[1] An experimental device designed and developed to grow methane hydrate in the pore space of a sediment was successfully used with a glass bead sample. The underlying idea for the experiment is that methane dissolved in water is transported with upward moving fluids from its place of origin at greater depths to formations within the hydrate stability field where the methane is removed from the pore water to form hydrate. This process is simulated in a closed loop flow system where methane charged water from a gas/ water reservoir outside the hydrate stability field is pumped into the sediment sample cell in the stability field for methane hydrate. The fluid depleted of methane, then flows back into the gas/water reservoir to be recharged with methane. When the experiment was terminated due to blockage of flow by hydrate formation, hydrate saturation was about 95%. Citation: Spangenberg, E., J. Kulenkampff, R. Naumann, and J. Erzinger (2005), Pore space hydrate formation in a glass bead sample from methane dissolved in water, Geophys.

[1] A 450 year spring-summer flood layer time series at seasonal resolution has been established from the varved sediment record of Lake Ammersee (southern Germany), applying a novel methodological approach. The main results are (1) the attainment of a precise chronology by microscopic varve counting, (2) the identification of detrital layers representing flood-triggered fluxes of catchment material into the lake, and (3) the recognition of the seasonality of these flood layers from their microstratigraphic position within a varve. Tracing flood layers in a proximal and a distal core and correlating them by application of the precise chronology provided information on the depositional processes. Comparing the seasonal flood layer record with daily runoff data of the inflowing River Ammer for the period from 1926 to 1999 allowed the definition of an approximate threshold in flood magnitude above which the formation of flood layers becomes very likely. Moreover, it was possible for the first time to estimate the "completeness" of the flood layer time series and to recognize that mainly floods in spring and summer, representing the main flood seasons in this region, are well preserved in the sediment archive. Their frequency distribution over the entire 450 year time series is not stationary but reveals maxima for colder periods of the Little Ice Age when solar activity was reduced. The observed spring-summer flood layer frequency further shows trends similar to those of the occurrence of flood-prone weather regimes since A.D. 1881, probably suggesting a causal link between solar variability and changes in midlatitude atmospheric circulation patterns.Citation: Czymzik, M., P. Dulski, B. Plessen, U. von Grafenstein, R. Naumann, and A. Brauer (2010), A 450 year record of spring-summer flood layers in annually laminated sediments from Lake Ammersee (southern Germany), Water Resour. Res., 46, W11528,

(2012): The dependence of meteoric 10Be concentrations on particle size in Amazon River bed sediment and the extraction of reactive 10Be/9Be ratios. AbstractConcentrations of meteoric 10 Be extracted from detrital Amazon river sediment are strongly particle size-dependent. Such grain size dependency presents a formidable obstacle to routine applications of meteoric cosmogenic 10 Be to basin-wide erosion studies. In this study, we explore means to eliminate these grain size effects in bedload from rivers of the Amazon basin by measuring 10 Be/ 9 Be ratios after selective chemical extraction of reactive authigenic phases. These phases mainly comprise FeMn(hydr)oxides that are the main carriers of 9 Be and 10 Be. We explore the distribution of 10 Be and its stable 9 Be counterpart between these phases and the partitioning of Be into remaining silicate fractions.This extraction procedure was carried out on bedload samples comprising the three main tectonic units of the Amazon basin, namely the Andes, the Guyana and Brazilian Shields, and the central Amazonian lowlands. For all samples, extracted 10 Be concentrations show a strong decrease with increasing particle size, with up to 20 times more 10 Be extracted from the finest analyzed (<30 μm) grain size when compared to the coarsest (90-125 μm) grain size. We attribute this decrease in 10 Be concentrations mostly to subsequent dilution by quartz in coarse bedload. However, when normalized to stable 9 Be concentrations that are also extracted from reactive phases, grain size effects are effectively removed

This paper presents the phase behavior of multicomponent gas hydrate systems formed from primarily methane with small amounts of ethane and propane. Experimental conditions were typically in a pressure range between 1 and 6 MPa, and the temperature range was between 260 and 290 K. These multicomponent systems have been investigated using a variety of techniques including microscopic observations, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. These techniques, used in combination, allowed for measurement of the hydrate structure and composition, while observing the morphology of the hydrate crystals measured. The hydrate formed immediately below the three-phase line (V-L --> V-L-H) and contained crystals that were both light and dark in appearance. The light crystals, which visually were a single solid phase, showed a spectroscopic indication for the presence of occluded free gas in the hydrate. In contrast, the dark crystals were measured to be structure II (sII) without the presence of these occluded phases. Along with hydrate measurements near the decomposition line, an unexpected transformation process was visually observed at P-T-conditions in the stability field of the hydrates. Larger crystallites transformed into a foamy solid upon cooling over this transition line (between 5 and 10 K below the decomposition temperature). Below the transition line, a mixture of sI and sII was detected. This is the first time that these multicomponent systems have been investigated at these pressure and temperature conditions using both visual and spectroscopic techniques. These techniques enabled us to observe and measure the unexpected transformation process showing coexistence of different gas hydrate phases.

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