Accounting for the solar radiation in thermal regime prediction for railway subgrade in cold regions

This paper presents a comparative analysis of simulation processes of seasonal freezing-thawing of railway subgrade and permafrost degradation, with and without accounting for solar radiation. Also, the effect of sun screens to reduce the degradation of subgrade permafrost under different climatic conditions is numerically substantiated. And finally, the temperature criterion of the origination of permafrost is illustrated.     

10Be content in clasts from fallout suevitic breccia in drill cores from the Bosumtwi impact crater,Ghana: Clues to preimpact target distribution

Rocks from drill cores LB‐07A (crater fill) and LB‐08A (central uplift) into the Bosumtwi impact crater, Ghana, were analyzed for the presence of the cosmogenic radionuclide ¹⁰Be. The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which target rocks of various depths were mixed during the formation of the crater‐filling breccia, and also to detect meteoric water infiltration within the impactite layer. ¹⁰Be abundances above background were found in two (out of 24) samples from the LB‐07A core, and in none of five samples from the LB‐08A core. After excluding other possible explanations for an elevated ¹⁰Be signal, we conclude that it is most probably due to a preimpact origin of those clasts from target rocks close to the surface. Our results suggest that in‐crater breccias were well mixed during the impact cratering process. In addition, the lack of a ¹⁰Be signal within the rocks located very close to the lake sediment–impactite boundary suggests that infiltration of meteoric water below the postimpact crater floor was limited. This may suggest that the infiltration of the meteoric water within the crater takes place not through the aerial pore‐space, but rather through a localized system of fractures.     

Magnetic properties of the LL5 ordinary chondrite Chelyabinsk (fall of February 15, 2013)

Here we characterize the magnetic properties of the Chelyabinsk chondrite (LL5, S4, W0) and constrain the composition, concentration, grain size distribution, and mineral fabric of the meteorite's magnetic mineral assemblage. Data were collected from 10 to 1073 K and include measurements of low‐field magnetic susceptibility (χ₀), the anisotropy of χ₀, hysteresis loops, first‐order reversal curves, Mössbauer spectroscopy, and X‐ray microtomography. The REM and REM′ paleointensity protocols suggest that the only magnetizations recorded by the chondrite are components of the Earth's magnetic field acquired during entry into our planet's atmosphere. The Chelyabinsk chondrite consists of light and dark lithologies. Fragments of the light lithology show logχ₀ = 4.57 ± 0.09 (s.d.) (n = 135), while the dark lithology shows 4.65 ± 0.09 (n = 39) (where χ₀ is in 10^?9 m³ kg^?1). Thus, Chelyabinsk is three times more magnetic than the average LL5 fall, but is similar to a subgroup of metal‐rich LL5 chondrites (Paragould, Aldsworth, Bawku, Richmond) and L/LL5 chondrites (Glanerbrug, Knyahinya). The meteorite's room‐temperature magnetization is dominated by multidomain FeNi alloys taenite and kamacite (no tetrataenite is present). However, below approximately 75 K remanence is dominated by chromite. The metal contents of the light and dark lithologies are 3.7 and 4.1 wt%, respectively, and are based on values of saturation magnetization.     

The A.D. 79 eruption as a future explosive scenario in the Vesuvian area: evaluation of associated risk

 Due to the lack of an effective policy of planning and prevention, over the past decades the area around Mt. Vesuvio has undergone a steady increase in population and uncontrolled housing development. Consequently, it has become one of the most hazardous volcanic areas in the world. In order to mitigate the damage that the impact of an explosive event would cause in the area, the Department of Civil Defense has worked out an Emergency Management Plan using the A.D. 1631 subplinian eruption as the most probable short-term event. However, from 25 000 years B.P. to present, the activity of the Somma-Vesuvio volcano has shown a sequence of eight eruptive cycles, which always began with a strong plinian eruption. In this paper we utilize the A.D. 79 eruption as an example of a potential large explosive eruption that might occur again at Vesuvio. A detailed tephrostratigraphic analysis of the eruption products was processed by a multivariate statistical analysis. This analysis proved useful for identifying marker layers in the sequences, thus allowing the recognition of some major phases of synchronous deposition and hence the definition of the chronological and spatial evolution of the eruption. By combining this reconstruction with land-use maps, a scenario is proposed with time intervals in the eruptive sequence similar to those reported in Pliny's letter. Thus, it was calculated that, after 7 h from the start of the eruption, a total area of approximately 300 km² would be covered with the eruption products. In the following 11 h, a total area of approximately 500 km² would be involved. The third and last phase of deposition would not cause significant variation in the total area involved, but it would bring about an increase in the thickness of the pyroclastic deposits in the perivolcanic area. Received: 30 November 1996 / Accepted: 29 May 1997     

Synthetic secular theories of the planetary orbits: Regular and chaotic behavior

Modern computer technology allows dynamical astronomers to investigate the long term stability of real systems as thoroughly as ever. However, the process is not straightforward and new problems need to be solved. This work deals with only one such problem: the construction-from the numerical integration- of a secular perturbation theory that is able to describe the dynamical behavior of the system. The discussion refers to the outer planets and is based on the knowledge acquired by the author during her participation in project LONGSTOP. A digital filter is used in order to reduce the output and eliminate short periodic terms. Filtering uncovers long term variations in the semimajor axes. From the filtered output a secular perturbation theory is constructed in the assumption that the solution is regular, as secular perturbation theories can only be constructed for regular solutions. If we succeed, this means that the solution is indeed regular for the computed span of time; if not-and this can be established in a rigorous way-it has to be concluded a posteriori that the solution is not regular. The LONGSTOP 1A and 1B integrations show well that as the timespan of the integration increases it is possible to detect the non-regular behavior of the solution. This happens in the eccentricity of Saturn at the 10^–4 level.     

On the Centre Manifold of Collinear Points in the Planar Three-Body Problem

We study the existence of invariant tori in a neighbourhood of the collinear equilibrium points of the planar three-body problem. To this end some properties of the normal form of the Hamiltonian reduced to the 4D central manifold are proved. Using this normal form, we show that the nondegeneracy conditions of KAM theorem are satisfied for all positive masses, including the 2:1 resonance case. The evaluation of the conditions is done numerically.     

Spatial and temporal variability of hard-bottom macrofauna in a disturbed coastal lagoon (Sacca di Goro, Po River Delta, Northwestern Adriatic Sea)

The sessile and mobile macrobenthos on artificial hard bottoms was studied in 12 stations of the Sacca di Goro lagoon, a brackish, highly stressed water basin in the delta of the river Po, open to the Northwestern Adriatic Sea. Three sampling surveys were carried out in June and September 2000 and June 2001 in order to make three types of temporal comparisons: (i) on a seasonal scale, before and after a summer dystrophic event; (ii) on an annual basis, before and after the works of excavation of a canal through the outer sand bank; (iii) on a multiannual scale, comparing the data with those of a survey carried out in 1988. The biocoenoses did not show large fluctuations after a moderately severe summer dystrophic crisis, while the digging of the canal caused clear changes in the macrobenthos community structure after one year. The long-term comparison showed a shift in the community patterns after a decade.