Emplacement at granulite facies conditions of the Sesia–Lanzo metagabbros: an early record of Permian rifting?

The evolution of the pre-Alpine Corio and Monastero metagabbros points to strong chemical and mineralogical similarities with that of other Permian gabbro bodies of the Alps, which are concentrated in the Southalpine and Austroalpine domains. The structural and metamorphic pre-Alpine evolution of these gabbros records a re-equilibration following the emplacement in the deep crust (P=0.6–0.9 GPa and T=850±70 °C), exhumation through amphibolite facies conditions (P=0.5–0.35 GPa and T=570–670 °C), followed by a greenschist facies imprint (0.25≤P≤0.35 GPa and T<550 °C). This retrograde P–T evolution suggests that the exhumation occurred in a high thermal gradient regime, such as that induced by upwelling of an asthenospheric plume during continental rifting. This would be consistent with the crustal thinning known to have occurred in both the Southalpine and Austroalpine domains during Permian times. The gabbros and their country acid granulites are spatially associated with the serpentinised subcontinental mantle of the Lanzo Massif. This lithologic association and the metamorphic evolution is similar to that of the Fedoz gabbro (Austroalpine Domain of the Central Alps) and completely different from that observed in passive margins, where no remnants of the lower crust occur and the upper granitic crust directly overlies the serpentinized lherzolites. The location of Permian gabbro bodies in the Austroalpine and Southalpine domains and their absence in the Helvetic domain is evidence for asymmetric rifting.     

Late Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera from Kerguelen Plateau (ODP Leg 183): new data to improve the Southern Ocean biozonation

An almost complete Upper Cretaceous sedimentary sequence recently recovered on the Kerguelen Plateau (southern Indian Ocean) during ODP Leg 183 was analysed for planktonic foraminifera in order to refine and integrate the zonal schemes previously proposed for the Southern Ocean area. Detailed biostratigraphic analysis carried out on holes 1135A, 1136A and 1138A (poleward of 50°S palaeolatitude during Late Cretaceous time) has allowed recognition of low and mid–high latitude bioevents, useful for correlation across latitudes, in addition to known Austral bioevents. The low latitude biozonation can be applied to Turonian sediments, because of the occurrence of Helvetoglobotruncana helvetica, which marks the boundary between Whiteinella archaeocretacea and Helvetoglobotruncana helvetica zones. The base of the Whiteinella archeocretacea Zone falls within the uppermost Cenomanian–Turonian black shale level in Hole 1138A. The stratigraphic interval from upper Turonian to uppermost Santonian can be resolved using bioevents recognized in the mid–high latitude sections. They are, in stratigraphic order: the last occurrence of Falsotruncana maslakovae in the Coniacian, the first occurrence of Heterohelix papula at the Coniacian/Santonian boundary, the extinction of the marginotruncanids in the late Santonian, and the first occurrence of Globigerinelloides impensus in the latest (?) Santonian. The remainder of the Late Cretaceous fits rather well in the Austral zonal scheme, except that Globigerinelloides impensus exhibits a stratigraphic range in agreement with its record at the mid–high latitude sections and extends further downwards than previously recorded at southern sites. Therefore, despite the poor recovery in certain intervals and the presence of several hiatuses of local and regional importance as revealed by correlation among holes, a more detailed zonal scheme has been obtained (mainly for the less resolved Turonian–Santonian interval). Remarks on some species often overlooked in literature are also provided.     

Controls on Quaternary coastal evolution of the east-northeastern coast of Brazil: roles of sea-level history, trade winds and climate

East-northeastern Brazil has a wave-dominated, micro- to meso-tidal coast, lying entirely within the southern Atlantic trade wind belt. Integration of geologic mapping, radiocarbon dating and vibracoring data shows that the Quaternary coastal evolution of this area was controlled by three major factors: (1) sea-level history; (2) trade winds; and (3) climate change.

Sea-level history. Along the east-northeastern coast of Brazil, relative sea level has fallen approximately 5 m during the last 5000 y. Correlation of this sea-level history with the evolution of beach-ridge, lagoonal and coastal plain deposits shows that: (1) sea-level rise favours the formation of barrier island—lagoonal systems and the construction of intralagoonal deltas; (2) sea-level lowering is not conductive to barrier island formation. Rather, lagoons and bays become emergent and beach-ridge plains rapidly prograde.

Trade winds. Sediment dispersal systems along the coastal zone of east-northeastern Brazil have been highly persistent since Pleistocene time, as deduced from beach-ridge orientation. This persistence results from the fact that sediment dispersal in wave-dominated settings is ultimately controlled by atmospheric circulation which, for the east-northeastern coast of Brazil is associated with the South Atlantic high-pressure cell. The remarkable stability of this cell through time, has allowed the accumulation of extensive beach-ridge plains at the longshore drift sinks located along the coast.

Climate change. Effects of Quaternary climate changes on coastal sedimentation are twofold. Climate changes may affect rainfall patterns, thus exerting an important control on coastal dune development. Along the coast of northeastern Brazil, active coastal dunes are only present in those areas in which at least four consecutive dry months occur during the year. Mapping of these areas has shown that dune development during the Holocene has been episodic, these episodes being probably controlled by variations in rainfall patterns associated with climate changes. Secondly, despite its overall stability, the position of the high-pressure cell has experienced small shifts in position during the Holocene in response to climate changes. Changes in wind direction associated with these shifts have induced modifications in the coastal dispersion system, which are recorded in the strandplains as small truncations in the beach-ridge alignments.

These results have important implications in understanding accumulation of ancient sandstone shoreline sequences.     

In-plane foundation-soil interaction for embedded circular foundations

Foundation soil interaction is studied using an analytical two-dimensional model, for circular foundations embedded in a homogeneous elastic half-space and for incident plane P- and SV- and for surface Rayleigh waves. The scattered waves are expanded in complete series of cyclindrical wave functions. A detailed analysis is presented of the foundation response to unit amplitude incident waves as a function of the type of incident waves and angle of incidence, the depth of the embedment and the foundation mass per unit length.It is shown that free-field translations and point rotation approximate well the foundation input motion only for very long incident waves. For shorter incident waves, those in general overestimate the foundation input motion. Neglecting the rotation of the foundation input motion (which is usually done in practice) may eliminate a major contribution to the base excitation of buildings and may cause nonconservative estimates of the forces in these buildings. Incident waves appear as ‘longer’ to a shallow foundation than to a deeper foundation. Therefore, deeper foundations are more effective in reflecting and scattering the short incident waves.     

Experimentelle Untersuchungen über die Wasserausscheidung des Goldhamsters und ihre Beeinflussung durch meteorologische Vorgänge

Zusammenfassung Bei der Bestimmung der täglich von Goldhamstern ausgeschiedenen Harnmenge wurden Schwankungen beobachtet, die nicht von einem vorhandenen Tages- oder Jahresrhythmus der Hamster verursacht sein können. Diese Schwankungen traten stets bei allen Tieren, die sich im Versuch befanden, gleichmäßig auf, obwohl sie stets unter konstanten Bedingungen gehalten wurden. Dabei wurde festgestellt, daß sich nur der Wassergehalt des Harnes und damit die Konzentration änderte, während die Menge der ausgeschiedenen festen Stoffe gleich blieb. Die Ursache für diese Mengenschwankungen des Harnes konnte in einer Beeinflussung der Wasserausscheidung durch meteorologische Vorgänge gefunden werden, und zwar wurde festgestellt, daß der Wechsel zwischen einer hauptsächlich durch tagesrhythmische Strahlung bestimmten Witterung und einer vorwiegend durch aperiodisch überlagerte Advektiveinflüsse bestimmten Wetterlage eine statistisch gesicherte Wirkung auf den Organismus ausübt. Dagegen konnte eine Beziehung zu einem einzelnen Wetterelement nicht festgestellt werden.

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Summary With the determination of the urine quantity daily secreted by gold-hamsters, variations have been registered, which cannot likely be caused by an existing daily or annual rhythm of hamsters. These variations have shown a uniform shape with all animals experimented with, though having been kept under constant conditions. It could be found that only the water-percentage of the urine and with it the concentration varied, while the quantity of secreted solid particles remained unchanged. The cause for these variations of the urine quantity could be traced in an influence of the meteorological situation on the water secretion; it has been stated that the change between a weather condition, which is mainly determined by the diurnal rhythm of radiation, and one mainly determined by superimposed aperiodical advective influences, shows an effect on the organism which is statistically significant. A relation, however, to a particular weather element could not be traced.

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Résumé En déterminant la quntité d'urine journalière secrétée par des hamsters dorés, on a observé des variations qui ne pouvaient provenir d'un rythme journalier ou annuel propre aux hamsters Ces variations ont été observées uniformément chez tous les animaux avec lesquels on fit les expériences, bien qu'ils aient été soumis à des conditions constantes. On a remarqué que seul le pourcentage en eau, donc la concentration de l'urine variait, tandis que la quantité de matière solide restait la même. En outre, on a pu constater que ces variations de la quantité d'urine étaient causées par l'influence des conditions météorologiques sur la secrétion d'eau. Ainsi, on a observé que le changement d'une situation déterminée principalement par le rythme diurne du rayonnement à une situation déterminée surtout par des influences advectives apériodiques superposées, produisait un effet sur l'organisme; cet effect est significant au point de vue statistique, mais il n'a pas été possible d'établir une relation avec un élément météorologique déterminé.

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Mit 11 Textabbidlungen

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Nach einer Dissertation der Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität München, 1956.     

An ideal isotropic bidimensional filter and its application in the interpretation of gravity anomalies

Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica - Den Gegenstand der Untersuchung bildete der ideale, zweidimensionale Filter mit der Übertragungsfunktion gleich 1 in einem Kreisgebiet, dessen Mittelpunkt...     

A technique to improve the empirical mode decomposition in the Hilbert-Huang transform

The Hilbert-based time-frequency analysis has promising capacity to reveal the time-variant behaviors of a system. To admit well-behaved Hilbert transforms, component decomposition of signals must be performed beforehand. This was first systematically implemented by the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in the Hilbert-Huang transform, which can provide a time-frequency representation of the signals. The EMD, however, has limitations in distinguishing different components in narrowband signals commonly found in free-decay vibration signals. In this study, a technique for decomposing components in narrowband signals based on waves’ beating phenomena is proposed to improve the EMD, in which the time scale structure of the signal is unveiled by the Hilbert transform as a result of wave beating, the order of component extraction is reversed from that in the EMD and the end effect is confined. The proposed technique is verified by performing the component decomposition of a simulated signal and a free decay signal actually measured in an instrumented bridge structure. In addition, the adaptability of the technique to time-variant dynamic systems is demonstrated with a simulated time-variant MDOF system.     

Paleoenvironmental evolution of the Paratethys in the Slovenian Basin during the Late Paleogene

Several sections from the uppermost Eocene and Oligocene of northern Slovenia have been investigated with respect to sedimentary facies, foraminiferal assemblages, stable isotopes, carbonate microfacies, and palynology. The main objective was to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental history of the Paleogene Paratethys in this region of the eastern Alpine realm. The sediments exhibit a transgressive succession beginning with conglomerates, sandstones, and mudstones of fluvial and lacustrine origin followed by carbonates and muddy marls indicating marine conditions. The foraminiferal faunal changes from brackish to shallow marine to deeper marine assemblages and the distribution of the palynofloras corroborate the sedimentological results. Microfacies analysis of the limestones shows a wide variation of shallow water, generally mud-rich facies dominated by coralline algae, foraminifera, and corals. Microfaunas adapted to low-oxygen conditions indicate temporal sluggish bottom-water circulation which can be associated with high fresh-water fluxes. These results are discussed as reflecting both the global sea-level rise during the Early Oligocene and the regional tectonic and climatic evolution.     

Plain strain soil–structure interaction model for a building supported by a circular foundation embedded in a poroelastic half-space

A simple theoretical model for soil–structure interaction in water saturated poroelastic soils is presented, developed to explore if the apparent building–foundation–soil system frequency changes due to water saturation. The model consists of a shear wall supported by a rigid circular foundation embedded in a homogenous, isotropic poroelastic half-space, fully saturated by a compressible and inviscid fluid, and excited by in-plane wave motion. The motion in the soil is governed by Biot's theory of wave propagation in fluid saturated porous media. Helmholtz decomposition and wave function expansion of the two P-wave and the S-wave potentials is used to represent the motion in the soil. The boundary conditions along the contact surface between the soil and the foundation are perfect bond (i.e. welded contact) for the skeleton, and either drained or undrained hydraulic condition for the fluid (i.e. pervious or impervious foundation). For the purpose of this exploratory analysis, the zero stress condition at the free surface is relaxed in the derivation of the foundation stiffness matrix, which enables a closed form solution. The implications of this assumption are discussed, based on published comparisons for the elastic case. Also, a closed form representation is derived for the foundation driving forces for incident plane (fast) P-wave or SV wave. Numerical results and comparison with the full-scale measurements are presented in the companion paper, published in this issue.