The tropical storm Noel and its effects on the territory of the Dominican Republic

In the period between the end of October and the beginning of November 2007, the Dominican Republic was hit by the tropical storm Noel, then turned into hurricane in its movement toward the Californian coasts. The passage of Noel was accompanied by huge precipitation especially in the south-western part of the country. In some areas, the rainfall registered in 6 days exceeded 700 mm, i.e., more than two-thirds of the mean annual precipitation. The return periods calculated for this rainfall event vary greatly from region to region: while they locally reach 200 years, such as in San José de Ocoa (50 km west of Santo Domingo), in other areas, as for instance in the territory of the capital Santo Domingo, return periods do not exceed 20 years. The tropical storm caused huge damage both in terms of human victims and economic losses, related to diffused inundations and landslide phenomena, which may be attributed only partially to the exceptionality of the event. As a matter of fact, in many regions, the inadequate answer of the territory—widely characterized by serious problems of land degradation and an almost complete lack of territorial planning—appears to be the major responsible for the occurred negative effects. The impact assessment, based on the calculation of an Impact Index, confirms this statement.     

Oligocene to Present kilometres scale subsidence and exhumation of the Ligurian Alps and the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (NW Italy) revealed by apatite (U–Th)/He thermochronology: correlation with regional tectonics

The Ligurian Alps segment of the Alpine–Apennine orogen in NW Italy is unconformably covered by Upper Eocene to Holocene sediments in the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (TPB) and Po Plain. These sediments dip towards the north demonstrating the erosional nature of the southern border of the succession and implying that the adjacent orogenic belt formed the substratum rather than the margin of the sedimentary basin. Apatite (U–Th)/He and fission track thermochronology shows that the orogen first subsided and was buried at >4 km from 30 to 26 Ma and began its exhumation thereafter. From 26 Ma to present, this upward movement was contemporaneous with subsidence in the northern TPB. The couple exhumation in the S and subsidence in the N migrated northwards through time. Vertical movements in the area are similar to those reconstructed in Corsica. In both cases, the onset of exhumation becomes younger away from the Ligurian‐Provençal basin and has little correlation with the opening of the surrounding oceanic basins.     

The effects of post-orogenic extension on different scales: an example from the Apennine–Maghrebide fold-and-thrust belt, SW Sicily

ABSTRACT Many structures produced under one single deformation regime, namely extensional, contractional or strike-slip, exhibit remarkable geometrical analogies when analysed at different scales. By contrast, field examples that illustrate the scale effects on structures resulting from superimposed deformations, which were produced under different tectonic regimes, are rare. Yet the change from contraction to extension is known to occur often in the most thickened portions of the continental crust. The Apennine–Maghrebide fold-and-thrust belt of Sicily shows many examples of post-orogenic extensional deformations. Composite structures, resulting from late normal faults that offset folds and thrusts, are observed at four different scales, from regional to mesoscopic, in the south-western portion of Sicily and in the adjacent Isle of Favignana. The recognized analogies in the geometry of these composite structures may provide a key for the interpretation of the features of regional structures, whose deep geometry is often poorly constrained. Moreover, comparison of normalized displacements accommodated by contractional and extensional faults of different scales indicates that self-similarity is not unique to structures produced under single tectonic regimes.     

Hydrogeological behaviour of some fault zones in a carbonate aquifer of Southern Italy: an experimentally based model

Complex flow circulation patterns are likely to be present in fault‐controlled groundwater flow systems, such as carbonate aquifers. Nevertheless, not much information is available for faults in carbonates, and their hydrogeological behaviour is often neglected in conceptual and numerical models. The understanding of this aspect of subsurface fluid flow has been improved in a carbonate aquifer, where hydrogeological investigations at site scale demonstrated the existence of fault zones that act as barriers. The hydraulic conductivity of the fault core is as low as that of siliciclastic rocks that represent the regional aquitard of the carbonate aquifer. Despite the lower permeability, the fault zones allow a significant groundwater flowthrough and a good interdependence of piezometric heads upgradient and downgradient of the faults. Because of this discontinuous heterogeneity, the aquifer looks like a basins‐in‐series system, where seasonal springs can be detected along some fault zones, as a function of groundwater level fluctuations.     

A deep, stratigraphically and structurally controlled landslide: the case of Mount La Civita (Molise, Italy)

The present paper illustrates the results of an integrated study of a large landslide located on the southern slope of Mount la Civita (Molise, Southern Apennine), an E–W elongated, SSE dipping and 890-m-high monocline carbonate ridge. The upper part of the slope affected by the landslide is largely controlled by strata attitude while its basal part is marked by a strike–slip fault causing the tectonic juxtaposition of the carbonate successions against predominantly clayey flysch units. An integrated study, including geological, geomorphological and geotechnical investigations, was carried out to determine the features of the landslide and to plan further investigation and monitoring. In particular, from 2002 to 2004, Differential Global Positioning System monitoring and core drillings, coupled with inclinometer measurements, were carried out to determine the landslide’s kinematics, extent, depth to the surface of rupture and rates of movement. Inclinometer data revealed the presence of the rupture surface at a depth of about 20 m. DGPS monitoring allowed rates of movement up to several tens of centimetres per year to be recorded. The nearby village of Civitanova del Sannio can still be considered at risk due to the landslide, as recent remedial works, consisting mainly of very shallow re-shaping of the slope by blasting and partial filling of trenches, did not succeed in stopping its movement.     

Waste rock dump investigation at Roşia Montană gold mine (Romania): a geostatistical approach

Ro?ia Montan?, the largest European gold mine, could be re-opened. Environmental problems led to severe pollution of the Ro?ia and Abrud Rivers. The two main potentially toxic element (PTE) sources in mine sites are, in general, the abandoned underground workings and the piles of waste rock. Since the composition of waste rocks is often heterogeneous, this study faces the problem of estimating their mineralogical and chemical features starting from a set of sampling point. Twenty-five samples were collected on the main waste dump of the Ro?ia Montan? mine following a virtual squared grid (knots distance about 25 m). Grain size, color, bulk chemistry, mineralogy, acid mine drainage potential and a set of selected PTE (Ag, As, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) concentrations were determined on each sample. In a first approximation two main waste rock groups were identified: WR1 bulk composition is dacite-dominated, while WR2 is andesite-dominated. In both of them the concentrations of PTEs are below the regulatory limits for soils, with the exception of As. In terms of acid mine drainage, WR1 has a net acid-producing potential, while WR2 has a net neutralizing potential. The anisotropy of WR properties were analysed by means of semi-variograms and displayed with contour maps. Application of positive matrix factorization for the analysis of all the data relative to waste rocks allowed defining, in a semi-quantitative way, the factors controlling pollution and their spatial distribution. The processing of score matrix G factor associated with the geostatistical elaboration promises to be a powerful tool to discern the composition of mine dumps and support the exploitation and remediation phases.     

Connecting Coronal Mass Ejections to Their Solar Active Region Sources: Combining Results from the HELCATS and FLARECAST Projects

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and other solar eruptive phenomena can be physically linked by combining data from a multitude of ground-based and space-based instruments alongside models; however, this can be challenging for automated operational systems. The EU Framework Package 7 HELCATS project provides catalogues of CME observations and properties from the Heliospheric Imagers on board the two NASA/STEREO spacecraft in order to track the evolution of CMEs in the inner heliosphere. From the main HICAT catalogue of over 2,000 CME detections, an automated algorithm has been developed to connect the CMEs observed by STEREO to any corresponding solar flares and active-region (AR) sources on the solar surface. CME kinematic properties, such as speed and angular width, are compared with AR magnetic field properties, such as magnetic flux, area, and neutral line characteristics. The resulting LOWCAT catalogue is also compared to the extensive AR property database created by the EU Horizon 2020 FLARECAST project, which provides more complex magnetic field parameters derived from vector magnetograms. Initial statistical analysis has been undertaken on the new data to provide insight into the link between flare and CME events, and characteristics of eruptive ARs. Warning thresholds determined from analysis of the evolution of these parameters is shown to be a useful output for operational space weather purposes. Parameters of particular interest for further analysis include total unsigned flux, vertical current, and current helicity. The automated method developed to create the LOWCAT catalogue may also be useful for future efforts to develop operational CME forecasting.     

Influence of a Two-scale Surface Roughness on a Neutral Turbulent Boundary Layer

Flow in the urban boundary layer is strongly influenced by the surface roughness, which is composed principally of isolated buildings or groups of buildings. Previous research has shown that the flow regime depends on the characteristic height of these obstacles (H), and the spacing between them (W). In reality, the urban boundary layer contains roughness elements with a wide range of length scales; in many practical situations these can be classified into large-scale roughness—buildings, or groups of buildings—and small-scale roughness, such as street furniture and elements on the façades and roofs. It is important to understand how the small-scale roughness might modify mass and momentum transfer in the urban boundary layer, but relatively little information is available concerning the potential interaction between large- and small-scale roughness elements in the different flow regimes. This problem has been studied using wind-tunnel experiments, by measuring vertical velocity profiles over a two-dimensional obstacle array, adding small-scale roughness elements to the top of larger parallel square bars. The experiments were performed for different cavity aspect ratios: the results show that the small-scale roughness increases the turbulence intensities and the momentum transfer when the large-scale obstacles are closely packed (H/W > 1) but it has very little effect for more widely-spaced obstacles (H/W < 1).     

Flow in a Street Canyon for any External Wind Direction

An analytical model has been developed for the flow along a street canyon (of height H and width W), generated by an external wind blowing at any angle relative to the axis of the street. Initially, we consider the special case of a wind blowing parallel to the street. The interior of the street is decomposed into three regions, and the flow within each region is assumed to depend only on the external wind and the distance to the closest solid boundary. This decomposition leads to two different flow regimes: one for narrow streets (H/W > 1/2) and one for wide streets (H/W < 1/2). The theoretical model agrees well with results obtained from numerical simulations using a Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes model. We then generalize the model to the case of arbitrary wind direction. Numerical solutions show that the streamlines of the mean flow in the street have a spiral form, and for most angles of incidence, the mass flux along the street scales on the component of the external wind resolved parallel to the street. We use this result to generalize the model derived for wind blowing parallel to the street, and the results from this model agree well with the numerical simulations. The model that has been developed can be evaluated rapidly using only very modest computing power, so it is suitable for use as an operational tool.