Lava flow hazard at Nyiragongo volcano,D.R.C.

The 2002 eruption of Nyiragongo volcano constitutes the most outstanding case ever of lava flow in a big town. It also represents one of the very rare cases of direct casualties from lava flows, which had high velocities of up to tens of kilometer per hour. As in the 1977 eruption, which is the only other eccentric eruption of the volcano in more than 100 years, lava flows were emitted from several vents along a N–S system of fractures extending for more than 10 km, from which they propagated mostly towards Lake Kivu and Goma, a town of about 500,000 inhabitants. We assessed the lava flow hazard on the entire volcano and in the towns of Goma (D.R.C.) and Gisenyi (Rwanda) through numerical simulations of probable lava flow paths. Lava flow paths are computed based on the steepest descent principle, modified by stochastically perturbing the topography to take into account the capability of lava flows to override topographic obstacles, fill topographic depressions, and spread over the topography. Code calibration and the definition of the expected lava flow length and vent opening probability distributions were done based on the 1977 and 2002 eruptions. The final lava flow hazard map shows that the eastern sector of Goma devastated in 2002 represents the area of highest hazard on the flanks of the volcano. The second highest hazard sector in Goma is the area of propagation of the western lava flow in 2002. The town of Gisenyi is subject to moderate to high hazard due to its proximity to the alignment of fractures active in 1977 and 2002. In a companion paper (Chirico et al., Bull Volcanol, in this issue, 2008) we use numerical simulations to investigate the possibility of reducing lava flow hazard through the construction of protective barriers, and formulate a proposal for the future development of the town of Goma.     

The Solar Flare of November 4, 2001, and Its Manifestations in Energetic Particles from Coronas-F Data

Based on X-ray, gamma-ray, and charged-particle measurements with several instruments onboard the Coronas-F satellite and on ACE and GOES experimental data presented on the Internet, we investigate the parameters of the solar flare of November 4, 2001, and the energetic-particle fluxes produced by it in circumterrestrial space. The increase in relativistic-electron fluxes for about 1.5 days points to a moving source (shock front). The structure of the energetic-particles fluxes in the second half of November 5, 2001, can be explained by the passage of the coronal mass ejection that was ejected on November 1, 2001, and that interacted with the shock wave from the flare of November 4, 2001.     

Anomalous increase in the foF2 critical frequency prior to the Spanish earthquake of May 11, 2011

A study of variations in the critical frequency of the F2 layer (foF2) prior to a shallow-focus eartquake with a magnitude M = 5.1 which occurred in Spain on May 11, 2011, is carried out. The obtained results show that a positive disturbance in the foF2 value was observed at the ionospheric Del’ebre station, which is the closest to the earthquake epicenter. At the same time, no disturbances in foF2 are revealed at ionospheric stations located at a greater distance from the epicenter. This fact makes it possible to conclude that the positive disturbance in the F2 layer observed at the Del’ebre station could have a sesmogenic nature.     

Application of kriging with external drift to estimate hydraulic conductivity from electrical-resistivity data in unconsolidated deposits near Montalto Uffugo, Italy

In the framework of various studies to characterize the aquifer at the groundwater experimental field near Montalto Uffugo, Italy, the present work estimates the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity of the unconsolidated deposits that underlie the area, by applying the geostatistical technique of kriging with external drift to electrical-resistivity and hydraulic-conductivity data. The reliability of the estimation method was tested by implementing a model, based on the method of cells, that simulates groundwater flow, with the estimated values of hydraulic conductivity. The results obtained indicate that the estimation method used has an acceptable degree of reliability.     

The correlation between geochemical data and SPOT satellite imagery of lateritic terrain in southern Mali

Detailed geochemical mapping of superficial lateritic formations is compared with recent high-resolution SPOT satellite images in the Dagadamou prospect in southern Mali.The two main landscape features standing out in SPOT images are expressed by thematic indices derived from multispectral data. They reflect the distribution of vegetation cover and the distinction between silty clay soils in the valleys and ferruginous duricrust exposed on the plateaus. Geochemical differentiation factors are closely related to the nature of sampled materials and reflect the relative amounts of major constituent minerals estimated by normative calculation.Duricrust samples with high Fe and Al content are also enriched in trace elements, P, V, Cr, As, Mo, Nb and Cu, immobilized in the weathering profile with secondary oxihydroxide minerals.Soils of flats are composed mainly of quartz and kaolinite; they also concentrate heavy minerals characterized by high contents of Zr, Ti, Ce and Y.Accumulation of detrital material at the periphery of duricrust plateaus is marked by a geochemical halo of higher contents in Zr and quartz at their periphery. This feature is clearly visible on SPOT imagery as a zone of high reflectance, devoid of vegetation.The density of vegetation on duricrust is related to its kaolinite content. Its distribution is characterized by a striped pattern, which is probably controlled by bedrock lithological structures preserved in the lateritic cover.This study shows the relationships, both direct and indirect, existing between spectral reflectance and geochemical composition of superficial lateritic formations. Many other landscape features identified with high resolution on SPOT images provide complementary information, which could be very helpful at various stages of geological and mineral exploration in lateritic terrain.     

An iterative method for the construction of equilibrium N-body models for stellar disks

One widely used technique for the construction of equilibrium models of stellar disks is based on the Jeans equations and the moments of velocity distribution functions computed using these equations. Stellar disks constructed using this technique are shown to be “not entirely” in equilibrium. Our attempt to abandon the epicyclic approximation and the approximation of infinite isothermal layers, which are commonly adopted in this technique, failed to improve the situation substantially. We conclude that the main drawback of techniques based on the Jeans equations is that the system of equations employed is not closed and, therefore, requires adopting an essentially ad hoc additional closure condition. A new iterative approach to constructing equilibrium N-body models with a given density distribution is proposed. The main idea behind this approach is that a model is first constructed using some approximation method, and is then allowed to adjust to an equilibrium state with the specified density distribution—if necessary, with the required parameters of the velocity distribution remaining fixed in the process. This iterative approach was used to construct isotropic, spherically symmetric models and models of stellar disks embedded in an external potential. The numerical models constructed prove to be close to equilibrium. It is shown that the commonly adopted assumption that the profile of the radial-velocity dispersion is exponential may be wrong. The technique proposed can be applied to a wide range of problems involving the construction of models of stellar systems with various geometries.     

Vibrational spectroscopy of beryllium aluminosilicates: Heat capacity calculations from band assignments

Far-infrared, mid-IR, and Raman powder spectra were measured on six phases (bromellite, chrysoberyl, phenakite, bertrandite, beryl, and euclase) in the system BeO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-H₂O. A single-crystal absorption spectrum of IR fundamentals in beryl is also presented, which more closely resembles the powder absorption spectrum than it does absorption spectra calculated from single-crystal reflection data. Assignments of the SiO₄ and BeO₄ internal vibrations are made in accordance with each mineral's symmetry and composition and by comparison to structural analogs. Heat capacities C _v calculated for these partial band assignments agree with C _v derived from experimental C _p for all six phases, provided that Kieffer's (1979c) model is slightly modified to correctly enumerate both Si-O and Be-O stretching modes in the high frequency region (>750 cm^?1). Si-O stretching bands were found to out-number Be-O stretching modes in the high-energy region of the vibrational spectra with two exceptions: (1) For those phases containing oxygen ions not coordinated to silicon, vibrations occurring at v>1,080 cm^?1 that are attributable to Be-O (H) stretching must be treated separately in the model in order to calculate C _v accurately. (2) Minerals consisting entirely of interlocking Si and Be tetrahedra (i.e., phases without Al or OH) can be modeled by one optic continuum representing all optical modes. These results, along with the occurrence of very low energy lattice vibrations for Be-silicates within Al, suggests that although Be-O bonds are generally weaker than neighboring Si-O bonds, Be mimics the network-forming characteristic of Si to a limited extent.