The age of the Paludi Formation: a major constraint to the beginning of the Apulia-verging orogenic transport in the northern sector of the Calabria–Peloritani Arc

A stratigraphic revision of the Paludi Formation, cropping out in Northern Calabria on the north-eastern side of Sila Massif, has confirmed that it has been deposited between two main tectonic phases. Actually the formation is involved only by top to the north-east thrusts, different from those separating the crystalline and ophiolitic nappes of Northern Calabria, and rests unconformably on the Sila Unit, the uppermost nappe of the tectonic stack. In the frame of the interpretation of Northern Calabria as a fragment of the Alps, the Paludi Formation play the role of a deposit post-dating the eo-alpine tectonic phases and pre-dating the Apenninic orogenic transport. Therefore the Aquitanian age of the formation, obtained by nannofloras analyses, can be considered the minimum age to the Apulia-verging orogenic transport, witnessed by top to north-east thrusts. It fairly corresponds to the age referred to the Lucanian ocean closure.     

The green–blue swing: plasticity of plankton food‐webs in response to coastal oceanographic dynamics

The internal organization of plankton communities plays a key role in biogeochemical cycles and in the functioning of aquatic ecosystems. In this study, the structure of a marine plankton community (including both unicellular and multicellular organisms) was inferred by applying an ecological network approach to species abundances observed weekly at the long‐term ecological research station MareChiara (LTER‐MC) in the Gulf of Naples (Tyrrhenian Sea, Mediterranean Sea) in the summers of 2002–2009. Two distinct conditions, characterized by different combination of salinity and chlorophyll values, alternated at the site: one influenced by coastal waters, herein named ‘green’, and the other reflecting more offshore conditions, named ‘blue’. The green and blue ‘phases’ showed different keystone biological elements: namely, large diatoms and small‐sized flagellates, respectively. Several correlations amongst species belonging to different trophic groups were found in both phases (connectance ~0.30). In the green phase, several links between phytoplankton and mesozooplankton and within the latter were detected, suggesting matter flow from microbes up to carnivorous zooplankton. A microbial‐loop‐like sub‐web, including mixo‐ and heterotrophic dinoflagellates and ciliates, was present in the green phase, but it was relatively more important in the blue phase. The latter observation suggests a more intense cycling of matter at the microbial trophic level in the blue phase. These results show that different modes of ecological organization can emerge from relatively small changes in the composition of aquatic communities coping with environmental variability. This highlights a significant plasticity in the internal structure of plankton webs, which should be taken into account in predictions of the potential effects of climatic oscillations on aquatic ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles therein.     

High crustal diversity preserved in the lunar meteorite Mount DeWitt 12007 (Victoria Land,Antarctica)

The meteorite Mount DeWitt (DEW) 12007 is a polymict regolith breccia mainly consisting of glassy impact‐melt breccia particles, gabbroic clasts, feldspathic clasts, impact and volcanic glass beads, basaltic clasts, and mingled breccia clasts embedded in a matrix dominated by fine‐grained crystals; vesicular glassy veins and rare agglutinates are also present. Main minerals are plagioclase (typically An_>85) and clinopyroxene (pigeonites and augites, sometimes interspersed). The presence of tranquillityite, coupled with the petrophysical data, the O‐isotope data (Δ¹⁷O = ?0.075), and the FeO_tot/MnO ratios in olivine (91), pyroxene (65), and bulk rock (77) indicate a lunar origin for DEW 12007. Impactites consist of Al‐rich impact‐melt splashes and plagioclase‐rich meta‐melt clasts. The volcanic products belong to the very low titanium (VLT) or low titanium (LT) suites; an unusual subophitic fragment could be cryptomare‐related. Gabbroic clasts could represent part of a shallow intrusion within a volcanic complex with prevailing VLT affinity. DEW 12007 has a mingled bulk composition with relatively high incompatible element abundances and shows a high crustal diversity comprising clasts from the Moon's major terranes and rare lithologies. First‐order petrographic and chemical features suggest that DEW 12007 could be launch‐paired with other meteorites including Y 793274/981031, QUE 94281, EET 87521/96008, and NWA 4884.     

Real-time assimilation of streamflow observations into a hydrological routing model: effects of model structures and updating methods

This paper comparatively assesses the performance of five data assimilation techniques for three-parameter Muskingum routing with a spatially lumped or distributed model structure. The assimilation techniques used include direct insertion (DI), nudging scheme (NS), Kalman filter (KF), ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) and asynchronous ensemble Kalman filter (AEnKF), which are applied to river reaches in Texas and Louisiana, USA. For both lumped and distributed routing, results from KF, EnKF and AEnKF are sensitive to the error specification. As expected, DI outperformed the other models in the case of lumped modelling, while in distributed routing, KF approaches, particularly AEnKF and EnKF, performed better than DI or nudging, reflecting the benefit of updating distributed states through error covariance modelling in KF approaches. The results of this work would be useful in setting up data assimilation systems that employ increasingly abundant real-time observations using distributed hydrological routing models.     

Geoprospecting Survey in the Archaeological Site of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aquinum</Emphasis> (Lazio,Central Italy)

In this paper, the results of a ground penetrating radar (GPR) prospecting survey performed in the Roman archaeological site of Aquinum are shown. The prospecting was performed in two distinct areas. The first one was close to the remains of the ancient thermal baths, where a public project intends to build a car park. The second area is close to an apsidal Roman building, and it was of interest to establish whether, and possibly up to what extent, the remains of this partially revealed structure continue, or maybe whether meaningful further structures are present.     

Revised seismotectonic model of NE Italy and W Slovenia based on focal mechanism inversion

The study is focusing on the stress and strain inversions from focal mechanisms in a revised seismotectonic zonation of northeastern Italy and western Slovenia. The recent increase of monitoring capability of the local seismic network, the updated geological-structural model of the area, and the novelties emerged from studies on the spatial organization of the seismicity allowed a redefinition of the seismotectonic zones. The stress and strain tensors inversion is inferred from 203 focal mechanisms, corresponding to earthquakes occurred between 1984 and 2016 with coda-duration magnitude range from 2.0 to 5.6. The inverted stress domains reveal an articulated picture of the interaction of the Adria microplate with the Eurasian plate. A dominant strike-slip stress field characterizes the eastern part of the area, while the seismotectonic zones of the central part are undergoing to thrusting regime. The stress pattern inferred in the western part of the study area outlines a complex picture with prevailing strike-slip regime and dominant compression only in a seismotectonic zone. The comparison of stress and strain tensor orientations evidences a relative uniformity of the crustal strength in the eastern and northwestern zones of the study area. The central and western zones appear to be characterized by planes of mechanical weakness not favorably oriented for failure with respect to the stress tensor.     

Influence of spatial distribution of sensors and observation accuracy on the assimilation of distributed streamflow data in hydrological modelling

The aim of this study is to assess the influence of sensor locations and varying observation accuracy on the assimilation of distributed streamflow observations, also taking into account different structures of semi-distributed hydrological models. An ensemble Kalman filter is used to update a semi-distributed hydrological model as a response to measured streamflow. Various scenarios of sensor locations and observation accuracy are introduced. The methodology is tested on the Brue basin during five flood events. The results of this work demonstrate that the assimilation of streamflow observations at interior points of the basin can improve the hydrological models according to the particular location of the sensors and hydrological model structure. It is also found that appropriate definition of the observation accuracy can affect model performance and consequent flood forecasting. These findings can be used as criteria to develop methods for streamflow monitoring network design.