35 research outputs found
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Use of a steam leak simulator in EBR-II
A steam leak simulator has been installed on EBR-II to periodically test and calibrate the steam-generator leak detection system. Measured amounts of molten anhydrous sodium hydroxide are injected at controlled rates simulating leaks in the range of 0.024 to 0.16 g H/sub 2/O/s. Experience with 11 injections over an 18 month period is described
New data from Oman indicate benthic high biomass productivity coupled with low taxonomic diversity in the aftermath of the Permian-Triassic Boundary mass extinction
A new Early Triassic marine fauna is described from an exotic block (olistolith) from the Ad Daffah conglomerate in eastern Oman (Batain), which provides new insights into the ecology and diversity during the early aftermath of the Permian–Triassic Boundary mass extinction. Based on conodont quantitative biochronology, we assign a middle Griesbachian age to the upper part of this boulder. It was derived from an offshore seamount and yielded both nektonic and benthic faunas, including conodonts, ammonoids, gastropods and crinoid ossicles in mass abundance. This demonstrates that despite the stratigraphically near extinction at the Permian–Triassic Boundary, Crinoidea produced enough biomass to form crinoidal limestone as early as middle Griesbachian time. Baudicrinus, previously placed in Dadocrinidae, is now placed in Holocrinidae; therefore, Dadocrinidae are absent in the Early Triassic, and Holocrinidae remains the most basal crown-group articulates, originating during the middle Griesbachian in the Tethyan Realm. Abundant gastropods assigned to Naticopsis reached a shell size larger than 20 mm and provide another example against any generalized Lilliput effect during the Griesbachian. Whereas the benthic biomass was as high as to allow the resumption of small carbonate factories, the taxonomic diversity of the benthos remained low compared to post-Early Triassic times. This slow benthic taxonomic recovery is here attributed to low competition within impoverished post-extinction faunas. □ benthos, biotic recovery, Griesbachian, Oman, Permian–Triassic Boundary