Consolidation of Geologic Studies of Geopressured-Geothermal Resources in Texas

Two major structural styles are identified in the Wilcox growth-fault trend of the Texas Gulf Coast. The style in central and southeast Texas is characterized by continuous, closely spaced growth faults that have little associated rollover despite moderate expansion of section and that show little flattening of the fault plane with depth. Where the growth-fault trend crosses the Houston Diapir Province, growth faults are localized by preexisting salt pillows; however, the piercement salt domes formed after the main phase of faulting, so the salt tectonics "overprints" the growth faults. In South Texas (south of Live Oak County), a narrow band of growth faults having high expansion and moderate rollover lies over and downdip of a ridge of deformed, overpressured shale and lies updip of a deep Tertiary-filled basin formed by withdrawal of overpressured shale. Significant antithetic faulting is associated with this band of growth faults. Also in South Texas, the lower Wilcox Lobo trend is deformed by highly listric normal faults beneath an unconformity that is probably related to Laramide tectonic activity. Wilcox sandstone reservoirs are predominantly of high-constructive deltaic (distributary-channel and delta-front) origin. This, together with close spacing of faults and characteristically low permeabilities, limits the size of geopressured reservoirs. The largest reservoirs may be in interfault areas or in salt- or shale-withdrawal basins.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Design and update of a classification system : the UCSD map of science

Global maps of science can be used as a reference system to chart career trajectories, the location of emerging research frontiers, or the expertise profiles of institutes or nations. This paper details data preparation, analysis, and layout performed when designing and subsequently updating the UCSD map of science and classification system. The original classification and map use 7.2 million papers and their references from Elsevier’s Scopus (about 15,000 source titles, 2001–2005) and Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science (WoS) Science, Social Science, Arts & Humanities Citation Indexes (about 9,000 source titles, 2001–2004)–about 16,000 unique source titles. The updated map and classification adds six years (2005–2010) of WoS data and three years (2006–2008) from Scopus to the existing category structure–increasing the number of source titles to about 25,000. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a widely used map of science was updated. A comparison of the original 5-year and the new 10-year maps and classification system show (i) an increase in the total number of journals that can be mapped by 9,409 journals (social sciences had a 80% increase, humanities a 119% increase, medical (32%) and natural science (74%)), (ii) a simplification of the map by assigning all but five highly interdisciplinary journals to exactly one discipline, (iii) a more even distribution of journals over the 554 subdisciplines and 13 disciplines when calculating the coefficient of variation, and (iv) a better reflection of journal clusters when compared with paper-level citation data. When evaluating the map with a listing of desirable features for maps of science, the updated map is shown to have higher mapping accuracy, easier understandability as fewer journals are multiply classified, and higher usability for the generation of data overlays, among others

Planetary camera observations of the central parsec of M32

Analysis of V band HST Planetary Camera images of the elliptical galaxy M32 shows that its nucleus is extremely dense and remains unresolved at even the HST diffraction limit. A combined approach of image deconvolution and model fitting is used to investigate the starlight distribution into limiting radii of 0".04 (0.14 pc at 700 kpc). The logarithmic slope of the brightness profile smoothly flattens from y= -1.2 at 3.4 pc to y= -0.5 at 0.34 pc; interior to this radius the profile is equally consistent with a singular µ(r)∝ r,^(-1/2) cusp or a small nonisothermal core with r_c<0.37 pc. The isophotes maintain constant ellipticity into tlle center, and there is no evidence for a central point source, disk, dust, or any other substructures. The cusp model implies central mass densities p_0 > 3 X 10^7 M_☉ pc^(-3) at the resolution limit and is consistent with a central M_• = 3 X 10^6 M_☉ black hole; the core model implies p_0≈4 X 10^6 M_☉ pc^(-3). From the viewpoint of long-term stability, we argue that a starlight cusp surrounding a central black hole is the more plausible interpretation of the observations. A core at the implied density and size without a black hole has a relaxation time of only ~7 X 10^7 yr and a short stellar oollision timescale implying wholesale stellar merging over the age of the universe. The core would be strongly vulnerable to collapse and concomitant runaway stellar merging. Collapse may lead to formation of a massive black hole in any case if it cannot be reversed by formation of a binary from high-mass merger products. Regardless of the ultimate fate of the core, however, structural evolution of the core will always be accompanied by strong evolution of the core population-the constant isophote shape and absence of a central color gradient appear to show that such evolution has not occurred. In contrast, the high velocities around a black hole imply long relaxation and stellar collision times for the cusp population compared to the age of the universe

Imaging of the gravitational lens system PG 1115+080 with the Hubble Space Telescope

This paper is the first of a series presenting observations of gravitational lenses and lens candidates, taken with the Wide Field/Planetary Camera (WFPC) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We have resolved the gravitational lens system PG 1115 + 080 into four point sources and a red, extended object that is presumably the lens galaxy; we present accurate relative intensities, colors, and positions of the four images, and lower accuracy intensity and position of the lens galaxy, all at the epoch 1991.2. Comparison with earlier data shows no compelling evidence for relative intensity variations between the QSO components having so far been observed. The new data agree with earlier conclusions that the system is rather simple, and can be produced by the single observed galaxy. The absence of asymmetry in the HST images implies that the emitting region of the quasar itself has an angular radius smaller than about 10 milliarcsec (100 pc for H_0=50, q_0=0.5)

The Postcollapse core of M15 imaged with the HST planetary camera

We have obtained U-band images of the M15 core with the Planetary Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope. We are able to resolve stars down to the main-sequence turnoff (m_v≈ 19.4) into the cluster center. We use crowded field photometry techniques to decompose M15 into bright resolved stars and a residual component consisting of stars at turnoff brightness or fainter. The residual component comprises 59% of the cluster light and follows a y = -0.71 power-law distribution for r > 1". The residual component flattens off interior to this radius and has a large core with r_c = 2".2 = 0.13 pc. The core size may reflect postcollapse core expansion. The resolved stars have a slightly shallower distribution (y = - 0.53) but have an abrupt overdensity for r < 1".5, which accounts for the unresolved surface brightness cusp at ground resolution. The bright stars do not become more highly concentrated at still smaller radii, however; neither the bright stars nor the residual component form a cusp at subarcsecond resolution. The total central density of light in all components is 8 x 10^5 L_☉ pc^(-3) (U-band). The Peterson, Seitzer, and Cudworth central velocity dispersion implies a high core M/L ≈ 8 (U-band). The existence of a core rather than a cusp at the 0.1 pc scale may imply that the centrally deduced dark matter is in a diffuse form rather than a massive black hole