Local
THE BATTALION Page 3
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1981
"on, the inf
•olitical eomu
intified De®
ie d that in h
y shells. Ton
?• The basicp
is h and niort;
Ronald Rei;
argelyonh:!;
and added ii
/' of politicai;
le to mainti!
s in Congrts
xplain how, i
id the Re®
■ 50 years oil
the biggestt
ig almost ©
House and)
) the discus®
Congress is S
ie Democrai
most of itsj
will admit. !
Democrats i
tive as Fettiji
iave becomes
intellectuali
the cloak i
iey have ms
msciousnesi!
icans haveii
political pa'
lining office!
i very large:
levelopment'
oe, not justih
an politics.
Nature provides clues
in sea pollution study
Eskimo Roll
John Parker, a research associate
in Physics department at Texas
A&M University, demonstrated
his eskimo roll technique in a
kayak at the Wofford Cain outdoor
Photo by Joanne Wilson
pool last Thursday evening.
Parker is a member of the MSC
Outdoor Recreation Committee
which periodically sponsors kayak
ing instruction sessions.
A&M tests mailbox hazard
with car crash simulation
Nature’s methods for dealing
with a natural brine (high-salt)
seep in the Gulf of Mexico may
provide clues for dealing with
man-made discharges into the
ocean.
Ecologists from Texas A&M’s
oceanography department are ex
ploring marine life and chemical
aspects of a brine pool and over
flow canyon on the East Flower
Garden Bank 115 miles southeast
of Galveston.
Brine discharges are becoming
more common as offshore oil pro
duction increases, with the de
velopment of a strategic pet
roleum reserve system by dissolv
ing cores of salt domes and from
desalination efforts. The effects of
this naturally occurring brine on
the ecosystems of the ocean may
have implications for the man
made pollutants as well.
Dr. Thomas J. Bright disco
vered the seep in 1974 while ex
ploring the reefs from Texas
A&M’s submersible research ves
sel, the Diaphus. The shimmering
mass of highly saline water at the
overflow looked like a stream run
ning underwater, he said.
The water in the pool, which
presumably flows up from a dis
solving salt dome, is about six
times as salty as sea water. It con
tains no oxygen and has a high
concentration of hydrogen sulfide,
a highly toxic compound.
Since the discovery, Bright,
Dr. Eric Powell and Dr. Richard
Rezak from Texas A&M have revi
sited the brine flow several times,
each time bringing samples for de
tailed study.
Bright and Powell coordinate
the study of marine life in the
brine seep ecosystem. Rezak is
attempting to determine the phy
sical mechanism by which the
seep is driven. All are interested
in the present and potential im-
Dr. Thomas J. Bright
discovered natural brine
(high-salt) seep in 1974
while exploring the reefs
from Texas A&M’s sub
mersible research ves
sel, the Diaphus.
pact of the seep on animal and
plant life and geological structure
of the bank.
“We’ve found that the short
term effects of the brine seep are
limited to the immediate vicinity
of the seep,” Powell said. “As the
brine runs out of the basin and
down a sill into the canyon, we
find it mixes with seawater and the
salinity decreases rapidly. No
thing but bacteria are able to live
in the brine lake where the full
strength brine collects. But in the
canyon, where oxygenated seawa
ter mixes with the brine, a mord
diverse, yet specialized, assembly
of organisms has developed.”
An interesting feature of the
seep, Powell said, is a whitish mat
of plants made up of bacteria and
algae which covers the floor of the
canyon. These plants appear to
thrive in the high sulfide environ^
ment, he said. A specialized com
munity of organisms, called
thiobios, are able to live in the
sulfide-rich canyon stream and
feed directly on the plants grow-,
ing there.
Fish and other animals general
ly cannot tolerate the sulfide of the
canyon, but some fishes such as!
angel fish, butterfly fish and cot-]
tonwick are able to swim in and;
out of the mixed canyon brine to
feed, Bright said. Large red snap-!
pers and groupers often swim very!
close and even “dive” into the full;
strenth brine of the lake.
“The brine flow is impacting not
only the physical and chemical en-!
vironment of the bank, but also!
the local biology. We have found;
organisms that depend on the flow
and that might not exist in the*
bank without it,” Bright said. !
t*--
v Transportation researchers at Texas A&M Uni
versity are using automobile crash tests to reduce the
driving hazards created by roadside mailboxes.
Mn 1979 seven people were killed in Texas when
their automobiles collided with standing mailboxes,
says a state highway department official. Many more
persons were injured and thousands of dollars in
property damaged resulted as well.
|Now, smaller and lower cars are increasing the
risk of injury even more, said Irl Larrimore, senior
field engineer with the safety and maintenance divi
sion of the State Department of Highways and Public
Transportation.
Ii Under contract with the highway department,
researchers for the Texas Transportation Institute at
Texas A&M University perform periodic testing of
various mailbox support materials and placement of
the supports. Principal investigator on the mailbox
project is Dr. Hayes Ross Jr., a professor of civil
engineering.
/Wooden posts have been widely used as mailbox
supports,” Ross said. “But as aresult of our investiga
tion during the past three years, we have found that
there are safer and less expensive ways to support
mailboxes. ” He added that the height of mailboxes
— 42 inches — lines up at windshield level on most
automobiles.
In collisions, the mailbox can crash into the wind
shield, causing the driver to lose control.
Larrimore said the use of a 2-by-6 beam on which
several mailboxes are mounted is being discontinued
because the beam can become a lethal lance that
pierces the car’s windshield and strikes the driver’s
head.
Chevrolet Vegas were used in recent tests per
formed on several mailbox support designs at tlie TTI
proving grounds located at the Texas A&M Research
and Extension Center near Bryan.
The crash test is recorded by high-speed cameras
near the site, while other data on velocity and impact
are received at a computer center about a mile away
from antennaes attached to the vehicle.
“We learn from each crash,” Ross said. “In a series
of tests on metal posts, we found that the Vega could
withstand a collision with four in a row fairly well.
But in the next test when we tried eight posts in a row
with mailboxes attached, the car rolled on impact.”
Man breaks into home seeking friend
AGGIES!
Douglas
Jewelry
10% AGGIE DISCOUNT
ON ALL MERCHANDISE
WITH STUDENT ID
(Cash Only Please)
We reserve the right to limit
use of this privilege.
Downtown Biyan (212 IN. Main)
and
Culpepper Plaza
Jbrei/ejyr/usy... WANT.ADS
Simply Great
Mexican Food.
THE WEDNESDAY SPECIAL
MONTEREY DINNER
&A 1 Q/reg
$4.75
FIESTA DINNER
dj rw qq/reg.
9 W«0%7/ $4.35
ENCHILADA DINNER
rtQ/ REG -
9 $3.55
^ V Mexican V.R^R F cTAtjRANTs
1816 Texas Ave. • 823-8930
907 Highway 30 • 693-2484
United Press International
Ty-,nrT.Tx .. i era l y ear s in and out of court for
FORT WORTH Police said a the Fort Worth industrialist.
23-year-old spaced-out man He was acquitted of being the
broke into the $6 million Cullen
Davis mansion Monday and was
“man in black” who shot his step
daughter. Two years later he was
found lying on a couch with a coke arrested for allegedly trying to
and an apple in his hands.
The man, who reportedly told
police he was looking for his girl
friend, went to the mansion’s front
plate glass door and threw a rock
through it, police said.
Karen Davis, another woman
and four children in the house
locked themselves in a room and
called Cullen Davis and police.
When officers arrived, they found
the “spaced-out” man lying on the
living room couch, sipping a coke
* ~ . and eating an apple.
r V L / Ijj The Davis mansion in 1976 was
the scene of a shooting spree that
left two people dead and two
others wounded, including Davis’
, then-wife Priscilla, and began sev-
d Wilbur J
them oP 1 g n ■■■!■ i ■ ■■ i ■
into tbeii' f ( A
anged tM
lers whou |1 '
■ally are f'
a of the So»«
•ached tlP
and file P
urniansP;
■ of Rayb url1 '
m comiui^
No impP [
hire a hitman to kill his divorce
judge. The first trial ended in a
mistrial and the second in ac
quittal.
Since then, Davis and his wife
have become born-again Christ
ians.
Headquarters
Now . . . Jeans by Condor!
Manor East Mall 779-6718
,d his le^
/ co rumP.
that the bj
House P
nothing j
:hern,
lemocrats
ero'
he pow
s had inf; 1 !
i vote P
blicho* 11 ?
iendtW’J
rotes f«’ |
dn'tl.<
FISH & SHRIMP
DINNER..
The complete Seafood Dinner, Tasty Shrimp,
with V4 lb. of Fresh Boneless hand-battered Fish,
hushpuppies, Salad or Coleslaw and Baked
$ 5
We LOADING ZONE
m jr jv w_ mr jv jt *r m
family restaurant
S because
,d closed
»C
404 University Dr. in University Center
OPEN
SUNDAYS
11:30 A.M.-10:00 P.M.
Weekdays 11:00 A.M.-10:00 P.M.
TIL 12:00 P.M.
Friday & Saturday