The subject of the study concerns the enhancement of corrosion and wear resistance of nitrided 42CrMo4 steel by the formation of zinc phosphate top layer. The present work is aimed at the assessment of the effect of increasing thickness of nitrided layer from approximately 2 µm to 16 µm on the morphology and properties of zinc phosphate coating. XRD analysis showed that along with the increase in the thickness of the nitrides layer, a change in the phase composition was observed. SEM/EDS examination revealed that top layer consists of crystalline zinc phosphate coating. The shape and size of crystals does not significantly depend on a thickness of nitrides layer but corrosion resistance determined by potentiodynamic method in 0.5M NaCl increased with an increase of thickness of a “white layer”. Similarily the wear resistance determined by the 3-cone-roll test was also the highest for 16 µm nitride layer.

In the 1985 ablation season studies were made of the dynamics and size of the transport of suspended and dissolved material in a glaciated drainage basin (the Ebbaelva) and an unglaciated one (the Dynamiskbekken) in the central part of West Spitsbergen island. The dynamics of runoff, the exhaustion of sources of transportable suspended material, hysteretic effects during floods, the share of genetic type of water differing in the mineralisation level and chemical content, as well as the role of rain waters in mobilising soluble salts, are the principal factors of transport dynamics. The extremaly warm ablation season caused the extent of denudation to exceed the estimates made so far.