Comparison of modelled- and remote sensing- derived daily snow line altitudes at Ulugh Muztagh,northern Tibetan Plateau

The ice cap Ulugh Muztagh in the central Kunlun Shan at the northern fringe of the Tibetan Plateau is a very isolated region with arid cold conditions. No observational, meteorological or glaciological ground truth data is available. Using the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) Level 1 radiance Swath Data(MOD02QKM) with a spatial resolution of 250 m, transient snow lines during the months of July to September in 2001 to 2014 are derived. Results are used to calibrate the physical based Coupled Snowpack and Ice surface energy and Mass balance model(COSIMA). The model runs on a representative detail region of Ulugh Muztagh(UM) on a digital elevation model with the same spatial resolution as the MODIS bands. In the absence of field observations, the model is driven solely by dynamically downscaled global analysis data from the High Asia Refined analysis(HAR). We compare remote sensing derived and modelled mean regional transient snow line altitudes in the course of consecutive summer seasons in 2008 to 2010. The resulting snow line altitude(SLA) and annual equilibrium line altitude(ELA) proxy of both methods coincide very well in their interannual variability in accordance with interannual variability of climatic conditions. Since SLAs of both methods do notconsistently agree on a daily basis a usage of remote sensing derived SLAs for model calibration in the absence of field observation data is only limitedly feasible for daily analysis. ELA approximation using the highest SLA at the end of ablation period may not be applied to UM because the negative winter mass balance(MB) is not reflected in the summer SLA. The study reveals moderate negative MB for UM throughout the modelling period. The mean regional MB of UM accounts for-523±410 mm w.e. a-1 in the modelling period. Hence UM seems not to belong to the area of the ‘Karakorum anomaly' comprising a region of positive mass balances in recent years which has its centre presumably in the Western Kunlun Shan.     

PAOLO: A Polarimeter Add‐On for the LRS Optics at a Nasmyth focus of the TNG

We describe a new polarimetric facility available at the Istituto Nazionale di AstroFisica / Telescopio Nazionale Galileo at La Palma, Canary islands. This facility, PAOLO (Polarimetric Add‐On for the LRS Optics), is located at a Nasmyth focus of an alt‐az telescope and requires a specific modeling in order to remove the time‐ and pointing position‐dependent instrumental polarization. We also describe the opto‐mechanical structure of the instrument and its calibration and present early examples of applications. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The operational sex ratio of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus populations: the case of the Mediterranean marine protected area of Ustica Island (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy)

We investigated, with a series of field and laboratory observations, the possible effect of the starfish Marthasteria glacialis predation on the operational sex ratio (OSR), i.e. the number of sexually mature males divided by the total number of sexually mature adults of both sexes at any one time, of the edible sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus . The OSR was estimated three times during the sea urchin summer spawning period (July 2004, June 2005 and July 2006) on barren substrates of Ustica Island Marine Protected Area (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). Four sites were selected: two characterized by high M. glacialis density (take zone C) and two controls with low starfish density (no-take zone A). Mature sea urchins were independently collected by SCUBA diving and sexed. The adult sex ratio was skewed towards males at high M. glacialis density sites, whereas it was balanced (1:1) at predator low-density sites. Results of sex-selective feeding experiments in the laboratory showed that females of P. lividus were more vulnerable to M. glacialis predation. These outcomes underline the possible importance of M. glacialis in regulating the OSR of P. lividus populations.     

Rocks from the Gibbs fracture zone and the Minia seamount near 53°N in the Atlantic Ocean

Rocks dredged and drilled from both the rift mountains of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (Minia seamount) and from the northern wall and the median ridge of the adjacent Gibbs fracture zone near 53°N include tholeiites, serpentinized and mylonitized peridoties, and gabbroic rock.The tholeiites include: (1) pyroxene-tholeiites, commonly without phenocrysts and containing less than 15% Al₂O₃; (2) plagioclase-tholeiites with small (1.1–2.2 mm length) plagioclase phenocrysts and an Al₂O₃ content varying between 14–17%; and (3) high-alumina plagioclase tholeiites with large (> 2.5 mm length) plagioclase phenocrysts and more than 17% Al₂O₃. The apparently transitional differences among the three groups support the possibility that differentiation by crystal fractionation of the high-alumina plagioclase-tholeiites gave rise to the plagioclase-tholeiites with less Al₂O₃ and smaller phenocrysts and to the pyroxene-tholeiites. A small portion of the basalts ampled show effects of low-grade metamorphism. The peridotites may represent evidence of intrusive emplacement of peridotitic material beneath the tholeiitic rocks.     

Improved risk‐targeted performance‐based seismic design of reinforced concrete frame structures

This paper presents a procedure for seismic design of reinforced concrete structures, in which performance objectives are formulated in terms of maximum accepted mean annual frequency (MAF) of exceedance, for multiple limit states. The procedure is explicitly probabilistic and uses Cornell's like closed‐form equations for the MAFs. A gradient‐based constrained optimization technique is used for obtaining values of structural design variables (members' section size and reinforcement) satisfying multiple objectives in terms of risk levels. The method is practically feasible even for real‐sized structures thanks to the adoption of adaptive equivalent linear models where element‐by‐element stiffness reduction is performed (2 linear analyses per intensity level). General geometric and capacity design constraints are duly accounted for. The procedure is applied to a 15‐storey plane frame building, and validation is conducted against results in terms of drift profiles and MAF of exceedance, obtained by multiple‐stripe analysis with records selected to match conditional spectra. Results show that the method is suitable for performance‐based seismic design of RC structures with explicit targets in terms of desired risk levels.     

Global Research Patterns on Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)

The article deals with the analysis of worldwide research patterns concerning ground penetrating radar (GPR) during 1995–2014. To do this, the Thomson Reuters’ Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) and the Social Sciences Citation Index accessed via the Web of Science Core Collection were the two bibliographic databases taken as a reference. We pay attention to the document typology and language, the publication trend and citations, the subject categories and journals, the collaborations between authors, the productivity of the authors, the most cited articles, the countries and the institutions involved, and other hot issues. Concerning the main research subfields involving GPR use, there were five, physical–mathematical, sedimentological–stratigraphical, civil engineering/engineering geology/cultural heritage, hydrological (HD), and glaciological (GL), subfields.     

Evaluation of liquefaction potential in an intermountain Quaternary lacustrine basin (Fucino basin,central Italy)

In this study, we analyse the susceptibility to liquefaction of the Pozzone site, which is located on the northern side of the Fucino lacustrine basin in central Italy. In 1915, this region was struck by a M 7.0 earthquake, which produced widespread coseismic surface effects that were interpreted to be liquefaction-related. However, the interpretation of these phenomena at the Pozzone site is not straightforward. Furthermore, the site is characterized by an abundance of fine-grained sediments, which are not typically found in liquefiable soils. Therefore, in this study, we perform a number of detailed stratigraphic and geotechnical investigations (including continuous-coring borehole, CPTu, SDMT, SPT, and geotechnical laboratory tests) to better interpret these 1915 phenomena and to evaluate the liquefaction potential of a lacustrine environment dominated by fine-grained sedimentation. The upper 18.5 m of the stratigraphic succession comprises fine-grained sediments, including four strata of coarser sediments formed by interbedded layers of sand, silty sand and sandy silt. These strata, which are interpreted to represent the frontal lobes of an alluvial fan system within a lacustrine succession, are highly susceptible to liquefaction. We also find evidence of paleo-liquefaction, dated between 12.1–10.8 and 9.43–9.13 kyrs ago, occurring at depths of 2.1–2.3 m. These data, along with the aforementioned geotechnical analyses, indicate that this site would indeed be liquefiable in a 1915-like earthquake. Although we found a broad agreement among CPTu, DMT and shear wave velocity “simplified procedures” in detecting the liquefaction potential of the Pozzone soil, our results suggest that the use and comparison of different in situ techniques are highly recommended for reliable estimates of the cyclic liquefaction resistance in lacustrine sites characterized by high content of fine-grained soils. In geologic environments similar to the one analysed in this work, where it is difficult to detect liquefiable layers, one can identify sites that are susceptible to liquefaction only by using detailed stratigraphic reconstructions, in situ characterization, and laboratory analyses. This has implications for basic (Level 1) seismic microzonation mapping, which typically relies on the use of empirical evaluations based on geologic maps and pre-existing sub-surface data (i.e., age and type of deposits, prevailing grain size, with particular attention paid to clean sands, and depth of the water table).