Economic Value of the Oil and Gas Resources on the Outer Continential Shelf

A theoretical framework for estimating the economic value of the federal government's offshore oil and gas resources is developed. This framework is then applied to geological and economic data generated by the Minerals Management Service in support of their five-year leasing plan. With an 8 percent real discount rate and a 1 percent real price growth rate, the remaining economic rent as of 1987 on the reserves plus the undiscovered offshore oil and gas resources is estimated at $118.6 billion (1987 dollars). The present value of the government's receipts from cash bonus and royalty payments on these deposits is estimated at$37.2 billion. Over 80 percent of the remaining economic rent is derived from developed reserve deposits located in the Gulf of Mexico. The private sector has previously paid cash bonuses for the leases located on those deposits and financed the installation of the development platforms. Because of this, the government will collect only a small portion, approximately 22 percent, of the rent remaining on those reserves.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Some Aboriginal Minnesota Names Borrowed From Sanskrit and Japanese

In some American aboriginal words, similarities in phonetics and meaning suggest borrowing, especially from Japanese, or some language(s) from which it is derived, and from Sanskrit, the mother tongue of India, or its Indo-European predecessor. This work suggests that exploration of American Indian names may have important application to human migrations, perhaps even in pre-Columbian time. Intensive research might reveal specific regions of origin of names and of the people who brought them, and may even suggest the time and mode of travel. These studies, concentrated on the Pacific coastal regions of the Western Hemisphere, point to the Middle East and southern and eastern Asia as important source regions for North and South American aboriginal names. Some of these Asian words seem to have migrated to Minnesota. Studies of this kind may help to corroborate evidence of diffusion based on geographical distribution of plants and animals, of folklore, and of other cultural motifs, and provide documentation possibly as revealing as archaeological data, of past human migration and occupation

Fluorine in silicate glasses: A multinuclear nuclear magnetic resonance study

Anhydrous nepheline, jadeite, and albite glasses doped with F as well as hydrous F-containing haplogranitic glasses were investigated using 19F combined rotation and multiple-pulse spectroscopy; 19F → 29Si cross-polarization/magic angle spinning (MAS); and high-power 19F decoupled 29Si, 23Na, and 27Al MAS nuclear magnetic resonance methods. Fluorine preferentially coordinates with Al to form octahedral AlF63− complexes in all glasses studied. In addition, F anions bridging two Al cations, units containing octahedral Al coordinated by both O and F, or tetrahedral Al-F complexes might be present. The presence of Si-F bonds cannot be entirely ruled out but appears unlikely on the basis of the 19F → 29Si CP/MAS spectra. There is no evidence for any significant coordination of F with alkalis in the glasses studied. 23Na spectra are identical for the samples and their F-free equivalents and the spectra do not change upon decoupling of 19F. The speciation of F in the hydrous and anhydrous glasses appears to be very similar. Over the range of F contents studied ( up to 5 wt.% ), there seems to be hardly any dependence of F speciation on the concentration of F in the samples. The spectroscopic results explain the decrease of the viscosity of silicate melts with increasing F content by removal of Al from bridging AlO4-units due to complexing with F, which causes depolymerization of the melt. The same mechanism can account for the shift of the eutectic point in the haplogranite system to more feldspar-rich compositions with increasing F content, and for the peraluminous composition of most F-rich granites. Liquid immiscibility in F-rich granitic melts might be caused by formation of (Na,K)3AlF6 units in the melt with little or no interaction with the silicate component. The presence of F in granitic melts might increase the solubility of high field strength cations by making nonbridging O atoms available which form complexes with these cations

Ecological Implications of Dimethyl Mercury in an Aquatic Food Chain

Laboratory studies indicate dimethyl mercury may be a major product of microbial methylation of inorganic mercury. Although another methylation product, monomethyl mercury, has been extensively studied, the physical, chemical, and biologicl factors affecting the transport and food chain distribution of dimethyl mercury have remained unclear. This report presents results of laboratory studies of volatilization rates from water as a function of temperature and mixing conditions, uptake kinetics and equilibrium concentrations in algae

Geochemical Engineering Reference Manual

Department of Energy, San Francisco Operations OfficeContract #DE-AC03-81SF1152

Fluorine in silicate glasses: A multinuclear nuclear magnetic resonance study

Anhydrous nepheline, jadeite, and albite glasses doped with F as well as hydrous F-containing haplogranitic glasses were investigated using 19F combined rotation and multiple-pulse spectroscopy; 19F → 29Si cross-polarization/magic angle spinning (MAS); and high-power 19F decoupled 29Si, 23Na, and 27Al MAS nuclear magnetic resonance methods. Fluorine preferentially coordinates with Al to form octahedral AlF63− complexes in all glasses studied. In addition, F anions bridging two Al cations, units containing octahedral Al coordinated by both O and F, or tetrahedral Al-F complexes might be present. The presence of Si-F bonds cannot be entirely ruled out but appears unlikely on the basis of the 19F → 29Si CP/MAS spectra. There is no evidence for any significant coordination of F with alkalis in the glasses studied. 23Na spectra are identical for the samples and their F-free equivalents and the spectra do not change upon decoupling of 19F. The speciation of F in the hydrous and anhydrous glasses appears to be very similar. Over the range of F contents studied ( up to 5 wt.% ), there seems to be hardly any dependence of F speciation on the concentration of F in the samples. The spectroscopic results explain the decrease of the viscosity of silicate melts with increasing F content by removal of Al from bridging AlO4-units due to complexing with F, which causes depolymerization of the melt. The same mechanism can account for the shift of the eutectic point in the haplogranite system to more feldspar-rich compositions with increasing F content, and for the peraluminous composition of most F-rich granites. Liquid immiscibility in F-rich granitic melts might be caused by formation of (Na,K)3AlF6 units in the melt with little or no interaction with the silicate component. The presence of F in granitic melts might increase the solubility of high field strength cations by making nonbridging O atoms available which form complexes with these cations