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Patterns of Coal Sedimentation in the Ipswich Basin Southeast QueenslandChern, Peter Kyaw Zaw Naing January 2004 (has links)
The intermontane Ipswich Basin, which is situated 30km south-west of Brisbane, contains coal measures formed in the Late Triassic Epoch following a barren non-depositional period. Coal, tuff, and basalt were deposited along with fluvial dominated sediments. The Ipswich Coal Measures mark the resumption of deposition in eastern Australia after the coal hiatus associated with a series of intense tectonic activity in Gondwanaland during the Permo-Triassic interval. A transtensional tectonic movement at the end of the Middle Triassic deformed the Toogalawah Group before extension led to the formation of the Carnian Ipswich Coal Measures in the east. The Ipswich Coal Measures comprise the Brassall and Kholo Subgroups. The Blackstone Formation, which forms the upper unit of the Brassall Subgroup, contains seven major coal seams. The lower unit of the Brassall Subgroup, the Tivoli Formation, consists of sixteen stratigraphically significant coal seams. The typical thickness of the Blackstone Formation is 240m and the Tivoli Formation is about 500m. The coal seams of the Ipswich Basin differ considerably from those of other continental Triassic basins. However, the coal geology has previously attracted little academic attention and the remaining exposures of the Ipswich coalfield are rapidly disappearing now that mining has ceased. The primary aim of this project was to study the patterns of coal sedimentation and the response of coal seam characteristics to changing depositional environments. The coal accumulated as a peat-mire in an alluvial plain with meandering channel systems. Two types of peat-mire expansion occurred in the basin. Peat-mire aggradation, which is a replacement of water body by the peatmire, was initiated by tectonic subsidence. This type of peat-mire expansion is known as terrestrialisation. It formed thick but laterally limited coal seams in the basin. Whereas, peat-mire progradation was related to paludification and produced widespread coal accumulation in the basin. The coal seams were separated into three main groups based on the mean seam thickness and aerial distribution of one-meter and four-meter thickness contour intervals. Group 1 seams within the one-meter thickness interval are up to 15,000m2 in area, and seams within the four-meter interval have an aerial extent of up to 10,000m2. Group 1A contains the oldest seam with numerous intraseam clastic bands and shows a very high thickness to area ratio, which indicates high subsidence rates. Group 1B seams have moderately high thickness to area ratios. The lower clastic influx and slower subsidence rates favoured peat-mire aggradation. The Group 1A seam is relatively more widespread in aerial extent than seams from Group 1B. Group 1C seams have low mean thicknesses and small areas, suggesting short-lived peat-mires as a result of high clastic influx. Group 2 seams arebetween 15,000 and 35,000m2 in area within the one-meter interval, and between 5,000 and 10,000m2 within the four-meter interval. They have moderately high area to thickness ratios, indicating that peat-mire expansion occurred due to progressively shallower accommodation and a rising groundwater table. Group 3 seams, which have aerial extents from 35,000 to 45,000m2 within the one-meter thickness contour interval and from 10,000 to 25,000m2 within the four-meter interval, show high aerial extent to thickness ratios. They were deposited in quiet depositional environments that favoured prolonged existence of peat-mires. Group 3 seams are all relatively young whereas most Group 1 seams are relatively old seams. All the major fault systems, F1, F2 and F3, trend northwest-southeast. Apart from the West Ipswich Fault (F3), the F1 and F2 systems are broad Palaeozoic basement structures and thus they may not have had a direct influence on the formation of the much younger coal measures. However, the sedimentation patterns appear to relate to these major fault systems. Depocentres of earlier seams in the Tivoli Formation were restricted to the northern part of the basin, marked by the F1 system. A major depocentre shift occurred before the end of the deposition of the Tivoli Formation as a result of subsidence in the south that conformed to the F2 system configuration. The Blackstone Formation depocentres shifted to the east (Depocentre 1) and west (Depocentre 2) simultaneously. This depocentre shift was associated with the flexural subsidence produced by the rejuvenation of the West Ipswich Fault. Coal accumulation mainly occurred in Depocentre 1. Two types of seam splitting occurred in the Ipswich Basin. Sedimentary splitting or autosedimentation was produced by frequent influx of clastic sediments. The fluvial dominant depositional environments created the random distribution of small seam splits. However, the coincidence of seam splits and depocentres found in some of the seams suggests tectonic splitting. Furthermore, the progressive splitting pattern, which displays seam splits overlapping, was associated with continued basin subsidence. The tectonic splitting pattern is more dominant in the Ipswich Basin. Alternating bright bands shown in the brightness profiles are a result of oscillating water cover in the peat-mire. Moderate groundwater level, which was maintained during the development of the peat, reduced the possibility of salinisation and drowning of the peat swamp. On the other hand, a slow continuous rise of the groundwater table, that kept pace with the vertical growth of peat, prevented excessive oxidation of peat. Ipswich coal is bright due to its high vitrinite content. The cutinite content is also high because the dominant flora was pteridosperms of Dicroidium assemblage containing waxy and thick cuticles. Petrographic study revealed that the depositional environment was telmatic with bog forest formed under ombrotrophic to mesotrophic hydrological conditions. The high preservation of woody or structured macerals such as telovitrinite and semifusinite indicates that coal is autochthonous. The high mineral matter content in coal is possibly due to the frequent influx of clastic and volcanic sediments. The Ipswich Basin is part of a much larger Triassic basin extending to Nymboida in New South Wales. Little is known of the coal as it lacks exposures. It is apparently thin to absent except in places like Ipswich and Nymboida. This study suggests that the dominant control on depocentres of thick coal at Ipswich has been the tectonism. Fluvial incursions and volcanism were superimposed on this.
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A theological response to the "illegal alien" in federal United States lawHeimburger, Robert Whitaker January 2014 (has links)
Today, some twelve million immigrants are unlawfully present in the United States. What response to this situation does Christian theology suggest for these immigrants and those who receive them? To this question about the status of immigrants before the law, the theological literature lacks an understanding of how federal U.S. immigration law developed, and it lacks a robust theological account of the governance of immigration. To fill this gap, the thesis presents three stages in the formation of the laws that designate some immigrants as aliens unlawfully present or illegal aliens, drawing out the moral argumentation in each phase and responding with moral theology. In the first stage, non-citizens were called aliens in U.S. law. In response to the argument that aliens exist as a consequence of natural law, Christian teaching indicates that immigrants are not alien either in creation or for the church. In the second stage, the authority of the federal government to exclude and expel aliens was established, leaving those who do not comply to be designated illegal aliens. To the claim that the federal government has unlimited sovereignty over immigration, interpretations of the Christian Scriptures respond that divine sovereignty limits and directs civil authority over immigration. In the third stage, legal reforms that were intended to end discrimination between countries allowed millions from countries neighboring the U.S. to become illegal aliens. These reforms turn out to be unjust on philosophical grounds and unneighborly on theological grounds. While federal law classes many as aliens unlawfully present in the United States, Christian political theology indicates that immigrants are not alien, the government of immigration is limited by divine judgment, and nationals of neighboring countries deserve special regard.
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A Pragmatic Standard of Legal ValidityTyler, John 2012 May 1900 (has links)
American jurisprudence currently applies two incompatible validity standards to determine which laws are enforceable. The natural law tradition evaluates validity by an uncertain standard of divine law, and its methodology relies on contradictory views of human reason. Legal positivism, on the other hand, relies on a methodology that commits the analytic fallacy, separates law from its application, and produces an incomplete model of law.
These incompatible standards have created a schism in American jurisprudence that impairs the delivery of justice. This dissertation therefore formulates a new standard for legal validity. This new standard rejects the uncertainties and inconsistencies inherent in natural law theory. It also rejects the narrow linguistic methodology of legal positivism.
In their stead, this dissertation adopts a pragmatic methodology that develops a standard for legal validity based on actual legal experience. This approach focuses on the operations of law and its effects upon ongoing human activities, and it evaluates legal principles by applying the experimental method to the social consequences they produce. Because legal history provides a long record of past experimentation with legal principles, legal history is an essential feature of this method.
This new validity standard contains three principles. The principle of reason requires legal systems to respect every subject as a rational creature with a free will. The principle of reason also requires procedural due process to protect against the punishment of the innocent and the tyranny of the majority. Legal systems that respect their subjects' status as rational creatures with free wills permit their subjects to orient their own behavior. The principle of reason therefore requires substantive due process to ensure that laws provide dependable guideposts to individuals in orienting their behavior.
The principle of consent recognizes that the legitimacy of law derives from the consent of those subject to its power. Common law custom, the doctrine of stare decisis, and legislation sanctioned by the subjects' legitimate representatives all evidence consent.
The principle of autonomy establishes the authority of law. Laws must wield supremacy over political rulers, and political rulers must be subject to the same laws as other citizens. Political rulers may not arbitrarily alter the law to accord to their will.
Legal history demonstrates that, in the absence of a validity standard based on these principles, legal systems will not treat their subjects as ends in themselves. They will inevitably treat their subjects as mere means to other ends. Once laws do this, men have no rest from evil.
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