The Frasnian carbonate-siliciclastic deposits of the Stipinai Formation exposed in two quarries at Petraši?nai and Klovainiai (northern Lithuania) show considerable vertical facies changes. lower part this succession is dominated by argillaceous dolomitic with subordinate fine siliciclastic deposits. They display haloturbation bioturbation structures, represent a hypersaline lagoonal environmen...

1. Soil Formation is a Global Natural Process 2. Factors of Soil Formation 3. Stages of Soil Formation 4. Processes of Soil Formation 5. Genesis of Soils under Different Ecologic Conditions 5.1. Genesis of Soils under Conditions of Cryogenesis 5.2. Genesis of Soils of Forest Landscapes in a Zone of Moderate Climate 5.3. Genesis of Soils in Landscapes of Steppes and Prairies 5.4. Genesis of Soil...

An intensive investigation was conducted to study the distribution of trace metals in surface soils of Hong Kong and to assess the soil environmental quality. From results of cluster analysis, and comparisons among soil types and areas, it is clearly shown that increases in trace metal concentrations in the soils were generally extensive and obvious in urban and orchard soils, less so in vegeta...

Cemented paste backfill (CPB) comprising mineral tailings, binders and mixing water is an important potential support material in the mining industry. As mechanical properties of CPB are significantly influenced by its microstructural characteristics development measurement tools to better understand pore structure evolution for increased utilisation. This study reports application low-field nu...

The early development of the Salton Sea geothermal resource proved that carbon steel tubulars do not provide satisfactory service life in the high-temperature, hypersaline brines. A large-scale corrosion test was designed to find the most cost-effective alloys for completing these wells. A series of Ni-Cr-Mo alloys were tested over several years in three production wells and two injection wells...

Pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) is a promising source of renewable energy when hypersaline brines and other high concentration solutions are used. However, membrane performance under conditions suitable for these solutions is poorly understood. In this work, we use a new method to characterize membranes under a variety of pressures and concentrations, including hydraulic pressures up to 48.3 ba...

The study of natural archaeal assemblages requires community context, namely, a concurrent assessment of the dynamics of archaeal, bacterial, and viral populations. Here, we use filter size-resolved metagenomic analyses to report the dynamics of 101 archaeal and bacterial OTUs and 140 viral populations across 17 samples collected over different timescales from 2007-2010 from Australian hypersal...

Viruses have been suggested to be the largest source of genetic diversity on Earth. Genome sequencing and metagenomic surveys reveal that novel genes with unknown functions are abundant in viral genomes. Yet few observations exist for the processes and frequency by which these genes are gained and lost. The surface waters of marine environments are dominated by marine picocyanobacteria and thei...

A few extremely halophilic Archaea (Halobacterium salinarum, Haloquadratum walsbyi, Haloferax mediterranei, Halorubrum vacuolatum, Halogeometricum borinquense, Haloplanus spp.) possess gas vesicles that bestow buoyancy on the cells. Gas vesicles are also produced by the anaerobic endospore-forming halophilic Bacteria Sporohalobacter lortetii and Orenia sivashensis. We have extensive information...