ALBERT

Description: Am Süd-Ausgang des Roten Meeres entstehen unter idealen Wachstumsbedingungen fast reine Korallen-Saumriffe, die als dünne Platten oft kilometerweit mit einer Geschwindigkeit von Zentimetern pro Jahr auf ihrem Schutt von der Küste horizontal gegen das Meer vorwachsen. Aufgetauchte Saumrifte, ein flacher Bootskanal oder abradierte Riffoberflächen weisen auf pleistozäne und jüngere Meeresspiegelschwankungen bzw. tektonische Verstellungen hin. Von einer gewissen Breite an bilden sich auf den Riffen Inseln in Form langgestreckter Rücken aus Korallensand, hinter denen sich stellenweise Mangrove ansiedelt oder Salze in flachen Lagunen abscheiden. Schließlich kann der Strand auf das Saumriff vorverlegt und dieses in die Küstenebene einbezogen werden.

Description: 1. Es wird eine neue Hydroidenart — Clavopsella quadranularia —aus der Kieler Forte beschrieben, deren wesentliches Merkmal die Tentakelstellung in bis zu vier Kreisen ist, die dicht unter dem Mundkegel zusammengedrängt stehen. 2. Da these Tentakelstellung den Diagnosen der Clavidae sowohl wie der der Bougainvilliidae widerspricht, war es notwendig, fur these Gattung und die Gattung Balella STECHOW 1919 (Synonym: BaleaNutting 1905), die mit zwei Tentakelkränzen versehen ist, die Familie der Cl 3. Bei der Bildung der Kolonien wechseln Gonosom und Trophosom regelmäßig ab, was dadurch zustande kommt, daß die Seitenhydranthen bzw. -zweige an den Stellen entstehen, an denen zuvor ein Gonophor gestanden hat. 4. Die Gonophoren der weiblichen Kolonien Bind heteromedusoid, diejenigen der M ännchen styloid. 5. Auf Grund der Beobachtungen während eines ganzen Jahres werden Biologie und Ökologie von Clavopsella quadranularia beschrieben. Experimente über die Resistenz gegenüber dem Salzgehalt zeigen, daß es sich um ein euryhalines Meerestier handelt, das auch rein marines Gebiet besiedeln kann. 6. Das styloide Gonophor der männlichen Kolonien könnte nach dem Homologiekriterium der Lagegleichheit in vergleichbaren Gefügesystemen (Remane 1952) als ein polypoides Styloid (Kü HN 1913) gedeutet werden. Dem widersprechen aber nach den Homologiekriterien der speziellen Qualität der Struktur und der Verknüpfung lurch Zwischenformen die Verhältnisse bei den weiblichen Kolonien, bei denen die medusoiden Gonophoren zudem noch in ganz entsprechender Weise angeordnet sind. Die männlichen Gonophoren sind demnach auch als Medusoide anzusehen. 7. Die von Kühn (1913) aufgestellten Typen des styloiden Gonophors werden diskutiert, und es wird festgestellt, daß das organoide Styloid eine rein theoretische Möglichkeit darstellt, in der Natur aber bisher nicht beobachtet werden konnte. Am Beispiel von C. quadranularia wind auf Grunt des Geschlechtsdimorphismus gezeigt, daß die fur polypoide Gonophoren sprechenden Merkmale in gleicher Weise in Kombination mit medusoiden Gonophoren auftreten können. Damit entfallen alle Kriterien fur polypoide Gonophoren. Bei den Thecata treten im fertilen Blastostyl polypoide Gonophoren auf, da das Blastostyl einem Hydranthen homolog ist. Um die Vorstellung auszuschließen, daß sich ein Gonophor lurch Einwanderung von Keimzellen aus einem Hydranthen entwickeln könnte, sollte der Begriff „polypoides Gonophor” ganz fortfallen und durch den Begriff „fertiles Blastostyl” ersetzt werden, das als letztes Stadium einer Medusoidreihe anzusehen ist. Von den drei Styloidtypen Kühns bleibt daher nur das medusoide Styloid — einfach „Styloid” genannt — bestehen, dem bei den Thecata als ein weiterer Reduktionsschritt das fertile Blastostyl folgen kann. Daraus ergibt sick, daß alle sessilen Gonophoren der Hydroiden einer Medusenreduktionsreihe angehören! 8. Aus diesem Ergebnis läBt sich ableiten, daB nicht ein Polyp sondern ein Meduse oder eine metagenetische Art als Stammform der Hydrozoen anzusehen ist

Description: Deepwater spills pose a unique challenge for reliable predictions of oil transport and fate, since live oil spewing under very high hydrostatic pressure has characteristics remarkably distinct from oil spilling in shallow water. It is thus important to describe in detail the complex thermodynamic processes occurring in the near-field, meters above the wellhead, and the hydrodynamic processes in the far-field, up to kilometers away. However, these processes are typically modeled separately since they occur at different scales. Here we directly couple two oil prediction applications developed during the Deepwater Horizon blowout operating at different scales: the near-field Texas A&M Oilspill Calculator (TAMOC) and the far-field oil application of the Connectivity Modeling System (oil-CMS). To achieve this coupling, new oil-CMS modules were developed to read TAMOC output, which consists of the description of distinct oil droplet “types,” each of specific size and pseudo-component mixture that enters at a given mass flow rate, time, and position into the far field. These variables are transformed for use in the individual-based framework of CMS, where each droplet type fits into a droplet size distribution (DSD). Here we used 19 pseudo-components representing a large range of hydrocarbon compounds and their respective thermodynamic properties. Simulation results show that the dispersion pathway of the different droplet types varies significantly. Indeed, some droplet types remain suspended in the subsea over months, while others accumulate in the surface layers. In addition, the decay rate of oil pseudo-components significantly alters the dispersion, denoting the importance of more biodegradation and dissolution studies of chemically and naturally dispersed live oil at high pressure. This new modeling tool shows the potential for improved accuracy in predictions of oil partition in the water column and of advancing impact assessment and response during a deepwater spill.

Description: Petroleum is one of the most complex naturally occurring organic mixtures. The physical and chemical properties of petroleum in a reservoir depend on its molecular composition and the reservoir conditions (temperature, pressure). The composition of petroleum varies greatly, ranging from the simplest gas (methane), condensates, conventional crude oil to heavy oil and oil sands bitumen with complex molecules having molecular weights in excess of 1000 daltons (Da). The distribution of petroleum constituents in a reservoir largely depends on source facies (original organic material buried), age (evolution of organisms), depositional environment (dysoxic versus anoxic), maturity of the source rock (kerogen) at time of expulsion, primary/secondary migration, and in-reservoir alteration such as biodegradation, gas washing, water washing, segregation, and/or mixing from different oil charges. These geochemical aspects define the physical characteristics of a petroleum in the reservoir, including its density and viscosity. When the petroleum is released from the reservoir through an oil exploration accident like in the case of the Deepwater Horizon event, several processes are affecting the physical and chemical properties of the petroleum from the well head into the deep sea. A better understanding of these properties is crucial for the development of near-field oil spill models, oil droplet and gas bubble calculations, and partitioning behavior of oil components in the water. Section 3.1 introduces general aspects of the origin of petroleum, the impact of geochemical processes on the composition of a petroleum, and some molecular compositional and physicochemical background information of the Macondo well oil. Section 3.2 gives an overview over experimental determination of all relevant physicochemical properties of petroleum, especially of petroleum under reservoir conditions. Based on the phase equilibrium modeling using equations of state (EOS), a number of these properties can be predicted which is presented in Sect. 3.3 along with a comparison to experimental data obtained with methods described in Sect. 3.2.

Description: Landslide is one of the dangerous types of natural hazards. This phenomenon causes damages in many countries every year. A detailed landslide hazard assessment is necessary to reduce these damages. This research aims to map the landslide susceptibility zoning (LSZ) using the fuzzy logic method and GIS in the Sorkhab basin as a part of the Zagros fold and thrust belt (FTB), northwestern Iran. All slide types were recorded in fieldwork as landslide inventory. Based on the results, four types, i.e., debris slide, earth slide, and rock fall and complex of landslides, was identified in the region. Then, the effect of each landslide contributing factor including topographical elevation heights, slope classes, aspect classes, geological units, proximity to faults, land covers, rainfall classes, and proximity to streams was constructed in GIS and subsequently normalized using fuzzy membership functions. Finally, by combining all standardized layers using the fuzzy gamma operator, a final map of LSZ was produced. The results showed that a 0.9 fuzzy gamma operator has a high accuracy for the LSZ map in the study area. Besides, the accuracy of the LSZ map revealed a strong relationship (R2) between susceptibility classes, and landslide inventory was calculated using a scatter plot equal to 0.79. Hence, the method represented an appropriate accuracy in predicting the landslide susceptibility in the study area.

Description: Landslide deposits offshore many volcanic islands provide evidence of catastrophic lateral collapses. These deposits span a larger volume range than their continental equivalents, and can generate devastating tsunamis. All historical volcanic-island lateral collapses have occurred in arc settings, and have been characterised by rapid failure and efficient tsunami generation. The varied morphology of their deposits is influenced both by lithological properties and the nature of the substrate. Many deposits show evidence of extensive seafloor erosion and transformation into debris flows, and the propagation of frontally-confined sediment deformation beyond and beneath the primary deposit. Mobilised volumes can far exceed that of the initial failure, and accurate deposit interpretation requires internal geophysical imaging and sampling. Around intraplate ocean-island volcanoes, multi-unit turbidites suggest that lateral collapses may occur in discrete stages; although this would reduce their overall tsunamigenic potential, the volumes of individual stages of collapse remain very large. Numerical models of both landslide and tsunami processes in ocean-island settings are difficult to test, and the smaller collapses that typify island arcs are an important focus of research due to their higher global frequency, availability of direct failure and tsunami observations, and a need to better understand the signals of incipient collapse to develop approaches for tsunami hazard mitigation.

Description: Since the sunlight only penetrates a few hundred meters into the ocean, deep-diving robots have to bring their own light sources for imaging the deep sea, e.g., to inspect hydrothermal vent fields. Such co-moving light sources mounted not very far from a camera introduce uneven illumination and dynamic patterns on seafloor structures but also illuminate particles in the water column and create scattered light in the illuminated volume in front of the camera. In this scenario, a key challenge for forward-looking robots inspecting vertical structures in complex terrain is to identify free space (water) for navigation. At the same time, visual SLAM and 3D reconstruction algorithms should only map rigid structures, but not get distracted by apparent patterns in the water, which often resulted in very noisy maps or 3D models with many artefacts. Both challenges, free space detection, and clean mapping could benefit from pre-segmenting the images before maneuvering or 3D reconstruction. We derive a training scheme that exploits depth maps of a reconstructed 3D model of a black smoker field in 1400 m water depth, resulting in a carefully selected, ground-truthed data set of 1000 images. Using this set, we compare the advantages and drawbacks of a classical Markov Random Field-based segmentation solution (graph cut) and a deep learning-based scheme (U-Net) to finding free space in forward-looking cameras in the deep ocean.