Building a European geothermal information network using a distributed e-Infrastructure

Geothermal data are published using different IT services, formats and content representations, and can refer to both regional and global scale information. Geothermal stakeholders search for information with different aims. E-Infrastructures are collaborative platforms that address this diversity of aims and data representations. In this paper, we present a prototype for a European Geothermal Information Platform that uses INSPIRE recommendations and an e-Infrastructure (D4Science) to collect, aggregate and share data sets from different European data contributors, thus enabling stakeholders to retrieve and process a large amount of data. Our system merges segmented and national realities into one common framework. We demonstrate our approach by describing a platform that collects data from Italian, French, Hungarian, Swiss and Icelandic geothermal data providers.     

Detection of underground cavities with monofrequency electromagnetic tomography between boreholes in the frequency range 100 MHz to 1 GHz1

In order to detect underground cavities, we have designed a geophysical method based on the interaction of a monochromatic electromagnetic wave in the frequency band 100 MHz to 1 GHz with the ground situated between two boreholes. Three different approaches are involved in the design of this EM tomographic method.

• 1 The application of an ‘exact’ theory is used to calculate artificial data, based on an integral equation method. These data are inverted using a tomographic algorithm whose basic assumptions are rather coarse. The results show that, however, cavities can very well be detected and their position recovered.
• 2 Data are obtained with a physical reduced-scale model in a water tank, in which all parameters are known in advance. The inversion process confirms the validity of the method.
• 3 Underground cavities are actually detected.

The above approaches are described and discussed and results are shown. The equipment involved and its operation is quite simple: the surface devices are commercially available and only the transmitter and receiver antennae must be specially built. The method is shown to be quite efficient and its cost should be reasonably low.     

VIRGO: Experiment for helioseismology and solar irradiance monitoring

The scientific objective of the VIRGO experiment (Variability of solar IRradiance and Gravity Oscillations) is to determine the characteristics of pressure and internal gravity oscillations by observing irradiance and radiance variations, to measure the solar total and spectral irradiance and to quantify their variability over periods of days to the duration of the mission. With these data helioseismological methods can be used to probe the solar interior. Certain characteristics of convection and its interaction with magnetic fields, related to, for example, activity, will be studied from the results of the irradiance monitoring and from the comparison of amplitudes and phases of the oscillations as manifest in brightness from VIRGO, in velocity from GOLF, and in both velocity and continuum intensity from SOI/MDI. The VIRGO experiment contains two different active-cavity radiometers for monitoring the solar constant, two three-channel sunphotometers (SPM) for the measurement of the spectral irradiance at 402, 500 and 862 nm, and a low-resolution imager (LOI) with 12 pixels, for the measurement of the radiance distribution over the solar disk at 500 um. In this paper the scientific objectives of VIRGO are presented, the instruments and the data acquisition and control system are described in detail, and their measured performance is given.died 13 October 1994     

Site effect and damage distribution in Pujili (Ecuador) after the 28 March 1996 earthquake

The 28 March 1996 earthquake (Mw=5.7) produced extensive damage in Pujili, a small town located in the central part of the Inter-Andean valley of Ecuador. Variations in the damage rate of adobe constructions throughout the city let us suppose a ground motion amplification related to site effects. A site effect study using the H/V spectral ratio confirmed the good agreement with geological formations and showed that a second peak in some soil response appears at sites that are located over a zone of alluvial deposits, in the most damaged area of the city. This second peak is in the frequency range 5–7 Hz, close to the natural response of adobe building frequency. Thus, the second peak seems to increase the damage rate of adobe buildings and may be related to superficial alluvial deposits of a river, acting independently of the rest of the soil column.     

Statistical Characterization of the Flow Structure in the Rhine Valley

The flow structure at the intersection between the Rhine and the Seez valleys nearthe Swiss city of Bad Ragaz has been documented by means of wind and pressuremeasurements collected from 9 September to 10 November 1999 during the MesoscaleAlpine Programme (MAP) experiment. To understand better the dynamics of theageostrophic winds that develop in this part of the Rhine valley, some key questionsare answered in this paper including the following: (i) How does air blow at theintersection of the Rhine and Seez valleys? and (ii) what are the dynamical processes(mechanical or thermal) driving the flow circulations in the valleys? Statistical analysis of the wind and pressure patterns at synoptic scale and at the scaleof the valley shows that five main flow patterns, SE/S, NW/W, NW/N, NW/S, SE/N(wind direction in the Seez valley/wind direction in the Rhine valley) prevail. The SE/S regime is the flow splitting situation. It is mainly driven by a strong pressure gradient across the Alps leading to foehn, even though some nocturnal cases are generated bylocal thermal gradients. The NW/W and NW/N regimes are mechanically forced bythe synoptic pressure gradient (as the flow splitting case). The difference between thetwo regimes is due to the synoptic flow direction [westerly (northerly) synoptic flowfor the NW/W (NW/N) regime], showing that the Rhine valley (particularly from BadRagaz to Lake Constance) is less efficient in channelling the flow than the Seez valley.The NW/S (occurring mainly during nighttime) and SE/N (occurring mainly duringdaytime) regimes are mainly katabatic flows. However, the SE/N regime is also partlyforced at the synoptic scale during the foehn case that occurred between 18 October and 20 October 1999, with a complex layered vertical structure. This analysis also shows that, contrary to what was observed in a broad section of theupper Rhine valley near Mannheim, very few countercurrents were observed near BadRagaz where the valley width is much smaller.     

A new natural,super-hard,transparent polymorph of carbon from the Popigai impact crater,Russia

A natural shockwave event led to the formation of a new crystalline polymorph of carbon in gneisses from the Popigai crater, Russia. The new species occupies the interior of a multiphase assemblage and is entirely enveloped by lonsdaleite and graphite. Polishing hardness of this new phase is greater than that of lonsdaleite. Micro-beam synchrotron X-ray diffraction, imaging and fluorescence studies revealed a pure transparent carbon phase. The diffraction pattern is indexed in terms of a cubic cell (a=14.697 Å, space group Pm3m.). This species was neither encountered in static or dynamic high-pressure experiment nor predicted by theoretical calculations. To cite this article: A. El Goresy et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).     

Mixed-magma pyroclastic surge deposits associated with debris avalanche deposits at Colima volcanoes,Mexico

The transition between the terminal cones and the ancestral edifices of Nevado de Colima and Fuego de Colima volcanoes is marked by the deposits of gigantic volcanic debris avalanches of the Mount St. Helens (MSH) or Bezymianny type. Unusual mafic juvenile fragments and cauliflower bombs as well as juvenile fragments of mixed and more evolved composition are abundant in dune-bedded pyroclastic-surge deposits directly associated with these catastrophic events at both volcanoes. At Nevado, these mafic juvenile fragments represent the most primitive magma ever erupted by the volcano (SiO₂52.50%). The lavas directly preceding and following the debris-avalanche event are silicic andesites (SiO₂59%). At Fuego these juvenile fregments have 56% SiO₂. The lavas from the upper parts of the caldera wall are dacites (65% SiO₂), whereas the terminal cone is composed of andesites (57% to 62% SiO₂). At Nevado, petrologic evidence for interaction of mafic magma with andesitic or dacitic magma in a high-level magma chamber, just before the eruption of pyroclastic surge deposits, consists of: (1) banded juvenile bombs of intermediate composition; (2) the range of composition of these bombs from SiO₂52% to 58%; (3) the presence of highly magnesian olivine with reaction rims; (4) inverse zoning in clinopyroxene with strong Mg enrichment towards the rim; (5) resorption of plagioclase; and (6) significant compositional heterogeneity in the vitric phase. Volcanic debris-avalanche events at Nevado and Fuego de Colima may thus correspond with major breaks in the petrological evolution of the volcanoes and the start of a new magmatic cycle. Injection of mafic magma into the presently perched viscous surface dome of the active Fuego cone, as occurred in 1818 and 1913, could enhance the likelihood of southward collapse of the flank of an already unstable edifice, and it must be considered in future hazard assessment of this active volcano. Risk to life and property for the entire Colima region associated with such catastrophic phenomena would be immeasurably greater in comparison with hazards related to the last explosive outburst in 1913, which resulted in emplacement of pyroclastic flows over uninhabited areas of the upper flanks of the volcano.     

Thermodynamics of open networks: Ordering and entropy in NaAlSiO4 glass,liquid, and polymorphs

The thermodynamic properties of carnegieite and NaAlSiO₄ glass and liquid have been investigated through C _p determinations from 10 to 1800 K and solution-calorimetry measurements. The relative entropies S ₂₉₈-S₀ of carnegieite and NaAlSiO₄ glass are 118.7 and 124.8 J/mol K, respectively. The low-high carnegieite transition has been observed at 966 K with an enthalpy of transition of 8.1±0.3 kJ/mol, and the enthalpy of fusion of carnegieite at the congruent melting point of 1799 K is 21.7±3 kJ/mol. These results are consistent with the reported temperature of the nepheline-carnegieite transition and available thermodynamic data for nepheline. The entropy of quenched NaAlSiO₄ glass at 0 K is 9.7±2 J/mol K and indicates considerable ordering among AlO₄ and SiO₄ tetrahedra. In the liquid state, progressive, temperature-induced Si, Al disordering could account for the high configurational heat capacity. Finally, the differences between the entropies and heat capacities of nepheline and carnegieite do not seem to conform to current polyhedral modeling of these properties