Deep sea

When the sample is a solid, a separation of the analyte and interferent by sublimation may be possible. The sample is heated at a temperature and pressure below its triple point where the solid vaporizes without passing through the liquid state. The vapor is then condensed to recover the purified solid. A good example of the use of sublimation is in the isolation of amino acids from fossil mohusk shells and deep-sea sediments. ... 

The intensity of bioluminescence emission is > 2 x 10 photon /s-cm in the dinoflageUate Gonyaulax and the spectmm of light emission ranges from 450—490 nm (blue) in deep sea species, 490—520 nm (green) in coastal water species, and 510—580 nm (yeUow-green) in terrestrial and freshwater species. 

Deep-Sea Manganese Nodules. A potentially important future source of manganese is the deep-sea nodules found over wide areas of... 

Table 7. Average Metal Content of Deep-Sea Nodules/ wt % Dry Basis ...

Deep-sea manganese nodules represent a significant potential mineral resource. Whereas the principal constituent of these deposits is manganese, the primary interest has come from the associated metals that the nodules can also contain (see Ocean rawmaterials). For example, metals can range from 0.01—2.0% nickel, 0.01—2.0% copper, and 0.01—2.25% cobalt (12). Recovery is considered an economic potential in the northwestern equatorial Pacific, and to a lesser degree in the southern and western Pacific and Indian Oceans (13—18). 

Uranium and mixed uranium—plutonium nitrides have a potential use as nuclear fuels for lead cooled fast reactors (136—139). Reactors of this type have been proposed for use ia deep-sea research vehicles (136). However, similar to the oxides, ia order for these materials to be useful as fuels, the nitrides must have an appropriate size and shape, ie, spheres. Microspheres of uranium nitrides have been fabricated by internal gelation and carbothermic reduction (140,141). Another use for uranium nitrides is as a catalyst for the cracking of NH at 550°C, which results ia high yields of H2 (142). 

Ocean Nodules. A less conventional copper resource consists of deep-sea ferromanganese nodules. These nodules are primarily manganese, but some deposits contain over 1% copper. The nodules occur at many ocean sites, but the most valuable deposits are found in the Pacific Ocean. Although a number of companies are studying methods for recovering values from this source, copper resources from nodules must be considered tentative. World resources are estimated at 0.7 biUion metric tons (8) (see Ocean raw materials). 

HydrometaHurgical processes for copper can be categorized as (/) acid extraction of copper from oxide ore (2) oxidation and solution of sulfides in waste rock from mining, concentrator tailings, or in situ ore bodies (J) dissolution of copper in concentrates to avoid conventional smelting and (4) extraction of copper from deep-sea manganese nodules. 

The numerous separations reported in the literature include surfactants, inorganic ions, enzymes, other proteins, other organics, biological cells, and various other particles and substances. The scale of the systems ranges from the simple Grits test for the presence of surfactants in water, which has been shown to operate by virtue of transient foam fractionation [Lemlich, J. Colloid Interface Sci., 37, 497 (1971)], to the natural adsubble processes that occur on a grand scale in the ocean [Wallace and Duce, Deep Sea Res., 25, 827 (1978)]. For further information see the reviews cited earlier. 

Global uranium flux calculations have typically been based on the following two assumptions (a) riverine-end member concentrations of dissolved uranium are relatively constant, and (b) no significant input or removal of uranium occurs in coastal environments. Other sources of uranium to the ocean may include mantle emanations, diffusion through pore waters of deep-sea sediments, leaching of river-borne sediments by seawater," and remobilization through reduction of a Fe-Mn carrier phase. However, there is still considerable debate... 

Joly observed elevated "Ra activities in deep-sea sediments that he attributed to water column scavenging and removal processes. This hypothesis was later challenged with the hrst seawater °Th measurements (parent of "Ra), and these new results conhrmed that radium was instead actively migrating across the marine sediment-water interface. This seabed source stimulated much activity to use radium as a tracer for ocean circulation. Unfortunately, the utility of Ra as a deep ocean circulation tracer never came to full fruition as biological cycling has been repeatedly shown to have a strong and unpredictable effect on the vertical distribution of this isotope. 

Figure 7.9 Deep-sea mining through submersible pumps (typical)...

You have been asked to prepare an outline design for the pressure hull of a deep-sea submersible vehicle capable of descending to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. The external pressure at this depth is approximately 100 MPa, and the design pressure is to be taken as 200 MPa. The pressure hull is to have the form of a thin-walled sphere with a specified radius r of 1 m and a uniform thickness t. The sphere can fail in one of two ways ... 

Tief-schwarz, n. deep black, jet black, -see-schlamm, m. deep-sea ooze. 

Another consequence of the effect of pressure on gas solubility is the painful, sometimes fatal, affliction known as the bends. This occurs when a person goes rapidly from deep water (high pressure) to the surface (lower pressure), where gases are less soluble. The rapid decompression causes air, dissolved in blood and other body fluids, to bubble out of solution. These bubbles impair blood circulation and affect nerve impulses. To minimize these effects, deep-sea divers and aquanauts breathe a helium-oxygen mixture rather than compressed air (nitrogen-oxygen). Helium is only about one-third as soluble as nitrogen, and hence much less gas comes out of solution on decompression. 

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