Measurement of long waves at the harbor of Marina di Carrara,Italy

This paper presents the analysis of measurements of long waves at the harbor of Marina di Carrara, Italy. Nine pressure gauges (eight in the inner harbor and one outside the harbor) were used to record continuously the water surface elevation, for about 3 years; incoming short waves were measured using a directional buoy at about 500 m offshore the breakwaters. The analysis is carried out splitting the energy of the long waves into two bands, i.e., very long waves (VLW; f < 0.003 Hz) and long waves (LW; 0.003 < f < 0.030 Hz); it is found that LW energy is strongly correlated with the energy of the incoming short waves while no correlation (or very poor) is found for VLW. During energetic sea states, surface elevation spectra of VLW and LW, normalized against the wave energy of each frequency band, appear to be autosimilar; this suggests that the spectra of the incoming long waves have a mostly constant shape. Simple numerical computations of harbor resonance, carried out using a mild-slope equation linearized model, indicate that the amplification of the height of the incoming LW generated by short waves (calculated using empirical formulae from previous researches by Melito et al. 2007) inside the harbor can be reasonably predicted using such simple approach, assuming that the LW spectra are rectangular. The shape of the amplification diagram calculated by the numerical model shows reasonable (but not perfect) agreement with the shape of the normalized measured spectra inside the harbor.     

Thermohaline variability and Antarctic bottom water formation at the Ross Sea shelf break

We use hydrological and current meter data collected in the Ross Sea, Antarctica between 1995 and 2006 to describe the spatial and temporal variability of water masses involved in the production of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Data were collected in two regions of known outflows of dense shelf water in this region; the Drygalski Trough (DT) and the Glomar-Challenger Trough (GCT). Dense shelf water just inshore of the shelf break is dominated by High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW) in the DT and Ice Shelf Water (ISW) in the GCT. The HSSW in the northern DT freshened by ∼0.06 in 11 y, while the ISW in the northern GCT freshened by ∼0.04 in 8 y and warmed by ∼0.04 °C in 11 y, dominated by a rapid warming during austral summer 2001/02. The Antarctic Slope Front separating the warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) from the shelf waters is more stable near GCT than near DT, with CDW and mixing products being found on the outer DT shelf but not on the outer GCT shelf. The different source waters and mixing processes at the two sites lead to production of AABW with different thermohaline characteristics in the central and western Ross Sea. Multi-year time series of hydrography and currents at long-term moorings within 100 km of the shelf break in both troughs confirm the interannual signals in the dense shelf water and reveal the seasonal cycle of water mass properties. Near the DT the HSSW salinities experienced maxima in March/April and minima in September/October. The ISW in the GCT is warmest in March/April and coolest between August and October. Mooring data also demonstrate significant high-frequency variability associated with tides and other processes. Wavelet analysis of near-bottom moored sensors sampling the dense water cascade over the continental slope west of the GCT shows intermittent energetic pulses of cold, dense water with periods from ∼32 h to ∼5 days.     

Dynamic response and sliding distance of composite breakwaters under breaking and non-breaking wave attack

Over the last 15 years improved awareness of wave impact induced failures has focused attention on the need to account for the dynamic response of maritime structures to wave impact load. In this work a non-linear model is introduced that allows evaluating the effective design load and the potential sliding of caisson breakwater subject to both pulsating and impulsive wave loads. The caisson dynamics is modelled using a time-step numerical method to solve numerically the equations of motion for a rigid body founded on multiple non-linear springs having both horizontal and vertical stiffness. The model is first shown to correctly describe the dynamics of caisson breakwaters subject to wave attack, including nonlinear features of wave–structure–soil interaction. Predictions of sliding distances by the new method are then compared with measurements from physical model tests, showing very good agreement with observations. The model succeeds in describing the physics that stands behind the process and is fast, accurate and flexible enough to be suitable for performance design of caisson breakwaters.     

Intractions of mantle and crustal magmas in the southern part of the Ivrea Zone (Italy)

In the southern part of the Ivrea Zone (Italy), the majority of the Mafic Formation is composed of: 1. amphibole-bearing gabbro; 2. a series of rocks ranging from norites to charnockites; 3. leucocratic charnockites. In the proximity of metasedimentary septa within the Mafic Formation, the igneous lithologies are in many places intimately and chaotically intermingled, giving rise to a marble-cake structure. Whole-rock chemistry, and oxygen and strontium isotopic compositions indicate that the mafic and felsic rocks are dominated by mantle and crustal sources respectively. The norite-charnockite suite may be modelled as the mixing product of basic and acid melts. Abundant plastic deformation structures suggest that mafic and hybrid rocks experienced an important tectonic event during or soon after their crystallization. Melting of crustal country rocks continued after the deformation event and produced the undeformed leucocratic charnockites. The study area exemplifies some of the possible effects of the intrusion of a large volume of basic magma into hot crust.     

Assessment of visual impact induced by surface mining with reference to a case study located in Sardinia (Italy)

Surface mining and quarrying typically generate a considerable number of environmental impacts among which landscape alteration remains one of the most significant. Although landscape alteration does not directly affect public health, it may produce an adverse reaction among potential observers and compromise the use and potential growth of the surrounding territory. In order to assess the impact produced by surface excavation, some aspects of landscape modification can be objectively measured, such as the extent of the visible alteration, its shape and the chromatic contrast with the surroundings. With reference to a case study located in Sardinia, this article discusses the implementation of two different visual impact assessment methods, one defined by the EC decision 272/02 (Commission Decision 2002), the other previously proposed by the authors of the present article and based on the estimation of the impact indicator Lvi (level of visual impact). The comparison of the results proves that the method established by the EC decision leads to the underestimation of the visual impact for alterations which are significantly wider than their height. On the other hand, the implementation of the Lvi method clearly shows how the indicator is affected by the quarry’s lateral extent and suggests the possibility of calculating a global impact factor LVI to be associated to a given route, considering the variability of the visual impact with the curvilinear abscissa of the route itself.