Sensitivity and clay mineralogy of weathered tephra-derived soil materials in the Tauranga region

Soil sensitivity is defined as the ratio of peak to remoulded shear strength. Problem soil materials are those that show large strength losses on disruption, resulting in catastrophic failure, liquefaction and long run-out distances. This study focussed on sensitive, weathered, mainly tephra-fall derived soils of mid-Pleistocene age in the Tauranga region. The liquefiable character of these soils is well known, but little detailed study has been directed towards the reasons for sensitivity. The objective of this work was to examine soil sensitivity by investigating geomechanical properties, clay mineralogy, and microfabric, and to determine how these factors combine to develop sensitivity. To achieve these objectives a combination of both field and laboratory investigations was undertaken. Field investigations indicated that sensitive soils are common in the Tauranga region. Sampling was undertaken at sites in Tauriko and Otumoetai. Selected samples ranged across high (76) and low (≈8) field sensitivity. Stratigraphically, samples from Otumoetai lie below the Rangitawa Tephra (ca. 0.34 Ma), and those from Tauriko underlie the Te Ranga Ignimbrite (ca. 0.27 Ma). Geomechanical investigation revealed that the sensitive soils had high moisture contents (gt; 60 %), low dry bulk density (lt; 966kg m-3), and high porosity (gt; 60 %). Liquidity index values ranged between 0.27 and 2.41. Plasticity index values ranged from 13.2 % to 42.7 %, with all samples plotting below the A line. Strength tests indicated effective friction angles from 25.7 to 38.5 , effective cohesion from 4.7 kPa to 34.5 kPa, residual friction angles of 19.34 to 33.18 , and cohesions of 0 kPa to 4.87 kPa. Remoulded vane shear strengths ranged between 1 kPa and 36 kPa. Clay minerals were dominantly hydrated halloysite. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that clay morphology was in the form of hollow tubes, spheres, plates, and platy vermiforms ('books'). Tubes and spheres represent characteristic forms of halloysite in soils, plates are less common, and books have never previously been observed. Hence, these books represent a new morphology for halloysite. Individual plates in each of the books appear to show structural Fe enrichment (~5.2 %). This enrichment indicates that Fe had replaced Al in octahedral positions reducing the mismatch with the tetrahedral sheet, lessening layer curvature and thus generating flat plates. All microfabrics were continuous with larger sand and silt grains supported in a background of clay minerals. Microfabrics ranged from extremely open with components being loosely packed to those which were dense and tightly packed. A feature common to all structural types was an abundance of extremely small pores (lt; 20 μm) which are capable of tightly retaining water. The loosely packed microfabrics had void ratios that allowed moisture content to exceed liquid limits, producing a liquidity index gt; 1. These open microfabrics are probably a result of quick burial by subsequent pyroclastic beds; hence weathering to clays occurred as a process of subsurface diagenesis. Dense microfabrics with low void ratios and high liquid limits did not have liquidity indexes gt; 1. These dense microfabrics arose as a result of the deposits being at, or near, the land surface for a considerable time, thus allowing strong pedogenic processes to occur, which promoted clay formation and clay migration (illuviation) and reduced void ratios. Liquidity index was a major control on remoulded strength and sensitivity. Liquidity index is controlled by clay type and content, void ratio, and natural moisture content. When remoulded, structures with natural moisture contents exceeding the liquid limit release a large amount of water, which both dilutes the plasticity of binding clays and supports grains and broken aggregates of clay, allowing the material to flow. The development of sensitivity with low remoulded strength requires a number of factors. These include: a void ratio that is sufficiently high to allow natural moisture content to exceed the liquid limit; the presence of halloysite, which encourages samples to retain a coherent structure when saturated and to ensure the liquid limit remains sufficiently low so that it can be exceeded by natural moisture content; and a saturated environment, which ensures the liquid limit is exceeded

Empirical Power, Imperial Science: Science, Empire, and the ‘Classification’ of the Late Eighteenth Century Pacific

The Pacific of the mid eighteenth century was far removed from what it would become by the first decade of the nineteenth. The transformation from an expansive, unknown blue desert to a clearly defined space crisscrossed by trade routes and dotted with burgeoning colonial settlements came as the result of four decades of survey and study carried out by the governments of Europe. At the fore of this expeditionary fervor, Great Britain sponsored five separate voyages of discovery that served to codify the Pacific Ocean under the precepts of European cartography and Linnaean classification with the aid of natural historians, botanic draughtsmen, gardeners, and astronomers. At a time when European powers found themselves at odds, if not outright war, these voyages and their discoveries became a focal point of cooperation as the far-flung regions of the globe were slowly given shape and meaning within a European context. Combining the resources of the Royal Navy with members and backing from the Royal Society, these endeavours sought to bring back to Europe a defined picture of the Pacific, from its coastlines to its flora and fauna and, of course, descriptions of the Polynesian societies they encountered. Covering the final decades of the long eighteenth century, these voyages formed quintessential examples of Enlightenment ideals, seeking out the unknown areas of the globe and sharing those discoveries with the world, and would ultimately be appropriated and used towards the national interest. This thesis, then, serves to highlight the move from empirical voyage of discovery to imperial scientific endeavour through the changing role of naval captains and natural historians and their understanding of their place in this larger endeavour

On the Banality of Transnational Film

“Breakthrough” global blockbusters like Black Panther (2018) and Crazy Rich Asians (2018) create disturbances among critics and firms forced to wonder if such ripples of diversity will become waves of new cinema wiping out the hegemony of Hollywood and the global West. In this essay, we establish the context for this phenomenon in terms of film’s historical relationship to marketing. Through this context, we theorize a transnational aesthetic for global blockbusters, one that may serve to limit ripples of diversity, breaking waves of change against the rocks of a banal cinema of Americanized nothingness

The Abortion Right, Originalism, and the Fourteenth Amendment

In this article, the Privileges or Immunities Clause will be re-conceived in its original context, at the center of the Fourteenth Amendment. This re-conception includes the assumption that The Slaughter-House Cases were decided incorrectly.\u27 The contention of the article is that abortion restrictions, as a specific originalist matter, can be considered economic legislation and that they also economically burden women, such that they unconstitutionally abridge two privileges or immunities, the Lochnerian liberties to contract and the engagement in any of the common occupations. Specifically, abortion restrictions violate the prohibition on redistributive \u27class\u27 legislation ... that was deeply rooted in the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment was originally intended to forbid the states from playing a role in the economy. This principle was the hallmark of Lochner. Separately, Congress has developed a greater understanding of women\u27s economic role and has recognized that a woman\u27s maternal role constitutes a substantial economic burden. Abortion restrictions too constitute an economic burden, and Congress is permitted to alleviate this burden through Section Five legislation; similarly, the Court could invalidate abortion restrictions on this ground

Discovery of halloysite books in a ~270,000 year-old buried tephra deposit in northern New Zealand

As part of a wider study examining the geomechanical properties, especially sensitivity, of sequences of Quaternary pyroclastic and associated deposits and buried soils in the landslide-prone western Bay of Plenty area near Tauranga, eastern North Island, we examined the mineralogy of a pale pinkish-grey tephra deposit directly beneath non-welded, siliceous Te Ranga Ignimbrite (~2 m thick) in a ~25 m high cutting at Tauriko.http://www.smectech.com.au/ACMS/ACMS_Conferences/ACMS21/ACMS%202010%20Abstracts/ACMS%202010%20S1A6_Wyatt%20et%20al%20(Lowe).pd

Good Service Requests Keep Customers Happy (2012)

Automated service request systems are proven to be cost-effective, labor-saving devices that greatly enhance management efficiency. By using the chief components outlined in this report, your city can develop an efficient automated request system

Good Service Requests Keep Customers Happy (2009)

Automated service request systems are proven to be cost-effective, labor-saving devices that greatly enhance management efficiency. By using the chief components outlined in this report, your city can develop an efficient automated request system

Technical Bulletins: Good Service Request Systems Keep Customers Happy (2006)

Automated service request systems are proven to be cost-effective, labor-saving devices that greatly enhance management efficiency

The life cycle of Transparent: envisioning queer space, time and business practice

The queerness of the series Transparent (2014–2019), both textually and extratextually, offers a paradigm for understanding just how flexible and revolutionary digital TV can be. Queerness becomes a mechanism freeing both the television text and the business practices supporting it. The result is a radically reformed life cycle for both the television text and the attendant commercial structures. Launched in 2014 from Amazon Studios, Jill Soloway’s Transparent suggests that narrative ruptures in the life cycle are as significant as the technological or business shifts. Unlike the traditional US broadcast/cable model, the economics of the show merely reflect Amazon Prime’s desire to be both a means of delivery and an original content provider. In this way, original series add value to the company and hopefully the stock price. Business practice, methods and revenue are reformed, allowing for television “product” that need not adhere to the traditional models of commercial television. Narratively, the radical way through which Soloway connects the two disparate stories in Season Two requires viewers to set aside their expectations on cause and effect in television storytelling. Time, space, and causation are also altered within Soloway’s text. Certainly, there are specific links in terms of the characters’ lineage, but the creators of Transparent also seemingly want us to consider “life cycle” in a much different and queerer way than is usual for television programming