Frezchem2 A Chemical Thermodynamic Model For Electrolyte Solutions At Subzero Temperatures

This report documents a FORTRAN version of the Spencer-Moller-Weare chemical thermodynamic model for aqueous electrolyte solutions at sub-zero temperatures (FREZCHEM). FREZCHEM is structured to predict the chemical composition and unfrozen water of aqueous solutions between -60 deg and +25 deg C at atmospheric pressure (0.101325 MPa). FREZCHEM includes two reaction pathways: freezing at variable temperature and fixed total water and evaporation at variable water and fixed temperature. Activity coefficients and the activity of water are calculated using the Pitzer equations, which are valid to high solution ionic strengths (approx. 20 mol k-1). Fifteen chloride and sulfate salts of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium are included in the model. Predicted and experimental measurements of solute molalities and the unfrozen water fraction during sea water freezing are in good agreement. At -50 deg C, 0.3 % of sea water remains unfrozen with 99.7% of Na and 95.5% of Cl having precipitated into one of four salts. FREZCHEM should find many applications in physicochemical studies of aqueous solutions and freezing.

This book reviews advances in understanding of the past ca. two million years of Earth history - the Quaternary Period - in the United States. It begins with sections on ice and water - as glaciers, permafrost, oceans, rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Six chapters are devoted to the high-latitude Pleistocene ice sheets, to mountain glaciations of the western United States, and to permafrost studies. Other chapters discuss ice-age lakes, caves, sea-level fluctuations, and riverine landscapes. With a chapter on landscape evolution models, the book turns to essays on geologic processes. Two chapters discuss soils and their responses to climate, and wind-blown sediments. Two more describe volcanoes and earthquakes, and the use of Quaternary geology to understand the hazards they pose. The next part of the book is on plants and animals. Five chapters consider the Quaternary history of vegetation in the United States. Other chapters treat forcing functions and vegetation response at different spatial and temporal scales, the role of fire as a catalyst of vegetation change during rapid climate shifts, and the use of tree rings in inferring age and past hydroclimatic conditions. Three chapters address vertebrate paleontology and the extinctions of large mammals at the end of the last glaciation, beetle assemblages and the inferences they permit about past conditions, and the peopling of North America. A final chapter addresses the numerical modeling of Quaternary climates, and the role paleoclimatic studies and climatic modeling has in predicting future response of the Earth's climate system to the changes we have wrought.

Cryosols – permafrost – occupy a unique part of the earth and have properties greatly different from other soils. They also occur where the greatest impact of global warming is predicted. This is the first book bring together the leading researchers in the area of permafrost soils to produce a review of the geography, cryogenic soil forming processes, ecological processes, classification and use of soils that are affected by permafrost.

The proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Mining in the Arctic, held in Greenland in 2001. The papers cover a wide variety of topics, including: mining exploration and exploitation; mining engineering and mine design; environmental impact of mining in the Arctic; and more.

The year 2003 was the 50th anniversary of the seminal experiment of Stanley Miller. This was a unique opportunity for highlighting the current interest in this most interdisciplinary subject. The leading space agencies: the European Space Agency (ESA) as well as NASA, the American Space Agency, have planned missions that will elucidate some of the still unknown questions underlying research in the origin of life. New results are surpassing our ability to keep well informed: the reviews that we were presented at the Trieste meeting will bring the readers of this well-documented and timely book up to date in this fast-moving area. An important component of the conference was the review of the Cassini-Huygens mission due to arrive in the Saturn system just one year after the conference convened in Trieste. There was particular interest in the status of the experiments that will take place inside the atmosphere of Titan, the large satellite, which is a testing ground for the theories and experiments in the field of chemical evolution. The Jovian system is currently under study with the view of investigating the possibility of life underneath the frozen surface of the Galilean moon Europa; the ESA mission "Mars Express" and Mars Odyssey received special attention. Some of the world leaders in the field gathered in Trieste in September 2003 - that was a most timely date for reviewing recent data and discussing the prospects of future research.

Sheds new light on the microbial ecology and physiology of the Earth’s polar regions. • Examines the microbial investigations during the International Polar Year of 2008 focusing on the Arctic and Antarctic, along with earlier investigations on critical environmental issues such as climate change, ozone depletion, and elemental cycling. • Offers a survey of what is known and unknown about the microbial inhabitants of polar environments, addresses the adaptations and physiology of cold-adapted microorganisms, and explores the ecological role that polar microbial communities play in biogeochemical cycling. • Presents the challenges that polar and subpolar microorganisms face and describes the lowest temperatures in which microbial life can exist—and the prospects for life on other planets. Recommended for a general microbiology audience as well as for scientists and students in all areas of biology and geomicrobiology.

This book provides a thorough discussion of the thermodynamics of aqueous solutions and presents tools for analyzing and solving scientific and practical problems arising in this area. It also presents methods that can be used to deal with ionic and nonionic aqueous solutions under sub- or supercritical conditions. Illustrations and tables give examples of procedures employed to predict thermodynamic quantities of the solutions, and an appendix summarizing statistical mechanical equations used to describe the systems is also provided. High-Temperature Aqueous Solutions: Thermodynamic Properties contains essential information for physical chemists, geochemists, geophysicists, chemical technicians, and scientists involved in electric power generation.