) and barystatic (mass) component for the satellite era. The latter component is induced by hydrological mass trends and melting of land ice. The BHM was developed and tested on Antarctica, where it has been used to separate surface, ice dynamic and GIA signals simultaneously. We illustrate the approach and concepts with examples from this test case

Disseminated Museum Displays and Participation of Students from Underrepresented Populations in Polar Research: Education and Outreach for Joint Projects in GPS and Seismology Solid Earth Science Community

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, S. C.; Wilson, T. J.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Aster, R. C.; Johns, B.; Anderson, K.; Taber, J.

2006-12-01

Two Antarctic projects developed by solid earth scientists in the GPS and seismology communities have rich education and outreach activities focused on disseminating information gleaned from this research and on including students from underrepresented groups. Members of the UNAVCO and IRIS research consortia along with international partners from Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the U.K. aim to deploy an ambitious GPS/seismic network to observe the Antarctic glaciological and geologic system using a multidisciplinary and internationally coordinated approach. The second project supports this network. UNAVCO and IRIS are designing and building a reliable power and communication system for autonomous polar station operation which use the latest power and communication technologies for ease of deployment and reliable multi-year operation in severe polar environments. This project will disseminate research results through an IPY/POLENET web-based museum style display based on the next-generation "Museum Lite" capability primarily supported by IRIS. "Museum Lite" uses a standard PC, touch-screen monitor, and standard Internet browsers to exploit the scalability and access of the Internet and to provide customizable content in an interactive setting. The unit is suitable for research departments, public schools, and an assortment of public venues, and can provide wide access to real-time geophysical data, ongoing research, and general information. The POLENET group will work with members of the two consortia to provide content about the project and polar science in general. One unit is to be installed at Barrow's Ilisagvit College through the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, one at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, and two at other sites to be determined (likely in New Zealand/Australia and in the U.S.). In January, 2006, Museum Lite exhibit was installed at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Evaluation of this prototype is underway. These

Stovetop Earth Pecan Pie

Science.gov (United States)

Robin, C. M.

2005-12-01

Many fluid mechanical experiments with direct applications to Earth Science are performed with sugary syrups using conceptually straightforward procedures. Corn syrup has indeed proven to be a godsend for those studying convection and related non-linear phenomena. In addition, however, it gives experimentalists a deep physical intuition for the interior workings of hot planets. The basic concepts behind plate tectonics and mantle convection are not difficult; indeed, although they may not be aware of it, most students probably have a basic intuitive understanding of fluid mechanics gained in their daily life. However, the large size and long time scale of geophysical processes may be quite intimidating to young students. Even a simple geophysical experiment requires a complicated array of coolers, heaters and measuring and recording equipment. It is of interest to introduce students to the geodynamical concepts that can be visualized in a high-tech lab using familiar processes and equipment. Using a homemade apparatus and grocery store supplies, I propose using a 'Stove-top Earth pecan pie' to introduce simple geodynamic concepts to middle- and high-school students. The initially cold syrup heats up and the pecans begin to float (continent formation), the syrup begins to convect (mantle convection), and convection slows down after the heat is removed (secular cooling). Even Wilson cycles can be simulated by moving the pan to one side or the other of the stovetop or heating element. The activity formally introduces students to convection and its application to the earth, and makes them think about plate motion, heat transfer, scaling, and experimental procedures. As an added bonus, they can eat their experiments after recess!

Electromagnetic sounding of the Earth's interior

CERN Document Server

Spichak, Viacheslav V

2015-01-01

Electromagnetic Sounding of the Earth's Interior 2nd edition provides a comprehensive up-to-date collection of contributions, covering methodological, computational and practical aspects of Electromagnetic sounding of the Earth by different techniques at global, regional and local scales. Moreover, it contains new developments such as the concept of self-consistent tasks of geophysics and , 3-D interpretation of the TEM sounding which, so far, have not all been covered by one book. Electromagnetic Sounding of the Earth's Interior 2nd edition consists of three parts: I- EM sounding methods, II- Forward modelling and inversion techniques, and III - Data processing, analysis, modelling and interpretation. The new edition includes brand new chapters on Pulse and frequency electromagnetic sounding for hydrocarbon offshore exploration. Additionally all other chapters have been extensively updated to include new developments. Presents recently developed methodological findings of the earth's study, including seism...

Fundamentals of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

McWilliams, James C.

2006-07-01

Earth's atmosphere and oceans exhibit complex patterns of fluid motion over a vast range of space and time scales. These patterns combine to establish the climate in response to solar radiation that is inhomogeneously absorbed by the materials comprising air, water, and land. Spontaneous, energetic variability arises from instabilities in the planetary-scale circulations, appearing in many different forms such as waves, jets, vortices, boundary layers, and turbulence. Geophysical fluid dynamics (GFD) is the science of all these types of fluid motion. This textbook is a concise and accessible introduction to GFD for intermediate to advanced students of the physics, chemistry, and/or biology of Earth's fluid environment. The book was developed from the author's many years of teaching a first-year graduate course at the University of California, Los Angeles. Readers are expected to be familiar with physics and mathematics at the level of general dynamics (mechanics) and partial differential equations. Covers the essential GFD required for atmospheric science and oceanography courses Mathematically rigorous, concise coverage of basic theory and applications to both oceans and atmospheres Author is a world expert; this book is based on the course he has taught for many years Exercises are included, with solutions available to instructors from solutions@cambridge.org

Elaboration of building materials from industrial waste from solid granular diatomaceous earth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Del Angel S, A.

2015-01-01

In this work the initial characterization of granular solid industrial waste from diatomaceous earth was carried out using techniques of Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction. In a second stage leaching of the material was undertaken to the US Patent Number 5, 376,000 and 5, 356,601 obtaining the samples M1-S ph 2, M1-L ph, M1-S ph 10 and M1-L ph 10. In the third stage a new characterization of the samples obtained with the techniques of Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Diffraction and Atomic Absorption Spectrometry was performed, the latter in order to determine the efficiency percentage of the leaching process. In the fourth stage the specimens for performing mechanical, physical and chemical tests were manufactured, using molds as PVC pipes of 1 inch in diameter and 2 inches in length, with a composition of 50% of diatomaceous earth and 50% of cement produced in each. Finally, in the fifth stage mechanical testing (compression resistance), physical (moisture absorption rate) and chemical (composition and structure of the material) are performed. In the last stage, when conducting mechanical testing with the test specimens, the presence of bubbles enclosed in each obtaining erroneous results noted, so it was necessary to develop the specimens again, obtaining in this occasion concentrations of 20:80, 40:60, 60:40 and 80:20 of diatomaceous earth with the cement. These results were analyzed to determine if the used material is suitable for the production of building materials such as bricks or partitions, being demonstrated by the tests carried out if they are eligible. (Author)

Geophysical Investigations in the Caucasus (1925 - 2012): Initial, Basic and Modern Stages

Science.gov (United States)

Eppelbaum, L. V.

2012-04-01

The Caucasian Mountains occupy an area of about 440,000 km2. A number of important mineral resources are concentrated there. Geophysical data on the geological structure of Caucasus can shed light on the basic principles of evolution of the Earth, the distribution of minerals and seismic activity. However, geophysical surveys under complex conditions are generally riddled by poor accessibility to certain mountainous regions, the unevenness of observation surfaces, as well as by a great variety and frequent changes of tectonic structures and geological bodies with variable physical properties. These factors either restrict geophysical surveys in difficult environments or confine the scope of useful information drawn from the results obtained. This has led to the development of special techniques in geophysical surveys, data processing and interpretation that draws heavily on the experience accumulated in the specific conditions of these mountainous regions. First applied geophysical observations in the Caucasus region - thermal measurements in boreholes - were carried out by Bazevich (1881) in the Absheron Peninsula. At the same time, start of the initial stage is usually referred to as the mid 20-s of the XX century, when the rare, but systematic geophysical observations (mainly gravity and magnetic) were begun in some Caucasian areas. Somewhat later began to apply the resistivity method. Mid 30-s is characterized by the beginning of application of borehole geophysics and seismic prospecting. The marine seismics firstly in the former Soviet Union was tested in the Caspian Sea. In general, the initial stage is characterized by slow, but steady rise (except during World War II) lasted until 1960. A basic stage (1960-1991) is characterized by very intensive employment of geophysical methods (apparently, any possible geophysical methods were tested in this region). At this time the Caucasus region is considered in the former Soviet Union as a geophysical polygon for

Data on the Earth's Magnetic Field and its Secular Change since 1800

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Information on the past and present orientation of the Earth's magnetic field is available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) which serves as the...

Geophysical subsurface imaging and interface identification.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pendley, Kevin; Bochev, Pavel Blagoveston; Day, David Minot; Robinson, Allen Conrad; Weiss, Chester Joseph

2005-09-01

Electromagnetic induction is a classic geophysical exploration method designed for subsurface characterization--in particular, sensing the presence of geologic heterogeneities and fluids such as groundwater and hydrocarbons. Several approaches to the computational problems associated with predicting and interpreting electromagnetic phenomena in and around the earth are addressed herein. Publications resulting from the project include [31]. To obtain accurate and physically meaningful numerical simulations of natural phenomena, computational algorithms should operate in discrete settings that reflect the structure of governing mathematical models. In section 2, the extension of algebraic multigrid methods for the time domain eddy current equations to the frequency domain problem is discussed. Software was developed and is available in Trilinos ML package. In section 3 we consider finite element approximations of De Rham's complex. We describe how to develop a family of finite element spaces that forms an exact sequence on hexahedral grids. The ensuing family of non-affine finite elements is called a van Welij complex, after the work [37] of van Welij who first proposed a general method for developing tangentially and normally continuous vector fields on hexahedral elements. The use of this complex is illustrated for the eddy current equations and a conservation law problem. Software was developed and is available in the Ptenos finite element package. The more popular methods of geophysical inversion seek solutions to an unconstrained optimization problem by imposing stabilizing constraints in the form of smoothing operators on some enormous set of model parameters (i.e. ''over-parametrize and regularize''). In contrast we investigate an alternative approach whereby sharp jumps in material properties are preserved in the solution by choosing as model parameters a modest set of variables which describe an interface between adjacent regions in

Bringing 3D Printing to Geophysical Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Boghosian, A.; Turrin, M.; Porter, D. F.

2014-12-01

3D printing technology has been embraced by many technical fields, and is rapidly making its way into peoples' homes and schools. While there is a growing educational and hobbyist community engaged in the STEM focused technical and intellectual challenges associated with 3D printing, there is unrealized potential for the earth science community to use 3D printing to communicate scientific research to the public. Moreover, 3D printing offers scientists the opportunity to connect students and the public with novel visualizations of real data. As opposed to introducing terrestrial measurements through the use of colormaps and gradients, scientists can represent 3D concepts with 3D models, offering a more intuitive education tool. Furthermore, the tactile aspect of models make geophysical concepts accessible to a wide range of learning styles like kinesthetic or tactile, and learners including both visually impaired and color-blind students.We present a workflow whereby scientists, students, and the general public will be able to 3D print their own versions of geophysical datasets, even adding time through layering to include a 4th dimension, for a "4D" print. This will enable scientists with unique and expert insights into the data to easily create the tools they need to communicate their research. It will allow educators to quickly produce teaching aids for their students. Most importantly, it will enable the students themselves to translate the 2D representation of geophysical data into a 3D representation of that same data, reinforcing spatial reasoning.

Avalanches in functional materials and geophysics

CERN Document Server

Saxena, Avadh; Planes, Antoni

2017-01-01

This book provides the state-of-the art of the present understanding of avalanche phenomena in both functional materials and geophysics. The main emphasis of the book is analyzing these apparently different problems within the common perspective of out-of-equilibrium phenomena displaying spatial and temporal complexity that occur in a broad range of scales. Many systems, when subjected to an external force, respond intermittently in the form of avalanches that often span over a wide range of sizes, energies and durations. This is often related to a class of critical behavior characterized by the absence of characteristic scales. Typical examples are magnetization processes, plastic deformation and failure occuring in functional materials. These phenomena share many similarities with seismicity arising from the earth crust failure due to stresses that originate from plate tectonics.

Voyager Interactive Web Interface to EarthScope

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, S. C.; Meertens, C. M.; Estey, L.; Weingroff, M.; Hamburger, M. W.; Holt, W. E.; Richard, G. A.

2004-12-01

Visualization of data is essential in helping scientists and students develop a conceptual understanding of relationships among many complex types of data and keep track of large amounts of information. Developed initially by UNAVCO for study of global-scale geodynamic processes, the Voyager map visualization tools have evolved into interactive, web-based map utilities that can make scientific results accessible to a large number and variety of educators and students as well as the originally targeted scientists. A portal to these map tools can be found at: http://jules.unavco.org. The Voyager tools provide on-line interactive data visualization through pre-determined map regions via a simple HTML/JavaScript interface (for large numbers of students using the tools simultaneously) or through student-selectable areas using a Java interface to a Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) engine. Students can access a variety of maps, satellite images, and geophysical data at a range of spatial scales for the earth and other planets of the solar system. Students can also choose from a variety of base maps (satellite mosaics, global topography, geoid, sea-floor age, strain rate and seismic hazard maps, and others) and can then add a number of geographic and geophysical overlays, for example coastlines, political boundaries, rivers and lakes, earthquake and volcano locations, stress axes, and observed and model plate motion, as well as deformation velocity vectors representing a compilation of over 5000 geodetic measurements from around the world. The related educational website, "Exploring our Dynamic Planet", (http://www.dpc.ucar.edu/VoyagerJr/jvvjrtool.html) incorporates background materials and curricular activities that encourage students to explore Earth processes. One of the present curricular modules is designed for high school students or introductory-level undergraduate non-science majors. The purpose of the module is for students to examine real data to investigate how plate

High frequency variations of Earth Rotation Parameters from GPS and GLONASS observations.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Erhu; Jin, Shuanggen; Wan, Lihua; Liu, Wenjie; Yang, Yali; Hu, Zhenghong

2015-01-28

The Earth's rotation undergoes changes with the influence of geophysical factors, such as Earth's surface fluid mass redistribution of the atmosphere, ocean and hydrology. However, variations of Earth Rotation Parameters (ERP) are still not well understood, particularly the short-period variations (e.g., diurnal and semi-diurnal variations) and their causes. In this paper, the hourly time series of Earth Rotation Parameters are estimated using Global Positioning System (GPS), Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), and combining GPS and GLONASS data collected from nearly 80 sites from 1 November 2012 to 10 April 2014. These new observations with combining different satellite systems can help to decorrelate orbit biases and ERP, which improve estimation of ERP. The high frequency variations of ERP are analyzed using a de-trending method. The maximum of total diurnal and semidiurnal variations are within one milli-arcseconds (mas) in Polar Motion (PM) and 0.5 milli-seconds (ms) in UT1-UTC. The semidiurnal and diurnal variations are mainly related to the ocean tides. Furthermore, the impacts of satellite orbit and time interval used to determinate ERP on the amplitudes of tidal terms are analyzed. We obtain some small terms that are not described in the ocean tide model of the IERS Conventions 2010, which may be caused by the strategies and models we used or the signal noises as well as artifacts. In addition, there are also small differences on the amplitudes between our results and IERS convention. This might be a result of other geophysical excitations, such as the high-frequency variations in atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) and hydrological angular momentum (HAM), which needs more detailed analysis with more geophysical data in the future.

Geophysical fluid dynamics understanding (almost) everything with rotating shallow water models

CERN Document Server

Zeitlin, Vladimir

2018-01-01

The book explains the key notions and fundamental processes in the dynamics of the fluid envelopes of the Earth (transposable to other planets), and methods of their analysis, from the unifying viewpoint of rotating shallow-water model (RSW). The model, in its one- or two-layer versions, plays a distinguished role in geophysical fluid dynamics, having been used for around a century for conceptual understanding of various phenomena, for elaboration of approaches and methods, to be applied later in more complete models, for development and testing of numerical codes and schemes of data assimilations, and many other purposes. Principles of modelling of large-scale atmospheric and oceanic flows, and corresponding approximations, are explained and it is shown how single- and multi-layer versions of RSW arise from the primitive equations by vertical averaging, and how further time-averaging produces celebrated quasi-geostrophic reductions of the model. Key concepts of geophysical fluid dynamics are exposed and inte...

Solid Matter

CERN Document Server

Angelo, Joseph A

2011-01-01

Supported by a generous quantity of full-color illustrations and interesting sidebars, Solid Matter introduces the basic characteristics and properties of solid matter. It briefly describes the cosmic connection of the elements, leading readers through several key events in human pre-history that resulted in more advanced uses of matter in the solid state. Chapters include:. -Solid Matter: An Initial Perspective. -Physical Behavior of Matter. -The Gravity of Matter. -Fundamentals of Materials Science. -Rocks and Minerals. -Metals. -Building Materials. -Carbon Earth's Most Versatile Element. -S

Non-linear processes in the Earth atmosphere boundary layer

Science.gov (United States)

Grunskaya, Lubov; Valery, Isakevich; Dmitry, Rubay

2013-04-01

The work is connected with studying electromagnetic fields in the resonator Earth-Ionosphere. There is studied the interconnection of tide processes of geophysical and astrophysical origin with the Earth electromagnetic fields. On account of non-linear property of the resonator Earth-Ionosphere the tides (moon and astrophysical tides) in the electromagnetic Earth fields are kinds of polyharmonic nature. It is impossible to detect such non-linear processes with the help of the classical spectral analysis. Therefore to extract tide processes in the electromagnetic fields, the method of covariance matrix eigen vectors is used. Experimental investigations of electromagnetic fields in the atmosphere boundary layer are done at the distance spaced stations, situated on Vladimir State University test ground, at Main Geophysical Observatory (St. Petersburg), on Kamchatka pen., on Lake Baikal. In 2012 there was continued to operate the multichannel synchronic monitoring system of electrical and geomagnetic fields at the spaced apart stations: VSU physical experimental proving ground; the station of the Institute of Solar and Terrestrial Physics of Russian Academy of Science (RAS) at Lake Baikal; the station of the Institute of volcanology and seismology of RAS in Paratunka; the station in Obninsk on the base of the scientific and production society "Typhoon". Such investigations turned out to be possible after developing the method of scanning experimental signal of electromagnetic field into non- correlated components. There was used a method of the analysis of the eigen vectors ofthe time series covariance matrix for exposing influence of the moon tides on Ez. The method allows to distribute an experimental signal into non-correlated periodicities. The present method is effective just in the situation when energetical deposit because of possible influence of moon tides upon the electromagnetic fields is little. There have been developed and realized in program components

Earth magnetism a guided tour through magnetic fields

CERN Document Server

Campbell, Wallace H

2001-01-01

An introductory guide to global magnetic field properties, Earth Magnetism addresses, in non-technical prose, many of the frequently asked questions about Earth''s magnetic field. Magnetism surrounds and penetrates our Earth in ways basic science courses can rarely address. It affects navigation, communication, and even the growth of crystals. As we observe and experience an 11-year solar maximum, we may witness spectacular satellite-destroying solar storms as they interact with our magnetic field. Written by an acknowledged expert in the field, this book will enrich courses in earth science, atmospheric science, geology, meteorology, geomagnetism, and geophysics. Contains nearly 200 original illustrations and eight pages of full-color plates.* Largely mathematics-free and with a wide breadth of material suitable for general readers* Integrates material from geomagnetism, paleomagnetism, and solar-terrestrial space physics.* Features nearly 200 original illustrations and 4 pages of colour plates

On Physical Interpretation of the In-Site Measurement of Earth Rotation by Ring Laser Gyrometers

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, B. F.

2004-01-01

Large ring laser gyrometers under development have demonstrated the capability of detecting minute ground motions and deformations on a wide range of timescales. The next challenge and goal is to measure the Earth's rotation variations to a precision that rivals that of the present space-geodesy techniques, thus providing an in-situ (and cost effective alternatives of Earth rotation measurement for geophysical research and geodetic applications. Aside from thermal and mechanical instabilities, "undesirable" ground motion and tilt that appear in the signal will need to be removed before any variation in Earth rotation can be detected. Removal of these signals, some of them are larger than the sought rotation signals, has been a typical procedure in many precise geophysical instruments, such as gravimeters, seismometers, and tiltmeters. The remaining Earth rotation signal resides in both the spin around the axis and in the orientation of the axis. In the case of the latter, the in-situ measurement is complementary to the space-geodetic observables in terms of polar motion and nutation, a fact to be exploited.

Transforming the representations of preschool-age children regarding geophysical entities and physical geography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MARIA KAMPEZA

2009-01-01

Full Text Available A semi-structured interview was individually administered to 76 preschoolers. The interview raised questions about the conceptual understanding of certain geophysical entities. A teaching intervention designed to attempt an understanding of the relationship between them and earth’s surface was implemented with groups of 5-9 children in order to help children construct a more “realistic” model of earth. The intervention’s effectiveness was consequently evaluated (after two weeks using an interview similar to that conducted prior to the intervention. The results of the study indicated that prior to the intervention many children faced difficulties in descriptive understanding of even familiar geographic features, such as rivers, lakes and islands. After the intervention the majority of children readily conceptualized certain aspects of most of the geophysical entities and correlated them with earth’s surface. Educational and research implications are discussed.

Annual review of earth and planetary sciences. Volume 16

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wetherill, G.W.; Albee, A.L.; Stehli, F.G.

1988-01-01

Various papers on earth and planetary science topics are presented. The subjects addressed include: role and status of earth science field work; phase relations of prealuminous granitic rocks and their petrogenetic implications; chondritic meteorites and the solar nebula; volcanic winters; mass wasting on continental margins; earthquake ground motions; ore deposits as guides to geologic history of the earth; geology of high-level nuclear waste disposal; and tectonic evolution of the Caribbean. Also discussed are: the earth's rotation; the geophysics of a restless caldera (Long Valley, California); observations of cometary nuclei; geology of Venus; seismic stratigraphy; in situ-produced cosmogenic isotopes in terrestrial rocks; time variations of the earth's magnetic field; deep slabs, geochemical heterogeneity, and the large-scale structure of mantle convection; early proterozoic assembly and growth of Laurentia; concepts and methods of high-resolution event stratigraphy

Solid - solid and solid - liquid phase transitions of iron and iron alloys under laser shock compression

Science.gov (United States)

Harmand, M.; Krygier, A.; Appel, K.; Galtier, E.; Hartley, N.; Konopkova, Z.; Lee, H. J.; McBride, E. E.; Miyanishi, K.; Nagler, B.; Nemausat, R.; Vinci, T.; Zhu, D.; Ozaki, N.; Fiquet, G.

2017-12-01

An accurate knowledge of the properties of iron and iron alloys at high pressures and temperatures is crucial for understanding and modelling planetary interiors. While Earth-size and Super-Earth Exoplanets are being discovered in increasingly large numbers, access to detailed information on liquid properties, melting curves and even solid phases of iron and iron at the pressures and temperatures of their interiors is still strongly limited. In this context, XFEL sources coupled with high-energy lasers afford unique opportunities to measure microscopic structural properties at far extreme conditions. Also the achievable time resolution allows the shock history and phase transition mechanisms to be followed during laser compression, improving our understanding of the high pressure and high strain experiments. Here we present recent studies devoted to investigate the solid-solid and solid-liquid transition in laser-shocked iron and iron alloys (Fe-Si, Fe-C and Fe-O alloys) using X-ray diffraction and X-ray diffuse scattering. Experiment were performed at the MEC end-station of the LCLS facility at SLAC (USA). Detection of the diffuse scattering allowed the identification of the first liquid peak position along the Hugoniot, up to 4 Mbar. The time resolution shows ultrafast (between several tens and several hundreds of picoseconds) solid-solid and solid-liquid phase transitions. Future developments at XFEL facilities will enable detailed studies of the solid and liquid structures of iron and iron alloys as well as out-of-Hugoniot studies.

Earth Sciences report, 1989--1990

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Younker, L.W.; Peterson, S.J.; Price, M.E.

1991-03-01

The Earth Sciences Department at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) conducts work in support of the Laboratory's energy, defense, environmental, and basic research programs. The Department comprises more than 100 professional scientific personnel spanning a variety of subdisciplines: geology, seismology, physics, geophysics, geochemistry, geohydrology, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Resident technical support groups add significant additional technical expertise, including Containment Engineering, Computations, Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry and Materials Science, and Technical Information. In total, approximately 180 professional scientists and engineers are housed in the Earth Sciences Department, making it one of the largest geo-science research groups in the nation. Previous Earth Sciences reports have presented an outline of the technical capabilities and accomplishments of the groups within the Department. In this FY 89/90 Report, we have chosen instead to present twelve of our projects in full-length technical articles. This Overview introduces those articles and highlights other significant research performed during this period

Earth Sciences report, 1989--1990

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Younker, L.W.; Peterson, S.J.; Price, M.E. (eds.)

1991-03-01

The Earth Sciences Department at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) conducts work in support of the Laboratory's energy, defense, environmental, and basic research programs. The Department comprises more than 100 professional scientific personnel spanning a variety of subdisciplines: geology, seismology, physics, geophysics, geochemistry, geohydrology, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Resident technical support groups add significant additional technical expertise, including Containment Engineering, Computations, Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry and Materials Science, and Technical Information. In total, approximately 180 professional scientists and engineers are housed in the Earth Sciences Department, making it one of the largest geo-science research groups in the nation. Previous Earth Sciences reports have presented an outline of the technical capabilities and accomplishments of the groups within the Department. In this FY 89/90 Report, we have chosen instead to present twelve of our projects in full-length technical articles. This Overview introduces those articles and highlights other significant research performed during this period.

In situ determination of Earth matter density in a neutrino factory

Science.gov (United States)

Minakata, Hisakazu; Uchinami, Shoichi

2007-04-01

We point out that an accurate in situ determination of the earth matter density ρ is possible in neutrino factory by placing a detector at the magic baseline, L=2π/GFNe where Ne denotes electron number density. The accuracy of matter density determination is excellent in a region of relatively large θ13 with fractional uncertainty δρ/ρ of about 0.43%, 1.3%, and ≲3% at 1σ CL at sin⁡22θ13=0.1, 10-2, and 3×10-3, respectively. At smaller θ13 the uncertainty depends upon the CP phase δ, but it remains small, 3% 7% in more than 3/4 of the entire region of δ at sin⁡22θ13=10-4. The results would allow us to solve the problem of obscured CP violation due to the uncertainty of earth matter density in a wide range of θ13 and δ. It may provide a test for the geophysical model of the earth, or it may serve as a method for a stringent test of the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein theory of neutrino propagation in matter once an accurate geophysical estimation of the matter density is available.

The European Plate Observing System (EPOS): Integrating Thematic Services for Solid Earth Science

Science.gov (United States)

Atakan, Kuvvet; Bailo, Daniele; Consortium, Epos

2016-04-01

The mission of EPOS is to monitor and understand the dynamic and complex Earth system by relying on new e-science opportunities and integrating diverse and advanced Research Infrastructures in Europe for solid Earth Science. EPOS will enable innovative multidisciplinary research for a better understanding of the Earth's physical and chemical processes that control earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, ground instability and tsunami as well as the processes driving tectonics and Earth's surface dynamics. Through integration of data, models and facilities EPOS will allow the Earth Science community to make a step change in developing new concepts and tools for key answers to scientific and socio-economic questions concerning geo-hazards and geo-resources as well as Earth sciences applications to the environment and to human welfare. EPOS, during its Implementation Phase (EPOS-IP), will integrate multidisciplinary data into a single e-infrastructure. Multidisciplinary data are organized and governed by the Thematic Core Services (TCS) and are driven by various scientific communities encompassing a wide spectrum of Earth science disciplines. These include Data, Data-products, Services and Software (DDSS), from seismology, near fault observatories, geodetic observations, volcano observations, satellite observations, geomagnetic observations, as well as data from various anthropogenic hazard episodes, geological information and modelling. In addition, transnational access to multi-scale laboratories and geo-energy test-beds for low-carbon energy will be provided. TCS DDSS will be integrated into Integrated Core Services (ICS), a platform that will ensure their interoperability and access to these services by the scientific community as well as other users within the society. This requires dedicated tasks for interactions with the various TCS-WPs, as well as the various distributed ICS (ICS-Ds), such as High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities, large scale data storage

The earths innermost core

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nanda, J.N.

1989-01-01

A new earth model is advanced with a solid innermost core at the centre of the Earth where elements heavier than iron, over and above what can be retained in solution in the iron core, are collected. The innermost core is separated from the solid iron-nickel core by a shell of liquid copper. The innermost core has a natural vibration measured on the earth's surface as the long period 26 seconds microseisms. The earth was formed initially as a liquid sphere with a relatively thin solid crust above the Byerly discontinuity. The trace elements that entered the innermost core amounted to only 0.925 ppm of the molten mass. Gravitational differentiation must have led to the separation of an explosive thickness of pure 235 U causing a fission explosion that could expel beyond the Roche limit a crustal scab which would form the centre piece of the moon. A reservoir of helium floats on the liquid copper. A small proportion of helium-3, a relic of the ancient fission explosion present there will spell the exciting magnetic field. The field is stable for thousands of years because of the presence of large quantity of helium-4 which accounts for most of the gaseous collisions that will not disturb the atomic spin of helium-3 atoms. This field is prone to sudden reversals after long periods of stability. (author). 14 refs

The interaction of the cretaceous-tertiary extinction bolide with the atmosphere, ocean, and solid earth

Science.gov (United States)

Okeefe, J. D.; Ahrens, T. J.

1981-01-01

A number of investigations, including those reported by Orth et al. (1981), have provided physical evidence for the impact of an extraterrestrial object on earth 65 million years ago. This time corresponds to the end of the cretaceous period. This impact could, therefore, be responsible for the observed extinction of biological species at the end of the Mesozoic era. Among the species becoming extinct are found also flying and walking dinosaurs, which include all land animals that had masses greater than 25 kg. The present investigation is concerned with a study of the possibilities for the collision of earth with 10 km-size object, and the consequences produced by such a collision. It is found that the penetration of the atmosphere by the bolide creates a temporary hole in the atmosphere. The resulting flow fields can inject melt droplets and finely commuted solid particles into the atmosphere. Short-term effects of heating, followed by dust induced worldwide cooling, may provide several mechanisms for the observed extinction of the species.

Laser cooling of solids

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Epstein, Richard I [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Sheik-bahae, Mansoor [UNM

2008-01-01

We present an overview of solid-state optical refrigeration also known as laser cooling in solids by fluorescence upconversion. The idea of cooling a solid-state optical material by simply shining a laser beam onto it may sound counter intuitive but is rapidly becoming a promising technology for future cryocooler. We chart the evolution of this science in rare-earth doped solids and semiconductors.

Chaos theory in geophysics: past, present and future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sivakumar, B.

2004-01-01

The past two decades of research on chaos theory in geophysics has brought about a significant shift in the way we view geophysical phenomena. Research on chaos theory in geophysics continues to grow at a much faster pace, with applications to a wide variety of geophysical phenomena and geophysical problems. In spite of our success in understanding geophysical phenomena also from a different (i.e. chaotic) perspective, there still seems to be lingering suspicions on the scope of chaos theory in geophysics. The goal of this paper is to present a comprehensive account of the achievements and status of chaos theory in geophysics, and to disseminate the hope and scope for the future. A systematic review of chaos theory in geophysics, covering a wide spectrum of geophysical phenomena studied (e.g. rainfall, river flow, sediment transport, temperature, pressure, tree ring series, etc.), is presented to narrate our past achievements not only in understanding and predicting geophysical phenomena but also in improving the chaos identification and prediction techniques. The present state of chaos research in geophysics (in terms of geophysical phenomena, problems, and chaos methods) and potential for future improvements (in terms of where, why and possibly how) are also highlighted. Our popular views of nature (i.e. stochastic and deterministic), and of geophysical phenomena in particular, are discussed, and the usefulness of chaos theory as a bridge between such views is also put forth

Radiophysical and geomagnetic effects of rocket burn and launch in the near-the-earth environment

CERN Document Server

Chernogor, Leonid F

2013-01-01

Radiophysical and Geomagnetic Effects of Rocket Burn and Launch in the Near-the-Earth Environment describes experimental and theoretical studies on the effects of rocket burns and launchings on the near-the-Earth environment and geomagnetic fields. It illuminates the main geophysical and radiophysical effects on the ionosphere and magnetosphere surrounding the Earth that accompany rocket or cosmic apparatus burns and launchings from 1,000 to 10,000 kilometers.The book analyzes the disturbances of plasma and the ambient magnetic and electric fields in the near-Earth environment from rocket burn

A tool for Exploring Geophysical Data: The VGEE-IDV

Science.gov (United States)

Pandya, R. E.; Murray, D.

2002-12-01

heart of the VGEE is the visualization environment. The visualization environment is a customized version of the Integrated Data Viewer, or IDV, a platform-independent software package being developed by Unidata for display and analysis of geophysical data. In addition to the learner-centered functionality mentioned above, this environment allows the ability to locate and analyze remote data sets, including both archived and real-time data. As such, the tool represents a road toward creating a "data web" where educational users can browse and use data in a seamless way. While our discussion of the VGEE will highlight its use in specific curricula; we will point towards the development of the next generation data web in the Digital Library for Earth Science Education (DLESE). Our discussion will also summarize the data gathered while using the VGEE in an entry-level geoscience laboratory course.

Noninvasive characterization of the Trecate (Italy) crude-oil contaminated site: links between contamination and geophysical signals.

Science.gov (United States)

Cassiani, Giorgio; Binley, Andrew; Kemna, Andreas; Wehrer, Markus; Orozco, Adrian Flores; Deiana, Rita; Boaga, Jacopo; Rossi, Matteo; Dietrich, Peter; Werban, Ulrike; Zschornack, Ludwig; Godio, Alberto; JafarGandomi, Arash; Deidda, Gian Piero

2014-01-01

The characterization of contaminated sites can benefit from the supplementation of direct investigations with a set of less invasive and more extensive measurements. A combination of geophysical methods and direct push techniques for contaminated land characterization has been proposed within the EU FP7 project ModelPROBE and the affiliated project SoilCAM. In this paper, we present results of the investigations conducted at the Trecate field site (NW Italy), which was affected in 1994 by crude oil contamination. The less invasive investigations include ground-penetrating radar (GPR), electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and electromagnetic induction (EMI) surveys, together with direct push sampling and soil electrical conductivity (EC) logs. Many of the geophysical measurements were conducted in time-lapse mode in order to separate static and dynamic signals, the latter being linked to strong seasonal changes in water table elevations. The main challenge was to extract significant geophysical signals linked to contamination from the mix of geological and hydrological signals present at the site. The most significant aspects of this characterization are: (a) the geometrical link between the distribution of contamination and the site's heterogeneity, with particular regard to the presence of less permeable layers, as evidenced by the extensive surface geophysical measurements; and (b) the link between contamination and specific geophysical signals, particularly evident from cross-hole measurements. The extensive work conducted at the Trecate site shows how a combination of direct (e.g., chemical) and indirect (e.g., geophysical) investigations can lead to a comprehensive and solid understanding of a contaminated site's mechanisms.

Global gravity and the geodynamic model of the Earth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nedoma, J.

1988-01-01

Plate tectonic hypotheses require the formation of a new oceanic lithosphere at mid-oceanic ridges and imply the further modification and continued evolution towards the continental type of lithosphere in the regions of island arcs and orogenic belts. All these phenomena observed on the Earths's surface are results of all geodynamic processes passing through the Earth's interior. Since geodynamic processes change through the geological epochs, the gravity field also changes during the same geological periods. Thus, the paper is concerned with physical relationships between the global gravity field and the geodynamic processes as well as all geophysical fields affected by the geodynamic processes inside the Earth. The aim of this paper is to analyse the inner and outer gravity field of the Earth during the evolution of the Earth in the course of the geological epochs, and to build the generalized theory of the global gravity field of the Earth from the point of view of the global and local geodynamic processes taking place within the Earth's interior. (author)

Annals of the International Geophysical Year solar radio emission during the International Geophysical Year

CERN Document Server

Smerd, S F

1969-01-01

Annals of the International Geophysical Year, Volume 34: Solar Radio Emission During the International Geophysical Year covers the significant solar radio emission events observed during the International Geophysical Year (IGY). This book is composed of six chapters, and begins with a summary of tabulated quantities describing solar radio emission during the IGY. The tabulated figures illustrate the method of recording the position of radio sources on the sun, the use of symbols in describing the structure of bursts observed at single frequencies, and the different types used in a spectral

ORBSIM- ESTIMATING GEOPHYSICAL MODEL PARAMETERS FROM PLANETARY GRAVITY DATA

Science.gov (United States)

Sjogren, W. L.

1994-01-01

The ORBSIM program was developed for the accurate extraction of geophysical model parameters from Doppler radio tracking data acquired from orbiting planetary spacecraft. The model of the proposed planetary structure is used in a numerical integration of the spacecraft along simulated trajectories around the primary body. Using line of sight (LOS) Doppler residuals, ORBSIM applies fast and efficient modelling and optimization procedures which avoid the traditional complex dynamic reduction of data. ORBSIM produces quantitative geophysical results such as size, depth, and mass. ORBSIM has been used extensively to investigate topographic features on the Moon, Mars, and Venus. The program has proven particulary suitable for modelling gravitational anomalies and mascons. The basic observable for spacecraft-based gravity data is the Doppler frequency shift of a transponded radio signal. The time derivative of this signal carries information regarding the gravity field acting on the spacecraft in the LOS direction (the LOS direction being the path between the spacecraft and the receiving station, either Earth or another satellite). There are many dynamic factors taken into account: earth rotation, solar radiation, acceleration from planetary bodies, tracking station time and location adjustments, etc. The actual trajectories of the spacecraft are simulated using least squares fitted to conic motion. The theoretical Doppler readings from the simulated orbits are compared to actual Doppler observations and another least squares adjustment is made. ORBSIM has three modes of operation: trajectory simulation, optimization, and gravity modelling. In all cases, an initial gravity model of curved and/or flat disks, harmonics, and/or a force table are required input. ORBSIM is written in FORTRAN 77 for batch execution and has been implemented on a DEC VAX 11/780 computer operating under VMS. This program was released in 1985.

Distribution of rare-earths in solid solution crandalita- goyazita of Sapucaia (Bonito-Para)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Costa, M.L. da; Melo Costa, W.A. de

1987-01-01

The Crandallite are predominant in the lateritic phosphates of Sapucaia, in the form of the solid solution Crandallite (Cn)- Goyazite (Gz)-Florencite (Fl). The Crandallite-Goyazite is predominant, where the maximum proportion of Florencite is Cn 60 Cz 34.8 Fl 5.2 - This proportion of Florencite is relatively high for laterites, and for this case having up to 1,374% weight of TR 2 O 3 in the total sample. The light rare elements are predominant over the heavy ores, and are illustrated in the distribution curve normalized for the chondrites. This curve is partially comparable with the curve for Apatite presents slight negative anomaly for the element Europium, and slight positive anomaly for The elements Thulium. The geochemical caracteristics for the rare earths in this group allow the prediction for the original rock for the laterites. (author) [pt

Rare earth germanates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bondar', I.A.; Vinogradova, N.V.; Dem'yanets, L.N.

1983-01-01

From the viewpoint of structural chemistry and general regularities controlling formation reactions of compounds and phases in melts, solid and gaseous states, recent achievements in the chemistry of rare earth germanates are generalized. Methods of synthesizing germanates, systems on the base of germanium oxides and rare earths are considered. The data on crystallochemical characteristics are tabulated. Individual compounds of scandium germanate are also characterized. Processes of germanate formation using the data of IR-spectroscopy, X-ray phase analysis are studied. The structure and morphotropic series of rare earth germanates and silicates are determined. Fields of their present and possible future application are considered

Methodology of Detailed Geophysical Examination of the Areas of World Recognized Religious and Cultural Artifacts

Science.gov (United States)

Eppelbaum, Lev

2010-05-01

It is obvious that noninvasive geophysical methods are the main interpreting tools at the areas of world recognized religious and cultural artifacts. Usually in these areas any excavations, drilling and infrastructure activity are forbidden or very strongly limited. According to field experience and results of numerous modeling (Eppelbaum, 1999, 2000, 2009a, 2009b; Eppelbaum and Itkis, 2001, 2003; Eppelbaum et al., 2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2003a, 2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2010, Itkis et al., 2003; Neishtadt et al., 2006), a set of applied geophysical methods may include the following types of surveys: (1) magnetic, (3) GPR (ground penetration radar), (3) gravity, (4) electromagnetic VLF (very low frequency), (5) ER (electric resistivity), (6) SP (self-potential), (7) IP (induced polarization), (8) SE (seismoelectric), and (9) NST (near-surface temperature). As it was shown in (Eppelbaum, 2005), interpretation ambiguity may be sufficiently reduced not only by integrated analysis of several geophysical methods, but also by the way of multilevel observations of geophysical fields. Magnetic, gravity and VLF measurements may be performed at different levels over the earth's surface (0.1 - 3 m), ER, SP and SE observations may be obtained with different depth of electrodes grounding (0.1 - 1 m), and NST sensor may be located at a depth of 0.8 - 2.5 m. GPR method usually allows measuring electromagnetic fields at various frequencies (with corresponding changing of the investigation depth and other parameters). Influence of some typical noise factors to geophysical investigations at archaeological sites was investigated in (Eppelbaum and Khesin, 2001). In many cases various constructions and walls are in the nearest vicinity of the examined artifacts. These constructions can be also utilized for carrying out geophysical measurements (magnetic, gravity and VLF) at different levels. Application of the modern ROV (remote operated vehicles) with registration of magnetic and VLF fields at

Geophysical images of basement rocks. Geophysical images in the Guianese basement. Airborne geophysical campaign in French Guiana - 1996

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delor, C.; Perrin, J.; Truffert, C.; Asfirane, F.; Rossi, Ph.; Bonjoly, D.; Dubreuihl, J.; Chardon, D.

1998-01-01

The French Office for Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) has carried out a high sensitivity airborne geophysical survey of northern French Guiana during the second half of 1996. The aim was to realize a high resolution magnetic and gamma spectrometric mapping for future prospecting, land use and environment management. This paper describes in details the geophysical campaign, the material used, the navigation techniques, the processing of magnetic data, the gamma radiation sources used, the spectrometric calibrations and the geologic interpretation of the results. (J.S.)

How Collecting and Freely Sharing Geophysical Data Broadly Benefits Society

Science.gov (United States)

Frassetto, A.; Woodward, R.; Detrick, R. S.

2017-12-01

Valuable but often unintended observations of environmental and human-related processes have resulted from open sharing of multidisciplinary geophysical observations collected over the past 33 years. These data, intended to fuel fundamental academic research, are part of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and has provided a community science facility supporting earthquake science and related disciplines since 1984. These community facilities have included arrays of geophysical instruments operated for EarthScope, an NSF-sponsored science initiative designed to understand the architecture and evolution of the North American continent, as well as the Global Seismographic Network, Greenland Ice Sheet Monitoring Network, a repository of data collected around the world, and other community assets. All data resulting from this facility have been made openly available to support researchers across any field of study and this has expanded the impact of these data beyond disciplinary boundaries. This presentation highlights vivid examples of how basic research activities using open data, collected as part of a community facility, can inform our understanding of manmade earthquakes, geomagnetic hazards, climate change, and illicit testing of nuclear weapons.

Introduction to the JEEG Agricultural Geophysics Special Issue

Science.gov (United States)

Allred, Barry J.; Smith, Bruce D.

2010-01-01

Near-surface geophysical methods have become increasingly important tools in applied agricultural practices and studies. The great advantage of geophysical methods is their potential rapidity, low cost, and spatial continuity when compared to more traditional methods of assessing agricultural land, such as sample collection and laboratory analysis. Agricultural geophysics investigations commonly focus on obtaining information within the soil profile, which generally does not extend much beyond 2 meters beneath the ground surface. Although the depth of interest oftentimes is rather shallow, the area covered by an agricultural geophysics survey can vary widely in scale, from experimental plots (10 s to 100 s of square meters), to farm fields (10 s to 100 s of hectares), up to the size of watersheds (10 s to 100 s of square kilometers). To date, three predominant methods—resistivity, electromagnetic induction (EMI), and ground-penetrating radar (GPR)—have been used to obtain surface-based geophysical measurements within agricultural settings. However, a recent conference on agricultural geophysics (Bouyoucos Conference on Agricultural Geophysics, September 8–10, 2009, Albuquerque, New Mexico; www.ag-geophysics.org) illustrated that other geophysical methods are being applied or developed. These include airborne electromagnetic induction, magnetometry, seismic, and self-potential methods. Agricultural geophysical studies are also being linked to ground water studies that utilize deeper penetrating geophysical methods than normally used.

High-Precision and Low Latency RT-GNSS Processed Data for Diverse Geophysical and Natural Hazard Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Mencin, David; Hodgkinson, Kathleen; Sievers, Charlie; David, Phillips; Charles, Meertens; Glen, Mattioli

2017-04-01

UNAVCO has been providing infrastructure and support for solid-earth sciences and earthquake natural hazards for the past two decades. Recent advances in GNSS technology and data processing are now providing position solutions with centimeter-level precision at high-rate (>1 Hz) and low latency (i.e. the time required for data to arrive for analysis, in this case less than 1 second). These data have the potential to improve our understanding in diverse areas of geophysics including properties of seismic, volcanic, magmatic and tsunami sources, and thus profoundly transform rapid event characterization and warning. Scientific and operational applications also include glacier and ice sheet motions; tropospheric modeling; and space weather. These areas of geophysics represent a spectrum of research fields, including geodesy, seismology, tropospheric weather, space weather and natural hazards. Processed Real-Time GNSS (RT-GNSS) data will require formats and standards that allow this broad and diverse community to use these data and associated meta-data in existing research infrastructure. These advances have critically highlighted the difficulties associated with merging data and metadata between scientific disciplines. Even seemingly very closely related fields such as geodesy and seismology, which both have rich histories of handling large volumes of data and metadata, do not go together well in any automated way. Community analysis strategies, or lack thereof, such as treatment of error prove difficult to address and are reflected in the data and metadata. In addition, these communities have differing security, accessibility and reliability requirements. We propose some solutions to the particular problem of making RT-GNSS processed solution data and metadata accessible to multiply scientific and natural hazard communities. Importantly, we discuss the roadblocks encounter and solved and those that remain to be addressed.

Geophysical Institute. Biennial report, 1993-1994

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-01-01

The 1993-1994 Geophysical Institute Biennial Report was published in November 1995 by the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It contains an overview of the Geophysical Institute, the Director`s Note, and research presentations concerning the following subjects: Scientific Predictions, Space Physics, Atmospheric Sciences, Snow, Ice and Permafrost, Tectonics and Sedimentation, Seismology, Volcanology, Remote Sensing, and other projects.

Origin of the earth and moon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ringwood, A.E.

1981-01-01

The composition of the Earth's interior and its bearing on the Earth's origin are discussed. It seems likely that the terrestrial planets formed by the accretion of solid planetisimals from the nebula of dust and gas left behind during the formation of the Sun. The scenario proposed is simpler than others. New evidence based upon a comparison of siderophile element abundances in the Earth's mantle and in the Moon imply that the Moon was derived from the Earth's mantle after the Earth's core had segregated

How new developments in the use of geophysical data have changed the exploration landscape

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weir, R.M.

1999-01-01

The use of remote sensing and geophysical data by the petroleum and natural gas industry to reduce the risk related to exploration was discussed. Seismic data is used to map the subsurface of the earth. The types of geophysical data currently available include seismic reflection data, magnetic surveys, resistivity/IP surveys, gravity, ground penetrating radar, magnetotelluric and satellite imaging. This paper focused mainly on seismic reflection data because it is more commonly available than all other types of data combined. Seismic data consists of three components - field tapes, the survey data, and the observer notes, which are used by the geophysicist for interpretation. The four general categories of seismic data are: (1) two dimensional, (2) swath data, (3) three dimensional, and (4) vertical seismic profile. This paper reviewed the use of well log data, data storage, pitfalls in agreements, and present and future technology developments. 6 figs

A virtual radiation belt observatory: Looking forward to the electronic geophysical year

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, D. N.; Green, J. C.; Kroehl, H. W.; Kihn, E.; Virbo Team

During the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958), member countries established many new capabilities pursuing the major IGY objectives of collecting geophysical data as widely as possible and providing free access to these data for all scientists around the globe. A key achievement of the IGY was the establishment of a worldwide system of data centers and physical observatories. The worldwide scientific community has now endorsed and is promoting an electronic Geophysical Year (eGY) initiative. The proposed eGY concept would both commemorate the 50th anniversary of the IGY in 2007-2008 and would provide a forward impetus to geophysics in the 21st century, similar to that provide by the IGY fifty years ago. The eGY concept advocates the establishment of a series of virtual geophysical observatories now being deployed in cyberspace. We are developing the concept of a Virtual Radiation Belt Observatory (ViRBO) that will bring together near-earth particle and field measurements acquired by NASA, NOAA, DoD, DOE, and other spacecraft. We discuss plans to aggregate these measurements into a readily accessible database along with analysis, visualization, and display tools that will make radiation belt information available and useful both to the scientific community and to the user community. We envision that data from the various agencies along with models being developed under the auspices of the National Science Foundation Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) will help us to provide an excellent `climatology' of the radiation belts over the past several decades. In particular, we would plan to use these data to drive physical models of the radiation belts to form a gridded database which would characterize particle and field properties on solar-cycle (11-year) time scales. ViRBO will also provide up-to-date specification of conditions for event analysis and anomaly resolution. We are even examining the possibilities for near-realtime acquisition of

New initiative in studies of Earth's deep interior

Science.gov (United States)

Lay, Thorne

A multidisciplinary U.S. research community is undertaking a new coordinated effort to study the state and dynamics of the Earth's deep mantle and core. At an open meeting held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, from September 11 to 12, 1992, over 120 Earth scientists gathered to discuss this new program, which is an outgrowth of activity during the previous year by an ad hoc steering committee. The research program will be coordinated by a community-based scientific organization and supported through competitive research proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation with the aim of facilitating cooperative research projects cutting across traditional disciplinary and institutional boundaries.The new organization is the U.S. Studies of the Earth's Deep Interior (SEDI) Coordinating Committee. This committee will facilitate communication among the U.S. SEDI research community, federal funding agencies, the AGU Committee for Studies of the Earth's Interior (SEI), the Union SEDI Committee of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, and the general public (Figure 1).

Farewell

Science.gov (United States)

Hinze, William J.

1997-01-01

I am pleased to welcome Paul M. Davis, Professor of Geophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles, as the new Senior Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth for a 4-year term commencing January 1,1997. Dr. Davis is a world renowned seismologist who brings a broad geophysical background to his new duties. I am especially pleased because I am convinced that he is dedicated to improving the quality and readability of our journal and in maximizing its service to the geophysical research community. My 5 years at the helm of JGR-Solid Earth have been much more enjoyable and rewarding than I anticipated. The task has been eased by an extremely competent, dedicated, and forgiving office staff, Deborah Gray, Melanie King, and Lois Gast; by an encouraging group of colleagues and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University; by cooperative co workers in the AGU office; and by a superb cadre of referees and Associate Editors. The Associate Editors have done an outstanding job of maintaining the quality of our journal. The tasks they perform are time-consuming and thus have taken valuable professional time that could have been spent on more professionally visible activities. I thank all those who served, but I especially want to recognize the following geophysicists who have acted as Associate Editors in 1996. I thank them for the time devoted to the journal and for the uniformly high quality of editing.

Predictive geophysics: geochemical simulations to geophysical targets

Science.gov (United States)

Chopping, R. G.; Cleverley, J.

2017-12-01

With an increasing focus on deep exploration for covered targets, new methods are required to target mineral systems under cover. Geophysical responses are driven by physical property contrasts; for example, density contrasts provide a gravity signal, acoustic impedance contrasts provide a seismic reflection signal. In turn, the physical properties for basement, crystalline rocks which host the vast majority of mineral systems are determined almost wholly by the mineralogy of the rocks in question. Mineral systems, through the transport of heat and reactive fluids, will serve to modify the physical properties of country rock as they chemically alter the hosting strata. To understand these changes, we have performed 2D reactive transport modelling that simulates the formation of Archean gold deposits of the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia. From this, we derive a model of mineralogy that we can use to predict the density, magnetic susceptibility and seismic reflection changes associated with ore formation. It is then possible to predict the gravity, magnetic and seismic reflection responses associated with these deposits. Scenario mapping, such as testing the ability to resolve buried ore bodies or the geophysical survey spacing required to resolve the mineral system, can be performed to produce geophysical targets from these geochemical simulations. We find that there is a gravity response of around 9% of the unaltered response for deposits even buried by 1km of cover, and there is a magnetic spike associated with proximal alteration of the ore system. Finally, seismic reflection response is mostly characterised by additional reflections along faults that plumb the alteration system.

A review of nuclear geophysics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clayton, C.G.; Schweitzer, J.S.

1992-01-01

This paper summarizes the development of nuclear geophysics in scientific and technological content and in range from its beginnings early in this century to the present day. We note that the early work in nuclear geophysics was originally referred to under the umbrella of open-quotes isotope applicationsclose quotes and the origin of the term open-quotes nuclear geophysicsclose quotes (which is seen to clarify and to focus work in this area) is exposed in this paper. The current expansion of nuclear geophysics front its original concern with oil well logging is an important trend because much of the underlying science, technology, and instrumentation is common ground. A review of nuclear geophysics would be a barren document without reference to long-term and, in some cases, short-term commercial and economic as well as to technological considerations, since these factors are the principal motivation for further development

Dynamic Processes of Cross-Tail Current in the Near-Earth Magnetotail

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xing-Qiang, Lu; Zhi-Wei, Ma

2009-01-01

Current dynamic processes in realistic magnetotail geometry are studied by Hall magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations under various driven conditions and Hall effects. Associated with the external driving force, a thin current sheet with a broad extent is built up in the near-Earth magnetotail. The time evolution for the formation of the current sheet comprises two phases: slow growth and a fast impulsive phase before the near-Earth disruption of the current sheet resulting from the fast magnetic reconnection. The simulation results indicate that as the external driving force increases, the site and the tailward speed of the near-Earth current disruption region are closer to the Earth and faster, respectively. Whether the near-Earth disruption of the current sheet takes place or not is mainly controlled by Hall effects. It is found that there is no sudden disruption of the current sheet in the near-Earth region if the ion inertial length is below d i = 0.04. (geophysics, astronomy, and astrophysics)

Four are named Editors of Earth Interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Eric J. Barron of the Earth System Science Center at The Pennsylvania State University has been named chief editor of the new electronic journal, Earth Interactions. This journal will be co-published by AGU, the American Meteorological Society, and the Association of American Geographers. The three societies jointly agreed on the appointment of Barron. Each of the societies also appointed an editor to the board. George F. Hepner for AAG is from the Department of Geography at the University of Utah, David T. Sandwell for AGU is at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Kevin E. Trenberth for AMS is at the Climate and Global Dynamics Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Recycling of rare earths from Hg-containing fluorescent lamp scraps by solid state chlorination; Rueckgewinnung Seltener Erden aus quecksilberbelasteten Leuchtstoffen mittels Feststoffchlorierung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lorenz, Tom; Froehlich, Peter; Bertau, Martin [TU Bergakademie Freiberg (Germany); Golon, Katja [FNE Entsorgungsdienste GmbH, Freiberg (Germany)

2015-10-15

Solid state chlorination with NH{sub 4}Cl comprises a method for rare earth recycling apart from pyro- or hydrometallurgical strategies. The examined partially Hg-containing fluorescent lamp scraps are rich in rare earths like La, Ce, Tb and Gd, but especially in Y and Eu. By mixing with NH{sub 4}Cl and heating up to NH{sub 4}Cl decomposition temperature in a sublimation reactor, Y and Eu could be transferred selectively into their respective metal chlorides with high yields. The yield and selectivity depend on temperature and the ratio of NH{sub 4}Cl to fluorescent lamp scraps, which were varied systematically.

Earth rotation excitation mechanisms derived from geodetic space observations

Science.gov (United States)

Göttl, F.; Schmidt, M.

2009-04-01

Earth rotation variations are caused by mass displacements and motions in the subsystems of the Earth. Via the satellite Gravity and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity field variations can be identified which are caused by mass redistribution in the Earth system. Therefore time variable gravity field models (GFZ RL04, CSR RL04, JPL RL04, ITG-Grace03, GRGS, ...) can be used to derive different impacts on Earth rotation. Furthermore satellite altimetry provides accurate information on sea level anomalies (AVISO, DGFI) which are caused by mass and volume changes of seawater. Since Earth rotation is solely affected by mass variations and motions the volume (steric) effect has to be reduced from the altimetric observations in order to infer oceanic contributions to Earth rotation variations. Therefore the steric effect is estimated from physical ocean parameters such as temperature and salinity changes in the oceans (WOA05, Ishii). In this study specific individual geophysical contributions to Earth rotation variations are identified by means of a multitude of accurate geodetic space observations in combination with a realistic error propagation. It will be shown that due to adjustment of altimetric and/or gravimetric solutions the results for polar motion excitations can be improved.

The application of Legacy Cycles in the development of Earth Science curriculum

Science.gov (United States)

Ellins, K.; Abernathy, E.; Negrito, K.; McCall, L.

2009-04-01

The Institute for Geophysics in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin actively contributes to K-12 education, including the development of rigorous Earth and Space Science curriculum designed for secondary school learning environments. Here we report on our efforts to apply an innovative new pedagogical approach, the Legacy Cycle, to scientific ocean drilling paleoclimate data from fossil corals collected offshore Barbados in 2006 and to the creation of a high school water resources education program for Texas high school students supported by a grant from the Texas Water Development Board. The Legacy Cycle makes use of the Internet and computer technology to engage students in extended inquiry learning. A series of inquiry activities are organized around a set of three driving questions, or challenges. Students mimic the work of scientists by generating ideas to address a given challenge, listening to multiple perspectives from experts on the topic, researching a set of sub-questions and revising their original ideas, testing their mettle with labs and quizzes, and finally composing a project or paper that answers the original challenge. The technology makes it easy for students to move through the challenges and the organizational framework since there are hyperlinks to each of the sections (and to reach the other challenges) at the bottom of each webpage. Students' final work is posted to the Internet for others to see, and in this way they leave behind their legacy. Our Legacy Cycle activities use authentic hydrologic, water quality, geochemical, geophysical data, as well as remotely sensed data such as is collected by satellites. They are aligned with the U.S. National Science Education Standards, the new Ocean, Climate and Earth Science Literacy Principles (in development), and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Earth and Space Science. The work represents a collaboration involving teachers from The University of

Rapid estimation of aquifer salinity structure from oil and gas geophysical logs

Science.gov (United States)

Shimabukuro, D.; Stephens, M.; Ducart, A.; Skinner, S. M.

2016-12-01

We describe a workflow for creating aquifer salinity maps using Archie's equation for areas that have geophysical data from oil and gas wells. We apply this method in California, where geophysical logs are available in raster format from the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resource (DOGGR) online archive. This method should be applicable to any region where geophysical logs are readily available. Much of the work is controlled by computer code, allowing salinity estimates for new areas to be rapidly generated. For a region of interest, the DOGGR online database is scraped for wells that were logged with multi-tool suites, such as the Platform Express or Triple Combination Logging Tools. Then, well construction metadata, such as measured depth, spud date, and well orientation, is attached. The resultant local database allows a weighted criteria selection of wells that are most likely to have the shallow resistivity, deep resistivity, and density porosity measurements necessary to calculate salinity over the longest depth interval. The algorithm can be adjusted for geophysical log availability for older well fields and density of sampling. Once priority wells are identified, a student researcher team uses Neuralog software to digitize the raster geophysical logs. Total dissolved solid (TDS) concentration is then calculated in clean, wet sand intervals using the resistivity-porosity method, a modified form of Archie's equation. These sand intervals are automatically selected using a combination of spontaneous potential and the difference in shallow resistivity and deep resistivity measurements. Gamma ray logs are not used because arkosic sands common in California make it difficult to distinguish sand and shale. Computer calculation allows easy adjustment of Archie's parameters. The result is a semi-continuous TDS profile for the wells of interest. These profiles are combined and contoured using standard 3-d visualization software to yield preliminary salinity

The examination of the spread of the leachates coming out of a solid waste disposal area on the ground with geophysical and geochemical methods (Sivas, Turkey)

Science.gov (United States)

Özel, Sevda; Yılmaz, Ali; Emin Candansayar, M.

2017-03-01

This study has been conducted in the irregular solid waste disposal area in the city of Sivas. The pollution spread formed by the leachates coming out of the disposal area has been examined with geophysical and geochemical works in this study. For this reason, the spread of the leachate pollution expanding in different geological units at both sides of a creek on the ground has been examined. For this purpose, the pollution spread has been examined with the methods of Direct Current Resistivity (DCR) and Electromagnetic Conductivity (EMC) and soil analyses. In the DCR method, 2D inversion of each sounding-profile datum measured alongside the lines parallel to each other and 3D inversion of the data measured in all the lines have been used in the interpretations. Apparent conductivity map has been attained from EMC measurements. The results of heavy metal analyses in the soil samples taken alongside the Haçin Creek have been assessed with the Spider diagram method. It has been determined that the flow of the leachate from geophysical models is in a SE direction and towards Kızılırmak and it continues vertically deeper than 4 m. In addition, it has been understood that the flow direction of the leachate is inspected by the geological structures. It has been understood from the geochemical results that the pollution in the soil stems from the leachate. In this way, it has been observed that the underground and surface water resources in the territory are under the threat of the pollution occurring due to the leachate.

Integrated geophysical and geological methods to investigate the inner and outer structures of the Quaternary Mýtina maar (W-Bohemia, Czech Republic)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Flechsig, C.; Heinicke, J.; Mrlina, Jan; Kämpf, H.; Nickschick, T.; Schmidt, A.; Bayer, Tomáš; Günther, T.; Rücker, C.; Seidel, E.; Seidl, Michal

2015-01-01

Roč. 104, č. 8 (2015), s. 2087-2105 ISSN 1437-3254 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LM2010008 Institutional support: RVO:67985530 Keywords : Eger Rift * Quaternary maar volcanism * Mýtina maar * geophysical and geological survey Subject RIV: DC - Siesmology, Volcanology, Earth Structure Impact factor: 2.133, year: 2015

How Inge Lehmann Discovered the Inner Core of the Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Rousseau, Christiane

2013-01-01

The mathematics behind Inge Lehmann's discovery that the inner core of the Earth is solid is explained using data collected around the Earth on seismic waves and their travel time through the Earth.

Geodesy by radio interferometry - Determinations of baseline vector, earth rotation, and solid earth tide parameters with the Mark I very long baseline radio interferometery system

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, J. W.; Clark, T. A.; Coates, R. J.; Ma, C.; Wildes, W. T.

1986-01-01

Thirty-seven very long baseline radio interferometry experiments performed between 1972 and 1978 are analyzed and estimates of baseline vectors between six sites, five in the continental United States and one in Europe are derived. No evidence of significant changes in baseline length is found. For example, with a statistical level of confidence of approximately 85 percent, upper bounds on such changes within the United States ranged from a low of 10 mm/yr for the 850 km baseline between Westford, Massachusetts, and Green Bank, West Virginia, to a high of 90 mm/yr for the nearly 4000 km baseline between Westford and Goldstone, California. Estimates for universal time and for the x component of the position of the earth's pole are obtained. For the last 15 experiments, the only ones employing wideband receivers, the root-mean-square differences between the derived values and the corresponding ones published by the Bureau International de l'Heure are 0.0012 s and 0.018 arc sec respectively. The average value obtained for the radial Love number for the solid earth is 0.62 + or - 0.02 (estimated standard error).

A fractured rock geophysical toolbox method selection tool

Science.gov (United States)

Day-Lewis, F. D.; Johnson, C.D.; Slater, L.D.; Robinson, J.L.; Williams, J.H.; Boyden, C.L.; Werkema, D.D.; Lane, J.W.

2016-01-01

Geophysical technologies have the potential to improve site characterization and monitoring in fractured rock, but the appropriate and effective application of geophysics at a particular site strongly depends on project goals (e.g., identifying discrete fractures) and site characteristics (e.g., lithology). No method works at every site or for every goal. New approaches are needed to identify a set of geophysical methods appropriate to specific project goals and site conditions while considering budget constraints. To this end, we present the Excel-based Fractured-Rock Geophysical Toolbox Method Selection Tool (FRGT-MST). We envision the FRGT-MST (1) equipping remediation professionals with a tool to understand what is likely to be realistic and cost-effective when contracting geophysical services, and (2) reducing applications of geophysics with unrealistic objectives or where methods are likely to fail.

Informing groundwater models with near-surface geophysical data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Herckenrath, Daan

Over the past decade geophysical methods have gained an increased popularity due to their ability to map hydrologic properties. Such data sets can provide valuable information to improve hydrologic models. Instead of using the measured geophysical and hydrologic data simultaneously in one inversion...... approach, many of the previous studies apply a Sequential Hydrogeophysical Inversion (SHI) in which inverted geophysical models provide information for hydrologic models. In order to fully exploit the information contained in geophysical datasets for hydrological purposes, a coupled hydrogeophysical...... inversion was introduced (CHI), in which a hydrologic model is part of the geophysical inversion. Current CHI-research has been focussing on the translation of simulated state variables of hydrologic models to geophysical model parameters. We refer to this methodology as CHI-S (State). In this thesis a new...

Geomatic Methods for the Analysis of Data in the Earth Sciences: Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences, Vol. 95

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlis, Nikolaos K.

Geomatics is a trendy term that has been used in recent years to describe academic departments that teach and research theories, methods, algorithms, and practices used in processing and analyzing data related to the Earth and other planets. Naming trends aside, geomatics could be considered as the mathematical and statistical “toolbox” that allows Earth scientists to extract information about physically relevant parameters from the available data and accompany such information with some measure of its reliability. This book is an attempt to present the mathematical-statistical methods used in data analysis within various disciplines—geodesy, geophysics, photogrammetry and remote sensing—from a unifying perspective that inverse problem formalism permits. At the same time, it allows us to stretch the relevance of statistical methods in achieving an optimal solution.

Earth Sciences Division Research Summaries 2002-2003

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bodvarsson, G.S.

2003-01-01

Research in earth and atmospheric sciences is becoming increasingly important in light of the energy, climate change, and environmental issues facing the United States and the world. The development of new energy resources other than hydrocarbons and the safe disposal of nuclear waste and greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) are critical to the future energy needs and environmental safety of this planet. In addition, the cleanup of many contaminated sites in the U.S., along with the preservation and management of our water supply, remain key challenges for us as well as future generations. Addressing these energy, climate change, and environmental issues requires the timely integration of earth sciences' disciplines (such as geology, hydrology, oceanography, climatology, geophysics, geochemistry, geomechanics, ecology, and environmental sciences). This integration will involve focusing on fundamental crosscutting concerns that are common to many of these issues. A primary focus will be the characterization, imaging, and manipulation of fluids in the earth. Such capabilities are critical to many DOE applications, from environmental restoration to energy extraction and optimization. The Earth Sciences Division (ESD) of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is currently addressing many of the key technical issues described above. In this document, we present summaries of many of our current research projects. While it is not a complete accounting, it is representative of the nature and breadth of our research effort. We are proud of our scientific efforts, and we hope that you will find our research useful and exciting. Any comments on our research are appreciated and can be sent to me personally. This report is divided into five sections that correspond to the major research programs in the Earth Sciences Division: (1) Fundamental and Exploratory Research; (2) Nuclear Waste; (3) Energy Resources; (4) Environmental

Earth Sciences Division Research Summaries 2002-2003

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bodvarsson, G.S.

2003-11-01

Research in earth and atmospheric sciences is becoming increasingly important in light of the energy, climate change, and environmental issues facing the United States and the world. The development of new energy resources other than hydrocarbons and the safe disposal of nuclear waste and greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) are critical to the future energy needs and environmental safety of this planet. In addition, the cleanup of many contaminated sites in the U.S., along with the preservation and management of our water supply, remain key challenges for us as well as future generations. Addressing these energy, climate change, and environmental issues requires the timely integration of earth sciences' disciplines (such as geology, hydrology, oceanography, climatology, geophysics, geochemistry, geomechanics, ecology, and environmental sciences). This integration will involve focusing on fundamental crosscutting concerns that are common to many of these issues. A primary focus will be the characterization, imaging, and manipulation of fluids in the earth. Such capabilities are critical to many DOE applications, from environmental restoration to energy extraction and optimization. The Earth Sciences Division (ESD) of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is currently addressing many of the key technical issues described above. In this document, we present summaries of many of our current research projects. While it is not a complete accounting, it is representative of the nature and breadth of our research effort. We are proud of our scientific efforts, and we hope that you will find our research useful and exciting. Any comments on our research are appreciated and can be sent to me personally. This report is divided into five sections that correspond to the major research programs in the Earth Sciences Division: (1) Fundamental and Exploratory Research; (2) Nuclear Waste; (3) Energy Resources; (4

Infrasound as a Geophysical Probe Using Earth as a Venus Analog

Science.gov (United States)

Komjathy, A.; Cutts, J. A.; Pauken, M.; Kedar, S.; Smrekar, S. E.; Hall, J. R.

2016-12-01

JPL is in a process of developing an instrument to measure seismic activity on Venus by detecting infrasonic waves in the atmosphere. The overall objective of this research is to demonstrate the feasibility of using sensitive barometers to detect infrasonic signals from seismic and explosive activity on Venus from a balloon platform. Because of Venus' dense atmosphere, seismic signatures from even small quakes (magnitude 3) are effectively coupled into the atmosphere. The seismic signals are known to couple about 60 times more efficiently into the atmosphere on Venus than on Earth. It was found that almost no attenuation below 80 km on Venus for frequency less than 1Hz. Whereas wind noise is a major source of background noise for terrestrial infrasonic arrays, it is expected that a balloon platform, which drifts with winds will be capable of very sensitive measurements with low noise. In our research we will demonstrate and apply techniques for discriminating upward propagating waves from a seismic event by making measurements with two or more infrasonic sensors using very sensitive barometers on a tether deployed from the balloon in a series of earth-based tests. We will first demonstrate and validate the technique using an artificial infrasound source in a deployment from a hot air balloon on Earth and then extend it with longer duration flights in the troposphere and stratosphere. We will report results on the first flight experiment that will focus on using the barometer instruments on a tethered helium-filled balloon. The balloon flight will be conducted in the vicinity of a known seismic source generated by a seismic hammer. Earlier tests conducted by Sandia National Laboratory demonstrated that this is a highly reproducible source of seismic and acoustic energy using infrasound sensors. The results of the experiments are intended to validate the two-barometer signal processing approach using a well-characterized point signal source.

Saint-Petersburg Department of Euro-Asian Geophysical Society (SPD EAGS) and it role in XXI century personnel forming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kal'varskaya, V.P.

2001-01-01

In the paper is pointed to that in the XXI century the geophysics for the most part has being the information basis in the geologic study of the Earth's interior. The status, development and practical realization of this basis depends on personnel - the specialists of a new type. It is necessary a creation and introducing of constantly acting system of quality for young geologic and geophysical scientists and specialists training on the the base of up-to-date achievement of science and technologies formation of their ideology on the ground of philosophic understanding and spirit values. In the capacity of control-marking factor in the framework of the system the most effective are conferences-competition of young specialists: geologists-geophysicists, geo-chemists and other specialists of geologic profile

Correlations between the geomagnetic field variations, the fluctuations of the earth`s rotation and climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Greiner-Mai, H; Jochmann, H

1995-03-01

The amplitude spectra of global geophysical phenomena were investigated to motivate research of physical connections between them. The suggested causality was derived from comparison of the spectra, and from cross correlation functions. The following global parameters were discussed: For the earth rotation by the variations of the length of day, for the geomagnetic variation by the global field intensity, changes of the dipole axis and the westward drift, and for climate change by the atmospheric excitation function derived from air pressure variations, and temperature variations. The model of atmospheric excitation, which can be proved most exactly for the annual variations of length of day, is responsible for the 11 and 22 years periods, too. It failed for longer periods, e.g. partially for the 30 years periods and completely for the 60 to 80 years periods, which were also discovered in the mean temperature and geomagnetic field variations. Therefore, it was suggested that longer periods in climate change and in the variations of the earth`s rotation are caused independently by the same process in the earth core, provided that a physical influence of the geomagnetic field on climate will be accepted in future. The investigation was completed by comparison with the spectra of some local temperature variations in Europe. (orig.)

Dynamics of the earth's radiation belts and inner magnetosphere (geophysical monograph series)

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

Dynamics of the Earth's Radiation Belts and Inner Magnetosphere draws together current knowledge of the radiation belts prior to the launch of Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RPSP) and other imminent space missions, making this volume timely and unique. The volume will serve as a useful benchmark at this exciting and pivotal period in radiation belt research in advance of the new discoveries that the RPSP mission will surely bring. Highlights include the following: a review of the current state of the art of radiation belt science; a complete and up-to-date account of the wave-particle interactions that control the dynamical acceleration and loss processes of particles in the Earth's radiation belts and inner magnetosphere; a discussion emphasizing the importance of the cross-energy coupling of the particle populations of the radiation belts, ring current, and plasmasphere in controlling the dynamics of the inner magnetosphe...

Diffusion in Solids Fundamentals, Methods, Materials, Diffusion-Controlled Processes

CERN Document Server

Mehrer, Helmut

2007-01-01

Diffusion is a vital topic in solid-state physics and chemistry, physical metallurgy and materials science. Diffusion processes are ubiquitous in solids at elevated temperatures. A thorough understanding of diffusion in materials is crucial for materials development and engineering. This book first gives an account of the central aspects of diffusion in solids, for which the necessary background is a course in solid state physics. It then provides easy access to important information about diffuson in metals, alloys, semiconductors, ion-conducting materials, glasses and nanomaterials. Several diffusion-controlled phenomena, including ionic conduction, grain-boundary and dislocation pipe diffusion, are considered as well. Graduate students in solid-state physics, physical metallurgy, materials science, physical and inorganic chemistry or geophysics will benefit from this book as will physicists, chemists, metallurgists, materials engineers in academic and industrial research laboratories.

Methodological Developments in Geophysical Assimilation Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Christakos, George

2005-06-01

This work presents recent methodological developments in geophysical assimilation research. We revisit the meaning of the term "solution" of a mathematical model representing a geophysical system, and we examine its operational formulations. We argue that an assimilation solution based on epistemic cognition (which assumes that the model describes incomplete knowledge about nature and focuses on conceptual mechanisms of scientific thinking) could lead to more realistic representations of the geophysical situation than a conventional ontologic assimilation solution (which assumes that the model describes nature as is and focuses on form manipulations). Conceptually, the two approaches are fundamentally different. Unlike the reasoning structure of conventional assimilation modeling that is based mainly on ad hoc technical schemes, the epistemic cognition approach is based on teleologic criteria and stochastic adaptation principles. In this way some key ideas are introduced that could open new areas of geophysical assimilation to detailed understanding in an integrated manner. A knowledge synthesis framework can provide the rational means for assimilating a variety of knowledge bases (general and site specific) that are relevant to the geophysical system of interest. Epistemic cognition-based assimilation techniques can produce a realistic representation of the geophysical system, provide a rigorous assessment of the uncertainty sources, and generate informative predictions across space-time. The mathematics of epistemic assimilation involves a powerful and versatile spatiotemporal random field theory that imposes no restriction on the shape of the probability distributions or the form of the predictors (non-Gaussian distributions, multiple-point statistics, and nonlinear models are automatically incorporated) and accounts rigorously for the uncertainty features of the geophysical system. In the epistemic cognition context the assimilation concept may be used to

Earth Sciences Division annual report 1990

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1991-06-01

This Annual Report presents summaries of selected representative research activities grouped according to the principal disciplines of the Earth Sciences Division: Reservoir Engineering and Hydrogeology, Geology and Geochemistry, and Geophysics and Geomechanics. Much of the Division`s research deals with the physical and chemical properties and processes in the earth`s crust, from the partially saturated, low-temperature near-surface environment to the high-temperature environments characteristic of regions where magmatic-hydrothermal processes are active. Strengths in laboratory and field instrumentation, numerical modeling, and in situ measurement allow study of the transport of mass and heat through geologic media -- studies that now include the appropriate chemical reactions and the hydraulic-mechanical complexities of fractured rock systems. Of particular note are three major Division efforts addressing problems in the discovery and recovery of petroleum, the application of isotope geochemistry to the study of geodynamic processes and earth history, and the development of borehole methods for high-resolution imaging of the subsurface using seismic and electromagnetic waves. In 1989 a major DOE-wide effort was launched in the areas of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management. Many of the methods previously developed for and applied to deeper regions of the earth will in the coming years be turned toward process definition and characterization of the very shallow subsurface, where man-induced contaminants now intrude and where remedial action is required.

NASA'S Earth Science Data Stewardship Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Lowe, Dawn R.; Murphy, Kevin J.; Ramapriyan, Hampapuram

2015-01-01

NASA has been collecting Earth observation data for over 50 years using instruments on board satellites, aircraft and ground-based systems. With the inception of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Program in 1990, NASA established the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project and initiated development of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). A set of Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) was established at locations based on science discipline expertise. Today, EOSDIS consists of 12 DAACs and 12 Science Investigator-led Processing Systems (SIPS), processing data from the EOS missions, as well as the Suomi National Polar Orbiting Partnership mission, and other satellite and airborne missions. The DAACs archive and distribute the vast majority of data from NASA’s Earth science missions, with data holdings exceeding 12 petabytes The data held by EOSDIS are available to all users consistent with NASA’s free and open data policy, which has been in effect since 1990. The EOSDIS archives consist of raw instrument data counts (level 0 data), as well as higher level standard products (e.g., geophysical parameters, products mapped to standard spatio-temporal grids, results of Earth system models using multi-instrument observations, and long time series of Earth System Data Records resulting from multiple satellite observations of a given type of phenomenon). EOSDIS data stewardship responsibilities include ensuring that the data and information content are reliable, of high quality, easily accessible, and usable for as long as they are considered to be of value.

Long-Period Tidal Variations of the Earth's Rotation Rate

Science.gov (United States)

Desai, S.; Gross, R.; Wahr, J.

1999-01-01

Long-period tidal variations of the Earth's rotation rate are caused by the redistribution of mass associated with the respective elastic solid Earth tides, the ocean tide heights, and the anelasticity of the Earth's mantle, and by the relative angular momentum associated with the long-period ocean tide currents.

36 CFR 902.59 - Geological and geophysical information.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Geological and geophysical information. 902.59 Section 902.59 Parks, Forests, and Public Property PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE DEVELOPMENT... Geological and geophysical information. Any geological or geophysical information and data (including maps...

Earth Sciences Division Research Summaries 2006-2007

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DePaolo, Donald; DePaolo, Donald

2008-01-01

Research in earth and atmospheric sciences has become increasingly important in light of the energy, climate change, and other environmental issues facing the United States and the world. The development of new energy resources other than fossil hydrocarbons, the safe disposal of nuclear waste and greenhouse gases, and a detailed understanding of the climatic consequences of our energy choices are all critical to meeting energy needs while ensuring environmental safety. The cleanup of underground contamination and the preservation and management of water supplies continue to provide challenges, as they will for generations into the future. To address the critical energy and environmental issues requires continuing advances in our knowledge of Earth systems and our ability to translate that knowledge into new technologies. The fundamental Earth science research common to energy and environmental issues largely involves the physics, chemistry, and biology of fluids in and on the Earth. To manage Earth fluids requires the ability to understand their properties and behavior at the most fundamental molecular level, as well as prediction, characterization, imaging, and manipulation of those fluids and their behavior in real Earth reservoirs. The broad range of disciplinary expertise, the huge range of spatial and time scales, and the need to integrate theoretical, computational, laboratory and field research, represent both the challenge and the excitement of Earth science research. The Earth Sciences Division (ESD) of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to addressing the key scientific and technical challenges that are needed to secure our energy future in an environmentally responsibly way. Our staff of over 200 scientists, UC Berkeley faculty, support staff and guests perform world-acclaimed fundamental research in hydrogeology and reservoir engineering, geophysics and geomechanics, geochemistry, microbial ecology

Earth Sciences Division Research Summaries 2006-2007

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

DePaolo, Donald; DePaolo, Donald

2008-07-21

Research in earth and atmospheric sciences has become increasingly important in light of the energy, climate change, and other environmental issues facing the United States and the world. The development of new energy resources other than fossil hydrocarbons, the safe disposal of nuclear waste and greenhouse gases, and a detailed understanding of the climatic consequences of our energy choices are all critical to meeting energy needs while ensuring environmental safety. The cleanup of underground contamination and the preservation and management of water supplies continue to provide challenges, as they will for generations into the future. To address the critical energy and environmental issues requires continuing advances in our knowledge of Earth systems and our ability to translate that knowledge into new technologies. The fundamental Earth science research common to energy and environmental issues largely involves the physics, chemistry, and biology of fluids in and on the Earth. To manage Earth fluids requires the ability to understand their properties and behavior at the most fundamental molecular level, as well as prediction, characterization, imaging, and manipulation of those fluids and their behavior in real Earth reservoirs. The broad range of disciplinary expertise, the huge range of spatial and time scales, and the need to integrate theoretical, computational, laboratory and field research, represent both the challenge and the excitement of Earth science research. The Earth Sciences Division (ESD) of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to addressing the key scientific and technical challenges that are needed to secure our energy future in an environmentally responsibly way. Our staff of over 200 scientists, UC Berkeley faculty, support staff and guests perform world-acclaimed fundamental research in hydrogeology and reservoir engineering, geophysics and geomechanics, geochemistry, microbial ecology

25 CFR 211.56 - Geological and geophysical permits.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Geological and geophysical permits. 211.56 Section 211.56... FOR MINERAL DEVELOPMENT Rents, Royalties, Cancellations and Appeals § 211.56 Geological and geophysical permits. Permits to conduct geological and geophysical operations on Indian lands which do not...

Helicopter electromagnetic and magnetic geophysical survey data, Hunton anticline, south-central Oklahoma

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Bruce D.; Smith, David V.; Deszcz-Pan, Maryla; Blome, Charles D.; Hill, Patricia

2011-01-01

This report is a digital data release for multiple geophysical surveys conducted in the Hunton anticline area of south-central Oklahoma. The helicopter electromagnetic and magnetic surveys were flown on March 16–17, 2007, in four areas of the Hunton anticline in south-central Oklahoma. The objective of this project is to improve the understanding of the geohydrologic framework of the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer. The electromagnetic sensor for the helicopter electromagnetic survey consisted of six different transmitter-receiver orientations that measured the earth's electrical response at six distinct frequencies from approximately 500 Hertz to approximately 115,000 Hertz. The electromagnetic measurements were converted to electrical resistivity values, which were gridded and plotted on georeferenced maps. The map from each frequency represents a different depth of investigation for each area. The range of subsurface investigation is comparable to the depth of shallow groundwater. The four areas selected for the helicopter electromagnetic study, blocks A–D, have different geologic and hydrologic settings. Geophysical and hydrologic information from U.S. Geological Survey studies are being used by modelers and resource managers to develop groundwater resource plans for the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer.

Core Angular Momentum and the IERS Sub-Centers Activity for Monitoring Global Geophysical Fluids. Part 1; Core Angular Momentum and Earth Rotation

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Xia-Dong; Chao, Benjamin (Technical Monitor)

1999-01-01

The part of the grant was to use recordings of seismic waves travelling through the earth's core (PKP waves) to study the inner core rotation and constraints on possible density anomalies in the fluid core. The shapes and relative arrival times of such waves associated with a common source were used to reduce the uncertainties in source location and excitation and the effect of unknown mantle structure. The major effort of the project is to assemble historical seismograms with long observing base lines. We have found original paper records of SSI earthquakes at COL between 1951 and 1966 in a warehouse of the U.S. Geological Survey office in Golden, Colorado, extending the previous measurements at COL by Song and Richards [1996] further back 15 years. Also in Alaska, the University of Alaska, Fairbanks Geophysical Institute (UAFGI) has been operating the Alaskan Seismic Network with over 100 stations since the late 1960s. Virtually complete archives of seismograms are still available at UAFGI. Unfortunately, most of the archives are in microchip form (develocorders), for which the use of waveforms is impossible. Paper seismograms (helicorders) are available for a limited number of stations, and digital recordings of analog signals started around 1989. Of the paper records obtained, stations at Gilmore Dome (GLM, very close to COL), Yukon (FYU), McKinley (MCK), and Sheep Creek Mountain (SCM) have the most complete continuous recordings.

25 CFR 212.56 - Geological and geophysical permits.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Geological and geophysical permits. 212.56 Section 212.56... FOR MINERAL DEVELOPMENT Rents, Royalties, Cancellations, and Appeals § 212.56 Geological and geophysical permits. (a) Permits to conduct geological and geophysical operations on Indian lands which do not...

Behaviour of Earths Magnetic Field During Solar Eclipse ( 29 May 2006)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ozcep, F.; Alp, H.

2007-01-01

Interaction and relation between geophysical properties (gravity, geomagnetic field, etc.) of the Earth and Sun has been a fascinating topic ever since humanity habilitated the Earth. For example, the role of solar energy in sustaining agricultural activities was noted long ago and human beings are ever grateful to the Sun for his bounty. Since prehistoric times, many cultures have regarded the Sun as a deity. However, until recent decades, the contribution of Sun was assumed to be only in heat and light, which everybody could feel easily. Our aim is to study the behaviour of earths magnetic field during solar e clips ( 29 may 2006). Fort this aim, from 27 may 2006 hour 18.00 to 29 may 2006 hour 18.00, it was observed the earths magnetic field before, during and after solar eclipse. During this period, every 5 minute , magnetic field were measured by two proton magnetometer

Correlation connection between the anomalous magnetic and gravitational fields for regions with different types of the Earth's crust

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lugovenko, V.N.; Pronin, V.P.; Kosheleva, L.V.

1989-01-01

A method for the correlation analysis of anomalous geophysical fields at different survey altitudes is proposed. The joint correlation analysis is performed for anomalous magnetic and gravitational fields for regions with different types of the Earth's crust. (author)

Gravity and low-frequency geodynamics

CERN Document Server

Teisseyre, Roman

1989-01-01

This fourth volume in the series Physics and Evolution of the Earth's Interior, provides a comprehensive review of the geophysical and geodetical aspects related to gravity and low-frequency geodynamics. Such aspects include the Earth's gravity field, geoid shape theory, and low-frequency phenomena like rotation, oscillations and tides.Global-scale phenomena are treated as a response to source excitation in spherical Earth models consisting of several shells: lithosphere, mantle, core and sometimes also the inner solid core. The effect of gravitation and rotation on the Earth's shape is anal

Rapid Geophysical Surveyor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roybal, L.G.; Carpenter, G.S.; Josten, N.E.

1993-01-01

The Rapid Geophysical Surveyor (RGS) is a system designed to rapidly and economically collect closely-spaced geophysical data used for characterization of US Department of Energy waste sites. Geophysical surveys of waste sites are an important first step in the remediation and closure of these sites; especially older sites where historical records are inaccurate and survey benchmarks have changed because of refinements in coordinate controls and datum changes. Closely-spaced data are required to adequately differentiate pits, trenches, and soil vault rows whose edges may be only a few feet from each other. A prototype vehicle designed to collect magnetic field data was built at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) during the summer of 1992. The RGS was funded by the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration program. This vehicle was demonstrated at the Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA) within the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at the INEL in September 1992. Magnetic data were collected over two areas in the SDA, with a total survey area of about 1.7 acres. Data were collected at a nominal density of 2 1/2 in. along survey lines spaced 1-ft apart. Over 350,000 data points were collected over a 6 day period corresponding to about 185 worker-days using conventional ground survey techniques

Moving Closer to EarthScope: A Major New Initiative for the Earth Sciences*

Science.gov (United States)

Simpson, D.; Blewitt, G.; Ekstrom, G.; Henyey, T.; Hickman, S.; Prescott, W.; Zoback, M.

2002-12-01

EarthScope is a scientific research and infrastructure initiative designed to provide a suite of new observational facilities to address fundamental questions about the evolution of continents and the processes responsible for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The integrated observing systems that will comprise EarthScope capitalize on recent developments in sensor technology and communications to provide Earth scientists with synoptic and high-resolution data derived from a variety of geophysical sensors. An array of 400 broadband seismometers will spend more than ten years crossing the contiguous 48 states and Alaska to image features that make up the internal structure of the continent and underlying mantle. Additional seismic and electromagnetic instrumentation will be available for high resolution imaging of geological targets of special interest. A network of continuously recording Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and sensitive borehole strainmeters will be installed along the western U.S. plate boundary. These sensors will measure how western North America is deforming, what motions occur along faults, how earthquakes start, and how magma flows beneath active volcanoes. A four-kilometer deep observatory bored directly into the San Andreas fault will provide the first opportunity to observe directly the conditions under which earthquakes occur, to collect fault rocks and fluids for laboratory study, and to monitor continuously an active fault zone at depth. All data from the EarthScope facilities will be openly available in real-time to maximize participation from the scientific community and to provide on-going educational outreach to students and the public. EarthScope's sensors will revolutionize observational Earth science in terms of the quantity, quality and spatial extent of the data they provide. Turning these data into exciting scientific discovery will require new modes of experimentation and interdisciplinary cooperation from the Earth

Results of detailed ground geophysical surveys for locating and differentiating waste structures in waste management area 'A' at Chalk River Laboratories, Ontario

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomsons, D.K.; Street, P.J.; Lodha, G.S.

1999-01-01

Waste Management Area 'A' (WMA 'A'), located in the outer area of the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) was in use as a waste burial site from 1946 to 1955. Waste management structures include debris-filled trenches, concrete bunkers and miscellaneous contaminated solid materials, and ditches and pits used for liquid dispersal. In order to update historical records, it was proposed to conduct detailed ground geophysical surveys to define the locations of waste management structures in WMA 'A', assist in planning of the drilling and sampling program to provide ground truth for the geophysics investigation and to predict the nature and locations of unknown/undefined shallow structures. A detailed ground geophysical survey grid was established with a total of 127 grid lines, oriented NNE and spaced one metre apart. The geophysical surveys were carried out during August and September, 1996. The combination of geophysical tools used included the Geonics EM61 metal detector, the GSM-19 magnetometer/gradiometer and a RAMAC high frequency ground penetrating radar system. The geophysical surveys were successful in identifying waste management structures and in characterizing to some extent, the composition of the waste. The geophysical surveys are able to determine the presence of most of the known waste management structures, especially in the western and central portions of the grid which contain the majority of the metallic waste. The eastern portion of the grid has a completely different geophysical character. While historical records show that trenches were dug, they are far less evident in the geophysical record. There is clear evidence for a trench running between lines 30E and 63E at 70 m. There are indications from the radar survey of other trench-like structures in the eastern portion. EM61 data clearly show that there is far less metallic debris in the eastern portion. The geophysical surveys were also successful in identifying previously unknown locations of waste

Tides and Modern Geodesy

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Richard D.; Chao, Benjamin F. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

In modem high-precision geodesy, and especially in modem space geodesy, every measurement that one makes contains tidal signals. Generally these signals are considered noise and must somehow be eliminated. The stringent requirements of the latest space geodetic missions place severe demands on tidal models. On the other hand, these missions provide the strongest data for improving tidal models. In particular, TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry and LAGEOS laser ranging have improved models to such an extent that new geophysical information about the ocean and the solid Earth are coming to light. Presumably GRACE intersatellite ranging data will also add to this information. This paper discusses several of these new geophysical results, with special emphasis given to the dissipation of tidal energy. Strong constraints have recently been placed on the partitioning of energy dissipation among the ocean, atmosphere, and solid earth and between the deep and shallow ocean. The dissipation in deep water is associated with internal tides and has potentially important implications for understanding the ocean's thermohaline circulation.

Free oscillation of the Earth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Abedini

2000-06-01

Full Text Available   This work is a study of the Earths free oscillations considering a merge of solid and liquid model. At the turn of 19th century Geophysicists presented the theory of the free oscillations for a self-gravitating, isotropic and compressible sphere. Assuming a steel structure for an Earth size sphere, they predicted a period of oscillation of about 1 hour. About 50 years later, the free oscillations of stars was studied by Cowling and others. They classified the oscillation modes of the stars into acoustic and gravity modes on the basis of their driving forces. These are pressure and buoyancy forces respectively. The earliest measurements for the period of the free oscillations of the Earth was made by Benyove from a study of Kamchathca earthquake. Since then, the Geophysicists have been trying to provide a theoretical basis for these measurements. Recently, the theory concerning oscillations of celestial fluids is extended by Sobouti to include the possible oscillations of the Earthlike bodies. Using the same technique, we study the free oscillations of a spherically symmetric, non-rotating and elastic model for the Earth.   We used the actual data of the Earths interior structure in our numerical calculations. Numerical results show that there exist three distinct oscillation modes namely acoustic, gravity and toroidal modes. These modes are driven by pressure, buoyancy and shear forces respectively. The shear force is due to the elastic properties of the solid part of the Earth. Our numerical results are consistent with the seismic data recorded from earthquake measurements.

The Earth's Mantle Is Solid: Teachers' Misconceptions About the Earth and Plate Tectonics.

Science.gov (United States)

King, Chris

2000-01-01

Discusses the misconceptions revealed by the teachers' answers and outlines more accurate answers and explanations based on established evidence and uses these to provide a more complete understanding of plate tectonic process and the structure of Earth. (Author/YDS)

Description of geophysical data in the SKB database GEOTAB

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sehlstedt, S.

1988-02-01

For the storage of different types of data collected by SKB a database called Geotab has been created. The following data are stored in the database: Background data, geological data, geophysical data, hydrogeological data, hydrochemical data. This report describes the data flow for different types of geophysical measurements. The descriptions start with measurements and end with the storage of data in Geotab. Each process and the resulting data volume is presented separately. The geophysical measurements have been divided into the following subjects: Geophysical ground surface measurements, profile measurements; geophysical ground surface measurements, grid net measurements; geophysical borehole logging; petrophysical measurements. Each group of measurements is described in an individual chapter. In each chapter several measuring techniques are described and each method has a data table and a flyleaf table in Geotab. (orig.)

Unusual seeding mechanism for enhanced performance in solid-phase magnetic extraction of Rare Earth Elements

Science.gov (United States)

Polido Legaria, Elizabeth; Rocha, Joao; Tai, Cheuk-Wai; Kessler, Vadim G.; Seisenbaeva, Gulaim A.

2017-03-01

Due to the increasing demand of Rare Earth Elements (REE or RE), new and more efficient techniques for their extraction are necessary, suitable for both mining and recycling processes. Current techniques such as solvent extraction or solid adsorbents entail drawbacks such as using big volumes of harmful solvents or limited capacity. Hybrid nanoadsorbents based on SiO2 and highly stable γ-Fe2O3-SiO2 nanoparticles, proved recently to be very attractive for adsorption of REE, yet not being the absolute key to solve the problem. In the present work, we introduce a highly appealing new approach in which the nanoparticles, rather than behaving as adsorbent materials, perform as inducers of crystallization for the REE in the form of hydroxides, allowing their facile and practically total removal from solution. This induced crystallization is achieved by tuning the pH, offering an uptake efficiency more than 20 times higher than previously reported (up to 900 mg RE3+/g vs. 40 mg RE3+/g). The obtained phases were characterized by SEM-EDS, TEM, STEM and EFTEM and 13C and 29Si solid state NMR. Magnetic studies showed that the materials possessed enough magnetic properties to be easily removed by a magnet, opening ways for an efficient and industrially applicable separation technique.

Calibration and Confirmation in Geophysical Models

Science.gov (United States)

Werndl, Charlotte

2016-04-01

For policy decisions the best geophysical models are needed. To evaluate geophysical models, it is essential that the best available methods for confirmation are used. A hotly debated issue on confirmation in climate science (as well as in philosophy) is the requirement of use-novelty (i.e. that data can only confirm models if they have not already been used before. This talk investigates the issue of use-novelty and double-counting for geophysical models. We will see that the conclusions depend on the framework of confirmation and that it is not clear that use-novelty is a valid requirement and that double-counting is illegitimate.

New Antarctic Gravity Anomaly Grid for Enhanced Geodetic and Geophysical Studies in Antarctica.

Science.gov (United States)

Scheinert, M; Ferraccioli, F; Schwabe, J; Bell, R; Studinger, M; Damaske, D; Jokat, W; Aleshkova, N; Jordan, T; Leitchenkov, G; Blankenship, D D; Damiani, T M; Young, D; Cochran, J R; Richter, T D

2016-01-28

Gravity surveying is challenging in Antarctica because of its hostile environment and inaccessibility. Nevertheless, many ground-based, airborne and shipborne gravity campaigns have been completed by the geophysical and geodetic communities since the 1980s. We present the first modern Antarctic-wide gravity data compilation derived from 13 million data points covering an area of 10 million km 2 , which corresponds to 73% coverage of the continent. The remove-compute-restore technique was applied for gridding, which facilitated levelling of the different gravity datasets with respect to an Earth Gravity Model derived from satellite data alone. The resulting free-air and Bouguer gravity anomaly grids of 10 km resolution are publicly available. These grids will enable new high-resolution combined Earth Gravity Models to be derived and represent a major step forward towards solving the geodetic polar data gap problem. They provide a new tool to investigate continental-scale lithospheric structure and geological evolution of Antarctica.

New Antarctic Gravity Anomaly Grid for Enhanced Geodetic and Geophysical Studies in Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

Scheinert, M.; Ferraccioli, F.; Schwabe, J.; Bell, R.; Studinger, M.; Damaske, D.; Jokat, W.; Aleshkova, N.; Jordan, T.; Leitchenkov, G.; Blankenship, D. D.; Damiani, T. M.; Young, D.; Cochran, J. R.; Richter, T. D.

2018-01-01

Gravity surveying is challenging in Antarctica because of its hostile environment and inaccessibility. Nevertheless, many ground-based, airborne and shipborne gravity campaigns have been completed by the geophysical and geodetic communities since the 1980s. We present the first modern Antarctic-wide gravity data compilation derived from 13 million data points covering an area of 10 million km2, which corresponds to 73% coverage of the continent. The remove-compute-restore technique was applied for gridding, which facilitated levelling of the different gravity datasets with respect to an Earth Gravity Model derived from satellite data alone. The resulting free-air and Bouguer gravity anomaly grids of 10 km resolution are publicly available. These grids will enable new high-resolution combined Earth Gravity Models to be derived and represent a major step forward towards solving the geodetic polar data gap problem. They provide a new tool to investigate continental-scale lithospheric structure and geological evolution of Antarctica. PMID:29326484

Geophysical and geochemical techniques for exploration of hydrocarbons and minerals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sittig, M.

1980-01-01

The detailed descriptive information in this book is based on 389 US patents that deal with geophysical and geochemical techniques useful for the exploration of hydrocarbons and minerals. Where it was necessary to round out the complete technological picture, a few paragraphs from cited government reports have been included. These techniques are used in prospecting for oil, coal, oil shale, tar sand and minerals. The patents are grouped under the following chapters: geochemical prospecting; geobiological prospecting; geophysical exploration; magnetic geophysical prospecting; gravitational geophysical prospecting; electrical geophysical prospecting; nuclear geophysical prospecting; seismic geophysical prospecting; and exploratory well drilling. This book serves a double purpose in that it supplies detailed technical information and can be used as a guide to the US patent literature in this field. By indicating all the information that is significant, and eliminating legal jargon and juristic phraseology, this book presents an advanced, industrially oriented review of modern methods of geophysical and geochemical exploration techniques

Geophysics Fatally Flawed by False Fundamental Philosophy

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, L. S.

2004-05-01

volcanoes, that enable planetary expansion the same way cranial sutures permit human skulls to grow to maturity. Expansion is shown by the Asian and Australian trenches, from Kamchatka to the Marianas, and from Samoa to the tip of Macquarie Ridge south of New Zealand, that are mirror images of the western coasts of North and South America. This is clear evidence neither the Atlantic nor the Pacific Ocean existed 250 Ma when Earth was much smaller. In just 250 Ma external accretion and internal core expansion increased Earth's diameter from 7640 km to 12,735 km and increased total surface area to 361,060,000 sq. km, the area occupied by today's oceans-oceans that did not exist 250 Ma when Earth was slightly larger than Mars is today \\(6787 km\\). The fallacy of the nebular hypothesis did not become apparent until after Oliver and Isacks introduced the concept of subduction in 1967. Subduction was based on the false assumption that Earth's diameter is constant and unchanging, and spawned the theory of Plate Tectonics that "revolutionized" geophysics in a short period of time-a "revolution" destined for failure. Evidence is presented showing all solar bodies originate as comets \\(fragments of supernovae explosions\\) captured by the Sun that become meteoroids or asteroids by external accretion of meteorites and dust from over 370 known meteor streams.\\(Terentjeva, 1964\\) Accreation replaces the nebular hypothesis and rejuvenates Carey's Earth Expansion theory that, unfortunately, was pushed aside by plate tectonics because it lacked a plausible mechanism. However, expansion carries an ultimate threat to Mankind's tenure on Earth and exploration of Mars as the future home of Mankind takes on added significance.

Precipitation of the rare earth double sodium and rare earths from the sulfuric liquor and the conversion into rare earth hydroxides through meta ethic reaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abreu, Renata D.; Oliveira, Ester F.; Brito, Walter de; Morais, Carlos A.

2007-01-01

This work presents the purification study of the rare earths through precipitation of rare earth and sodium (Na TR (SO 4 ) 2 . x H 2 O)) double sulfate and his conversion to rare earths hydroxide TR(OH) 3 by meta ethic reaction through the addition of sodium hydroxide solution to the solid double sulfate. The study used the sulfuric liquor as rare earth sample, generated in the chemical processing of the monazite with sulfuric acid by the Industrias Nucleares do Brasil - INB, Brazil, after the thorium and uranium extraction. The work investigated the influence of the main variables involved in the precipitation of Na TR(SO 4 ) 2 .xH 2 O and in the conversion for the TR(OH) 3 , as follows: type and excess of the precipitation agent, temperature and time reaction. The obtained solid composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, infrared and chemical analysis. The double sulfate diffractogram indicated the Na TR(SO 4 ) 2 mono-hydrated. The characterization of the metatese products has shown that, for obtaining the complete conversion of NaTR(SO 4 ) 2 .H 2 O into TR(OH) 3 , the reaction must be hot processed (∼70 deg C) and with small excess of Na OH (≤ 5 percent). (author)

Ternary and quaternary solid solutions in rare earth alloy phases with the CaCu5-type structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malani, G.K.; Raman, A.; Mohanty, R.C.

1992-01-01

Crystal structural data were analyzed in seleced CaCu 5 -type ternary and quaternary solid solutions to assess the crystal chemical characteristics and stability features of the CaCu 5 -type structure in rare earth containing alloy phases. LaNi 5 was found to dissolve 100 mol% LaCu 5 , 100 mol% ErNi 5 , about 50 mol% LaIr 5 , 40 mol% 'LaMn 5 ', 20 mol% 'LaFe 5 ', and 25 mol% ErRh 5 . In contrast, LaCo 5 did not dissolve any Mn or any of the other elements other than Al - it dissolved about 20 mol% 'LaAl 5 '. LaCu 5 behaves similar to LaNi 5 in solid solutions. From the lack of solubility of any other element in LaFe 5 , LaCo 5 , LaRh 5 , and LaIr 5 and their great instability, these are inferred to be borderline cases in the realm of the CaCu 5 -type structure. In the CaCu 5 and related crystal structures, Ir is compatible with Ni, but not with Co or Rh, and Rh is not compatible with either Ni or Ir. (orig.) [de

Looking at the earth from space

Science.gov (United States)

Geller, Marvin A.

1988-01-01

Some of the scientific accomplishments attained in observing the earth from space are discussed. A brief overview of findings concerning the atmosphere, the oceans and sea ice, the solid earth, and the terrestrial hydrosphere and biosphere is presented, and six examples are examined in which space data have provided unique information enabling new knowledge concerning the workings of the earth to be derived. These examples concern stratospheric water vapor, hemispheric differences in surface and atmosphere parameters, Seasat altimeter mesoscale variability, variability of Antarctic sea ice, variations in the length of day, and spaceborne radar imaging of ancient rivers. Future space observations of the earth are briefly addressed.

Development of reduction technology for oxide fuel. Behaviour of rare-earth in lithium reduction process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kato, Tetsuya; Usami, Tsuyoshi; Yuda, Ryoichi; Kurata, Masateru; Moriyama, Hirotake

2000-01-01

Solubility measurements of rare-earth oxides in molten LiCl-Li 2 O salt and reduction tests of UO 2 doped with rare-earth oxides were carried out to determine the behavior of rare-earths in lithium reduction process. The solubility of rare-earth oxides increases in the order of Gd 2 O concentration. In multi-element systems including 6 rare-earth oxides, the solubility of each element is smaller than that in the individual systems. In the reduction tests, more than 90% of UO 2 was reduced within 1 hour after starting reduction and about 7% of rare-earths eluded into the LiCl molten salt bath containing Li 2 O which is formed by the reduction of UO 2 . The rare-earth concentrations in the bath were evaluated using the solubility data, assuming that rare-earth oxides in multi-element systems form solid solution as the equilibrium solid phase and that the activity coefficients in the solid phase are independent of the compositions. The calculated concentrations are consistent with the experimental ones obtained in the reduction tests. (author)

Existence of a component corotating with the earth in high-latitude disturbance magnetic fields

Science.gov (United States)

Suzuki, A.; Kim, J. S.; Sugiura, M.

1982-01-01

A study of the data from the high-latitude North American IMS network of magnetic stations suggests that there is a component in substorm perturbations that corotates with the earth. It is as yet not certain whether the existence of this component stems from the corotation of a part of the magnetospheric plasma involved in the substorm mechanism or if it is a 'phase change' resulting from the control of the substorm manifestations by the earth's main magnetic field which is not axially symmetric. There are other geophysical phenomena showing a persistence of longitudinal variations corotating with the earth. These phenomena are of significance for a better understanding of ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling.

Research on Integrated Geophysics Detect Potential Ground Fissure in City

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, R.

2017-12-01

North China confined aquifer lied 70 to 200 meters below the earth's surface has been exploited for several decades, which resulted in confined water table declining and has generated a mass of ground fissure. Some of them has reached the surface and the other is developing. As it is very difficult to stop the ground fissure coming into being, measures of avoiding are often taken. It brings great potential risk to urban architecture and municipal engineering. It is very important to find out specific distribution and characteristic of potential ground fissure in city with high resolution. The ground fissure is concealed, therefor, geophysical method is an important technology to detecting concealed ground fissure. However, it is very difficult to detect the characteristics of the superficial part of ground fissure directly, as it lies dozens of meters below and has only scores of centimeters fault displacement. This paper studies applied ground penetration radar, surface wave and shallow refleciton seismic to detect ground fissure. It sets up model of surface by taking advantage of high resolution of ground penetrating radar data, constrains Reilay wave inversion and improves its resolution. The high resolution reflection seismic is good at detecting the geology structure. The data processing and interpretation technique is developmented to avoid the pitfall and improve the aliability of the rusult. The experiment has been conducted in Shunyi District, Beijing in 2016. 5 lines were settled to collect data of integrated geophysical method. Development zone of concealed ground fissure was found and its ultra shallow layer location was detected by ground penetrating radar. A trial trench of 6 meters in depth was dug and obvious ground fissure development was found. Its upper end was 1.5 meters beneath the earth's surface with displacement of 0.3 meters. The favorable effect of this detection has provided a new way for detecting ground fissure in cities of China, such

Marine geophysical data management and presentation system

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Kunte, P.D.

) of the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, India. GPDMPS is designed for the computerized storage retrieval and presentation of marine geophysical data and information. For the systematic management of geophysical data and information, GPDMPS is subdivided...

Origin and evolution of the atmospheres of early Venus, Earth and Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Lammer, Helmut; Zerkle, Aubrey L.; Gebauer, Stefanie; Tosi, Nicola; Noack, Lena; Scherf, Manuel; Pilat-Lohinger, Elke; Güdel, Manuel; Grenfell, John Lee; Godolt, Mareike; Nikolaou, Athanasia

2018-05-01

We review the origin and evolution of the atmospheres of Earth, Venus and Mars from the time when their accreting bodies were released from the protoplanetary disk a few million years after the origin of the Sun. If the accreting planetary cores reached masses ≥ 0.5 M_Earth before the gas in the disk disappeared, primordial atmospheres consisting mainly of H_2 form around the young planetary body, contrary to late-stage planet formation, where terrestrial planets accrete material after the nebula phase of the disk. The differences between these two scenarios are explored by investigating non-radiogenic atmospheric noble gas isotope anomalies observed on the three terrestrial planets. The role of the young Sun's more efficient EUV radiation and of the plasma environment into the escape of early atmospheres is also addressed. We discuss the catastrophic outgassing of volatiles and the formation and cooling of steam atmospheres after the solidification of magma oceans and we describe the geochemical evidence for additional delivery of volatile-rich chondritic materials during the main stages of terrestrial planet formation. The evolution scenario of early Earth is then compared with the atmospheric evolution of planets where no active plate tectonics emerged like on Venus and Mars. We look at the diversity between early Earth, Venus and Mars, which is found to be related to their differing geochemical, geodynamical and geophysical conditions, including plate tectonics, crust and mantle oxidation processes and their involvement in degassing processes of secondary N_2 atmospheres. The buildup of atmospheric N_2, O_2, and the role of greenhouse gases such as CO_2 and CH_4 to counter the Faint Young Sun Paradox (FYSP), when the earliest life forms on Earth originated until the Great Oxidation Event ≈ 2.3 Gyr ago, are addressed. This review concludes with a discussion on the implications of understanding Earth's geophysical and related atmospheric evolution in relation

Efficiency Evaluation of Handling of Geologic-Geophysical Information by Means of Computer Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Nuriyahmetova, S. M.; Demyanova, O. V.; Zabirova, L. M.; Gataullin, I. I.; Fathutdinova, O. A.; Kaptelinina, E. A.

2018-05-01

Development of oil and gas resources, considering difficult geological, geographical and economic conditions, requires considerable finance costs; therefore their careful reasons, application of the most perspective directions and modern technologies from the point of view of cost efficiency of planned activities are necessary. For ensuring high precision of regional and local forecasts and modeling of reservoirs of fields of hydrocarbonic raw materials, it is necessary to analyze huge arrays of the distributed information which is constantly changing spatial. The solution of this task requires application of modern remote methods of a research of the perspective oil-and-gas territories, complex use of materials remote, nondestructive the environment of geologic-geophysical and space methods of sounding of Earth and the most perfect technologies of their handling. In the article, the authors considered experience of handling of geologic-geophysical information by means of computer systems by the Russian and foreign companies. Conclusions that the multidimensional analysis of geologicgeophysical information space, effective planning and monitoring of exploration works requires broad use of geoinformation technologies as one of the most perspective directions in achievement of high profitability of an oil and gas industry are drawn.

Coulombic faulting from the grain scale to the geophysical scale: lessons from ice

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weiss, Jerome [Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de l' Environnement, CNRS, 54 rue Moliere, BP 96, 38402 St Martin d' Heres Cedex (France); Schulson, Erland M, E-mail: weiss@lgge.obs.ujf-grenoble.f, E-mail: Erland.M.Schulson@Dartmouth.ED [Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755 (United States)

2009-11-07

Coulombic faulting, a concept formulated more than two centuries ago, still remains pertinent in describing the brittle compressive failure of various materials, including rocks and ice. Many questions remain, however, about the physical processes underlying this macroscopic phenomenology. This paper reviews the progress made in these directions during the past few years through the study of ice and its mechanical behaviour in both the laboratory and the field. Fault triggering is associated with the formation of specific features called comb-cracks and involves frictional sliding at the micro(grain)-scale. Similar mechanisms are observed at geophysical scales within the sea ice cover. This scale-independent physics is expressed by the same Coulombic phenomenology from laboratory to geophysical scales, with a very similar internal friction coefficient ({mu} {approx} 0.8). On the other hand, the cohesion strongly decreases with increasing spatial scale, reflecting the role of stress concentrators on fault initiation. Strong similarities also exist between ice and other brittle materials such as rocks and minerals and between faulting of the sea ice cover and Earth's crust, arguing for the ubiquitous nature of the underlying physics.

Investigation and analysis to the content of natural radionuclides at rate-earth ore and solid waste in China through the first nationwide pollution source survey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lou Jianjun; Liu Guifang; Sun Qinghong

2011-01-01

China has launched the First Nationwide Pollution Source Survey (FNPSS) during 2006-2009. Ministry Environmental Protection (MEP) sponsored the campaign of measuring the natural radionuclide contents. And the Ministry Environmental Protection (MEP) organized the measurements of natural radionuclide contents of in the factories and mines associated with rare-earth, niobium/tantalum, zircon, tin, lead/zinc, copper, iron, phosphate, coal, aluminum and vanadium. This paper analyzes mainly the data on the contents of U, 232 Th and 226 Ra in the rare-earth ore and solid waste produced by the rare-earth industry in China, as one of a series of papers on naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) s investigation. It is concluded that the average of the U, 232 Th and 226 Ra for the monazite sand of rare-earth ore is 16911, 49683, and 20072 Bq/kg, respectively. The average of U, 232 Th and 226 Ra in bastnaesite is 42, 701 and 91 Bq/kg, respectively. The average of U, 232 Th and 226 Ra in the ionic type rare-earth ore is 3918.6, 2315 and 1221 Bq/kg, respectively. (authors)

Radionuclide measurements, via different methodologies, as tool for geophysical studies on Mt. Etna

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Morelli, D., E-mail: daniela.morelli@ct.infn.it [Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita di Catania, via S. Sofia, 64 I-95123 Catania (Italy); Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare- Sezione di Catania, via S. Sofia, 64 I-95123 Catania (Italy); Imme, G. [Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita di Catania, via S. Sofia, 64 I-95123 Catania (Italy); Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare- Sezione di Catania, via S. Sofia, 64 I-95123 Catania (Italy); Altamore, I.; Cammisa, S. [Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita di Catania, via S. Sofia, 64 I-95123 Catania (Italy); Giammanco, S. [Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania, Piazza Roma, 2, I-95123 Catania (Italy); La Delfa, S. [Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Universita di Catania, Corso Italia,57 I-95127 Catania (Italy); Mangano, G. [Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita di Catania, via S. Sofia, 64 I-95123 Catania (Italy); Neri, M. [Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania, Piazza Roma, 2, I-95123 Catania (Italy); Patane, G. [Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Universita di Catania, Corso Italia,57 I-95127 Catania (Italy)

2011-10-01

Natural radioactivity measurements represent an interesting tool to study geodynamical events or soil geophysical characteristics. In this direction we carried out, in the last years, several radionuclide monitoring both in the volcanic and tectonic areas of the oriental Sicily. In particular we report in-soil Radon investigations, in a tectonic area, including both laboratory and in-site measurements, applying three different methodologies, based on both active and passive detection systems. The active detection devices consisted of solid-state silicon detectors equipped in portable systems for short-time measurements and for long-time monitoring. The passive technique consisted of solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD), CR-39 type, and allowed integrated measurements. The performances of the three methodologies were compared according to different kinds of monitoring. In general the results obtained with the three methodologies seem in agreement with each other and reflect the tectonic settings of the investigated area.

Radionuclide measurements, via different methodologies, as tool for geophysical studies on Mt. Etna

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morelli, D.; Imme, G.; Altamore, I.; Cammisa, S.; Giammanco, S.; La Delfa, S.; Mangano, G.; Neri, M.; Patane, G.

2011-01-01

Natural radioactivity measurements represent an interesting tool to study geodynamical events or soil geophysical characteristics. In this direction we carried out, in the last years, several radionuclide monitoring both in the volcanic and tectonic areas of the oriental Sicily. In particular we report in-soil Radon investigations, in a tectonic area, including both laboratory and in-site measurements, applying three different methodologies, based on both active and passive detection systems. The active detection devices consisted of solid-state silicon detectors equipped in portable systems for short-time measurements and for long-time monitoring. The passive technique consisted of solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD), CR-39 type, and allowed integrated measurements. The performances of the three methodologies were compared according to different kinds of monitoring. In general the results obtained with the three methodologies seem in agreement with each other and reflect the tectonic settings of the investigated area.

Earth Sciences Division annual report 1990

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-06-01

This Annual Report presents summaries of selected representative research activities grouped according to the principal disciplines of the Earth Sciences Division: Reservoir Engineering and Hydrogeology, Geology and Geochemistry, and Geophysics and Geomechanics. Much of the Division's research deals with the physical and chemical properties and processes in the earth's crust, from the partially saturated, low-temperature near-surface environment to the high-temperature environments characteristic of regions where magmatic-hydrothermal processes are active. Strengths in laboratory and field instrumentation, numerical modeling, and in situ measurement allow study of the transport of mass and heat through geologic media -- studies that now include the appropriate chemical reactions and the hydraulic-mechanical complexities of fractured rock systems. Of particular note are three major Division efforts addressing problems in the discovery and recovery of petroleum, the application of isotope geochemistry to the study of geodynamic processes and earth history, and the development of borehole methods for high-resolution imaging of the subsurface using seismic and electromagnetic waves. In 1989 a major DOE-wide effort was launched in the areas of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management. Many of the methods previously developed for and applied to deeper regions of the earth will in the coming years be turned toward process definition and characterization of the very shallow subsurface, where man-induced contaminants now intrude and where remedial action is required

Geophysical Research Facility

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Geophysical Research Facility (GRF) is a 60 ft long × 22 ft wide × 7 ft deep concrete basin at CRREL for fresh or saltwater investigations and can be temperature...

Ground geophysical study of the Buckeye mine tailings, Boulder watershed, Montana

Science.gov (United States)

McDougal, Robert R.; Smith, Bruce D.

2000-01-01

The Buckeye mine site is located in the Boulder River watershed along Basin Creek, in northern Jefferson County, Montana. This project is part of the Boulder River watershed Abandoned Mine Lands Initiative, and is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey and Bureau of Land Management in the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Forest Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The site includes a large flotation milltailing deposit, which extends to the stream and meadows below the mine. These tailings contain elevated levels of metals, such as silver, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc. Metal-rich fluvial tailings containing these metals, are possible sources of ground and surface water contamination. Geophysical methods were used to characterize the sediments at the Buckeye mine site. Ground geophysical surveys, including electromagnetics, DC resistivity, and total field magnetic methods, were used to delineate anomalies that probably correlate with subsurface metal contamination. Subsurface conductivity was mapped using EM-31 and EM-34 terrain conductivity measuring systems. The conductivity maps represent variation of concentration of dissolved solids in the subsurface from a few meters, to an approximate depth of 30 meters. Conductive sulfides several centimeters thick were encountered in a shallow trench, dug in an area of very high conductivity, at a depth of approximately 1 to1.5 meters. Laboratory measurements of samples of the sulfide layers show the conductivity is on the order of 1000 millisiemens. DC resistivity soundings were used to quantify subsurface conductivity variations and to estimate the depth to bedrock. Total field magnetic measurements were used to identify magnetic metals in the subsurface. The EM surveys identified several areas of relatively high conductivity and detected a conductive plume extending to the southwest, toward the stream. This plume correlates well with the potentiometric surface and direction of

Hydrogen Production from Water by Photolysis, Sonolysis and Sonophotolysis with Solid Solutions of Rare Earth, Gallium and Indium Oxides as Heterogeneous Catalysts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marta Penconi

2015-07-01

Full Text Available In this work, we present the hydrogen production by photolysis, sonolysis and sonophotolysis of water in the presence of newly synthesized solid solutions of rare earth, gallium and indium oxides playing as catalysts. From the experiments of photolysis, we found that the best photocatalyst is the solid solution Y0.8Ga0.2InO3 doped by sulphur atoms. In experiments of sonolysis, we optimized the rate of hydrogen production by changing the amount of water, adding ethanol and tuning the power of our piezoelectric transducer. Finally, we performed sonolysis and sonophotolysis experiments in the presence of S:Y0.8Ga0.2InO3 finding a promising synergistic effect of UV-visible electromagnetic waves and 38 kHz ultrasound waves in producing H2.

Results of detailed ground geophysical surveys for locating and differentiating waste structures in waste management area 'A' at Chalk River Laboratories, Ontario

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tomsons, D.K.; Street, P.J.; Lodha, G.S

1999-07-01

Waste Management Area 'A' (WMA 'A'), located in the outer area of the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) was in use as a waste burial site from 1946 to 1955. Waste management structures include debris-filled trenches, concrete bunkers and miscellaneous contaminated solid materials, and ditches and pits used for liquid dispersal. In order to update historical records, it was proposed to conduct detailed ground geophysical surveys to define the locations of waste management structures in WMA 'A', assist in planning of the drilling and sampling program to provide ground truth for the geophysics investigation and to predict the nature and locations of unknown/undefined shallow structures. A detailed ground geophysical survey grid was established with a total of 127 grid lines, oriented NNE and spaced one metre apart. The geophysical surveys were carried out during August and September, 1996. The combination of geophysical tools used included the Geonics EM61 metal detector, the GSM-19 magnetometer/gradiometer and a RAMAC high frequency ground penetrating radar system. The geophysical surveys were successful in identifying waste management structures and in characterizing to some extent, the composition of the waste. The geophysical surveys are able to determine the presence of most of the known waste management structures, especially in the western and central portions of the grid which contain the majority of the metallic waste. The eastern portion of the grid has a completely different geophysical character. While historical records show that trenches were dug, they are far less evident in the geophysical record. There is clear evidence for a trench running between lines 30E and 63E at 70 m. There are indications from the radar survey of other trench-like structures in the eastern portion. EM61 data clearly show that there is far less metallic debris in the eastern portion. The geophysical surveys were also successful in identifying

Archaeological Geophysics in Israel: Past, Present and Future

Science.gov (United States)

Eppelbaum, L. V.

2009-04-01

localization of archaeological targets: An introduction. Geoinformatics, 11, No.1, 19-28. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2005. Multilevel observations of magnetic field at archaeological sites as additional interpreting tool. Proceed. of the 6th Conference of Archaeological Prospection, Roma, Italy, 4 pp. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2007a. Localization of Ring Structures in Earth's Environments. Proceed. of the 7th Conference of Archaeological Prospection. Nitra, Slovakia, 145-148. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2007b. Revealing of subterranean karst using modern analysis of potential and quasi-potential fields. Proceed. of the Symp. on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems, Denver, USA, 797-810. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2008a. Remote operated vehicle geophysical survey using magnetic and VLF methods: proposed schemes for data processing and interpretation. Proceed. of the Symp. on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems, Philadelphia, USA, 938-963. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2008b. On the application of near-surface temperature investigations for delineation of archaeological targets. Trans. of the 1st International Workshop on Advances in Remote Sensing for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management, Rome, Italy, 179-183. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2009. Application of microgravity at archaeological sites in Israel: some estimation derived from 3D modeling and quantitative analysis of gravity field. Proceed. of the Symp. on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems, Denver, USA, 10 pp. Eppelbaum, L. and Ben-Avraham, Z., 2002. On the development of 4D geophysical Data Base of archaeological sites in Israel. Trans. of the Conf. of the Israel Geol. Soc. Ann. Meet., MaHagan - Lake Kinneret, Israel, p.21. Eppelbaum, L., Ben-Avraham, Z., and Itkis, S., 2003a. Ancient Roman Remains in Israel provide a challenge for physical-archaeological modeling techniques. First Break, 21 (2), 51-61. Eppelbaum, L.V., Ben-Avraham, Z., and Itkis, S.E., 2003b

Physical bases of the generation of short-term earthquake precursors: A complex model of ionization-induced geophysical processes in the lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere system

Science.gov (United States)

Pulinets, S. A.; Ouzounov, D. P.; Karelin, A. V.; Davidenko, D. V.

2015-07-01

This paper describes the current understanding of the interaction between geospheres from a complex set of physical and chemical processes under the influence of ionization. The sources of ionization involve the Earth's natural radioactivity and its intensification before earthquakes in seismically active regions, anthropogenic radioactivity caused by nuclear weapon testing and accidents in nuclear power plants and radioactive waste storage, the impact of galactic and solar cosmic rays, and active geophysical experiments using artificial ionization equipment. This approach treats the environment as an open complex system with dissipation, where inherent processes can be considered in the framework of the synergistic approach. We demonstrate the synergy between the evolution of thermal and electromagnetic anomalies in the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere. This makes it possible to determine the direction of the interaction process, which is especially important in applications related to short-term earthquake prediction. That is why the emphasis in this study is on the processes proceeding the final stage of earthquake preparation; the effects of other ionization sources are used to demonstrate that the model is versatile and broadly applicable in geophysics.

Electrokinetics in Earth Sciences: A Tutorial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Jouniaux

2012-01-01

in porous media, to be included in the special issue “Electrokinetics in Earth Sciences” of International Journal of Geophysics. We describe the methodology used for self-potential (SP and for seismoelectromagnetic measurements, for both field and laboratory experiments and for modelling. We give a large bibliography on the studies performed in hydrology to detect at distance the water flow, to deduce the thickness of the aquifer and to predict the hydraulic conductivity. The observation of SP has also been proposed to detect fractures in boreholes, to follow the hydraulic fracturing, and to predict the earthquakes. Moreover, we detail the studies on geothermal applications.

The origin of oil and gas in light of the latest achievements in earth sciences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dolenko, G.N.

1984-01-01

A theory of mineralogical asthenospheric origin of oil and gas is justified from geological, geophysical and geochemical standpoints in light of the contemporary achievements of earth sciences. The conditions of formation of oil and gas bearing provinces and the formation of oil and gas deposits are characterized. Three eras of oil and gas formation and oil and gas accumulation in the earth's crust, which are associated with the Hercynian, Cimmerian and Alpine geotectonic cycles of development of geosynclinal regions, are identified in the evolutionary development of the earth. The presented opinions are supported by data from geological exploration practice and by current materials from hydrogeochemistry, thermobarogeologeochemistry, space geochemistry and from the study of volcanos.

JGR special issue on Deep Earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

The editor and associate editors of the Journal of Geophysical Research—Solid Earth and Planets invite the submission of manuscripts for a special issue on the topic “Deep- and Intermediate-Focus Earthquakes, Phase Transitions, and the Mechanics of Deep Subduction.”Manuscripts should be submitted to JGR Editor Gerald Schubert (Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024) before July 1, 1986, in accordance with the usual rules for manuscript submission. Submitted papers will undergo the normal JGR review procedure. For more information, contact either Schubert or the special guest associate editor, Cliff Frohlich (Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, 4920 North IH-35, Austin, TX 78751; telephone: 512-451-6223).

Evidence of Non-extensivity in Earth's Ambient Noise

Science.gov (United States)

Koutalonis, Ioannis; Vallianatos, Filippos

2017-12-01

The study of ambient seismic noise is one of the important scientific and practical research challenges, due to its use in a number of geophysical applications. In this work, we describe Earth's ambient noise fluctuations in terms of non-extensive statistical physics. We found that Earth's ambient noise increments follow the q-Gaussian distribution. This indicates that Earth's ambient noise's fluctuations are not random and present long-term memory effects that could be described in terms of Tsallis entropy. Our results suggest that q values depend on the time length used and that the non-extensive parameter, q, converges to value q → 1 for short-time windows and a saturation value of q ≈ 1.33 for longer ones. The results are discussed from the point of view of superstatistics introduced by Beck [Contin Mech Thermodyn 16(3):293-304, 2004] and connects the q values with the system's degrees of freedom. Our work indicates that the converged (maximum) value is q = 1.33 and is related to 5 degrees of freedom.

Distinct Element modeling of geophysical signatures during sinkhole collapse

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Halbouni, Djamil; Holohan, Eoghan P.; Taheri, Abbas; Dahm, Torsten

2017-04-01

A sinkhole forms due to the collapse of rocks or soil near the Earth's surface into an underground cavity. Such cavities represent large secondary pore spaces derived by dissolution and subrosion in the underground. By changing the stress field in the surrounding material, the growth of cavities can lead to a positive feedback, in which expansion and mechanical instability in the surrounding material increases or generates new secondary pore space (e.g. by fracturing), which in turn increases the cavity size, etc. A sinkhole forms due to the eventual subsidence or collapse of the overburden that becomes destabilized and fails all the way to the Earth's surface. Both natural processes like (sub)surface water movement and earthquakes, and human activities, such as mining, construction and groundwater extraction, intensify such feedbacks. The development of models for the mechanical interaction of a growing cavity and fracturing of its surrounding material, thus capturing related precursory geophysical signatures, has been limited, however. Here we report on the advances of a general, simplified approach to simulating cavity growth and sinkhole formation by using 2D Distinct Element Modeling (DEM) PFC5.0 software and thereby constraining pre-, syn- and post-collapse geophysical and geodetic signatures. This physically realistic approach allows for spontaneous cavity development and dislocation of rock mass to be simulated by bonded particle formulation of DEM. First, we present calibration and validation of our model. Surface subsidence above an instantaneously excavated circular cavity is tracked and compared with an incrementally increasing dissolution zone both for purely elastic and non-elastic material.This validation is important for the optimal choice of model dimensions and particles size with respect to simulation time. Second, a cavity growth approach is presented and compared to a well-documented case study, the deliberately intensified sinkhole collapse at

Review of geophysical characterization methods used at the Hanford Site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

GV Last; DG Horton

2000-01-01

This paper presents a review of geophysical methods used at Hanford in two parts: (1) shallow surface-based geophysical methods and (2) borehole geophysical methods. This review was not intended to be ''all encompassing'' but should represent the vast majority (>90% complete) of geophysical work conducted onsite and aimed at hazardous waste investigations in the vadose zone and/or uppermost groundwater aquifers. This review did not cover geophysical methods aimed at large-scale geologic structures or seismicity and, in particular, did not include those efforts conducted in support of the Basalt Waste Isolation Program. This review focused primarily on the more recent efforts

Earth System Science Education Interdisciplinary Partnerships

Science.gov (United States)

Ruzek, M.; Johnson, D. R.

2002-05-01

Earth system science in the classroom is the fertile crucible linking science with societal needs for local, national and global sustainability. The interdisciplinary dimension requires fruitful cooperation among departments, schools and colleges within universities and among the universities and the nation's laboratories and agencies. Teaching and learning requires content which brings together the basic and applied sciences with mathematics and technology in addressing societal challenges of the coming decades. Over the past decade remarkable advances have emerged in information technology, from high bandwidth Internet connectivity to raw computing and visualization power. These advances which have wrought revolutionary capabilities and resources are transforming teaching and learning in the classroom. With the launching of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) the amount and type of geophysical data to monitor the Earth and its climate are increasing dramatically. The challenge remains, however, for skilled scientists and educators to interpret this information based upon sound scientific perspectives and utilize it in the classroom. With an increasing emphasis on the application of data gathered, and the use of the new technologies for practical benefit in the lives of ordinary citizens, there comes the even more basic need for understanding the fundamental state, dynamics, and complex interdependencies of the Earth system in mapping valid and relevant paths to sustainability. Technology and data in combination with the need to understand Earth system processes and phenomena offer opportunities for new and productive partnerships between researchers and educators to advance the fundamental science of the Earth system and in turn through discovery excite students at all levels in the classroom. This presentation will discuss interdisciplinary partnership opportunities for educators and researchers at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The earth's equatorial principal axes and moments of inertia

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, H. S.; Chao, B. F.

1991-01-01

The earth's equatorial principal moments of inertia are given as A and B, where A is less than B, and the corresponding principal axes are given as a and b. Explicit formulas are derived for determining the orientation of a and b axes and the difference B - A using C(22) and S(22), the two gravitational harmonic coefficients of degree 2 and order 2. For the earth, the a axis lies along the (14.93 deg W, 165.07 deg E) diameter, and the b axis lies perpendicular to it along the (75.07 deg E, 104.93 deg W) diameter. The difference B - A is 7.260 x 10 to the -6th MR2. These quantities for other planets are contrasted, and geophysical implications are discussed.

Impacts on Explorer 46 from an Earth orbiting population

Science.gov (United States)

Kessler, D. J.

1985-01-01

Explorer 46 was launched into Earth orbit in August 1972 to evaluate the effectiveness of using double-wall structures to protect against meteoroids. The data from the Meteoroid Bumper Experiment on Explorer 46 is reexamined and it is concluded that most of the impacts originated from an Earth orbiting population. The probable source of this orbiting population is solid rocket motors fired in Earth orbit.

Geophysical data fusion for subsurface imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoekstra, P.; Vandergraft, J.; Blohm, M.; Porter, D.

1993-08-01

A geophysical data fusion methodology is under development to combine data from complementary geophysical sensors and incorporate geophysical understanding to obtain three dimensional images of the subsurface. The research reported here is the first phase of a three phase project. The project focuses on the characterization of thin clay lenses (aquitards) in a highly stratified sand and clay coastal geology to depths of up to 300 feet. The sensor suite used in this work includes time-domain electromagnetic induction (TDEM) and near surface seismic techniques. During this first phase of the project, enhancements to the acquisition and processing of TDEM data were studied, by use of simulated data, to assess improvements for the detection of thin clay layers. Secondly, studies were made of the use of compressional wave and shear wave seismic reflection data by using state-of-the-art high frequency vibrator technology. Finally, a newly developed processing technique, called ''data fusion,'' was implemented to process the geophysical data, and to incorporate a mathematical model of the subsurface strata. Examples are given of the results when applied to real seismic data collected at Hanford, WA, and for simulated data based on the geology of the Savannah River Site

Co-deposition of metallic actinides on a solid cathode

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Limmer, S. J.; Williamson, M. A.; Willit, J. L. [Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne (United States)

2008-08-15

The amount of rare earth contamination that will be found in a co-deposit of actinides is a function of the type of cathode used. A non-alloying solid cathode will result in a significantly lower rare earth contamination in the actinide co-deposit than a liquid cadmium cathode. With proper control of the cathode potential vs. a stable reference electrode, co-deposition of uranium with other more electroactive metals has been demonstrated using a non-alloying solid cathode.

Co-deposition of metallic actinides on a solid cathode

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Limmer, S. J.; Williamson, M. A.; Willit, J. L.

2008-01-01

The amount of rare earth contamination that will be found in a co-deposit of actinides is a function of the type of cathode used. A non-alloying solid cathode will result in a significantly lower rare earth contamination in the actinide co-deposit than a liquid cadmium cathode. With proper control of the cathode potential vs. a stable reference electrode, co-deposition of uranium with other more electroactive metals has been demonstrated using a non-alloying solid cathode

The Pilgram's Progress: Reflections on the journey building Australia's solid earth information infrastructure (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Woodcock, R.

2013-12-01

Australia's AuScope provides world class research infrastructure as a framework for understanding the structure and evolution of the Australian continent. Since it conception in 2005, Data Scientists have led the Grid and Interoperability component of AuScope. The AuScope Grid is responsible for the effective management, curation, preservation and analysis of earth science data across the many organisations collaborating in AuScope. During this journey much was learned about technology and architectures but even more about organisations and people, and the role of Data Scientists in the science ecosystem. With the AuScope Grid now in operation and resulting techniques and technologies now underpinning Australian Government initiatives in solid earth and environmental information, it is beneficial to reflect upon the journey and observe what has been learned in order to make data science routine. The role of the Data Scientist is a hybrid one, of not quite belonging and yet highly valued. With the skills to support domain scientists with data and computational needs and communicate across domains, yet not quite able to do the domain science itself. A bridge between two worlds, there is tremendous satisfaction from a job well done, but paradoxically it is also best when it is unnoticeable. In the years since AuScope started much has changed for the Data Scientist. Initially misunderstood, Data Scientists are now a recognisable part of the science landscape in Australia. Whilst the rewards and incentives are still catching up, there is wealth of knowledge on the technical and soft skills required and recognition of the need for Data Scientists. These will be shared from the AuScope journey so other pilgrims may progress well.

Earth's Rotation: A Challenging Problem in Mathematics and Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrándiz, José M.; Navarro, Juan F.; Escapa, Alberto; Getino, Juan

2015-01-01

A suitable knowledge of the orientation and motion of the Earth in space is a common need in various fields. That knowledge has been ever necessary to carry out astronomical observations, but with the advent of the space age, it became essential for making observations of satellites and predicting and determining their orbits, and for observing the Earth from space as well. Given the relevant role it plays in Space Geodesy, Earth rotation is considered as one of the three pillars of Geodesy, the other two being geometry and gravity. Besides, research on Earth rotation has fostered advances in many fields, such as Mathematics, Astronomy and Geophysics, for centuries. One remarkable feature of the problem is in the extreme requirements of accuracy that must be fulfilled in the near future, about a millimetre on the tangent plane to the planet surface, roughly speaking. That challenges all of the theories that have been devised and used to-date; the paper makes a short review of some of the most relevant methods, which can be envisaged as milestones in Earth rotation research, emphasizing the Hamiltonian approach developed by the authors. Some contemporary problems are presented, as well as the main lines of future research prospected by the International Astronomical Union/International Association of Geodesy Joint Working Group on Theory of Earth Rotation, created in 2013.

Field Geophysics at SAGE: Strategies for Effective Education

Science.gov (United States)

Braile, L. W.; Baldridge, W. S.; Jiracek, G. R.; Biehler, S.; Ferguson, J. F.; Pellerin, L.; McPhee, D. K.; Bedrosian, P. A.; Snelson, C. M.; Hasterok, D. P.

2011-12-01

SAGE (Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience) is a unique program of education and research in geophysical field methods for undergraduate and graduate students from any university and for professionals. The core program is held for 4 weeks each summer in New Mexico and for an additional week in the following academic year in San Diego for U.S. undergraduates supported by the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Since SAGE was initiated in 1983, 730 students have participated in the program. NSF REU funding for SAGE began in 1990 and 319 REU students have completed SAGE through 2011. The primary objectives of SAGE are to teach the major geophysical exploration methods (seismic, gravity, magnetics, electromagnetics); apply these methods to the solution of specific problems (environmental, archaeological, hydrologic, geologic structure and stratigraphy); gain experience in processing, modeling and interpretation of geophysical data; and integrate the geophysical models and interpretations with geology. Additional objectives of SAGE include conducting research on the Rio Grande rift of northern New Mexico, and providing information on geophysics careers and professional development experiences to SAGE participants. Successful education, field and research strategies that we have implemented over the years include: 1. learn by doing; 2. mix lecture/discussion, field work, data processing and analysis, modeling and interpretation, and presentation of results; 3. a two-tier team approach - method/technique oriented teams and interpretation/integration teams (where each team includes persons representing different methods), provides focus, in-depth study, opportunity for innovation, and promotes teamwork and a multi-disciplinary approach; 4. emphasis on presentations/reports - each team (and all team members) make presentation, each student completes a written report; 5. experiment design discussion - students help design field program and consider

Geophysical Methods for Investigating Ground-Water Recharge

Science.gov (United States)

Ferre, Ty P.A.; Binley, Andrew M.; Blasch, Kyle W.; Callegary, James B.; Crawford, Steven M.; Fink, James B.; Flint, Alan L.; Flint, Lorraine E.; Hoffmann, John P.; Izbicki, John A.; Levitt, Marc T.; Pool, Donald R.; Scanlon, Bridget R.

2007-01-01

While numerical modeling has revolutionized our understanding of basin-scale hydrologic processes, such models rely almost exclusively on traditional measurements?rainfall, streamflow, and water-table elevations?for calibration and testing. Model calibration provides initial estimates of ground-water recharge. Calibrated models are important yet crude tools for addressing questions about the spatial and temporal distribution of recharge. An inverse approach to recharge estimation is taken of necessity, due to inherent difficulties in making direct measurements of flow across the water table. Difficulties arise because recharging fluxes are typically small, even in humid regions, and because the location of the water table changes with time. Deep water tables in arid and semiarid regions make recharge monitoring especially difficult. Nevertheless, recharge monitoring must advance in order to improve assessments of ground-water recharge. Improved characterization of basin-scale recharge is critical for informed water-resources management. Difficulties in directly measuring recharge have prompted many efforts to develop indirect methods. The mass-balance approach of estimating recharge as the residual of generally much larger terms has persisted despite the use of increasing complex and finely gridded large-scale hydrologic models. Geophysical data pertaining to recharge rates, timing, and patterns have the potential to substantially improve modeling efforts by providing information on boundary conditions, by constraining model inputs, by testing simplifying assumptions, and by identifying the spatial and temporal resolutions needed to predict recharge to a specified tolerance in space and in time. Moreover, under certain conditions, geophysical measurements can yield direct estimates of recharge rates or changes in water storage, largely eliminating the need for indirect measures of recharge. This appendix presents an overview of physically based, geophysical methods

Review of geophysical characterization methods used at the Hanford Site

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

GV Last; DG Horton

2000-03-23

This paper presents a review of geophysical methods used at Hanford in two parts: (1) shallow surface-based geophysical methods and (2) borehole geophysical methods. This review was not intended to be ``all encompassing'' but should represent the vast majority (>90% complete) of geophysical work conducted onsite and aimed at hazardous waste investigations in the vadose zone and/or uppermost groundwater aquifers. This review did not cover geophysical methods aimed at large-scale geologic structures or seismicity and, in particular, did not include those efforts conducted in support of the Basalt Waste Isolation Program. This review focused primarily on the more recent efforts.

History of Solid Rockets

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Rebecca

2017-01-01

Solid rockets are of interest to the space program because they are commonly used as boosters that provide the additional thrust needed for the space launch vehicle to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth. Larger, more advanced solid rockets allow for space launch vehicles with larger payload capacities, enabling mankind to reach new depths of space. This presentation will discuss, in detail, the history of solid rockets. The history begins with the invention and origin of the solid rocket, and then goes into the early uses and design of the solid rocket. The evolution of solid rockets is depicted by a description of how solid rockets changed and improved and how they were used throughout the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Modern uses of the solid rocket include the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) on the Space Shuttle and the solid rockets used on current space launch vehicles. The functions and design of the SRB and the advancements in solid rocket technology since the use of the SRB are discussed as well. Common failure modes and design difficulties are discussed as well.

Comparison of the Tangent Linear Properties of Tracer Transport Schemes Applied to Geophysical Problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Kent, James; Holdaway, Daniel

2015-01-01

A number of geophysical applications require the use of the linearized version of the full model. One such example is in numerical weather prediction, where the tangent linear and adjoint versions of the atmospheric model are required for the 4DVAR inverse problem. The part of the model that represents the resolved scale processes of the atmosphere is known as the dynamical core. Advection, or transport, is performed by the dynamical core. It is a central process in many geophysical applications and is a process that often has a quasi-linear underlying behavior. However, over the decades since the advent of numerical modelling, significant effort has gone into developing many flavors of high-order, shape preserving, nonoscillatory, positive definite advection schemes. These schemes are excellent in terms of transporting the quantities of interest in the dynamical core, but they introduce nonlinearity through the use of nonlinear limiters. The linearity of the transport schemes used in Goddard Earth Observing System version 5 (GEOS-5), as well as a number of other schemes, is analyzed using a simple 1D setup. The linearized version of GEOS-5 is then tested using a linear third order scheme in the tangent linear version.

Sun-Earth System Interaction studies over Vietnam: an international cooperative project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Amory-Mazaudier

2006-12-01

Full Text Available During many past decades, scientists from various countries have studied separately the atmospheric motions in the lower atmosphere, in the Earth's magnetic field, in the magnetospheric currents, etc. All of these separate studies lead today to the global study of the Sun and Earth connections, and as a consequence, new scientific programs (IHY- International Heliophysical Year, CAWSES- Climate and Weather in the Sun-Earth System are defined, in order to assume this new challenge. In the past, many scientists did not have the possibility to collect data at the same time in the various latitude and longitude sectors. Now, with the progress of geophysical sciences in many developing countries, it is possible to have access to worldwide data sets. This paper presents the particularities of geophysical parameters measured by the Vietnamese instrument networks. It introduces a cooperative Vietnamese-IGRGEA (International Geophysical Research Group Europe Africa project, and presents, for the first time, to the international community, the geophysical context of Vietnam. Concerning the ionosphere: since 1963, during four solar cycles, the ionosonde at Phu Thuy (North Vietnam was operating. The Phu Thuy data exhibits the common features for the ionospheric parameters, previously observed in other longitude and latitude sectors. The critical frequencies of the E, F1 and F2 ionospheric layers follow the variation of the sunspot cycle. F2 and E critical frequencies also exhibit an annual variation. The first maps of TEC made with data from GPS receivers recently installed in Vietnam illustrate the regional equatorial pattern, i.e. two maxima of electronic density at 15° N and 15° S from the magnetic equator and a trough of density at the magnetic equator. These features illustrate the equatorial fountain effect. Concerning the Earth's magnetic field: a strong amplitude of the equatorial electrojet was first observed by the CHAMP satellite at the height

Google Under-the-Earth: Seeing Beneath Stonehenge using Google Earth - a Tool for Public Engagement and the Dissemination of Archaeological Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kate Welham

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on the use of Google Earth as a tool to facilitate public engagement and dissemination of data. It examines a case study based around one of the largest archaeological investigations of the Stonehenge landscape, the Stonehenge Riverside Project. A bespoke layer for Google Earth was developed to communicate the discoveries of the research by creating an engaging, interactive and informative multimedia application that could be viewed by users across the world. The article describes the creation of the layer: Google Under-the-Earth: Seeing Beneath Stonehenge, and the public uptake and response to this. The project was supported by a Google Research Award, and working alongside Google enabled a 'free to download' platform for users to view the data within in the form of Google Earth, as well as the integration of a variety of applications including: Google SketchUp, YouTube, and Flickr. In addition, the integration of specialist software, such as Esri ArcGIS, was fundamental to the integration of the spatial data gathered by the project. Methodologies used to create the application are documented here, including how different outputs were integrated such as geophysical survey, 3D reconstructions and landscape tours. The future possibilities for utilising Google Earth for public engagement and understanding in the discipline are examined.

Report of the Cerro Chato ultrabasic geophysical studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cicalese, H.; Mari, C.; Lema, F.; Valverde, C.; Haut, R.

1987-01-01

This report refers to the obtained results of geophysical practiced during the year 1985 in the area of the ultrabasic of Cerro Chato, located in the area called Puntas del Malbajar in Durazno province. The aim was rehearsed an answer of an ultrabasic behaviour of the geophysical prospecting methods.They were carried out studies in magnetometry, induced polarization, electromagnetism and resistivity measurements in electric vertical sound. As well conclusions as recommendations express that applied geophysical methods allow to make ultrabasic charts or maps.

Application of nuclear-geophysical methods to reserves estimation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bessonova, T.B.; Karpenko, I.A.

1980-01-01

On the basis of the analysis of reports dealing with calculations of mineral reserves considered are shortcomings in using nuclear-geophysical methods and in assessment of the reliability of geophysical sampling. For increasing efficiency of nuclear-geophysical investigations while prospecting ore deposits, it is advisable to introduce them widely instead of traditional geological sampling methods. For this purpose it is necessary to increase sensitivity and accuracy of radioactivity logging methods, to provide determination of certain elements in ores by these methods

Groundwater geophysics. A tool for hydrology. 2. ed.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kirsch, Reinhard (ed.) [Landesamt fuer Natur und Umwelt, Flintbek (Germany). Abt. Geologie/Boden

2009-07-01

Access to clean water is a human right and a basic requirement for economic development. The safest kind of water supply is the use of groundwater. Since groundwater normally has a natural protection against pollution by the covering layers, only minor water treatment is required. Detailed knowledge on the extent, hydraulic properties, and vulnerability of groundwater reservoirs is necessary to enable a sustainable use of the resources. This book addresses students and professionals in Geophysics and Hydrogeology. The aim of the authors is to demonstrate the application of geophysical techniques to provide a database for hydrogeological decisions like drillhole positioning or action plans for groundwater protection. Physical fundamentals and technical aspects of modern geophysical reconnaissance methods are discussed in the first part of the book. Beside 'classical' techniques like seismic, resistivity methods, radar, magnetic, and gravity methods emphasis is on relatively new techniques like complex geoelectric, radiomagnetotellurics, vertical groundwater flow determination, or nuclear magnetic resonance. An overview of direct push techniques is given which can fill the gap between surface and borehole geophysics. The applications of these techniques for hydrogeological purposes are illustrated in the second part of the book. The investigation of pore aquifers is demonstrated by case histories from Denmark, Germany, and Egypt. Examples for the mapping of fracture zone and karst aquifers as well as for saltwater intrusions leading to reduced groundwater quality are shown. The assessment of hydraulic conductivities of aquifers by geophysical techniques is discussed with respect to the use of porosity - hydraulic conductivity relations and to geophysical techniques like NMR or SIP which are sensitive to the effective porosity of the material. The classification of groundwater protective layers for vulnerability maps as required by the EU water framework

How much uranium is in the Earth? Predictions for geoneutrinos at KamLAND

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fiorentini, Gianni; Lissia, Marcello; Mantovani, Fabio; Vannucci, Riccardo

2005-01-01

Geo-neutrino detection can determine the amount of long-lived radioactive elements within our planet, thus providing a direct test of the bulk silicate Earth (BSE) model and fixing the radiogenic contribution to the terrestrial heat. We present a prediction for the geo-neutrino signal at KamLAND as a function of the uranium mass in the Earth. The prediction is based on global mass balance, supplemented by a detailed geochemical and geophysical study of the region near the detector. The prediction is weakly dependent on mantle modeling. If BSE is correct, uranium geo-neutrinos will produce between 25 and 35 events per year and 10 32 protons at Kamioka

Application of surface geophysics to ground-water investigations

Science.gov (United States)

Zohdy, Adel A.R.; Eaton, Gordon P.; Mabey, Don R.

1974-01-01

This manual reviews the standard methods of surface geophysics applicable to ground-water investigations. It covers electrical methods, seismic and gravity methods, and magnetic methods. The general physical principles underlying each method and its capabilities and limitations are described. Possibilities for non-uniqueness of interpretation of geophysical results are noted. Examples of actual use of the methods are given to illustrate applications and interpretation in selected geohydrologic environments. The objective of the manual is to provide the hydrogeologist with a sufficient understanding of the capabilities, imitations, and relative cost of geophysical methods to make sound decisions as to when to use of these methods is desirable. The manual also provides enough information for the hydrogeologist to work with a geophysicist in designing geophysical surveys that differentiate significant hydrogeologic changes.

Axial focusing of energy from a hypervelocity impact on earth

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boslough, M.B.; Chael, E.P.; Trucano, T.G.; Crawford, D.A.

1994-12-01

We have performed computational simulations to determine how energy from a large hypervelocity impact on the Earth`s surface would couple to its interior. Because of the first-order axial symmetry of both the impact energy source and the stress-wave velocity structure of the Earth, a disproportionate amount of energy is dissipated along the axis defined by the impact point and its antipode (point opposite the impact). For a symmetric and homogeneous Earth model, all the impact energy that is radiated as seismic waves into the Earth at a given takeoff angle (ray parameter), independent of azimuthal direction, is refocused (minus attenuation) on the axis of symmetry, regardless of the number of reflections and refractions it has experienced. Material on or near the axis of symmetry experiences more strain cycles with much greater amplitude than elsewhere, and therefore experiences more irreversible heating. The focusing is most intense in the upper mantle, within the asthenosphere, where seismic energy is most effectively converted to heat. For a sufficiently energetic impact, this mechanism might generate enough local heating to create an isostatic instability leading to uplift, possibly resulting in rifting, volcanism, or other rearrangement of the interior dynamics of the planet. These simulations demonstrate how hypervelocity impact energy can be transported to the Earth`s interior, supporting the possibility of a causal link between large impacts on Earth and major internally-driven geophysical processes.

Geophysical background and as-built target characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allen, J.W.

1994-09-01

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Grand Junction Projects Office (GJPO) has provided a facility for DOE, other Government agencies, and the private sector to evaluate and document the utility of specific geophysical measurement techniques for detecting and defining cultural and environmental targets. This facility is the Rabbit Valley Geophysics Performance Evaluation Range (GPER). Geophysical surveys prior to the fiscal year (FY) 1994 construction of new test cells showed the primary test area to be relatively homogeneous and free from natural or man-made artifacts, which would generate spurious responses in performance evaluation data. Construction of nine new cell areas in Rabbit Valley was completed in June 1994 and resulted in the emplacement of approximately 150 discrete targets selected for their physical and electrical properties. These targets and their geophysical environment provide a broad range of performance evaluation parameters from ''very easy to detect'' to ''challenging to the most advanced systems.'' Use of nonintrusive investigative techniques represents a significant improvement over intrusive characterization methods, such as drilling or excavation, because there is no danger of exposing personnel to possible hazardous materials and no risk of releasing or spreading contamination through the characterization activity. Nonintrusive geophysical techniques provide the ability to infer near-surface structure and waste characteristics from measurements of physical properties associated with those targets

Integrated geophysical characterisation of Sunyani municipal solid waste disposal site using magnetic gradiometry, magnetic susceptibility survey and electrical resistivity tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Appiah, Isaac; Wemegah, David Dotse; Asare, Van-Dycke Sarpong; Danuor, Sylvester K.; Forson, Eric Dominic

2018-06-01

Non-invasive geophysical investigation using magnetic gradiometry, magnetic susceptibility survey and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) was carried out on the Sunyani Municipal Assembly (SMA) solid waste disposal (SWD) site. The study was aimed at delineating the physical boundaries and the area extent of the waste deposit, mapping the distribution of the waste at the site, detecting and delineating zones of leachate contamination and its preferential migration pathways beneath the waste deposit and its surroundings. The results of both magnetic susceptibility and gradiometric methods displayed in anomaly maps clearly delineated the physical boundaries of the waste deposit with an approximate area extent of 82,650 m2 that are characterised by high magnetic susceptibilities between 426 × 10-5 SI and 9890 × 10-5 SI. They also revealed high magnetic anomalies erratically distributed within the waste deposit attributable to its heterogeneous and uncontrolled nature. The high magnetic anomalies outside the designated waste boundaries were also attributed to indiscriminate deposition of the waste. Similarly, the ERT sections delineated and characterised zones of leachate contamination beneath the waste body and its close surroundings as well as pathways for leachate migration with low resistivity signatures up to 43.9 Ωm. In spite of the successes reported herein using the ERT, this research also revealed that the ERT is less effective in estimating the thickness of the waste deposit in unlined SWD sites due to leachate infiltration into the ground beneath it that masks the resistivities of the top level ground and makes it indistinguishable from the waste body.

Rapid geophysical surveyor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roybal, L.G.; Carpenter, G.S.; Josten, N.E.

1993-01-01

The Rapid Geophysical Surveyor (RGS) is a system designed to rapidly and economically collect closely-spaced geophysical data used for characterization of Department of Energy (DOE) waste sites. Geophysical surveys of waste sites are an important first step in the remediation and closure of these sites; especially older sties where historical records are inaccurate and survey benchmarks have changed due to refinements in coordinate controls and datum changes. Closely-spaced data are required to adequately differentiate pits, trenches, and soil vault rows whose edges may be only a few feet from each other. A prototype vehicle designed to collect magnetic field data was built at the Idaho national Engineering Laboratory (INEL) during the summer of 1992. The RGS was one of several projects funded by the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration (BWID) program. This vehicle was demonstrated at the Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA) within the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) on the INEL in September of 1992. Magnetic data were collected over two areas in the SDA, with a total survey area of about 1.7 acres. Data were collected at a nominal density of 2 1/2 inches along survey lines spaced 1 foot apart. Over 350,000 data points were collected over a 6 day period corresponding to about 185 man-days using conventional ground survey techniques. This report documents the design and demonstration of the RGS concept including the presentation of magnetic data collected at the SDA. The surveys were able to show pit and trench boundaries and determine details of their spatial orientation never before achieved

Observation of the Earth system from space

CERN Document Server

Flury, Jakob; Reigber, Christoph; Rothacher, Markus; Boedecker, Gerd

2006-01-01

In the recent years, space-based observation methods have led to a subst- tially improved understanding of Earth system. Geodesy and geophysics are contributing to this development by measuring the temporal and spatial va- ations of the Earth's shape, gravity ?eld, and magnetic ?eld, as well as at- sphere density. In the frame of the GermanR&D programmeGEOTECHNO- LOGIEN,researchprojectshavebeen launchedin2002relatedto the satellite missions CHAMP, GRACE and ESA's planned mission GOCE, to comp- mentary terrestrial and airborne sensor systems and to consistent and stable high-precision global reference systems for satellite and other techniques. In the initial 3-year phase of the research programme (2002-2004), new gravity ?eld models have been computed from CHAMP and GRACE data which outperform previous models in accuracy by up to two orders of m- nitude for the long and medium wavelengths. A special highlight is the - termination of seasonal gravity variations caused by changes in continental water masses...

Transient waves in visco-elastic media

CERN Document Server

Ricker, Norman

1977-01-01

Developments in Solid Earth Geophysics 10: Transient Waves in Visco-Elastic Media deals with the propagation of transient elastic disturbances in visco-elastic media. More specifically, it explores the visco-elastic behavior of a medium, whether gaseous, liquid, or solid, for very-small-amplitude disturbances. This volume provides a historical overview of the theory of the propagation of elastic waves in solid bodies, along with seismic prospecting and the nature of seismograms. It also discusses the seismic experiments, the behavior of waves propagated in accordance with the Stokes wave

Origin of the Earth's Electromagnetic Field Based on the Pulsating Mantle Hypothesis (PMH)

Science.gov (United States)

Gholibeigian, Hassan

2017-11-01

In PMH, the Earth's Inner Core's Dislocation (ICD) and Outer Core's Bulge (OCB) phenomena are generated by unbalanced gravitational fields of the Sun and Moon on the Earth. Distance between the Earth's center and inner core's center varies permanently in magnitude and direction inside two hemispheres. Geometrical loci of the inner core's center has the shape of back and force spiral cone in each hemisphere. In other words, the inner core is rotating fast in the outer core inverse of the Earth's rotation a round per day. This mechanism speed up the processes inside the core and generates a Large Scale Forced Convection System (LSFCS) inverse of the Earth's rotation in the core. The LSFCS is the origin of the Earth's electromagnetic field. The LSFCS generates huge mass transfer and momentum of inertia inside the Earth too. The inner core's axis which is the Earth's electromagnetic axis doesn't cross the Earth's geophysical axis and rotates around it per day. The mechanism of this LSFCS has diurnal, monthly and yearly cycles. These cycles are sources of the Earth's electromagnetic field variability. Direction of the variable Earth's magnetic field lines from the South Pole (hemisphere) to the sky and 146 seconds/years apparent solar day length variations can be two observable factors for this mechanism. This dynamic system may occurred inside the other planets like the Sun and the Jupiter.

[The gravity field of the Earth: geophysical factor of gerontology (The Vorobeichikov effect)].

Science.gov (United States)

Shapovalov, S N

2016-01-01

The results of investigations of the growth in vitro of Escherichia coli M-17, obtained in the processing of V. M. Vorobeichikov observational data during the movement of the scientific expedition ship «Akademik Fedorov» from St. Petersburg to Antarctica and back, in the period from 13.11.2002 on 26.05.2003 (48th Russian Antarctic expedition). The findings based on the growth in vitro of Escherichia coli from changes in geographical location on a planetary scale, that doesn't eliminate the dependence of other species of microorganisms from the spatial position in the gravity field of the Earth. It is established that the duration of the lag phase of Escherichia coli in the Equatorial zone close to its duration in the high-latitude zone and Antarctic, however, the duration of the lag phase at the equator and the Antarctic corresponds to the time of the lag phase at the time of the Central phase of the lunar Eclipse. The conclusion about high sensitivity in vitro of Escherichia coli to the field of gravity of the Earth, and to syzigium events.

MAKE SUPER-EARTHS, NOT JUPITERS: ACCRETING NEBULAR GAS ONTO SOLID CORES AT 0.1 AU AND BEYOND

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Eve J.; Chiang, Eugene; Ormel, Chris W., E-mail: evelee@berkeley.edu, E-mail: echiang@astro.berkeley.edu, E-mail: ormel@berkeley.edu [Department of Astronomy, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States)

2014-12-20

Close-in super-Earths having radii 1-4 R {sub ⊕} may possess hydrogen atmospheres comprising a few percent by mass of their rocky cores. We determine the conditions under which such atmospheres can be accreted by cores from their parent circumstellar disks. Accretion from the nebula is problematic because it is too efficient: we find that 10 M {sub ⊕} cores embedded in solar metallicity disks tend to undergo runaway gas accretion and explode into Jupiters, irrespective of orbital location. The threat of runaway is especially dire at ∼0.1 AU, where solids may coagulate on timescales orders of magnitude shorter than gas clearing times; thus nascent atmospheres on close-in orbits are unlikely to be supported against collapse by planetesimal accretion. The time to runaway accretion is well approximated by the cooling time of the atmosphere's innermost convective zone, whose extent is controlled by where H{sub 2} dissociates. Insofar as the temperatures characterizing H{sub 2} dissociation are universal, timescales for core instability tend not to vary with orbital distance—and to be alarmingly short for 10 M {sub ⊕} cores. Nevertheless, in the thicket of parameter space, we identify two scenarios, not mutually exclusive, that can reproduce the preponderance of percent-by-mass atmospheres for super-Earths at ∼0.1 AU, while still ensuring the formation of Jupiters at ≳ 1 AU. Scenario (a): planets form in disks with dust-to-gas ratios that range from ∼20× solar at 0.1 AU to ∼2× solar at 5 AU. Scenario (b): the final assembly of super-Earth cores from mergers of proto-cores—a process that completes quickly at ∼0.1 AU once begun—is delayed by gas dynamical friction until just before disk gas dissipates completely. Both scenarios predict that the occurrence rate for super-Earths versus orbital distance, and the corresponding rate for Jupiters, should trend in opposite directions, as the former population is transformed into the latter: as

Women in EPOS: the role of women in a large pan-European Research Infrastructure for Solid Earth sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Calignano, Elisa; Freda, Carmela; Baracchi, Laura

2017-04-01

Women are outnumbered by men in geosciences senior research positions, but what is the situation if we consider large pan-European Research Infrastructures? With this contribution we want to show an analysis of the role of women in the implementation of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS): a planned research infrastructure for European Solid Earth sciences, integrating national and transnational research infrastructures to enable innovative multidisciplinary research. EPOS involves 256 national research infrastructures, 47 partners (universities and research institutes) from 25 European countries and 4 international organizations. The EPOS integrated platform demands significant coordination between diverse solid Earth disciplinary communities, national research infrastructures and the policies and initiatives they drive, geoscientists and information technologists. The EPOS architecture takes into account governance, legal, financial and technical issues and is designed so that the enterprise works as a single, but distributed, sustainable research infrastructure. A solid management structure is vital for the successful implementation and sustainability of EPOS. The internal organization relies on community-specific Working Packages (WPs), Transversal WPs in charge of the overall EPOS integration and implementation, several governing, executive and advisory bodies, a Project Management Office (PMO) and the Project Coordinator. Driven by the timely debate on gender balance and commitment of the European Commission to promote gender equality in research and innovation, we decided to conduct a mapping exercise on a project that crosses European national borders and that brings together diverse geoscience disciplines under one management structure. We present an analysis of women representation in decision-making positions in each EPOS Working Package (WP Leader, proxy, legal, financial and IT contact persons), in the Boards and Councils and in the PMO

Towards Direct Manipulation and Remixing of Massive Data: The EarthServer Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Baumann, P.

2012-04-01

Complex analytics on "big data" is one of the core challenges of current Earth science, generating strong requirements for on-demand processing and fil tering of massive data sets. Issues under discussion include flexibility, performance, scalability, and the heterogeneity of the information types invo lved. In other domains, high-level query languages (such as those offered by database systems) have proven successful in the quest for flexible, scalable data access interfaces to massive amounts of data. However, due to the lack of support for many of the Earth science data structures, database systems are only used for registries and catalogs, but not for the bulk of spatio-temporal data. One core information category in this field is given by coverage data. ISO 19123 defines coverages, simplifying, as a representation of a "space-time varying phenomenon". This model can express a large class of Earth science data structures, including rectified and non-rectified rasters, curvilinear grids, point clouds, TINs, general meshes, trajectories, surfaces, and solids. This abstract definition, which is too high-level to establish interoperability, is concretized by the OGC GML 3.2.1 Application Schema for Coverages Standard into an interoperable representation. The OGC Web Coverage Processing Service (WCPS) Standard defines a declarative query language on multi-dimensional raster-type coverages, such as 1D in-situ sensor timeseries, 2D EO imagery, 3D x/y/t image time series and x/y/z geophysical data, 4D x/y/z/t climate and ocean data. Hence, important ingredients for versatile coverage retrieval are given - however, this potential has not been fully unleashed by service architectures up to now. The EU FP7-INFRA project EarthServer, launched in September 2011, aims at enabling standards-based on-demand analytics over the Web for Earth science data based on an integration of W3C XQuery for alphanumeric data and OGC-WCPS for raster data. Ultimately, EarthServer will support

Geophysics for deposits and civil engineering; Geophysique de gisement et de genie civil

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mari, J.L. [Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP), 92 - Rueil-Malmaison (France)]|[Ecole Nationale Superieure du Petrole et des Moteurs (ENSPM), 92 - Rueil-Malmaison (France); Arens, G. [ELF Aquitaine Production (France); Chapellier, D. [Lausanne Univ. (Switzerland). Faculte des Sciences; Gaudiani, P. [SEMM, Societe Etude Mesure Maintenance (France)

1998-10-01

This book is devoted to Earth science specialists who will have to use geophysical methods applied to oil and gas deposit studies and to civil engineering studies. It comprises 11 chapters dealing with: the geotechnical problems and the methodology of their study (basement depth, digging, dynamic modules, cavities, foundations, water inflows, refraction and high resolution reflexion shooting, well logging, drilled cores analysis and petrophysical measurements), deposits and civil engineering (heterogeneities, study of deposits, scale problems, train of deposit and geophysical studies), theoretical recalls of seismic surveys and acoustics (wave propagation, mechanical properties of rocks, in-situ conditions and laboratory simulations), reflexion shooting (acquisition, use of surface waves, data processing, civil engineering applications), refraction shooting (underground imaging, recommendations and interpretation of profiles, geological models, applications), well seismic surveys (vertical profile, imaging, well correlations), acoustic logging (tools, data representation, acquisition of acoustic parameters, sonic logging and time-depth relationship, synthetic seismograms, acoustic reflexion imaging, characterisation of formations using Stoneley waves), examples of civil engineering studies (deterministic, statistical and evolutive approaches, structural and stratigraphic interpretation of seismic data, hydrocarbon indicators, statistics and data analysis), radar (electromagnetic wave propagation, surface use, use in drilling), well logging in geotechnical studies (deposit studies, civil engineering studies), well logging and soil mechanics (preciseness, estimation of elastic modules). (J.S.) 231 refs.

Waterproofing improvement of radioactive waste asphalt solid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adachi, Katsuhiko; Yamaguchi, Takashi; Ikeoka, Akira.

1981-01-01

Purpose: To improve the waterproofing of asphalt solid by adding an alkaline earth metal salt and, further, paraffin, into radioactive liquid waste when processing asphalt solidification of the radioactive liquid waste. Method: Before processing molten asphalt solidification of radioactive liquid waste, soluble salts of alkaline earth metal such as calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, or the like is added to the radioactive liquid waste. Paraffin having a melting point of higher than 60 0 C, for example, is added to the asphalt, and waterproofing can be remarkably improved. The waste asphalt solid thus fabricated can prevent the swelling thereof, and can improve its waterproofing. (Yoshihara, H.)

Geophysical investigations in Jordan

Science.gov (United States)

Kovach, R.L.; Andreasen, G.E.; Gettings, M.E.; El-Kaysi, K.

1990-01-01

A number of geophysical investigations have been undertaken in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to provide data for understanding the tectonic framework, the pattern of seismicity, earthquake hazards and geothermal resources of the country. Both the historical seismic record and the observed recent seismicity point to the dominance of the Dead Sea Rift as the main locus of seismic activity but significant branching trends and gaps in the seismicity pattern are also seen. A wide variety of focal plane solutions are observed emphasizing the complex pattern of fault activity in the vicinity of the rift zone. Geophysical investigations directed towards the geothermal assessment of the prominent thermal springs of Zerga Ma'in and Zara are not supportive of the presence of a crustal magmatic source. ?? 1990.

WAVE TECTONICS OF THE EARTH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatiana Yu. Tveretinova

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In the Earth's lithosphere, wavy alternation of positive and negative heterochronous structures is revealed; such structures are variable in ranks and separated by vergence zones of fractures and folds. In the vertical profile of the lithosphere, alternating are layers characterized by relatively plastic or fragile rheological properties and distinguished by different states of stress. During the Earth’s evolution, epochs of compression and extension are cyclically repeated, including planetary-scale phenomena which are manifested by fluctuating changes of the planet’s volume. Migration of geological and geophysical (geodynamic processes takes place at the Earth's surface and in its interior. The concept of the wave structure and evolution of the Earth's lithosphere provides explanations to the abovementioned regularities. Wavy nature of tectonic structures of the lithosphere, the cyclic recurrence of migration and geological processes in space and time can be described in terms of the multiple-order wave geodynamics of the Earth's lithosphere that refers to periodical variations of the state of stress. Effects of structure-forming tectonic forces are determined by «interference» of tangential and radial stresses of the Earth. The tangential stresses, which occur primarily due to the rotational regime of the planet, cause transformations of the Earth’s shape, redistributions of its substance in depths, the westward drift of the rock mass in its upper levels, and changes of structural deformation plans. The radial stresses, which are largely impacted by gravity, determine the gravitational differentiation of the substance, vertical flattening and sub-horizontal flow of the rock masses, and associated fold-rupture deformation. Under the uniform momentum geodynamic concept proposed by [Vikulin, Tveritinova, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008], it is possible to provide consistent descriptions of seismic and volcanic, tectonic and geological processes

Physics and Chemistry of Earth Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Navrotsky, Alexandra

1994-11-01

Stressing the fundamental solid state behavior of minerals, and emphasizing both theory and experiment, this text surveys the physics and chemistry of earth materials. The author begins with a systematic tour of crystal chemistry of both simple and complex structures (with completely new structural drawings) and discusses how to obtain structural and thermodynamic information experimentally. Dr. Navrotsky also reviews the quantitative concepts of chemical bonding--band theory, molecular orbit and ionic models. She then covers physical properties and relates microscopic features to macroscopic thermodynamic behavior and treats high pressure phase transitions, amorphous materials and solid state reactions. The author concludes with a look at the interface between mineral physics and materials science. Highly illustrated throughout, this book fills the gap between undergraduate texts and specialized review volumes and is appropriate for students and researchers in earth science and materials science.

Geophysical aspects of underground fluid dynamics and mineral transformation process

Science.gov (United States)

Khramchenkov, Maxim; Khramchenkov, Eduard

2014-05-01

components, heat release and absorption, phase transitions, rock destruction occurs. Extensive usage of computational resources in limits of traditional models of the mechanics of porous media cannot guarantee full correctness of obtained models and results. The present work is dedicated to the retrieval of new ways to formulate and construct such models. It was shown that in some important cases there is a governing equation of non-linear diffusion equation type (well-known Fisher equation). In addition, some geophysical aspects of filtration process in usual non-swelling soils, swelling porous rocks and coupled process of consolidation and chemical interaction between fluid and skeleton material, including earth quakes, are considered.

The Role and Evolution of NASA's Earth Science Data Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ramapriyan, H. K.

2015-01-01

One of the three strategic goals of NASA is to Advance understanding of Earth and develop technologies to improve the quality of life on our home planet (NASA strategic plan 2014). NASA's Earth Science Data System (ESDS) Program directly supports this goal. NASA has been launching satellites for civilian Earth observations for over 40 years, and collecting data from various types of instruments. Especially since 1990, with the start of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Program, which was a part of the Mission to Planet Earth, the observations have been significantly more extensive in their volumes, variety and velocity. Frequent, global observations are made in support of Earth system science. An open data policy has been in effect since 1990, with no period of exclusive access and non-discriminatory access to data, free of charge. NASA currently holds nearly 10 petabytes of Earth science data including satellite, air-borne, and ground-based measurements and derived geophysical parameter products in digital form. Millions of users around the world are using NASA data for Earth science research and applications. In 2014, over a billion data files were downloaded by users from NASAs EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS), a system with 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) across the U. S. As a core component of the ESDS Program, EOSDIS has been operating since 1994, and has been evolving continuously with advances in information technology. The ESDS Program influences as well as benefits from advances in Earth Science Informatics. The presentation will provide an overview of the role and evolution of NASAs ESDS Program.

The 'glass earth' - geochemical frontiers in exploration through cover

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carr, G.; Denton, G.; Giblin, A.; Korsch, M.; Andrew, A.; Whitford, D.

1999-01-01

'Glass Earth' represents a number of current and planned projects within CSIRO aimed at making 'transparent' the top 1000 m of the Earth's crust It builds upon current technologies developed within a number of CSIRO divisions as well as the Australian Mineral Exploration Technologies CRC (AMET CRC), the Australian Geodynamics CRC (AG CRC) and the CRC for Landscape Evolution and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME). New geophysical and geochemical technologies will be developed to complement these, together with new capabilities in modelling, data integration and visualisation, including hydrogeochemistry, hydrogeology, surface geochemistry and isotope geochemistry, modelling of chemical, fluid and heat flows in rock and regolith, advanced visualisation and data fusion. This paper describes some recent work in the field of isotope geochemistry, with the principal aim of 'seeing through' cover to understand basement geology and detect hidden ore systems

Study of atmospheric and oceanic excitations in the motion of Earth's spin axis in space

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Vondrák, Jan; Ron, Cyril

2010-01-01

Roč. 7, č. 1 (2010), s. 19-28 ISSN 1214-9705 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LC506; GA ČR GA205/08/0908 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10030501 Keywords : Earth orientation * nutation * geophysical excitation * VLBI Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics Impact factor: 0.452, year: 2010 http://www.irsm.cas.c

Geophysical fluid dynamics

CERN Document Server

Pedlosky, Joseph

1982-01-01

The content of this book is based, largely, on the core curriculum in geophys­ ical fluid dynamics which land my colleagues in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at The University of Chicago have taught for the past decade. Our purpose in developing a core curriculum was to provide to advanced undergraduates and entering graduate students a coherent and systematic introduction to the theory of geophysical fluid dynamics. The curriculum and the outline of this book were devised to form a sequence of courses of roughly one and a half academic years (five academic quarters) in length. The goal of the sequence is to help the student rapidly advance to the point where independent study and research are practical expectations. It quickly became apparent that several topics (e. g. , some aspects of potential theory) usually thought of as forming the foundations of a fluid-dynamics curriculum were merely classical rather than essential and could be, however sadly, dispensed with for our purposes. At the same tim...

Geophysical fluid dynamics

CERN Document Server

Pedlosky, Joseph

1979-01-01

The content of this book is based, largely, on the core curriculum in geophys­ ical fluid dynamics which I and my colleagues in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at The University of Chicago have taught for the past decade. Our purpose in developing a core curriculum was to provide to advanced undergraduates and entering graduate students a coherent and systematic introduction to the theory of geophysical fluid dynamics. The curriculum and the outline of this book were devised to form a sequence of courses of roughly one and a half academic years (five academic quarters) in length. The goal of the sequence is to help the student rapidly advance to the point where independent study and research are practical expectations. It quickly became apparent that several topics (e. g. , some aspects of potential theory) usually thought of as forming the foundations of a fluid-dynamics curriculum were merely classical rather than essential and could be, however sadly, dispensed with for our purposes. At the same ti...

Responsibilities, opportunities and challenges in geophysical exploration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rytle, R.J.

1982-01-01

Geophysical exploration for engineering purposes is conducted to decrease the risk in encountering site uncertainties in construction of underground facilities. Current responsibilities, opportunities and challenges for those with geophysical expertise are defined. These include: replacing the squiggly line format, developing verification sites for method evaluations, applying knowledge engineering and assuming responsibility for crucial national problems involving rock mechanics expertise

Global status of and prospects for protection of terrestrial geophysical diversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanderson, Eric W; Segan, Daniel B; Watson, James E M

2015-06-01

Conservation of representative facets of geophysical diversity may help conserve biological diversity as the climate changes. We conducted a global classification of terrestrial geophysical diversity and analyzed how land protection varies across geophysical diversity types. Geophysical diversity was classified in terms of soil type, elevation, and biogeographic realm and then compared to the global distribution of protected areas in 2012. We found that 300 (45%) of 672 broad geophysical diversity types currently meet the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target 11 of 17% terrestrial areal protection, which suggested that efforts to implement geophysical diversity conservation have a substantive basis on which to build. However, current protected areas were heavily biased toward high elevation and low fertility soils. We assessed 3 scenarios of protected area expansion and found that protection focused on threatened species, if fully implemented, would also protect an additional 29% of geophysical diversity types, ecoregional-focused protection would protect an additional 24%, and a combined scenario would protect an additional 42%. Future efforts need to specifically target low-elevation sites with productive soils for protection and manage for connectivity among geophysical diversity types. These efforts may be hampered by the sheer number of geophysical diversity facets that the world contains, which makes clear target setting and prioritization an important next step. © 2015 Society for Conservation Biology.

Studies on the rare earth complexes with pyridine derivatives and their N-oxide(II) - Synthesis and properties of fluorescent solid complexes of samarium, europium, gadolium and terbium chlorides with 2,2'-bipyridine-N,N'-dioxide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Minyu, T.; Ning, T.; Yingli, Z.; Jiyuan, B.

1985-01-01

The solid complexes of rare earth nitrates perchlorates and thiocyanates with 2,2'-bipyridine-N,N'-dioxide (bipyO/sub 2/) have been reported. However, the corresponding complexes of other rear earth chlorides have not been investigated except lanthanum, cerium and yttrium. As an extension of our previous work on the synthesis of complexes of praseodymium and neodymium chlorides wiht bipoyO/sub 2/, the authors have now prepared fluorescent solid complexes of samarium, europium, gadolium and terbium chlorides with biphyO/sub 2/, using methanol as a reaction medium. The new synthesized compounds have been identified by means of elemental analysis, infrared spectrometry, conductometry, differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravimetry (TG) and X-ray powder diffraction

Axial focusing of energy from a hypervelocity impact on earth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boslough, M.B.; Chael, E.P.; Trucano, T.G.; Crawford, D.A.

1994-01-01

We have performed computational simulations to determine how energy from a large hypervelocity impact on the Earth's surface would couple to its interior. Because of the first-order axial symmetry of both the impact energy source and the stress-wave velocity structure of the Earth, a disproportionate amount of energy is dissipated along the axis defined by the impact point and its antipode (point opposite the impact). For a symmetric and homogeneous Earth model, all the impact energy that is radiated as seismic waves into the Earth at a given takeoff angle (ray parameter), independent of azimuthal direction, is refocused (minus attenuation) on the axis of symmetry, regardless of the number of reflections and refractions it has experienced. Material on or near the axis of symmetry experiences more strain cycles with much greater amplitude than elsewhere, and therefore experiences more irreversible heating. The focusing is most intense in the upper mantle, within the asthenosphere, where seismic energy is most effectively converted to heat. For a sufficiently energetic impact, this mechanism might generate enough local heating to create an isostatic instability leading to uplift, possibly resulting in rifting, volcanism, or other rearrangement of the interior dynamics of the planet. These simulations demonstrate how hypervelocity impact energy can be transported to the Earth's interior, supporting the possibility of a causal link between large impacts on Earth and major internally-driven geophysical processes

Brief overview of geophysical probing technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramirez, A.L.; Lytle, R.J.

1982-01-01

An evaluation of high-resolution geophysical techniques which can be used to characterize a nulcear waste disposal site is being conducted by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) at the request of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commisson (NRC). LLNL is involved in research work aimed at evaluating the current capabilities and limitations of geophysical methods used for site selection. This report provides a brief overview of the capabilities and limitations associated with this technology and explains how our work addresses some of the present limitations. We are examining both seismic and electromagnetic techniques to obtain high-resolution information. We are also assessing the usefulness of geotomography in mapping fracture zones remotely. Finally, we are collecting core samples from a site in an effort to assess the capability of correlating such geophysical data with parameters of interest such as fracture continuity, orientation, and fracture density

Models of the earth's core

Science.gov (United States)

Stevenson, D. J.

1981-01-01

Combined inferences from seismology, high-pressure experiment and theory, geomagnetism, fluid dynamics, and current views of terrestrial planetary evolution lead to models of the earth's core with five basic properties. These are that core formation was contemporaneous with earth accretion; the core is not in chemical equilibrium with the mantle; the outer core is a fluid iron alloy containing significant quantities of lighter elements and is probably almost adiabatic and compositionally uniform; the more iron-rich inner solid core is a consequence of partial freezing of the outer core, and the energy release from this process sustains the earth's magnetic field; and the thermodynamic properties of the core are well constrained by the application of liquid-state theory to seismic and labroatory data.

Geophysical Signitures From Hydrocarbon Contaminated Aquifers

Science.gov (United States)

Abbas, M.; Jardani, A.

2015-12-01

The task of delineating the contamination plumes as well as studying their impact on the soil and groundwater biogeochemical properties is needed to support the remediation efforts and plans. Geophysical methods including electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), induced polarization (IP), ground penetrating radar (GPR), and self-potential (SP) have been previously used to characterize contaminant plumes and investigate their impact on soil and groundwater properties (Atekwana et al., 2002, 2004; Benson et al., 1997; Campbell et al., 1996; Cassidy et al., 2001; Revil et al., 2003; Werkema et al., 2000). Our objective was to: estimate the hydrocarbon contamination extent in a contaminated site in northern France, and to adverse the effects of the oil spill on the groundwater properties. We aim to find a good combination of non-intrusive and low cost methods which we can use to follow the bio-remediation process, which is planned to proceed next year. We used four geophysical methods including electrical resistivity tomography, IP, GPR, and SP. The geophysical data was compared to geochemical ones obtained from 30 boreholes installed in the site during the geophysical surveys. Our results have shown: low electrical resistivity values; high chargeability values; negative SP anomalies; and attenuated GPR reflections coincident with groundwater contamination. Laboratory and field geochemical measurements have demonstrated increased groundwater electrical conductivity and increased microbial activity associated with hydrocarbon contamination of groundwater. Our study results support the conductive model suggested by studies such as Sauck (2000) and Atekwana et al., (2004), who suggest that biological alterations of hydrocarbon contamination can substantially modify the chemical and physical properties of the subsurface, producing a dramatic shift in the geo-electrical signature from resistive to conductive. The next stage of the research will include time lapse borehole

Geophysical monitoring in a hydrocarbon reservoir

Science.gov (United States)

Caffagni, Enrico; Bokelmann, Goetz

2016-04-01

Extraction of hydrocarbons from reservoirs demands ever-increasing technological effort, and there is need for geophysical monitoring to better understand phenomena occurring within the reservoir. Significant deformation processes happen when man-made stimulation is performed, in combination with effects deriving from the existing natural conditions such as stress regime in situ or pre-existing fracturing. Keeping track of such changes in the reservoir is important, on one hand for improving recovery of hydrocarbons, and on the other hand to assure a safe and proper mode of operation. Monitoring becomes particularly important when hydraulic-fracturing (HF) is used, especially in the form of the much-discussed "fracking". HF is a sophisticated technique that is widely applied in low-porosity geological formations to enhance the production of natural hydrocarbons. In principle, similar HF techniques have been applied in Europe for a long time in conventional reservoirs, and they will probably be intensified in the near future; this suggests an increasing demand in technological development, also for updating and adapting the existing monitoring techniques in applied geophysics. We review currently available geophysical techniques for reservoir monitoring, which appear in the different fields of analysis in reservoirs. First, the properties of the hydrocarbon reservoir are identified; here we consider geophysical monitoring exclusively. The second step is to define the quantities that can be monitored, associated to the properties. We then describe the geophysical monitoring techniques including the oldest ones, namely those in practical usage from 40-50 years ago, and the most recent developments in technology, within distinct groups, according to the application field of analysis in reservoir. This work is performed as part of the FracRisk consortium (www.fracrisk.eu); this project, funded by the Horizon2020 research programme, aims at helping minimize the

The application of micro-column solid phase extraction techniques for the determination of rare earth elements in actinide containing matrices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carney, K.P.; Cummings, D.G.

1995-01-01

The design and characterization of an argon segmented-solid phase extraction system is described. A 200 ul volume micro-column has been constructed for the preconcentration of rare earth elements (REEs) from salt matrices containing uranium. An inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer has been utilized for simultaneous detection of Sr, Y and the REEs (namely Ce, Eu, La, Nd, Pr, Sm) at levels ranging from 5- to 2000 ppm in LiCl/KCl samples containing U. Preconcentration factors of 100 fold have been demonstrated. The precision, linear dynamic range and column performance of the system will be presented. (author). 5 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs

The elastic solid solution model for minerals at high pressures and temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Myhill, R.

2018-02-01

of pressure and temperature. The formulation is expected to be useful for geochemical and geophysical studies of the Earth and other planetary bodies.

Summary outline of DOE geoscience and geoscience - related research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1982-02-01

The Office of Basic Energy Sciences (OBES) supports long-range, basic research in those areas of the geosciences which are relevant to the nation's energy needs. The objective of the Geoscience program is to develop a quantitative and predictive understanding of geological, geophysical and geochemical structures and processes in the solid earth and in solar-terrestrial relationships. This understanding is to assure an effective knowledge base for energy resource recognition, evaluation and utilization in an environmentally acceptable manner. The work is carried out primarily in DOE laboratories and in universities, although some is conducted by other federal agencies and by the National Academy of Sciences. Principal areas of interest include: Geology, Geophysics, and Earth Dynamics; Geochemistry; Energy Resource Recognition, Evaluation and Utilization; Hydrologic and Marine Sciences; and Solar-Terrestrial/Atmospheric Interactions

High Frequency Variations of Earth Rotation Parameters from GPS and GLONASS Observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erhu Wei

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The Earth’s rotation undergoes changes with the influence of geophysical factors, such as Earth’s surface fluid mass redistribution of the atmosphere, ocean and hydrology. However, variations of Earth Rotation Parameters (ERP are still not well understood, particularly the short-period variations (e.g., diurnal and semi-diurnal variations and their causes. In this paper, the hourly time series of Earth Rotation Parameters are estimated using Global Positioning System (GPS, Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS, and combining GPS and GLONASS data collected from nearly 80 sites from 1 November 2012 to 10 April 2014. These new observations with combining different satellite systems can help to decorrelate orbit biases and ERP, which improve estimation of ERP. The high frequency variations of ERP are analyzed using a de-trending method. The maximum of total diurnal and semidiurnal variations are within one milli-arcseconds (mas in Polar Motion (PM and 0.5 milli-seconds (ms in UT1-UTC. The semidiurnal and diurnal variations are mainly related to the ocean tides. Furthermore, the impacts of satellite orbit and time interval used to determinate ERP on the amplitudes of tidal terms are analyzed. We obtain some small terms that are not described in the ocean tide model of the IERS Conventions 2010, which may be caused by the strategies and models we used or the signal noises as well as artifacts. In addition, there are also small differences on the amplitudes between our results and IERS convention. This might be a result of other geophysical excitations, such as the high-frequency variations in atmospheric angular momentum (AAM and hydrological angular momentum (HAM, which needs more detailed analysis with more geophysical data in the future.

Mass-radius relations and core-envelope decompositions of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Howe, Alex R.; Burrows, Adam [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Verne, Wesley, E-mail: arhowe@astro.princeton.edu, E-mail: burrows@astro.princeton.edu [Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)

2014-06-01

Many exoplanets have been discovered with radii of 1-4 R {sub ⊕}, between that of Earth and Neptune. A number of these are known to have densities consistent with solid compositions, while others are 'sub-Neptunes' likely to have significant H{sub 2}-He envelopes. Future surveys will no doubt significantly expand these populations. In order to understand how the measured masses and radii of such planets can inform their structures and compositions, we construct models both for solid layered planets and for planets with solid cores and gaseous envelopes, exploring a range of core masses, H{sub 2}-He envelope masses, and associated envelope entropies. For planets in the super-Earth/sub-Neptune regime for which both radius and mass are measured, we estimate how each is partitioned into a solid core and gaseous envelope, associating a specific core mass and envelope mass with a given exoplanet. We perform this decomposition for both ''Earth-like'' rock-iron cores and pure ice cores, and find that the necessary gaseous envelope masses for this important sub-class of exoplanets must range very widely from zero to many Earth masses, even for a given core mass. This result bears importantly on exoplanet formation and envelope evaporation processes.

Mass-radius relations and core-envelope decompositions of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howe, Alex R.; Burrows, Adam; Verne, Wesley

2014-01-01

Many exoplanets have been discovered with radii of 1-4 R ⊕ , between that of Earth and Neptune. A number of these are known to have densities consistent with solid compositions, while others are 'sub-Neptunes' likely to have significant H 2 -He envelopes. Future surveys will no doubt significantly expand these populations. In order to understand how the measured masses and radii of such planets can inform their structures and compositions, we construct models both for solid layered planets and for planets with solid cores and gaseous envelopes, exploring a range of core masses, H 2 -He envelope masses, and associated envelope entropies. For planets in the super-Earth/sub-Neptune regime for which both radius and mass are measured, we estimate how each is partitioned into a solid core and gaseous envelope, associating a specific core mass and envelope mass with a given exoplanet. We perform this decomposition for both ''Earth-like'' rock-iron cores and pure ice cores, and find that the necessary gaseous envelope masses for this important sub-class of exoplanets must range very widely from zero to many Earth masses, even for a given core mass. This result bears importantly on exoplanet formation and envelope evaporation processes.

Modeling geophysical complexity: a case for geometric determinism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. E. Puente

2007-01-01

Full Text Available It has been customary in the last few decades to employ stochastic models to represent complex data sets encountered in geophysics, particularly in hydrology. This article reviews a deterministic geometric procedure to data modeling, one that represents whole data sets as derived distributions of simple multifractal measures via fractal functions. It is shown how such a procedure may lead to faithful holistic representations of existing geophysical data sets that, while complementing existing representations via stochastic methods, may also provide a compact language for geophysical complexity. The implications of these ideas, both scientific and philosophical, are stressed.

Geophysics comes of age in oil sands development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bauman, P. [WorleyParsons Komex, Calgary, AB (Canada); Birch, R.; Parker, D.; Andrews, B. [Calgary Univ., AB (Canada). Dept. of Geology and Geophysics

2008-07-01

This paper discussed geophysical techniques developed for oil sands exploration and production applications in Alberta's oil sands region. Geophysical methods are playing an important role in mine planning, tailings containment, water supply, and land reclamation activities. Geophysics techniques are used to estimate the volume of muskeg that needs to be stripped and stored for future reclamation activities as well as to site muskeg piles and delineate the thickness of clay Clearwater formations overlying Cretaceous oil-bearing sands. 2-D electrical resistivity mapping is used to map river-connected deep bedrock Pleistocene paleovalleys in the region. Geophysical studies are also used to investigate the interiors of dikes and berms as well as to monitor salt migration within tailings piles. Sonic and density logs are used to create synthetic seismograms for mapping the Devonian surface in the region. The new applications included the calculation of bitumen saturation from surface sands and shales; muskeg thickness mapping; and non-intrusive monitoring of leachate plumes. Geophysical techniques included 2-D electrical resistivity imaging; transient electromagnetic (EM) technologies; ground penetrating radar; and high-resolution seismic reflections. Polarization, surface nuclear magnetic resonance and push-probe sensing techniques were also discussed. Techniques were discussed in relation to Alberta's Athabasca oil sands deposits. 4 refs.

The application actualities and prospects of geophysical methods to uranium prospecting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Qingcheng

2010-01-01

Basic principles of geophysical methods to uranium prospect are briefly introduced, and the effects as well as problems in using those methods are analysed respectively. Combining with the increasing demand of uranium resources for Chinese nuclear power development and the higher requirements of geophysical techniques, the developing directions and the thoughts of geophysical techniques in uranium prospecting were proposed. A new pattern with producing, teaching and researching together is brought forward to develop advancing uranium prospecting key technologies and to break through technological bottlenecks depending on independent innovation. Integrated geophysical methods for prospecting uranium deposits are suggested. The method includes geophysical techniques as follows: gravity, magnetic, seismic, radioactive, remote sensing, and geochemical method in some proving grounds. Based on the experimental research, new uranium deposits prospecting models with efficient integrated geophysical methods can be established. (authors)

The application of geophysical methods to archaeological prospection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Linford, Neil [Geophysics Team, English Heritage, Fort Cumberland, Eastney, Portsmouth PO4 9LD (United Kingdom)

2006-07-15

The aim of this review is to combine the almost universal fascination we share for our past with the comparatively recent, in archaeological terms, application of geophysical prospection methods. For their success, each of these methods relies upon a physical contrast to exist between the buried archaeological feature and the properties of the surrounding subsoil. Understanding the archaeological origin of such physical contrasts, in terms of density, thermal conductivity, electrical resistance, magnetic or dielectric properties, remains fundamental to an appreciation of the discipline. This review provides a broad introduction to the subject area acknowledging the historical development of the discipline and discusses each of the major techniques in turn: earth resistance, magnetic and electromagnetic methods (including ground penetrating radar), together with an appreciation of more esoteric approaches, such as the use of micro-gravity survey to detect buried chambers and voids. The physical principles and field instrumentation involved for the acquisition of data with each method are considered and fully illustrated with case histories of results from the English Heritage archives.

The application of geophysical methods to archaeological prospection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Linford, Neil

2006-01-01

The aim of this review is to combine the almost universal fascination we share for our past with the comparatively recent, in archaeological terms, application of geophysical prospection methods. For their success, each of these methods relies upon a physical contrast to exist between the buried archaeological feature and the properties of the surrounding subsoil. Understanding the archaeological origin of such physical contrasts, in terms of density, thermal conductivity, electrical resistance, magnetic or dielectric properties, remains fundamental to an appreciation of the discipline. This review provides a broad introduction to the subject area acknowledging the historical development of the discipline and discusses each of the major techniques in turn: earth resistance, magnetic and electromagnetic methods (including ground penetrating radar), together with an appreciation of more esoteric approaches, such as the use of micro-gravity survey to detect buried chambers and voids. The physical principles and field instrumentation involved for the acquisition of data with each method are considered and fully illustrated with case histories of results from the English Heritage archives

Engaging students in geodesy: A quantitative InSAR module for undergraduate tectonics and geophysics classes

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, H.; Charlevoix, D. J.; Pritchard, M. E.; Lohman, R. B.

2013-12-01

In the last several decades, advances in geodetic technology have allowed us to significantly expand our knowledge of processes acting on and beneath the Earth's surface. Many of these advances have come as a result of EarthScope, a community of scientists conducting multidisciplinary Earth science research utilizing freely accessible data from a variety of instruments. The geodetic component of EarthScope includes the acquisition of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, which are archived at the UNAVCO facility. Interferometric SAR complements the spatial and temporal coverage of GPS and allows monitoring of ground deformation in remote areas worldwide. However, because of the complex software required for processing, InSAR data are not readily accessible to most students. Even with these challenges, exposure at the undergraduate level is important for showing how geodesy can be applied in various areas of the geosciences and for promoting geodesy as a future career path. Here we present a module focused on exploring the tectonics of the western United States using InSAR data for use in undergraduate tectonics and geophysics classes. The module has two major objectives: address topics concerning tectonics in the western U.S. including Basin and Range extension, Yellowstone hotspot activity, and creep in southern California, and familiarize students with how imperfect real-world data can be manipulated and interpreted. Module questions promote critical thinking skills and data literacy by prompting students to use the information given to confront and question assumptions (e.g. 'Is there a consistency between seismic rates and permanent earthquake deformation? What other factors might need to be considered besides seismicity?'). The module consists of an introduction to the basics of InSAR and three student exercises, each focused on one of the topics listed above. Students analyze pre-processed InSAR data using MATLAB, or an Excel equivalent, and draw on GPS and

Understanding why the volume of suboxic waters does not increase over centuries of global warming in an Earth System Model

OpenAIRE

A. Gnanadesikan; J. P. Dunne; J. John

2012-01-01

Global warming is expected to reduce oxygen solubility and vertical exchange in the ocean, changes which would be expected to result in an increase in the volume of hypoxic waters. A simulation made with a full Earth System model with dynamical atmosphere, ocean, sea ice and biogeochemical cycling (the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory's Earth System Model 2.1) shows that this holds true if the condition for hypoxia is set relatively high. However, the volume of the most hypoxic (i.e., su...

Learning More About Our Earth: An Exploration of NASA's Contributions to Earth Science Through Remote Sensing Technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Lindsay, Francis

2017-01-01

NASA is commonly known for its pioneering work in space exploration and the technological advancements that made access to space possible. NASA is now increasingly known for the agency's research and technologies that support the Earth sciences. This is a presentation focusing on NASA's Earth science efforts told mostly through the technological innovations NASA uses to achieve a greater understanding of the Earth, making it possible to explore the Earth as a system. Enabling this science is NASA's fleet of over two dozen Earth science spacecraft, supported by aircraft, ships and ground observations. NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) is a coordinated series of polar-orbiting and low inclination satellites for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and oceans. With the launching of the three flagship satellite missions, Terra, Aqua and Aura, beginning in 1999, NASA's initial Mission to Planet Earth made it possible to measure aspects of the environment that touch the lives of every person around the world. NASA harnessing the unique space-based platform means, fortunately, no planet is better studied than the one we actually live on.

The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics Marine Geology and Geophysics Field Course

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, D.; Davis, M. B.; Goff, J. A.; Gulick, S. P. S.; McIntosh, K. D.; Saustrup, S., Sr.

2014-12-01

The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, part of the Jackson School of Geosciences, annually offers a three-week marine geology and geophysics field course during the spring-summer intersession. The course provides hands-on instruction and training for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in high-resolution seismic reflection, CHIRP sub-bottom profiling, multibeam bathymetry, sidescan sonar, several types of sediment coring, grab sampling, and the sedimentology of resulting seabed samples. Students participate in an initial three days of classroom instruction designed to communicate geological context of the field area along with theoretical and technical background on each field method. The class then travels to the Gulf Coast for a week of at-sea field work. Our field sites at Port Aransas, and Galveston, TX, and Grand Isle, LA, provide ideal locations for students to investigate coastal processes of the Gulf Coast and continental shelf through application of geophysical techniques in an exploratory mode. At sea, students assist with survey design and instrumentation set up while learning about acquisition parameters, data quality control, trouble-shooting, and safe instrument deployment and retrieval. In teams of four, students work in onshore field labs preparing sediment samples for particle size analysis and data processing. During the course's final week, teams return to the classroom where they integrate, interpret, and visualize data in a final project using industry-standard software such as Echos, Landmark, Caris, and Fledermaus. The course concludes with a series of final presentations and discussions in which students examine geologic history and/or sedimentary processes represented by the Gulf Coast continental shelf with academic and industry supporters. Students report a greater understanding of marine geology and geophysics through the course's intensive, hands-on, team approach and low instructor to student ratio (sixteen

Basic elements of nuclear geophysics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nordemann, D.J.R.; Pereira, E.B.

1984-01-01

Nuclear Geophysics applies the nuclear radiation detection methodology to the geosciences, specially to study the dynamical processes of the lithosphere, the hydrosphere and the atmosphere as well as some aspects of planetology and astrophysics. Here the main methods are described: alpha-ray and gamma-ray spectrometry, the interaction of alpha and gamma radiation with matter and the detectors used (grid chambers, surface barrier silicon detector for alpha radiation; and sodium iodide thallium activated phosphors, hyperpure and lithium drifted germanium semiconductor detectors for gamma radiation). The principal applications of Nuclear Geophysics are given as examples to ilustrate the use of the methods described. (AUthor) [pt

PLANETarium - Visualizing Earth Sciences in the Planetarium

Science.gov (United States)

Ballmer, M. D.; Wiethoff, T.; Kraupe, T. W.

2013-12-01

In the past decade, projection systems in most planetariums, traditional sites of outreach and public education, have advanced from instruments that can visualize the motion of stars as beam spots moving over spherical projection areas to systems that are able to display multicolor, high-resolution, immersive full-dome videos or images. These extraordinary capabilities are ideally suited for visualization of global processes occurring on the surface and within the interior of the Earth, a spherical body just as the full dome. So far, however, our community has largely ignored this wonderful interface for outreach and education. A few documentaries on e.g. climate change or volcanic eruptions have been brought to planetariums, but are taking little advantage of the true potential of the medium, as mostly based on standard two-dimensional videos and cartoon-style animations. Along these lines, we here propose a framework to convey recent scientific results on the origin and evolution of our PLANET to the >100,000,000 per-year worldwide audience of planetariums, making the traditionally astronomy-focussed interface a true PLANETarium. In order to do this most efficiently, we intend to directly show visualizations of scientific datasets or models, originally designed for basic research. Such visualizations in solid-Earth, as well as athmospheric and ocean sciences, are expected to be renderable to the dome with little or no effort. For example, showing global geophysical datasets (e.g., surface temperature, gravity, magnetic field), or horizontal slices of seismic-tomography images and of spherical computer simulations (e.g., climate evolution, mantle flow or ocean currents) requires almost no rendering at all. Three-dimensional Cartesian datasets or models can be rendered using standard methods. With the appropriate audio support, present-day science visualizations are typically as intuitive as cartoon-style animations, yet more appealing visually, and clearly more

Some comments on the requirement for nuclear data in the earth sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clayton, C.G.; Patrick, B.H.; Sanders, L.G.; Sowerby, M.G.

1984-01-01

The increasing application of nuclear techniques in the earth sciences, and especially the use of particle tracking codes, has focussed attention on the need for more accurate nuclear data and for data which particularly refer to elements of interest in the analysis of rocks and ores. The present paper gives a brief summary of the current and potential requirement for nuclear data in nuclear geophysics and an indication of several important areas where better data would be valuable. (author)

The geology and geophysics of the Oslo rift

Science.gov (United States)

Ruder, M. E.

1981-01-01

The regional geology and geophysical characteristics of the Oslo graben are reviewed. The graben is part of a Permian age failed continental rift. Alkali olivine, tholefitic, and monzonitic intrusives as well as basaltic lavas outline the extent of the graben. Geophysical evidence indicates that rifting activity covered a much greater area in Skagerrak Sea as well as the Paleozoic time, possibly including the northern Skagerrak Sea as well as the Oslo graben itself. Much of the surficial geologic characteristics in the southern part of the rift have since been eroded or covered by sedimentation. Geophysical data reveal a gravity maximum along the strike of the Oslo graben, local emplacements of magnetic material throughout the Skagerrak and the graben, and a slight mantle upward beneath the rift zone. Petrologic and geophysical maps which depict regional structure are included in the text. An extensive bibliography of pertinent literature published in English between 1960 and 1980 is also provided.

Geophysical characterisation of the groundwater-surface water interface

Science.gov (United States)

McLachlan, P. J.; Chambers, J. E.; Uhlemann, S. S.; Binley, A.

2017-11-01

Interactions between groundwater (GW) and surface water (SW) have important implications for water quantity, water quality, and ecological health. The subsurface region proximal to SW bodies, the GW-SW interface, is crucial as it actively regulates the transfer of nutrients, contaminants, and water between GW systems and SW environments. However, geological, hydrological, and biogeochemical heterogeneity in the GW-SW interface makes it difficult to characterise with direct observations. Over the past two decades geophysics has been increasingly used to characterise spatial and temporal variability throughout the GW-SW interface. Geophysics is a powerful tool in evaluating structural heterogeneity, revealing zones of GW discharge, and monitoring hydrological processes. Geophysics should be used alongside traditional hydrological and biogeochemical methods to provide additional information about the subsurface. Further integration of commonly used geophysical techniques, and adoption of emerging techniques, has the potential to improve understanding of the properties and processes of the GW-SW interface, and ultimately the implications for water quality and environmental health.

Site characterization and validation - geophysical single hole logging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersson, Per

1989-05-01

A total of 15 boreholes have been drilled for preliminary characterization of a previously unexplored site at the 360 and 385 m level in the Stripa mine. To adequately described the rock mass in the vicinity of these boreholes, a comprehensive program utilizing a large number of geophysical borehole methods has been carried out in 10 of these boreholes. The specific geophysical character of the rock mass and the major deformed units distinguished in the vicinity of the boreholes are recognized, and in certain cases also correlated between the boreholes. A general conclusion based on the geophysical logging results, made in this report, is that the preliminary predictions made in stage 2, of the site characterization and validation project (Olsson et.al, 1988), are adequate. The results from the geophysical logging can support the four predicted fracture/ fracture zones GHa, GHb, GA and GB whereas the predicted zones GC and GI are hard to confirm from the logging results. (author)

Impact on the earth, ocean and atmosphere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahrens, T.J.; O'Keefe, J.D.

1987-01-01

Several hundred impact craters produced historically and at times as early as 1.9 x 10/sup 9/ years ago with diameters in the range 10/sup -2/ to 10/sup 2/ km are observed on the surface of the earth. Earth-based and spacecraft observations of the surfaces of all the terrestrial planets and their satellites, as well as many of the icy satellites of the outer planets, indicated that impact cratering was a dominant process on planetary surfaces during the early history of the solar system. Moreover, the recent observation of a circumstellar disk around the nearby star, β-Pictoris, appears to be similar to the authors' own hypothesized protosolar disk. A disk of material around our sun has been hypothesized to have been the source of the solid planetesimals from which the earth and the other planets accreted by infall and capture. Thus it appears that the earth and the other terrestrial planets formed as a result of infall and impact of planetesimals. Although the present planets grew rapidly via accretion to their present size (in --10/sup 7/ years), meteorite impacts continue to occur on the earth and other planets. Until recently meteorite impact has been considered to be a process that was important on the earth and the other planets only early in the history of the solar system. This is no longer true. The Alvarez hypothesis suggests that the extinction of some 90% of all species, including 17 classes of dinosaurs, is associated with the 1 to 150 cm thick layer of noble-element rich dust which is found all over the earth exactly at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. The enrichment of noble elements in this dust is in meteorite-like proportions. This dust is thought to represent the fine impact ejecta from a --10 km diameter asteroid interacting with the solid earth. The Alvarez hypothesis associates the extinction with the physics of a giant impact on the earth

Geophysical investigations in the Syyry area, Finland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heikkinen, E.; Kurimo, M.

1992-12-01

Investigations were carried out at the Syyry site at Sievi using geological, geophysical, geohydrological and geochemical methods in 1987-1991 to determine the suitability of the bedrock for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. In this survey airborne, ground and borehole geophysical methods were used to study the rock type distribution, fracturing and hydraulic conductivity of the bedrock to a depth of one kilometre

Geophysical investigations in the Olkiluoto area, Finland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heikkinen, E.; Paananen, M.

1992-12-01

Investigations were carried out at the Olkiluoto site at Eurajoki using geological, geophysical, geohydrological and geochemical methods in 1987-1992 to determine the suitability of the bedrock for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. In this survey airborne, ground and borehole geophysical methods were used to study the rock type distribution, fracturing and hydraulic conductivity of the bedrock to a depth of one kilometre

Geophysical investigations in the Kivetty area, Finland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heikkinen, E.; Paananen, M.; Oehberg, A.; Front, K.; Okko, O.; Pitkaenen, P.

1992-09-01

Investigations were carried out at Kivetty site in Konginkangas, in central Finland, by geological, geophysical, geohydrological and geochemical methods in 1987-1991 to determine the suitability of the bedrock for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Airborne, ground and borehole geophysical methods were used to study the rock type distribution, fracturing and hydraulic conductivity of the bedrock to a depth of one kilometre

A Lifetime of Geodesy and Geophysics: In Rememberence of Bill Kaula

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, David E.

2000-01-01

In the early 1960's the secrets that knowledge of the Earth's gravity field would eventually reveal about the processes that govern our planet were yet to be appreciated. It was the beginning of a new science known as space geodesy, which arose at a time when most efforts were devoted to understanding how to extract precise measurements of Earth structure and motions from an orbiting spacecraft. Bill Kaula was central to that beginning and showed the way for many who were to follow, both in time and in the development of approaches most likely to yield results. Bill laid out the theory, analyzed the data, and argued strenuously for a spacecraft mission devoted to measuring gravity to make it all come true in the way he knew it really could. That mission, GRACE, was a long time coming and Bill would not see its final staging, but his influence in making it happen was everywhere. With time, the concepts for measuring the static gravity field of the Earth and terrestrial planets became well advanced, although not universally agreed upon, and certainly not by Bill, who was always eager to argue and challenge traditional methods and thinking. The extension of space geodetic techniques to the planets and the development of new techniques to measure time variations in gravity have recently brought geodesy even closer to the geophysical processes that Bill sought to understand. This presentation will contain a little geodesy, a little history, and a little reminiscing about the leader in our field.

Earth and Space Science PhD Employment Trends

Science.gov (United States)

Giesler, J. L.

2001-05-01

A recent report by the American Geophysical Union and the American Geological Institute, "Earth and Space Science PhDs, Class of 1999" looked at employment trends of recent graduates. Demographically, our graduates are, as a population, older than those who graduated in any other physical science. While almost one-third of graduates are employed in a different subfield than that of their degree, more than 80% of Earth and space science PhDs secure initial employment in the geosciences. Graduates are finding employment in less than 6 months and the unemployment rate has dropped significantly below that of two years ago. The PhD classes of 1996, 1997, and 1998 had ~ 50% of their graduates taking postdoctoral appointments. In 1999, this declined to only 38% postdocs with an increase in permanent employment in both the education and government sectors. Perception of the job market is improving as well. Respondents are considerably happier than they were in 1996.

The Earth's mantle and geoneutrinos

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fiorentini, Giovanni; Fogli, Gian Luigi; Lisi, Eligio; Mantovani, Fabio; Rotunno, Anna Maria; Xhixha, Gerti

2013-01-01

The KamLAND and Borexino experiments have observed, each at ∼4σ level, signals of electron antineutrinos produced in the decay chains of thorium and uranium in the Earth's crust and mantle (Th and U geoneutrinos). Various pieces of geochemical and geophysical information allow an estimation of the crustal geoneutrino flux components with relatively small uncertainties. The mantle component may then be inferred by subtracting the estimated crustal flux from the measured total flux. We find that crust-subtracted signals show hints of a residual mantle component, emerging at ∼2.4σ level by combining the KamLAND and Borexino data. The inferred mantle flux, slightly favoring scenarios with relatively high Th and U abundances, within ∼1σ uncertainties is comparable to the predictions from recent mantle models

Subsurface density mapping of the earth with cosmic ray muons

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tanaka, Hiroyuki K.M. [Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 113-0032 Tokyo (Japan)

2013-10-15

Since its original discovery by Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen in 1895, one of the directions of researchers pursued was an application of x-ray radiography to larger objects, while the advent of high voltage x-ray tubes allowed radiographs of industrial objects to be produced in a reasonable amount of time. In spite of the great motivation we have to survey the earth's interior, we now know that x rays are not sufficiently penetrative to successfully target geophysical objects. Our current knowledge about the cross sections of the muon with matter solves the problem about this x-ray's inspectable size limit. These particles do not interact strongly with matter, and those with relativistic momentum travel long distances penetrating deep into rock. By tracking the ray paths of the muon after passing through the object, the method gives researchers the ability to study the earth in new ways. The purpose of this article is to review recent progress in probing the earth's interior with muons.

Excitation of Earth Rotation Variations "Observed" by Time-Variable Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Ben F.; Cox, C. M.

2005-01-01

Time variable gravity measurements have been made over the past two decades using the space geodetic technique of satellite laser ranging, and more recently by the GRACE satellite mission with improved spatial resolutions. The degree-2 harmonic components of the time-variable gravity contain important information about the Earth s length-of-day and polar motion excitation functions, in a way independent to the traditional "direct" Earth rotation measurements made by, for example, the very-long-baseline interferometry and GPS. In particular, the (degree=2, order= 1) components give the mass term of the polar motion excitation; the (2,O) component, under certain mass conservation conditions, gives the mass term of the length-of-day excitation. Combining these with yet another independent source of angular momentum estimation calculated from global geophysical fluid models (for example the atmospheric angular momentum, in both mass and motion terms), in principle can lead to new insights into the dynamics, particularly the role or the lack thereof of the cores, in the excitation processes of the Earth rotation variations.

iSERVO: Implementing the International Solid Earth Research Virtual Observatory by Integrating Computational Grid and Geographical Information Web Services

Science.gov (United States)

Aktas, Mehmet; Aydin, Galip; Donnellan, Andrea; Fox, Geoffrey; Granat, Robert; Grant, Lisa; Lyzenga, Greg; McLeod, Dennis; Pallickara, Shrideep; Parker, Jay; Pierce, Marlon; Rundle, John; Sayar, Ahmet; Tullis, Terry

2006-12-01

We describe the goals and initial implementation of the International Solid Earth Virtual Observatory (iSERVO). This system is built using a Web Services approach to Grid computing infrastructure and is accessed via a component-based Web portal user interface. We describe our implementations of services used by this system, including Geographical Information System (GIS)-based data grid services for accessing remote data repositories and job management services for controlling multiple execution steps. iSERVO is an example of a larger trend to build globally scalable scientific computing infrastructures using the Service Oriented Architecture approach. Adoption of this approach raises a number of research challenges in millisecond-latency message systems suitable for internet-enabled scientific applications. We review our research in these areas.

Spatio-Temporal Modeling of the Earth Events and Moving of Celestial Bodies

Science.gov (United States)

Bulatova, Natalia P.

2011-09-01

It is well known that periodical and cyclical movements of cosmic sources of gravitation considerably affect Earth's geospheres (atmosphere, hydrosphere, crust, etc.) by producing tides and related phenomena, as well as the state of tectonic blocks, lithosphere plates and deep crust fractures. The result of such influence may be earthquakes and other catastrophes. Nowadays, the question modeling of geophysical processes is considerably actual. Thus studies in area of Earth' sciences have been moved from practice of observation of separate phenomena to the systematic quantitative investigation in interdisciplinary areas. A system of two modules is proposed by the author each using its own system of coordinates: (1) the model of three-dimensional spherical body of the Earth with the system of coordinates (III) including the time of events that happened on the Earth and (2) a compact model of the relative motion of celestial bodies in space and time as vectors that are changing their directions. Note the data bases of the Earth sciences have been used to construct the module (1), while the module (2) has been built using astronomic parameters of celestial bodies. The module (2) is known as "Method of moving source" (MDS) [1, 2]. As a result, on the basis of systematization, joint analysis and complexity of cosmic data and databases of Earth sciences the cause-and-effect relations between events on Earth and space bodies are established.

Extending Whole-earth Tectonics To The Terrestrial Planets

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, V. R.; Maruyama, S.; Dohm, J. M.

Based on the need to explain a great many geological and geophysical anomalies on Mars, and stimulated by the new results from the Mars Global Surveyor Mission, we propose a conceptual model of whole-EARTH (Episodic Annular Revolving Thermal Hydrologic) tectonics for the long-term evolution of terrestrial planets. The theory emphasizes (1) the importance of water in planetary evolution, and (2) the physi- cal transitions in modes of mantle convection in relation to planetary heat produc- tion. Depending on their first-order geophysical parameters and following accretion and differentiation from volatile-rich planetessimals, terrestrial planets should evolve through various stages of mantle convection, including magma ocean, plate tectonic, and stagnant lid processes. If a water ocean is able to condense from the planet's early steam atmosphere, an early regime of plate tectonics will follow the initial magma ocean. This definitely happened on earth, probably on Mars, and possibly on Venus. The Mars history led to transfer of large amounts of water to the mantle during the pe- riod of heavy bombardment. Termination of plate tectonics on Mars during the heavy bombardment period led to initiation of superplumes at Tharsis and Elysium, where long-persistent volcanism and water outbursts dominated much of later Martian his- tory. For Venus, warming of the early sun made the surface ocean unstable, eliminating its early plate-tectonic regime. Although Venus now experiences stagnant-lid convec- tion with episodic mantle overturns, the water subducted to its lower mantle during the ancient plate-tectonic regime manifests itself in the initation of volatile-rich plumes that dominate its current tectonic regime.

A model for osmium isotopic evolution of metallic solids at the core-mantle boundary

Science.gov (United States)

Humayun, Munir

2011-03-01

Some plumes are thought to originate at the core-mantle boundary, but geochemical evidence of core-mantle interaction is limited to Os isotopes in samples from Hawaii, Gorgona (89 Ma), and Kostomuksha (2.7 Ga). The Os isotopes have been explained by physical entrainment of Earth's liquid outer core into mantle plumes. This model has come into conflict with geophysical estimates of the timing of core formation, high-pressure experimental determinations of the solid metal-liquid metal partition coefficients (D), and the absence of expected 182W anomalies. A new model is proposed where metallic liquid from the outer core is partially trapped in a compacting cumulate pile of Fe-rich nonmetallic precipitates (FeO, FeS, Fe3Si, etc.) at the top of the core and undergoes fractional crystallization precipitating solid metal grains, followed by expulsion of the residual metallic liquid back to the outer core. The Os isotopic composition of the solids and liquids in the cumulate pile is modeled as a function of the residual liquid remaining and the emplacement age using 1 bar D values, with variable amounts of oxygen (0-10 wt %) as the light element. The precipitated solids evolve Os isotope compositions that match the trends for Hawaii (at an emplacement age of 3.5-4.5 Ga; 5%-10% oxygen) and Gorgona (emplacement age < 1.5 Ga; 0%-5% oxygen). The Fe-rich matrix of the cumulate pile dilutes the precipitated solid metal decoupling the Fe/Mn ratio from Os and W isotopes. The advantages to using precipitated solid metal as the Os host include a lower platinum group element and Ni content to the mantle source region relative to excess iron, miniscule anomalies in 182W (<0.1 ɛ), and no effects for Pb isotopes, etc. A gradual thermomechanical erosion of the cumulate pile results in incorporation of this material into the base of the mantle, where mantle plumes subsequently entrain it. Fractional crystallization of metallic liquids within the CMB provides a consistent explanation of

Geophysical characterization from Itu intrusive suite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pascholati, M.E.

1989-01-01

The integrated use of geophysical, geological, geochemical, petrographical and remote sensing data resulted in a substantial increase in the knowledge of the Itu Intrusive Suite. The main geophysical method was gamma-ray spectrometry together with fluorimetry and autoradiography. Three methods were used for calculation of laboratory gamma-ray spectrometry data. For U, the regression method was the best one. For K and Th, equations system and absolute calibration presented the best results. Surface gamma-ray spectrometry allowed comparison with laboratory data and permitted important contribution to the study of environmental radiation. (author)

A portable marine geophysical data access and management system

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Kunte, P.D.; Narvekar, P.

Geophysical Oracle Database Management System (GPODMS) that is residing on UNIX True 64 Compaq Alpha server. GPODMS is a stable Oracle database system for longterm storage and systematic management of geophysical data and information of various disciplines...

Rožňava ore field - geophysical works

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Géczy Július

1998-12-01

Full Text Available The article prowides a review of geophysical works in the ore field Rožňava conducted up to date. Magnetometric and geoelectric methods and gravimetric measurements have been used. Geophysical works were focused to the solving regional problems whose contribution to the prospecting of vein deposits is not essential.

Detecting Buried Archaeological Remains by the Use of Geophysical Data Processing with 'Diffusion Maps' Methodology

Science.gov (United States)

Eppelbaum, Lev

2015-04-01

observe that as a result of the above operations we embedded the original data into 3-dimensional space where data related to the AT subsurface are well separated from the N data. This 3D set of the data representatives can be used as a reference set for the classification of newly arriving data. Geophysically it means a reliable division of the studied areas for the AT-containing and not containing (N) these objects. Testing this methodology for delineation of archaeological cavities by magnetic and gravity data analysis displayed an effectiveness of this approach. References Alperovich, L., Eppelbaum, L., Zheludev, V., Dumoulin, J., Soldovieri, F., Proto, M., Bavusi, M. and Loperte, A., 2013. A new combined wavelet methodology applied to GPR and ERT data in the Montagnole experiment (French Alps). Journal of Geophysics and Engineering, 10, No. 2, 025017, 1-17. Averbuch, A., Hochman, K., Rabin, N., Schclar, A. and Zheludev, V., 2010. A diffusion frame-work for detection of moving vehicles. Digital Signal Processing, 20, No.1, 111-122. Averbuch A.Z., Neittaanmäki, P., and Zheludev, V.A., 2014. Spline and Spline Wavelet Methods with Applications to Signal and Image Processing. Volume I: Periodic Splines. Springer. Coifman, R.R. and Lafon, S., 2006. Diffusion maps, Applied and Computational Harmonic Analysis. Special issue on Diffusion Maps and Wavelets, 21, No. 7, 5-30. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2011. Study of magnetic anomalies over archaeological targets in urban conditions. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 36, No. 16, 1318-1330. Eppelbaum, L.V., 2014a. Geophysical observations at archaeological sites: Estimating informational content. Archaeological Prospection, 21, No. 2, 25-38. Eppelbaum, L.V. 2014b. Four Color Theorem and Applied Geophysics. Applied Mathematics, 5, 358-366. Eppelbaum, L.V., Alperovich, L., Zheludev, V. and Pechersky, A., 2011. Application of informational and wavelet approaches for integrated processing of geophysical data in complex environments. Proceed

X-ray dichroism of rare earth materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goedkoop, J.B.

1989-01-01

The theme of this thesis is the investigation of the strong polarization dependende, or dichroism, that occur in the X-ray absorption spectra of rare earth materials. The rare earth elements distinguish themselves from the other elements through the behaviour of the 4f electrons which form the valence shell. This shell lies deep inside the atom, with the result that influences from the surrounding solid are well screened off by the outer electrons, so that even in the solid the 4f shell behaves very much like a in free atom or ion, and is almost completely spherically symmetric. Perturbations from the solid environment however always disturb this symmetry to some extend, with the result that the absorption spectrum becomes dependent on the mutual orientation of the polarization vector of the radiation and the ion. Earlier the existence of a strong magnetic X-ray dichroism (MXD) in the 3d→4f transitions of rare earths. In this thesis this work is extended, to a small degree theoretically but mainly experimentally. MXD is used in experiments on bulk sample, terbium iron garnet, and on rare earth overlayers on a ferromagnetic surface, Ni(110). The results of the latter study show unequivocally the potential of the MXD technique. The second theme of the thesis concerns experimental developments in soft X-ray spectroscopy. A description is given of a double crystal monochromator beamline that was constructed by our group at LURE, France. Results of the use of an organic crystal - multilayer comination in such a monochromator is described. Also a method is described for the characterization of the resolution of soft X-ray monochromators. Finally a contribution to the characterization of the electron yield technique in the soft X-ray range is given. (author). 296 refs.; 64 figs.; 59 schemes; 9 tabs

Role of natural radiation environment in earth sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vohra, K.G.

1980-01-01

Natural ionizing radiations play an important role in a wide spectrum of earth sciences, including meteorology, geophysics, hydrology, atmospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry. The nature and distribution of ionizing radiation sources and natural radionuclides in the atmospheric environment are summarized. The present status of the use of natural radioactive tracers for atmospheric studies is discussed. The effect of ionization produced by natural radiation sources on atmospheric electricity, the relationship of electrical and meteorological variables, and the possible effects of man-made releases of 85 Kr are considered. Experimental evidence is presented for the production of condensation nuclei by the combined effects of radon and sulfur dioxide

Low energy trajectories for the Moon-to-Earth space flight

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

The Moon-to-Earth low energy trajectories of 'detour' type are found and studied within the frame ... km from the Earth where the Sun gravitation decreases the particle orbit perigee distance to a small value .... The solid curve in fig- ... the Moon, respectively, as is the semimajor axis .... inclination i0 = 90 .... Then, according to.

Chemical analysis of rare earth elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsukahara, Ryoichi; Sakoh, Takefumi; Nagai, Iwao

1994-01-01

Recently attention has been paid to ICP-AES or ICP-MS, and the reports on the analysis of rare earth elements by utilizing these methods continue to increase. These reports have become to take about 30% of the reports on rare earth analysis, and this is because these methods are highly sensitive to rare earth elements, and also these methods have spread widely. In ICP-AES and ICP-MS, mostly solution samples are measured, therefore, solids must be made into solution. At the time of quantitatively determining the rare earth elements of low concentration, separation and concentration are necessary. Referring to the literatures reported partially in 1990 and from 1991 to 1993, the progress of ICP-AES and ICP-MS is reported. Rare earth oxides and the alloys containing rare earth elements are easily decomposed with acids, but the decomposition of rocks is difficult, and its method is discussed. The separation of the rare earth elements from others in geochemical samples, cation exchange process is frequently utilized. Also solvent extraction process has been studied. For the separation of rare earth elements mutually, chromatography is used. The spectral interference in spectral analysis was studied. The comparison of these methods with other methods is reported. (K.I)

uranium and thorium exploration by geophysical methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yueksel, F.A.; Kanli, A.I.

1997-01-01

Radioactivity is often measured from the ground in mineral exploration. If large areas have to be investigated, it is often unsuitable to carry out the measurements with ground-bound expeditions. A geophysical method of gamma-ray spectrometry is generally applied for uranium exploration. Exploration of uranium surveys were stopped after the year of 1990 in Turkey. Therefore the real potential of uranium in Turkey have to be investigated by using the geophysical techniques

A divalent rare earth oxide semiconductor: Yttrium monoxide

Science.gov (United States)

Kaminaga, Kenichi; Sei, Ryosuke; Hayashi, Kouichi; Happo, Naohisa; Tajiri, Hiroo; Oka, Daichi; Fukumura, Tomoteru; Hasegawa, Tetsuya

Rare earth sesquioxides like Y2O3 are known as widegap insulators with the highly stable closed shell trivalent rare earth ions. On the other hand, rare earth monoxides such as YO have been recognized as gaseous phase, and only EuO and YbO were thermodynamically stable solid-phase rock salt monoxides. In this study, solid-phase rock salt yttrium monoxide, YO, was synthesized in a form of epitaxial thin film by pulsed laser deposition method. YO possesses unusual valence of Y2+ ([Kr] 4d1) . In contrast with Y2O3, YO was narrow gap semiconductor with dark-brown color. The electrical conductivity was tunable from 10-1 to 103 Ω-1 cm-1 by introducing oxygen vacancies as electron donor. Weak antilocalization behavior was observed indicating significant spin-orbit coupling owing to 4 d electron carrier. The absorption spectral shape implies the Mott-Hubbard insulator character of YO. Rare earth monoixdes will be new platform of functional oxides. This work was supported by JST-CREST, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) with Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Nos. 26105002 and 26105006), and Nanotechnology Platform (Project No.12024046) of MEXT, Japan.

Crystal structure of Earth's inner core: A first-principles study

Science.gov (United States)

Moustafa, S. G.; Schultz, A. J.; Zurek, E.; Kofke, D. A.

2017-12-01

Since the detection of the Earth's solid inner core (IC) by Lehmann in 1936, its composition and crystal structure (which are essential to understand Earth's evolution) have been controversial. While seismological measurements (e.g. PREM) can give a robust estimation of the density, pressure, and elasticity of the IC, they cannot be directly used to determine its composition and/or crystal structure. Experimentally, reaching the extreme IC conditions ( 330 GPa and 6000 K) and getting reliable measurements is very challenging. First-principles calculations provide a viable alternative that can work as a powerful investigative tool. Although several attempts have been made to assess phase stability at IC conditions computationally, they often use a low level of theory for electronic structure (e.g., classical force-field), adopt approximate methods (e.g., quasiharmonic approximation, fixed hcp-c/a), or do not consider finite-size effects. The study of phase stability using accurate first-principles methods is hampered in part by the difficulty of computing the free energy (FE), the central thermodynamic quantity that determines stability, while including anharmonic and finite-size effects. Additional difficulty related to the IC in particular is introduced by the dynamical instability of one of the IC candidate structures (bcc) at low temperature. Recently [1-3], we introduced a novel method (denoted as "harmonically mapped averaging", or HMA) to efficiently measure anharmonic properties (e.g. FE, pressure, elastic modulus) by molecular simulation, yielding orders of magnitude CPU speedup compared to conventional methods. We have applied this method to the hcp candidate phase of iron at the IC conditions, obtaining first-principles anharmonic FE values with unprecedented accuracy and precision [4]. We have now completed and report HMA calculations to assess the phase stability of all IC candidate phases (fcc/hcp/bcc). This knowledge is the prerequisite for

Site characterization at the Rabbit Valley Geophysical Performance Evaluation Range

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koppenjan, S.; Martinez, M.

1994-01-01

The United States Department of Energy (US DOE) is developing a Geophysical Performance Evaluation Range (GPER) at Rabbit Valley located 30 miles west of Grand Junction, Colorado. The purpose of the range is to provide a test area for geophysical instruments and survey procedures. Assessment of equipment accuracy and resolution is accomplished through the use of static and dynamic physical models. These models include targets with fixed configurations and targets that can be re-configured to simulate specific specifications. Initial testing (1991) combined with the current tests at the Rabbit Valley GPER will establish baseline data and will provide performance criteria for the development of geophysical technologies and techniques. The US DOE's Special Technologies Laboratory (STL) staff has conducted a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of the site with its stepped FM-CW GPR. Additionally, STL contracted several other geophysical tests. These include an airborne GPR survey incorporating a ''chirped'' FM-CW GPR system and a magnetic survey with a surfaced-towed magnetometer array unit Ground-based and aerial video and still frame pictures were also acquired. STL compiled and analyzed all of the geophysical maps and created a site characterization database. This paper discusses the results of the multi-sensor geophysical studies performed at Rabbit Valley and the future plans for the site

Comparison study of selected geophysical and geotechnical parameters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nissen, Randi Warncke; Poulsen, Søren Erbs

Successful foundation of constructions relies on accurate characterization of the geotechnical properties of the subsurface. By implementing data from geophysical surveys, the placement of geotechnical drillings can be significantly improved, potentially reducing the number of required drillings....... This case study is mainly to compare geophysical investigations (MEP/IP) with existing PACES data and information from geotechnical drillings....

Testing how geophysics can reduce the uncertainty of groundwater model predictions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Nikolaj Kruse; Christensen, Steen; Ferre, Ty

2014-01-01

Geophysical data are increasingly used to construct groundwater models. Such data are collected at lower cost and much higher density than the traditionally used geological, hydraulic, and hydrological data. The geophysical data are often inverted independently and used together with geological......, respectively. There is also complete flexibility in the choice of relationships between hydraulic and geophysical properties. Noise can be added to the synthetic hydrologic and geophysical datasets and these exhaustive data sets can be down sampled to represent realistic data sets of varying measurement...... with and covered by layered glaciofluvial and glacial deposits. The hydrological data consist of 35 hydraulic head measurements and one river discharge measurement, while the geophysical data consist of 77 TEM soundings. The data are inverted sequentially and jointly. Through this example, we highlight the value...

Description of geophysical data in the SKB database GEOTAB. Version 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sehlstedt, S.

1991-01-01

For the storage of different types of data collected by SKB a database called GEOTAB has been created. The following data is stored in the database: Background data, geological data, geophysical data, hydrogeological and meteorological data, hydrochemical data, and tracer tests. This report describes the data flow for different types of geophysical measurement. The descriptions start with measurement and end with the storage of data in GEOTAB. Each process and the resulting data volume is presented separately. The geophysical measurements have been divided into the following subjects: Geophysical ground surface measurements, geophysical borehole logging, and petrophysical measurements. Each group of measurements is described in an individual chapter. In each chapter several measuring techniques are described and each method has a data table and a flyleaf table in GEOTAB. (author)

Vocabulary related to earth sciences through etymology

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

DileepKumar, M.

to all aspects of earth sci- ences education for the benefit of students and educators. The author of the article is Nittala S. Sarma, Andhra University, Visak- hapatnam. In the article, Sarma has col- lected Greek, Latin, German and Celtic affixes... terms can be built solidly. My realization of the importance of etymology and the impressive effort put up by Sarma has prompted me to bring his recent publication to the attention of earth sciences students and teachers in the country...

The physical principles of rock magnetism

CERN Document Server

Stacey, Frank

1974-01-01

Developments in Solid Earth Geophysics 5: The Physical Principles of Rock Magnetism explores the physical principles of rock magnetism, with emphasis on the properties of finely divided magnetic materials. It discusses the origin and stability of rock magnetizations, the role of remanent magnetism in interpreting magnetic surveys, magnetic anisotropy as an indicator of rock fabric, and the relationship between piezomagnetic changes and seismic activity. Organized into 13 chapters, this volume discusses the properties of solids, magnetite and hematite grains, and rocks with magnetite grains

Geophysical Tools, Challenges and Perspectives Related to Natural Hazards, Climate Change and Food Security

Science.gov (United States)

Fucugauchi, J. U.

2013-05-01

In the coming decades a changing climate and natural hazards will likely increase the vulnerability of agricultural and other food production infrastructures, posing increasing treats to industrialized and developing economies. While food security concerns affect us globally, the huge differences among countries in stocks, population size, poverty levels, economy, technologic development, transportation, health care systems and basic infrastructure will pose a much larger burden on populations in the developing and less developed world. In these economies, increase in the magnitude, duration and frequency of droughts, floods, hurricanes, rising sea levels, heat waves, thunderstorms, freezing events and other phenomena will pose severe costs on the population. For this presentation, we concentrate on a geophysical perspective of the problems, tools available, challenges and short and long-term perspectives. In many instances, a range of natural hazards are considered as unforeseen catastrophes, which suddenly affect without warning, resulting in major losses. Although the forecasting capacity in the different situations arising from climate change and natural hazards is still limited, there are a range of tools available to assess scenarios and forecast models for developing and implementing better mitigation strategies and prevention programs. Earth observation systems, geophysical instrumental networks, satellite observatories, improved understanding of phenomena, expanded global and regional databases, geographic information systems, higher capacity for computer modeling, numerical simulations, etc provide a scientific-technical framework for developing strategies. Hazard prevention and mitigation programs will result in high costs globally, however major costs and challenges concentrate on the less developed economies already affected by poverty, famines, health problems, social inequalities, poor infrastructure, low life expectancy, high population growth

Thermal structure of the accreting earth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Turcotte, D.L.; Pflugrath, J.C.

1985-01-01

The energy associated with the accretion of the earth and the segregation of the core is more than sufficient to melt the entire earth. In order to understand the thermal evolution of the early earth it is necessary to study the relevant heat transfer mechanisms. In this paper we postulate the existence of a global magma ocean and carry out calculations of the heat flux through it in order to determine its depth. In the solid mantle heat is transferred by the upward migration of magma. This magma supplies the magma ocean. The increase in the mantle liquidus with depth (pressure) is the dominant effect influencing heat transfer through the magma ocean. We find that a magma ocean with a depth of the order of 20 km would have existed as the earth accreted. We conclude that the core segregated and an atmosphere was formed during accretion

Technical Note: Calibration and validation of geophysical observation models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salama, M.S.; van der Velde, R.; van der Woerd, H.J.; Kromkamp, J.C.; Philippart, C.J.M.; Joseph, A.T.; O'Neill, P.E.; Lang, R.H.; Gish, T.; Werdell, P.J.; Su, Z.

2012-01-01

We present a method to calibrate and validate observational models that interrelate remotely sensed energy fluxes to geophysical variables of land and water surfaces. Coincident sets of remote sensing observation of visible and microwave radiations and geophysical data are assembled and subdivided

MLS/Aura Level 2 Diagnostics, Geophysical Parameter Grid V004

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — ML2DGG is the EOS Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) product containing geophysical diagnostic quantities pertaining directly to the standard geophysical data...

Multiscale Geophysical Characterization of Weathering Fronts Along a Climate and Vegetation Gradient in Chile

Science.gov (United States)

Dal Bo, I.; Klotzsche, A.; Schaller, M.; Ehlers, T. A.; Vereecken, H.; Van Der Kruk, J.

2017-12-01

more vegetated south-facing hillslopes, which could be correlated with increased signal penetration and reflection depths in the GPR profiles. Soil depths and their interaction with biota in soil-mantled landscapes will be better characterized by combining geophysics with more environmental parameters within the interdisciplinary EarthShape project.

Integrated geophysical-geochemical methods for archaeological prospecting

OpenAIRE

Persson, Kjell

2005-01-01

A great number of field measurements with different methods and instruments were conducted in attempts to develop a method for an optimal combination of various geochemical and geophysical methods in archaeological prospecting. The research presented in this thesis focuses on a study of how different anthropogenic changes in the ground can be detected by geochemical and geophysical mapping and how the results can be presented. A six-year pilot project, Svealand in Vendel and Viking periods (S...

Earth Science Computational Architecture for Multi-disciplinary Investigations

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, J. W.; Blom, R.; Gurrola, E.; Katz, D.; Lyzenga, G.; Norton, C.

2005-12-01

Understanding the processes underlying Earth's deformation and mass transport requires a non-traditional, integrated, interdisciplinary, approach dependent on multiple space and ground based data sets, modeling, and computational tools. Currently, details of geophysical data acquisition, analysis, and modeling largely limit research to discipline domain experts. Interdisciplinary research requires a new computational architecture that is optimized to perform complex data processing of multiple solid Earth science data types in a user-friendly environment. A web-based computational framework is being developed and integrated with applications for automatic interferometric radar processing, and models for high-resolution deformation & gravity, forward models of viscoelastic mass loading over short wavelengths & complex time histories, forward-inverse codes for characterizing surface loading-response over time scales of days to tens of thousands of years, and inversion of combined space magnetic & gravity fields to constrain deep crustal and mantle properties. This framework combines an adaptation of the QuakeSim distributed services methodology with the Pyre framework for multiphysics development. The system uses a three-tier architecture, with a middle tier server that manages user projects, available resources, and security. This ensures scalability to very large networks of collaborators. Users log into a web page and have a personal project area, persistently maintained between connections, for each application. Upon selection of an application and host from a list of available entities, inputs may be uploaded or constructed from web forms and available data archives, including gravity, GPS and imaging radar data. The user is notified of job completion and directed to results posted via URLs. Interdisciplinary work is supported through easy availability of all applications via common browsers, application tutorials and reference guides, and worked examples with

BSR and methane hydrates: New challenges for geophysics and rock physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nur, A. [Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Geophysics

1996-12-31

It is generally accepted that solid gas hydrates which form within the uppermost few hundred meters of the sea floor are responsible for so-called Bottom Simulating Reflectors (BSRs) at continental margins. Gas to solid volumetric ratio in recovered hydrate samples may be as large as 170. Consequently, huge amounts of compressed methane (more than twice all recoverable and nonrecoverable oil, gas, and coal on earth) may exist under earth`s oceans. These hydrates are a potential energy resource, they influence global warming and effect seafloor mechanical stability. It is possible, in principle, to obtain a quantitative estimate of the amount and state of existing hydrates by relating seismic velocity to the volume of gas hydrate in porous sediments. This can be done by linking the elastic properties of hydrated sediments to their internal structure. The authors approach this problem by examining two micromechanical models of hydrate deposition in the pore space: (1) the hydrate cements grain contacts and thus significantly stiffens the sediment; and (2) the hydrate is located away from grain contacts and only weakly affects the stiffness of the sediment frame. To discriminate between the two models the authors use the Amplitude Versus Offset (AVO) technique of seismic data processing. This approach allows them to estimate the amount of gas hydrates in the pore space, and also to tell whether the permeability of the hydrated sediment is high or low. The latter is important for determining whether free methane can be trapped underneath a BSR.

The gravitational self-interaction of the Earth's tidal bulge

Science.gov (United States)

Norsen, Travis; Dreese, Mackenzie; West, Christopher

2017-09-01

According to a standard, idealized analysis, the Moon would produce a 54 cm equilibrium tidal bulge in the Earth's oceans. This analysis omits many factors (beyond the scope of the simple idealized model) that dramatically influence the actual height and timing of the tides at different locations, but it is nevertheless an important foundation for more detailed studies. Here, we show that the standard analysis also omits another factor—the gravitational interaction of the tidal bulge with itself—which is entirely compatible with the simple, idealized equilibrium model and which produces a surprisingly non-trivial correction to the predicted size of the tidal bulge. Our analysis uses ideas and techniques that are familiar from electrostatics, and should thus be of interest to teachers and students of undergraduate E&M, Classical Mechanics (and/or other courses that cover the tides), and geophysics courses that cover the closely related topic of Earth's equatorial bulge.

Inversion of Solid Earth's Varying Shape 2: Using Self-Consistency to Infer Static Ocean Topography

Science.gov (United States)

Blewitt, G.; Clarke, P. J.

2002-12-01

We have developed a spectral approach to invert for the redistribution of mass on the Earth's surface given precise global geodetic measurements of the solid Earth's geometrical shape. We used the elastic load Love number formalism to characterize the redistributed mass as a spherical harmonic expansion, truncated at some degree and order n. [Clarke and Blewitt, this meeting]. Here we incorporate the additional physical constraint that the sea surface in hydrostatic equilibrium corresponds to an equipotential surface, to infer the non-steric component of static ocean topography. Our model rigorously accounts for self-gravitation of the ocean, continental surface mass, and the deformed solid Earth, such that the sea surface adopts a new equipotential surface consistent with ocean-land mass exchange, deformation of the geoid, deformation of the sea floor, and the geographical configuration of the oceans and continents. We develop a self-consistent spectral inversion method to solve for the distribution of continental surface mass that would generate geographic variations in relative mean sea level such that the total (ocean plus continental) mass distribution agrees with the original geodetic estimates to degree and order n. We apply this theory to study the contribution of seasonal inter-hemispheric (degree-1) mass transfer to seasonal variation in static ocean topography, using a published empirical seasonal model for degree-1 surface loading derived using GPS coordinate time series from the global IGS network [Blewitt et al., Science 294, 2,342-2,345, 2001]. The resulting predictions of seasonal variations of relative sea level strongly depend on location, with peak variations ranging from 3 mm to 19 mm. The largest peak variations are predicted in mid-August around Antarctica and the southern hemisphere in general; the lowest variations are predicted in the northern hemisphere. Corresponding maximum continental loading occurs in Canada and Siberia at the water

Nuclear geophysical methods for exploration of wells in fields of solid mineral deposits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fel'dman, I.I.; Blyumentsev, A.M.; Karnikolo, V.F.; Zheltikov, A.N.

1974-01-01

Chromite and sulphur deposits have been used to illustrate the necessity and desirabilty of applying a combination of nuclear-geophysics logging methods and correlations between individual rock and ore components for localization and evaluation of ore bodies in borehole sections. On chromite deposits the combination includes neutron-capture spectrometric gamma-logging, epithermal neutron-neutron logging, selective gamma-gamma logging and gamma-gamma density logging. Neutron-capture spectrometric gamma-logging ensures an unambiguous localization of ores in borehole sections; epithermal neutron-neutron logging enables ores to be separated by the degree of dissemination; selective gamma-gamma logging is used to determine the content of Cr 2 O 3 and gamma-gamma density logging determines the volume weight. In addition a close correlation between Cr 2 O 3 and SiO 2 contents allows the silica content to be estimated. Application of a three-channel apparatus of the RSK-3 type ensures that all the measurements are made in two descent-ascension operations. The implementation of the combination described has ensured transition to drilling with a reduced selection of core samples. On sulphur deposits of carbonate type the combination includes epithermal neutron-neutron logging, gamma-gamma density logging and neutron-capture spectrometric gamma-logging

Improved extraction of hydrologic information from geophysical data through coupled hydrogeophysical inversion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hinnell, A.C.; Ferre, T.P.A.; Vrugt, J.A.; Huisman, J.A.; Moysey, S.; Rings, J.; Kowalsky, M.B.

2009-11-01

There is increasing interest in the use of multiple measurement types, including indirect (geophysical) methods, to constrain hydrologic interpretations. To date, most examples integrating geophysical measurements in hydrology have followed a three-step, uncoupled inverse approach. This approach begins with independent geophysical inversion to infer the spatial and/or temporal distribution of a geophysical property (e.g. electrical conductivity). The geophysical property is then converted to a hydrologic property (e.g. water content) through a petrophysical relation. The inferred hydrologic property is then used either independently or together with direct hydrologic observations to constrain a hydrologic inversion. We present an alternative approach, coupled inversion, which relies on direct coupling of hydrologic models and geophysical models during inversion. We compare the abilities of coupled and uncoupled inversion using a synthetic example where surface-based electrical conductivity surveys are used to monitor one-dimensional infiltration and redistribution.

An Integral, Multidisciplinary and Global Geophysical Field Experience for Undergraduates

Science.gov (United States)

Vázquez, O.; Carrillo, D. J.; Pérez-Campos, X.

2007-05-01

The udergraduate program of Geophysical Engineering at the School of Engineering, of the Univesidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), went through an update process that concluded in 2006. As part of the program, the student takes three geophysical prospecting courses (gravity and magnetics, electric, electromagnetics, and seismic methods). The older program required a three-week field experience for each course in order to gradute. The new program considers only one extended field experience. This work stresses the importance of international academic exchange, where undergraduate students could participate, such as the Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (SAGE), and interaction with research programs, such as the MesoAmerican Subduction Experiment (MASE). Also, we propose a scheeme for this activity based on those examples; both of them have in common real geophysical problems, from which students could benefit. Our proposal covers academic and logistic aspects to be taken into account, enhancing the relevance of interaction between other academic institutions, industry, and UNAM, in order to obtain a broader view of geophysics.

Analysis of time variable gravity data over Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barletta, Valentina R.; Aoudia, Abdelkarim

2010-01-01

Africa, in principle, is a unique laboratory where to address the individual contribution of the different facets of the Earth system as well as their interactions. However, it shows both a rich hydrology that exhibits complex characteristics of rivers and wide basins of different sizes in addition to the hydrology of lakes, and other wetlands and storage reservoirs and groundwater aquifers, and continuous and discontinuous changes in the physical properties of the Earth interior. Stretching and heating processes are accompanied by punctuated episodes of faulting and/or volcanism, and longer-term changes in surface elevation that disrupt river drainage and climate. Space gravity missions GRACE, flying since 2002, was expressly designed to detect the time-dependent gravity field in order to study the hydrological cycle of the Earth, but has also evidenced Solid Earth phenomena such as Post Glacial Rebound (PGR) and the signature of a giant earthquake such as the 2004 Sumatra. Hence the idea to analyze time variable gravity data over Africa in order to retrieve fingerprints of geophysical phenomena. The exploitation of the GRACE data for geophysics, however, is not straightforward. Indeed, the quality of the signal is not uniform worldwide and gravity is always the superposition of contributions from solid Earth as well as climate-related phenomena, that cannot be easily distinguished, at a first glance, both in time and space. In the present study we show that mass changes cannot be classified simply as trends or periodic signals. We follow an alternative way to separate complementary components, periodic and non-periodic signals, without loosing information. We show that the a priori periodic and linear trend fitting function is not everywhere appropriate and in some cases it is even so poor to result in misinterpreting the data. Variations in long term behavior and periodicities higher than the usual annual (and semi-annual) indeed occur, related to geophysical

Teaching Mathematical Modelling for Earth Sciences via Case Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xin-She

2010-05-01

Mathematical modelling is becoming crucially important for earth sciences because the modelling of complex systems such as geological, geophysical and environmental processes requires mathematical analysis, numerical methods and computer programming. However, a substantial fraction of earth science undergraduates and graduates may not have sufficient skills in mathematical modelling, which is due to either limited mathematical training or lack of appropriate mathematical textbooks for self-study. In this paper, we described a detailed case-study-based approach for teaching mathematical modelling. We illustrate how essential mathematical skills can be developed for students with limited training in secondary mathematics so that they are confident in dealing with real-world mathematical modelling at university level. We have chosen various topics such as Airy isostasy, greenhouse effect, sedimentation and Stokes' flow,free-air and Bouguer gravity, Brownian motion, rain-drop dynamics, impact cratering, heat conduction and cooling of the lithosphere as case studies; and we use these step-by-step case studies to teach exponentials, logarithms, spherical geometry, basic calculus, complex numbers, Fourier transforms, ordinary differential equations, vectors and matrix algebra, partial differential equations, geostatistics and basic numeric methods. Implications for teaching university mathematics for earth scientists for tomorrow's classroom will also be discussed. Refereces 1) D. L. Turcotte and G. Schubert, Geodynamics, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press, (2002). 2) X. S. Yang, Introductory Mathematics for Earth Scientists, Dunedin Academic Press, (2009).

Comments about "Earth 3.0"

Science.gov (United States)

Dator, Jim

2006-01-01

Dr. Christopher P. McKay, Planetary Scientist with the Space Science Division of NASA Ames. Chris received his Ph.D. in AstroGeophysics from the University of Colorado in 1982 and has been a research scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center since that time. His current research focuses on the evolution of the solar system and the origin of life. He is also actively involved in planning for future Mars missions including human exploration. Chris been involved in research in Mars-like environments on Earth, traveling to the Antarctic dry valleys, Siberia, the Canadian Arctic, and the Atacama desert to study life in these Mars-like environments. His was a co-I on the Titan Huygen s probe in 2005, the Mars Phoenix lander mission for 2007, and the Mars Science Lander mission for 2009.

Use of borehole and surface geophysics to investigate ground-water quality near a road-deicing salt-storage facility, Valparaiso, Indiana

Science.gov (United States)

Risch, M.R.; Robinson, B.A.

2001-01-01

Borehole and surface geophysics were used to investigate ground-water quality affected by a road-deicing salt-storage facility located near a public water-supply well field. From 1994 through 1998, borehole geophysical logs were made in an existing network of monitoring wells completed near the bottom of a thick sand aquifer. Logs of natural gamma activity indicated a uniform and negligible contribution of clay to the electromagnetic conductivity of the aquifer so that the logs of electromagnetic conductivity primarily measured the amount of dissolved solids in the ground water near the wells. Electromagneticconductivity data indicated the presence of a saltwater plume near the bottom of the aquifer. Increases in electromagnetic conductivity, observed from sequential logging of wells, indicated the saltwater plume had moved north about 60 to 100 feet per year between 1994 and 1998. These rates were consistent with estimates of horizontal ground-water flow based on velocity calculations made with hydrologic data from the study area.

Design strategies for human & earth systems modeling to meet emerging multi-scale decision support needs

Science.gov (United States)

Spak, S.; Pooley, M.

2012-12-01

The next generation of coupled human and earth systems models promises immense potential and grand challenges as they transition toward new roles as core tools for defining and living within planetary boundaries. New frontiers in community model development include not only computational, organizational, and geophysical process questions, but also the twin objectives of more meaningfully integrating the human dimension and extending applicability to informing policy decisions on a range of new and interconnected issues. We approach these challenges by posing key policy questions that require more comprehensive coupled human and geophysical models, identify necessary model and organizational processes and outputs, and work backwards to determine design criteria in response to these needs. We find that modular community earth system model design must: * seamlessly scale in space (global to urban) and time (nowcasting to paleo-studies) and fully coupled on all component systems * automatically differentiate to provide complete coupled forward and adjoint models for sensitivity studies, optimization applications, and 4DVAR assimilation across Earth and human observing systems * incorporate diagnostic tools to quantify uncertainty in couplings, and in how human activity affects them * integrate accessible community development and application with JIT-compilation, cloud computing, game-oriented interfaces, and crowd-sourced problem-solving We outline accessible near-term objectives toward these goals, and describe attempts to incorporate these design objectives in recent pilot activities using atmosphere-land-ocean-biosphere-human models (WRF-Chem, IBIS, UrbanSim) at urban and regional scales for policy applications in climate, energy, and air quality.

Exploiting Untapped Information Resources in Earth Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, R.; Fox, P. A.; Kempler, S.; Maskey, M.

2015-12-01

One of the continuing challenges in any Earth science investigation is the amount of time and effort required for data preparation before analysis can begin. Current Earth science data and information systems have their own shortcomings. For example, the current data search systems are designed with the assumption that researchers find data primarily by metadata searches on instrument or geophysical keywords, assuming that users have sufficient knowledge of the domain vocabulary to be able to effectively utilize the search catalogs. These systems lack support for new or interdisciplinary researchers who may be unfamiliar with the domain vocabulary or the breadth of relevant data available. There is clearly a need to innovate and evolve current data and information systems in order to improve data discovery and exploration capabilities to substantially reduce the data preparation time and effort. We assert that Earth science metadata assets are dark resources, information resources that organizations collect, process, and store for regular business or operational activities but fail to utilize for other purposes. The challenge for any organization is to recognize, identify and effectively utilize the dark data stores in their institutional repositories to better serve their stakeholders. NASA Earth science metadata catalogs contain dark resources consisting of structured information, free form descriptions of data and pre-generated images. With the addition of emerging semantic technologies, such catalogs can be fully utilized beyond their original design intent of supporting current search functionality. In this presentation, we will describe our approach of exploiting these information resources to provide novel data discovery and exploration pathways to science and education communities

Geophysical methods in protected environments. Electrical resistivity tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rubio Sánchez-Aguililla, F.M.; Ramiro-Camacho, A.; Ibarra Torre, P.

2017-01-01

There is a strong interest in protecting the environment with the aim of its long term preservation. Sometimes the heritage value of these natural areas is related to their biodiversity as there are restricted ecosystems that depend directly on them. In other cases there a singular geological record might exist, essential for the understanding of certain processes affecting the planet, such as volcanic events or glacial periods. To achieve the protection and conservation of these areas it is necessary to generate knowledge about the distribution of geological materials and groundwater masses, to study the parameters that dominate the behaviour of these systems and then define those elements that require special protection or attention. In these protected environments, research methods with a minimal environmental impact should be used. Therefore, indirect methods, such as geophysical techniques, are reliable and complementary tools with a minimum environmental impact and are therefore useful for research these unique areas. The IGME has conducted several geophysical surveys in different protected environments in Spain with the aim of achieving a better understanding, and thus facilitate their preservation and exploitation in a sustainable manner. In this paper we present a review of some case studies where geophysical methods have been used. In all the cases electrical resistivity tomography has been the axis of the geophysical research and stands out due to its great effectiveness. The main objective of this communication is to divulgate and increase awareness of the important role that these geophysical methods can play in the sustainable study of these unique places. [es

Borehole geophysics in nuclear power plant siting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crosby, J.W.; Scott, J.D.

1979-01-01

Miniaturized borehole geophysical equipment designed for use in ground-water investigations can be adapted to investigations of nuclear power plant sites. This equipment has proved to be of value in preliminary and comprehensive studies of interior basins where thick sequences of Quaternary clastic sediment, occasionally with associated volcanic rocks, pose problems of stratigraphic correlation. The unconsolidated nature of the deposits generally requires that exploratory holes be cased, which ordinarily restricts the borehole geophysical studies to the radiation functions--natural gamma, gamma-gamma, neutron-gamma, and neutron-epithermal neutron logs. Although a single log response may be dominant in a given area, correlations derive from consideration of all log responses as a composite group. Because major correlations usually are based upon subtle differences in the physical properties of the penetrated sediment, high-resolution logging procedures are employed with some sacrifice of the quantitative perameters important to petroleum technology. All geophysical field data are recorded as hard copy and as digital information on punched paper tape

Unified Geophysical Cloud Platform (UGCP) for Seismic Monitoring and other Geophysical Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Synytsky, R.; Starovoit, Y. O.; Henadiy, S.; Lobzakov, V.; Kolesnikov, L.

2016-12-01

We present Unified Geophysical Cloud Platform (UGCP) or UniGeoCloud as an innovative approach for geophysical data processing in the Cloud environment with the ability to run any type of data processing software in isolated environment within the single Cloud platform. We've developed a simple and quick method of several open-source widely known software seismic packages (SeisComp3, Earthworm, Geotool, MSNoise) installation which does not require knowledge of system administration, configuration, OS compatibility issues etc. and other often annoying details preventing time wasting for system configuration work. Installation process is simplified as "mouse click" on selected software package from the Cloud market place. The main objective of the developed capability was the software tools conception with which users are able to design and install quickly their own highly reliable and highly available virtual IT-infrastructure for the organization of seismic (and in future other geophysical) data processing for either research or monitoring purposes. These tools provide access to any seismic station data available in open IP configuration from the different networks affiliated with different Institutions and Organizations. It allows also setting up your own network as you desire by selecting either regionally deployed stations or the worldwide global network based on stations selection form the global map. The processing software and products and research results could be easily monitored from everywhere using variety of user's devices form desk top computers to IT gadgets. Currents efforts of the development team are directed to achieve Scalability, Reliability and Sustainability (SRS) of proposed solutions allowing any user to run their applications with the confidence of no data loss and no failure of the monitoring or research software components. The system is suitable for quick rollout of NDC-in-Box software package developed for State Signatories and aimed for

Geophysical Data Sets in GeoMapApp

Science.gov (United States)

Goodwillie, A. M.

2017-12-01

GeoMapApp (http://www.geomapapp.org), a free map-based data tool developed at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, provides access to hundreds of integrated geoscience data sets that are useful for geophysical studies. Examples include earthquake and volcano catalogues, gravity and magnetics data, seismic velocity tomographic models, geological maps, geochemical analytical data, lithospheric plate boundary information, geodetic velocities, and high-resolution bathymetry and land elevations. Users can also import and analyse their own data files. Data analytical functions provide contouring, shading, profiling, layering and transparency, allowing multiple data sets to be seamlessly compared. A new digitization and field planning portal allow stations and waypoints to be generated. Sessions can be saved and shared with colleagues and students. In this eLightning presentation we will demonstrate some of GeoMapApp's capabilities with a focus upon subduction zones and tectonics. In the attached screen shot of the Cascadia margin, the contoured depth to the top of the subducting Juan de Fuca slab is overlain on a shear wave velocity depth slice. Geochemical data coloured on Al2O3 and scaled on MgO content is shown as circles. The stack of data profiles was generated along the white line.

Is lithostatic loading important for the slip behavior and evolution of normal faults in the Earth's crust?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kattenhorn, Simon A.; Pollard, David D.

1999-01-01

Normal faults growing in the Earth's crust are subject to the effects of an increasing frictional resistance to slip caused by the increasing lithostatic load with depth. We use three-dimensional (3-D) boundary element method numerical models to evaluate these effects on planar normal faults with variable elliptical tip line shapes in an elastic solid. As a result of increasing friction with depth, normal fault slip maxima for a single slip event are skewed away from the fault center toward the upper fault tip. There is a correspondingly greater propagation tendency at the upper tip. However, the tall faults that would result from such a propagation tendency are generally not observed in nature. We show how mechanical interaction between laterally stepping fault segments significantly competes with the lithostatic loading effect in the evolution of a normal fault system, promoting lateral propagation and possibly segment linkage. Resultant composite faults are wider than they are tall, resembling both 3-D seismic data interpretations and previously documented characteristics of normal fault systems. However, this effect may be greatly complemented by the influence of a heterogeneous stratigraphy, which can control fault nucleation depth and inhibit fault propagation across the mechanical layering. Our models demonstrate that although lithostatic loading may be an important control on fault evolution in relatively homogeneous rocks, the contribution of lithologic influences and mechanical interaction between closely spaced, laterally stepping faults may predominate in determining the slip behavior and propagation tendency of normal faults in the Earth's crust. (c) 1999 American Geophysical Union

The cosmic ray actinide charge spectrum derived from a 10 m2 array of solid state nuclear track detectors in Earth orbit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Donnelly, J.; Thompson, A.; O'Sullivan, D.; Drury, L.O'C.; Wenzel, K.-P.

2001-01-01

The DIAS-ESTEC Ultra Heavy Cosmic Ray Experiment (UHCRE) on the Long Duration Exposure Facility, collected approximately 3000 cosmic ray nuclei with Z>65 in the energy region E>1.5 GeV nucleon -1 during a six year exposure in Earth orbit. The entire accessible collecting area of the solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) array has been scanned for actinides, yielding a sample of 30 from an exposure of ∼150 m 2 sr yr. The UHCRE experimental setup is described and the observed charge spectrum presented. The current best value for the cosmic ray actinide relative abundance, (Z>88)/(74≤Z≤87), is reported

East Chestnut Ridge hydrogeologic characterization: A geophysical study of two karst features

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

Permitting and site selection activities for the proposed East Chestnut Ridge landfill, located on the Oak Ridge Reservation, have required additional hydrogeologic studies of two karst features. Geophysical testing methods were utilized for investigating these karst features. The objectives of the geophysical testing was to determine the feasibility of geophysical techniques for locating subsurface karst features and to determine if subsurface anomalies exist at the proposed landfill site. Two karst features, one lacking surface expression (sinkhole) but with a known solution cavity at depth (from previous hydrologic studies), and the other with surface expression were tested with surface geophysical methods. Four geophysical profiles, two crossing and centered over each karst feature were collected using both gravimetric and electrical resistivity techniques

COMUNICA Project: a commitment for strategic communication on Earth Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Cortes-Picas, Jordi; Diaz, Jordi; Fernandez-Turiel, Jose-Luis

2016-04-01

The Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera (ICTJA-CSIC) has just celebrated its 50-year anniversary last year. It is a reference research center on Earth Sciences both national and international level. The Institute includes 4 research groups which focus their scientific activity on the structure and dynamics of the Earth, the environmental changes in the geological record, geophysical and geochemical modelling and crystallography and optical properties. Only when large geological disasters happens, mainly earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, some interaction between ICTJA-CSIC researchers and traditional media occurs, which is limited by the fact that the aim of the Institute is the scientific research and it has no responsibilities in the area of civil protection. This relationship reduces the knowledge of our activity to the general public. To overcome this situation, the ICTJA-CSIC has decided to take an active role in the social dissemination of geological and geophysical knowledge. Thus, the ICTJA-CSIC has launched the COMUNICA Project. The project is aimed to increase the social visibility of the ICTJA-CSIC and to promote the outreach of researchers. Therefore ICTJA-CSIC has created the Communication Unit, which is in charge of designing communication strategies to give to different audiences (media, students of secondary and higher education, general public) an overview of the scientific and institutional activity of the ICTJA-CSIC. A global communication plan is being designed to define the strategic actions, both internal and external. An important role has been reserved for digital channels, to promote ICTJA-CSIC activity on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook or Youtube, besides making a major effort in the renovation and maintenance of the corporate website. A strong effort will be done to collect and spread through press releases the major scientific milestones achieved by the researchers, to promote the interest of mass media. Communication

Marine Geology and Geophysics Field Course Offered by The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, D.; Davis, M. B.; Allison, M. A.; Gulick, S. P.; Goff, J. A.; Saustrup, S.

2012-12-01

The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, part of the Jackson School of Geosciences, annually offers an intensive three-week marine geology and geophysics field course during the spring-summer intersession. Now in year six, the course provides hands-on instruction and training for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in data acquisition, processing, interpretation, and visualization. Techniques covered include high-resolution seismic reflection, CHIRP sub-bottom profiling, multibeam bathymetry, sidescan sonar, several types of sediment coring, grab sampling, and the sedimentology of resulting seabed samples (e.g., core description, grain size analysis, x-radiography, etc.). Students participate in an initial period of classroom instruction designed to communicate geological context of the field area (which changes each year) along with theoretical and technical background on each field method. The class then travels to the Gulf Coast for a week of at-sea field work. Our field sites at Port Aransas and Galveston, Texas, and Grand Isle, Louisiana, have provided ideal locations for students to investigate coastal and sedimentary processes of the Gulf Coast and continental shelf through application of geophysical techniques. In the field, students rotate between two research vessels: one vessel, the 22' aluminum-hulled R/V Lake Itasca, owned and operated by UTIG, is used principally for multibeam bathymetry, sidescan sonar, and sediment sampling; the other, NOAA's R/V Manta or the R/V Acadiana, operated by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, and is used primarily for high-resolution seismic reflection, CHIRP sub-bottom profiling, multibeam bathymetry, gravity coring, and vibrocoring. While at sea, students assist with survey design, learn instrumentation set up, acquisition parameters, data quality control, and safe instrument deployment and retrieval. In teams of three, students work in onshore field labs preparing sediment samples for

Overview of Effective Geophysical Methods Used in the Study of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Abstract. The Application of various Geophysical Techniques for the assessment of the extent of ... ineffective Geophysical Method may not give true picture of the overall level of pollution in the .... stations shut down or maintenance which halt ...

Towards an Operational Use of Geophysics for Archaeology in Henan (China: Methodological Approach and Results in Kaifeng

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicola Masini

2017-08-01

Full Text Available One of the major issues in buried archeological sites especially if characterized by intense human activity, complex structures, and several constructive phases, is: to what depth conduct the excavation? The answer depends on a number of factors, among these one of the most important is the a priori and reliable knowledge of what the subsoil can preserve. To this end, geophysics (if used in strong synergy with archaeological research can help in the planning of time, depth, and modes of excavation also when the physical characteristics of the remains and their matrix are not ideal for archaeo-geophysical applications. This is the case of a great part of the archaeological sites in Henan, the cradle of the most important cultures in China and the seat of several capitals for more than two millennia. There, the high depth of buried remains covered by alluvial deposits and the building materials, mainly made by rammed earth, did not favor the use of geophysics. In this paper, we present and discuss the GPR and ERT prospection we conducted in Kaifeng (Henan, China, nearby a gate of the city walls dated to the Northern Song Dynasty. The integration of GPR and ERT provided useful information for the identification and characterization of archaeological remains buried at different depths. Actually, each geophysical technique, GPR frequency (used for the data acquisition as well as each way to analyze and visualize the results (from radargrams to time slice only provided partial information of little use if alone. The integration of the diverse techniques, data processing and visualization enabled us to optimize the penetration capability, the resolution for the detection of archaeological features and their interpretation. Finally, the results obtained from the GPR and ERT surveys were correlated with archaeological stratigraphy, available nearby the investigated area. This enabled us to further improve the interpretation of results from GPR and ERT

Gravitational mechanism of active life of the Earth, planets and satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Barkin, Yury

2010-05-01

From positions of geodynamic model of the forced gravitational swing, wobble and displacements of shells of a planet are studied and fundamental problems of geodynamics, geology, geophysics, planetary sciences are solved etc.: 1) The mechanism of cyclic variations of activity of natural processes in various time scales. 2) The power of endogenous activity of planetary natural processes on planets and satellites. 3) The phenomenon of polar inversion of natural processes on planets and satellites. 4) Spasmodic and catastrophic changes of activity of natural processes. 5) The phenomenon of twisting of hemispheres (latitude zones or belts) of celestial bodies. 6) Formation of the pear-shaped form of celestial bodies and the mechanism of its change. 7) The ordered planetary structures of geological formations. 8) The phenomena of bipolarity of celestial bodies and antipodality of geology formations. Mechanism. The fundamental feature of a structure of celestial bodies is their shell structure. The most investigated is the internal structure of the Earth. For the Moon and wide set of other bodies of solar system models of an internal structure have been constructed on the basis of the data of observations obtained at studying of their gravitational fields as a result of realization of the appropriate space missions. The basic components for the majority of celestial bodies are the core, the mantle and the crust. To other shells we concern atmospheres (for example, at Venus, Mars, the Titan etc.) and oceanic shells (the Titan, the Earth, Enceladus etc.). Shells are the complex (composite) formations. Planets and satellites are not spherical celestial bodies. The centers of mass of shells of the given planet (or the satellite) and their appropriate principal axes of inertia do not coincide. Accordingly, all their shells are characterized by the certain dynamic oblatenesses. Differences of dynamical oblatenesses results in various forced influences of external celestial

Hydrogen-bearing iron peroxide and its implications to the deep Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, J.; Hu, Q.; Kim, D. Y.; Wu, Z.; Wang, W.; Alp, E. E.; Yang, L.; Xiao, Y.; Meng, Y.; Chow, P.; Greenberg, E.; Prakapenka, V. B.; Mao, H. K.; Mao, W. L.

2017-12-01

Hydrous materials subducted into the deep mantle may play a significant role in the geophysical and geochemical processes of the lower mantle through geological time, but their roles have not become clear yet in the region. Hydrogen-bearing iron peroxide (FeO2Hx) was recently discovered to form through dehydrogenation of goethite (e.g., FeOOH) and the reaction between hematite (Fe2O3) and water under deep lower mantle conditions. We conducted synchrotron Mössbauer, X-ray absorption, and X-ray emission spectroscopy measurements to investigate the electronic spin and valence states of iron in hydrogen-bearing iron peroxide (FeO2Hx) in-situ at high pressures. Combined with theoretical calculations and other high-pressure experiments (i.e., nuclear resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction coupled with laser-heated diamond-anvil cell techniques), we find that the intriguing properties of FeO2Hx could shed light on the origin of a number of the observed geochemical and geophysical anomalies in the deep Earth.

The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics' Marine Geology and Geophysics Field Course: A Hand-On Education Approach to Applied Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, M. B.; Goff, J.; Gulick, S. P. S.; Fernandez, R.; Duncan, D.; Saustrup, S.

2016-12-01

The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, offers a 3-week marine geology and geophysics field course. The course provides hands-on instruction and training for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in high-resolution seismic reflection, CHIRP sub-bottom profiling, multibeam bathymetry, sidescan sonar, and sediment sampling and analysis. Students first participate in 3 days of classroom instruction designed to communicate geological context of the field area along with theoretical and technical background on each field method. The class then travels to the Gulf Coast for a week of at-sea field work at locations that provide an opportunity to investigate coastal and continental shelf processes. Teams of students rotate between UTIG's 26' R/V Scott Petty and NOAA's 82' R/V Manta. They assist with survey design, instrumentation set up, and learn about acquisition, quality control, and safe instrument deployment. Teams also process data and analyze samples in onshore field labs. During the final week teams integrate, interpret, and visualize data in a final project using industry-standard software. The course concludes with team presentations on their interpretations with academic and industry supporters. Students report a greater understanding of marine geology and geophysics through the course's intensive, hands-on, team approach and high instructor/student ratio (sixteen students, three faculty, and three teaching assistants). Post-class, students may incorporate course data in senior honors or graduate thesis and are encouraged to publish and present results at national meetings. This course (to our knowledge) remains the only one of its kind, satisfies field experience requirements for some degree programs, and provides an alternative to land-based field courses. Alumni note the course's applicability to energy, environmental, and geotechnical industries as well as coastal restoration/management fields.

Mobile geophysics for searching and exploration of Domanic hydrocarbon deposits

Science.gov (United States)

Borovsky, M. Ya; Uspensky, B. V.; Valeeva, S. E.; Borisov, A. S.

2018-05-01

There are noted features of shale hydrocarbons occurrence. It is shown the role of geophysical prospecting in the geological prospecting process for non-traditional sources of hydrocarbon. There are considered the possibilities of non-seismic methods for forecasting, prospecting, exploration and preparation of Domanikovian hydrocarbons accumulations for exploration. It is emphasized the need for geophysical studies of tectonic disturbances. Modern aerogeophysical instrumentation and methodological support allows to combine high-precision magneto-prospecting with gravimetric and gamma spectrometry. This combination of geophysical methods contributes to the diagnosis of active and latent faults.

AGU Pathfinder: Career and Professional Development Resources for Earth and Space Scientists

Science.gov (United States)

Harwell, D. E.; Asher, P. M.; Hankin, E. R.; Janick, N. G.; Marasco, L.

2017-12-01

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is committed to inspiring and educating present and future generations of diverse, innovative, and creative Earth and space scientists. To meet our commitment, AGU provides career and educational resources, webinars, mentoring, and support for students and professionals at each level of development to reduce barriers to achievement and to promote professional advancement. AGU is also working with other organizations and educational institutions to collaborate on projects benefiting the greater geoscience community. The presentation will include an overview of current Pathfinder efforts, collaborative efforts, and an appeal for additional partnerships.

Geophysical methods for evaluation of plutonic rocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gibb, R.A.; Scott, J.S.

1986-04-01

Geophysical methods are systematically described according to the physical principle and operational mode of each method, the type of information produced, limitations of a technical and/or economic nature, and the applicability of the method to rock-mass evaluation at Research Areas of the Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Program. The geophysical methods fall into three categories: (1) airborne and other reconnaissance surveys, (2) detailed or surface (ground) surveys, and (3) borehole or subsurface surveys. The possible roles of each method in the site-screening and site-evaluation processes of disposal vault site selection are summarized

Geophysical experiments at Mariano Lake uranium orebody

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thompson, D.T.

1980-01-01

Several geophysical experiments were performed over the Mariano Lake orebody before mining. Surface self-potential methods, surface-to-hole induced-polarization methods, and reflection-seismic methods were used. These geophysical techniques provided data which relate to the conceptual model of this orebody. Currents generated in the productive formation by oxidation-reduction reactions do not generate measurable potential anomalies at the surface. Surface-to-hole induced-polarization measurements apparently can detect an oxidation-reduction front in the vicinity of an exploration borehole. Reflection-seismic techniques can provide information concening the paleostructure of the area

Rare earths: harvesting basic research for technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jagatap, B.N.

2014-01-01

In recent years, rare earths are increasingly becoming a versatile platform for basic research that presents enormous technological potentials. A variety of nano-sized inorganic matrices varying from oxides, phosphates, gallates and aluminates, tungstates, stannates, vanadates to fluorides doped with different lanthanide ions have been synthesized and their optical properties have been investigated in the Chemistry Group, BARC. Another interesting application is laser cooling of solids using rare earth doped glasses with potential applications in remote cooling of electronic devices. Combining the luminescence properties of rare earths with photonic crystals is yet another potent area with wide ranging applications. In this presentation we provide an overview of these developments with examples from the R and D programs of the Chemistry Group, BARC

Broad-Band Analysis of Polar Motion Excitations

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, J.

2016-12-01

Earth rotational changes, i.e. polar motion and length-of-day (LOD), are driven by two types of geophysical excitations: 1) mass redistribution within the Earth system, and 2) angular momentum exchange between the solid Earth (more precisely the crust) and other components of the Earth system. Accurate quantification of Earth rotational excitations has been difficult, due to the lack of global-scale observations of mass redistribution and angular momentum exchange. The over 14-years time-variable gravity measurements from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) have provided a unique means for quantifying Earth rotational excitations from mass redistribution in different components of the climate system. Comparisons between observed Earth rotational changes and geophysical excitations estimated from GRACE, satellite laser ranging (SLR) and climate models show that GRACE-derived excitations agree remarkably well with polar motion observations over a broad-band of frequencies. GRACE estimates also suggest that accelerated polar region ice melting in recent years and corresponding sea level rise have played an important role in driving long-term polar motion as well. With several estimates of polar motion excitations, it is possible to estimate broad-band noise variance and noise power spectra in each, given reasonable assumptions about noise independence. Results based on GRACE CSR RL05 solutions clearly outperform other estimates with the lowest noise levels over a broad band of frequencies.

Geophysical mapping of complex glaciogenic large-scale structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Høyer, Anne-Sophie

2013-01-01

This thesis presents the main results of a four year PhD study concerning the use of geophysical data in geological mapping. The study is related to the Geocenter project, “KOMPLEKS”, which focuses on the mapping of complex, large-scale geological structures. The study area is approximately 100 km2...... data types and co-interpret them in order to improve our geological understanding. However, in order to perform this successfully, methodological considerations are necessary. For instance, a structure indicated by a reflection in the seismic data is not always apparent in the resistivity data...... information) can be collected. The geophysical data are used together with geological analyses from boreholes and pits to interpret the geological history of the hill-island. The geophysical data reveal that the glaciotectonic structures truncate at the surface. The directions of the structures were mapped...

SWARM - An earth Observation Mission investigating Geospace

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Friis-Christensen, Eigil; Lühr, H.; Knudsen, D.

2008-01-01

The Swarm mission was selected as the 5th mission in ESA's Earth Explorer Programme in 2004. This mission aims at measuring the Earth's magnetic field with unprecedented accuracy. This will be done by a constellation of three satellites, where two will fly at lower altitude, measuring the gradient...... of the magnetic field, and one satellite will fly at higher altitude. The measured magnetic field is the sum of many contributions including both magnetic fields and currents in the Earth's interior and electrical currents in Geospace. In order to separate all these sources electric field and plasma measurements...... will also be made to complement the primary magnetic field measurements. Together these will allow the deduction of information on a series of solid earth processes responsible for the creation of the fields measured. The completeness of the measurements on each satellite and the constellation aspect...

Organic chemistry in a CO2 rich early Earth atmosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Fleury, Benjamin; Carrasco, Nathalie; Millan, Maëva; Vettier, Ludovic; Szopa, Cyril

2017-12-01

The emergence of life on the Earth has required a prior organic chemistry leading to the formation of prebiotic molecules. The origin and the evolution of the organic matter on the early Earth is not yet firmly understood. Several hypothesis, possibly complementary, are considered. They can be divided in two categories: endogenous and exogenous sources. In this work we investigate the contribution of a specific endogenous source: the organic chemistry occurring in the ionosphere of the early Earth where the significant VUV contribution of the young Sun involved an efficient formation of reactive species. We address the issue whether this chemistry can lead to the formation of complex organic compounds with CO2 as only source of carbon in an early atmosphere made of N2, CO2 and H2, by mimicking experimentally this type of chemistry using a low pressure plasma reactor. By analyzing the gaseous phase composition, we strictly identified the formation of H2O, NH3, N2O and C2N2. The formation of a solid organic phase is also observed, confirming the possibility to trigger organic chemistry in the upper atmosphere of the early Earth. The identification of Nitrogen-bearing chemical functions in the solid highlights the possibility for an efficient ionospheric chemistry to provide prebiotic material on the early Earth.

Geophysical Exploration. New site exploration method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Imai, Tsuneo; Otomo, Hideo; Sakayama, Toshihiko

1988-07-25

Geophysical exploration is used for geologic survey to serve purposes in civil engineering. New methods are being developed inside and outside Japan and are used to serve various purposes. This paper discusses recently developed techniques based on the measurement of seismic waves and electric potential. It also explains seismic tomography, radar tomography, and resistivity tomography which are included in the category of geotomography. At present, effort is being made to apply geophysical exploration technology to problems which were considered to be unsuitable for conventional exploration techniques. When such effort proceeds successfully, it is necessary to develop technology for presenting results quickly and exploration equipment which can work in various conditions. (10 figs, 15 refs)

History of geophysical studies at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), southeastern New Mexico

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borns, D.J.

1997-01-01

A variety of geophysical methods including the spectrum of seismic, electrical, electromagnetic and potential field techniques have supported characterization, monitoring and experimental studies at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The geophysical studies have provided significant understanding of the nature of site deformation, tectonics and stability. Geophysical methods have delineated possible brine reservoirs beneath the underground facility and have defined the disturbed rock zone that forms around underground excavations. The role of geophysics in the WIPP project has evolved with the project. The early uses were for site characterization to satisfy site selection criteria or factors. As the regulatory framework for WIPP grew since 1980, the geophysics program supported experimental and field programs such as Salado hydrogeology and underground room systems and excavations. In summary, the major types of issues that geophysical studies addressed for WIPP are: Site Characterization; Castile Brine Reservoirs; Rustler/Dewey Lake Hydrogeology; Salado Hydrogeology; and Excavation Effects. The nature of geophysics programs for WIPP has been to support investigation rather than being the principal investigation itself. The geophysics program has been used to define conceptual models (e.g., the Disturbed Rock Zone-DRZ) or to test conceptual models (e.g., high transmissivity zones in the Rustler Formation). The geophysics program primarily supported larger characterization and experimental programs. Funding was not available for the complete documentation and interpretation. Therefore, a great deal of the geophysics survey information resides in contractor reports

Detection and delineation of waste trenches by geophysical methods at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Selfridge, R.J.

1987-01-01

Detection and delineation of waste trenches at hazardous waste sites are needed before actual implementation of site corrective measures. In a field study conducted in Solid Waste Storage Area 4 (SWSA4) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), surface geophysical techniques were used to assist in the delineation of waste trenches. A magnetometer/gradiometer survey was used to detect ferrous metals buried at the site. An electromagnetic ground conductivity survey was used to measure the electrical conductivity of the subsurface and aided in supporting the magnetometer/gradiometer results. Results from the two techniques were complimentary and easily integrated into a final interpretation. The reliability, efficiency, and worker safety benefits of these techniques offer a nondestructive surface technique for locating buried waste trenches

Some case studies of geophysical exploration of archaeological sites in Yugoslavia

Science.gov (United States)

Komatina, Snezana; Timotijevic, Zoran

1999-03-01

One of the youngest branches of environmental geophysics application is the preservation of national heritage. Numerous digital techniques developed for exploration directed to urban planning can also be applied to investigations of historic buildings. In identifying near-surface layers containing objects of previous civilizations, various sophisticated geophysical methods are used. In the paper, application of geophysics in quantification of possible problems necessary to be carried out in order to get an archaeological map of some locality is discussed [Komatina, S., 1996]. Sophisticated geophysical methods in the preservation of national heritage. Proc. of Int. Conf. Architecture and Urbanism at the turn of the Millenium, Beograd, pp. 39-44. Finally, several examples of archaeogeophysical exploration at Divostin, Bedem and Kalenic monastery localities (Serbia, Yugoslavia) are presented.

COTHERM: Geophysical Modeling of High Enthalpy Geothermal Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Grab, Melchior; Maurer, Hansruedi; Greenhalgh, Stewart

2014-05-01

In recent years geothermal heating and electricity generation have become an attractive alternative energy resource, especially natural high enthalpy geothermal systems such as in Iceland. However, the financial risk of installing and operating geothermal power plants is still high and more needs to be known about the geothermal processes and state of the reservoir in the subsurface. A powerful tool for probing the underground system structure is provided by geophysical techniques, which are able to detect flow paths and fracture systems without drilling. It has been amply demonstrated that small-scale features can be well imaged at shallow depths, but only gross structures can be delineated for depths of several kilometers, where most high enthalpy systems are located. Therefore a major goal of our study is to improve geophysical mapping strategies by multi-method geophysical simulations and synthetic data inversions, to better resolve structures at greater depth, characterize the reservoir and monitor any changes within it. The investigation forms part of project COTHERM - COmbined hydrological, geochemical and geophysical modeling of geoTHERMal systems - in which a holistic and synergistic approach is being adopted to achieve multidisciplinary cooperation and mutual benefit. The geophysical simulations are being performed in combination with hydrothermal fluid flow modeling and chemical fluid rock interaction modeling, to provide realistic constraints on lithology, pressure, temperature and fluid conditions of the subsurface. Two sites in Iceland have been selected for the study, Krafla and Reykjanes. As a starting point for the geophysical modeling, we seek to establish petrophysical relations, connecting rock properties and reservoir conditions with geophysical parameters such as seismic wave speed, attenuation, electrical conductivity and magnetic susceptibility with a main focus on seismic properties. Therefore, we follow a comprehensive approach involving

Inverse problems of geophysics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yanovskaya, T.B.

2003-07-01

This report gives an overview and the mathematical formulation of geophysical inverse problems. General principles of statistical estimation are explained. The maximum likelihood and least square fit methods, the Backus-Gilbert method and general approaches for solving inverse problems are discussed. General formulations of linearized inverse problems, singular value decomposition and properties of pseudo-inverse solutions are given

Why and How to Write a High-Impact Review Paper: Lessons From Eight Years of Editorial Board Service to Reviews of Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

Moldwin, Mark B.; Florindo, Fabio; Okin, Gregory; Robock, Alan; Rohling, Eelco J.; Cardenas, Bayani; Carlton, Annmarie; Chen, Kate Huihsuan; Crucifix, Michel; Gettelman, Andrew; Hubbard, Alun; Katsura, Tomoo; Painter, Thomas H.

2017-12-01

High-impact review papers describe and synthesize the current state of the art, the open questions and controversies, and provide ideas for future investigations. They are written not only for a specific scientific discipline but also for the broader Earth and space science community. They not only summarize the literature, but they also create a framework from which to understand the progress, problems, and connections between different communities, observations, models, and approaches. Here we describe how to write a high-impact review paper, and why you should consider writing one for Reviews of Geophysics.

Discover Earth: An earth system science program for libraries and their communities

Science.gov (United States)

Curtis, L.; Dusenbery, P.

2010-12-01

resources and inquiry-based activities that libraries can use to enrich the exhibit experience (focused on weather and climate). Additional resources will be provided through partnerships with relevant professional science organizations (e.g. American Geophysical Union) that will provide speakers for host library events and webinars. Online and in-person workshops will be conducted for library staff with a focus on increasing content knowledge and improving facilitation expertise. This presentation will provide an overview of the Discover Earth project and how it will address climate change issues, engage AGU scientists, and impact rural libraries nationwide.

The cosmic ray actinide charge spectrum derived from a 10 m{sup 2} array of solid state nuclear track detectors in Earth orbit

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Donnelly, J. E-mail: jd@cp.dias.ie; Thompson, A.; O' Sullivan, D.; Drury, L.O' C.; Wenzel, K.-P

2001-06-01

The DIAS-ESTEC Ultra Heavy Cosmic Ray Experiment (UHCRE) on the Long Duration Exposure Facility, collected approximately 3000 cosmic ray nuclei with Z>65 in the energy region E>1.5 GeV nucleon{sup -1} during a six year exposure in Earth orbit. The entire accessible collecting area of the solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) array has been scanned for actinides, yielding a sample of 30 from an exposure of {approx}150 m{sup 2} sr yr. The UHCRE experimental setup is described and the observed charge spectrum presented. The current best value for the cosmic ray actinide relative abundance, (Z>88)/(74{<=}Z{<=}87), is reported.

History of geophysical studies at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), southeastern New Mexico

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borns, D.J.

1997-01-01

A variety of geophysical methods including the spectrum of seismic, electrical, electromagnetic and potential field techniques have used support characterization, monitoring and experimental studies at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The geophysical studies have provided significant understanding of the nature of site deformation, tectonics and stability. Geophysical methods have delineated possible brine reservoirs beneath the underground facility and have defined the disturbed rock zone that forms around underground excavations. The role of geophysics in the WIPP project has evolved with the project. The early uses were for site characterization to satisfy site selection criteria or factors. As the regulatory framework for WIPP grew since 1980, the geophysics program was focused on support of experimental and field programs such as Salado hydrogeology and underground room systems and excavations. In summary, the major types of issues that geophysical studies addressed for WIPP are: Issue 1: Site Characterization; Issue 2: Castile Brine Reservoirs; Issue 3: Rustler /Dewey Lake Hydrogeology; Issue 4: Salado Hydrogeology; and Issue 5: Excavation Effects. The nature of geophysics program for WIPP has been to support investigation rather than being the principal investigation itself. The geophysics program has been used to define conceptual models (e.g., the Disturbed Rock Zone-DRZ) or to test conceptual models (e.g., high transmissivity zones in the Rustler Formation). An effect of being a support program is that as new project priorities arose the funding for the geophysics program was limited and withdrawn. An outcome is that much of the geophysics survey information resides in contractor reports since final interpretation reports were not funded

Solar wind monitor—a school geophysics project

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Ian

2018-05-01

Described is an established geophysics project to construct a solar wind monitor based on a nT resolution fluxgate magnetometer. Low-cost and appropriate from school to university level it incorporates elements of astrophysics, geophysics, electronics, programming, computer networking and signal processing. The system monitors the earth’s field in real-time uploading data and graphs to a website every few minutes. Modular design encourages construction and testing by teams of students as well as expansion and refinement. The system has been tested running unattended for months at a time. Both the hardware design and software is published as open-source [1, 10].

Rare earth impact on glass structure and alteration kinetics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Molieres, E.

2012-01-01

This work is related to the question of the geological deep repository of high-level waste glass. These wastes include fission products and minor actinides, elements which can be simulated by rare earths. As new glass compositions could enable increased rare earth concentrations, it is crucial to know and understand rare earth impact on glass structure on the one hand, and on glass alteration kinetics or their incorporation into an altered layer. This work studied simplified borosilicate glasses in order to limit synergetic effects between rare earths and other elements. Various complementary techniques were used to characterize pristine and altered glasses (solid-high resolution NMR, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence, SIMS, SAXS). Firstly, the structural role of a rare earth is discussed and is compared to a calcium cation. The local environment of rare earths is also probed. Secondly, rare earth (nature and concentration) impact on several alteration regimes was studied (initial rate, rate drop). Then, after alteration, rare earth elements being retained within the altered layer, the structural impact of rare earth elements (and their local environment) in this alteration layer was also investigated. (author) [fr

Earth and Environmental Sciences 1999 Annual Report Meeting National Needs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yonker, L.; Dannevik, B.

2000-01-01

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Earth and Environmental Sciences 1999 Annual Report covers the following topics: (1) Nuclear Materials--Modeling Thermohydrologic Processes at the Proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear-Waste Repository; Dose Assessments and Resettlement Support on Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands. (2) Climate, Carbon, and Energy--Incorporating Surprise into Models of Global Climate Change: A Simple Climate Demonstrator Model; (3) Environmental Risk Reduction--The NASA Global Modeling Initiative: Analyzing the Atmospheric Impacts of Supersonic Aircraft; (4) National Security--Atmospheric Release Assessment Programs; and (5) Cross-Cutting Technologies/Capabilities--Advances in Technology at the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry; Experimental Geophysics: Investigating Material Properties at Extreme Conditions

Geophysical and solar activity indices

Science.gov (United States)

Bossy, L.; Lemaire, J.

1984-04-01

A large number of geophysicists try to correlate their observations with one or even a series of different geophysical or solar activity indices. Yet the right choice of the most appropriate index with which to correlate depends mainly on our understanding of the physical cause-effect relationship between the new set of observations and the index chosen. This best choice will therefore depend on our good understanding of the methods of measurement and derivation of the adopted index in such correlative studies. It relies also on our awareness of the range of applicability of the indices presently available as well as on our understanding of their limitations. It was to achieve these goals that a series of general lectures on geophysical and solar activity indices was organized by L. Bossy and J. Lemaire (Institut d'Aeronomie Spatiale de Belgique (IASB), Brussels), March 26-29, 1984 at Han-sur-Lesse, Belgium.

A Human Sensor Network Framework in Support of Near Real Time Situational Geophysical Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Aulov, O.; Price, A.; Smith, J. A.; Halem, M.

2013-12-01

and mitigation in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy devastated multiple regions along the Atlantic coast causing damage estimated at $68 billion to the Eastern United States. We developed a framework consisting of a set of APIs that harvested over 8 million tweets and 370 thousand Instagram photos mentioning Hurricane Sandy over 4 days from Oct. 29 -Nov. 1, 2012. The flexibility of the framework allows for easy integration with such geophysical models such as GNOME, SLOSH, HySplit, and WRF. We use ElasticSearch, a RESTful, distributed search engine based on Apache Lucene, as the underlying platform for indexing, filtering and extracting feature content from the Twitter and Instagram metadata. We identify microscale events and visually present time varying correlation results of forecasts from the NOAA operational surge model SLOSH with those obtained from our SM database on a Google Earth based map. We are exploring the benefits of our framework to illuminate gaps in our understanding of the use of such data in geophysical models.

Sensing Planet Earth - Chalmers' MOOCs on Earth observation

Science.gov (United States)

Hobiger, Thomas; Stöhr, Christian; Murtagh, Donal; Forkman, Peter; Galle, Bo; Mellquist, Johan; Soja, Maciej; Berg, Anders; Carvajal, Gisela; Eriksson, Leif; Haas, Rüdiger

2016-04-01

An increasing number of universities around the globe produce and conduct Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In the beginning of 2016, Chalmers University of Technology ran two MOOCs on the topic of Earth observations on the edX platform. Both four week long courses were at introductory level and covered topics related to solid Earth, atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and cryosphere. It was discussed how one can measure and trace global change and use remote sensing tools for disaster monitoring. Research has attempted to assess the learners' motivations to participate in MOOCs, but there is a need for further case studies about motivations, opportunities and challenges for teachers engaging in MOOC development. In our presentation, we are going to report about the experiences gained from both the MOOC production and the actual course run from the instructors' perspective. After brief introduction to MOOCs in general and at Chalmers in particular, we share experiences and challenges of developing lecture and assessment material, the video production and coordination efforts between and within different actors involved in the production process. Further, we reflect upon the actual run of the course including course statistics and feedback from the learners. We discuss issues such as learner activation and engagement with the material, teacher-learner and student-student interaction as well as the scalability of different learning activities. Finally, we will present our lessons-learned and conclusions on the applicability of MOOCs in the field of Earth science teaching.

Future Mars geophysical observatories for understanding its internal structure, rotation, and evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Dehant, Veronique; Banerdt, Bruce; Lognonné, Philippe; Grott, Matthias; Asmar, Sami; Biele, Jens; Breuer, Doris; Forget, François; Jaumann, Ralf; Johnson, Catherine; Knapmeyer, Martin; Langlais, Benoit; Le Feuvre, Mathieu; Mimoun, David; Mocquet, Antoine; Read, Peter; Rivoldini, Attilio; Romberg, Oliver; Schubert, Gerald; Smrekar, Sue; Spohn, Tilman; Tortora, Paolo; Ulamec, Stephan; Vennerstrøm, Susanne

2012-08-01

Our fundamental understanding of the interior of the Earth comes from seismology, geodesy, geochemistry, geomagnetism, geothermal studies, and petrology. For the Earth, measurements in those disciplines of geophysics have revealed the basic internal layering of the Earth, its dynamical regime, its thermal structure, its gross compositional stratification, as well as significant lateral variations in these quantities. Planetary interiors not only record evidence of conditions of planetary accretion and differentiation, they exert significant control on surface environments. We present recent advances in possible in-situ investigations of the interior of Mars, experiments and strategies that can provide unique and critical information about the fundamental processes of terrestrial planet formation and evolution. Such investigations applied on Mars have been ranked as a high priority in virtually every set of European, US and international high-level planetary science recommendations for the past 30 years. New seismological methods and approaches based on the cross-correlation of seismic noise by two seismic stations/landers on the surface of Mars and on joint seismic/orbiter detection of meteorite impacts, as well as the improvement of the performance of Very Broad-Band (VBB) seismometers have made it possible to secure a rich scientific return with only two simultaneously recording stations. In parallel, use of interferometric methods based on two Earth-Mars radio links simultaneously from landers tracked from Earth has increased the precision of radio science experiments by one order of magnitude. Magnetometer and heat flow measurements will complement seismic and geodetic data in order to obtain the best information on the interior of Mars. In addition to studying the present structure and dynamics of Mars, these measurements will provide important constraints for the astrobiology of Mars by helping to understand why Mars failed to sustain a magnetic field, by

Nuclear orientation on rare earth nickel alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishimura, K.

1998-01-01

A hyperfine interaction study of the light rare earth elements, Ce, Pr, Nd and Pm, in the rare earth nickel and CeNi 2 Al 5 compounds by means of the low temperature nuclear orientation is summarised. The magnitudes and directions of the magnetic hyperfine fields obtained through measurements of γ-ray anisotropy and angular distributions reveal the magnetic structures of the ions. The experiments extracted peculiar results for the magnetic properties of the ions, and show certain novel features of the technique to the study of solid-state magnetism. Copyright (1998) Australian Journal of Physics

Earth System Science at NASA: Teleconnections Between Sea Surface Temperature and Epidemics in Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Meeson, Blanche W.

2000-01-01

The research carried out in the Earth Sciences in NASA and at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center will be the focus of the presentations. In addition, one research project that links sea surface temperature to epidemics in Africa will be highlighted. At GSFC research interests span the full breath of disciplines in Earth Science. Branches and research groups focus on areas as diverse as planetary geomagnetics and atmospheric chemistry. These organizations focus on atmospheric sciences (atmospheric chemistry, climate and radiation, regional processes, atmospheric modeling), hydrological sciences (snow, ice, oceans, and seasonal-to-interannual prediction), terrestrial physics (geology, terrestrial biology, land-atmosphere interactions, geophysics), climate modeling (global warming, greenhouse gases, climate change), on sensor development especially using lidar and microwave technologies, and on information technologies, that enable support of scientific and technical research.

Significant results from using earth observation satellites for mineral and energy resource exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, William D.

1981-01-01

A large number of Earth-observation satellites orbit our world several times each day, providing new information about the land and sea surfaces and the overlying thin layer of atmosphere that makes our planet unique. Meteorological satellites have had the longest history of experimental use and most are now considered operational. The geologic information collected by the Landsat, Polar Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (POGO), Magsat, Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) and Seasat land and ocean observation systems is being thoroughly tested, and some of these systems are now approaching operational use.

GRACE, time-varying gravity, Earth system dynamics and climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Wouters, B.; Bonin, J. A.; Chambers, D. P.; Riva, R. E. M.; Sasgen, I.; Wahr, J.

2014-11-01

Continuous observations of temporal variations in the Earth's gravity field have recently become available at an unprecedented resolution of a few hundreds of kilometers. The gravity field is a product of the Earth's mass distribution, and these data—provided by the satellites of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE)—can be used to study the exchange of mass both within the Earth and at its surface. Since the launch of the mission in 2002, GRACE data has evolved from being an experimental measurement needing validation from ground truth, to a respected tool for Earth scientists representing a fixed bound on the total change and is now an important tool to help unravel the complex dynamics of the Earth system and climate change. In this review, we present the mission concept and its theoretical background, discuss the data and give an overview of the major advances GRACE has provided in Earth science, with a focus on hydrology, solid Earth sciences, glaciology and oceanography.

Uncovering the end uses of the rare earth elements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Du, Xiaoyue, E-mail: xiaoyue.du@empa.ch [Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen (Switzerland); Yale University, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven CT 06511 (United States); Graedel, T.E. [Yale University, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven CT 06511 (United States)

2013-09-01

The rare earth elements (REE) are a group of fifteen elements with unique properties that make them indispensable for a wide variety of emerging and conventional established technologies. However, quantitative knowledge of REE remains sparse, despite the current heightened interest in future availability of the resources. Mining is heavily concentrated in China, whose monopoly position and potential restriction of exports render primary supply vulnerable to short term disruption. We have drawn upon the published literature and unpublished materials in different languages to derive the first quantitative annual domestic production by end use of individual rare earth elements from 1995 to 2007. The information is illustrated in Sankey diagrams for the years 1995 and 2007. Other years are available in the supporting information. Comparing 1995 and 2007, the production of the rare earth elements in China, Japan, and the US changed dramatically in quantities and structure. The information can provide a solid foundation for industries, academic institutions and governments to make decisions and develop strategies. - Highlights: • We have derived the first quantitative end use information of the rare earths (REE). • The results are for individual REE from 1995 to 2007. • The end uses of REE in China, Japan, and the US changed dramatically in quantities and structure. • This information can provide solid foundation for decision and strategy making.

Origin of the Earth and planets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Safronov, V.S.; Ruskol, E.L.

1982-01-01

The present state of the Schmidt hypothesis on planets formation by combining cold solid particles and bodies in the protoplanet dust cloud is briefly outlined in a popular form. The most debatable problems of the planet cosmogony: formation of and processes in a protoplanet cloud, results of analytical evaluations and numerical simulation of origin of the Earth and planets-giants are discussed [ru

Dartmouth College Earth Sciences Mobile Field Program

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, E. E.; Osterberg, E. C.; Dade, W. B.; Sonder, L. J.; Renshaw, C. E.; Kelly, M. A.; Hawley, R. L.; Chipman, J. W.; Mikucki, J.; Posmentier, E. S.; Moore, J. R.

2011-12-01

For the last 50 years the Department of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College has offered a term-long, undergraduate field program, informally called "the Stretch". A student typically enrolls during fall quarter of his or her junior year soon after choosing a major or minor. The program thus provides valuable field context for courses that a student will take during the remainder of his or her undergraduate career. Unlike many traditional field camps that focus on one particular region, the Stretch is a mobile program that currently travels through Western North America, from the Canadian Rockies to the Grand Canyon. The program spans two and a half months, during which time undergraduates, graduate TAs, and faculty live, work, and learn collaboratively. Dartmouth College faculty members sequentially teach individual 1- to 2-week segments that focus on their interests and expertise; currently, there are a total of eight segments led by eleven faculty members. Consequently, topics are diverse and include economic geology, geobiology, geomorphology, glaciology, glacial geology, geophysics, hydrogeology, paleontology, stratigraphy, structure and tectonics, and volcanology. The field localities are equally varied, including the alpine glaciers of western Alberta, the national parks of Montana, Wyoming and Utah, the eastern Sierra Nevada, the southern Great Basin, and highlight such classic geological field locales as Sheep Mountain in Wyoming's Bighorn Basin, Death Valley, and the Grand Canyon. Overall, the program aims to: 1) give students a broad perspective on the timing and nature of the processes that resulted in the landscape and underlying geology of western North America; and 2) introduce students to a wide variety of geological environments, field techniques, and research equipment. Students emerge from the program with wide-ranging exposure to active research questions as well as a working knowledge of core field skills in the earth sciences. Stretch students

Characterising Super-Earths

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valencia D.

2011-02-01

Full Text Available The era of Super-Earths has formally begun with the detection of transiting low-mass exoplanets CoRoT-7b and GJ 1214b. In the path of characterising super-Earths, the first step is to infer their composition. While the discovery data for CoRoT-7b, in combination with the high atmospheric mass loss rate inferred from the high insolation, suggested that it was a rocky planet, the new proposed mass values have widened the possibilities. The combined mass range 1−10 M⊕ allows for a volatile-rich (and requires it if the mass is less than 4 M⊕ , an Earth-like or a super-Mercury-like composition. In contrast, the radius of GJ 1214b is too large to admit a solid composition, thus it necessarily to have a substantial gas layer. Some evidence suggests that within this gas layer H/He is a small but non-negligible component. These two planets are the first of many transiting low-mass exoplanets expected to be detected and they exemplify the limitations faced when inferring composition, which come from the degenerate character of the problem and the large error bars in the data.

Geophysical logging for groundwater investigations in Southern Thailand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Phongpiyah Klinmanee

2012-09-01

Full Text Available In Thailand the Department of Groundwater Resources is drilling to find vital aquifers. Sometimes groundwater formations cannot be identified clearly during drilling; therefore, geophysical logging was applied after drilling and before casing.The tool used here is measuring nine parameters in one run, natural gamma ray, spontaneous potential, single point resistance, normal resistivity (AM 8’’, 16’’, 32’’, and 64’’, mud temperature and resistivity. Cutting was used to support the geophysical interpretations. In many cases the groundwater bearing zones could be clearly identified. The combination of andthe possibility choosing from nine parameters measured provided the necessary data base to identify groundwater bearingzones in different environments. It has been demonstrated that in different wells different tools are favorable than others.Based on the conclusions of this study geophysical logging in groundwater exploration is recommended as a normalstandard technique that should be applied in every new well drilled.

Lithospheric Structure of Central Europe: Puzzle Pieces from Pannonian Basin to Trans-European Suture Zone Resolved by Geophysical-Petrological Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Bielik, M.; Tašárová, Z. A.; Fullea, J.; Sroda, P.

2017-12-01

We have analysed the thermochemical structure of the mantle in Central Europe comprising the Western Carpathians, Pannonian Basin and parts of the European Platform, Bohemian Massif and easternmost Eastern Alps. This area is very complex and characterized by a highly heterogeneous lithospheric structure reflecting the interplay of contraction, strike slip, subduction, and extension tectonics. Our modelling is based on an integrative 3-D approach (LitMod) that combines in a self-consistent manner concepts and data from thermodynamics, mineral physics, geochemistry, petrology, and solid Earth geophysics. This approach minimizes uncertainties of the estimates derived from modelling of various data sets separately. To further constrain our 3-D model we have made use of the vast geophysical and geological data (2-D and 3-D, shallow/crustal versus deep lithospheric experiments) based on experiments performed in Central Europe in the past decades. Given the amount and the different nature/resolution of the available constraints, one of the most challenging tasks of this study was to consistently combine them. Our goal was to find a trade-off between all local and regional data sets available in a way that preserves as many structural details as possible and summarizes those data sets into a single robust regional model. The resulting P/T-dependent mantle densities are in LitMod 3-D calculated based on a given mineralogical composition. Therefore, they provide more reliable estimates compared to pure gravity models and enhance modelling of the crustal structures. Our results clearly indicate presence of several lithospheric domains characterized by distinct features, Pannonian Basin being one of the most outstanding ones. It has the thinnest crust and lithosphere in the area modelled, characterized by relatively fertile composition. Z. Alasonati Tašárová's research project was financed by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (project TA553/1-2); M. Bielik was funded by the

Preliminary evaluation of alterant geophysical tomography in welded tuff

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramirez, A.L.; Daily, W.D.

1985-01-01

The ability of alterant geophysical tomography to delineate flow paths in a welded tuff rock mass has been preliminarily evaluated based on the results of a field experiment. Electromagnetic measurements were made before, during and after a water-based, dye tracer flowed through the rock mass. Alterant geophysical tomographs were generated and compared with independent evidence - borescope logs, neutron logs and dyed rock samples. Anomalies present in the tomograph match the location and orientation of fractures mapped with a borescope. The location of tracer-stained fractures coincides with the location of some image anomalies; other geophysical anomalies exist where tracer-stained fractures were not observed, perhaps due to poor core recovery. Additional drilling to locate stained flow paths and other experiments are planned so that the applicability of the technique can be further evaluated

Solid adsorbents for removal of hydrogen sulphide from hot gas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Furimsky, E.; Yumura, Motoo

1986-04-01

A wide range of solids have been tested as potential adsorbents for H/sub 2/S removal from hot gas. These solids can be divided into two main groups, i.e., the adsorbents containing alkaline earth metals and those containing transition metals. Among the former, calcium oxide and naturally occurring materials such as limestone, dolomite and calcium silicate have attracted a great deal of attention. The adsorbents of the second group include iron oxide alone or in combination with some supports, zinc oxide, zinc ferrite and manganese oxide. The materials containing both the alkaline earth metals and transition metals, e.g., manganese nodules, fly ash and the reject from the aluminium industry (red mud) have been evaluated as well.

Joint inversion of geophysical and hydrological data for improved subsurface characterization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kowalsky, Michael B.; Chen, Jinsong; Hubbard, Susan S.

2006-01-01

Understanding fluid distribution and movement in the subsurface is critical for a variety of subsurface applications, such as remediation of environmental contaminants, sequestration of nuclear waste and CO2, intrusion of saline water into fresh water aquifers, and the production of oil and gas. It is well recognized that characterizing the properties that control fluids in the subsurface with the accuracy and spatial coverage needed to parameterize flow and transport models is challenging using conventional borehole data alone. Integration of conventional borehole data with more spatially extensive geophysical data (obtained from the surface, between boreholes, and from surface to boreholes) shows promise for providing quantitative information about subsurface properties and processes. Typically, estimation of subsurface properties involves a two-step procedure in which geophysical data are first inverted and then integrated with direct measurements and petrophysical relationship information to estimate hydrological parameters. However, errors inherent to geophysical data acquisition and inversion approaches and errors associated with petrophysical relationships can decrease the value of geophysical data in the estimation procedure. In this paper, we illustrate using two examples how joint inversion approaches, or simultaneous inversion of geophysical and hydrological data, offer great potential for overcoming some of these limitations