Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The major share of raw materials needed to sustain our present lifestyle and even more importantly, required for the crucial green transition, are sourced outside Europe. The European Commission aims to enhance Europe's resilience and strengthen domestic sourcing. Although Europe has a long tradition of mining and extractive activities, it is acknowledged that there are several challenges to achieve European sourcing of certain raw materials such as the critical raw materials. A basic prerequisite to enable access to domestic raw materials is information on raw material occurrences, current and past mining activities, resources and reserves. The Geological Survey organizations (GSOs) of Europe play a key role in generating, compiling, gathering and storing the most up-to-date information as well as long-term data series on raw materials at national and regional levels. Over the last decade, the GSOs have joined forces and taken essential steps to harmonize and share data on raw materials. The results of this co-operation are illustrated as interactive maps on the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI). This paper describes the data compiled in co-operation between the GSOs, and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of, as well as opportunities for and threats towards, the data.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> The UK, and England in particular, is the stronghold for chalk rivers, streams and wetlands in Europe. A number of sites are recognised as being important for nature conservation and have been designated under UK and European legislation. However, as the chalk is also an important aquifer for southern and eastern England, there have been significant impacts on these groundwater dependent ecosystems from abstraction. Chalk rivers and streams have been used for centuries for mills and water meadows, so impacts have not just occurred in recent times. Intensification of agriculture in the 20 <jats:sup>th</jats:sup> century has added to the pressure by increasing levels of pollution, especially nitrate, with significant levels now being recorded. Moves have been made, however, to resolve some of these issues, with investigations into the effects of abstraction and options for reducing these impacts, research into the nature of the chalk aquifer so that it can be modelled more accurately, and assessment made of pollution pathways and the timescales over which they may take. Associated projects have characterised the ecosystems associated with the chalk in more detail, enabling the mechanism for impacts to be better understood. While the extent of impacts are increasingly understood, action is also being taken to reduce their effects and restore chalk ecosystems. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>A CAES facility provides value by supporting the reliability of the energy grid through its ability to repeatedly store and dispatch energy on demand. Two main advantages of CAES are its ability to provide grid-scale energy storage and its utilization of compressed air, which yields a low environmental burden, being neither toxic nor flammable. The focus of this review paper is to deliver a general overview of current CAES technology (diabatic, adiabatic, and isothermal CAES), storage requirements, site selection, and design constraints. We discuss underground storage options suitable for CAES, including submerged bladders, underground mines, salt caverns, porous aquifers, depleted reservoirs, cased wellbores, and surface pressure vessels. A geomechanical perspective is provided regarding the pressure limits for these options. The impacts of cyclic injection and withdrawal of compressed air, and the importance of caprock assessments with porous rock CAES, are also discussed. In addition, we provide an overview of the large-scale CAES facilities that are currently active or under development and a cost comparison of the diabatic, adiabatic, and isothermal CAES options. Lastly, we outline major challenges and future opportunities for CAES and the top priorities for research, industry, and stakeholders.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The energy transition will be mineral-intensive and the global demand for critical and energy transition minerals (ETMs) is expected to substantially rise. That will generate development opportunities and risks of intensified adverse socio-environmental impacts in mineral-rich countries like Argentina. In this article, we provide a review of Argentina's mineral potential for critical and ETMs and explore pathways for the country to strengthen its governance. Our results indicate that copper and lithium are the minerals with the largest potential in the short term. For other ETMs, such as nickel or cobalt, potential exists but it remains underexplored.</jats:p> <jats:p>We argue that although responsible sourcing initiatives and rising environmental, social and governance standards have an important role to play, the great challenge ahead for the country lies in strengthening its public institutions for sustainability as these constitute a cornerstone for responsible mining practices. This includes strengthening of environmental institutions and water governance, new models of public participation and decision-making and policies for the development of local suppliers in key areas such as water governance. Addressing such challenges should be grounded on a vision of mining as a platform for broad-based development under co-operation with other sectors and the domestic science, technology and innovation system.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This study summarizes a compilation of studies and cartographical work on seabed mineral deposit types in pan-European seas developed under the GeoERA-MINDeSEA project. In total, 692 occurrences and 1194 individual mineral samples of volcanogenic massive sulfides and hydrothermal mineralization, ferromanganese crusts, phosphorites, marine placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, and their associated strategic and critical raw material (CRM) elements have been characterized. The GeoERA-MINDeSEA project has been built based on extensive studies carried out previously, which include geophysical surveys, sampling stations, underwater photography and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) surveys, and mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic studies. This study develops pan-European and national databases, and expands strategic and CRM knowledge through a compilation of mineral potential and metallogenic studies of CRM resources in European seas. For the first time, the GeoERA-MINDeSEA portal publishes harmonized marine mineral resource information, case studies and maps, and identifies potential areas for responsible resource exploration and extraction, strategic management, and marine spatial planning. This study also provides recommendations for future target areas, studies and standards to be used across Europe as part of this project.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> In Groundwater-Dependent Terrestrial Ecosystems (GWDTEs), atmospheric nitrogen (N) inputs have often been studied in isolation from terrestrial groundwater and surface water inputs. We describe for the first time the development and application of a combined atmospheric and terrestrial N source apportionment methodology, able to identify contributing catchment and N loadings to GWDTEs. We combined all N inputs using a site-specific conceptual model supported by 12 months’ monitoring for a Chalk-fed GWDTE at Newbald Becksies, East Yorkshire. We discuss implications for effective catchment management, wetland protection and development of a source apportionment methodology. Potential sources of nitrate include: atmospheric deposition, mineralization, leaching from agricultural soils, manure heaps, septic tanks, sewer and mains water leakage. Atmospheric deposition was calculated from measurements of ammonia and nitrogen dioxide concentrations together with rainfall inputs of ammonium and nitrate. Quantification of agricultural sources used the FarmScoper modelling tool to estimate nitrate leaching in the groundwater catchment. Comparison between modelled nitrate concentrations in leachate (15–17 mg N l <jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> ) and observed groundwater nitrate concentrations (12.3–19.8 mg N l <jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> ) are good. The majority of nitrate is leached from arable land. FarmScoper allows mitigation scenarios to be tested, supporting measures to reduce nitrate within a groundwater catchment. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>We briefly outline the progressive development of approaches to both the characterisation and simulation of the hydrogeology of northern European chalk aquifers, which were some of the first in the world to have been studied. The volume’s scope includes work on water resources and quality, chalk streams and wetland ecosystems, chalks as heat reservoirs for building temperature regulation, sources of groundwater flood risk and impacts on engineering in the subsurface, and diffuse and point-source pollution affecting these aquifers. It excludes hydrocarbon-related studies and those focussed on offshore chalk sequences. We outline the current state of knowledge of hydrogeological processes, characterisation, assessment and modelling, and the increasingly recognised importance of karst features. The latter were little discussed 20 years ago and are still often neglected. There follows a brief quantitative analysis of publication topics relating to chalk hydrogeology in the scientific literature over the past three decades, which highlights key trends including both the purposes of studies and the methods employed. We present a summary of the topics and contributions within this volume, and conclude by identifying the key issues that need to be addressed in order to ensure the sustainability of our chalk aquifers for the future.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Oriented carbonate (calcite twinning strains; n=78 with 2414 twin measurements) and quartzites (finite strains, n=15) were collected around Gondwana to study the deformational history associated with the amalgamation of the supercontinent. The Buzios orogen (545-500 Ma), within interior Gondwana, records the high-grade collisional orogen between São Francisco craton (Brazil) and Congo-Angola craton (Angola-Namibia) and twinning strains in calcsilicates record a SE-NW shortening fabric parallel to thrust transport. Along Gondwana's southern margin, the Saldanian-Ross-Delamerian orogen (590-480 Ma) is marked by a regional unconformity that cuts into deformed Neoproterozoic-Ordovician sedimentary rocks and associated intrusions. Cambrian carbonate is preserved in the central part of the southern Gondwana margin, namely in the Kango inlier of the Cape fold belt and the Ellsworth, Pensacola and Transantarctic Mountains. Paleozoic carbonate is not preserved in the Ventana Mountains, Argentina; Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands or Tasmania. Twinning strains in these Cambrian carbonate strata and synorogenic veins record a complex, overprinted deformation history with no stable foreland strain reference. The Kurgiakh orogen (490 Ma) along Gondwana's northern margin is also defined by a regional Ordovician unconformity throughout the Himalaya; these rocks record a mix of layer-parallel and layer-normal twinning strains with a likely Himalayan (40 Ma) strain overprint and no autochthonous foreland strain site.</jats:p> <jats:p>Conversely, the Gondwanide orogen (250 Ma) along Gondwana's southern margin has three foreland (autochthonous) sites for comparison with 59 allochthonous thrust belt strain analyses. From west to east: finite strains from Devonian quartzite preserve a layer-parallel shortening (LPS) strain rotated clockwise in the Ventana Mountains, Argentina; the frontal (calcite twins) and internal (quartzite strains) samples in the Cape belt preserve a LPS fabric that is rotated clockwise from the autochthonous N-S horizontal shortening in the foreland strain site; Falkland Devonian quartzite shows the same clockwise rotation of the LPS fabric; Permian limestone and veins in Tasmania record a thrust transport-parallel LPS fabric. Early amalgamation of Gondwana (Ordovician) is preserved by local layer-parallel and layer-normal strain without evidence of far-field deformation whereas the Gondwanide orogen (Permian) is dominated by layer-parallel shortening, locally rotated by dextral shear along the margin, that propagated across the supercontinent.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Evidence of Early Ordovician deposition and intrusion in East Antarctica is best known from the Ross Orogen, postdating the 495-489 Ma Ross Orogeny. Here, ∼490-475 Ma granites (with related dykes and sills) of the Granite Harbour Intrusives represent roots of a continental margin arc. Detrital zircon grains in the upper Byrd Group (Central Transantarctic Mountains) are of comparable Early Ordovician age. Contemporaneous fossils are rare. In northern Victoria Land they include latest Cambrian to earliest Ordovician conodonts and microbrachiopods in allochthonous limestones of the Handler Formation (Robertson Bay Group) in the Robertson Bay Terrane, and probable Early Ordovician trace fossils in the Camp Ridge Quartzite of the Leap Year Group in the Bowers Terrane. In the Shackleton Range of Coats Land, West Antarctica, the Blaiklock Glacier Group contains a diverse ichnofossil fauna of probable Ordovician age associated with undescribed bivalved arthropods and segmented crustacea. The Swanson Formation of the Ross Province in Marie Byrd Land (correlated with the Robertson Bay Group of the Ross Orogen) is a turbiditic unit dominated by quartz-rich sandstones. Its Ordovician age is based on a post-depositional whole rock K-Ar metamorphic age of 448-444 Ma, with detrital zircon grains indicating a late Cambrian maximum depositional age.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> The Chortis Block of Central America is a cratonic-type peri-Gondwanan terrane and is commonly included in Neoproterozoic–Paleozoic palaeogeographical reconstructions. At present, most research has focused on the Mesozoic evolution of the Chortis Block, however, its earlier history remains poorly constrained. As a result, there is considerable debate surrounding the internal complexities of the Chortis Block and its tectonothermal evolution has not been well established by geochronological and geochemical data. New field investigations from the Nueva Segovia Schist (Northern Nicaragua), considered one of the oldest exposed parts of the Chortis Block, reveal it is composed primarily of deformed sequences of greenschist facies marine clastic and chemical sediments in conformable contact with felsic volcanics. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) detrital zircon data from two samples taken from the Nueva Segovia Schist reveal a youngest age peak of <jats:italic>c.</jats:italic> 250 Ma with other significant peaks at <jats:italic>c.</jats:italic> 500 Ma, <jats:italic>c.</jats:italic> 1.0 Ga and <jats:italic>c.</jats:italic> 1.2 Ga. Taken together with field observations, these data suggest the Nueva Segovia Schist was likely deposited between <jats:italic>c.</jats:italic> 250 and 110 Ma proximal to Amazonia during the Late Paleozoic, and they support a Precambrian age for the basement of the East Chortis Terrane. Taken together the data support a Pangaean position of the Chortis Block, adjacent to Amazonia inboard of Oaxaquia. </jats:p>