Distinctive Volcanic Material for the Production of Campana A Ware: The Workshop Area of Neapolis at the Duomo Metro Station in Naples,Italy

Recent transportation infrastructure works in Naples, Italy, provided important discoveries related to the production of pottery in the Hellenistic workshop area of Piazza Nicola Amore. A minero‐petrographic investigation was conducted on 35 samples belonging to the widespread Campana A ware and production indicators (clayey raw materials, unfired Graeco‐Italic amphorae, kiln wastes, workshop tools). Additional analysis was conducted on black‐glaze and common ware samples for comparison. The analyses reveal compositional and technological homogeneity of Campana A ware. Samples are characterized by low CaO content with evidence of both volcanic and sedimentary components, suggesting that different clay sources were properly mixed to prepare a standard recipe. Production indicators, black‐glaze and common wares, have a composition well consistent with the calcareous clays from the island of Ischia. Leucite‐ and garnet‐bearing temper from the Somma Volcano were used for the preparation of coarse‐grained pastes, unfired Graeco‐Italic amphorae, and clayey raw materials, thus suggesting that they represented the clay sources for amphorae production. Our results reveal new technological and socioeconomic aspects of Hellenistic pottery production in the Bay of Naples, in particular for the Campana A ware, now representing a new reference group: Neapolis.     

Cost–benefit analysis of flood mitigation measures: a case study employing high-performance hydraulic and damage modelling

Natural Hazards - This paper shows a detailed, advanced procedure to implement cost–benefit analyses (CBAs) in order to assess the effectiveness of flood mitigation measures. The town of Lodi...     

Role of melting process and melt–rock reaction in the formation of Jurassic MORB-type basalts (Alpine ophiolites)

This study reports a geochemical investigation of two thick basalt sequences, exposed in the Bracco–Levanto ophiolite (northern Apennine, Italy) and in the Balagne ophiolite (central-northern Corsica, France). These ophiolites are considered to represent an oceanward and a continent-near paleogeographic domain of the Jurassic Liguria–Piedmont basin. Trace elements and Nd isotopic compositions were examined to obtain information about: (1) mantle source and melting process and (2) melt–rock reactions during basalt ascent. Whole-rock analyses revealed that the Balagne basalts are slightly enriched in LREE, Nb, and Ta with respect to the Bracco–Levanto counterparts. These variations are paralleled by clinopyroxene chemistry. In particular, clinopyroxene from the Balagne basalts has higher Ce_N/Sm_N (0.4–0.3 vs. 0.2) and Zr_N/Y_N (0.9–0.6 vs. 0.4–0.3) than that from the Bracco–Levanto basalts. The basalts from the two ophiolites have homogeneous initial Nd isotopic compositions (initial ε_Nd from +?8.8 to +?8.6), within typical depleted mantle values, thereby excluding an origin from a lithospheric mantle source. These data also reject the involvement of contaminant crustal material, as associated continent-derived clastic sediments and radiolarian cherts have a highly radiogenic Nd isotopic fingerprint (ε_Nd at the time of basalt formation?=???5.5 and ??5.2, respectively). We propose that the Bracco–Levanto and the Balagne basalts formed by partial melts of a depleted mantle source, most likely containing a garnet-bearing enriched component. The decoupling between incompatible elements and Nd isotopic signature can be explained either by different degrees of partial melting of a similar asthenospheric source or by reaction of the ascending melts with a lower crustal crystal mush. Both hypotheses are reconcilable with the formation of these two basalt sequences in different domains of a nascent oceanic basin.     

A multi-model comparison of Atlantic multidecadal variability

A multi-model analysis of Atlantic multidecadal variability is performed with the following aims: to investigate the similarities to observations; to assess the strength and relative importance of the different elements of the mechanism proposed by Delworth et al. (J Clim 6:1993–2011, 1993) (hereafter D93) among coupled general circulation models (CGCMs); and to relate model differences to mean systematic error. The analysis is performed with long control simulations from ten CGCMs, with lengths ranging between 500 and 3600 years. In most models the variations of sea surface temperature (SST) averaged over North Atlantic show considerable power on multidecadal time scales, but with different periodicity. The SST variations are largest in the mid-latitude region, consistent with the short instrumental record. Despite large differences in model configurations, we find quite some consistency among the models in terms of processes. In eight of the ten models the mid-latitude SST variations are significantly correlated with fluctuations in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), suggesting a link to northward heat transport changes. Consistent with this link, the three models with the weakest AMOC have the largest cold SST bias in the North Atlantic. There is no linear relationship on decadal timescales between AMOC and North Atlantic Oscillation in the models. Analysis of the key elements of the D93 mechanisms revealed the following: Most models present strong evidence that high-latitude winter mixing precede AMOC changes. However, the regions of wintertime convection differ among models. In most models salinity-induced density anomalies in the convective region tend to lead AMOC, while temperature-induced density anomalies lead AMOC only in one model. However, analysis shows that salinity may play an overly important role in most models, because of cold temperature biases in their relevant convective regions. In most models subpolar gyre variations tend to lead AMOC changes, and this relation is strong in more than half of the models.     

The Space and Time Features of Global SST Anomalies Studied by Complex Principal Component Analysis

１ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＰｒｉｎｃｉｐａｌｃｏｍｐｏｎｅｎｔａｎａｌｙｓｉｓｈａｓｂｅｅｎｗｉｄｅｌｙｕｓｅｄｔｏｓｔｕｄｙｔｈｅｔｅｍｐｏｒａｌａｎｄｓｐａｔｉａｌｂｅｈａｖｉｏｕｒｏｆａｔｍｏｓｐｈｅｒｉｃａｎｄｏｃｅａｎｉｃｆｉｅｌｄｓ．...     

Testing a new rill flow resistance approach using the Water Erosion Prediction Project experimental database

In this paper, a recently theoretically deduced rill flow resistance equation, based on a power‐velocity profile, was tested using the Water Erosion Prediction Project database. This database includes measurements of flow velocity, water depth, cross section area, wetted perimeter, and bed slope that were made in rills shaped on experimental sites distributed across the continental United States. In particular, three different experimental conditions (only rainfall, only flow, and rain with flow) were examined, and for each condition, the theoretically based relationship for estimating the Γ function of the power velocity profile was calibrated. The results established that (a) the Darcy‐Weisbach friction factor can be accurately estimated using the proposed theoretical approach, and (b) the flow resistance increases with the effect of rainfall impact.     

North Atlantic gyre circulation in PRIMAVERA models

We study the impact of horizontal resolution in setting the North Atlantic gyre circulation and representing the ocean–atmosphere interactions that modulate the low-frequency variability in the region. Simulations from five state-of-the-art climate models performed at standard and high-resolution as part of the High-Resolution Model Inter-comparison Project (HighResMIP) were analysed. In some models, the resolution is enhanced in the atmospheric and oceanic components whereas, in some other models, the resolution is increased only in the atmosphere. Enhancing the horizontal resolution from non-eddy to eddy-permitting ocean produces stronger barotropic mass transports inside the subpolar and subtropical gyres. The first mode of inter-annual variability is associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in all the cases. The rapid ocean response to it consists of a shift in the position of the inter-gyre zone and it is better captured by the non-eddy models. The delayed ocean response consists of an intensification of the subpolar gyre (SPG) after around 3 years of a positive phase of NAO and it is better represented by the eddy-permitting oceans. A lagged relationship between the intensity of the SPG and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is stronger in the cases of the non-eddy ocean. Then, the SPG is more tightly coupled to the AMOC in low-resolution models.

     

Autonomous underwater vehicle teams for adaptive ocean sampling: a data-driven approach

The current technological developments in autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and underwater communication have nowadays allowed to push the original idea of autonomous ocean sampling network even further, with the possibility of using each agent of the network not only as an operative component driven by external commands (model-driven) but as a reactive element able to act in response to changing conditions as measured during the exploration (data-driven). With this paper, we propose a novel data-driven algorithm for AUVs team for adaptive sampling of oceanic regions, where each agent shares its knowledge of the environment with its teammates and autonomously takes decision in order to reconstruct the desired oceanic field. In particular, sampling point selection is made in order to minimize the uncertainty in the estimated field while keeping communication contact with the rest of the team and avoiding to repeatedly sampling sub-regions already explored. The proposed approach is based on the use of the emergent behaviour technique and on the use of artificial potential functions (interest functions) to achieve the desired goal at the end of the mission. In this way, there is no explicit minimization of a cost functional at each decision step. The oceanic field is reconstructed by the application of radial basis functions interpolation of irregularly spaced data. A simulative example for the estimation of a salinity field with sea data obtained using the Mediterranean Sea Forecasting System is shown in the paper, in order to investigate the effect of the different uncertainty sources, including sea currents, on the behaviour of the exploration team and ultimately on the reconstruction of the salinity field.