Analysis of Drawdown for Three Ground Water Projects in Roberts County, Texas and Comparison to the 50-Percent Goal

Three water production projects have been proposed in and adjacent to Roberts County, Texas, and are in various stages of planning, permitting, construction, and implementation. The projects are referred to as the Amarillo, Mesa, and Canadian River Municipal Water Authority (CRMWA) projects. The total pumping from the Ogallala aquifer in these projects is anticipated to be more than 280,000 acre-feet/year. Additional permit applications for groundwater development in the Roberts County area are expected. This study was performed at the request of the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District to evaluate whether these projects, at an average pumping rate of 1 acre-foot/acre per year or at some lower average pumping rate, might meet District aquifer management goals. These projects were evaluated in various combinations. Three scenarios treated each project by itself. Three more scenarios combined the three projects in pairs. A seventh scenario analyzed all three as simultaneous projects. An eighth scenario evaluated hypothetical production from the entire Roberts County area. The scenarios were evaluated using a groundwater flow model of the Ogallala aquifer developed for the Panhandle Regional Water Planning Group.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Strong lens search in the ESO public Survey KiDS

We have started a systematic search of strong lens candidates in the ESO public survey KiDS based on the visual inspection of massive galaxies in the redshift range $0.1<z<0.5$. As a pilot program we have inspected 100 sq. deg., which overlap with SDSS and where there are known lenses to use as a control sample. Taking advantage of the superb image quality of VST/OmegaCAM, the colour information and accurate model subtracted images, we have found 18 new lens candidates, for which spectroscopic confirmation will be needed to confirm their lensing nature and study the mass profile of the lensing galaxies.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear on the refereed Proceeding of the "The Universe of Digital Sky Surveys" conference held at the INAF--OAC, Naples, on 25th-28th november 2014, to be published on Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, edited by Longo, Napolitano, Marconi, Paolillo, Iodic

Interaction of laser generated ultrasonic waves with wedge-shaped samples

Wedge-shaped samples can be used as a model of acoustic interactions with samples ranging from ocean wedges, to angled defects such as rolling contact fatigue, to thickness measurements of samples with non-parallel faces. We present work on laser generated ultrasonic waves on metal samples; one can measure the dominant Rayleigh-wave mode, but longitudinal and shear waves are also generated. We present calculations, models, and measurements giving the dependence of the arrival times and amplitudes of these modes on the wedge apex angle and the separation of generation and detection points, and hence give a measure of the wedge characteristics

Site Investigation and Evaluation of Remedial Alternatives for the Wharton County Site, East Bernard, Texas

The permitting process for salt-water injection wells mandates that oil companies or operators conduct an Area of Review (AOR) study within a 0.25-mile radius of a proposed well. The objective of such a study is to identify unplugged wells that could potentially allow injected fluids to migrate upward from the production zone, posing a threat to the overlying underground sources of drinking water (USDW). The Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) at the University of Texas at Austin, working in collaboration with the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), assessed oil fields across Texas to determine if any variations to the AOR permitting process were feasible based on the separation between production-zone fluid levels and the base of USDW. This evaluation aimed to provide the RRC and the industry with valuable data and methodology to facilitate AOR variance applications and the review of oil fields in Texas.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Anomalous quantum reflection of Bose-Einstein condensates from a silicon surface: the role of dynamical excitations

We investigate the effect of inter-atomic interactions on the quantum-mechanical reflection of Bose-Einstein condensates from regions of rapid potential variation. The reflection process depends critically on the density and incident velocity of the condensate. For low densities and high velocities, the atom cloud has almost the same form before and after reflection. Conversely, at high densities and low velocities, the reflection process generates solitons and vortex rings that fragment the condensate. We show that this fragmentation can explain the anomalously low reflection probabilities recently measured for low-velocity condensates incident on a silicon surface.Comment: 5 figures, 5 pages, references correcte

A Roadmap for Interdisciplinary Research on the Internet of Things

In mid-2011, the Technology Strategy Board started an integrated programme of work focused on the Internet of Things (IoT), which included strategic investment and the establishment of a Special Interest Group aimed at building and engaging a UK community of innovators and researchers in the IoT. As the portfolio of activities with businesses, academics and other stakeholders progressed, it became apparent to us that the community had a keen interest in taking a more concerted and deeper look at the fundamental research issues in the IoT and that a more interdisciplinary approach was needed.Responding to this level of interest, the Technology Strategy Board joined forces with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Research Councils UK Digital Economy Programme and agreed to collaborate on an interdisciplinary R&amp;D roadmapping activity, arguably the first of its kind in the UK. The activity, led by Professors Rahim Tafazolli, Hamid Aghvami, Rachel Cooper, William Dutton and Dr Colin Upstill brought together insight from a wide group of leaders and culminated in a two-day ‘meeting of minds’ in Loughborough on 11 and 12 July 2012. This report summarises the outcomes of the activity and makes important wide-ranging recommendations

Sources of Salt-Water Pollution in Western Tom Green County

Tom Green County is situated within the discharge zone of the Permian Basin regional flow system in West Texas. Analysis of hydrochemical facies and ionic ratios of major chemical constituents suggests that a significant portion of the saline groundwater in the area is a combination of subsurface brine flowing eastward from the Permian Basin and locally recharged, shallowly circulating meteoric water. Aquifers that typically contain relatively fresh water in outcropping Paleozoic rocks exhibit the presence of brine and hydrocarbons at shallow depths ranging from 200 to 900 feet (60 to 270 meters) just a few tens of miles to the west. The chemical composition of groundwater is closely linked to the outcrop of Paleozoic formations from which brine is discharged.Bureau of Economic Geolog