Mud volcanoes can be large and long lived geological structures that morphologically resemble magmatic volcanoes. Because of their capricious behaviour and their spectacular morphology and landscapes, mud volcanoes have attracted attention since antiquity. More recently, mud volcanoes have become the focus of extensive studies for natural science research, including geologists and biologists. M...

We report the first direct experimental observation of the ablative Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. It manifests itself in oscillations of areal mass that occur during the shock transit time, which are caused by the "rocket effect" or dynamic overpressure characteristic of interaction between the laser absorption zone and the ablation front. With the 4-ns-long Nike KrF laser pulse and our novel ...

We show that sudden variations in the composition and structure of an hybrid star can be triggered by its rapid spin-down, induced by r-mode instabilities. The discontinuity of this process is due to the surface tension between hadronic and quark matter and in particular to the overpressure needed to nucleate new structures of quark matter in the mixed phase. The consequent mini-collapses in th...

The dynamics of a random distribution of spontaneously formed 2D GaAs islands are studied using scanning tunneling microscopy. The equilibrium concentration of islands is easily tuned from 0% to 50% coverage by only changing the As4 overpressure. Images taken during the early stages of island formation reveal the roughening transition primarily occurs through an intermediate pit formation phase...

A non-invasive electrophysiology system for performing rapid measurements on Xenopus laevis oocytes under varying gravity levels is presented. Our novel approach makes the need for inserting microelectrodes into the cytosol unnecessary. Immobilization of the oocyte on top of an orifice is achieved using a slight air overpressure to ensure that the cell is kept in a stable condition even under v...

Low Vp/Vs anomalies can assist in prospect identification in tight gas sandstone reservoirs, because they are related to good quality rocks (sandstones with low clay content), presence of gas, and overpressure conditions. In such rocks, gas saturation lowers Vp/Vs and the effect is larger if the gas is overpressured. On the other hand, with water saturation, Vp/Vs increases and the effect is en...

Introduction A growing level of attention has recently been given to the automated control of potentially hazardous processes such as the overpressure or containment of dangerous substances. Several independent protection methods provide measures to reduce the risk from such hazards to personnel, the environment and assets. A significant level of this risk reduction is allocated to safety instr...

Drill cuttings are considered representative of the lithology being drilled in a wellbore. However, the fragments that are two to three times larger and/or having odd shapes compared to the regular cuttings are commonly understood as cavings from the wall of the borehole and they are seldom of any help in compilation of a lithology. In fact, cutting description manual recommends ignoring cuttin...