Abstract:  In recent laboratory experiments magnesite (MgC03) has been synthesized at a temperature of 313ºK (= 40ºC). The experiments have demonstrated that irreversible reactions are involved in the low-temperature formation of magnesite. Fundamental to such irreversible reactions is a requirement for fluctuations, i.e., alternations between precipitation and dissolution. But unequivocal evidence for the necessity for fluctuations in order to produce such irreversible geochemical reactions can be demonstrated only by static control experiments. The present note describes several static control experiments on the low-temperature synthesis of magnesite. The first experiment consisted of adding the total amount of ammonia (used in the original experiment in 14 different titration steps) in a single action: only magnesium hydroxide carbonate formed, not magnesite. In the second experiment the possible reaction between magnesium chloride, ammonia and carbon dioxide in solution was studied at 318ºK (= 45ºC): magnesium hydroxide formed, not magnesite. The third static control experiment involved the reaction between magnesium chloride and ammonium carbamate; this time nesquehonite formed, not magnesite. The implications of these static control experiments in relation to the low-temperature formation of magnesite and dolomite in the sedimentary environment are discussed.

 Abstract:  Two new forms of Pristiograptus dubius, here designated as varieties "A" and "B", are described and figured. Both were found in core samples representing the perneri through lundgreni biozones of the Wenlock epoch. The cores are from boreholes Šiupyliai-69, Parovėja-9, Likėnai-396, Paežeriai-222 and Sutkai-87 in central and northern Lithuania. The associated graptolites Cyrtograptus perneri Bouček, C. radians Törnquist, C. lundgreni Tullberg, Monograptus flemingii flemingii (Salter), M. testis testis (Barrande), Monoclimacis flumendosae (Gortani) and Pristiograptus pseudodubius (Bouček) (= P. parvus) are all indicative of the perneri, radians and lundgreni biozones of the Wenlock. Two species of Pristiograptus occur in this time-stratigraphic interval: P. dubius and P. lodenicensis. In P. dubius the degree and manner of extension of the thecal apertural lip (thecal hood) onto the succeeding theca distinguish it from otherwise very similar taxa. The thecal morphology of P. lodenicensis differs from that of a typical Pristiograptus in that the apertural lip has a central depression and is rounded into small lobes laterally.

 Abstract:  EMIG (2002) re-examined the taxonomy of the genus Obolus EICHWALD from the Middle Cambrian - earliest Ordovician of the East Baltic region as part of a proposal for a wholesale revision of the principles of linguloid systematics. He contended that previous taxonomic studies on Obolus and related forms were carried out erroneously using characters that have no taxonomic value. EMIG's proposed revision is based mainly on the limited morphological diversity between fossil and Recent taxa within a single linguloid Family, the Lingulidae. However, the present study demonstrates the taxonomic validity of the diagnostic characters used for classification within the mostly extinct families of the Superfamily Linguloidea, for they exhibit far more variation in morphology. This study also shows that EMIG has provided no satisfactory basis for his radical changes and revisions to the existing widely accepted taxonomy of the Cambrian to earliest Ordovician Obolidae of the East Baltic. Obolus EICHWALD and Ungula PANDER are shown to constitute distinctive and discrete genera comprising the species Obolus apollinis EICHWALD, O. ruchini KHAZANOVITCH et POPOV, O. transversus (PANDER), Ungula ingrica (EICHWALD), U. inornata (MICKWITZ), and U. convexa PANDER.

 Abstract:  An integrated case study of field "A" in offshore Abu Dhabi found that the stratigraphic framework for the uppermost part of the so-called "Thamama Group" required revision. Detailed sedimentological work permitted a subdivision of the succession into lithostratigraphic units (more accurately "allostratigraphic units") and the fossil content permitted their allocation to standard age-related units ranging from Late Barremian through Middle Aptian times. Additional work focused on the so-called "Shu'aiba Formation" and resulted in a new and comprehensive interpretation on a regional scale which differs from published interpretations based on onshore studies in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Oman.

 Abstract:  In carbonate reservoirs, the relationship between porosity Ø, a measure of the combined volumes of several kinds of pore space (e.g. interparticle and separate-vug), and permeability K are neither linear nor logarithmic, hence only weakly correlatable. Approaches to an estimation of permeability that employ both petrographical and petrophysical parameters, the so-called rock-typing techniques, have proven to be the most nearly precise. However in many studies simple K/Ø cross-plots are used for each rock-type to provide trendlines from which K values are derived as a function of Ø values; this is common practice even though the coefficient of correlation r² departs significantly from 1.
This paper describes and provides examples of an improved technique of rock-type classification in which each rock-type is characterized by a discrete and unique Gaussian distribution of log K. It facilitates upscaling for it suggests the use of a single geometric mean value for permeability and a corresponding standard deviation (variance, or coefficient of variation) for each rock-type.
This new technique can be used in uncored wells by extrapolating these determinations into wireline logs as documented below in a case study of layer-cake reservoirs in a field of the Abu Dhabi offshore (U.A.E.).

 Abstract:  It has been known since the 1970's that the relatively high sea levels during the Cenomanian in southern England and northern France were interrupted by a strong fall in sea level early in the Middle Cenomanian. This was a eustatic trough whose effects can be found not only in north-west Europe, but also from western Kazakhstan in central Asia to Texas, Colorado and South Dakota in the U.S.A.

 Abstract:  Lingula is often considered a "living-fossil" based on its supposed lengthy morphological conservatism owing to its absence of evolution, and its remarkable survival for more than 550 M.Y. This conclusion is based on the typical apparently unchanged "linguliform" shape of the shell. However the taxa of the family Lingulidae show morphological evolutionary changes despite the fact that the group appears panchronic among the Recent Brachiopoda. Consequently, traditional opinion that Lingula is a "living-fossil" should be rejected. Diagnoses of the Family Lingulidae and of its three genera are herewith emended.

 Abstract:  In Central Europe one of the most important interchanges between the North Temperate Realm and the Tethyan Realm took place during the Cenomanian along the course of the Elbe Valley Geosuture that separates the Erzgebirge block (part of the Mid European Island during the Cretaceous) from the Lusatian block (West Sudetic Island). Strata of the Lower Cretaceous and the basal portion of Lower Cenomanian are absent in the Elbe Valley Geosuture but a marine transgression in a NW-SE direction occupied a portion of this tract during the late Early Cenomanian and a second incursion from SE to NW occurred during the Late Cenomanian. These transgressions are known to have occurred because of faunal migrations southwards from the North Temperate Realm and northwards from the Tethyan Realm across the Bohemian Basin. Sediments of the first transgression (Lower Cenomanian, dixoni zone) are restricted to the northwestern part of the Elbe Valley Geosuture in the Meissen area for at that time the fluvial Niederschöna Formation occupied the southern part of the Elbe Valley Geosuture and the adjacent Erzgebirge block. Most of the rivers in this system ran eastward but drained toward northern Bohemia. This fluvial environment predominated in the southern part of the Elbe Valley Geosuture and on the adjacent Erzgebirge block.
But the uppermost levels of the fluviatile Niederschöna strata are influenced by marine ingressions. The main transgression from the North Temperate Realm toward the Tethyan Realm took place in the basal Upper Cenomanian (naviculare zone) along the Elbe Valley Geosuture. A small regression followed (plenus event, geslinianum zone): Indications of this regression are visible on the flanks of small islands in the Elbe Valley Geosuture. Four marine sequences are recognized in strata dated Late Cenomanian - earliest Turonian.
These sequences are important for the comparison of Upper Cretaceous formations in Saxony with those of the Upper Cretaceous in northern Bohemia and in the peripheral areas of the NW German-Polish Basin, in the Münsterland, Subhercynian, Eichsfeld regions and in the Anglo-Paris Basin. These sequences are described and their influence on the changes in the paleogeography in the Elbe Valley Geosuture is discussed. Slight variations in sea level as a consequence of local tectonic movements in the Elbe Valley Geosuture cannot be precluded.

 Abstract:  The Mahakam delta is a mixed, fluvial and wave dominated delta located in the eastern part of the island of Borneo (the East Kalimantan province of Indonesia). The distribution of benthic fauna in this delta system is influenced by the combined or antagonistic action of three main parameters: fluvial input of fresh water and sediment, tide, and a strong regional north to south drift current. A model of the present-day faunal distribution has been established taking into account the perturbations induced by the tide and by the regional drift current. This model has been extrapolated into the recent past through the study of shallow cores that permit the reconstruction of late Holocene deltaic regression patterns.

 Abstract:  Three "snakes with legs" are known: Pachyrhachis problematicus, Haasiophis terrasanctus and Eupodophis descouensi. They have short posterior limbs but lack an anterior girdle and forelimbs. Moreover, Pachyophis woodwardi, Mesophis nopcsai and Simoliophis ssp. appear to be closely related to the hindlimbed taxa; consequently, although the presence of posterior limbs has not been demonstrated for these genera, it is presumed that they too were hindlimbed. All these snakes have been recovered only from the Cenomanian. Moreover, these six genera come from a restricted area (western Europe and northwesternmost Africa to the Middle East). This limited geographic range suggests that snakes might have originated in the "Mediterranean" part of the Tethys, but the restricted stratigraphical range remains unexplained.