Diagnostics,deterioration and provenance of stone materials from the Jefferson Page tomb (Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome,Italy)

The monumental tomb of Jefferson Page, an officer in the American Navy, was built in 1899 and is located in the Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome (Italy). This study presents complementary diagnostic studies characterizing the stone of the tomb and the weathering and decay phenomena it has undergone. The monument is made of a single type of whitish marble, variously veined and often covered with black patinas. Petrographic, isotopic and LA-ICP-MS analyses attribute the marble to the Carrara district. SEM/EDS and microbiological analyses indicate that the black patinas are due to cyanobacterial autotrophic and fungin heterotrophic colonization. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy revealed the presence of organic material on some portions of the tomb, due to undocumented restoration carried out with a mixture of marble powder and a polyester resin.     

Major and trace element characterization of tephra layers offshore Pantelleria Island: insights into the last 200 ka of volcanic activity and contribution to the Mediterranean tephrochronology

A detailed tephrochronological study was carried out on the deep‐sea core collected from Site 963A in the Sicily Channel during ODP Leg 160. The chronology of the succession is provided by an age–depth model based on isotope stratigraphy and quantitative eco‐biostratigraphy. Major, trace and rare earth element content was obtained on single glass grains through electron probe micro‐analysis and laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry techniques from six well‐preserved tephra layers, characterized by a discrete thickness found along the succession. These deposits were correlated with the volcanic activity of Pantelleria and dated at 42.5, 127.5, 128.1, 129.1, 188.7 and 197.7 ka. This detailed chemical characterization of the studied deposits aims to provide a valuable reference database for scientists working on both proximal and distal products erupted at Pantelleria island during the Late Pleistocene. This study, moreover, offers the opportunity to better identify Pantelleria‐related marker tephras within the tephrochronological framework of the central and eastern Mediterranean area. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

GHASP: an Hα kinematic survey of spiral and irregular galaxies – V. Dark matter distribution in 36 nearby spiral galaxies

The results obtained from a study of the mass distribution of 36 spiral galaxies are presented. The galaxies were observed using Fabry–Perot interferometry as part of the GHASP survey. The main aim of obtaining high-resolution Hα 2D velocity fields is to define more accurately the rising part of the rotation curves which should allow to better constrain the parameters of the mass distribution. The Hα velocities were combined with low resolution H  i data from the literature, when available. Combining the kinematical data with photometric data, mass models were derived from these rotation curves using two different functional forms for the halo: an isothermal sphere (ISO) and a Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) profile. For the galaxies already modelled by other authors, the results tend to agree. Our results point at the existence of a constant density core in the centre of the dark matter haloes rather than a cuspy core, whatever the type of the galaxy from Sab to Im. This extends to all types the result already obtained by other authors studying dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies but would necessitate a larger sample of galaxies to conclude more strongly. Whatever model is used (ISO or NFW), small core radius haloes have higher central densities, again for all morphological types. We confirm different halo scaling laws, such as the correlations between the core radius and the central density of the halo with the absolute magnitude of a galaxy: low-luminosity galaxies have small core radius and high central density. We find that the product of the central density with the core radius of the dark matter halo is nearly constant, whatever the model and whatever the absolute magnitude of the galaxy. This suggests that the halo surface density is independent from the galaxy type.     

Building a European geothermal information network using a distributed e-Infrastructure

Geothermal data are published using different IT services, formats and content representations, and can refer to both regional and global scale information. Geothermal stakeholders search for information with different aims. E-Infrastructures are collaborative platforms that address this diversity of aims and data representations. In this paper, we present a prototype for a European Geothermal Information Platform that uses INSPIRE recommendations and an e-Infrastructure (D4Science) to collect, aggregate and share data sets from different European data contributors, thus enabling stakeholders to retrieve and process a large amount of data. Our system merges segmented and national realities into one common framework. We demonstrate our approach by describing a platform that collects data from Italian, French, Hungarian, Swiss and Icelandic geothermal data providers.     

A novel nuclear forensic tool involving deposit type normalized rare earth element signatures

Identifying the provenance of uranium‐rich materials is a critical objective of nuclear forensic analysis. Rare earth element (REE) distributions within uranium ores are well‐established forensic indicators, but quantifying and correlating trace element signatures for U ores to known deposits has thus far involved intricate statistical analyses. This study reports average chondrite normalized (CN)‐REE signatures for important U deposit types worldwide, which are then employed to evaluate U ore paragenesis using a simple linear regression analysis. This technique provides a straightforward method that can aid in determining the deposit type of U ores based on their REE abundances, and combined with other forensic indicators (e.g. radiogenic isotope signatures) can provide essential provenance information for nuclear materials.