This study considers the flux of radioactivity in flowback fluid from shale gas development in three areas: the Carboniferous, Bowland Shale, UK; the Silurian Shale, Poland; and the Carboniferous Barnett Shale, USA. The radioactive flux from these basins was estimated, given estimates of the number of wells developed or to be developed, the flowback volume per well and the concentration of K (p...

The Serpent Mound structure is a deeply eroded ancient impact in south central Ohio, about 8.0 km across. The age of the structure is poorly constrained by the geology. It post-dates the Lower Mississippian (ca.330 Ma) Cuyahoga Formation and predates Illinoisian glacial deposits. We analyzed the directions of magnetization of 60 rock samples taken from borehole cores drilled within and in the v...

The organopores play an important role in determining total volume of hydrocarbons in shale gas reservoir. The Lower Silurian Longmaxi Shale in southeast Chongqing was selected as a case to confirm the contribution of organopores (microscale and nanoscale pores within organic matters in shale) formed by hydrocarbon generation to total volume of hydrocarbons in shale gas reservoir. Using the mat...

Earth surface processes and landforms may have coadjusted with plant morphology, biomechanics and life-history. We suggest that the colonization of land by plants at the early Silurian, and their propagation inside continents, represent critical phases of the coupling between geomorphic and biological processes on the Earth at a global scale. The consideration of this coupling involving geomorp...

Scorpions are amongst the most ancient arthropods, as the oldest fossils were dated from the late silurian (Proscorpius osborni, 418 million years B.P.) [1]. Extant scorpions (with about 2,000 species spreading globally) are therefore 'living fossils', which retained all of the primitive features except that they are considerably smaller compared to their up to 1-meter long Brontoscorpio anglic...