Environmental History of Lago di Tovel,Trento, Italy,Revealed by Sediment Cores and 3.5 kHz Seismic Mapping

Proxy data from a total of 30 sediment cores and information from a seismic survey show that the sedimentological and limnological history of Lago di Tovel (1178 m a.s.l.) has been significantly influenced by slope dynamics of its mountainous catchment. The lake represents a dead-ice lake with pro-glacial deposits at the base of its sedimentary record. A prominent lake level rise in 1597/1598 that increased maximum water depth from ∼20 to 39 m caused slope instabilities, leading to the deposition of mass-flow sediments with a maximum thickness of 2.5 m in the northern part of the lake and less than 50 cm in the southern part, resulting in a total volume of more than 113,000 m³. Consequently, a rough lake bottom morphology was produced, which led to distinct differences in sedimentation rates of 0.07 cm yr⁻¹ on sills and 0.18 cm yr⁻¹ within depressions. The age of the top of the mass-flow deposits was used to validate the ages of the younger, laminated sediments, which were dated by ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs. Lithological investigations showed that the sediments below the mass-flow deposits are also laminated and that they were not bioturbated. The long-term meromixis of Lago di Tovel is therefore mainly due to a combination of its topographic setting and the 5-month period of ice cover. Both prevent effective mixing of the lake by strong winds during spring and autumn. Distinct spatial differences in sediment distribution within the lake show that it is risky to interpret proxy data from only one coring site, even if the lake is very small. This is especially true in mountainous areas, where rock falls, mass movements, and slope instabilities of a significant size may have considerable effects on lakes.     

Cenomanian florule of Nammoura, Lebanon

The mid-Cenomanian fish beds of Nammoura, Mont-Liban district, Lebanon contain a diverse fauna of aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates, a few crustaceans and moderately well-preserved plant remains of which a single species,Sapindopsis anhouryi , was previously described by Dilcher & Basson (1990). We add 11 species of ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms of which Nammouria cretacea gen. et sp. nov, Nupharanthus cretacea gen. et sp. nov., Sapindopsis libanensis sp. nov. and Nammourophyllum altingioides gen. et sp. nov. are new taxa. The florule differs markedly from both Early Cretaceous and Turonian plant assemblages of the Middle East, thereby representing a distinct stage of the regional floristic evolution. Its phytogeographic affinities are with contemporaneous floras of North America, Central Europe and the Crimea. A combination of such features as xeromorphism, the prevalence of compound leaves, and the presence of deciduous angiosperm components and gymnosperms may indicate climatic conditions similar to those of the present day Mediterranean.     

Use of shallow groundwater temperature profiles to infer climate and land use change: interpretation and measurement challenges

Temperature is often used to infer the effect of land use and climate conditions on aquifers. Reliable data are needed to examine the temperature behaviour in the subsurface; thus, the use of robust acquisition techniques is unavoidable. Three temperature measurement techniques were applied to assess the sources of bias that could occur during temperature logging in a shallow Quaternary coastal aquifer in Ferrara (Northern Italy). Open borehole temperature logging, multilevel sampling straddle packers isolated temperature measurements within a flow cell above ground and multilevel sampling straddle packers isolated temperature measurements via an in‐well level logger (MLS‐IW) were compared for several coastal monitoring wells to gain insights on the limitations of each technique. Results show that the source of bias between the three applied techniques are different: (i) the open borehole temperature logging method tends to record heat convection through the open borehole and is not representative of the aquifer temperature distribution; (ii) the multilevel sampling straddle packers isolated temperature measurements within a flow cell above ground method is swayed by the air temperature and the heating of the submersible pump used to lift groundwater above ground; and (iii) the MLS‐IW provides the most reliable vertical thermal profiling both in summer and winter, because groundwater temperature is directly measured at the selected monitoring depth. The implementation of a 1D flow model demonstrates that if precise temperature profiles are needed to infer the influence that land use and climate changes have on groundwater, the MLS‐IW method is a reliable method that could be applied to existing monitoring wells. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recent anthropogenic impact in ancient Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania): a palaeolimnological approach

Ancient lakes, which are important centres of biodiversity and endemism, are threatened by a wide variety of human impacts. To assess environmental impact on ancient Lake Ohrid we have taken short sediment cores from two contrasting site locations, comprising a site of urban pollution and an apparently pristine area. Recent impacts on water quality and ecology were assessed using sediment, geochemical, ostracode, and diatom data derived from analysis of two ²¹⁰Pb-dated sediment cores spanning the period from 1918 to 2009. According to the index of geoaccumulation, sediments were often moderately contaminated with As. Fe and Ni concentrations often exceeded reported maximum limits above which harmful effects on sediment-dwelling organisms are expected. Productivity in the (pristine) south-eastern part of Lake Ohrid (Sveti Naum) is generally lower than in the north, probably due to the strong influence of spring discharge. Low ostracode and diatom concentrations, low abundance of the epilimnetic diatom Cyclotella ocellata, and low values of TOC and TIC indicate a lower productivity from the early 1920s to the late 1980s. Since the mid 1970s, increased relative abundance of C. ocellata and increasing diatom concentration indicate increasing productivity in the south-eastern part. Rising numbers of ostracode valves and higher TIC and TOC contents in both sediment cores indicate an increase in productivity during the late 1980s. A slight increase in productivity near Sveti Naum continued from the early 1990s until 2009, witnessed by rising TC, TIC, and TOC content and a generally high number of ostracode valves and ostracode diversity. The area near the City of Struga (site of urban pollution) is also characterized by rising TOC and TIC contents and, furthermore, by increasing Cu, Fe, Pb, and Zn concentrations since the early 1990s. The recent reduction in the number of ostracode valves and ostracode diversity is probably caused by a higher heavy metal load into the lake. This suggests that living conditions for the endemic species in Lake Ohrid have become less favourable in the northern part of the lake, which might threaten the unique flora and fauna of Lake Ohrid.     

The convergence problem of collocation solutions in the framework of the stochastic interpretation

The problem of the convergence of the collocation solution to the true gravity field was defined long ago (Tscherning in Boll Geod Sci Affini 39:221–252, 1978) and some results were derived, in particular by Krarup (Boll Geod Sci Affini 40:225–240, 1981). The problem is taken up again in the context of the stochastic interpretation of collocation theory and some new results are derived, showing that, when the potential T can be really continued down to a Bjerhammar sphere, we have a quite general convergence property in the noiseless case. When noise is present in data, still reasonable convergence results hold true.

“Democrito che ’l mondo a caso pone” “Democritus who made the world stochastic” Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia, Inferno, IV – 136     

Diagenetic and thermal history of the Jurassic-Tertiary succession of the Zagros Mountains in the Dezful Embayment (SW Iran): constraints from fluid inclusions

To constraint the diagenetic and thermal history in the Mesozoic-Tertiary succession of the Zagros Fold-Belt, a study was performed on fluid inclusions trapped in intergranular, vug, and fracture-filling cements in Jurassic to Miocene outcrop samples collected along the Anneh and Fahliyan Valleys of Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran. Petrographic observations showed at least two systems of fractures that postdate intergranular cementation. Two different types of oil-filled fluid inclusions occur in the intergranular cements and in the first fracture network, but they are absent in the second fracture network. Microthermometry of fluid inclusions was used to determine the temperature and salinity of fluids responsible for mineral precipitation. Within intergranular cements and calcite fillings the oldest fractures, precipitation occurred from high saline fluids in a temperature range of 60–120°C, depending on the stratigraphic depth. The strong correlation between fluid inclusions temperature and stratigraphic depth suggests that the intergranular cementation and the first fracture-filling event occurred prior to structural deformation. Furthermore, this correlation indicates a relatively constant paleogeothermal gradient at the time of cement precipitation of about 28°C/Km. On the contrary, fluid inclusions trapped in cements within the second fracture network lack oil and contain freshwater trapped at low temperatures that do not correlate to the stratigraphic position. This suggests second fracturing event occurred after oil migration and during or after deformation of the Zagros Fold-Belt, when the samples were in a near-surface position.     

Mapping basin-wide subaquatic slope failure susceptibility as a tool to assess regional seismic and tsunami hazards

Marine Geophysical Research - This study of subaquatic slope failures in Lake Lucerne, central Switzerland, presents a new concept for evaluating basin-wide slope stability through time as a...     

Re-testing the JET-X Flight Module No. 2 at the PANTER facility

The Joint European X-ray Telescope (JET-X) was the core instrument of the Russian Spectrum-X- γ space observatory. It consisted of two identical soft X-ray (0.3–10 keV) telescopes with focusing optical modules having a measured angular resolution of nearly 15 arcsec. Soon after the payload completion, the mission was cancelled and the two optical flight modules (FM) were brought to the Brera Astronomical Observatory where they had been manufactured. After 16 years of storage, we have utilized the JET-X FM2 to test at the PANTER X-ray facility a prototype of a novel X-ray polarimetric telescope, using a Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) with polarimetric capabilities in the focal plane of the FM2. The GPD was developed by a collaboration between INFN-Pisa and INAF-IAPS. In the first phase of the test campaign, we have re-tested the FM2 at PANTER to have an up-to-date characterization in terms of angular resolution and effective area, while in the second part of the test the GPD has been placed in the focal plane of the FM2. In this paper we report the results of the tests of the sole FM2, using an unpolarized X-ray source, comparing the results with the calibration done in 1996.