Company Analysis: Sears Holding Corporation Essay

Company Analysis: Sears Holding Corporation Abstract Sears Holdings Corporation (SHC) is the nation’s fourth largest broadline retailer with approximately 3,900 full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada. Formed in the later part of the 19th century it was the largest retail company in the country until the early nineties. SHC is currently the leading home appliance retailer as well as a leader in tools, lawn and garden, home electronics and automotive repair and maintenance. As a result of its merger with Kmart in 2005, SHC also has Martha Stewart Everyday products, which are offered exclusively in the U. S. by Kmart. SHC operates through its subsidiaries, including Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Corporation. In recent years Sears has undergone major changes in order to maximize its profits and beat its competitors. In the past several decade Sears has been the place to go shop for home goods, clothing, and fitness equipment and auto repairs. As time progressed they became very comfortable with what they hard as other companies such as Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes, JC Penny crept in and reaped a chunk of its market. In a struggle to re-invent itself, it tries to maintain focus on its primary and secondary target markets. Introduction The Sears Holding Corporation is a multinational corporation with retailers purchasing products in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. It is the fourth largest retailer within the United States, with over 3900 locations and sells many different marketable goods for consumers. These goods include products such as tools, branded clothing, appliances, sporting goods, electronics, home maintenance and repair, and automotive from many different retailers (http:// www. searsholdings. com/). The Sears Holding Corporation is a result of the merger between Kmart Holding Corporation with the Sears Roebuck Co. which occurred in 005, and the headquarters is located in Hoffmann Estates, Illinois. The consolidated subsidiaries include Sears, Roebuck and Co. , Lands’ End Inc. , LRFG, LLC, Sears Brands, LLC, Sears Canada, Inc. , Sears Financial Holdings Corporation, Sears Reinsurance Company, Ltd. , Kmart Holding Corporation, Kmart Management Corporation, Kmart Cor poration, and the Sears Holdings Management Corporation(http:// www. secinfo. com/dVut2. v3ap. 5. htm#1stPage). Brief History The Sears Roebuck Corporation was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah C. Roebuck in 1893. Sears started as a Jeweler who made a profit by selling watches. The most innovative and quite possibly the most famous method of sales synonymous with Sears was the Sears Catalog. Providing pictures of the products, the prices, and a handy item that could be ordered on a regular basis for sales was by far an ingenious method of marketing. Consumers would be able to purchase items with no markup, have knowledge of their budgets required for purchases, and be somewhat assured of the quality of the product based upon the appearance, marketable ideas and mainly products which could be sold, thus expanding Sears’ enterprise. Mainly from the early 1900’s throughout the 1980’s, Sears maintained its tronghold in America’s consumer market, especially in the 40’s and 50’s with its tremendous expansion. However, towards the 90’s and 2000’s, as many other big businesses arrived, divestiture, as well as problems associated with employee wage issues, Sears’ marketability dropped off until its merger with Kmart in 2005 (http:// en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sears). Kmart first opened in 1962 and was founded by Sebastian S. Kresge. It was a relatively successful corporation and utilized marketing ideas within the store, namely â€Å"Blue Light Specials† which would entice customers to urchase the â€Å"blue light† or discounted items while they were shopping for their products. Unfortunately, due to failed ideas regarding consumer marketing, failure to utilize the computer technologies for supply chain management, and other setbacks, Kmart had to declare bankruptcy in early 2002. (http://en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/Kmart). Merger The merger between Kmart and Sears clearly enhanced both of the companies’ mutual progressive goals. Sears invested many assets in the formation of Sears Grand stores, larger off store malls, and in the process bought many of the Kmart locations which were going out of business. Therefore the merger helped this process so that it would enable the further growth of Sears at a quicker pace as well as enhance the productivity and save the Kmart Corporation. This was clearly a strong decision made by the executives in combining forces so that the marketability of both companies would increase. Along with this, the shareholders could make a tremendous profit with this alliance. Prior to the merger, if the independent companies were not steadily increasing their revenue shareholders would lose money from their investments. The combination of both of the corporations would mprove shareholder investment returns and thus facilitate the growth of the Sears Holding Corporation. The more investors receive higher returns, the greater investments into the company thus fostering its overall growth. The proprietary brands, selling the aforementioned products, under both companies would be able to reach the target demographic groups with greater ease. The real estate holdings of individual Kmart or individual Sears stores, now under the umbrella of the Sears Holding Corporation, could be leveraged, thus enhancing the ability to sell more of their combined products to a vast variety of consumers. This was reported to increase revenue by nearly 200 million dollars per year. Along with the increased revenue, a decrease in overall cost for maintenance of both corporations due to the merger would save nearly 300 million dollars per year (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/ Sears_Holdings_Corporation). A general projected net increase of 500 million dollars per year is a phenomenal growth rate. As mentioned previously, a global distribution of these stores in the North American continent (from Mexico to Canada) has enabled the Sears Holding Company to expand even further. Leadership Overall, this merger helped Sears Holdings Corporation be a force in the United States market. As the eighth largest company in the US, the profits and revenue have increased tremendously, but the lack of leadership and the constant changing of executive power has been a preventative factor in its further growth and means that a company cannot initiate new marketable strategies that will come to fruition. Employee stability and satisfaction in a large company is always an issue as well, because Job security is always in question when companies merge. Another downside to such mergers means that the people in executive positions can relocate o other positions at different companies, and strategies that were used to run a single company might not work due to multiple variables involved to create a Joint company. Initially, the decisions to run the Joint company might cause disagreements that might not necessarily increase the percentage of revenue on an annual basis. However, after testing market strategies over a period of time, implementing different methods to sell products, and keep investors happy by generating profits on a yearly basis, the company will eventually succeed through innovation and investment. SHC faces stiff competition from big box retailer such as Wal-Mart and Target. In the mid-tier its competitors include Macys,J. C. Penny and Kohl’s. Organizational Structure SHC recently implemented an organizational structure and operating model that aids in the management of its several business lines thus creating autonomy and focus for business unit management teams. This 5 unit structure enables each organization to focus on their core capabilities and categories which are: support, operating business, brands, online, operating business and real-estate. These support units provide administrative and operational support to the areas of arketing, store operations, customer strategy and finance. Each unit thus comes with a designated leader and an advisory group which is composed of Sears Holding executives. Giving autonomy to each unit futures the business by allowing them to focus on management and profitable of that Unit and the company as a whole (Reuters 2008). With these changes I believe SHC will be better placed to compete and maximize profits. Target market The primary target market for sears is arguably home owners between the ages of 25 to 55 with a moderate household income 25,000 to 60000 dollars. Homeowners make he majority of the population shopping at sears stores. This accounts for the sale in the hard lines department. Sears provides home improvement solutions to this group of people. This group is attracted by products such as home appliances, entertainment centers, home d? ©cor, and fitness equipments. The main appeal to these customers is home appliances and lawn and garden tools. This is so because Sears has a reputation for Secondary market targeted by SHC consists mainly the younger generation. In an effort to bring itself up to par with its competitors, they have been providing brands and clothing items in the soft lines department. This group consists of school age children (4-18). Sears offers products like the kids advantage program where parents can purchase shoes for their kids and be able to switch it for a new pair sometime down the road. Last year Sears teamed upped with LL Cool J and MTVto provide the LL Cool J brand appeal to the teenage population. This brand resonates better with young African American and Latino teenagers. Competitors In the hard lines division sears faces major competition from hardware retail giants such as Lowes and Home Depot. These two have managed to cut off some primary more variety home improvement products than sears. Their yearly sales post better profits than SHC. The soft lines department faces major completion from JC penny, Macy’s, Target and Wal-Mart. Macy’s and JC Penney have managed to chip away some of the market by providing better quality brand named apparel such as Liz Claiborne, Baby Phat, and Anne Kline to these customers. Both companies have managed to post better revenue than SHC the previous quarters. Retail Giants such as Wal-Mart currently (currently No. 1) and Target also provide stiff competition for SHC. These two also have managed to fair better than Sears during this harsh economic period ith Wal-Mart providing a variety of products at super low prices, while target provides more quality apparel at equivalent prices. Recent Performance The company recorded revenues of $46,700 million during the financial year (FY) ended January 2009, a decrease of 7. 8 % over 2008. The operating profit of the company during FY2009 was $251 million, a decrease of 83. 8% from 2008. The net profit was $53 million in FY2009, a decrease of 93. 6% over FY2008. The decline in operating and net profit was due to decrease in gross margin and higher impairment chargers. Stock Market Chart SHC http://www. reuters. om/finance/stocks/chart? symbol=SHLD. OQ The graph chart above illustrates how SHC has performed in the stock market since the merger in 2005. SHC has seen a constant struggle since the merger, the highest grossing year being 2007 when SHLD stock went for $ 190 and currently at $78 thanks to the current economic crisis. Of all the revenue grossed by SHC in recent and past years only 11% comes from Sears Canada meaning the most of SHC revenue is generated here at home: 55% form Sears domestic and 34% from Kmart as demonstrated by the Pie chart below. http://www. wikinvest. com/stock/Sears_Holdings_(SHLD) SWOT Analysts For decades the hard-lines department brought the highest revenue to the business and is considered one of the strengths of sears. Here we see the power of Sears’ owned brand named products such as Craftsman, Kenmore and the usual home improvement tools and equipments. Such are products that are nationally recognized as very reliable tools. In the soft-lines department sears brands such as Lands’ End and Diehard are also heavy sellers and nationally recognized. One other strength of sears is that it is dedicate to its community and customers. Sears has taken upon its self to provide excellence in customer services and for years has had a tring of dedicated customers. Sears is also involved in serving the community and helping the less fortunate. Programs like Heroes at Home and Extreme Makeover Home Edition has Sears written all over it. This dedication to the community has help exposed it to consumers The weakness of this corporation stands from what may have been one of its strengths. Though it has a large customer base, Sears has allowed its sales volume to plummet because they are not keeping up with the changing market environment. They have lost touched with the consumers and competitors when it comes to soft- ines (clothing) and some hard-lines divisions. Sears has undergone too much diversification and has thus lost focus on retail services (Prentice-Hall, 2003). Most of it retail stores today are not reflective of the needs of the consumer. Sears clothing line is old, outdated and out of touch with fashion trends. Currently retail stores are old worn out and do not attack customers. At present its current CEO has been interim so for 18 month indicative of managerial or leadership problems (Gorenstein 2009). Opportunity The merger of K-mart in 2005, was thought be the â€Å"silver bullet’ that would revamp he company, providing a variety of products and obtain an expanded customer base. So far SHC has post several quarterly losses with the most recent of 94 million dollar (SHC 2009). Sears has the opportunity to revamp or improve sales in the soft-lines department by buying and capitalizing on brands such as Liz Cleburne, Nine West that are appealing to customers. They currently have brands such as LL Cool J and Joe Boxers that are thriving in the male department. For the Hard-line department, while it is thriving sears can still provide affordable and durable products with the kind of guarantee that they have for Craftsman tools. In general a change to inventory that appeal to the consumers will bring in revenue and make Sears a better competitor. Threats Like any other company in business Sears faces a constant threat from its competitors. Sears current faces threats from retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Target. More over departmental stores such as Macys and JC Penny are also fighting for its customers. It is worth noting that all these business were babies compared to Sears in the past. More discount stores are opening further driving down sails in certain departments. Sears risk losing its customers if it doesn’t re-invent the stores o provide items that appeal to them. The economic down turn hasn’t been fair to SHC as they have posted record losses for the whole year and until the situation improves SHC has to take steps to reduce cost and increase profits or revenue. Supply Chain Management Sears’ main focus when supply chain management is concerned, is to replenish its inventory as quickly as possible. SHC has 3 basic products: seasonal products such a s lawn mowers and snow blowers, perennial best sellers and fast moving products that need to be replenished rapidly. Unlike many of its competitors, SHC provides 6 illion home appliances/home improvement deliveries directly to customers’ homes every year. To do this effectively SHC uses Cross-docking which is a type of distribution in which inbound products are unloaded at distribution centers, sorted by destination and then loaded onto delivery trucks. Thus the goods are not warehouse i. e. they are Just moved across ducts This reduces the days in inventory positioned its inventory in 4 regional warehouses so it can provide next-day delivery to it customers and quickly replenish store supply. Recommendations How can we stars fixing the problems faced by sears? Starting from the top, a permanent CEO, not another Interim should be put in place to take charge of long term decision making. An environmental analysis would help Sears see where it is and help guide it to where is should be in the market place. Showing them who their customers are, what the customers want and how they can out-beat the competition for more customers. It is no secret that the brands and styles in the soft-lines department have to be ever changing to appeal to customer in time. SHC needs to invest more money into remodeling each departmental store, making it easily accessible and more appealing to consumers. In light of the fact that SHC has lost touch with its customer base, decentralization should be considered. This will allow specialty stores that carter to consumers in each region thus increasing customer base and revenue. References About Sears Holding Corporation (2009) Retrieved September 4, 2009 from website: https://searsholdings.com/about https://searsholdings.com/about/kmart https://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml http://wps.prenhall.com/bp_beekman_compconf_6/ http://ru.reuters.com/ http://www.searsarchives.com/history/history1886.htm http:// www. wikinvest. com/ https://searsholdings.com/ http://archives.chicagotribune.com/

Hudson River: a Detailed and Comprehensive Geological History

Contents Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 Hudson River Formation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 Hudson Canyon†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦12 Glacial History†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 14 Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦17 Bibliography†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦18 Maps & Diagrams†¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 19 Hudson Canyon†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 19 Geological Processes†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 1|Page Introduction In 1872, a naturalist and surveyor by the name of Verplanck Colvin found the source of the Hudson River. It is a small pond on the south western slope of Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in the Adirondacks, called Lake Tear of the Clouds. So little is Lake Tear of the Clouds that if no water was to feed it for seven days it would be reduced to just an empty basin. Nevertheless, the Hudson starts right in its waters. One could say the Hudson River is divided into two distinct sections differentiated by geology and appearance.The first section winds its way through the Adirondack Mountains spanning 166 miles from Lake Tear of the Clouds to the Federal Dam in Troy. This section is un-navigable by boat and in some places somewhat rapid. The second section, which is quite different from the first, starts at the Federal Dam and runs for 149 miles through the â€Å"rolling hills† all the way to the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island. Back up north at Lak e Tear of the Clouds is fed by natural springs and runoff from the sheer steepness of Mt. Marcy and other streams winding down from the high peaks of the Adirondacks.Throughout the whole Adirondack mountain range, the watershed drains and dumps runoff from 3,400 foot peaks into the lowlands less than 410 feet above sea level. From Lake Tear of the Clouds [in the space of a mile] the river drops 1,000 feet down a deep trench to join the Opalescent River1. A bit more southward, the Mohawk River drains much of the runoff from central New York into the Hudson. In fact, over half of the Hudson Rivers water volume comes from the Mohawk, and without it, the Hudson would be practically non-existent.Further south of Albany tributaries flow westward to the Hudson from the Taconic Mountains and eastward from the Catskills. Still further south the tributaries for the Hudson begin to appear rectangular, almost following the trend of the faults and 1 The Opalescent River is not a separate river f rom the Hudson but merely a section named by old Native American tribes. 2|Page ridges that run northeast to southwest of the river while other tributaries join at right angles to the faults along the joint planes.At this point in its path, the river begins to occupy its original bedrock gorge formed millions of years ago, flowing over rock ledge rapids and the coarse cobble point bars2 that are very common from Mt. Marcy to Glens Falls, until it is partially blocked by mountains. It is here that the river makes a sharp turn to the east and flows through the Luzerne Mountain gorge in western New York and then emerges quickly onto glacial lake sediments deposited in the Pliocene Glaciation and forms a very broad, almost meandering path on the lowlands (supported by shale) for the nearly 130 miles to Newburgh.South of Newburgh the river cuts laterally through the hard crystalline rocks of the Hudson Highlands, shifting back and forth in its valley (almost like a cradle) until it emerg es from the highlands and starts to exhibit fjord like characteristics within the towering rock walls around it. The river’s course then slightly curves in front of the Palisades escarpment3, which towers more than 328 feet above the water’s surface. At the Narrows the Hudson breaches its final barrier, the terminal moraine4 of the last glaciation (more on this in the Glacial History section) before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean.At the Atlantic (although tidal) the Hudson behaves as any other river would and deposits its bed load (sediments carried by the river) and some of the fine-grained suspended load (basically fine grained sand and dirt floating in the water) into the form of sandbars. Over millions of years, these have contributed to building up many islands including Staten Island, Hoffman Island, Swinburne Island and many others. The very low slope of the Hudson plays a great role in the amount of discharge and island buildup, too, as it only rises about 0. 4 inches per mile for the last 150 miles of the rivers path. To give some perspective, the Mississippi river rises approximately 6 inches per mile during its course, and discharges about 700 million tons of sediment per year into the Gulf of Mexico 2 Coarse cobble point bars are essentially pointed cobble that has been piled into bar like formations. These formations are generally formed when sediments carrying cobble leave it behind. 3 Ground formed into a steep slope as part of fortification. â€Å"Moraine† is a word used to describe the earth, stones and debris a glacier deposits. â€Å"Terminal† describes that these items were deposited where the glaciers maximum extent was, in this case Long Island. 3|Page and its mouth is approximately a ? -mile wide. The Hudson River discharges about 175 million tons of sediment per year and its mouth is about the same width at a ? mile. With a 2 inch increase in slope geologists predict the discharge rate of the Hudson would spik e up to about 450 million tons per year and the mouth of it would close up to about 250’ wide.This would place Manhattan underwater and greatly limit boat traffic as well as make Long Island more of a true island separated from land by at least 3 miles or so of water5. And so, the geography of the Hudson River today ends here in Manhattan, but the geology of what lies underneath is much more important. Continue reading if you must, and dwell into a mystery of time and a lot of pushing and pulling. 5 Do not worry about this happening now though because the rivers overall slope has not changed more than a centimeter in the last couple thousand years and shows no signs of speeding up. 4|Page Hudson River FormationThe Geology of the Hudson River is complex. Billions of years of folding, pushing, pulling, separating, and moving have formed, deformed and reformed the Hudson River valley into what it is today, a â€Å"giant palimpsest6, a great parchment on which the hand of nature has written and rewritten her bold signature for more than a billion years†7. In the next section, I am going to attempt to condense over a billion years worth of Geologic History into less than ten pages. Despite complex knowledge and strange words it is a simple story of time and rocks, moving and changing: the formation of the Hudson River and its valley.The Hudson’s geological â€Å"personality† very much reflects its structure and the changes made on it, underneath it and all around it from the Pleistocene glaciations8 . The bedrock foundation of the Hudson was established in the space of three oregany’s (mountain building periods) beginning over a billion years ago. These mountain-building episodes re-triggered long intervals of underground erosion and periodic submersion by the epicontinental seas (or oceans) to help start forming the Hudson River Valley. At a point much later in this story, glacial erosion reshaped the landscape of the HRV into wh at it appears as today.The first major mountain building episode, the Grenville Orogeny began about 1. 2 billion years ago. It was one of the biggest Oregany’s and affected a broad region along the coast of what was Ancient North America, from the northeast waters of Canada to northwestern Mexico. The mountains created by the Grenville Orogeny were most likely as tall as or taller than the Himalayas and were driven to these heights by a collision of Laurentia (Ancient N. America) and Gondwana (Africa) in which Gondwana overrode Laurentia. The deep burial of Laurentia resulted in the first 7 Written upon, or engraved on more than once. The Hudson: A History, Chapter 1: The River and the Land, pg. 10 8 A period of ice buildup to form glaciers, or the act of glaciation. 5|Page metamorphism, partial melting of rock and the separation of the light and dark minerals found in the Adirondack gneisses9. Many hundred thousand of years later in the Proterozoic period as the continents p eriodically moved, basaltic volcanic rocks merged into the mountains cutting the anorthosites10 and gneisses laterally across.These gneisses are around one billion years old, while the Highland gneisses may be a bit older. The Fordham gneisses are the youngest and can be dated to just under a billion years old. Over the millions of years, long episodes of erosion on the Grenville Mountains and constant lifting of the crust have brought it to the surface. Later in the Proterozoic period, erosion of this crust formed and provided a thick source of sedimentary deposits that partially submerged the upland area of coastal Laurentia (presently this is the area south of and parallel to the Appalachian Mountains).These deposits are now found mostly in the Appalachians, with almost all of them have been removed from the Hudson valley, leaving hard rock and clay for the Hudson River to rest on. In the early Paleozoic, the sand and gravel that was eroded from the mountains during the Proterozo ic period became basal sandstone and conglomerate11, which is more commonly known as the Potsdam Sandstone in northern NY and the Lower Quartzite that is prized throughout the Hudson Highlands.As the Epicontinental sea inundated this (once) mountainous region the sandstone and Lower Quartzite were buried under a thick cover of marine limestone and shale, which was laid down in an elongated trough that formed on the continental shelf where mountains had once been. The limestone was mostly deposited on the shallow edges of the trough while the shale solidified from the mud carried into the deeper seaward part of the trough. The solidified shale then created the bedrock between Glens Falls and the Highlands. 9Coarse, grained metamorphic rock composed of quartz, feldspar and mica. An igneous rock made up largely of soda-lime feldspar. 11 Rock composed of rounded fragments of various rocks cemented together in a mass of hardened clay and sand, like a composite. 10 6|Page In the Late Camb rian period,12 Laurentia once again collided, but this time with the ancestral core of Europe, Baltica and a large fragment of what is thought to be the continental crust known as Avalonia. This started the mountain building period known as the Taconic Orogeny, which lasted throughout the Ordovician Period.The Taconic Orogeny also resulted in the new supercontinent Laurasia. While much of the activity involving this collision took place well to the east it also affected the HRV. Island arc volcanic structures such as the Cortlandt Complex have been found in the Hudson Highlands. To the North and West in the mid-Hudson Valley, the sedimentary rocks that were deposited in the early Paleozoic Period were folded (with the trend of the folds and faults already in place) parallel to the southwest to northeast facing the Appalachians.These folds and faults eventually became some of the paths of the HRV tributaries. Closer to the coast than these faults, thin sheets of rock were pushed seve ral dozen miles west. This event is known as the Taconic Thrust and took place in the area where today exists the Taconic parkway. Because of this event, the fine-grained shale that was there was crumpled (as if we crumple paper) and pushed into the narrow channel of water west of the mountains near present day Croton. Over many years thereafter blocks of limestone into the channel and were merged into a jumble of shale clumps.Today millions of years later the river flows past the western edge of the channel and then cuts into the disorganized deposits of shale as it continues south. As we travel through time, sandstone, limestone, shale and Proterozoic bedrock from the Hudson Highlands became buried as Laurentia’s coastal margin was subducted13 close to where it and Europe’s plates met. The rocks that met each other from each plate partially melted and transformed into more gneiss, marble and schist14, which was then folded and moved once more to be in alignment 12 00 million years ago Subduction can be described as the action or process in plate tectonics of the edge of one crustal plate descending below the edge of another, almost like a controlled earthquake. 14 Schist is a metamorphic crystalline rock that has a closely foliated structure and can be split along approximately parallel planes. 13 7|Page with the Appalachians. This set the stage for the modern day continental shelf to form, although it would take millions of more years for it to happen. After the two plates of Europe and Laurentia collided, there was a sort of lull in activity around this area.This allowed streams in the lowlands to follow the valleys formed along the fault lines, or on the softer marble layers around Manhattan. The oceanic crust borders and the rocks around NYC and to the east more or less contained the streams around Manhattan, while the streams in the lowlands and around our area were free to roam and spread out. After the Taconic Orogeny ended, a long inter val of erosion began stripping away the excess crust as the â€Å"new† continent (modern North America, or Laurasia) was very slowly lifted by the compression of the plates.As the upland area was eroded away the epicontinental sea gradually filled the Hudson Valley region from the low lying land of the coastal margin all the way west nearly three-quarters of the way to Pittsburgh. Later during the Silurian and into the early Devonian period shallow seas covered the area and left behind calcium carbonate sediments making the soil very rich. At around the same time rivers formed and flowed from the uplands carrying major amounts of sediment west to the sea to form marine sandstone.While the marine sandstone was being formed, at the shoreline a large delta15 formed over the junk that the marine sandstone left behind. By the midDevonian period, an alluvial plain16 had reached across much the western Catskill region and the shoreline had shifted slightly west about 15 miles or so. At this time, thousands and thousands of feet of sediment from mid-Paleozoic times were piled up over the Hudson Valley and continental red sandstone (one reason why there is so much sandstone around here) from farther east inland were incorporated with the gray marine sandstone from the west closer to the coast.The force of all this happening at once overturned the folds that were in place to the northwest (near present day Schunemunk Mountain along the NYS thruway near Highland Mills) exposing the limestone that 15 A Delta is a triangular alluvial plain, usually where a rivers mouth is. A level or gently sloping flat or a slightly undulating land surface resulting from extensive deposition of alluvial materials by running water 16 8|Page was buried slightly underneath the sediment that had accumulated over the years. This marked the end of the Devonian Period, and the start of the Acadian Orogeny.The Acadian Orogeny began as the North American plates started to compress again and lift up the eastern mountain ranges around New England and western Pennsylvania. This Orogeny was also partially caused and linked to the collision that happened between Laurentia and Gondwana that created Laurasia, and most likely, if this Orogeny had not happened the Hudson River would be a completely different river, and possibly would be connected to the Mississippi River. As the plates began to compress each other again they created volcanic arcs and granite intrusions somewhat east of the Hudson Valley near the coast.Around this time in our little history story the seas started to retreat from the east to west and started to expose the incredibly thick layer of sediment and rocks from the Acadian Mountains all the way to the Catskills. The final compressions dating back to the Paleozoic era continents and the Alleghenian Orogeny now ended and the earth came together to form Pangaea. Because of all this land being pushed up, the Epicontinental Sea retreated from the Catskills to the Poconos in Pennsylvania leaving much of New York and New England dry once again.Now above sea level the strata from the Devonian period became subject to erosion for 250 million years. At some point during this time, the drainage patterns shifted and aligned the ancient Hudson River along a NorthSouth line much like it is today. This was the biggest directional change the Hudson ever underwent. As the strata and sediment were worn away from this new path of drainage, it revealed the granite, marble and schist underneath which became the building materials for our modern world.With the Taconic Mountains now more to the east and the Catskill Mountains to the west the Hudson worked its way down deep into the sediment it was on top of leaving behind a hard bedrock base nearly 5,000 feet deep in places17. This created a solid foundation and left the Hudson with a relatively stable path 17 Over the last several million years, and an Ice age this has all been filled in and now the H udson has an average depth of 32’. 9|Page that has not changed tremendously since. The breakup of Pangaea followed soon thereafter and the coastline of North America began to resemble what it is now.At the same time, the Hudson was filling its banks; basaltic magmas were merged along the fault lines and into the bedrock forming the Palisades Sill18. After that, compression and buildup of sediment and rock slowly built the Palisades up. Today the part of the Palisades that stands is almost like a canyon above the Newark Basin. The â€Å"tabular†19 Palisades still slope to the west, and the eastern edge forms the escarpment, or â€Å"palisade†20 21 of rock joined vertically that we recognize today from miles around New York and from the air as we fly to new places and heights.But to learn how, we must travel to another time in this story, the Mesozoic Period. Some time in the late Mesozoic period, igneous rock deposits were moved yet again and placed along a line going Northwest to southwest from Canada to New England lifting the mountains in its path by several hundred feet and in some cases over 1,000 feet. Because, as you might infer, rock takes up space, and as it lifted up the mountains and separated them, it started to separate North America’s continental plate away from the mid-ocean ridge22 and over a very hot area above the earth’s layer of magma near where the present day Appalachians exist.This caused what geologists think was a shot of magma that melted through that particular part of the plate (which was quite thinner than today) and uplifted the Northern part of the Appalachians. This, in turn reactivated erosion and brought the domed like anorthosites to the surface which is most likely the reason that the Appalachian Mountains are not scraggly and sharp like the Alps, but more rolling with large boulders and open expanses of rock. The Catskills and Adirondacks also experienced lifting, but in a much smaller amou nt. Almost at the same time as all this uplifting was happening, a 18 19Think of this as the palisades foundation. L. Sirkin & H. Bokuniewics – The Hudson River Valley: Geological History, Landforms, and Resources pg. 17. 20 L. Sirkin & H. Bokuniewics – The Hudson River Valley: Geological History, Landforms, and Resources page 17 21 Palisade literally means â€Å"a fence of stakes for defense† The Palisades are called the Palisades by Native American Tribes because they helped as defense for them from other tribes. 22 The mid-ocean ridge is a undersea mountain ridge that is where the North American and European plate meet. While this ridge has hardly ever changed, the plates do move.In this case it is the biggest moves it has ever made. 10 | P a g e hole began to form from sinkholes on the western slope of Mt. Marcy and soon filled with water. This was Lake Tear of the Clouds. After Lake Tear of the Clouds formed and filled with water, the Newark basin reached i ts fullest capacity of water and the Hudson began to â€Å"drive† into its flood plain and carve out its gorge in the gneisses of the Highlands of southern New York. This area is now mostly between West Point and Hastings on Hudson, but it continues as a much smaller â€Å"weaker† gorge almost down to Fort Lee.The Hudson was now a true river, but would still undergo massive changes over the next several million years. At this time in the Hudson River’s history, Long Island did not exist as what it does today. It was a tiny, almost alcove piece of land that was in no way an island. In addition to that, there was no opening to the Atlantic for the Hudson. At the place where the Hudson empties into the Atlantic at the Narrows was a big solid mass of land. The Hudson by definition was a lake. So, as the Hudson filled up and he water put immense pressure on the piece of landmass blocking it from the Atlantic it began to carve out and widen an outlet. It took only a f ew hundred years23 for the Hudson to make it to the Atlantic, bringing with it thousands upon thousands of tons of sediment that had piled up in the Newark Basin. This created the new continental shelf to form the coastal â€Å"plain† we see today that stretches for about a hundred miles out to sea from New York, only in that time and age it stretched for nearly 425 miles, nearly halfway to Bermuda.The Hudson now had an outlet, and the waters started moving south digging, and bringing sediment to the mouth building up Long Island a little bit24, as well as separating it from the mainland with what is now the East River. The sea levels around North America also dropped a few centimeters as the waters made their way up the Hudson forming the Hudson River estuary. This raised the Hudson’s waters by a few centimeters and created its almost permanent banks that have 23This is an extremely short time in geologic history and greatly shows how much the pressure was on the land mass blocking the Hudson from the Atlantic. 24 Although Long Island did get built up at this time, the majority of it was built up during the last ice age nearly 20,000 years ago. 11 | P a g e not changed very much since. Because the sea levels were much lower in that time period the Hudson also began its excavation of the Hudson Canyon with the help of the naturally occurring currents (more on this in the Hudson Canyon section) and more than doubled its length to nearly 895 miles (about 1,440km) long.After nearly 500 million years the Hudson rivers formation had ended and all that was left to change it was its own water wearing away at its bottom and a glaciation that would come in a few million years. Hudson Canyon The Hudson Canyon is possibly the biggest mystery of the Hudson River. How did it form? When exactly did it form? Why did it form? These are all questions geologists and hydrologists ask when looking at it. Most people in fact have never heard of it. To them the Hudson is a river that starts in the Adirondacks and ends at the narrows.To the few that know of the Hudson Canyon, the Hudson River starts in the Adirondacks and ends nearly 925 miles south halfway to Bermuda right after falling over a half mile down a [now] underwater canyon and then fanning out and spreading to the Atlantic Ocean. There, even though underwater it still carries small amounts of the Hudson’s freshwater (out to sea), and most geologists still consider it a part of the Hudson. This makes the true length of the river from Lake Tear of the Clouds to the end of the Hudson Canyon 922 miles, more than double of what we consider the â€Å"Hudson†.As explained in the last section (Hudson River Formation) in the late Mesozoic Period the Hudson River broke the land barrier that held it from emptying into the Atlantic. When it broke the barrier it began to carve a new path out to sea towards Bermuda. At some point, it reached the Continental Shelf and dug into it creati ng a canyon that eventually connected the shelf to the ocean basin, which is about 1. 5-2. 5 miles deep. Technically the canyon begins as a natural channel many miles wide at the mouth of the Hudson in a depression about 12 feet deep in the rivers bed. It 12 | P a g e ontinues then through the Hudson channel and under the Ambrose light25. Soon after the Ambrose light, it reaches the shelf and goes through the real canyon part of it that is called the Hudson Canyon proper. The Hudson Canyon proper is located about 100 miles east of Battery Park City and has walls almost ? mile in height, which can be compared to the Grand Canyon whose cliffs are about 1-1/8 mile deep. The Hudson Canyon is the largest â€Å"submarine† canyon in the United States, partially due to the currents that pass over, and carrying away sediment and rock, thus carving it deeper and deeper.Over the past 30 years since it was discovered, tracking equipment has logged a nearly 12-inch change in its depth and width making the Hudson Canyon also the fastest growing canyon in the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time it is growing wider and deeper, it is also getting closer to the magma underneath and behind the continental shelf. In simple terms, one day in the next couple hundred or thousand years it will break through and magma will come out creating a new island, possibly connecting the East Coast of the United States with a land bridge that extends more than halfway to Bermuda.Many tributaries around the canyon would be raised by the magma, creating a new network of rivers and streams on the land bridge that could host many kinds of wildlife as well as marsh like environments. In addition to this, the Hudson Canyon has large stores of methane hydrates which according to scientists is a very promising clean burning natural energy source, and could help reduce oil consumption. It is a Canyon of great importance to the Hudson River, and also a big clue into the Glacial history surrounding th e HRV. 25The Ambrose light is the site of a Light House that ships going into the New York Harbor and other harbors in the area use for navigation purposes. 13 | P a g e Glacial History The Glacial History of the Hudson River is probably the one of the most important geological event that happened in the Hudson Valley in the last 50,000 years. Evidence points mostly to the Pleistocene Glaciation, which was the last and only Glaciation to reach this far south into the United States for the change that happened on the Hudson River since it was originally formed.The topography of the Hudson Valley enabled the ice from the Pleistocene Glaciation to form a Lobate Ice margin26 about 50 miles north what is now Manhattan long island. Around 22,000 years ago the Ice over the Catskills and Taconic uplands thinned, while it thickened in the Hudson Valley and expanded southward closer to the mouth of the Hudson. Scientists today doing Pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating have found that the c limate back then right before, and as the last Ice age started was much warmer than today. As one can expect, warmer conditions meant more plants, and the sea level was much higher than today27.When the climate cooled and the Glaciers expanded south all these trees, plants and debris were ground down and immense pressure pushed them into the ground, almost dissolving them into dirt. This not 26 Lobate means resembling of a lobe. In this context it is used to describe the shape of the edge of the Glacier, or its maximum extent which was a short of lobe shape. 27 Evidence shows that the waters might have been as far north Albany. 14 | P a g e only made the area much more barren, but also flattened the Adirondacks, and Hudson Highlands down many thousands of feet.The glacier continued to expand 26,000 years ago and merged with smaller glaciers up north to form one big glacier known as the â€Å"Laurentide Glacier†28. This Glacier covered all of Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, M anitoba, Nunavut, and parts of Quebec, as well as the Great lakes down to Chicago where it almost ran parallel to the US/Canada border before dipping slightly down towards present day Manhattan and following the coast of the US up north. At the height of this glaciers advance the ice most likely was more than 1,000 feet thick over the tops of the Appalachians (if you do the math this means that it was over 1. miles deep) meaning immense pressure was being placed on everything flattening the landscape. This also meant that because there was so much pressure, and the water of the Hudson never froze 100%29 the Hudson’s waters literally pushed the earth and carved the floor of the Hudson to a depth similar that of what it was before it broke its barrier at the Narrows. 30 The dirt being compressed turned back into soft metamorphic rock, and created marble where none existed near Warrensburg.A few miles south at Glens Falls the Ice naturally deepened because of the drop in elevati on and gained momentum31 carving out the fjord previously made even bigger, which created Storm King, Beacon and Bear Mountain. All this rock carved out of the Fjord eventually made its way south where it was dumped over Manhattan and Long Island, somewhat accounting for all the Limestone and shale and schist around that area. At this time, the Hudson Canyon was also carved out by the glacial ice melt flowing through it with rocks and debris and became much deeper and wider.When the Laurentide glacier made it to the Narrows its front stopped moving forward, but its back kept on moving forward compressing everything together (Like an accordion) and melting a lot of the ice. Why this happened is not really known by Scientists because glaciers can float. This area became the Glaciers â€Å"dumpster† and the Terminal Moraine was officially formed. Long Island was 28 29 Yes, it was named after Laurentia, ancient North America. Meaning the whole time there was a glacier over this a rea, the Hudson was still flowing but now mostly with ice melt from the glacier itself. 0 Of course this all filled back in as the glacier melted. 31 A glacier is always moving, whether it is 1 foot a year or 1 inch a year. 15 | P a g e built up and out to its current state and the Moraine extended west into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, carrying with it glacial melt creating many of the glacial lakes in that area such as Lake Hackensack, Glacial Lake Hudson and many others. Clay also being carried was dumped all over the region (mostly on the current Rockland County side) and created a nice thick, slippery layer on which the glacier to slide on.This process of dumping and melting continued for many thousand years and started the recession of Laurentide. In a 2,000 year period from 26,000 years ago to 24,000 years ago Laurentide melted and receded so that all of Long Island, Staten Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and pretty much everything south of present day Hartford Connecticut w as ice free. The Ice continued to melt over the next 4,000 years until everything south of Glens Falls was free of ice. The ground, sort of like a sponge when you fill it with water, rose a few meters and went nearly back to its state before the glacier.At Glens falls The glacier stopped for a thousand or so years and slowly melted providing the Hudson valley with a constant stream of fresh glacial water. Around 19,000 years ago the glacier started to recede from Glens Falls and the melt water created Glacial Lake Albany which continued to grow throughout the next several thousand years as Laurentide receded. At 15,500 years the Climate suddenly got cold and the glacier advanced back south to near Poughkeepsie and created the Wallkill, Poughkeepsie, Red hook, Hyde Park ad Pine Plains moraine.As suddenly as the Climate got cold, it got warm again and by 13,000 years the glacier was receded north of present day Quebec City. When the climate got warmer again the sea levels rose, this t ime to near Albany, and caused Glacial Lake Albany to drain. For the next couple thousand years as the climate cooled, the Hudson was tidal up to Poughkeepsie and as the Sea retreated. This brought the tides down with it to near Peekskill where it stayed for many thousands of years until around 6,000 years ago it began to go north to nearly 20 miles past Troy32 by 2,000 years ago the sea was at its present place, and the Hudson was in its present 2 The exception to this is the Troy Dam; if it wasn’t built the Hudson would still be tidal nearly 20 miles north of it. 16 | P a g e state. Long Island was as it is now, and the coast was pretty much the same besides what natural erosion as taken away since then. This was the final Glaciation, and the final change to the Hudson River. After nearly 1. 2 billion years, several different Oregany’s, Hundreds of changes, 4 different climate changes and a whole lot of pushing and pulling and moving the Hudson River was finished bei ng formed and all it needed was for Henry Hudson to come sailing to name it†¦. ConclusionIf you have gotten this far along into this history story then you will know that the Hudson River didn’t just appear, it doesn’t formally end at the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten island and it isn’t just a river. It is the culmination of 1. 2 billion years (and counting) of the earth doing its shtick33 on the world we live on. It took 7 different continents to pull this off, and it worked out beautifully creating a river of outmost importance to our lives, lives before us, and lives to come. I like most of you out there reading this paper did not know a thing about the Geology of the Hudson River when I started this project.It probably took me a proportionate amount of time to learn this as it did to create the whole Hudson. Now, after early 3 months of reading words I don’t know, looking at diagrams I can’t even understand and writing technical ter ms that I can’t pronounce I have learned what it took, and takes to create the Hudson. Like they say, it takes a village to raise a child; it took a whole world and 1. 2 billion years to create this river, a river of small nature compared to others around us such as the Nile, or Amazon which are nearly 5 times the length of the Hudson and took a very disproportionate amount of time to create. 3 â€Å"Piece†, or â€Å"thing† in Yiddish 17 | P a g e So, as I leave you with this 20 page Essay, think about the next time you go to the Hudson and pick up a handful of sand, and know, just know that that handful of sand has been moved around for 1. 2 billion years to end up at your feet. Bibliography L. Sirkin & H. Bokuniewics (2006) – The Hudson River Valley: Geological History, Landforms and Resources Wikipedia (http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Hudson_Canyon&oldid=453958227) – Hudson Canyon Data SIO, NOAA, U. S.Navy NGA, GEBCO (2010)  œ Google Earthâ„ ¢ United States Geological Survey (USGS) (2004) – Sea Floor Topography & Backscatter Intensity of the Hudson Canyon Region Offshore of New York & New Jersey (http://pubs. usgs. gov/of/2004/1441/html/interp. html) Phil Stoffer & Paula Messina (2008) – Introduction to the Geologic History of the New York Bight (http://www. geo. hunter. cuny. edu/bight/Geology. html) Phil Stoffer & Paula Messina (2008) – The Highlands Region (http://www. geo. hunter. cuny. edu/bight/highland. html) R. G.Wilkins Booth (1970) – The Ontario Water resources commission Geology of the upper part of the Severn River basin and the Severn River basin lying within the Hudson River Lowlands. Steven H. Sehimmrich – Geology of the Hudson Highlands Region (www. environmentalconsortium. org) Access Genealogy – Geology of the Hudson (http://www. accessgenealogy. com/newyork/hudson/geology_hudson. html) Charles Merguerian (2010) – Geology 133 Field Tr ip 18 | P a g e Dick Goodman (2013) – Geologist in California, gave much information and advice on this project United States Navy Geological Services (2013) – Maps, Graphs Bradford B.Van Diver (1985) – Roadside Geology of New York John F. Shupe (1996) – National Geographic Atlas of the World Revised sixth edition Kevin Hile (2009) – The Big Book of Answers Tom Lewis (2005) – The Hudson: A History Maps 19 | P a g e The maps presented here on the next couple of pages are all ones used in this essay as reference. They are from many different sources and show many of the things I talked about, visually. Hudson Canyon 20 | P a g e 21 | P a g e 22 | P a g e Geographical Diagrams 23 | P a g e 24 | P a g e 25 | P a g e

Gaspar Aquino de Belén Essay

Gaspar Aquino de Belen is a Filipina poet and translator of the 17th century, author in particular of Pasyon, a famous poetic of passion, died narration and resurrection of Christ. Filipino natives, generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belen, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog language. Pasyon, begun by Aquino de Belen, is a narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has circulated in many versions. Gaspar Aquino de Belen was a Filipino poet and translator of the 17th century, known for authoring a 1704 rendition of the Pasyon: a famous poetic narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, which has circulated in many versions. Generally Filipino natives were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-translator Aquino de Belen, produced devotional poetry written in Latin script in the Tagalog language. Gaspar Aquino de Belen is a Filipino writer, poet and translator during the 17th century. Aquino de Belen was known for his work Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon Natin na Tola, which was published in Manila by the Imprenta de la Compania por Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay in 1760. Filipino natives generally were not taught Spanish, but bilingual individuals called ladino, notably poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belen, produced devotional poetry written in the Tagalog language using Roman script. Pasyon, began by Aquino de Belen, is a narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Individual Case Study Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Individual Case Study Analysis - Essay Example The case study reflects the impact of the cultural difference between the employees of JET. The report has been prepared for understanding the key issues of the organization and focus on analysing the reasons behind these issues. It will highlight the impact of linguistic barrier and cultural differences within the organization. The different situations where the difference in the nature of thinking and the social values resulted in creation of distance between the employees of different nationality have been discussed in this study. Finally, recommendations to the organizations for solving the recent issues and improving its performance have been concluded in the report. 2. Introduction In this case study, the difference in the values of the Japanese and the Americans has been clearly shown The Japanese were formal and reserved. On the other hand, the American were informal and self assertive in nature. In case of accepting assignments in the foreign countries (as expatriates), it i s very important to consider the personality, psychology and cultural differences. ... This case study reflected the clashes which took place as a result of differences in the personality, values, psychology, culture and also lack in the orientation and training programs. It highlighted the factors which should have been considered by Kelly before planning to accept the offer. 3. Analysis and Issues Kelly found that the Japanese were too much devoted towards their work and were satisfied in working for extra time during the weekends and coming to office during the weekends. According to Kelly, the employees should make proper use of the vacation time provided to them in the job contract. Kelly noticed that none of the Japanese women have been promoted to a senior level in the Board of Education. The only women found to be working there were the young secretaries or office ladies. Mr. Higashi, who was the supervisor of the foreign participants of JET, had a tendency of arranging projects as well as other conferences and cancelling them without informing to the Assistant Language Trainers about the cancellation of such projects and conferences. In a similar manner, he arranged for special assignment during the holiday without providing prior information to the ALT’s. These were the key issues where the foreigners had to suffer because of the cultural differences. Moreover, as these foreigners could not speak the Japanese language properly, communication with them was very difficult. Moreover, the Japanese considered these foreign employees to be less committed towards their work as they never stayed in the office after the completion of the working hour at 5.00 p.m. on the weekdays and never worked during the weekends. The ALT’s had stated it clearly that there were vacation days mentioned in the job contract and they will utilise these

Linguistic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Linguistic - Essay Example Although OED describes itself as descriptive by taking a more objective approach: allowing English users to utilize words according to which way they think is more appropriate; somehow, it is not as descriptive as other dictionaries like Merriam Webster’s or American Heritage considering that it subdues itself from adopting slang, newly-created words. For example, both Merriam Webster’s Dictionary and OED recognizes the word â€Å"skunk†; nevertheless, OED sticks with the original meaning while Merriam Webster’s Dictionary takes a new definition of the word which means â€Å"an obnoxious or disliked person† (Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, â€Å"Skunk†). OED claims that "it traces the development of English from the earliest records, and formally from 1150 AD, up to the present day" (Oxford English Dictionary, â€Å"Guide to The Third Edition of the OED†). Anyone can nod as to the looseness of the rules in this dictionary, but still, it has the slightest leanings towards prescriptivism. Acocella (5) asserts â€Å"the most curious flaw in the descriptivists’ reasoning is their failure to notice that it is now they who are doing the prescribing.† OED and other descriptivist dictionaries are becoming more of a trendsetter rather than an agency to respond to the changing needs of the society. However, OED’s belief that it’s a descriptivist dictionary but claims it â€Å"does include information on which usages are, or have been, popularly regarded as ‘incorrect’† may just be a sign that it’s not fully descriptivist

Art History essay question Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Art History essay question - Assignment Example Pre-historic art was commonly done in the cave, therefore it is not considered to be a movement by human beings but a period of artistic evolution and development. It comprises the whole painting and forms of drawings which were evident in caves. In addition, human sculptures are part of these ancient or prehistoric arts. In the current world most information, ideas or feelings are expressed in artistic form and these expressions did not start with the modern world; it was prehistorically expressed by the ancient people. On the other hand this was considered to be their main way of expression and preserving of certain information. The prehistoric people also decorated themselves with particular coloring matter to enhance beauty. The ancient near east is commonly remembered for the earliest civilization which developed in Mesopotamia. This was a region between two rivers the Euphrates and Tigris, currently called Iraq. The major civilization landmarks evident in this place were the mushrooming of urban centers resulting into the title â€Å"Cradle of Civilization†. Mesopotamia is commonly known also for the greater inventions of agricultural related machines and technologies. More so, the main reason why the region was named as near Middle East was due to its strategic position in the middle or near to the countries to the immediate west. The historical art of the ancient eastern has been largely related to the western art although the worse was more inclined to the biblical land thus rendering the eastern historical art meaningful to their art history. The historical art of the ancient Greece is greatly remembered for several reasons and a number of historic contributions they added to the world of history. The most significant historical archaic and artistic work of the western world was adamantly created and finalized in the 16th century as free paintings of

Hedging an Equity Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Hedging an Equity Portfolio - Essay Example Cross hedging capabilities may depend on various factors. First is the degree in which the spot and futures currencies are negatively or positively correlated. Secondly, this also depends on the level of accuracy of the estimated risk-minimizing cross-hedge factors. In addition, time is an important factor in this process and therefore the capability of cross hedging depends on the stability of the optimal cross hedge proportions over a given duration or period of time. Moreover, this also depends on the potential risk reduction from portfolio cross-hedging. A hedger is any individual or institution that minimizes the variance of expected monetary returns on a currency spot position with regards to a position in the currency’s corresponding future contract. There are various reasons for hedging in a financial set up. First is for the purposes of managing volatility in cash flows. Secondly, hedging is important for the purposes of checking the market value of an organizationâ⠂¬â„¢s shares. Hedging is also used for the purposes of managing volatility in accounting earnings. In addition, the management of balance sheet accounts and ratios can also benefit from hedging. For fund managers, performance information with regards to their hedging activities should be provided without restrictions or resistance from the fund manager. This is because funds may avoid reporting because of poor results. Such funds usually have below average returns in comparison to other funds and in addition, omitting them may result in an upward bias. On the other hand, there might be other funds that have become very successful as a result of growth in areas that they may not have actually wished to attract new investments. These funds may also decide to leave the database for a very different reason. Tentatively, their performance is likely to be superior to that of the average fund. Whereas there might be difficulties in attaining accurate estimates of these two effects, it is believed that the reported returns are usually biased upwards. Secondly, hedge fund databases have a limitation of reporting data only on funds still in existence or those that are new and rapidly growing. Funds that are no longer active are usually eliminated from the database. This practice in turn leaves an upward bias to performance statistics. This is because funds that are closed are likely to be poorly performing. Another type of bias can be referred to as the instant history bias. This occurs when a fund is included on the database for the first time and is therefore permitted to backfill its historical records. This type of bias could be estimated through the calculation of the average of the returns since introduction and later comparing them to the average returns since the fund joined the database. There are different hedge fund styles that are applicable in the financial markets today. Generally, hedge funds are not strictly regulated investment components that engage the use of a wide range of

Are latin Americans growing more anti-AmericanExplain your answer in Research Paper

Are latin Americans growing more anti-AmericanExplain your answer in detail.C.Q.Resercher, July 21, 2006, Vol.16.issue 26 - Research Paper Example And since Latin America is its closest neighbor, it was natural for the United States to take active interest in developments in the region. Often disparagingly referred to as US' backyard, it was in Latin America that US' imperialist goals were first implemented. (Field, 1978, p.659) And the continuation of these goals has led to genuine grievances among Latin American intellectuals and masses alike. It then comes as no surprise that anti-American sentiment in this part of the world is steadily increasing. The rest of this essay will present further evidence in support of this claim. Looking at the history of American politics, the perception of the United States as an imperialist state was first mooted in the early part of the nineteenth century and the outbreak of the Spanish-American war in 1898 confirmed this fact. Indeed, the final years of the 19th century saw the peaking of American imperialist aggression as it occupied Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands – th e latter two eventually becoming American colonies. (Lens & Zinn, 2003) Unfortunately, though, not much has changed since the time of these conquests, creating a sense of resentment and despair among Latin Americans. ... All of these factors have established political institutions in many countries in Latin America. In several others, American involvement has sapped the economy to the brink of collapse. But when looks at the views of founding fathers of the United States, they have unequivocally stated such strategic and economic goals, albeit covered in polished language. For example, the early indicators of imperialist tendency can be found in the founding documents of the country. Even luminaries such as Thomas Jefferson have articulated an imperialist vision for the United States in no unclear terms. The annexation of Louisiana in the eighteenth century is seen as the first act of this vision. During the nineteenth century, the U.S.' foreign policy was largely confined to the American continent, with Central and Southern American regions being focal points. (Sawyer, 2004, p.115) As is typical of imperialist propaganda, convoluted justifications were given for aggressive foreign policy. It was sta ted that lands of 'semi-civilized' and 'primitive' peoples were occupied in order to bring Western civilization (which is supposedly superior) to these lands. Empire expansion was also projected as benign and compassionate, for Christian missionary work was invariably associated with it. Propaganda also had it that the standards of living of subjects of the empire will eventually rise. On the whole, imperialist enterprise was promoted using these vapid and empty slogans and motives. (Lens & Zinn, 2003) But sooner, the affected masses came to see these projected noble goals for what they are. And the stirring currents of dissent in Latin America today are one of its manifestations. America's destructive interventions in other parts of the world has also disillusioned many

Trade Unions in Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Trade Unions in Britain - Essay Example The trade unions in Britain traditionally had a system in which the bargaining was based on industries. This gave the trade unions a sense of institutional security in their operations within the private sector. By 1950, approximately 60% of the workers in the private sector were under collective agreements that had their origins outside their firm of employment. Several events and developments however combined to cause the decline of the trade unions and their influence (Fernie & Metcalf 202). The decline of the trade unions in Britain began in the years since 1979. This was after the election of Margaret Thatcher’s government that had conservative policies that were aimed at weakening the trade unions (Wrigley 2002, p40). This decline followed a period of rapid growth and increase in membership and influence in the 1950s. The collapse of the trade unions could therefore be anticipated following the decline experienced. There were several factors that contributed to the decli ne and the eventual collapse of the trade unions. ... The decline in the unions was also seen in the collective bargaining influence which was said to have declined from 70% to 40% in the years between 1980 and 1998 (Brown et al. 2003, p199). The future of the trade unions in Britain has largely been discussed. The discussion in based on the impact that the trade unions are expected to have in the future, and whether the trade unions are expected to grow or face a decline. The purpose that the trade unions serve has also come under scrutiny. It is however important to understand the role that the trade unions are expected to play so that one can understand the impact that they are likely to have in the country. It is also important to understand the crucial role that is played by the trade union and their function in the country. The 1999 Employment Relations Act in Britain was a significant step in marking the recovery of the political influence held by the trade unions. This came after many years of exclusion from the process of polic y making. The act has also been important in that it has stimulated the increase in the organization of unions, and helped the trade unions in getting recognition from the employers. The act has also paved way for the trade unions to adopt policies that are aimed at increasing their membership across all sectors of the economy. There are however many limitations to the influence that trade unions wield on the Labor government in Britain. While the trade unions have an opportunity to engage the government in dialogue over various labor policies, the government often ignores many of the ideas and representations of the trade unions. The trade unions also find it

Accounting information systems development Essay

Accounting information systems development - Essay Example The company in this scenario is a small, local CPA firm. The personnel at the organization include three new CPAs and an office manager. Primarily, the company's business consists of tax and write-up work.However, recently the company has required a new client: a homeowner's association with a total of 150 homeowners.The firm has agreed to provide the homeowner's association with several services. There are six service areas that the company has agreed to service the homeowner's association with: billing, collection, payments, reporting, tax, and advisory. With billing, each homeowner will be sent an itemized bill each quarter, dues being payable by the month. Late fees accumulate at one percent of the unpaid balance each month that passes. On the first day of the last month of the quarter, bills are mailed out to the homeowners, and payment is expected by the quarter's end.With collection, the accounting firm is responsible for collecting the payments from the post office box that i t has rented specially for the homeowner's association. They are also responsible for depositing the checks they collect.With the large, new client, the company is hoping to expand that area of their practice by computerizing the main functions of their system. The goal of the company is to computerized the system's main functions. The main focus of the computerization will be on billing and reporting. Other than the actual interface of the new system, the checking account, financial statements, and tax preparation parts will not be computerized at this time. Instead, the billing and collections portions of the system will be computerized. The System and Manual Functions (Inputs, Outputs, and Controls) BusinessTown (2008) tell us to "Think of the accounting system as a wheel whose hub is the general ledger (G/L). Feeding the hub information are the spokes of the wheel. These include accounts receivable, accounts payable, order entry, inventory control, cost accounting, payroll, and fixed assets accounting." Each of these items is a subledger of the general ledger, and each summarizes the entries and then feeds that information to the general ledger. There are a few differences between manual and automated ledgers. In order to consider this, think of the general ledger as a piece of paper that shows assets, liabilities, income, and expenses where all transactions are recorded by hand in a manual fashion. While some of the entries from the different subledgers flow upwards, others are entered manually through the utilization of a general journal entry. "The same concept of a sheet of paper holds for each subledger that feeds the general ledger. A computerized accounting system works the same way, except that the general ledger and subledgers are computer files instead of sheets of paper. Entries are posted to each and summarized, then the summary is sent up to the G/L for posting" (BusinessTown, 2008). Billing is the first component that will be computerized at the firm. This will be highly beneficial to the organization since "Accounting firms can improve their profitability and relations with clients by automating client billing with computers. Accounting firms c

Overview of the GCC States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Overview of the GCC States - Essay Example This is aimed at providing an economical balance in the Gulf region and also envisaged a common currency in the area (Low and   Salazar, 2011). This would help the council to foster the growth of the private sector in the economy of the Gulf region through economic co-operation, scientific and technological progress, joint ventures and strengthening the ties of the people among the Arab states. The Gulf Co-operation Council also aims to set up a unified military structure involving the Arab States. About GCC Gulf Corporate Council is the economic and political alliance of six different Middle Eastern Countries, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and The United Arab Emirates (MSU, 2013). In the year 2007, the states of Gulf Corporate Council supported the International compact document with Iraq which was adopted in Egypt. In the year 2011, Saudi Arabia suggested that the Gulf Corporate Council intensify their integration in order to form a confederation. However, se veral objections rose against this specific proposal of Saudi Arabia by the other GCC countries. Several discussions are going on regarding the future membership of Morocco, Jordan and Yemen. Establishment of GCC GCC is the short form of Gulf Corporate Council. GCC was founded in Abu Dhabi in the year 1981. The original council of GCC comprised a total 630 million acre Persian Gulf state of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar. The integrated economic agreement between the GCC countries was signed in Abu Dhabi in the year 1981 (Britannica, 2013). These six countries are referred to as the Gulf Corporate Council states. There are several key objectives behind the formation of GCC. Fostering technical and scientific progress in agriculture, mining, industry, animal and water resources is one of the major objectives of Gulf Corporate Council. The GCC states aimed to develop several scientific research centers in order to enhance countries’ growth. In addition, they are trying to establish several important joint ventures. This strategy and idea can enhance the business environment of GCC countries. Devising similar regulations in different social, political and economical fields, such as finance, trade, religion, tourism, customs, administration and legislation is another major objective of the states of Gulf Corporate Council (Ahmad & Faris, 2010). These countries were facing threat of several outside attacks. Therefore, they tried to cohesive strong military presence in these countries. This unified military force is recognized as Peninsula Shield Force. In the year 1981, these several states of Gulf Corporate Council aimed to establish a common currency by 2010. GCC tries to encourage the cooperation of several private sector organizations. According to the states, this co-operation can enhance the economic environment of these six countries. Healthy social balance of a country is very much important in order to achieve future growth ( Kirgis, 2006). Therefore, Gulf Corporate Council aimed to strengthen the ties between the people of these countries. However, in the year 2006, Oman announced that the council cannot meet the objective within the target date. In addition, the country also announced that the

The law relating to organ transplantation Essay Example for Free

The law relating to organ transplantation Essay Organ transplants can vastly improve patients quality of life and benefit their families and society in general by restoring an ill and dependent individual to health. On cost benefit analysis transplants prove ultimately cheaper than long-term dialysis by i 191,000 per patient on average. However, there are fewer donors than there are needy patients although this should not be the case, because the percentage of willing donors lie in the 70s. Nonetheless, actual donations languish in the 20s. I argue that this is due to the misdirected and incoherent legal structure in place. I suggest that to increase the number of organs for transplantation a presumed consent system should be implemented to close the gap between willing and actual donations. In conjunction with improved coordination this will ameliorate the severe shortage. Such a system is ethically and morally justified. I consider other options under cadaveric donation such as increased investment in coordination without a change in the default position of deference to relatives (in the footsteps of Spain), as well as alternatives to cadaveric donation, such as live donations and xenotransplantation. They are however problematic both ethically and practically, such that even if the law formally and effectively ensures that all who need organs get them, it would be normatively wrong. 1 The law relating to organ transplantation The terms of the relevant law must be subject to critique, because ultimately healthcare workers must work within the existing common law and legislation, even as they seek to save patients from an avoidable early death. The definition of death is problematic. Today the concept of brain death has been adopted by most Western countries. Others suggest however that when the capacity for sentience is irrevocably absent, the minimum criteria for personhood no longer exists, despite the presence of a functioning brain stem. Perhaps it is best to admit that it is impossible to define the moment of death with any certainty or precision, and that the important task therefore is to determine at what point in the process of dying organ retrieval becomes legitimate. In the UK, s1(4) of the HTA61 specifies that the doctor be satisfied that life is extinct before organ retrieval may take place but there is no statutory definition of death, leaving that to a matter of clinical judgement. Standard practice is for two independent doctors to perform two sets of tests to determine brain stem death. The HTA61 outdated and prevents the facilitation of a successful programme. The current system tries to allow for all possible scenarios. S1(1) approximates an opt-in system, but there is no definition of who the person lawfully in possession of the body is, and a verbal intention is only legally valid when it is made in the course of the last illness. Further, according to HSC 1998/035, 8. 2, if a patient is a recorded willing donor, there is no legal requirement to establish a lack of objection on the part of relatives, but in practice it is good practice for any objectives raised by relatives to take priority over donors wishes. S1(2) approximates a weak opt-out scheme applying where the deceased has left no recorded expression of his or her wishes. The person lawfully in possession of the body is authorised to remove organs for transplantation if reasonable enquiry shows that the deceased did not object to organ removal or that the surviving spouse or any surviving relative has no objection to the use of the organs. Although it is fairly evident why spouses should be invited to express their views, this does not reflect the reality of the situation in which many adults now live cohabitees or long term partners now fulfil this role. The system is on aggregate incoherent and piecemeal, and when an organ is taken, no one knows for sure why is it because the medical team has requested, or is it because the medical team has procured it under s1(2) of the HTA61? McLean opines that the current legislation is more of a hindrance than an assistance to an effective transplantation programme. So, to increase the number of organs for transplantation a presumed consent system should be implemented in conjunction with improved coordination to ameliorate the severe shortage. Such a system is ethically and morally justified. 2 Dead Donors Presumed Consent Historically doctors were thought reluctant to ask families of the deceased about the possibility of donating their relatives organs. However, Gentleman et al. found that in fact request rates were reasonably high such that the belief that a failure to request is the cause for organs shortage is no longer sustainable. Rather, the problem with the opt-in system is its inability to enforce deceased individuals preferences because the family vetoes it, in part because they were never made known. For a grieving and bereft family, a request for organ donation is difficult to agree to because they can only guess at the wishes of the deceased and if there were any doubt at all, would not the natural answer be a rejection? If relatives had severe objections, they should be taken into account for to do otherwise raises the spectre of the swastika, but the point remains that by changing the default position of organ donation it is a veto clearly against the deceaseds wishes, which would be rather more unlikely to take place than the current veto due to a simple lack of information. It is not that the PC system is ethically unsound. I argue that presumed consent is superior to the opt-in system because it truly ensures autonomy by giving effect to choices each person makes. It gives legal effect to individual autonomy and it ensures truly informed consent when accompanied by public education and information, instead of intuitive responses to organ donation. Nonetheless, some problems with presumed consent have been pointed out. Patient autonomy lies at the very heart of modern medicine and medical research . This is partly a reaction against medical paternalism and an increasing awareness of the integrity of the individual. It may be argued that a presumed consent (PC) system is paternalistic but it concomitantly reinforces individual autonomy and preserves the dignity and integrity of the individual especially in comparison to, for example, an organs market. McLean points out that underpinning the UK system of organ donation is the fundamental view that organ transplantation should be a gift relationship. So Sir Morris doubts that proposals to change legislation to allow presumed consent to be introduced are likely to be publicly accepted. However, why is presumed consent any less a gift? It does not mean widespread harvesting of cadaveric organs. It means greater public awareness and individual choice that is made concrete. More practical considerations also exist. First, the need for sophisticated infrastructure to maintain an opting-out register. But this is a problem of the past century. Today, only Internet access and a computer is necessary. It is no more difficult than maintaining a register for opting-in patients. If the number of donors truly reflects the number that are willing at 70% then it is in fact more efficient to keep a shorter list of those who do not wish to donate, which would constitute only 30% of the population. Secondly, there is a fear of adverse publicity if organs are taken in the face of relatives objections but as argued above, these could be taken into account, and public education moral suasion could persuade the public of the logic of a need for such a system, to cause a change in social values. For example, when the presumed consent system was implemented in Singapore, statistics showed that more people came forward as donors under a separate legal scheme as a result of heightened public awareness of great need. Even the family was more likely to agree to organ harvesting the Muslim cadaver belongs to her family, so despite the exemption of Muslims from the presumed consent system, Muslim donations rose as well. Due to the widespread awareness of the merits of organ donation with public education and the support of religious leaders with clear moral grounds for the scheme, social values developed to embrace this medical system. Third, one might ask if resources could be better employed than on the maintenance of such a system but if it solves the problem of organ shortage and alleviates medical conditions at the knife-edge between life and death, it is a small price to pay in terms of opportunity cost. Alternatives to Presumed Consent Required request of families bypasses individual autonomy. It is precisely the problem with the current system. Financial and medical priority incentives a survey of the systems currently in place reveals that compensation is illegal. Blumstein says that in the US, families are offended when financial incentives are offered when they consent to their deceased relatives organs being donated. Nonetheless, the American Medical Association (AMA) has voted to encourage studies to determine whether financial incentives could increase the pool of cadaveric organ donors. Among strategies considered are small payments to deflect the funeral cost of a relative and preferential consideration for organ donation when a member of someones family has donated an organ. This prioritisation is manifestly unethical it may be pragmatic but why should donation work on this basis? Should it not work on a basis of response to medical need, instead of allowing queue jumping by people who volunteer someone elses organs? Financial incentives could increase the pool of cadaveric organs, but there are other methods to consider namely my proposal of presumed consent which are far more egalitarian and prima facie altruistic so far as cadeveric donations are concerned. Relaxed restrictions amounts to mere tweaking of the existing system which does not address ethical problems with the current system, such as the undermining of individual autonomy. If the list of criteria for the exclusion of donors is made less stringent, to allow a greater pool of potential donors, the final filtrate of donors will still be paltry in comparison with a comprehensive overhaul of the current system. Improved coordination take for example Spains system based on familial consent. The lessons learnt are that a decentralised system appears most effective, comprising 1) local organisations that focus mainly on organ procurement and promotion of donation and 2) large structures that focus on promoting organ sharing and co-operation. This simply means more investment is needed. The real issue remains this: if the main reason forwarded for not having the opt-out system diminished personal freedom is the same reason for why the Spanish coordination system works, should we not be wary, even if the numbers crunch delectably? Coupled with the PC system however this would greatly increase the effectiveness of the organ transplantation system and protect autonomy too. Elective Ventilation of deep coma patients close to death with no possibility of recovery for a few hours to preserve their organs long enough to prepare for their removal after death. A trial held in Exeter in 1988 led to a 50% increase in the number of organs suitable for transplantation, but was halted in 1994 when the Department of Health declared in unlawful, because it was not in the patients best interests but whilst of no direct benefit to the patient, it is not contrary to the patients interests and has the potential to benefit others. Nonetheless, this would still be subject to relatives vetoes without a systemic revamp.

Biochemical Importance of Water

Biochemical Importance of Water Water is often referred to as the universal solvent and without there would be no life on this planet. Its involvement is extensive from cellular processes in organism to providing a habitat for life. In this essay I will examine the reason for waters properties and how its properties allow for its vast involvement. A water molecule is comprised of 2 hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom. The oxygen forms 4 sp3 hybrid orbitals resulting in a tetrahedral shape. The sp3 hybrid orbitals come about from the overlap of the 2s orbital and the 2px, 2py and 2pz orbitals of the oxygen. Two of these hybrids then overlap with the 1s orbital of the hydrogens resulting in two covalent bonds. The other orbitals are occupied by the 2 lone pairs on the oxygen. The VSEPR (valence shell electron pair repulsion) theory states that electrons repel each other and as a result of this the electrons that surround an atom spatially arrange themselves maximising the distance between one another in the effort to reduce this repulsive effect1. However, lone pairs have a greater repulsive effect than valence electrons which results in the distortion of the angle by effecting the positions of the other electrons; this property accounts for waters shape being bent rather than tetrahedral and having a bond angle of 104.5Â ° rather than a tetrahedral angle of 109.5Â °1. Waters polar nature is contingent upon the difference in the electronegativities of its atoms. Oxygen has a greater electronegativity than hydrogen resulting in oxygen having a bigger pull on the electrons than the hydrogen. The result of this is an inductive effect where the electrons in the covalent bond being drawn closer to the oxygen. As a result of the inductive effect, the oxygen has a partial negative charge (ÃŽ ´-) while the hydrogens possess a partial positive charge (ÃŽ ´+) producing a polar substance. Waters polar nature allows for the formation of hydrogen bonds between one another. The partially positive hydrogen of one atom forms a hydrogen bond with partially negative oxygen of another water molecule. The partial charges on the atoms that make up water allow it to act as a solvent for ionic or polar substances. In the case of ions, the water can break bonds between one another to form ion-dipole bonds as well as dipole-dipole bonds5. The charge of the ion attracts the opposite charge on the water and is surrounded by the solvent molecules forming either one or more hydration shells. Certain biological molecules possess both polar and non polar regions. The polar regions are said to be hydrophilic and will interact with the solvent through hydrogen bonding. The non polar regions are unable to form hydrogen bonds with the water and therefore are unable to interact with it. The water is said to have a hydrophobic effect2 upon these non polar molecules as they interfere with the hydrogen bonding between water molecules. These biological molecules position themselves so that the orientation of the hydrophilic head faces outwards into the solvent while the hydrophobic tail points inwards away from the solvent. Examples of this process would be the micelles, which position themselves so that they form globules and bilayers where they position themselves so that there are two layers of hydrophilic heads pointing outwards into the solvent on either side with the tails conjugating in between. The bond strength of hydrogen is weak comparatively, it is approximately 20 kJ mol-1 compared to 460 kJ mol-1 for the covalent bond between the oxygen and the hydrogen3. Although hydrogen bonds are weak individually they have a cumulative effect. Due to the vast number of intermolecular hydrogen bonds in water, water has a high specific heat capacity for its molecular weight (4.18 J K-1 g-1)5 meaning waters able to absorb a substantially high value for heat and as a result the temperature increase is minimal4. This is what makes water an effective temperature buffer. Water spreads the energy from the thermal increase across the entirety of its system; this is the reasoning behind why water is used by organisms to regulate their temperature. Sweat is comprised of water and salt, due to waters high specific heat capacity it requires a lot of energy to evaporate the sweet off the body6. The thermal energy generated by the body is used to evaporate the sweat which in turn cools the body down. This principle also explains why water can exist in liquid forms and allows for the existence of oceans, lakes, etc. Waters existence as a liquid is vital to existence of life. Osmosis is the movement of water from a region of high concentration to an area of low concentration through a semi permeable membrane. If animal cells were surrounded by an aqueous environment which differs in water potential from their own it could result in cell shrinkage or bursting. In an effort to prevent this, the cells are immersed in an aqueous solution with a similar osmotic potential to that in the cell (isotonic). An example of where osmosis plays a large part in biology is in homeostasis. Water regulation in the body is controlled by the osmoreceptors in the hypothalamus of the brain. The low levels of water in the blood cause these cells to shrink due to osmosis; this causes neurosecretory cells to release the hormone ADH (anti-diuretic hormone)7. Controlling the levels of ADH controls the permeability of the collecting duct, in the liver, to water and thereby controlling the levels of water in the blood and subsequently the body. Each water molecule forms four hydrogen bonds with 4 other water molecules. Although these water molecules dont stay constantly bonded to each other, reorienting every 10-12 s 3, the extensive network of these bonds results in a large cohesive force holding water together. This is vital for the role water plays for transpiration in plants. When water evaporates and leaves through the stomata a water gradient causes the water to be pulled up the xylem. The water molecules above drag the ones below it due the bonds between them. Waters adhesive properties also play a role in this as it gives water the ability to overcome the gravitational force acting upon it through the adhesion between the water and the cell walls in the xylem. Water is used inside complex organisms to break down macromolecules into their sub units. One of the hydrogens of the water is added to one substituent while the hydroxyl group in water is added to the other sub unit. This process is therefore known as hydrolysis. This is important in terms of converting long term storage of carbohydrates, such as glycogen in the body and starch in plants, into short term carbohydrates used in metabolism. The reverse of this process is known as dehydration. When monomers come together to form polymers, the hydroxyl of one and the hydrogen of the other leave giving rise to a polymer. An example of this would be the reaction between amino acids to form proteins, the hydrogen on the amine group and the hydroxyl group of the carboxyl group on the other. Water plays a role in respiration; it cleaves a phosphate off ATP, energy currency of cells, to give ADP and energy for respiration. Waters is produced from the combining of hydrogen ions, electrons and oxygen in oxidative phosphorylation. The significance of this is, the formation of water allows the process to continue7; if water didnt form then cell death would follow. For instance, cyanide inhibits the formation of water from oxidative phosphorylation7. In photosynthesis, water replenishes the electrons lost by the reaction centre. The hydrogen ions of water pass through the channel in the stalk particle providing the energy for phosphorylation of ADP to ATP. The oxygen that is left combines with another to form O2 and is used in cellular respiration. Water contributes to buffering changes in pH in organisms. It combines with carbon dioxide to form carbonic acid. The carbonic acid dissociates into hydrogen ions and bicarbonate. All these processes are reversible in both directions. This allows it to act as a buffer. If the pH increases the carbon dioxide and water react to form carbonic acid which, in turn, dissociates to release hydrogen ions, which decrease the pH, and bicarbonate6. The reverse occurs for a decrease in pH. In conclusion, the significant processes that water is involved in are due to its polarity and its ability to form hydrogen bonds.