Late Cenozoic tectono‐stratigraphic sequences of the Crotone Basin: insights on the geodynamic history of the Calabrian arc and Tyrrhenian Sea

The Crotone Basin was generated in the late Cenozoic as a forearc basin of the Ionian arc‐trench system. New data are gained through detailed field mapping, high‐resolution stratigraphic analysis of a key area and examination of offshore well data and seismic reflection profiles. Major unconformities divide the basin fill into major sequences, which reveal a three‐stage internal organization thought to reflect geodynamic events of the Calabrian arc and backarc area closely. The first stage is characterized by extensional block faulting and uplift followed by rapid drowning during high subsidence and transtension in the basin along a major NNW‐ to NW‐striking fault system. This stage is interpreted to reflect resumption of rollback after an episode of slab tearing triggered by transitory docking of continental lithosphere in the trench. The initial uplift is inferred to reflect decoupling and rebound after the transitory coupling phase. The second stage is characterized by increased subsidence and continued extension/transtension. This trend presumably reflects a decreasing rate of rollback resulting from a tendency towards viscous coupling after acceleration of slab downwelling. The third stage is characterized by short‐lived transpression along major shear zones and local inversion of former basins. This is inferred to reflect entrance into the trench of buoyant continental lithosphere, resulting in significant deceleration of slab rollback and consequently a break in, or slowing of, backarc extension, and predominance of the effects of compression related to Africa–Europe convergence. Overall, the above evolution resulted in the formation of a progressively narrower and rapidly retreating slab, inducing extreme rates of backarc extension, and may have played a critical role in determining the intermittent nature of the backarc rifting.     

The SI,a universal language

Abstract

The SI has inherited and developed the fundamental features of the Systéme Métrique: simplicity, universality, and mainly coherence. It has to adapt itself steadily to the new fields and the increasing demand of accuracy, with the constraints of improving its coherence and universality and maintaining the continuity of measurements. The SI cannot ignore such natural units as the day, the turn, and their usual fractions and multiples; they must be tolerated for general use in spite of their incoherence. Such tolerances must be severely restricted. It is the condition for the SI to become and remain a truly universal language common to all fields and all countries. A few simple rules follow that any scientist should keep in mind.     

Review of Modeling Approaches to Groundwater Flow in Deformed Carbonate Aquifers

We discuss techniques to represent groundwater flow in carbonate aquifers using the three existing modeling approaches: equivalent porous medium, conduit network, and discrete fracture network. Fractures in faulted stratigraphic successions are characterized by dominant sets of sub-vertical joints. Grid rotation is recommended using the equivalent porous medium to match higher hydraulic conductivity with the dominant orientation of the joints. Modeling carbonate faults with throws greater than approximately 100 m is more challenging. Such faults are characterized by combined conduit-barrier behavior. The barrier behavior can be modeled using the Horizontal Flow Barrier Package with a low-permeability vertical barrier inserted to represent the impediment of horizontal flow in faults characterized by sharp drops of the piezometric surface. Cavities can occur parallel to the strike of normal faults generating channels for the groundwater. In this case, flow models need to account for turbulence using a conduit network approach. Channels need to be embedded in an equivalent porous medium due to cavities a few centimeters large, which are present in carbonate aquifers even in areas characterized by low hydraulic gradients. Discrete fracture network modeling enables representation of individual rock discontinuities in three dimensions. This approach is used in non-heavily karstified aquifers at industrial sites and was recently combined with the equivalent porous medium to simulate diffusivity in the matrix. Following this review, we recommend that the future research combines three practiced modeling approaches: equivalent porous medium, discrete fracture network, and conduit network, in order to capture structural and flow aspects in the modeling of groundwater in carbonate rocks.     

Structural evolution of the '41st parallel zone': Tyrrhenian Sea

The present study is based on the interpretation of more than 1300 km of 16 kJ sparker seismic profiles recorded in July 1990, during the Cruise T-41 of the Geological Institute of Urbino. The investigated area extends along the 41st parallel in the central Tyrrhenian Sea between the northern Sardinian margin to the west and the Latium–Campanian margin to the east. This zone, situated on continental crust, marks the boundary between the northern Tyrrhenian and the southern Tyrrhenian domains. A kinematic reconstruction is presented, based on the age-dating of the recognized structures (i.e. normal faults, reverse faults, anticline and flower structures). The evolution of the ‘41st parallel zone’ can be described in terms of polyphase tectonics characterized by different orientations of the stress field during time. The direction of the normal fault-trends, turned clockwise, striking NE–SW in the late Tortonian–Messinian, E–W in the early Pliocene, NNW–SSE in the late Pliocene and N–S during the Quaternary. The concurrence of compressional and strike-slip deformations suggests oblique shear motions across the 41st parallel. The occurrence of late Pliocene–Quaternary tectonic activity in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, locally characterized by inversion tectonics, suggests active mechanisms (intraplate compression?) superimposed on the post-rift subsidence.     

On the efficiency and effectiveness of automatic deep drainage systems during an extreme rainfall event: the Mendatica landslide case study (western Liguria,Italy)

Landslides - This study presents the employment of automatic deep drainage systems to stabilize the Mendatica landslide, one of the largest relict landslides of western Liguria (north-western...     

浅源强震至浅源特大地震震级M_e的快速测定

提出了根据20°～90°距离范围之内的宽频带远震P波信号快速测定浅源地震能量震级Me的新程序。为了完成这项工作,我们根据地球参考模型AK135Q用数字模拟方法计算了不同周期的频谱振幅衰减函数。根据这些函数,我们校正了远震记录频谱的传播路径效应,计算了地震辐射能量Es和震级Me。我们用累积的P波窗模拟实时或近实时的程序,并用61个浅源地震进行验证。结果表明,我们的方法可在地震发震时刻后的7～15min内迅速可靠地测定出震级Me因此,这一程序适用于快速反应系统的实施。     

A scheme to set preferred magnitudes in the ISC Bulletin

One of the main purposes of the International Seismological Centre (ISC) is to collect, integrate and reprocess seismic bulletins provided by agencies around the world in order to produce the ISC Bulletin. This is regarded as the most comprehensive bulletin of the Earth’s seismicity, and its production is based on a unique cooperation in the seismological community that allows the ISC to complement the work of seismological agencies operating at global and/or local-regional scale. In addition, by using the seismic wave measurements provided by reporting agencies, the ISC computes, where possible, its own event locations and magnitudes such as short-period body wave m _b and surface wave M _S . Therefore, the ISC Bulletin contains the results of the reporting agencies as well as the ISC own solutions. Among the most used seismic event parameters listed in seismological bulletins, the event magnitude is of particular importance for characterizing a seismic event. The selection of a magnitude value (or multiple ones) for various research purposes or practical applications is not always a straightforward task for users of the ISC Bulletin and related products since a multitude of magnitude types is currently computed by seismological agencies (sometimes using different standards for the same magnitude type). Here, we describe a scheme that we intend to implement in routine ISC operations to mark the preferred magnitudes in order to help ISC users in the selection of events with magnitudes of their interest.     

Soil slip susceptibility assessment using mechanical–hydrological approach and GIS techniques: an application in the Apuan Alps (Italy)

This study aims at contributing to the soil slip susceptibility assessment in a typical basin of the southern Apuan Alps, Italy. On June 1996, this basin (Cardoso Torrent, 13 km² large) was hit by an extremely heavy rainstorm (maximum intensity of about 160 mm/h), which caused many landslides (debris slide–debris flows) and valley bottom flows (hyperconcentrated flows), destruction and deaths. Detailed surveys provided the characterization of the main factors (geological, geomorphologic, hydrological, hydrogeological and geotechnical) which contributed in triggering landslides. In order to evaluate the soil slip susceptibility in this area, a physically based model was applied and a GIS analysis of digital elevation model was performed. This approach couples a mechanical model based on an infinite slope form of the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion, and a steady-state hydrological one (a modified version of Shalstab, which considers the cohesion of the debris material potentially involved in landsliding). GIS techniques allowed evaluating the effects of topographic convergence and drainage area on slope failure. In this way, based on the infiltration rate, the triggering of the June 1996 landslides was simulated and the critical rainfall thresholds assessed at about 200–250 mm/24 h.