GeologyRocks

Foraminiferans As Palaeoenvironmental Indicators.

Foraminiferans (hereafter referred to as Forams) are unicellular protists that inhabit the world’s oceans and range from 20µm to a few centimetres in size. They tolerate a wide range of salinities from esturine to fully oceanic (~ 35‰) but are NOT found in freshwater. They can be either planktonic or benthic, do not photosynthesise so inhabit various depths, and are active predators.

Precambrian History of England and Wales

This is the companion tutorial to the Precambrian History of the Scotland.

This tutorial looks at the Precambrian of England and Wales which by the end of the Precambrian were on a completely different continent and separated from what is now Scotland by the Iapetus Ocean.

The Use Of Diatoms As Palaeoenvironmental Indicators

Diatoms are microscopic, photosynthetic algae (which due to the yellow-brown chloroplasts they contain are sometimes referred to as golden algae). Comprising one of the most common types of phytoplankton, they are found in a diverse range of environments from freshwater to saline oceanic waters. It is estimated that 20-25% of all the organic carbon fixation on Earth; via photosynthesis, is attributable to diatoms - in large due to their great abundance.

Submarine Mass Movement

Submarine mass movement processes, driven by gravitational forces, represent an important mechanism whereby vast amounts of sediment are rapidly transported downslope and redistributed into deep-water from an originally shallow-water setting, and their deposits are widely recognised in continental margins. Although there is a tendency to consider these processes independently, there is an increasing awareness that in many cases these processes need to be integrated to produce a model of margin development. The mass movement processes display large temporal and spatial variations and have different importance, but their interrelationship needs to be understood and background sedimentation processes must be considered. Increasing knowledge of mass movement processes on the continental slope also has interest for natural hazard assessment.

Plate Tectonics: The Evidence

The evidence for plate tectonics comes many fields, such as palaeontology, geophysics and climate study. The first evidence was the matching of continents and their rock types across oceans. This had been realised since the 17th Century. Theories of how continents moved were ad hoc at best. Alfred Wagner, an early 1900's German Meteorologist proposed that the continents of South America, Africa, India and Australia had been one continent in the past due to their similarity of fossils and palaeoclimate.

Cubic Zirconia

This manufactured gemstone, more often referred to just as "C.Z.", first appeared on the market in 1978, and like all new things the price was quite high initially. It was marketed under the name of "Djevalite". Advances in the technology of laboratory producing has brought the price right down.

Meteor Craters

A meteorite is defined as any extraterrestrial solid mass that reaches the Earth's surface (Farris Lapidus, 1990). The term strictly extends from the nano scale e.g. dust particles, through to the macro scale e.g. 100s of metres in diameter (Zanda and Rotaru, 2001). However, the term meteorite is generally reserved for the larger particles that reach the Earth's surface.

Palaeozoic History of the UK - Part 1: Cambrian to Silurian

During the early Palaeozoic Scotland and England were still on separate continents, Laurentia and Avalonia respectively. Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian rocks are found mainly in Scotland and Wales. This article covers the time period 550Ma to around 410Ma.

Precambrian History of Scotland

The Precambrian of the UK is mainly located in northern Scotland, however there are outcrops in England and Wales also. The oldest rock constituents found there date to around 3450Ma and belong to the Lewisian complex. The Precambrian formations are (youngest to oldest):

• Dalradian
• Moine
• Torridonian
• Lewisian

The location of these formations is shown in Figure 1a and a sketch cross section is shown in Figure 1b.

Programming Fortran 2

This is a continuation of Fortran 1. This tutorial might not make much sense unless you have read that first.

Writing and Reading from Files, Screens and Keyboards

Fortran is capable of reading data from files and from the keyboard. It can also write data to files and to the screen. The I/O (Input-Output) in Fortran is a little cumbersome and is not very flexible, but is easy to get the hang of.