A two‐step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis

The Messinian Salinity Crisis is well known to have resulted from a significant drop of the Mediterranean sea level. Considering both onshore and offshore observations, the subsequent reflooding is generally thought to have been very sudden. We present here offshore seismic evidence from the Gulf of Lions and re‐visited onshore data from Italy and Turkey that lead to a new concept of a two‐step reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin after the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The refilling was first moderate and relatively slow accompanied by transgressive ravinement, and later on very rapid, preserving the subaerial Messinian Erosional Surface. The amplitude of these two successive rises of sea level has been estimated at ≤500 m for the first rise and 600–900 m for the second rise. Evaporites from the central Mediterranean basins appear to have been deposited principally at the beginning of the first step of reflooding. After the second step, which preceeded the Zanclean Global Stratotype Section and Point, successive connections with the Paratethyan Dacic Basin, then the Adriatic foredeep, and finally the Euxinian Basin occurred, as a consequence of the continued global rise in sea level. A complex morphology with sills and sub‐basins led to diachronous events such as the so‐called ‘Lago Mare’.This study helps to distinguish events that were synchronous over the entire Mediterranean realm, such as the two‐step reflooding, from those that were more local and diachronous. In addition, the shoreline that marks the transition between these two steps of reflooding in the Provence Basin provides a remarkable palaeogeographical marker for subsidence studies.     

Romanian industry in transition

Restructuring of industry in Romania today is part of the transition from a centrally-planned to a free market economy. The paper deals with salient features of socialist industry and the trends which have occurred since 1989 in the context of greatly reduced state intervention. Current trends are identified as a key to further evolution in the future and some international comparisons are attempted now that industrial enterprises in all parts of Europe are developing new relationships with capital, labour and the state.     

Shallow vs. deep, old vs. recent tectonic movements at the Eastern Carpathians Arc Bend

The seismically most important region of Romania is the Vrancea epicentral area of the Eastern Carpathians Arc Bend (ECAB). The occurrence of earthquakes is here indisputably caused by subduction processes, either relict ones in connection with a “dead” slab, or directly produced by continuous underthrusting or by type A subduction, after a continent/continent collision.In order to investigate the type of subduction process, the authors used structural geological criteria i.e., features of local strike-slip faults and sigmoidal curves of fold axes or of overthrusting lines, already mapped across the area.By use of these criteria, it is concluded that there is an offset directed northwestwards, with an amplitude of 9–12 km, within the Cretaceous-Paleogene flysch and Neogene molasse deposits outcropping at ECAB.If the measured transcurrent movements reflected only the distortions of the sedimentary cover, the offset should be directed SE, because overthrusting processes are larger from SW to NE at ECAB. Instead, the northwestern direction disclosed by the offset vector suggests that the basement movement occurred when the formations were transversally dislocated, after the “charriage” structure at ECAB had been born.This conclusion is consistent with a hypothetical NW movement of the basement of the ECAB foreland.     

The impact of heat waves on surface urban heat island and local economy in Cluj-Napoca city,Romania

The association between heat waves and the urban heat island effect can increase the impact on environment and society inducing biophysical hazards. Heat stress and their associated public health problems are among the most frequent. This paper explores the heat waves impact on surface urban heat island and on the local economy loss during three heat periods in Cluj-Napoca city in the summer of 2015. The heat wave events were identified based on daily maximum temperature, and they were divided into three classes considering the intensity threshold: moderate heat waves (daily maximum temperature exceeding the 90th percentile), severe heat waves (daily maximum temperature over the 95th percentile), and extremely severe heat waves (daily maximum temperature exceeding the 98th percentile). The minimum length of an event was of minimum three consecutive days. The surface urban heat island was detected based on land surface temperature derived from Landsat 8 thermal infrared data, while the economic impact was estimated based on data on work force structure and work productivity in Cluj-Napoca derived from the data released by Eurostat, National Bank of Romania, and National Institute of Statistics. The results indicate that the intensity and spatial extension of surface urban heat island could be governed by the magnitude of the heat wave event, but due to the low number of satellite images available, we should consider this information only as preliminary results. Thermal infrared remote sensing has proven to be a very efficient method to study surface urban heat island, due to the fact that the synoptic conditions associated with heat wave events usually favor cloud free image. The resolution of the OLI_TIRS sensor provided good results for a mid-extension city, but the low revisiting time is still a drawback. The potential economic loss was calculated for the working days during heat waves and the estimated loss reached more than 2.5 mil. EUR for each heat wave day at city scale, cumulating more than 38 mil. EUR for the three cases considered.     

The EURONEAR Lightcurve Survey of Near Earth Asteroids

This data paper presents lightcurves of 101 near Earth asteroids (NEAs) observed mostly between 2014 and 2017 as part of the EURONEAR photometric survey using 11 telescopes with diameters between 0.4 and 4.2 m located in Spain, Chile, Slovakia and Romania. Most targets had no published data at the time of observing, but some objects were observed in the same period mainly by B. Warner, allowing us to confirm or improve the existing results. To plan the runs and select the targets, we developed the public Long Planning tool in PHP. For preliminary data reduction and rapid follow-up planning we developed the LiDAS pipeline in Python and IRAF. For final data reduction, flux calibration, night linkage and Fourier fitting, we used mainly MPO Canopus. Periods of 18 targets are presented for the first time, and we could solve or constrain rotation for 16 of them. We secured periods for 45 targets (\(U\sim 3\)), found candidate periods for other 16 targets (\(U\sim 2\)), and we propose tentative periods for other 32 targets (\(U\sim 1\)). We observed 7 known or candidate binary NEAs, fiting 3 of them (2102 Tantalus, 5143 Heracles and 68348). We observed 8 known or candidate tumbling NEAs, deriving primary periods for 3 objects (9400, 242708 and 470510). We evidenced rapid oscillations (few minutes) and could fit fast tentative periods TP2 for 5 large newly suggested tumbling or binary candidates (27346, 112985, 285625, 377732, 408980), probably discovering at least one new binary NEA (2011 WO41). We resolved periods of 4 special objects which include two proposed space mission targets (163249 and 101955 Bennu), one very fast rotator NEA discovered by EURONEAR (2014 NL52) and the “Halloween asteroid” (2015 TB145). Using Mercator in simultaneous 3 band MAIA imaging, we could evidence for the first time clear variation in the color lightcurves of 10 NEAs. The periods derived from the g–r color lightcurves are found to match individual band period fits for 4 NEAs (27346, 86067, 112985 and 275976).