Detection of detached forced-regressive nearshore wedges: a case study from the central-southern Siena Basin (Northern Apennines, Italy)

The detection of detached nearshore wedges formed in response to relative sea-level drops is considered one of the hottest topics in sequence stratigraphic analysis due to their importance as reservoir analogues. In fact, they usually constitute sandy and porous bodies generally encased in impermeable clay, thus presenting a good potential as traps for fluids. This paper focuses on the sequence stratigraphic analysis of the Pliocene deposits cropping out in the central-southern sector of the Siena Basin (Tuscany, Italy), a post-collisional basin of the Northern Apennines. The exposed sedimentary succession was investigated through a detailed sedimentological and stratigraphic approach, integrated by biostratigraphic analyses, aimed at a better characterization of the infilling history of this sector of the basin. Specifically, this study revealed the occurrence of repeated facies shifts that allowed the identification of two depositional sequences. In detail, a thick sand-rich body far from the basin margins, and previously considered as a turbiditic lobe, has been reinterpreted as formed in a nearshore setting during a fall in relative sea level. This body is totally encased in offshore clay, and due to the lack of physical connection with the related HST deposits, it has to be considered as a detached forced-regressive wedge. The present work led to the recognition of some sedimentological and stratigraphic features typical of falling stage systems tract deposits (e.g. presence of intrabasinal recycled materials, sedimentological evidence of a pre-existing fluvial network subsequently eroded) that can provide useful clues for the identification of detached forced-regressive nearshore wedges in core studies and poorly exposed settings.     

Earthquake‐induced structural response output‐only identification by two different Operational Modal Analysis techniques

Output‐only system identification is developed here towards assessing current modal dynamic properties of buildings under seismic excitation. Earthquake‐induced structural response signals are adopted as input channels for two different Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) techniques, namely, a refined Frequency Domain Decomposition (rFDD) algorithm and an improved Data‐Driven Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI‐DATA) procedure. Despite that short‐duration, non‐stationary, earthquake‐induced structural response signals shall not fulfil traditional OMA assumptions, these implementations are specifically formulated to operate with seismic responses and simultaneous heavy damping (in terms of identification challenge), for a consistent estimation of natural frequencies, mode shapes, and modal damping ratios. A linear ten‐storey frame structure under a set of ten selected earthquake base‐excitation instances is numerically simulated, by comparing the results from the two identification methods. According to this study, best up‐to‐date, reinterpreted OMA techniques may effectively be used to characterize the current dynamic behaviour of buildings, thus allowing for potential Structural Health Monitoring approaches in the Earthquake Engineering range.     

Horizontal rotation signals detected by “G-Pisa” ring laser for the M w = 9.0, March 2011, Japan earthquake

We report the observation of the ground rotation induced by the M _w = 9.0, 11th of March 2011, Japan earthquake. The rotation measurements have been conducted with a ring laser gyroscope operating in a vertical plane, thus detecting rotations around the horizontal axis. Comparison of ground rotations with vertical accelerations from a co-located force balance accelerometer shows excellent ring laser coupling at periods longer than 100?s. Under the plane wave assumption, we derive a theoretical relationship between horizontal rotation and vertical acceleration for Rayleigh waves. Due to the oblique mounting of the gyroscope with respect to the wave direction of arrival, apparent velocities derived from the acceleration/rotation rate ratio are expected to be always larger than or equal to the true wave propagation velocity. This hypothesis is confirmed through comparison with fundamental mode, Rayleigh-wave phase velocities predicted for a standard Earth model.     

Estimation of the mass density contrasts and the 3D geometrical shape of the source bodies in the Yilgarn area, Eastern Goldfields, Western Australia

We invert 2D surface gravity data constrained both by geological and seismic information. We use a number of pre-processing tools in order to reduce the general multi-body inversion into several single-body inversions, whereby we can reduce the overall complexity of the inversion task. This is done with as few assumptions as possible. Furthermore, for a single-body inversion we uncouple the determination of the shape of the causative sources from the determination of their mass density contrast to the surroundings. The inversion for the geometrical shape of the source body is done in steps. Firstly, a rough 3D shape of the source is modelled—a model consisting of the vertical mass columns of equal height. The horizontal extension is implied by the surface gravity signal. Subsequently, the shape of each source body is modified to obtain a better fit to the surface gravity data. In each modification step, the overall change of the shape of the source body is followed by an update of the mass density contrast to the surroundings. The technique was applied to a set of gravity data from the Eastern Goldfield area in Western Australia. The area has been widely studied in the past. In 1999, two seismic profiles that cross-sect the area were measured. Furthermore, an extensive geological modelling for the area has been conducted. The practical goal of this work was to verify the geological interpretation using the potential field data (mainly the gravity data although magnetic data were also available) and only weakly constrained by the seismic information. The result was the reconstruction of the ‘rough’ 3D geometry of the source bodies and the estimation of a constant mass density contrast to the surroundings. A possible extension of this technique for detailed studies of the geological model is briefly discussed.     

Wave observations from an array of directional buoys over the southern Brazilian coast

It is well known that the majority of buoy measurements are located around the US coast and along some Europeans countries. The lack of long-term and densely spaced in situ measurements in the Southern Hemisphere in general, and the South Atlantic in particular, hinders several investigations due to the lack of detailed metocean information. Here, we present an effort to overcome this limitation, with a dense network of buoys along the Brazilian coast, equipped with several meteorological and oceanographic sensors. Out of ten currently operational buoys, three are employed to present the main characteristics of waves in the Southern part of the network. For the first time, sensor characteristics and settings are described, as well as the methods applied to the raw wave data. Statistics and distributions of wave parameters, swell propagating events, comparison with a numerical model and altimeters and a discussion about the occurrence of freak waves are presented.     

Soil moisture-temperature feedbacks at meso-scale during summer heat waves over Western Europe

This paper investigates the impact of soil moisture-temperature feedback during heatwaves occurring over France between 1989 and 2008. Two simulations of the weather research and forecasting regional model have been analysed, with two different land-surface models. One resolves the hydrology and is able to simulate summer dryness, while the other prescribes constant and high soil moisture and hence no soil moisture deficit. The sensitivity analysis conducted for all heatwave episodes highlights different soil moisture-temperature responses (1) over low-elevation plains, (2) over mountains and (3) over coastal regions. In the plains, soil moisture deficit induces less evapotranspiration and higher sensible heat flux. This has the effect of heating the planetary boundary layer and at the same time of creating a general condition of higher convective instability and a slight increase of shallow cloud cover. A positive feedback is created which increases the temperature anomaly during the heatwaves. In mountainous regions, enhanced heat fluxes over dry soil reinforce upslope winds producing strong vertical motion over the mountain slope, first triggered by thermal convection. This, jointly to the instability conditions, favors convection triggering and produces clouds and precipitation over the mountains, reducing the temperature anomaly. In coastal regions, dry soil enhances land/sea thermal contrast, strengthening sea-breeze circulation and moist cold marine air advection. This damps the magnitude of the heatwave temperature anomaly in coastal areas, expecially near the Mediterranean coast. Hence, along with heating in the plains, soil dryness can also have a significant cooling effect over mountains and coastal regions due to meso-scale circulations.     

Paleomagnetic constraints on the Plio–Pleistocene geodynamic evolution of the external central–northern Apennines (Italy)

We report on new paleomagnetic results obtained from 27 sites sampled in the Plio–Pleistocene sequences at the external front of the central–northern Apennines. Previous analyses of Miocene (Messinian) sediments indicated that the present shape of the northern Apenninic arc is due to the oroclinal bending of an originally straight belt oriented around N320° and that vertical axis rotations accompanied the migration of the thrust fronts toward the Adriatic foreland [F. Speranza et al., J. Geophys. Res. 102 (1997) 3153–3166]. We tried to provide new paleomagnetic constraints for the timing and rates of the oroclinal bending process during the Pliocene and the Pleistocene. The results suggest that CCW rotations observed in the northern part of the studied area are possibly younger than 3 Ma. No regional rotation is recorded in the Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments from the southern part of the study area, analogously to the Messinian sediments of the ‘Acquasanta’ domain of Speranza et al. [F. Speranza et al., J. Geophys. Res. 102 (1997) 3153–3166]. A local significant CCW rotation (23°±10°) is identified in the Early Pleistocene sediments that crop out along the Adriatic coast between Ascoli and Pescara, indicating differential motion of the thrust sheets. This rotation must be younger than 1.43 Ma.     

The large-scale polarization of the microwave foreground

Most of the useful information about inflationary gravitational waves and reionization is on large angular scales where Galactic foreground contamination is the worst, so a key challenge is to model, quantify and remove polarized foregrounds. We use the Leiden radio surveys to quantify the polarized synchrotron radiation at large angular scales, which is likely to be the most challenging polarized contaminant for the WMAP satellite. We find that the synchrotron E- and B-contributions are equal to within 10% from 408–820 MHz with a hint of E-domination at higher frequencies. We quantify Faraday rotation and depolarization effects and show that they cause the synchrotron polarization percentage to drop both towards lower frequencies and towards lower multipoles.