Spectral gamma-ray logs and palaeoclimate change? Permian – Triassic, Persian Gulf

Spectral gamma ray (SGR) logs are used as stratigraphic tools in correlation, sequence stratigraphy and most recently, in clastic successions as a proxy for changes in hinterland palaeoweathering. In this study we analyse the spectral gamma ray signal recorded in two boreholes that penetrated the carbonate and evaporate-dominated Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) in the South Pars Gasfield (offshore Iran, Persian Gulf) in an attempt to analyse palaeoenvironmental changes from the upper Permian (Upper Dalan Formation) and lower Triassic (Lower Kangan Formation). The results are compared to lithological changes, total organic carbon (TOC) contents and published stable isotope (δ18O, δ13C) results. This work is the first to consider palaeoclimatic effects on SGR logs from a carbonate/evaporate succession. While Th/U ratios compare well to isotope data (and thus a change to less arid hinterland climates from the Late Permian to the Early Triassic), Th/K ratios do not, suggesting a control not related to hinterland weathering. Furthermore, elevated Th/U ratios in the Early Triassic could reflect a global drawdown in U, rather than a more humid episode in the sediment hinterlands, with coincident changes in TOC. Previous work that used spectral gamma ray data in siliciclastic successions as a palaeoclimate proxy may not apply in carbonate/evaporate sedimentary rocks.

The Risk Implications of Globalisation: An Exploratory Analysis of 105 Major Industrial Incidents (1971–2010)

This paper revisits work on the socio-political amplification of risk, which predicts that those living in developing countries are exposed to greater risk than residents of developed nations. This prediction contrasts with the neoliberal expectation that market driven improvements in working conditions within industrialising/developing nations will lead to global convergence of hazard exposure levels. It also contradicts the assumption of risk society theorists that there will be an ubiquitous increase in risk exposure across the globe, which will primarily affect technically more advanced countries. Reviewing qualitative evidence on the impact of structural adjustment reforms in industrialising countries, the export of waste and hazardous waste recycling to these countries and new patterns of domestic industrialisation, the paper suggests that workers in industrialising countries continue to face far greater levels of hazard exposure than those of developed countries. This view is confirmed when a data set including 105 major multi-fatality industrial disasters from 1971 to 2000 is examined. The paper concludes that there is empirical support for the predictions of socio-political amplification of risk theory, which finds clear expression in the data in a consistent pattern of significantly greater fatality rates per industrial incident in industrialising/developing countries.