The 7 and 11 May 1984 earthquakes in Abruzzo-Latium (Central Italy): reappraisal of the existing macroseismic datasets according to the EMS98

The aim of this paper is to provide a complete and reliable macroseismic knowledge of the events that stroke a large area in Central Italy on 7 and 11 May 1984. Previous studies, together with original accounts integrated with new and unpublished information, have been gathered and examined in order to re-evaluate macroseismic intensities in terms of the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS98). New intensity maps have been compiled; the total number of localities with available information for both the shocks increases from 1254 of the previous study to 1576. On the basis of the new dataset, the macroseismic magnitude of the first shock is M_W 5.6 which is lower than the previous macroseismic computation (M_W 5.7). Moreover, the topic of assessing macroseismic intensity in the presence of multiple shocks has been also investigated, proposing an unconventional approach to presenting the macroseismic data: an overall picture of the cumulative effects produced by all the seismic sequence is given to support a partial but faithful reconstruction of the second shock. This approach is inspired by the common experience in interpreting historical seismic sequences and gives a picture of the impact of the 1984 events on the territory.     

The comparison of macroseismic intensity scales

The number of different macroseismic scales that have been used to express earthquake shaking in the course of the last 200 years is not known; it may reach three figures. The number of important scales that have been widely adopted is much smaller, perhaps about eight, not counting minor variants. Where data sets exist that are expressed in different scales, it is often necessary to establish some sort of equivalence between them, although best practice would be to reassign intensity values rather than convert them. This is particularly true because difference between workers in assigning intensity is often greater than differences between the scales themselves, particularly in cases where one scale may not be very well defined. The extent to which a scale guides the user to arrive at a correct assessment of the intensity is a measure of the quality of the scale. There are a number of reasons why one should prefer one scale to another for routine use, and some of these tend in different directions. If a scale has many tests (diagnostics) for each degree, it is more likely that the scale can be applied in any case that comes to hand, but if the diagnostics are so numerous that they include ones that do not accurately indicate any one intensity level, then the use of the scale will tend to produce false values. The purpose of this paper is chiefly to discuss in a general way the principles involved in the analysis of intensity scales. Conversions from different scales to the European Macroseismic Scale are discussed.     

Linking ground motion measurements and macroseismic observations in France: a case study based on accelerometric and macroseismic databases

Comparison between accelerometric and macroseismic observations is made for three M _w?=?4.5 earthquakes, which occurred in north-eastern France and south-western Germany in 2003 and 2004. Scalar and spectral instrumental parameters are processed from the accelerometric data recorded by nine accelerometric stations located between 29 and 180 km from the epicentres. Macroseismic data are based on French Internet reports. In addition to the single questionnaire intensity, analysis of the internal correlation between the encoded answers highlights four predominant fields of questions bearing different physical meanings: (1) “vibratory motions of small objects”, (2) “displacement and fall of objects”, (3) “acoustic noise” and (4) “personal feelings”. Best correlations between macroseismic and instrumental observations are obtained when the macroseismic parameters are averaged over 10-km-radius circles around each station. Macroseismic intensities predicted by published peak ground velocity (PGV)–intensity relationships agree with our observed intensities, contrary to those based on peak ground acceleration (PGA). Correlation between the macroseismic and instrumental data for intensities between II and V (EMS-98) is better for PGV than for PGA. Correlation with the response spectra exhibits clear frequency dependence for all macroseismic parameters. Horizontal and vertical components are significantly correlated with the macroseismic parameters between 1 and 10 Hz, a range corresponding to both natural frequencies of most buildings and high energy content in the seismic ground motion. Between 10 and 25 Hz, a clear lack of correlation between macroseismic and instrumental observations exists. It could be due to a combination of the decrease in the energy signal above 10 Hz, a high level of anthropogenic noise and an increase in variability in soil conditions. Above 25 Hz, the correlation coefficients between the acceleration response spectra and the macroseismic parameters are close to the PGA correlation level.     

Magnetotelluric sounding and geothermics in Central and Eastern Europe: a comparison

In eight areas of Central and Eastern Europe elevated electrical conductivity horizons determined from magnetotellurics, heat flow densities and crustal structure were identified. Based on these data, it was determined whether good conducting horizons are the consequence of elevated temperatures or not. In three areas investigated the thermal activation was detectable; these areas are Alpine subsidences. In the five other areas no thermal activation was found, the good conducting layers on these areas have been caused by other disturbing effects, such as material inhomogeneities or near surface disturbances.     

Pre-instrumental earthquakes in a low-seismicity region: A reinvestigation of the macroseismic data for the 16 November 1931 events in Central Finland using statistical analysis

The earthquake in Central Finland on 16November 1931 and its aftershock the sameday are investigated. It is the strongestevent known to have occurred in this areaand thus of importance for understandingthe seismicity there. The originalmacroseismic questionnaires werere-examined using statistical analysis andtaking into account the recommendations forintensity assessments according to theEuropean Macroseismic Scale (EMS-92,-98).The data were augmented with contemporarypress reports. Test theory was applied whenpreprocessing the data, and intensityassessment was carried out by means ofcorrespondence analysis. Differentapproaches were applied to determine themacroseismic field and trace theisoseismals. Some of the practical problemsinvolve the treatment of audibleobservations. The macroseismic magnitudeswere estimated at 4.3 (±0.2) for themain shock and 3.7 (±0.2) for itslargest aftershock. Despite the smallmagnitudes, earthquake light sightings werealso reported for the events.     

A Crustal Model for the Eastern Alps Region and a New Moho Map in Southeastern Europe

In the last two decades, south-central Europe and the Eastern Alps have been widely explored by many seismic refraction experiments (e.g., CELEBRATION 2000, ALP 2002, SUDETES 2003). Although quite detailed images are available along linear profiles, a comprehensive, three-dimensional crustal model of the region is still missing. This limitation makes this region a weak spot in continental-wide comprehensive representations of crustal structure. To improve on this situation, we select and collect 37 published active-source seismic lines in this region. After geo-referencing each line, we sample them along vertical profiles—every 50?km or less along the line—and derive P-wave velocities in a stack of homogeneous layers (separated by discontinuities: depth of crystalline basement, top of lower crust, and Moho). We finally merge the information using geostatistical methods, and infer S-wave velocity and density using empirical scaling relations. We present here the resulting crustal model for a region encompassing the Eastern Alps, Dinarides, Pannonian basin, Western Carpathians and Bohemian Massif, covering the region within $45^{\circ}\text{--}51^{\circ}\hbox{N}$ and $11^{\circ} \text{--} 22^{\circ}\hbox{E}$ with a resolution of $0.2^{\circ} \times 0.2^{\circ}.$ We are also able to extend and update the map of Moho depth in a wider region within $35^{\circ}\text{--}51^{\circ}\hbox{N}$ and $12^{\circ}\text{--}45^{\circ}\hbox{E},$ gathering Moho values from the collected seismic lines, other published dataset and using the European plate reference EPcrust as a background. All the digitized profiles and the resulting model are available online.     

The May 23 and 24, 1994 Taiwan earthquakes: comparison of source process between the two events

Inversion for the seismic fault rupture history is an important way to study the nature of the earthquake source. In this paper, we have selected two Taiwan earthquakes that occurred closely in time and located in the same region, inversed the distribution of the slip amplitudes, rakes, risetimes and the rupture times on the fault planes by using GDSN broad-band and long-period records and the adaptive hybrid global search algorithm, and compared the two events. The slip rate of every subfault calculated provides information about the distribution of tectonic stress and fault strength. To the former event (MS=6.0), the maximum slip amplitude 2.4 m and the minimum risetime 1.2 s are both located at the hypocentre. The latter earthquake (MS=6.6) consisted of two subevents and the second source has 4 s delay. The maximum slip amplitude 0.9 m located near hypocentre is corresponding to the minimum risetime 1.4 s, and the corresponding maximum slip rate 0.7 m.s-1 is similar to the peak value of other large slip rate areas. We consider that the latter event has more complicated temporal-spatial distribution than the former.     

Reliability of the automatic procedures for locating earthquakes in southwestern Alps and northern Apennines (Italy)

Reliable automatic procedure for locating earthquake in quasi-real time is strongly needed for seismic warning system, earthquake preparedness, and producing shaking maps. The reliability of an automatic location algorithm is influenced by several factors such as errors in picking seismic phases, network geometry, and velocity model uncertainties. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the performances of different automatic procedures to choose the most suitable one to be applied for the quasi-real-time earthquake locations in northwestern Italy. The reliability of two automatic-picking algorithms (one based on the Characteristic Function (CF) analysis, CF picker, and the other one based on the Akaike’s information criterion (AIC), AIC picker) and two location methods (“Hypoellipse” and “NonLinLoc” codes) is analysed by comparing the automatically determined hypocentral coordinates with reference ones. Reference locations are computed by the “Hypoellipse” code considering manually revised data and tested using quarry blasts. The comparison is made on a dataset composed by 575 seismic events for the period 2000–2007 as recorded by the Regional Seismic network of Northwestern Italy. For P phases, similar results, in terms of both amount of detected picks and magnitude of travel time differences with respect to manual picks, are obtained applying the AIC and the CF picker; on the contrary, for S phases, the AIC picker seems to provide a significant greater number of readings than the CF picker. Furthermore, the “NonLinLoc” software (applied to a 3D velocity model) is proved to be more reliable than the “Hypoellipse” code (applied to layered 1D velocity models), leading to more reliable automatic locations also when outliers (wrong picks) are present.     

Media velocity model and macroseismic effect: The Spitak earthquake of December 7, 1988

Relationship between the intensity of seismic shaking on the surface and the velocity structure of the medium at large depth is studied. The Spitak earthquake of December 7, 1988 is chosen as an object of study. A method to correlate the intensity of shaking in the localities to the geophysical parameters specified in the nodes of regular spatial grid is proposed. Formalized definition of anomalous intensity is suggested; it takes into account the distribution of distances from the localities with given intensity degrees to the hypocenter or to the nearest segment of the surface fault. It is found that the seismic wave velocities at a depth of 1 km are higher (up to 0.2–0.6 km/s) under the localities with anomalously high intensity. No any certain regularity is found in deeper layers.     

A critical zone observatory dedicated to suspended sediment transport: The meso-scale Galabre catchment (southern French Alps)

The 20 km² Galabre catchment belongs to the French network of critical zone observatories (OZCAR; Gaillardet et al., Vadose Zone Journal, 2018, 17(1), 1–24). It is representative of the sedimentary lithology and meteorological forcing found in Mediterranean and mountainous areas. Due to the presence of highly erodible and sloping badlands on various lithologies, the site was instrumented in 2007 to understand the dynamics of suspended sediments (SS) in such areas. Two meteorological stations including measurements of air temperature, wind speed and direction, air moisture, rainfall intensity, raindrop size and velocity distribution were installed both in the upper and lower part of the catchment. At the catchment outlet, a gauging station records the water level, temperature and turbidity (10 min time-step). Stream water samples are collected automatically to estimate SS concentration-turbidity relationships, allowing quantification of SS fluxes with known uncertainty. The sediment samples are further characterized by measuring their particle size distributions and by applying a low-cost sediment fingerprinting approach using spectrocolorimetric tracers. Thus, the contributions of badlands located on different lithologies to total SS flux are quantified at a high temporal resolution, providing the opportunity to better analyse the links between meteorological forcing variability and watershed hydrosedimentary response. The set of measurements was extended to the dissolved phase in 2017. Both stream water electrical conductivity and major ion concentrations are measured each week and every 3 h during storm events. This extension of measurements to the dissolved phase will allow progress in understanding both the origin of the water during the events and the partitioning between particulate and dissolved fluxes of solutes in the critical zone. All data sets are available at https://doi.osug.fr/public/DRAIXBLEONE_GAL/index.html .     

The first data on helium isotopy in a transitional clay layer at the cretaceous-paleogene boundary (Gams,Eastern Alps)

The paper presents preliminary results derived from the study of He isotopy in a transitional clay bed at the critical 65-Ma boundary in the Gams area (Eastern Alps). The ratio ³He/⁴He is shown to decrease from bottom to top of the transitional layer, and the difference between its values in the lower-and uppermost sublayers of the layer exceeds by more than ten times the measurement uncertainty (5%). The ratio ³He/⁴He is smallest in the upper part of the section, where all features of an impact event (spherules of pure nickel, diamonds, and awaruite) are established. The general inference of our study is that ³He enrichment in the lower part of the Gams section is related not to cosmic matter but to a change in the conditions in the source area, most likely, to volcanic activity. The effect of the latter has been established, independent of He isotopic studies, from anomalous concentrations of As, Pb, Cu, and Zn and from the presence of particles of gold, copper, and titanomagnetite similar in composition to its basaltic varieties.     

地震活动涨落、自组织结构和大震临界状态的统计特征

根据非线性动力学理论、运用概率论与数理统计方法,对非平衡地震发生系统的空间分布状态进行了研究。提出用空间变异系数δV判断涨落类型:凝聚集、群集、泊松型和均匀点阵分布。从整体观点综合应用各统计量即协方差μ11、非负量I(x,y)、联合信息熵H(x,y)、离散度σ和δV,对非平衡系统的群体空间自组织结构和临界状态的统计特征做了进一步的探讨。根据首都圈公元前231年～2003年M≥434地震活动及其和华北不同范围ML≥3.0地震活动涨落的统计分析认为,μ11≈0,I(x,y)>0,高H(x,y)值,低σ和δV值是强震和大震发生的自组织空间结构和临界现象的基本特征和必要条件。同时对地震空区、条带、前兆性震群及前震等前兆现象成因提出了新的观点和统计解释,并得出结论:仅当一个远离平衡态的系统(区域)有足够的随机性而又非泊松型涨落时,系统的突变(大震)是不可逆转的。     

The first finding of native platinum in Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary clay,the gams section,Eastern Alps,Austria

For the first time, native platinum was found by microprobe analysis in the course of detailed studies of a transitional clay bed in the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, the Gams section, Eastern Alps, Austria. The analysis revealed no impurities. The morphology of platinum grains and its occurrence on the surface of a rounded zircon grain point to platinum syndeposition. It is concluded that native platinum formation was related to the action of volcanic aerosol, resulting from mantle plume activity 65 Ma BP.     

Evolution of debris cover on glaciers of the Eastern Alps,Austria, between 1996 and 2015

Debris cover on glaciers is an important component of glacial systems as it influences climate–glacier dynamics and thus the lifespan of glaciers. Increasing air temperatures, permafrost thaw and rock faces freshly exposed by glacier downwasting in accumulation zones result in increased rockfall activity and debris input. In the ablation zone, negative mass balances result in an enhanced melt-out of englacial debris. Glacier debris cover thus represents a clear signal of climate warming in mountain areas. To assess the temporal development of debris on glaciers of the Eastern Alps, Austria, we mapped debris cover on 255 glaciers using Landsat data at three time steps. We applied a ratio-based threshold classification technique and analysed glacier catchment characteristics to understand debris sources better. Across the Austrian Alps, debris cover increased by more than 10% between 1996 and 2015 while glaciers retreated in response to climate warming. Debris cover distribution shows significant regional variability, with some mountain ranges being characterised by mean debris cover on glaciers of up to 75%. We also observed a general rise of the mean elevation of debris cover on glaciers in Austria. The debris cover distribution and dynamics are highly variable due to topographic, lithological and structural settings that determine the amount of debris delivered to and stored in the glacier system. Despite strong variation in debris cover, all glaciers investigated melted at increasing rates. We conclude that the retarding effects of debris cover on the mass balance and melt rate of Austrian glaciers is strongly subdued compared with other mountain areas. The study indicates that, if this trend continues, many glaciers in Austria may become fully debris covered. However, since debris cover seems to have little impact on melt rates, this would not lead to prolonged existence of debris-covered ice compared with clean ice glaciers.     

The Caulerpa racemosa invasion: a critical review

Caulerpa racemosa var. cylindracea is a marine Chlorophyta introduced into the Mediterranean Sea from south-western Australia. Since 1990, it has been invading the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands, raising ecological problems. Although this invasion event can be considered as one of the most serious in the history of species introduced into the Mediterranean Sea, C. racemosa has not triggered as much attention as the famous "killer alga"Caulerpa taxifolia. The aim of the present study was: (i) to summarize the current state of knowledge with regard to the distribution, the various biological and ecological characteristics of the introduced C. racemosa and its impact on the Mediterranean coastal environment; (ii) to discuss the various hypotheses regarding the explanation for its rapid and successful spread; (iii) to investigate the disparity in the treatment of C. racemosa and Caulerpa taxifolia invasions; and (iv) to outline future research needs.     

A macroseismic model of a tsunami source and estimation of its efficiency by numerical modeling

A typical model of the source of a tsunami (“macroseismic source”) is suggested for use in approximate estimation of maximum tsunami height using straightforward numerical modeling. In this paper the model is tested using three actual events: the 1952 North Kuril Is., 1971 Moneron, and 1994 Shikotan earthquakes, which excited considerable tsunamis at Russia’s Far East coasts. Comparison of the maximum tsunami runup values as obtained in numerical experiments with observations of actual tsunamis showed that the numerical model proposed here is suitable for crude estimation of tsunami runup and tsunami waiting times for coastal population centers in the near zone of a tsunami source.