> It maybe worth noting that I watched the postmaster process with TOP until
> the crash. What I noticed was that the memory usage gradually increased
> until it reached 95%, at which time postmaster then crashed.


This means it almost certainly running out of memory.

How much memory do you have in your machine?

what happens if you remove the "  AND     distance(NOD1.shape, NOD2.shape) <= 
0.000002" from your query?

dave


