Evolution and inheritance of a rock coast: western Galicia,northwestern Spain

There is increasing evidence that shore platforms and other elements of rock coasts may be inherited, at least in part, from interglacial stages when sea level was similar to today's. Most of this evidence, which includes ancient beaches and datable terrestrial deposits, has been obtained from areas of resistant, slowly eroding rock, where the platforms often appear to be much too wide to have developed since the sea reached its present level. It is much more dif?cult to demonstrate that inheritance has occurred in areas of weaker rock, which generally lack any datable material. The coast of western Galicia in northwestern Spain has shore platforms in igneous and metamorphic rocks that were deeply weathered during the Tertiary. These platforms are closely associated with ancient beaches from the last interglacial stage, and associated periglacial and ?uvio‐nival deposits that covered and fossilized most of the Eemian platforms and cliffs during the late middle and late Weichselian glacial stage. The sedimentary processes and the thickness and facies of the sediments were determined by the height, aspect and gradient of the coastal mountains, and their distance from the coast. Radiocarbon dating, sedimentary analysis and platform morphology indicate that the shore platforms of Galicia have been inherited from at least the last interglacial stage. They were fossilized in places beneath thick Weichselian deposits and then exhumed during the Holocene transgression. The abundant evidence for inheritance in Galicia has important implications for other coasts in fairly weak rocks where such evidence is generally lacking. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exhumation patterns along shallow low‐angle normal faults: an example from the Altotiberina active fault system (Northern Apennines,Italy)

A multi‐method approach (palaeothermal and thermochronological analyses; thermal modelling) is applied to reconstruct the exhumation history of the Altotiberina Fault (ATF), a representative example of crustal‐scale active low‐angle normal faulting in the Northern Apennines (Italy). Thermal maturity and thermochronological data yield similar burial histories but different exhumation patterns for the sedimentary successions in the hangingwall and the footwall of the ATF. Since 3.8 Ma, the ATF footwall has exhumed at rates of 0.90 mm a^?1. Exhumation led to bending and deactivation of the ATF uppermost portion as a result of tectonic unloading and isostatic adjustment, followed by migration of extension and the development of a set of domino‐like, east‐dipping normal faults, rooting on the buried portion of the ATF. ATF activity and isostatic rebound exhumed Triassic rock units from depths of about 4 km. We suggest that isostatic instability is accommodated at shallow crustal levels, in a similar way to what is observed on larger structures at mid‐low crustal levels.     

A hydraulic invariance‐based methodology for the implementation of storm‐water release restrictions in urban land use master plans

A hydraulic invariance (HI)‐based methodology was developed as a tool to support implementation of storm flow control measures into land use master plans (LUMPs) for urban catchments. The methodology is based on the use of simple hydrologic analysis to compare predevelopment and postdevelopment catchment flow release scenarios. Differently from previous literature examples, for which the parcel scale is usually considered for the analysis, HI was pursued assuming the LUMP areas of transformation as the basic units for assigning storm water control measures in the form of flow release restrictions. The methodology was applied to a case study catchment in the southern part of the City of Catania (Italy), for which the LUMP re‐design has been recently proposed. Simulations were run based on the use of the EPA‐Storm Water Management Model and allowed deriving flow release restrictions in order to achieve HI at the subcatchment level for design events of different return period.     

Detecting the stepwise propagation of the Eastern Sicily thrust belt (Italy): insight from thermal and thermochronological constraints

An extensive dataset of vitrinite reflectance, FTIR parameters on organic matter, illite content in mixed layers illite‐smectite, apatite fission tracks and U‐Th/He dating has been used to reconstruct the stepwise propagation of the Eastern Sicily fold‐and‐thrust belt during Late Palaeogene and Neogene times. The results indicate that the fold‐and‐thrust belt is divisible into two levels of thermal maturity. These levels consist of a less evolved level of thermal maturity that records limited sedimentary burial and minor heating, and a more evolved level of thermal maturity that indicates tectonic burial and exhumation at different times. Deformation and exhumation of shallowly buried units are linked to wedge forward propagation by low‐angle thrusts, whereas the evolution of deeply buried units is associated with tectonic imbrications by duplex formation and steep thrusts. The two tectonic styles alternate during evolution of the fold‐and‐thrust belt under low erosion rates.