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Web Exclusive
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Arsenic Mitigation in West Bengal, India: Much More Than Water
In rural West Bengal, India, life is tenuous for millions of people. Desperate poverty, hunger and disease are a daily reality. To make matters worse, their water, laced with naturally occurring arsenic, is killing them. Thankfully, village-by-village, simple, locally developed solutions are making a change for the better by providing safe water and empowering communities.
by David Stevenson
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Building a Telescope at the South Pole – Drilling into Ice
Researchers are working to build the world's largest neutrino telescope in the Antarctic ice, far beneath the continent's snow-covered surface. Dubbed "IceCube," the telescope will occupy a cubic kilometer of Antarctica when it is completed in 2011. Rather than a giant lens aimed at the heavens, the IceCube telescope consists of kilometer-long strings of 60 optical detectors frozen more than a mile deep in the Antarctic ice, and drilling is a 24/7 operation.
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 | Continuous-flight Auger Piles
Continuous-flight auger piles are a type of drilled foundation in which the pile is drilled to the final depth in one continuous process using a continuous-flight auger. While the auger is drilled into the ground, the flights of the auger are filled with soil, providing lateral support and maintaining the stability of the hole. At the same time the auger is withdrawn from the hole, concrete or a sand/cement grout is placed by pumping the concrete/grout mix through the hollow center of the auger pipe to the base of the auger.
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Deep-sea Core Drilling
IODP scientists aboard the drilling ship CHIKYU returned from a 40-day expedition in early October. Expedition 322 conducted drilling, logging and sampling beneath the ocean floor off the shore of Japan, and drilling operations were carried out at two sites.
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Drillers Discover Magma In-situ
A crew drilling on the Big Island of Hawaii has discovered magma, molten rock material never before found in its natural habitat underground.
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Drilling Deep Wells in Downtown Atlanta
The Georgia World Congress Center Authority soon will be able to water its green space and turn its fountains back on after a water ban that went into effect October 2007. While water restrictions still are in place, the 200-acre campus no longer will be as much of a strain on the local water supply. Located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, the GWCCA has bored two 660-foot deep wells, which will be used for watering lawns and plants, as well as operating ornamental water features.
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Drilling into the Ice: Completing the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
Culminating a decade of planning, innovation and testing, construction of the world's largest neutrino observatory, installed in the ice of the Antarctic plateau at the geographic South Pole, was successfully completed December 18, 2010, New Zealand time. The last of 86 holes has been drilled, and a total of 5,160 optical sensors now are installed to form the main detector.
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Drilling into the Past: The Lake Malawi Drilling Project
Ancient African megadroughts may
have driven the evolution of humans and fishes, new research reveals. A
core extracted from Lake Malawi represents as much as 1.5 million years
of tropical Africa's past, and sheds light on the region’s climate and
ecological history.
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From Depths of Earth, a Fault’s Secrets
For the first time, geologists have extracted intact rock samples from 2 miles beneath the surface of the San Andreas Fault, the infamous rupture that runs 800 miles along the length of California.
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Geoscientists Drill Deepest Hole in Ocean Crust in Scientific Ocean Drilling History
For eight weeks beginning in November 2009, off the
coast of New Zealand, an international team on board the scientific drilling
vessel JOIDES Resolution (JR) investigated sea-level change in a region
called the Canterbury Basin. It proved to be a record-breaking trip. The research
team drilled four sites in the seafloor. One site marked the deepest hole
drilled by the JR on the continental shelf, and another was the
deepest hole drilled on a single expedition in the history of scientific ocean
drilling.
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Horizontal Directional Drilling for Massive Municipal Water Improvement Project
A massive water infrastructure overhaul currently taking place in the Indiana city of Martinsville is using horizontal directional drilling and CertainTeed Certa-Lok C900/RJ PVC pipe to minimize disruption to residential areas and farmland. The 21,000-foot project involves replacing old cast iron potable water pipes, and connecting the community’s rural homes with the City of Martinsville water supply.
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Humanitarian Efforts Create Clean Water
On Indonesian Moluccas, many people still are living without access to clean water. Every day, they use many hours on procuring water from streams or from boats bringing drinking water to the islands. Thanks to the 100 Villages project, however, those conditions will be changed for 100 villages on the islands.
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IKEA Geothermal System Could Inform Others
It will take less energy and money to make the IKEA store opening later this year in suburban Denver feel pleasant when the sun bakes or when the snow drifts, thanks to 130 holes drilled into the Earth. IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings retailer, has teamed with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to showcase and study the advantages of a geothermal heating system currently under construction in Centennial, Colo.
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Large-scale In-situ Ground Water Remediation Project
Using advanced sonic drilling equipment and in-situ chemical oxidation and bioremediation treatments, ARS Technologies Inc. reduced the cost of a five-acre ground water and soil cleanup for the Ohio Department of Transportation. Recent ground water monitoring showed TCE concentrations at about 40 times the maximum allowed by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The project required more than 900 injection points and 150,000 gallons of amendment solution in the source area and across a dissolved plume.
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Making Geothermal More Productive: $10.2 Million Study
University of Utah researchers will inject cool water and pressurized water into a dry geothermal well during a 5-year, $10.2 million study aimed at boosting the productivity of geothermal power plants and making them feasible nationwide.
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Maryland Guardsmen Drill Wells at Camp Atterbury
Earlier this year, National Guard soldiers from the 243rd Engineer Support Platoon of Cumberland, Md., received training at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Ind., on how to drill potable water wells. The 243rd trained on drilling wells for its deployment to the Horn of Africa, working on the same equipment the unit expects to use overseas.
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Mission to Explore Buried Ancient Antarctic Lake
An international team of scientists has been given the go-ahead to explore one of the planet's last great frontiers – an ancient lake hidden deep beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. Scientists will drill through 1.86 miles of ice to reach the lake, which may have been isolated for hundreds of thousands of years. The team hopes the exploration will yield vital clues about life on Earth, climate change and future sea-level rise.
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Natural Processes Can Limit Spread of Arsenic in Water, Study Says
Ground water laced with arsenic poses a problem in many areas of the world, particularly in Bangladesh and other parts of Asia. A new study has shown that deep sediments can grab the arsenic and take it out of circulation – a finding that may help to keep water wells safe.
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New Approach to Desalination
A new approach to desalination could lead to small, portable desalination units that could be powered by solar cells or batteries, and could deliver enough fresh water to supply the needs of a family or small village.
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New Software Aids Fight against Nitrates in Florida's Ground Water
Researchers have written a practical software program that could help protect Florida's lakes and rivers from excessive pollutants. The software is designed to help local and state government measure the amount of nitrates from septic systems that end up in surface water bodies.
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New Solutions for the Arsenic-poisoning Crisis in Asia
Every day, more than
140 million people in southern Asia drink ground water contaminated with
arsenic. More than 15 years ago, scientists pinpointed the source of the
contamination in the Himalaya Mountains, where sediments containing naturally
occurring arsenic were carried downstream to heavily populated river basins
below. But one mystery remained: Instead of remaining chemically trapped in the
river sediments, arsenic somehow was working its way into the ground water more
than 100 feet below the surface. After an extensive field study, today the
research team appears to have solved the arsenic mystery, and is working with
officials to prevent the health crisis from escalating.
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 | OSHA Violations 
Check and see how well you did quizzing yourself on the regulations.
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Origin of Dissolved Arsenic in Bangladesh Ground Water Identified
Researchers at MIT believe they have pinpointed a
pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh. Their research suggests that human
alteration to the landscape, the construction of villages with ponds, and the
adoption of irrigated agriculture are responsible for the current pattern of
arsenic concentration underground.
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Pesticides Persist in Ground Water
Numerous studies
over the past four decades have established that pesticides can move downward
to reach the water table at detectable concentrations. This study found that
the pesticides detected most frequently in shallow ground-water samples were
predominantly from two classes of herbicides.
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Sailors Deploy in Support of Humanitarian Missions
Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 28 Seabees, based in Shreveport, La., have deployed, and will be completing humanitarian and community relations missions in Haiti, Antigua, El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Argentina. These missions include drilling water wells, as well as completing vertical construction, and effecting repairs and maintenance in support of local villages in the region.
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Scientists Return from Siberian Drilling Expedition
A team of scientists from the United States, Germany,
Russia and Austria has just returned from a 6-month drilling expedition to a
frozen lake in Siberia: Lake El'gygytgyn, which was created 3.6 million years
ago when a meteor hit Earth and formed an 11-mile wide crater. There, from
three holes drilled under the frozen lake, the researchers collected the
longest sediment core samples retrieved in the Arctic region, recovering a
total of 1,165 feet of sediments. The sediment record collected extends back
roughly 2 million years.
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Solar-powered Irrigation Improves Life in Rural sub-Saharan Africa
Solar-powered drip irrigation systems significantly enhance household incomes and nutritional intake of villagers in arid sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new Stanford University study. The two-year study found that solar-powered pumps installed in remote villages in the West African nation of Benin are a cost-effective way of delivering much-needed irrigation water, particularly during the long dry season.
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Successful Riser-drilling in the Kumano Basin
Despite harsh atmospheric and ocean conditions, and complex geological characteristics of its drill site, the deep-sea drilling vessel CHIKYU conducted riser-drilling operations to successfully drill down to a depth of a mile beneath the seafloor.
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Topography Played Key Role in Bacterial Consumption of Deepwater Horizon Spill
Scientists document how geology and biology worked together after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, where bacterial blooms consumed almost all the deepwater methane plumes. Using an innovative computer model, they demonstrate the respective roles of underwater topography, currents and bacteria in the Gulf of Mexico.
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U.S. Military Drills Three Wells in Nicaragua
Members of the U.S. Army and Navy worked together with the Nicaraguan National Assembly to construct three water wells in Los Sanchez, Samaria and La Noria, Nicaragua, as part of Army South's Beyond the Horizon mission.
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Water for Mongolia
Mongolia is a country of extreme contrasts – in summer, boiling hot, and in winter, freezing cold; in the north, damp, and in the south, bone dry. One million of its three million inhabitants live tightly packed together in the capital Ulaanbaatar, while the rest of the huge country is largely populated by nomads and their cattle. Providing a clean supply of drinking water across the entire country is a difficult challenge.
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What Mobilizes Arsenic in Ground Water?
The most common source of arsenic contamination in ground water is the mobilization of naturally occurring arsenic on sediments. Given the right chemical conditions in the subsurface, arsenic can dissolve into ground water used for drinking water.
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What are the UK’s Prospects for Sustaining High-quality Ground Water?
Intensive agriculture practices developed during the past century have helped improve food security for many people, but also have added to nitrate pollution in surface and ground waters. New research has looked at water-quality measurement over the last 140 years to track this problem in the Thames River basin.
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