Origin of Thermal Waters in Budapest Based on Chemical and Isotope Investigations Including Chlorine-36

Budapest is a major spa center with numerous thermal baths that are open to the public. Thermal spas in Budapest were first developed by the Romans and followed by the Turks, present spas were built mainly in the 19th and 20th centuries. At the city of Budapest the Danube River flows along a geological fault which separates the Buda Hills from the Great Plain. Within this fault zone in the vicinity of the Danube more than 100 thermal springs are arising yielding totally about 40,000 m3 per day of warm mineral water. In this study the results of thermal, chemical and isotope analyses (including tritium and chlorine-36) of 12 thermal springs and wells are presented. These results are interpreted with respect to the origin and recharge conditions of the investigated thermal waters

Jugendliche mit einem Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-/Hyperaktivtätssyndrom : Berufswahl, Ausbildung und Integration

Jugendliche mit einer Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-/Hyperaktivitätsstörung (ADHS) sind in ihrer Berufswahl und in der Berufsausbildung oftmals eingeschränkt. Damit eine Ausbildung erfolgreich absolviert werden kann und die berufliche Integration in den offenen Arbeitsmarkt gelingt, müssen bestimmte Rahmenbedingungen vorliegen. Diese Arbeit nimmt sich zum Ziel, wichtige Informationen darüber zu gewinnen, unter welchen Bedingungen eine Ausbildung und eine Integration von Jugendlichen mit einer ADHS-Diagnose besser gelingen kann. Zu diesem Zweck wurden im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit Experteninterviews mit Angestellten in IV-Institutionen durchgeführt, welche Erfahrung im Zusammenhang mit der Ausbildung und der Integration von Jugendlichen mit einer ADHS-Diagnose haben. Die Antworten lieferten wichtige Erkenntnisse über zentrale Faktoren für eine erfolgreiche berufliche Integration. Die Resultate der vorliegenden Arbeit werden vor dem Hintergrund der einschlägigen Literatur diskutiert. Zum Schluss folgt ein Ausblick auf mögliche weiterführende Forschung

Magische Verwandlung

Animistische Kosmologie als Praxis: Die Künstlerin Kyra Balderer schreibt in einem Essay über Kunst und ein anderes Verständnis für Gemeinschaft und Handlungsmacht

Gas seepage and seismogenic structures along the North Anatolian Fault in the eastern Sea of Marmara

We carried out a combined geophysical and gas-geochemical survey on an active fault strand along the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) system in the Gulf of İzmit (eastern Sea of Marmara), providing for the first time in this area data on the distribution of methane (CH4) and other gases dissolved in the bottom seawater, as well as the CH4isotopic composition. Based on high-resolution morphobathymetric data and chirp-sonar seismic reflection profiles we selected three areas with different tectonic features associated to the NAF system, where we performed visual and instrumental seafloor inspections, including in situ measurements of dissolved CH4, and sampling of the bottom water. Starting from background values of 2–10 nM, methane concentration in the bottom seawater increases abruptly up to 20 nM over the main NAF trace. CH4 concentration peaks up to ∼120 nM were detected above mounds related probably to gas and fluids expulsion. Methane is microbial (δ13CCH4: −67.3 and −76‰ versus VPDB), and was found mainly associated with pre-Holocene deposits topped by a 10–20 m thick draping of marine mud. The correlation between tectonic structures and gas-seepages at the seafloor suggests that the NAF in the Gulf of İzmit could represent a key site for long-term combined monitoring of fluid exhalations and seismicity to assess their potential as earthquake precursors

Ground Water Chemistry Changes before Major Earthquakes and Possible Effects on Animals

Prior to major earthquakes many changes in the environment have been documented. Though often subtle and fleeting, these changes are noticeable at the land surface, in water, in the air, and in the ionosphere. Key to understanding these diverse pre-earthquake phenomena has been the discovery that, when tectonic stresses build up in the Earth’s crust, highly mobile electronic charge carriers are activated. These charge carriers are defect electrons on the oxygen anion sublattice of silicate minerals, known as positive holes, chemically equivalent to O− in a matrix of O2−. They are remarkable inasmuch as they can flow out of the stressed rock volume and spread into the surrounding unstressed rocks. Travelling fast and far the positive holes cause a range of follow-on reactions when they arrive at the Earth’s surface, where they cause air ionization, injecting massive amounts of primarily positive air ions into the lower atmosphere. When they arrive at the rock-water interface, they act as •O radicals, oxidizing water to hydrogen peroxide. Other reactions at the rock-water interface include the oxidation or partial oxidation of dissolved organic compounds, leading to changes of their fluorescence spectra. Some compounds thus formed may be irritants or toxins to certain species of animals. Common toads, Bufo bufo, were observed to exhibit a highly unusual behavior prior to a M6.3 earthquake that hit L’Aquila, Italy, on April 06, 2009: a few days before the seismic event the toads suddenly disappeared from their breeding site in a small lake about 75 km from the epicenter and did not return until after the aftershock series. In this paper we discuss potential changes in groundwater chemistry prior to seismic events and their possible effects on animals

Study of stable isotopes in the Kouris catchment (Cyprus) for the description of the regional groundwater flow

The stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in groundwater and precipitation were integrated for the description of groundwater flow in the Kouris catchment (Cyprus). The catchment consists of an ophiolitic complex in the North and sediments in the South. It is characterized by strong heterogeneity of the underground media and steep slopes of the topography. The regression line, constructed from the data of 70 rainfall samples, is described by the equation: δD=6.6δ18O+10.9, which shows evaporation during precipitation. The altitude gradients in the precipitation were estimated to be −1.7‰/100 m for δD and —0.27/100 m for δ18O. The stable isotope analysis of 234 groundwater samples reflected fractionation due to evaporation. The origin of groundwaters in the catchment was described based on the regression equation between surface elevations and δD contents for 33 selected springs of the ophiolitic complex. It was found that the groundwaters in the ophiolitic aquifer and in the consolidated sediments originated from local recharge at high and low altitudes, respectively. On the contrary, the groundwater in the alluvium aquifer originates from the high altitudes in the ophiolitic complex. Additionally, δD data were used for the calibration of the recharge rates for a steady state groundwater flow and transport model. The resulting calibrated total steady state recharge rate was 100–130 mm per year