Stages in the development of the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp1

Rotterdam and Antwerp, situated in close proximity to each other, have evolved over the past seven centuries to become the world's largest and Europe's second largest ports respectively. Mainly for political reasons, the stages of rise and decline occurred in complementary time periods, until freedom of inland shipping became international law on the Rhine and in the Rhine-Maas-Schelde delta region in the 19th century. Since then Antwerp's ascendancy has occurred without serious interruption, though areal expansion is now limited by the Belgian-Dutch boundary. Rotterdam, on the other hand, has faced two difficult periods involving ease and speed of access to the North Sea, and destruction during World War II.     

Cummingtonite in the amphibolites of the South-Alpine basement complex (upper Lake Como region,Italy): Its relationships with hornblende

Summary Cummingtonite and hornblende occur together in metamorphosed basic rocks interlayered with lower-amphibolite facies sillimanite-muscovite-bearing schists and gneisses in the upper Lake Como region, South-Alpine basement complex of the Alps. Textural, chemical and spectroscopic studies indicate that they do not represent equilibrium pairs, but that hornblende was overgrown by cummingtonite during a late stage of either temperature increase or, more likely, of isothermal pressure release, by a continuous reaction which also produced the reverse zoning of plagioclase.

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Cummingtonit in den Amphiboliten des südalpinen Grundgebirges (oberes Comosee-Gebiet, Italien): seine Beziehungen mit Hornblende

Zusammenfassung Im Gebiet des oberen Como-Sees, im südalpinen Basement-Komplex, kommen Cummingtonit und Hornblende zusammen in metamorphen, basischen Gesteinen mit Zwischenlagen von Sillimanit-Muskovit-führenden Schiefern und Gneisen der unteren Amphibolit-Fazies vor. Untersuchung der Texturen, der chemischen Zusammensetzung und Infrarot-Spektroskopie zeigen, daß diese nicht Gleichgewichts-Paare darstellen, sondern daß Hornblende während eines späten Stadiums, entweder bei zunehmender Temperatur, oder eher während isothermalen Druck-Nachlasses durch eine kontinuierliche Reaktion von Cummingtonit überwachsen wurde, die auch für die reverse Zonierung der Plagioklase verantwortlich ist.

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With 5 Figures     

Cost–benefit analysis of flood mitigation measures: a case study employing high-performance hydraulic and damage modelling

Natural Hazards - This paper shows a detailed, advanced procedure to implement cost–benefit analyses (CBAs) in order to assess the effectiveness of flood mitigation measures. The town of Lodi...     

Palaeotethys-related sediments of the Karaburun Peninsula,western Turkey: constraints on provenance and stratigraphy from detrital zircon geochronology

International Journal of Earth Sciences - Detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology of 15 Late Palaeozoic to Early Mesozoic siliciclastic sandstones from the Karaburun Peninsula in western Turkey...     

Biochemical responses in farmed mussel Perna perna transplanted to contaminated sites on Santa Catarina Island, SC, Brazil.

The effects of contaminants on the biochemical parameters of the intensively farmed mussel Perna perna, are unknown. The aim of this study was to compare biochemical responses in mussels held in clean and contaminated sites in Santa Catarina Island, Brazil. Mussels were transplanted from a farming area, Ratones Grande Island (RGI), to two contaminated sites, Itacorubi (ITAC) and Hercílio Luz Bridge (HLB). A reference group was kept at RGI. After 150 and 180 days of exposure, the digestive glands of the mussels were analyzed for catalase, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities. No changes were observed in the catalase activity, in both periods. Low G6PDH activity was observed in mussels transplanted for 150 days at the ITAC site. Increased GST activity was observed in mussels from ITAC and HLG sites after 180 days. These responses are probably related to the augmented discharges of domestic effluents associated with elevated rainfall index.     

Google Earth as a data source for investigating river forms and processes: Discriminating river types using form-based process indicators

Google Earth provides potential for exploiting an enormous reservoir of freely-available remotely sensed data to support river science and management. In this paper, we consider how the platform can support investigation of river physical forms and processes by developing an empirically-based reach-scale classification of semi-natural European single thread to transitional rivers. Using strict reach and image selection criteria, we identified 194 reaches of 68 rivers for analysis. Measurements of channel dimensions and counts of in-channel and floodplain features, standardised for reach length and channel width where necessary, were used to derive a series of geomorphologically-relevant process indicators. A suite of multivariate analyses were then applied to this data set, resulting in the discrimination of five river types: laterally stable, laterally active sinuous-meandering; transitional (near-braided); bedrock; and cascade/step dominated. The results of the classification were tested by examining the characteristics and distribution of the river classes in relation to known independent controls of river form including reach-scale energy and valley confinement conditions. Our results show that if methods of data extraction are carefully developed, physically meaningful river reach discrimination can be achieved using Google Earth. Although there are limits to the types of information that can be extracted such that field investigations cannot always be avoided, there is enormous potential to mine Google Earth across different space and time scales, supporting the assembly of large, reliable data sets relevant to river forms and processes in a very cost-effective way. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

River,Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics Selected papers from the 10th anniversary of the RCEM Symposium

This Special Issue collects 17 selected contributions from participants to the 10th edition of the RCEM (River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics) Symposium, organized in Padova-Trento (Italy) in September 2017. The series of biennial RCEM symposia has the key goal of enhancing interaction and promoting integration among the scientific communities focused on the morphological dynamics of river, coastal and estuarine environments, through various combinations of theoretical, observational, experimental and modelling approaches. The 17 contributions to this Special Issue contain four state-of-science reviews and overall offer a broad view of the cross-cutting perspective adopted when addressing morphodynamics. Such a perspective accounts for the mutual interplay between morphology, fluid dynamics and other environmental factors, and has presently become a widespread paradigm to address landscape evolution. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Free and forced morphodynamics of river bifurcations

Water and sediment distribution by river bifurcations is often highly unbalanced. This may result from a variety of factors, such as migration of bars, channel curvature and backwater effects, which promote an uneven partition of flow and sediment fluxes in the downstream branches, which we call ‘forcings’. Bifurcations also display an intrinsic instability mechanism that leads to unbalanced configurations, as occurs in the idealized case of a geometrically symmetric bifurcation, which we call ‘free’, provided the width-to-depth ratio of the incoming flow is large enough. Most frequently, these free and forced mechanisms coexist; however, their controlling roles in bifurcation dynamics have not been investigated so far. In this paper we address this question by proposing a unified free-forced modelling framework for bifurcation morphodynamics. Upstream channel curvature and different slopes of downstream branches (slope advantage) are specifically investigated as forcing effects typically occurring in bifurcations of alluvial channels. The modelling strategy is based on the widely used two-cell model of Bolla Pittaluga et al. (Water Resources Research, 2003, 39 (3), 1–13), here extended to account for the spatially non-uniform fluxes entering the bifurcation node. Results reveal that the relative role of free and forced mechanisms depends on the width-to-depth ratio falling above or below the resonant threshold that controls the stability of free bifurcations: when the main channel is relatively wide and shallow (super-resonant regime) the bifurcation invariably evolves towards unbalanced configurations, whatever the combination of curvature and slope advantage values, which instead control the bifurcation response under sub-resonant conditions. Detection of the resonant aspect ratio as a key threshold also releases the modelling approach from the need for parameter calibration that characterized previous approaches, and allows for interpreting under a unified framework the opposite behaviours shown by gravel-bed and sand-bed bifurcations for increasing Shields parameter values. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Isotope geochemistry (Sr–Nd–Pb) and petrogenesis of leucite-bearing volcanic rocks from “Colli Albani” volcano, Roman Magmatic Province, Central Italy: inferences on volcano evolution and magma genesis

The “Colli Albani” composite volcano is made up of strongly silica-undersaturated leucite-bearing rocks. Magmas were erupted during three main periods, but a complex plumbing system dominated by regional tectonics channelled magmas into different reservoirs. The most alkali-rich magmas, restricted to the caldera-forming period (pre-caldera), are extremely enriched in incompatible trace elements and display more radiogenic Sr (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr?=?0.71057–0.71067), with slightly less radiogenic Pb with respect to those of the post-caldera period. Post-caldera volcanic activity was concentrated in three different volcanic environments: external to the caldera, along the caldera edge and within the caldera. The post-caldera magmas produced melilite- to leucitite-bearing, plagioclase-free leucitites. In contrast to the pre-caldera lavas, they are characterised by lower incompatible trace element abundances and less radiogenic Sr (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr?=?0.71006–0.71039). Magmas evolved through crystal fractionation plus minor crustal assimilation in a large magma chamber during the pre-caldera period. The multiple caldera collapses dissected and partially obliterated the early magma chamber. During the post-caldera stage, magmas were channelled through several pathways and multiple shallow-level magma reservoirs were established. A lithospheric mantle wedge previously depleted in the basaltic component and subsequently enriched by metasomatic slab-derived component is suggested as the mantle source of Colli Albani parental magmas. Two different parental magmas are recognised for the pre- and post-caldera stages. The differences may be related to the interplay between smaller degrees of melting for the pre-caldera magmas and more carbonate-rich recycled subducted lithologies in the post-caldera magmas.