Characteristics of tropical cyclones making landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico: 1970-2010

This study evaluates impacts from tropical cyclone (TC) landfalls on populated areas located along the Pacific Ocean coast of Mexico. The period of interest is from 1970 through 2010 and an international disaster database is used to identify the impact from the landfalling TCs. More than 30 landfall events occurred during the period; we examined the top 25 TCs based on rainfall accumulation, as well as the top 10 TC-related disasters based on the affected population. Each event resulted in affected population from 20 000 to more than 800 000. Strong winds and heavy rainfall, during periods of one to three days, are associated with property damage and loss of lives. Our results indicate that excessive rainfall accumulations and daily rates, over highly populated areas, are important elements associated with the occurrence of disasters. Six of the top 10 TC-related disasters occurred during El Niño and three during neutral conditions; however, looking at the top 25 events, 10 occurred during El Niño and 10 during neutral conditions. Three case studies that occurred during El Niño events (Liza in 1976, Pauline in 1997, and Lane in 2006) are documented in more detail as they affected areas with different population densities in the southern and northwestern coasts of Mexico.     

Quantifying land use/land cover spatio-temporal landscape pattern dynamics from Hyperion using SVMs classifier and FRAGSTATS®

This study aims to quantify the landscape spatio-temporal dynamics including Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) changes occurred in a typical Mediterranean ecosystem of high ecological and cultural significance in central Greece covering a period of 9 years (2001–2009). Herein, we examined the synergistic operation among Hyperion hyperspectral satellite imagery with Support Vector Machines, the FRAGSTATS^® landscape spatial analysis programme and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for this purpose. The change analysis showed that notable changes reported in the experimental region during the studied period, particularly for certain LULC classes. The analysis of accuracy indices suggested that all the three classification techniques are performing satisfactorily with overall accuracy of 86.62, 91.67 and 89.26% in years 2001, 2004 and 2009, respectively. Results evidenced the requirement for taking measures to conserve this forest-dominated natural ecosystem from human-induced pressures and/or natural hazards occurred in the area. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind, demonstrating the Hyperion capability in quantifying LULC changes with landscape metrics using FRAGSTATS^® programme and PCA for understanding the land surface fragmentation characteristics and their changes. The suggested approach is robust and flexible enough to be expanded further to other regions. Findings of this research can be of special importance in the context of the launch of spaceborne hyperspectral sensors that are already planned to be placed in orbit as the NASA’s HyspIRI sensor and EnMAP.     

Olive tree phenology and climate variations in the Mediterranean area over the last two decades

The flowering characteristics of plant species of economic interest and the influence of climate on them are of great importance considering the implications for fruit setting and the final harvest: Olive is one of the typical species of the Mediterranean habitat. We have investigated the timing of olive full flowering during the anthesis period and flowering intensity over a period of 20 years (1990–2009), in three major cultivation areas of the Mediterranean basin: Italy, Spain and Tunisia. The importance of these characteristics from a bioclimatic point of view is considered. The biological behaviour was studied to determine its main relationships with temperature and water availability, considering also the different sub-periods and the bio-climatic variations during the study period. The flowering dates and pollen emissions show different behaviours for the Spanish monitoring area in comparison with the other two olive cultivation areas. In the Italian and Tunisian areas, the flowering period over the last decade has become earlier by about 5 and 7 days, respectively, in comparison to the previous decade. Moreover, pollen emissions have decreased in Perugia (Italy) and Zarzis (Tunisia) over the period of 2000–2009, while in Cordoba (Spain), they showed their highest values from 2005 to 2009. The climate analysis has shown an increase in temperature, which results in an increase in the growing degree days for the growth of the olive flower structures, particularly in the more northern areas monitored. Although the olive tree is a parsimonious water consumer that is well adapted to xeric conditions, the increase in the potential evapotranspiration index over the last decade in the Italian and Tunisian olive areas might create problems for olive groves without irrigation, with a negative influence on the flowering intensity. Overall, in all of these Mediterranean monitoring areas, the summer water deficit is an increasingly more important parameter in comparison to the winter parameters, which confirms that the winter period is not as limiting as the summer period for olive tree cultivation in these Mediterranean areas.     

Long- and short-term volcanic hazard assessment of El Chichón Volcano (Mexico) through Bayesian inference

Natural Hazards - The 1982 eruption of El Chichón volcano constitutes the worst volcanic disaster in Mexico producing more than 2000 fatalities, thousands of displaced people and severe...     

Effects of 1-D versus 3-D velocity models on moment tensor inversion in the Dobrá Voda area in the Little Carpathians region,Slovakia

Retrieving the parameters of a seismic source from seismograms involves deconvolving the response of the medium from seismic records. Thus, in general, source parameters are determined from both seismograms and the Green functions describing the properties of the medium in which the earthquake focus is buried. The quality of each of these two datasets is equally significant for the successful determination of source characteristics. As a rule, both sets are subject to contamination by effects that decrease the resolution of the source parameters. Seismic records are generally contaminated by noise that appears as a spurious signal unrelated to the source. Since an improper model of the medium is quite often employed, due to poor knowledge of the seismic velocity of the area under study, and since the hypocentre may be mislocated, the Green functions are not without fault. Thus, structures not modelled by Green functions are assigned to the source, distorting the source mechanism. To demonstrate these effects, we performed a synthetic case study by simulating seismic observations in the Dobrá Voda area of the Little Carpathians region of Slovakia. Simplified 1-D and 3-D laterally inhomogeneous structural models were constructed, and synthetic data were calculated using the 3-D model. Both models were employed during a moment tensor inversion. The synthetic data were contaminated by random noise up to 10 and 20 % of the maximum signal amplitude. We compared the influence of these two effects on retrieving moment tensors, and determined that a poor structural model can be compensated for by high-quality data; and that, in a similar manner, a lack of data can be compensated for by a detailed model of the medium. For examples, five local events from the Dobrá Voda area were processed.     

Hα Photometry of Two Contact Binaries

We carried out optical and Hα photometry of two contact binaries (V861 Herculis, EQ Tauri). The light curve modeling revealed stellar spots in both contact systems and strong Hα excess in the position of the observed stellar spots. A correlation was found between the V−R and R−H_α colour indices of V861 Her.     

Alkaline lamprophyre and related dyke rocks in NE Transdanubia,Hungary: The Alcsutdoboz-2 (AD-2) borehole

Summary The Alcsutdoboz-2 (AD-2) core contains 12 magmatic dykes which belong to the Late Cretaceous lamprophyric-carbonatitic association of NE Transdanubia, Hungary. Petrographically, 11 dykes can be considered alkaline lamprophyre (mainly monchiquite), and the remainder might be called carbonatite. The lamprophyre dykes are similar to both alkaline lamprophyres and ultramafic lamprophyres in major element composition, whereas the carbonatite dyke has some features that are similar to carbonatites but others that are dissimilar. Nevertheless, both of the two types of AD-2 dykes possess higher LILE content than the ultramafc lamprophyres and kimberlites, but strongly differ from average carbonatite. Based on the REE pattern, crystal fractionation (mainly of olivine) and separation of a carbonate phase from the parental lamprophyric magma are proposed for genesis of the carbonatite dyke. These characteristics and the compositional zoning of clinopyroxene and mica suggest a complex crystallization history for these dykes. The likeliest origin for the parental lamprophyric melt is through a very small degree of partial melting of metasomatized mantle.

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Alkalische Lamprophyre und assoziierte Ganggesteine in Nordost-Transdanubien, Ungarn: die Bohrung Alcsutdoboz-2 (AD-2)

Zusammenfassung Der Kern der Bohrung Alcsutdoboz-2 (AD-2) enthält zwölf magmatische Gänge, die zu der jung-kretazischen Lamprophyr-Karbonatit-Assoziation des nordöstlichen Transdanubiens in Ungarn gehören. Petrographisch gesehen gehören elf Gänge zu den alkalischen Lamprophyren (hauptsächlich Monchiquit), und der Rest kann als Karbonatit bezeichnet werden. Die Lamprophyrgänge sind in ihrer Hauptelementzusammensetzung sowohl alkalischen Lamprophyren wie ultramafschen Lamprophyren ähnlich. Der Karbonatitgang hingegen zeigt Parameter, die denen von Karbonatiten teilweise, aber nicht durchwegs, ähnlich sind. Beide Typen der AD-2-Gänge zeigen höhere LILE-Gehalte als ultramafische Lamprophre und Kimberlite, unterscheiden sich aber deutlich vom durchschnittlichen Karbonatit. Auf der Basis der Seltenen ErdVerteilung, werden Kristallfraktionierung (hauptsächlich von Olivin) und Abtrennung einer Karbonatphase von lamprophyrischen Magma als Vorgänge gesehen, die für die Entstehung der Karbonatit-Gänge relevant sind. Diese Aspekte und die Zonierung der Zusammensetzungen von Klinopyroxen und Glimmer weisen auf eine komplexe Kristallisationsgeschichte dieser Gänge hin. Sehr wahrscheinlich ist die lamprophyrische Ausgangsschmelze durch eine geringfügige teilweise Aufschmelzung von metasomatisiertem Mantel entstanden.

     

Light curve and O−C diagram analysis of RZ Cassiopeiae

The aim of the present paper is to analyze the light variation as well as the period changes of the eclipsing binary RZ Cas. New photometric elements are computed using the frequency-domain method. The possibility of the light-time effect and the apsidal motion is discussed.