Croatia — a coastal and maritime country

Croatia, through its geographic position, is a Mediterranean/Adriatic and Central European/Danube state. As an Adriatic coastal state, it has a long maritime tradition, which is apparent in its well-developed shipping (2.4 million GT), the high-quality ship-building industry (among the top six in the world) and through its numerous sea ports, of which many were established in ancient times. The leading national port is Rijeka, which is at the same time an important transit port for Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.The exceptionally indented Croatian Adriatic coast with its attractive archipelagos and favorable climatic and oceanographic conditions in the coastal sea offers very advantageous conditions for comprehensive tourist utilization. This is particularly true of nautical tourism, which is complimented by a larger number of constructed and well-equipped yachting ports/marinas on the coast and islands.     

Influence of the Load Wavelength on the Permeability of a Viscosity Interface in the Mantle

Assuming a radially stratified Newtonian mantle in a steady-state approximation, we demonstrate that the permeability of a viscosity interface at 660-km depth strongly depends on the wavelength of buoyancy forces driving the flow. The flow induced by long-wavelength loads penetrates through the boundary freely even if the viscosity increases by two orders. In contrast, the boundary is practically impermeable for short-wavelength loads located in the upper mantle. Thus, a stepwise increase of viscosity is a significant obstacle for small descending features in the upper mantle, but huge upper mantle downwellings, or upwellings formed in the-lower mantle can overcome it easily. This indicates that certain care is necessary in interpreting the seismic structure of the mantle by means of flow models. The global tomographic image includes only the first few degrees of the harmonic series and, consequently, its interpretation in terms of a present-day flow field results in a predominantly whole-mantle circulation even for extreme viscosity contrasts.     

Repeated Geodetic Measurements in the West Bohemia Seismoactive Region: Period 1993 - 1996

The western part of the Bohemian Massif is characterized by repeated occurrences of intraplate earthquake swarms. To study surface deformations of this anomalous region, a network covering about 2000 square kilometres for repeated geodetic measurements was established in 1993 - 1994. The positions of the individual points of the network were carefully picked with respect to local tectonic structure and earthquake foci distribution. GPS and precise levelling measurements were performed 1-2 times a year. The GPS data were processed by Bernese GPS software. No tendency to any displacement - either horizontal or vertical - of geological blocks was derived from the geodetic data for the period 1993 - 96. Only displacements of less than 5 mm/year in average could occur in the whole region in that period; larger displacements would have been revealed by our measurements.     

Converting Radial Distortions Due to Geopotential Models to Geopotential Stokes Coefficients

A methodology for improving geopotential models has been developed. Theoretical relations have been derived converting coefficients in harmonic expansions for radial distortions due to geopotential models into geopotential Stokes coefficients. Terms of the order of 10 ^–10 in magnitude have been retained.     

Remote sensing detection of atmospheric pollutants by differential absorption LIDAR 510M/SODAR PA2 mobile system

Summary Air pollution problem in the Czech Republic is very complex due to large number of factors as turbulent dispersion and chemical reactions concurring in the status of the PBL. For this 3D distribution of pollutants is a key information that cannot be given by conventional monitoring stations. Combined use of DIAL lidar and sodar can give access to such information. Case studies of air pollutants transport are presented using 3D concentration fields of NO₂ and ozone measured by lidar and meteorological conditions monitored by Doppler Sodar.     

Lead-arsenic soil geochemical study as an exploration guide over the Killik volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit, Northeastern Turkey

A mountainous terrain, the eastern Pontide tectonic belt, located in northeastern Turkey, contains more than 60 known volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits that differ in reserves (0.1–30 million tonnes) and grades. Soil geochemistry is conventionally used in exploration programs to discover concealed VMS deposits in the region. In the present study, Pb and As element pair were used as pathfinder elements to investigate the relationship of their anomalies to a completely delineated ore deposit (Killik VMS deposit) in an orientation survey that served as a natural physical model. Two hundred forty soil samples were analyzed in the present study. The two elements, which represent the opposite ends of the mobility range, revealed high contrast and overlapped each other at the location of the ore deposit due to enhancement of the anomalies by hydromorphic dispersion, which is an indication that soil samples would produce reliable results. The successful delineation of the deposit is remarkable considering the rough topography and the climatic limitations. Previously the extremely moist and temperate climate was thought to cause excessive leaching of the trace element pathfinders from the ore deposits to produce extensive anomalies usually extending away from the mineralization thus, leading to erroneous results and/or extensive anomalous areas. But the present research has shown that the method can be used effectively if the sampling and data evaluation is carefully conducted.