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17 July 2014
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csas.ei.columbia.edu
University of Southampton researchers have found that rainwater can penetrate below the Earth’s fractured upper crust, which could have major implications for our understanding of earthquakes and the generation of valuable mineral deposits.
It had been thought that surface water could not penetrate the ductile crust — where temperatures of more than 300°C and high pressures cause rocks to flex and flow rather than fracture — but researchers, led by Southampton’s Dr Catriona Menzies, have now found fluids derived from rainwater at these levels.
Fluids in the Earth’s crust can weaken rocks and may help to initiate earthquakes along locked fault lines. They also concentrate valuable metals such as gold. The new findings suggest that rainwater may be responsible for controlling these important processes, even deep in the Earth.
Researchers from the University of Southampton, GNS Science (New Zealand), the University of Otago, and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre studied geothermal fluids and mineral veins from the Southern Alps of New Zealand, where the collision of two tectonic plates forces deeper layers of the Earth closer to the surface.
The team looked into the origin of the fluids, how hot they were and to what extent they had reacted with rocks deep within the mountain belt.
“When fluids flow through the crust they leave behind deposits of minerals that contain a small amount of water trapped within them,” says Postdoctoral Researcher Catriona, who is based at the National Oceanography Centre. “We have analysed these waters and minerals to identify where the fluids deep in the crust came from.
“Fluids may come from a variety of sources in the crust. In the Southern Alps fluids may flow upwards from deep in the crust, where they are released from hot rocks by metamorphic reactions, or rainwater may flow down from the surface, forced by the high mountains above. We wanted to test the limits of where rainwater may flow in the crust. Although it has been suggested before, our data shows for the first time that rainwater does penetrate into rocks that are too deep and hot to fracture.”
Surface-derived waters reaching such depths are heated to over 400°C and significantly react with crustal rocks. However, through testing the researchers were able to establish the water’s meteoric origin.
Funding for this research, which has been published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, was provided by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC). Catriona and her team are now looking further at the implications of their findings in relation to earthquake cycles as part of the international Deep Fault Drilling Project, which aims to drill a hole through the Alpine Fault at a depth of about 1km later this year.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of Southampton. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
Electric buses aren’t new. But older systems usually involve tangles of crisscrossing wires that limit the buses to specific routes and can cause danger to people.
Batteries can’t solve the problem by themselves, because they don’t last long enough to make it through an entire day of circling city routes.
But a new system from researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology makes it possible to charge up a battery in 15 seconds–quickly enough that if the chargers are set up at bus stops, the battery can refill while passengers are getting on.
On a flat route, there might be a charger every three or four stops. Headed uphill, there would be extra chargers, and fewer on the way back down.
When the bus pulls up to a stop, a battery on the rooftop automatically jumps up to the overhead charger, hooks in, and fills with juice.
The first bus was tested in Geneva, and the city liked it so much that they’ve committed to replace an entire line with the technology.
Eventually, all of their older, polluting diesel buses will also be replaced.
For cities, the biggest advantage is cutting pollution–the average old diesel bus might pump out 188 megatons of CO2-equivalent each year, along with clouds of other pollutants that are linked to diseases like lung cancer.
But there are also other benefits, such as no noise at night.
Electric buses aren’t new. But older systems usually involve tangles of crisscrossing wires that limit the buses to specific routes and can cause danger to people.
A new system can charge batteries in 15 seconds, or just enough time to fill up between bus stops.
Electric buses aren’t new. The “trolley bus” system in San Francisco, for example, has been around for almost 80 years. But even though the older buses keep pollution down, they aren’t quite ideal: In order to work, bus routes have to be strung with dozens of ugly crisscrossing wires that occasionally fall down and zap people, and the buses are stuck driving only where the wires lead.
Batteries can’t solve the problem by themselves, because they don’t last long enough to make it through an entire day of circling city routes. But a new system from researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology makes it possible to charge up a battery in 15 seconds–quickly enough that if the chargers are set up at bus stops, the battery can refill while passengers are getting on.
On a flat route, there might be a charger every three or four stops. Headed uphill, there would be extra chargers, and fewer on the way back down. When the bus pulls up to a stop, a battery on the rooftop automatically jumps up to the overhead charger, hooks in, and fills with juice.
The first bus was tested in Geneva, and the city liked it so much that they’ve committed to replace an entire line with the technology. Eventually, all of their older, polluting diesel buses will also be replaced.
For cities, the biggest advantage is cutting pollution–the average old diesel bus might pump out 188 megatons of CO2-equivalent each year, along with clouds of other pollutants that are linked to diseases like lung cancer. But it also has other benefits.
“TOSA allows us to operate from early in the morning until late at night without noise,” says Michèle Zollinger, one of the researchers. Unlike a traditional bus, which roars every time it takes off from a stop and squeaks when it comes to a halt, the TOSA bus is relatively silent.
“The small and long lasting battery allows a dramatic reduction of the battery waste,” Zollinger adds. “TOSA is also compatible with renewable energy sources such as solar energy because of the charging during the day.”
The cost is similar to the older electric trolley-bus systems, but the researchers say that as battery costs decrease, it will soon be about the same as buying diesel buses. The researchers are already talking with other cities about new installations.
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