Are there "black holes" in carbonate deposystems?

The likelihood that extensive dissolution of aragonite (and high magnesian calcite) takes place during very early burial, even in relatively shallow tropical settings, has wide implications for interpreting and modelling ancient limestones. Some low energy environments may constitute net sinks (“black holes”) for carbonates. If this is the case attempts to model sediment budgets and develop depth-productivity profiles for carbonate systems require as yet unavailable quantitative data on the effects of these processes. We query whether the established trends of diminishing carbonate productivity with depth could, for some settings such as ramps, be in part an artifact of selective, offshore dissolution more than simply due to reduced benthic production. Many fossil assemblages from low energy settings may be limited to refractory (residual) skeletal elements, which limits our ability to make palaeoenvironmental determinations: some important carbonate grain producers such as the green algae may have been especially prone to early dissolution. The possibility exists that what is now mud-grade carbonate in low energy deposits may not represent original material deposited from suspension but could represent transformed aragonite from in situ production by the skeletal fauna. The selective removal of labile aragonitic (and high Mg calcite) components could produce sediments that appear to have had the composition of cool water types, and the reduced diagenetic potential of many Palaeozoic and cool water carbonates could be a consequence of the effects of early aragonite dissolution rather than due to differences in primary (depositional) composition

Are there "black holes" in carbonate deposystems?

The likelihood that extensive dissolution of aragonite (and high magnesian calcite) takes place during very early burial, even in relatively shallow tropical settings, has wide implications for interpreting and modelling ancient limestones. Some low energy environments may constitute net sinks ("black holes") for carbonates. If this is the case attempts to model sediment budgets and develop depth-productivity profiles for carbonate systems require as yet unavailable quantitative data on the effects of these processes. We query whether the established trends of diminishing carbonate productivity with depth could, for some settings such as ramps, be in part an artifact of selective, offshore dissolution more than simply due to reduced benthic production. Many fossil assemblages from low energy settings may be limited to refractory (residual) skeletal elements, which limits our ability to make palaeoenvironmental determinations: some important carbonate grain producers such as the green algae may have been especially prone to early dissolution. The possibility exists that what is now mud-grade carbonate in low energy deposits may not represent original material deposited from suspension but could represent transformed aragonite from in situ production by the skeletal fauna. The selective removal of labile aragonitic (and high Mg calcite) components could produce sediments that appear to have had the composition of cool water types, and the reduced diagenetic potential of many Palaeozoic and cool water carbonates could be a consequence of the effects of early aragonite dissolution rather than due to differences in primary (depositional) composition

Success or failure in knowledge management systems: a universal issue

This paper takes a sociotechnical viewpoint of knowledge management system (KMS) implementation in organizations considering issues such as stakeholder disenfranchisement, lack of communication, and the low involvement of key personnel in system design asking whether KMS designers could learn from applying sociotechnical principles to their systems. The paper discusses design elements drawn from the sociotechnical principles essential for the success of IS and makes recommendations to increase the success of KMS in organizations. It also provides guidelines derived from Clegg’s Principles (2000) for KMS designers to enhance their designs. Our data comes from the application of a plurality of analysis methods on a large comprehensive global survey conducted from 2007 to 2011 of 1034 participants from 76 countries. The survey covers a variety of organizations of all types and sizes from a comprehensive selection of economic sectors and industries. Our results showed that users were not satisfied with the information and knowledge systems that they were being offered. In addition to multiple technology and usability issues, there were human and organisational barriers that prevented the systems from being used to their full potential. We recommend that users of KMS are integrated into the design team so that these usability and other barriers can be addressed during the feasibility stage as well as the actual design and implementation phases

Study of pinholes and nanotubes in AlInGaN films by cathodoluminescence and atomic force microscopy

Cathodoluminescence (CL) in the scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been used to study the formation of pinholes in tensile and compressively strained AlInGaN films grown on Al2O3 substrates by plasma-induced molecular beam epitaxy. Nanotubes, pits, and V-shaped pinholes are observed in a tensile strained sample. CL images show an enhanced emission around the pits and a lower intensity at the V-shaped pinholes. Rounded pinholes appear in compressively strained samples in island-like regions with higher In concentration. The grain structure near the pinholes is resolved by AFM. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics

Calcitization of aragonitic bryozoans in Cenozoic tropical carbonates from East Kalimantan, Indonesia

© The Author(s) 2016. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The file attached is the published version of the article

Late Triassic dinosaur tracks from Penarth, south Wales

Evidence of Late Triassic large tetrapods from the UK is rare. Here, we describe a track-bearing surface located on the shoreline near Penarth, south Wales, United Kingdom. The total exposed surface is c. 50 m long and c. 2 m wide, and is split into northern and southern sections by a small fault. We interpret these impressions as tracks, rather than abiogenic sedimentary structures, because of the possession of marked displacement rims and their relationship to each other with regularly spaced impressions forming putative trackways. The impressions are large (up to c. 50 cm in length), but poorly preserved, and retain little information about track-maker anatomy. We discuss alternative, plausible, abiotic mechanisms that might have been responsible for the formation of these features, but reject them in favour of these impressions being tetrapod tracks. We propose that the site is an additional occurrence of the ichnotaxon Eosauropus, representing a sauropodomorph trackmaker, thereby adding a useful new datum to their sparse Late Triassic record in the UK. We also used historical photogrammetry to digitally map the extent of site erosion during 2009–2020. More than 1 m of the surface exposure has been lost over this 11-year period, and the few tracks present in both models show significant smoothing, breakage and loss of detail. These tracks are an important datapoint for Late Triassic palaeontology in the UK, even if they cannot be confidently assigned to a specific trackmaker. The documented loss of the bedding surface highlights the transient and vulnerable nature of our fossil resources, particularly in coastal settings, and the need to gather data as quickly and effectively as possible