ALBERT

Description: In a recent paper I stated that the hypothesis of a continuously cooling earth had “consistently failed to lead to any adequate explanations of fissure eruptions and other volcanic and tension phenomena, mountain-building processes and their distribution in time and space, and the alternation of marine transgressions and recessions”. It seems to be desirable that I should further justify this sweeping integration of objections, for Dr. Harold Jeffreys, who has actively explored the consequences of this theory during recent years, takes exception to my discouraging view of the position, and claims that the alleged failures include the principal successes of the theory. The evidence on which my summary indictment was based will be reviewed in this paper; and attention will be directed to certain other phenomena—such as the growth of geosynclines—of which the significance has not yet been generally realized. As a preliminary it will be convenient to discuss the gradually converging evidence bearing on the thickness and substructure of the continents.

Description: In this paper we examine the steady, two-dimensional convective motion which occurs in a horizontal circular cylinder whose wall is non-uniformly heated. One observes several qualitatively different physical phenomena depending on the wall temperature distribution and the value of the Rayleigh number. The low-Rayleigh-number behaviour for the single convective cell heated from below is related to the classical Rayleigh stability problem. The critical Rayleigh number for the single circular cell is approximately five times the value for Rayleigh's multi-celluar configuration. The flow which exhibits a nearly parabolic velocity profile near the critical Rayleigh number, gradually changes to a rigidly-rotating-core behaviour as the Rayleigh number increases. The speed of core rotation is a function of the Prandtl number, whereas the boundary-layer thickness is primarily a function of the Rayleigh number. When the heating is from side to side, the solution shows that as the Rayleigh number increases the core motion is progressively arrested leaving a narrow circulating band of fluid adjacent to the wall. An oblique heating produces a hybrid phenomenon, a low-Rayleigh-number behaviour which is characteristic of the sideways heating case and a high-Rayleigh-number interior motion characteristic of the bottom heating case. To determine the core motion in the high-Rayleigh-number limit, Batchelor's work concerning the uniqueness of incompressible, exactly steady, closed streamline flows with small viscosity is extended to include flows with small thermal conductivity.

Description: The results of an examination of one quarry within the gneisses of the Bartica Assemblage are described and the validity of these results throughout the whole of the Bartica Assemblage is discussed. The foliation and banding of the gneisses at Kereti Quarry are mainly the results of tectonism; concomitant metamorphism within the Amphibolite Facies was succeeded by a two-phase metasomatism involving successive additions of Na and K. These results appear valid throughout the Bartica Assemblage and it is further suggested that the main rock type distribution in the Bartica Assemblage is also controlled by tectonism.

Description: Textural differences in the occurrence of microcline define augen gneisses, subhedral porphyroblastic gneisses and euhedral porphyroblastic gneisses within the Bartica Assemblage, British Guiana. The introduction of microcline is metasomatic and the nature of the porphyroblasts appears to be a reflection of tectonic control during their development.

Description: The energy flux in a finite-depth gravity-wave spectrum resulting from weak non-linear couplings between the spectral components is evaluated by means of a perturbation method. The fifth-order analysis yields a fourth-order effect comparable in magnitude to the generating and dissipating processes in wind-generated seas. The energy flux favours equidistribution of energy and vanishes in the limiting case of a white, isotropic spectrum. The influence on the equilibrium structure of fully developed wave spectra and on other phenomena in random seas is discussed briefly.

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.