Beyond the Mussel Watch--new directions for monitoring marine pollution.

The increasing numbers and types of potential pollutants in the world oceans calls for novel strategies for their assays. The 'Mussel Watch' well served the latter decades of the 20th century. For the immediate future, individual assays of the chemicals of concern should be replaced by the analyses of groups of pollutants which have a common impact upon marine organisms. Secondly, more attention should be focussed upon the benthos where many potential pollutants continue to accumulate. Impacts upon members of the marine biosphere may be recognized by population changes of individual species. Lastly, time frame monitoring studies should be initiated, so that long-term trends in the health of a system can be detected.

Application of flowmeter and depth-dependent water quality data for improved production well construction.

Ground water production wells commonly are designed to maximize well yield and, therefore, may be screened over several water-bearing zones. These water-bearing zones usually are identified, and their hydrogeologic characteristics and water quality are inferred, on the basis of indirect data such as geologic and geophysical logs. Production well designs based on these data may result in wells that are drilled deeper than necessary and are screened through zones having low permeability or poor-quality ground water. In this study, we examined the application of flowmeter logging and depth-dependent water quality samples for the improved design of production wells in a complex hydrogeologic setting. As a demonstration of these techniques, a flowmeter log and depth-dependent water quality data were collected from a long-screened production well within a multilayered coastal aquifer system in the Santa Clara-Calleguas Basin, Ventura County, California. Results showed that the well yields most of its water from four zones that constitute 58% of the screened interval. The importance of these zones to well yield was not readily discernible from indirect geologic or geophysical data. The flowmeter logs and downhole water quality data also show that small quantities of poor-quality water could degrade the overall quality of water from the well. The data obtained from one well can be applied to other proposed wells in the same hydrologic basin. The application of flowmeter and depth-dependent water quality data to well design can reduce installation costs and improve the quantity and quality of water produced from wells in complex multiple-aquifer systems.

Submarine barite-opal rocks of hydrothermal origin.

Unusual submarine rocks consisting of barite, opal, and volcanic detritus were recovered from the Lau Basin northeast of Australia. It is proposed that these rocks were formed when hydrothermal solutions emanating from a fracture zone offsetting the active spreading center in the Lau Basin came into contact with cooler ocean waters.

Lead pollution: records in Southern California coastal sediments.

The present anthropogenic lead fluxes into sediments from the Santa Monica, San Pedro, and Santa Barbara basins of Southern California are, respectively, 0.9, 1.7, and 2.1 micrograms of lead per square centimeter of sea bottom per year; the natural (prepollution) rates for these three basins were, respectively, 0.24, 0.26, and 1.0 microgram of lead per square centimeter per year. Studies of isotopic composition indicate that lead pollutants in coastal sediments are derived mainly from the combustion of lead additives in gasoline.

Fossil fuel combustion and the major sedimentary cycle.

The combustion of the fossil fuels coal, oil, and lignite potentially can mobilize many elements into the atmosphere at rates, in general, less than but comparable to their rates of flow through natural waters during the weathering cycle. Since the principal sites of fossil fuel combustion are in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, changes in the composition of natural waters and air, as a consequence of this activity, will be most evident at these latitudes.