Santa Barbara Channel

Most commercial marine diatomite deposits exploit accumulations resulting from large blooms of diatoms that occurred ia the oceans during the Miocene geological epoch. Diatomite sediments older than the Jurassic period are rare in the fossil record. Commercial deposits of diatomite are accumulations of the fossil skeletons, which can occur in beds as thick as 900 m in some locations (5). Marine deposits must have been formed on the bottom of protected basins or other bodies of quiet water, undisturbed by strong currents, in an environment similar to the existing Santa Barbara Channel or Gulf of California (3,6). 

Oil Spills. Oil spills occur from oil pipeline leaks, oil tanker accidents, or submarine oil drilling operations. The two major ocean drilling accidents—oil wells blowing out—were the 1969 Santa Barbara Channel spill and the 1979 Yucatan Peninsula spill, in Mexico. The Yucatan spill spewed out more than three million barrels before being capped in 1980. Both caused damage to beaches and marine life, but the smaller Santa Barbara spill was far more devastating because of unfavorable winds following the accident. 

We find the same periodicities in uranium and organic carbon concentrations versus depth in a sea core from the Santa Barbara Channel, and in carbon-14 variations in a sequence of Bristlecone pine from southern California. 

On the basis of the experience with Tazerka and units installed in other pans of the world, we believe that the concept of a floating production, storage, and offloading system offers an excellent possibility for the development of a marginal field and/or for application as an early production facility. We also believe that the good results obtained in relatively mild environments (the Mediterranean. Santa Barbara Channel, and the Philippines) and the successful operation of a floating storage unit in the North Sea justify the statement that an FPSU could be applied successfully in more hostile environments such as the North Sea and other comparable areas. 

King, C. D. Evolution of Chumash Society A Comparative Study of Artifacts Used for Social System Maintenance in the Santa Barbara Channel Region Before A.D. 1804 Garland Publishing New York, NY, 1990. 

Massana, R., A. E. Murray, C. M. Preston, and E. F. DeLong. 1997. Vertical distribution and phylogenetic characterization of marine planktonic Archaea in the Santa Barbara Channel. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 63 50-56. 

Hornafius J. S., Quigley D., and Luyendyk B. P. (1999) The world s most spectacular marine hydrocarbon seeps (Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara Channel, California) quantification of emissions. J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans 104, 20703—20711. 

Analysis of spill data at the Beykan oil field in Turkey indicated that over a 6 yr period (1989-1995) that 252 spills were recorded resulting in a net release of 395 t of oil (Unlii and Demirekler, 2000). One of the more famous cases of petroleum contamination of the environment included a huge oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969 due to a blow out of a Union Oil Co. of California... 

On two cruises we used rFIA for the determination of nitrate in the Santa Barbara Channel. The results obtained on these cruises are examined briefly here to illustrate the capabilities of rFIA for use in oceanographic investigations. 

Figure 12. Temperature (top), nitrate (middle), and chlorophyll fluorescence (bottom) at an anchor station in the Santa Barbara Channel, May 25-27, 1982. Dots represent the depths sampled. Station location is 34m.6N, 119°19.3 W.

Figure 15. Nitrate (top), temperature (middle), and chlorophyll (bottom) measured as a function of time at 15 m in the Santa Barbara Channel. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. 12. Copyright 1983, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography.)...

Equilibrating a gas two or more times with an aqueous sample (waters, sediment slurries, biological fluids) permits calculation of distribution coefficients and measurements of volatile organic compounds, such as hydrocarbons and halocarbons at sub-fxg/L concentrations. Classes of volatile organic compounds have different distribution coefficients, which aids in their separation and identification. The multiple gas-phase equilibration method has been used to measure the solubilities of pure hydrocarbons in waters of various salinities and of volatile hydrocarbons in oils and in water from the Cook Inlet, Gulf of Mexico, and Santa Barbara Channel It was first to detect small amounts of chloroform and other contaminants in New Orleans drinking water it measured the loss of C1-C10 hydrocarbons from oil slicks on the ocean surface and the apparent absence of dissolved hydrocarbons under the slicks in less than 8 hr. It has simultaneously measured up to 8 anesthetic gases in blood and plasma. 

The method has also been used to measure low-molecular-weight hydrocarbons in seawater, in the oil seep area of the Santa Barbara Channel (20) and other Pacific Ocean waters (8). 

The gas equilibration method has been used to measure the solubility of various hydrocarbons and halogenated hydrocarbons in varying salinity waters. It is well adapted to measure the C1-C12 volatile hydrocarbons that are considered toxic to marine organisms. It has been used to measure traces of low-molecular-weight hydrocarbons in Cook Inlet waters, the Santa Barbara Channel, and other Pacific Ocean water. It was used to identify and monitor chloroform and other contaminants in New Orleans drinking water. It has been used to monitor effluent streams for halogenated hydrocarbons from manufacturing plants. 

Kelp - The sample used was a freshly harvested macrocystis kelp from Pacific Ocean seabeds off the southern California coast (El Capitan Beach, Santa Barbara Channel). It was packed in ice and flown to our laboratory where it was frozen in a polyethylene bag until used. 

Orr W. L. (1984a) Sulfur and sulfur isotope ratios in Monterey oils of the Santa Maria basin and Santa Barbara channel, area offshore. Technical Program Abstracts, 1984 SEPM Annual Meeting, San Jose, California, 10-13, 62 pp. 

Orr W. L. (1984b) Geochemistry of asphaltic Monterey oils from Santa Maria basin and Santa Barbara Channel area offshore. ACS Division of Geochemistry Abstracts, 187th ACS National Meeting, April 8-13. 

Fig. 3. Correlation between sulfur wt% and gravity (API) for oils from the Santa Barbara channel and offshore Santa Maria basin (Monterey Formation, California, USA). The authors (Baskin and Peters, 1992) suggest the line for maturity assuming no biodegradation. See also the detailed description of keiogens isolated and analyzed from the Monterey Formation.

Fig. 2. Map showing areas (in light gray) of natural oil seeps in the Santa Barbara Channel offshore from Coal Oil Point. On the inset map, the Channel Islands (1) are designated SM, San Miguel SR, Santa Rosa SC, Santa Cruz A, Anacapa SN, San Nicholas SB, Santa Barbara SCL, Santa Catalina. Modified from Hornahus et al. (1999).

Natural crude-oil seeps have been active onshore (Hodgson, 1980) and offshore in the California borderland throughout recorded history (Weaver, 1969 Yerkes et al, 1969) and likely during the Holocene and Pleistocene. In this region modem oil seeps are concentrated in the Santa Barbara Channel (Fig. 2) and Santa Monica Bay (Fig. 3). 

Yerkes R. F., Wagner H. C. and Yenne K. A. (1969) Petroleum development in the region of the Santa Barbara Channel. Geology, Petroleum Development, and Seismicity of the Santa Barbara Channel Region, California. US Geological Survey Prof. Paper, 679, 13-2. 

Parker (1971) has discussed various aspects of infrared spectroscopy which are of use in studies of water pollution and in the analysis of water. Rosen (1967) has also discussed water pollution and its control. He has mentioned the problems involved in obtaining samples of polluted water on a routine basis. Mattson et al. (1970) have used the ATR technique to identify crude oils and tars contaminating the waters of the Santa Barbara Channel. 

Correlation of data for predicting strength changes resulting from sample disturbance Santa Barbara channel sediments. (From Chaney, R.C., and Demars, K.R., Strength Testing of Marine Sediments, ASTM SIP 883, American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, PA, 558, 1985. Reprinted with permission from ASTM.)... 

While the residual pore pressure ratio (u /Up is a disturbance measure, the desired measure is the undrained strength ratio, Sup/SuL, where Sp is the in-situ strength and is the undrained lab strength. These two ratios, need to be empirically determined for each type of sediment. A typical curve (Chaney et al., 1985) is shown in Figure 6.29 for sediments from Santa Barbara channel and Weald clay. A flowchart of the overall strength correction process is presented in Figure 6.30. 

Figure 14 Phytoplankton measurements from the Monterey Bay and Santa Barbara Channel off the California coast. (A) Phytoplankton cadmium/phosphorus ratios (closed circles) and chlorophyll a fluorescence (open circles) vs. carbon dioxide concentration. (B) Cadmium/phosphorus vs. zinc/phosphorus for phytoplankton assemblages >0.45 xm (circles), 5-53 ixm (squares) and >53 [xm (triangles). Reproduced by permission from Ref. [59].

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