The June 4th 1999 severe weather episode in San Quirino, Italy: a tornado event?

On the morning of June 4th 1999, a severe weather event took place in San Quirino, a small village of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the northeast of Italy. This village is located near the piedmont of the Alps, 40 km west from Udine and 60 km north from Venice.Around 0900 UTC (1100 local time), a thunderstorm with an intense hail fall affected the area of San Quirino. A few minutes later (around 0920 UTC, source: a farmer), a funnel cloud from a cumulonimbus touched the ground, producing damages to houses, trees and sheds. The damaged area was quite narrow (about 300 m) and short (less than 10 km). No injuries to people were reported.In spite of the smallness of the area interested by the phenomenon, this storm is studied here starting from the synoptic scale, moving to the mesoscale and finishing with the storm scale, trying to underline its characteristics. These analyses, especially those coming from the Doppler radar images, bring us to the conclusion that the San Quirino episode was produced by a supercell storm.     

Machine Learning Feature Selection Methods for Landslide Susceptibility Mapping

This paper explores the use of adaptive support vector machines, random forests and AdaBoost for landslide susceptibility mapping in three separated regions of Canton Vaud, Switzerland, based on a set of geological, hydrological and morphological features. The feature selection properties of the three algorithms are studied to analyze the relevance of features in controlling the spatial distribution of landslides. The elimination of irrelevant features gives simpler, lower dimensional models while keeping the classification performance high. An object-based sampling procedure is considered to reduce the spatial autocorrelation of data and to estimate more reliably generalization skills when applying the model to predict the occurrence of new unknown landslides. The accuracy of the models, the relevance of features and the quality of landslide susceptibility maps were found to be high in the regions characterized by shallow landslides and low in the ones with deep-seated landslides. Despite providing similar skill, random forests and AdaBoost were found to be more efficient in performing feature selection than adaptive support vector machines. The results of this study reveal the strengths of the classification algorithms, but evidence: (1) the need for relying on more than one method for the identification of relevant variables; (2) the weakness of the adaptive scaling algorithm when used with landslide data; and (3) the lack of additional features which characterize the spatial distribution of deep-seated landslides.     

Diurnal Course of Rainfall in the Plain of Friuli-Venezia Giulia: Evaluation of Hourly Measurements

Summary The paper describes some characteristics of the precipitation patterns in the plain of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Even if small, this Region shows a complex rainfall pattern so that, by previous studies, it was divided into four distinct areas with peculiar pluviometric regimes, namely the Coastal Area, the Plain and Hills Area, the Prealpine Area and the Inner Alpine Area. Nowadays a new data set, collected by the ERSA/CSA automatic stations, allows to propose a new sub-classification of the Coastal Area and Plain and Hills Area, under the point of view of the hourly rate of precipitation. This new sub-classification is composed by five zones: the Coast, the Carso, the Low Plain, the Middle Plain and the Piedmont. Each one of these zones presents a peculiar seasonal behaviour of the hourly rain-rate. Received May 31, 1999 Revised September 27, 1999     

Measuring the speed of gravity at short distances: Sensitivity estimate

An experimental set up was proposed to determine the speed of gravitational signals traveling in air or in some other medium. It involves two vibrating masses—the emitters, which will be the sources of periodic tidal gravitational signals—and one sapphire-made mass that will act as a detector, positioned between the two emitters. The detector is planned to be suspended in vacuum and cooled down to 4.2 K, and its vibrational amplitude should be measured by a microwave signal (with ultra-low phase-noise) that is expected to resonate with the whispering gallery modes inside the detector. The mechanical and electrical quality factors of sapphire are quite high, yielding a very narrow detection band that reduces the detector sensitivity while amplifying the phase difference of the emitters' signals. The frequencies of the normal modes of the detector were previously determined using a finite element program. In this work, these frequencies are applied to the calculation of a first estimate of the sensitivity of the experiment.     

Delegating, not returning, to the biosphere: How to use the multi-scalar and ecological properties of cities

Our aim is to theorize the shifting relationship between cities and the biosphere in ways that can incorporate vanguard scientific, technical and social innovations. We specify that the city (a) generates third natures - specific new environments - such as heat islands, that today are destructive of the biosphere, and (b) that the city has systemic properties that correspond to those of the biosphere, but today are mostly flattened out of action through the ruptures that dominate today's articulation between cities and biosphere. That is to say, our specific project agrees with the problematizing of the category “nature,” which pertains to our presence in the biosphere. But we do not take Harvey's more absolute statement that the city itself is nature nor do we confine our analysis only to Latourian natures-cultures. Our analysis is less centered in the work of correcting a false binary, as is the case with both Latour and Harvey, notwithstanding their different objects of study. We focus on the complex in-between space that is the site of both the transactions between city and biosphere, as well as the site of the ruptures that characterize these transactions.     

Time and duration of Variscan high-temperature metamorphic processes in the south European Variscides: constraints from U-Pb chronology and trace element chemistry of zircon

The lower crust of the Serre massif (Calabria, southern Italy) provides a window into the mid- to lower crust of the south European Variscan orogenic belt. Previously, zircon U-Pb ages were employed to date high-temperature processes affecting this portion of the Variscan crust. The present paper reports new LA-ICP-MS U-Pb data on the zircon of a deformed quartz-monzodiorite dike and of three mafic granulites sampled at the base of the lower crust section. Determination of trace elements on zircon, including rare earth elements (REE), has been also performed. The end of the Variscan exhumation, dated by anatectic zircon from migmatitic metapelites, and the growth-modification of zircon with respect to the growth of Variscan metamorphic garnet have been assumed as ??time markers??. The concordant zircon ages of the metamorphic basic rocks cover a range from 744?±?20 Ma to 231?±?10 Ma with high age density from 357?±?11?Ma to 279?±?10 Ma, a few ages comprised between 418?±?14 Ma and 483?±?12 Ma and between 505?±?11 Ma and 593?±?14 Ma. Zircon from the deformed quartz-monzodiorite dike evidences a minimum age of emplacement of 323?±?5 Ma. Most of the analysed zircon domains dated between 357?±?11 Ma to 279?±?10 Ma from garnet-bearing metabasic rocks show flat patterns of heavy rare earth elements (HREE), as expected in the case of their simultaneous growth with garnet. This allows to consider (1) zircon domains giving Variscan ages as ??metamorphic?? with specific geological significance, and (2) zircon domains with ages ranging from 564?±?17 Ma to 593?±?14 Ma as dating the emplacement of the magmatic protoliths as shown by internal microtextures, fractionated patterns of HREE and Th/U ratios (0.16?C0.19). The Variscan zircon ages (357?C279?Ma) reflect effects of crustal thickening, peak metamorphism and subsequent multistage Variscan decompression documented by the statistically significant clusters of ages around 347?C340?Ma, 323?C318?Ma, 300?C294?Ma and 279?Ma. The U-Pb zircon ages of the metabasic rocks suggest a period of about 60?C70?Ma for granulite facies metamorphism and anatectic conditions. Literature data indicate that the migmatitic metapelites of the upper part of the Serre crust section also underwent a long period, about 40?Ma, of granulite facies metamorphism and anatectic conditions. A diachronism emerges through the time comparison of the Variscan evolution between the upper and the lower portions of the Serre deep crust. The duration of the Variscan processes defined in Calabria is comparable to that of other south European Variscan blocks.     

Investigating the geomorphological potential of freely available and accessible structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry using a smartphone

We test the acquisition of high‐resolution topographic and terrain data using hand‐held smartphone technology, where the acquired images can be processed using technology freely available to the research community. This is achieved by evaluating the quality of digital terrain models (DTM) of a river bank and an Alpine alluvial fan generated with a fully automated, free‐to‐use, structure‐from‐motion package and a smartphone integrated camera (5 megapixels) with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data used to provide a benchmark. To evaluate this approach a 16.2‐megapixel digital camera and an established, commercial, close‐range and semi‐automated software are also employed, and the product of the four combinations of the two types of cameras and software are compared. Results for the river bank survey demonstrate that centimetre‐precision DTMs can be achieved at close range (10 m or less), using a smartphone camera and a fully automated package. Results improve to sub‐centimetre precision with either higher‐resolution images or by applying specific post‐processing techniques to the smartphone DTMs. Application to an entire Alpine alluvial fan system shows the degradation of precision scales linearly with image scale, but that (i) the expected level of precision remains and (ii) difficulties in separating vegetation and sediment cover within the results are similar to those typically found when using other photo‐based techniques and laser scanning systems. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

U–Pb zircon data of Variscan meta-igneous and igneous acidic rocks from an Alpine shear zone in Calabria (southern Italy)

The paper deals with the U–Pb data of zircon separated from three samples representative of mylonitic leucogranites, trondhjemites and pegmatites occurring along the Alpine tectonic zone between the Castagna and Sila Units in northern Calabria. These mylonites are associated to Variscan granitic-granodioritic biotite-rich augen gneisses derived from Neo-Proterozoic-Early Cambrian protoliths. Apparent ages ranging from Early Cambrian to post-Variscan have been obtained. Th, U and rare earth elements have been determined in two zircon domains of mylonitic leucogranite and trondhjemite giving different ages in order to get information relative to their geological significance. The pegmatite preserves intrusive contact with the augen gneisses and with the other mylonites; it turns out to be emplaced at 290–300 Ma, like the Variscan plutonites of the Castagna Unit. The deformation masks the original contacts of the mylonitic leucogranite and trondhjemite with the biotite-rich augen gneisses. The age-group averaging 540 Ma is interpreted as indicative of the emplacement of the protoliths and it coincides with the age previously determined for the emplacement of the protoliths of the biotite-rich augen gneisses. Zircon from the mylonitic pegmatite includes domains showing concordant and discordant ages younger than 290 Ma, thus reflecting various degrees of partial resetting and Pb-loss caused by post-Variscan events. Zircon from the mylonitic leucogranite and trondhjemite includes apparent ages between 300 and 280 Ma as well as ages younger than 250 Ma. Perturbation of U–Pb system by Alpine shearing appears evident; however, possibile effects caused by thermal input and hydrothermal fluid infiltration from the Variscan plutonites cannot be excluded.     

The role of trace element partitioning between garnet,zircon and orthopyroxene on the interpretation of zircon U–Pb ages: an example from high-grade basement in Calabria (Southern Italy)

The recognition of the coeval growth of zircon, orthopyroxene and garnet domains formed during the same metamorphic cycle has been attempted with detailed microanalyses coupled with textural analyses. A coronitic garnet-bearing granulite from the lower crust of Calabria has been considered. U–Pb zircon data and zircon, garnet and orthopyroxene chemistries, at different textural sites, on a thin section of the considered granulite have been used to test possible equilibrium and better constrain the geological significance of the U–Pb ages related to zircon separates from other rocks of the same structural level. The garnet is very rich in REE and is characterised by a decrease in HREE from core to outer core and an increase in the margin. Zircons show core–overgrowth structures showing different chemistries, likely reflecting episodic metamorphic new growth. Zircon grains in matrix, corona around garnet and within the inner rim of garnet, are decidedly poorer in HREE up to Ho than garnet interior. Orthopyroxene in matrix and corona is homogeneously poor in REE. Thus, the outer core of garnet and the analysed zircon grains grew or equilibrated in a REE depleted system due to the former growth of garnet core. Zircon ages ranging from 357 to 333 Ma have been determined in the matrix, whereas ages 327–320 Ma and around 300 Ma have been determined, respectively, on cores and overgrowths of zircons from matrix, corona and inner rim of garnet. The calculated DREE_zrn/grt and DREE_opx/grt are largely different from the equilibrium values of literature due to strong depletion up to Ho in zircon and orthopyroxene with respect to garnet. On the other hand, the literature data show large variability. In the case study, (1) the D _zrn/grt values define positive and linear trends from Gd to Lu as many examples from literature do and the values from Er to Lu approach the experimental results at about 900 °C in the combination zircon dated from 339 to 305 Ma with garnet outer core, and (2) D _opx/grt values define positive trends reaching values considered as suggestive of equilibrium from Er to Lu only with respect to the outer core of garnet. The presence of a zircon core dated 320 Ma in the inner rim of garnet suggests that it, as well as those dated at 325–320 Ma in the other textural sites and, probably, those dated at 339–336 Ma showing depletion of HREE, grew after the garnet core, which sequestered a lot of HREE and earlier than the HREE rich margin of garnet. The quite uniform REE contents in orthopyroxene from matrix and corona and the low and uniform contents of HREE in the zircon overgrowths dated at about 300 Ma allow to think that homogenisation occurred during or after the corona formation around this age. The domains dated around 325–320 Ma would approximate the stages of decompression, whereas the metamorphic peak probably occurred earlier than 339 Ma.     

Rainfall over Friuli-Venezia Giulia: High amounts and strong geographical gradients

Summary The precipitation distribution over Friuli-Venezia Giulia — the easternmost region of Northern Italy extending from the Adriatic Sea to the Alps — has been studied. Monthly rainfall data over the region and the bordering areas of Veneto and Slovenia during the period from 1951 to 1986 have been analyzed by standard statistical methods, including cluster analysis. The overall results emphasize a distribution with rainfall increasing from the sea to the prealpine areas. The highest precipitations were recorded over the Musi-Canin range, with average values exceeding 3 200 mm per year. Noteworthy is the unforeseen subdivision of the region by the clustering procedure by means of the Angot index.With 12 Figures