Climatic variability of the sub-surface sea temperatures in the Aegean-Black Sea system and relation to meteorological forcing

Non-smoothed yearly temperature records with minimal statistical uncertainties are constructed for winter and summer of the period 1950–2000 in two areas in the Aegean Sea, for the sub-surface layer of 80–120?m, and two areas in the Black Sea, for the sub-surface layer of sigma-theta isopycnals between 14.5 and 15.4. The specific areas are selected mostly because of the dense hydrographic-data coverage they have during the period 1950–2000. Two trend regimes appear in both Seas: a period of decreasing sea temperatures from the early/mid 1960s to the early/mid 1990s and an apparent warming afterwards. Trends in sea temperatures correlate with trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and partly the East Atlantic West Russian (EAWR) indexes, but the signs of NAO and/or EAWR cannot sufficiently justify the winter-to-winter temperature changes in the entire study area. In examining the wind flows in the sea-level-pressure maps for characteristic winters in which local peaks in the sea-temperature records occur, we identify particular sea-level-pressure structures that are not accounted for by the typical North-Atlantic or East Atlantic-West Russia positive or negative dipoles. In addition, there are winters when the Siberian High induces local maxima in sea-temperatures in the study area. A spectral-coherence analysis of the unfiltered winter sea-temperature and the corresponding teleconnection NAO/EAWR records, shows that common spectral and coherence peaks exist at ~5–6, ~9–10 and ~15–17?years.     

Evening and Morning Transition of Katabatic Flows

An experimental investigation of the evening and morning transition phases of katabatic slope flows has been conducted to identify the mechanisms for their development and destruction over an isolated slope. The momentum and energy equations of the flow have been used to describe these mechanisms for the particular topographic features of the studied slope, and to outline the differences from the dynamics of well-developed simple slope flows. In the lowest portion of the slope, frontal characteristics have been identified in early evening periods when the local pre-existing near-surface thermal structure does not impose a katabatic acceleration. The frontal shape is determined by the near-surface thermal stability and ambient wind. The flow initiation is distinctly different when it is linked to the local surface cooling, in which case it develops gradually and produces a slight local warming.The erosion of the katabatic layer at mid-slope precedes that at the foot and is closely linked to dilution of the local surface inversion. The flow erosion at the foot is often delayed, as the warming of air proceeds uniformly at all heights near the ground, so maintaining the inversion due to warming produced by mixing and advective processes linked to the upslope flow development. The latter initiates first at mid-slope and then at the foot, where for a non-negligible time period it flows over the persistent katabatic flow. The prerequisite for the development of this structure is the maintenance of a shallow inversion in the first 2–3 m above the ground surface.The morning dilution of the katabatic flow is apparently different from common experience over simple slopes and may be attributed to the steep upper portion of the slope in association with its easterly orientation, which results in strong non-uniformity of the solar heating along the slope.     

Newtonian and post-newtonian tidal theory: Variable G and earthquakes

A mathematical analysis of the Newtonian and parametrized Post-Newtonian tidal stresses is applied to tidal triggering mechanism for earthquakes. We investigate a possible correlation.The procedure used for calculating the solid earth tidal stress is described by the Newtonian theory and the parametrized Post-Newtonian metric. We calculate tidal stress histories for earthquakes between 1908 and 1991 in Greek area. Although no significant tidal correlation was found for the entire data set, which contained earthquakes of magnitudeM 6.0, a fairly striking correlation was observed for an earthquake-tide correlation by computing tidal functions at the time and place of the earthquake events. A successful correlation as used in this paper means that: earthquake events occur during a certain part of the tidal cycle.Also, we have studied a variation of the gravitational constant according to the variation of the velocity of the Earth and the uniform velocity of the Solar System with respect to a preferred Universal rest frame.This work has been supported by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology under Grant No. 89e160.     

Fractal approach of the temporal earthquake distribution in the Hellenic arc-trench system

The time clustering of earthquakes occurring in the Hellenic arc-trench system is quantitatively analyzed by means of the fractal dimension,D, of their time distribution in the time intervals of 1950–1985 (M _s >-4.5) and 1964–1985 (M _s 4.0). The results obtained imply that scale-invariant clustering holds over very large scale lengths of time,T, with 2²–2⁸T (in min) 2²⁰–2²², depending on the seismotectonic segment considered. In all segments a common feature is the relation between theD ₁,D ₂ andD ₃-values found for shallow, intermediate-depth and all-depth shocks, respectively:D ₃>D₁>D₂. TheD-values found for shallow shocks range between 0.137 and 0.191 with the exception of the Ionian Islands and Cretan segments where anomalously high values (D=0.221–0.251) have been determined. We discuss possible seismotectonic interpretations of the results.     

Long-term tendencies in the electoral behavior and the geography of voting in St. Petersburg: 1989–1995

This paper studies the basis and nature of the long-term factors that may have influenced the electoral behavior of St. Petersburgers between 1989 and 1995 from the perspective of geography. Our analysis shows two distinct periods in St. Petersburgs recent electoral history marked by differing behavioral motivations of voters in the city. The first period was marked by only one ideological cleavage between marketers and hard-liners. In 1993 protest motivation managed to erode the predominance of ideology as the determining variable in voting behavior, and began to act as a new independent variable. This marked the beginning of the second period. Four major groupings of St. Petersburg electorate are described in terms of the basic ideological cleavages, party affiliations and geographical gravity centers.     

Geophysical investigation of tumuli by means of surface 3D Electrical Resistivity Tomography

Tumuli are artificially erected small hills that cover monumental tombs or graves. In this work, the surface three-dimensional (3D) Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) method, composed of dense parallel two-dimensional (2D) tomographies, was used to investigate the properties of the tumuli filling material and to resolve buried archaeological structures inside the tumuli.The effectiveness of the method was investigated by numerical modeling and through 3D inversion of synthetic apparent resistivity data. A resistivity model that simulates the inhomogeneous tumulus material and the tombs that are buried inside the tumulus was assumed. The Dipole–Dipole (DD), Pole–Dipole (PD), Pole–Pole (PP), Gradient (GRAD), Midpoint-Potential-Referred (MPR) and Schlumberger Reciprocal (SCR) arrays, which are suitable for multichannel resistivity instruments, were tested. The tumulus topography (pyramid or capsized cup) was incorporated into the inversion procedure through a distorted finite element mesh. The inversion procedure was based on a smoothness constrained Gauss–Newton algorithm in which the Active Constraint Balancing (ACB) method was also applied in order to enhance the least-squares resolving power and stability.Synthetic modeling showed that the different tumulus layers and the horizontal contact of the artificial tumulus material with the natural background soil were reconstructed by all of the tested electrode arrays. Generally, PD and the GRAD arrays comprise the optimum choices to investigate the subsurface properties of a tumulus and locate buried tombs. The MPR model was inferior to the GRAD model, while the DD, PP and SCR models had the poorest resolution. It was also shown that the inversion models are practically independent from the survey direction and the topography shape of the tumulus.The real field data collected employing the PD array along a small tumulus from the archaeological site of Vergina in northern Greece enhanced the synthetic modeling results. The inversion model outlined a number of archaeological structures that exhibit a high possibility to correlate with graves. Overall, this work signifies that the surface 3D ERT method can provide a valuable tool in the non-destructive archaeological exploration of tumuli.     

Factors Affecting the Settlement Estimation of Stone Column Reinforced Soils

The ground improvement technique of stone columns has been effectively used over the last decades in order to accelerate the consolidation rate of soft soils by providing a drainage path, reduce foundation settlements, improve the bearing capacity of the soil, and limit the risk of liquefaction due to seismic activity. Because of the time consumption of a three dimensional (3D) calculation, most stone column projects are presently studied by axisymmetric finite element computations. Otherwise, it is the analytical method of Priebe that is commonly used to predict the final settlements of a single stone column and the corresponding settlement reduction factor. Both methods, axisymmetric finite element analysis and Priebe’s analytical method make use of the axisymmetric theory of unit cell. The main objective of this study is to examine and compare the three dimensional response of stone column reinforced soils with the axisymmetric analysis results. A proposed analytical method, governed by the failure mechanism of a cylindrical cone is also presented. The comparison between these different approaches is studied and evaluated in conjunction with in situ measurements. It is proved that the beneficial effect of this ground improvement technique, especially on the foundation soil with the lower strength characteristics, is more pronounced. Also, it is concluded that due to unit cell theory, the settlement reduction factor is usually under predicted and the failure of the composite system is impossible, even under high applied pressures. The proposed analytical method of the cylindrical cone failure mechanism is proved to be in good agreement with the 3D results.     

Natural radioactivity distribution and gamma radiation exposure of beach sands from Sithonia Peninsula

This study aims to evaluate the activity concentrations of ²³⁸U, ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, ²²⁸Th and ⁴⁰K along the beaches of Sithonia Peninsula which are adjacent to the rock-types of the Sithonia Plutonic Complex. These range from 6–673, 5–767, 5–1750, 6–1760 and 185–875 Bq/kg respectively. The (% wt.) heavy magnetic (HM) fraction (epidote, allanite, hornblende, biotite and garnet), the heavy non-magnetic (HNM) fraction (monazite, zircon, titanite and apatite) and the total heavy (TH) fraction, were correlated with the concentrations of the measured radionuclides in the bulk samples. The HNM fraction seems to control the activity concentrations of ²³⁸U in all samples, while the HM fraction, at least for the heavy mineral rich samples bearing high amounts of epidote crystals with allanite cores, controls their ²³²Th content. The measured radionuclides in beach sands were normalized to the respective values measured in the granitic rocks, which are their most probable parent rocks, in order to provide data on their enrichment or depletion. The annual effective dose varies from 0.013 to 0.688 mSv y^?1 for local people working on the beach, while for tourists the annual external effective dose ranges between 0.003 and 0.165 mSv y^?1.     

Identifying Seismicity Levels via Poisson Hidden Markov Models

Poisson Hidden Markov models (PHMMs) are introduced to model temporal seismicity changes. In a PHMM the unobserved sequence of states is a finite-state Markov chain and the distribution of the observation at any time is Poisson with rate depending only on the current state of the chain. Thus, PHMMs allow a region to have varying seismicity rate. We applied the PHMM to model earthquake frequencies in the seismogenic area of Killini, Ionian Sea, Greece, between period 1990 and 2006. Simulations of data from the assumed model showed that it describes quite well the true data. The earthquake catalogue is dominated by main shocks occurring in 1993, 1997 and 2002. The time plot of PHMM seismicity states not only reproduces the three seismicity clusters but also quantifies the seismicity level and underlies the degree of strength of the serial dependence of the events at any point of time. Foreshock activity becomes quite evident before the three sequences with the gradual transition to states of cascade seismicity. Traditional analysis, based on the determination of highly significant changes of seismicity rates, failed to recognize foreshocks before the 1997 main shock due to the low number of events preceding that main shock. Then, PHMM has better performance than traditional analysis since the transition from one state to another does not only depend on the total number of events involved but also on the current state of the system. Therefore, PHMM recognizes significant changes of seismicity soon after they start, which is of particular importance for real-time recognition of foreshock activities and other seismicity changes.