Hydraulic fracturing is a widely used and e cient technique for enhancing oil extraction from heavy oil sands deposits. Application of this technique has been extended from cemented rocks to uncemented materials, such as oil sands. Models, which have originally been developed for analyzing hydraulic fracturing in rocks, are in general not satisfactory for oil sands. This is due to a high leak-o...

Boreal wetlands play an important role in global carbon balance. However, their ecosystem function is threatened by direct anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. Oil sands surface mining in the boreal regions of Western Canada denudes tracts of land of organic materials, leaves large areas in need of reclamation, and generates considerable quantities of extraction process-affected materi...

[1] The transport and deposition behavior of pathogenic Escherichia coli O157:H7 was studied under unfavorable electrostatic conditions in saturated quartz sands of various sizes (710, 360, 240, and 150 mm) and at several flow rates. At a given velocity, column effluent breakthrough values for E. coli tended to decrease in magnitude, and concentration curves became more asymmetric with decreasi...

Qs Sand Wind-blown sand blankets a number of areas in the western part of the quadrangle. These well-sorted, mediumto fine-grained quartzose sands are commonly deposited on the east to northeast sides of hills but may extend across some flat areas. The sands are uncemented and loose but most are well stabilized by vegetation, locally including trees. The sands are usually white to tan but local...

T he extraction and processing of Canada’s massive oil sands in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta have been marked by an ongoing controversy about the nature and extent of associated environmental impacts. Impacts include habitat destruction and fragmentation by surface mining and tailings disposal, depletion of water resources, greenhouse gas and chemical emissions, and the impacts of e...

We considered small-scale measurement of permeability in pebbly sands having coarser grains supported in a finer grained matrix (fine packing). Our central question was whether air-based measurements are representative if made with a permeameter tip seal pressed in the sand matrix. We created pebbly sands and variably sorted sands, with systematic variation in aspects of their fine packing. We ...

Waste molding and core sands from the foundry industry are successfully being used around the world in geotechnical and soil-related applications. Although waste foundry sands (WFSs) are generally not hazardous in nature, relevant data is currently not available in Argentina. This study aimed to quantify metals in waste molding and core sands from foundries using a variety of metal-binder combi...

Gas chromatography (GC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), elemental analysis, infrared absorption spectroscopy (IR), thermal analysis (TG/DTA), Rock-Eval pyrolysis, as well as viscosity and density analysis revealed that oil sands from Qaidam basin, Qinghai Province of China, are highly concentrated in light components (£C23), with saturate...

Leaching of Arsenic from high Arsenic loaded iron oxide impregnated brick sands (IOI CBCM) was investigated using common household chemicals like common salt and soda ash, the industrial chemicals caustic soda and the phosphates used as fertilizers such as potassium hydrogen phosphate and TSP. Leaching by ordinary ground water was also investigated on the arsenic saturated iron oxide impregnate...