Integrated geophysical methods for the characterisation of an archaeological site (Massenzio Basilica — Roman forum, Rome, Italy)

A geophysical study that involved different techniques was carried out with the aim to improve the knowledge of the archaeological site where the Basilica of Maxentius was founded and to discern individual covered structures (foundations).Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES), seismic refraction and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) studies were performed in the archaeological site. VES and seismic refraction allowed to characterise the main geological formations of the hill where the Basilica was built and to distinguish the concrete floor and backfilling. Electrical data were processed using different algorithms; their results were compared to appraise the inverted models' robustness.ERT inversion algorithms were used to delineate shape and size of a much more complex structure, that were originally expected from archaeological excavation plan. The results of the commercial program were used as a posteriori information to include them in the algorithm proposed by the authors; the sequential use of the programs defined a processing procedure.The integrated use of different geophysical techniques reduced a great deal the intrinsic ambiguities of each method. Direct explorations (boreholes and archaeological excavations) confirmed the geophysical results.     

Aliphatic hydrocarbons in metasomatized gabbroic xenoliths from Hyblean diatremes (Sicily): Genesis in a serpentinite hydrothermal system

Many tholeiite gabbro xenoliths from the Hyblean tuff-breccia deposits (Sicily, southern Italy) present mineralogical and geochemical evidence for hydrothermal alteration at different temperatures and water/rock ratios. In some cases, the primary mineral assemblage has been entirely replaced by Na-rich alkali feldspar, chlorite/smectite interlayers, zeolites, aegirine–augite, titanite, zircon etc. Hence the chemical composition of such metasomatic rocks displays larger amounts of volatiles, alkalis, Zr, Hf, U, Th and lower Ca, Mg, Fe with respect to the original gabbro. Five hydrothermally altered gabbroic xenoliths were selected for thermal decrepitation and bulk gas analyses by quadrupole mass spectrometry. All the samples analyzed display the same Electron Impact-Direct Pyrolysis Mass spectra (EI-DPMS). These show a series of peaks differing by 14 mass units due to loss of methylene groups (–CH₂), by a fragmentation process typical of saturated aliphatic and aliphatic–aromatic hydrocarbons. In addition, Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectra of the samples present several bands typical of vibration frequencies of aliphatic hydrocarbons. The high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons observed probably originated from Fischer–Tropsch-type (FT-t) synthesis in the high temperature section of a serpentinite-hosted hydrothermal system. This suggestion may lend support to the recent hypothesis regarding the original oceanic nature of the Hyblean lithospheric basement.     

A new hybrid procedure for the definition of seismic vulnerability in Mediterranean cross-border urban areas

Assessment of seismic vulnerability of urban areas provides fundamental information for activities of planning and management of emergencies. The main difficulty encountered when extending vulnerability evaluations to urban contexts is the definition of a framework of assessment appropriate for the specific characteristics of the site and providing reliable results with a reasonable duration of surveys and post-processing of data. The paper proposes a new procedure merging different typologies of information recognized on the territories investigated and for this reason called “hybrid.” Knowledge of historical events influencing urban evolution and analysis of recurrent building technologies are used to evaluate the vulnerability indexes of buildings and building stocks. On the other hand, a vulnerability model is calibrated by means of experimental and numerical investigations on prototype buildings representative of the most recurrent typologies. In the final framework, the vulnerability index, calculated through simplified assessment forms, is linked to the seismic intensity expressed by the peak ground acceleration and associated with an index of damage expressing the economical loss. The procedure has been tested on the urban center of Lampedusa island (Italy) providing as the output vulnerability index maps, vulnerability curves, critical PGA maps, and estimation of the economical damage associated with different earthquake scenarios. The application of the procedure can be suitably repeated for medium-to-small urban areas, typically recurring in the Mediterranean by carrying out each time a recalibration of the vulnerability model.     

Large roots dominate the contribution of trees to slope stability

Tree roots provide surface erosion protection and improve slope stability through highly complex interactions with the soil due to the nature of root systems. Root reinforcement estimation is usually performed by in situ pullout tests, in which roots are pulled out of the soil to reliably estimate the root strength of compact soils. However, this test is not suitable for the scenario where a soil progressively fails in a series of slump blocks – for example, in unsupported soils near streambanks and road cuts where the soil has no compressive resistance at the base of the hillslope. The scenario where a soil is unsupported on its downslope extent and progressively deforms at a slow strain rate has received little attention, and we are unaware of any study on root reinforcement that estimates the additional strength provided by roots in this situation. We therefore designed two complementary laboratory experiments to compare the force required to pull the root out. The results indicate that the force required to pull out roots is reduced by up to 50% when the soil fails as slump blocks compared to pullout tests. We also found that, for slump block failure, roots had a higher tendency to slip than to break, showing the importance of active earth pressure on root reinforcement behaviour, which contributes to reduced friction between soil and roots. These results were then scaled up to a full tree and tree stand using the root bundle and field-measured spatial distributions of root density. Although effects on the force mobilized in small roots can be relevant, small roots have virtually no effect on root reinforcement at the tree or stand scale on hillslopes. When root distribution has a wide range of diameters, the root reinforcement results are controlled by large roots, which hold much more force than small roots. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Subsurface mass redistributions at Mount Etna (Italy) during the 1995–1996 explosive activity detected by microgravity studies

Gravity changes are presented from a series of field microgravity surveys conducted at Mt Etna between August 1994 and November 1996, a period including the 1995–1996 explosive summit activity. Data were collected along a microgravity network of 69 stations at a monthly to annual sampling rate, depending on each subarray of the network.
  Results show that seasonal changes in water level within the volcano may induce gravity changes of up to 20  μgal on Etna's southern slope, and indicate that significant magma movement occurred within and below Etna's edifice between 1994 and 1996. In particular, between September 1994 and October 1995, a mass increase of 2 × 10¹⁰  kg occurred 2000  m beneath the summit craters. Between October 1995 and July 1996 this mass was lost, while another 2 × 10¹⁰  kg was injected at about 1000  m  a.s.l. into the 1989 fracture system. From the gravity data alone, it is not possible to distinguish whether the first shallow intrusion (1994–1995) was then injected laterally into the 1989 fracture, or summit activity was fed by the first shallow intrusion, while new magma entered the 1989 fracture system.
  While magma was being redistributed within the volcanic edifice, measurements along an E–W-trending profile on the southern slope of the volcano detected some 1.5 × 10¹¹  kg of magma accumulating 2–3  km below sea level between October 1995 and November 1996.     

Regional Nested Model Simulations of Present Day and 2 × CO2 Climate over the Central Plains of the U.S.

A nested regional climate model is used to generate a scenario of climate change over the MINK region (Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas) due to doubling of carbon dioxide concentration (2 × CO₂) for use in agricultural impact assessment studies. Five-year long present day (control) and 2 × CO₂ simulations are completed at a horizontal grid point spacing of 50 km. Monthly and seasonal precipitation and surface air temperature over the MINK region are reproduced well by the model in the control run, except for an underestimation of both variables during the spring months. The performance of the nested model in the control run is greatly improved compared to a similar experiment performed with a previous version of the nested modeling system by Giorgi et al. (1994). The nested model generally improves the simulation of spatial precipitation patterns compared to the driving general circulation model (GCM), especially during the summer. Seasonal surface warming of 4 to 6 K and seasonal precipitation increases of 6 to 24% are simulated in 2 × CO₂ conditions. The control run temperature biases are smaller than the simulated changes in all seasons, while the precipitation biases are of the same order of magnitude as the simulated changes. Although the large scale patterns of change in the driving GCM and nested RegCM model are similar, significant differences between the models, and substantial spatial variability, occur within the MINK region.     

Projection of the Future Changes in Tropical Cyclone Activity Affecting East Asia over the Western North Pacific Based on Multi-RegCM4 Simulations

Future changes in tropical cyclone(TC)activity over the western North Pacific(WNP)under the representative concentration pathway RCP4.5 are investigated based on a set of 21 st century climate change simulations over East Asia with the regional climate model RegCM4 driven by five global models.The RegCM4 reproduces the major features of the observed TC activity over the region in the present-day period of 1986-2005,although with the underestimation of the number of TC genesis and intensity.A low number of TCs making landfall over China is also simulated.By the end of the 21st century(2079-98),the annual mean frequency of TC genesis and occurrence is projected to increase over the WNP by16%and 10%,respectively.The increase in frequency of TC occurrence is in good agreement among the simulations,with the largest increase over the ocean surrounding Taiwan Island and to the south of Japan.The TCs tend to be stronger in the future compared to the present-day period of 1986-2005,with a large increase in the frequency of strong TCs.In addition,more TCs landings are projected over most of the China coast,with an increase of~18%over the whole Chinese territory.     

The pressure-induced ringwoodite to Mg-perovskite and periclase post-spinel phase transition: a Bader’s topological analysis of the ab initio electron densities

In order to characterize the pressure-induced decomposition of ringwoodite (γ-Mg₂SiO₄), the topological analysis of the electron density ρ(r), based upon the theory of atoms in molecules (AIM) developed by Bader in the framework of the catastrophe theory, has been performed. Calculations have been carried out by means of the ab initio CRYSTAL09 code at the HF/DFT level, using Hamiltonians based on the Becke- LYP scheme containing hybrid Hartree–Fock/density functional exchange–correlation terms. The equation of state at 0 K has been constructed for the three phases involved in the post-spinel phase transition (ringwoodite → Mg-perovskite + periclase) occurring at the transition zone–lower mantel boundary. The topological results show that the decomposition of the ringwoodite at high pressures is caused by a conflict catastrophe. Furthermore, topological evidences of the central role played by the oxygen atoms to facilitate the pressure-induced ringwoodite decomposition and the subsequent phase transition have been noticed.     

Fractal and Multifractal Properties of Active Regions as Flare Precursors: A Case Study Based on SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI Observations

Several studies indicate that fractal and multifractal parameters inferred from solar photospheric magnetic field measurements may help assessing the eruptive potential of Active Regions (ARs) and also predicting their flare activity. We further investigate this topic, by exploring the sensitivity of some parameters already used in the literature on data and methods employed for their estimation. In particular, we measured the generalized fractal dimensions D ₀ and D ₈, and the multifractal parameters C _div and D _div, on the time series of photospheric magnetograms of the flaring AR NOAA 11158 obtained with the SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI. The observations by the latter instrument are characterized by a higher spatial and temporal resolution, as well as higher flux sensitivity, than the ones obtained from SOHO/MDI, which were widely employed in earlier studies. We found that the average and peak values of complexity parameters measured on the two data sets agree within measurement uncertainties. The temporal evolution of the parameters measured on the two data sets show rather similar trends, but the ones derived from the SOHO/MDI observations show larger and spurious variations over time than those deduced from analysis of the corresponding SDO/HMI data. We also found a larger sensitivity of these measurements to characteristics of the data analyzed than reported by earlier studies. In particular, analysis of the higher resolution and higher cadence SDO/HMI data allows us also to detect slight variations of the complexity indicators that cannot be derived from the analysis of the SOHO/MDI data. These variations occur right after the major events in the analyzed AR. They may be the signature of photospheric effects of coronal magnetic field re-arrangement.