Preservation of chemical residue-melt equilibria in natural anatexite: the effects of deformation and rapid cooling

A combined petrologic, textural and chemical approach is used to interpret the relationship between chemical exchange and deformation during partial melting of a granodioritic gneiss in the contact aureole of the Bergell Pluton (Central Alps). In contrast to most regional metamorphic anatexites, chemical equilibrium between residue and segregated melt was attained and preserved by several elements, as shown by their present distribution. Equilibrium involved both the major and the trace elements hosted in the rock-forming minerals and the light rare earth elements (LREE), hosted primarily in allanite. Equilibrium with respect to LREEs was achieved because allanite had a reactive behaviour during water-present melting, in contrast to the refractive behaviour of xenotime, which mostly controls the distribution of the HREE's. The attainment and preservation of equilibrium between leucosome and residue requires peculiar boundary conditions. We propose that the achievement of equilibrium between melt and residue was promoted by deformation, operating via a mechanism of melt present granular flow (i.e. dissolution-accommodated grain-boundary sliding active during partial melting). Microstructural observations indicate that melt-present granular flow was the dominating deformation mechanism in these anatexites. The preservation of residue-melt equilibrium is inferred to result from rapid cooling under contact metamorphic conditions and from the lack of deformation below the solidus.     

Calibration of cross-line components for sea-bed 4C acquisition systems

Faithful recording of the elastic wavefield at the sea‐bed is required for quantitative applications of 4C seismic. The accuracy of the recorded vectorial wavefield depends on factors that vary from deployment to deployment. This paper focuses on one such factor: the interaction of the acquisition system with the sea‐bed, which is referred to here as coupling. We show, using multi‐azimuth data recorded with a cable‐based sea‐bed acquisition system, whose sensor housing is cylindrically shaped and with the in‐line geophone fixed to the cable, that coupling depends on the propagation direction and wave type (P‐ or S‐waves) of the incident wavefield. We show that coupling is more critical for S‐waves than for P‐waves. Detection of inconsistent coupling using both P‐ and S‐waves is therefore mandatory. A data‐driven processing method to compensate for the frequency‐dependent coupling response of the cross‐line geophone is derived. Its application to field data verifies the effectiveness of the method.     

Corrections of Systematic Errors and Data Homogenisation in the Daily Temperature Padova Series (1725–1998)

The correction, validation and homogenisation of the long temperature series of Padova (1725–1998) are discussed. After a careful historical investigation made in order to discover the metadata concerning the series, i.e., instrument features, calibrating methodologies, operational procedures (i.e., exposure, timing and number of daily observations), instrument maintenance, relocations and instrument replacements, the series has been corrected for all the systematic errors derived from any change in the instruments or the operative methodology. Above all, correction focused on instrumental drift, scale expansion, building influence, relationship between indoor-outdoor measurements, minima and maxima evaluation from observations performed at different times, homogenisation for difference of level and change of site. Statistical tests applied to the data and the comparison with other known series has clarified some uncertainties about exposure and operational procedures that the historical analysis of metadata was unable to solve. Moreover, gaps have been filled after the comparison of the series with others of neighbouring sites. The critical work of debugging, correcting, validating and homogenising the series is essential for a correct interpretation of data, as in some cases the errors that have been corrected have been found to be greater than the climate signal. Especially in the early period, the algebraic sum of the corrections of the mean daily temperature exceeds 8 ° C, where monthly corrections can reach 6 ° C. After correction, validation and homogenisation, the linear trend of the Padova series is positive, +0.31 ° C/100 yr over the period1774–today. Looking at post-industrial warming, the temperature rise is+0.44 ° C in the last 130 years, which means +0.34 ° C/100 yr, not farfrom the above bulk average.     

Earthquake early warning feasibility in the Campania region (southern Italy) and demonstration system for public school buildings

We present the results of a feasibility study of an earthquake early warning system (EEWS) for the Campania region (southern Italy) using schools as specific targets. The study considered the seismogenic zones as sources of potential earthquakes for the area, the Italian accelerometric network as the recording network for seismic event occurrence, and the performances of the software platform PRESTo ^Plus for data analysis and processing. We analyze the distribution of lead-times for all possible threatening seismic sources for each municipality in the region under study by extracting the lead-time value corresponding to the 5th, 10th and 25th percentiles of the distributions. We discuss the results for the 5th percentile in order to analyze the worst-case scenario: in the case of a single site, the lead-time is expected to be larger than this value in the 95 % of the cases. Since the population distribution in Campania is uneven and most of the people live nearby the coast, whilst the most destructive earthquakes occur along the Apennine chain, we can conclude that an efficient EEWS can allow most of the schools in the area to undertake some mitigating actions. The testing of the EEWS was carried out in the high school ITIS ‘E. Majorana’, located at Somma Vesuviana, about 80 km from the seismogenic Irpinia region. For this purpose, the Sentinel, an actuator made up of low-cost hardware (i.e., Arduino^®), was developed in close cooperation with students and teachers of the school to receive alert messages from the PRESTo ^Plus platform and warn the school users in case of a seismic event. The EEWS and the Sentinel were successfully tested during some blind drills performed during normal school activities.     

Three-dimensional kinematic depth migration of converted waves: application to the 2002 Molise aftershock sequence (southern Italy)

Migration techniques, currently used in seismic exploration, are still scarcely applied in earthquake seismology due to the poor source knowledge and sparse, irregular acquisition geometries. At the crustal scale, classical seismological studies often perform inversions based on the arrival time of primary phases (P- and S-waves) but seldom exploit other information included in seismic records. Here we show how migration techniques can be adapted to earthquake seismology for converted wave analysis. As an example, we used data recorded by a dense local seismic network during the 2002 Molise aftershock sequence. In October and November 2002, two moderate magnitude earthquakes struck the Molise region (southern Italy), followed by an aftershock sequence lasting for about one month. Local earthquake tomography has provided earthquake hypocenter locations and three-dimensional models of P and S velocity fields. Strong secondary signals have been detected between first-arrivals of P- and S-waves and identified as SP transmitted waves. In order to analyse these waves, we apply a prestack depth migration scheme based on the Kirchhoff summation technique. Since source parameters are unknown, seismograms are equalized and only kinematic aspects of the migration process are considered. Converted wave traveltimes are calculated in the three-dimensional (3D) tomographic models using a finite-difference eikonal solver and back ray tracing. In the migrated images, the area of dominant energy conversion corresponds to a strong seismic horizon that we interpreted as the top of the Apulia Carbonate Platform and whose geometry and position at depth is consistent with current structural models from existing commercial seismic profiles, gravimetric and well data.