Study on the mechanism of hydrate adhesion on the surface of rocks and minerals

Natural gas hydrate is mainly enriched in the low temperature and high pressure environment such as the extremely cold permafrost zone and the polar continental shelf, which is a renewable energy with great development value. The analysis of the adhesion mechanical properties of gas hydrate on the surface of rock and mineral is of great significance for the correct evaluation and effective control of the influence of gas hydrate on sedimentary layers. In this paper, an experimental device for visualizing the adhesion of hydrate wall under atmospheric pressure was built to directly test the adhesion strength of hydrate on the rock wall. The influence mechanism of the microstructure of rock wall and the types of rock minerals on the adhesion strength of hydrate was studied. It was found that the adhesion strength of hydrate on the sandstone wall was greater than that of carbonate rock salt. The higher the surface roughness of rock and mineral, the higher the adhesion strength of hydrate.

Dying: Mudlick Mountain Trail and The Cloud of Unknowing

Everett ruess disappeared in the redrock canyons of southeast Utah in November 1934. The twenty-year-old artist, poet, and vagabond had left the town of Escalante a few days earlier, setting out with his two burros along the Hole-in-the-Rock Road toward the Colorado River. He was no stranger to wilderness, despite his youth. He had wandered the West for years. But he was never seen again. Searchers found his two burros by his campsite in a remote gulch, his footprints leading nowhere in particular, and a word recently scratched on a sandstone wall: “Nemo . . . 1934.” No one. How could the desert have swallowed him alive without leaving a trace? Was he killed by rustlers? Had he run away with Navajo Indians? What could erase him so quickly and completely from the desert landscape? The previous year he had written his brother about the irresistible joy of wild country, saying, “I’ll never stop wandering. And when the time comes to die, I’ll find the wildest, loneliest, most desolate spot there is.” Apparently that’s what happened. There was no hint of suicide, no sign of violence. The mystery has never been solved. The story’s grip on the imagination is more than that of a cautionary tale, warning of the dangers of backcountry travel. You stand a better chance, anyway, of being killed on city streets than on the far reaches of the Colorado Plateau. Wilderness wandering is no more inherently life-threatening than driving home on the freeway every night. What makes wild terrain seem so menacing (and yet captivating) is the deceptively comforting character of our technological society. It gives us the illusion of being in control of our environment. Wilderness, by contrast, lies beyond the reach of our managerial skills. It challenges the ego. Its threat of death is more psychological and spiritual than physical. Unfrequented canyons broach the possibility of our dying to what we’ve known in the past, losing rational control, encountering a wonderment beyond understanding. Everett Ruess perceived this potential of “dying before one dies” as something to be welcomed.

Excavation of a small limekiln at North Medrox, Mollinsburn, North Lanarkshire

Summary Excavation of a limekiln at North Medrox, near Mollinsburn, in North Lanarkshire was carried out in advance of the construction of the Loch Lomond Water Supply 1420mm Main from Balmore to Glenhove. The excavation revealed a stone-built, vertical draw-kiln; structural details included a splayed buttressed vent, a brick-built draw-hole, a kiln-bowl base of bedrock, and heavily vitrified sandstone wall faces. The kiln is dated by documentary evidence to the first half of the 19th century and was possibly in use earlier.