Assessment of a monumental masonry bell-tower after 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence by long-term SHM

The response of the San Pietro monumental bell-tower located in Perugia, Italy, to the 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence is investigated, taking advantage of the availability of field data recorded by a vibration-based SHM system installed in December 2014 to detect earthquake-induced damages. The tower is located about 85 km in the NW direction from the epicenter of the first major shock of the sequence, the Accumoli Mw6.0 earthquake of August 24th, resulting in a small local PGA of about 30 cm/s², whereby near-field PGA was measured as 915.97 cm/s² (E–W component) and 445.59 cm/s² (N–S component). Similar PGA values also characterized the two other major shocks of the sequence (Ussita Mw5.9 and Norcia Mw6.5 earthquakes of October 26th and 30th, respectively). Despite the relatively low intensity of such earthquakes in Perugia, the analysis of long-term monitoring data clearly highlights that small permanent changes in the structural behavior of the bell-tower have occurred after the earthquakes, with decreases in all identified natural frequencies. Such natural frequency decays are fully consistent with what predicted by non-linear finite element simulations and, in particular, with the development of microcracks at the base of the columns of the belfry. Microcracks in these regions, and in the rest of tower, are however hardly distinguishable from pre-existing ones and from the physiological cracking of a masonry structure, what validates the effectiveness of the SHM system in detecting earthquake-induced damage at a stage where this is not yet detectable by visual inspections.     

Storm surge frequency reduction in Venice under climate change

Increased tidal levels and storm surges related to climate change are projected to result in extremely adverse effects on coastal regions. Predictions of such extreme and small-scale events, however, are exceedingly challenging, even for relatively short time horizons. Here we use data from observations, ERA-40 re-analysis, climate scenario simulations, and a simple feature model to find that the frequency of extreme storm surge events affecting Venice is projected to decrease by about 30% by the end of the twenty-first century. In addition, through a trend assessment based on tidal observations we found a reduction in extreme tidal levels. Extrapolating the current +17 cm/century sea level trend, our results suggest that the frequency of extreme tides in Venice might largely remain unaltered under the projected twenty-first century climate simulations.     

Performance of masonry buildings during the Emilia 2012 earthquake

The earthquake sequence started on May \(20\) th 2012 in Emilia (Italy) affected a region where masonry constructions represent a large part of the existing building stock and the construction of new modern masonry buildings is a common practice. The paper is focused on the performance of common architectural configurations, typical for residential or business use. The large majority of old masonry buildings is made of fired clay bricks. The seismic performance of these buildings is particularly interesting since major past earthquakes in Italy affected areas with mainly stone masonry structures. Apart from examples showing systematic or peculiar structural deficiencies governing the vulnerability of several buildings, the overall seismic performance of these structures to repeated shaking, with PGA as large as 0.25–0.3 g was rather good, despite the major part of them were only conceived for carrying vertical loads. In fact, seismic design is mandatory in the area only since 2003. Modern low-rise masonry buildings erected after this date and incorporating seismic design and proper detailing resulted in most cases practically undamaged. The examples reported in the paper allow an evaluation of the superior performance of seismically designed modern masonry buildings in comparison to older ones.     

The Significance of Intestinal Parasite Remains in Pollen Samples from Medieval Pits in the Piazza Garibaldi of Parma,Emilia Romagna,Northern Italy

This paper presents the study of parasite remains recovered in pollen samples collected from archaeological layers. Laboratory treatment enabled us to obtain very high concentrations of both pollen and parasite eggs from the same samples. The case study of the site of Piazza Garibaldi in Parma, a town in the Po plain, is reported. The site was a sacred area in Roman times and a market square in Medieval times (10th–11th century A.D.). Pollen, seeds, and fruits from the latter phase were collected from four Medieval pits and one cesspit. After a palynological treatment including sieving, floating, and light acetolysis, abundant quantities of parasite eggs were extracted. Human and animal parasite eggs belonging to Trichuris, Ascaris, Taenia/Echinococcus, Capillaria, Dicrocoelium, and Diphyllobothrium were found. The analyses of animal and plant remains identified in the same samples suggested that the pit infillings consisted of waste, human and animal excrements, deteriorated plant food, and refuse of grapes. Therefore, parasite remains help the interpretation of archaeobotanical data in identifying human behaviors and site functions.     

Calcic amphiboles in calc-alkaline and alkaline magmas: thermobarometric and chemometric empirical equations valid up to 1,130°C and 2.2 GPa

The following article presents constraints of the stability of Mg-rich (Mg/(Mg + Fe²⁺) > 0.5) calcic amphibole in both calc-alkaline and alkaline magmas, testing of previous thermobarometers, and formulation of new empirical equations that take into consideration a large amount of literature data (e.g. more than one thousand amphibole compositions among experimental and natural crystals). Particular care has been taken in choosing a large number of natural amphiboles and selecting quality experimental data from literature. The final database of experimental data, composed of 61 amphiboles synthesized in the ranges of 800–1,130°C and 130–2,200 MPa, indicates that amphibole crystallization occurs in a horn-like P–T stability field limited by two increasing curves (i.e. the thermal stability and an upper limit), which should start to bend back to higher pressures. Among calcic amphiboles, magnesiohornblendes and tschermakitic pargasites are only found in equilibrium with calc-alkaline melts and crystallize at relatively shallow conditions (P up to ~1 GPa). Kaersutite and pargasite are species almost exclusively found in alkaline igneous products, while magnesiohastingsite is equally distributed in calc-alkaline and alkaline rocks. The reliability of previous amphibole applications was checked using the selected experimental database. The results of this testing indicate that none of the previous thermobarometers can be successfully used to estimate the P, T and fO₂ in a wide range of amphibole crystallization conditions. Multivariate least-square analyses of experimental amphibole compositions and physico-chemical parameters allowed us to achieve a new thermobarometric model that gives reasonably low uncertainties (T ± 23.5°C, P ± 11.5%, H₂O_melt ± 0.78wt%) for calc-alkaline and alkaline magmas in a wide range of P–T conditions (up to 1,130°C and 2,200 MPa) and ∆NNO values (±0.37 log units) up to 500 MPa. The ^AK-^[4]Al relation in amphibole can be readily used to distinguish crystals of calc-alkaline liquids from those of alkaline magmas. In addition, several chemometric equations allowing to estimate the anhydrous composition of the melts in equilibrium with amphiboles of calc-alkaline magmas were derived.     

Numerical simulation of the tsunami generated by a past catastrophic landslide on the volcanic island of Ischia, Italy

The island of Ischia, Gulf of Naples, Italy, like many other volcanic islands is affected by mass failures, that are mainly related to secondary volcanic processes such as slope steepening and seismic shaking. The block resurgence of its main relief, Mount Epomeo, has been recognised to contribute cyclically to mass instability and cause landslides, that occasionally may reach the sea and start tsunamis. In this work we explore the consequences of the Ischia Debris Avalanche (IDA), a flank collapse that occurred in historical times, and involved the whole Mount Epomeo edifice including its submarine portion, and that may have caused gigantic sea waves affecting all the coasts of Ischia and of the Gulf of Naples. The IDA and the generated tsunami have been taken as the worst-case scenario for the occurrence of a new tsunami in the area. They have been simulated through numerical codes developed and maintained by the University of Bologna. The simulation shows that the IDA-induced tsunami attacks severely all the coasts of the Gulf of Naples with the highest waves obtained for the island of Ischia, the island of Capri and the peninsula of Sorrento. The propagation pattern of the IDA tsunami can be used to get hints on the impact that such an event may have had on early populations habiting Gulf of Naples, but also to get clues on the area that could be most severely hit by a tsunami generated by a smaller-scale landslide that may occur in the same source zone.     

Volcanic soil formation in Calabria (southern Italy): The Cecita Lake geosol in the late Quaternary geomorphological evolution of the Sila uplands

This paper focuses on the main morphological, physical, chemical and mineralogical features of an andic-like soil, widely outcropping in the Sila upland plateau of Calabria (southern Italy), and its potential role in tephrostratigraphy. A multidisciplinary and multiscale approach allowed identification of this soil as a “masked” distal archive of volcanic products, developed on granite rocks and sediments with a coeval pyroclastic input during pedogenesis. The study demonstrates that the contribution of volcanic parent materials can be successfully hypothesized and assessed even in the absence, limited extent or poor preservation of primary eruptive products. The soil has an Andisol-like appearance, despite laboratory data that do not match the entire suite of diagnostic criteria for the Andisol taxonomic order. Geomorphological, stratigraphic and pedologic results, coupled with tephrostratigraphic and radiometric data, concur to suggest a Late Pleistocene(?) to Holocene age of the Andisol-like soil. In particular, the rhyolitic chemical composition of small-sized glass fragments (identified by SEM–EDS analyses) indicates soil genesis contributed by volcanic ash, probably sourced from Aeolian Arc explosive activity spanning the last 30 ka. Accordingly, the evidence of limited relict clay illuviation and the specific type of pedogenesis allowing the development of andic properties (in turn related to the neoformation of clay minerals from the weathering of volcanic glass) are consistent with a climatic shift from a seasonally-contrasted to a constantly humid pedoenvironment. This change can be ascribed to the Lateglacial(?) or Early–Middle Holocene to Late Holocene transition. Calibrated AMS ¹⁴C dates performed on charcoal fragments sampled from three representative soil profiles, provide Late Holocene ages (3136 ± 19, 343 ± 16 and 92 ± 24 yr BP), in accord with archaeological finds. On the basis of the consistent stratigraphic position, lateral continuity and wide extent, the soil can be considered a good pedostratigraphic marker in the Sila highlands and is informally defined as the “Cecita Lake geosol”. It supplies valuable time constraints for the underlying (occasionally overlying) deposits and/or soils. Moreover, it allows regional-scale morphostratigraphic correlations and detailed reconstruction of Late Pleistocene–Holocene geomorphic events in Calabria, a very suitable region for distal tephra deposition in the central Mediterranean peri-volcanic area. The effects of high-energy volcanic eruptions are interfingered with or superimposed by other geomorphic processes and climatic or anthropogenic signals.     

RegCM3区域气候模式对中国气候的模拟

使用RegCM3区域气候模式嵌套ERA40再分析资料,对东亚地区进行了15 a（1987-2001年）时间长度的数值积分试验。结果表明：模式可较好地模拟中国地面气温的分布和季节变化,但存在系统性的冷偏差;对降水的变化模拟也较好,但其地理分布模拟存在一定偏差。     

Land surface coupling in regional climate simulations of the West African monsoon

Coupling of the Community Land Model (CLM3) to the ICTP Regional Climate Model (RegCM3) substantially improves the simulation of mean climate over West Africa relative to an older version of RegCM3 coupled to the Biosphere Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS). Two 10-year simulations (1992–2001) show that the seasonal timing and magnitude of mean monsoon precipitation more closely match observations when the new land surface scheme is implemented. Specifically, RegCM3–CLM3 improves the timing of the monsoon advance and retreat across the Guinean Coast, and reduces a positive precipitation bias in the Sahel and Northern Africa. As a result, simulated temperatures are higher, thereby reducing the negative temperature bias found in the Guinean Coast and Sahel in RegCM3–BATS. In the RegCM3–BATS simulation, warmer temperatures in northern latitudes and wetter soils near the coast create excessively strong temperature and moist static energy gradients, which shifts the African Easterly Jet further north than observed. In the RegCM3–CLM3 simulation, the migration and position of the African Easterly Jet more closely match reanalysis winds. This improvement is triggered by drier soil conditions in the RegCM3–CLM3 simulation and an increase in evapotranspiration per unit precipitation. These results indicate that atmosphere–land surface coupling has the ability to impact regional-scale circulation and precipitation in regions exhibiting strong hydroclimatic gradients.     

Sensitivity of the regional climate model RegCM4.2 to planetary boundary layer parameterisation

This study investigates the performance of two planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterisations in the regional climate model RegCM4.2 with specific focus on the recently implemented prognostic turbulent kinetic energy parameterisation scheme: the University of Washington (UW) scheme. When compared with the default Holtslag scheme, the UW scheme, in the 10-year experiments over the European domain, shows a substantial cooling. It reduces winter warm bias over the north-eastern Europe by 2 °C and reduces summer warm bias over central Europe by 3 °C. A part of the detected cooling is ascribed to a general reduction in lower tropospheric eddy heat diffusivity with the UW scheme. While differences in temperature tendency due to PBL schemes are mostly localized to the lower troposphere, the schemes show a much higher diversity in how vertical turbulent mixing of the water vapour mixing ratio is governed. Differences in the water vapour mixing ratio tendency due to the PBL scheme are present almost throughout the troposphere. However, they alone cannot explain the overall water vapour mixing ratio profiles, suggesting strong interaction between the PBL and other model parameterisations. An additional 18-member ensemble with the UW scheme is made, where two formulations of the master turbulent length scale in unstable conditions are tested and unconstrained parameters associated with (a) the evaporative enhancement of the cloud-top entrainment and (b) the formulation of the master turbulent length scale in stable conditions are systematically perturbed. These experiments suggest that the master turbulent length scale in the UW scheme could be further refined in the current implementation in the RegCM model. It was also found that the UW scheme is less sensitive to the variations of the other two selected unconstrained parameters, supporting the choice of these parameters in the default formulation of the UW scheme.