Structural development of the Neogene Radicondoli–Volterra and adjoining hinterland basins in Western Tuscany (Northern Apennines,Italy)

This paper presents a geological–structural study of some Neogene hinterland basins of the Northern Apennines, located on the Tyrrhenian side of the chain. These basins developed on the already delineated thrust-fold belt from middle–late Tortonian times. Their evolution has been commonly referred to an extensional tectonic regime, related to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea. New data have allowed us to hypothesize a different tectonic evolution for the chain, where compressive tectonics plays a major role both in the external and in the hinterland area. In this frame, the hinterland area located west of a major outcropping crustal thrust (Mid-Tuscany Metamorphic Ridge) has been the target of a geological–structural investigation. The field mapping and structural analysis has been focused on the syntectonic sediments of the Radicondoli–Volterra basin as well as on adjoining minor basins. These basins commonly display a synclinal structure and are generally located in between basement culminations, probably corresponding to thrust anticlines. Sediments of the hinterland basins have been affected by compressive deformation and regional unconformities separate stratigraphic units due to the activity of basement thrusts. In the study area, normal faulting either accommodates the thrusting processes or post-dates compressive deformation. A chronology of faulting and a six-stage evolution of this area are presented, providing further insights for the Neogene tectonic evolution of the Northern Apennines. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamics and driving factors of late Holocene gullying in the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER)

The issue of determining the driving factors in gullying, apart from land use, is somewhat lagging in comparison with the study of their physical modelling and control technology. Available information focuses on the basic ideas of climatic control, anthropic determinism and internal “authigenic” dynamics. High resolution chronology of cyclic systems, common in extensively gullied areas, can provide a clue to the weight of each factor. This paper reports a study of this kind, focusing on two gully catchments in the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER), but backed by an extensive regional survey. By integrating tracing and correlation of unconformity-bounded stratigraphic units and soils with radiocarbon dating, a detailed chronology was obtained for the last 5000 years. This could be compared with proxy climate reconstructions of similar detail. Clear evidence of climatic control emerged; gully filling is triggered by decreased stream transport capacity and increased sediment supply during transitions towards drier climate phases, while gully entrenchment appears to take place at the start of moist intervals, for the reverse reasons. A broader consideration of geological setting, however, puts forward a more general interpretation. These gullies actually formed, in the beginning, as part of the land surface response to sudden, very recent tectonic events, which created accommodation space for temporary sediment stores. They should then be seen in the frame of the Discontinuous Ephemeral Stream (DES) concept; as such, they are intrinsically non-linear and complex phenomena, whose response is linearized by a strong climatic–vegetational forcing, acting on both channel flow and sediment supply.     

1951-2002年长江流域降水特征

The monthly, seasonal, and annual precipitation trends in the Yangtze river catchment have been detected through analysis of 51 meteorological stations‘ data between 1950-2002 provided by National Meteorological Administration. Results reveal that: 1) Summer precipitation in the Yangtze river catchment shows significant increasing tendency. The Poyanghu lake basin, Dongtinghu lake basin and Taihu lake basin in the middle and lower reaches are the places showing significant positive trends. Summer precipitation in the middle and lower reaches experienced an abrupt change in the year 1992; 2) The monthly precipitation in months just adjoining to summer shows decreasing tendency in the Yangtze river catchment. The upper and middle reaches in Jialingjiang river basin and Hanshui river basin are the places showing significant negative trends; 3) Extreme precipitation events show an increasing tendency in most places, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river catchment.     

Dispersive Fluxes Within and Over a Real Urban Canopy: A Large-Eddy Simulation Study

Boundary-Layer Meteorology - Large-eddy simulations (LES) are conducted to study the transport of momentum and passive scalar within and over a real urban canopy in the City of Boston, USA. This...     

Globalising Swedish countrysides? A relational approach to rural immigrant restaurateurs with refugee backgrounds

The main purpose of the article is to connect rural immigrants’ business ventures and development in Sweden to relational perspectives on their proximate and distant family and co-ethnic networks at structural and individual levels. Accordingly, the authors employ a relational approach and draw on in-depth interviews. In the context of urban–rural relationships’ meanings for the restaurateurs’ business benefits and constraints, they address two questions: (1) What does embeddedness in proximate and distant family and co-ethnic networks mean for the interviewed restaurateurs and for their businesses? and (2) How do previous and anticipated transitions in the restaurateurs’ families influence their business decisions and migration trajectories? The results suggest that the interviewees employed transnational dimensions in their social embeddedness and that they maintained material and emotional relationships with their countries of origin. This relational approach thus contributes to a better understanding of what the studied businesses mean for the entrepreneurs and the selected localities. The restaurateurs contribute to a globalisation of Swedish countrysides, but their socio-economic potential for countering rural depopulation in Sweden is not fully realised. Additionally, the study illuminates how individuals influence, and are influenced by, place-to-place mobilities on a daily basis and during their life course.     

Gypsum crusts and fly ash particles on carbonatic outcrops

Summary A study of the alterations caused by chemical weathering on carbonatic outcrops in the South of France (near Marseille) has revealed the presence of gypsum crusts. An analogy with carbonatic surfaces (marbles and limestones) located in urban areas (monuments and buildings) has therefore been evidenced. An analytical investigation of the morphology, typology and inner structure of the crusts found is presented in this paper.Furthermore, reference is also made to the identification of fly ash particles embedded in the altered layer: this occurrence enables a limitation of the crust-growth period to the present century. Some hypotheses as to the role played by these particles in the formation of the altered layer have also been advanced. In this regard, the study of particles emitted by coal combustion, one of the major sources of energy, as far as their environment impact is concerned, is of unquestionable importance.

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Gipskrusten und Flugascheteilchen auf Carbonat-Schichtköpfen

Zusammenfassung Die Untersuchung der durch chemische Verwitterung verursachten Änderungen an Carbonat-Schichtköpfen im Süden von Frankreich (bei Marseille) hat das Vorhandensein von Gipskrusten gezeigt. Eine Analogie zu carbonaten Oberflächen (Marmor und Kalkstein) in Stadtgebieten (Monumente und Gebäude) ist damit erwiesen. Eine analytische Erforschung der Morphologie, Typologie und inneren Struktur der gefundenen Krusten wird in dieser Arbeit vorgelegt.Ferner wird auch Bezug genommen auf die Identifizierung der in die geänderte Schicht eingelagerten Flugascheteilchen. Dieses Vorkommen ermöglichte eine Begrenzung der Periode des Krustenwachstums auf das gegenwärtige Jahrhundert. Einige Hypothesen über die Rolle, die von diesen Teilchen bei der Bildung der geänderten Schicht gespielt wird, werden auch vorgebracht. In dieser Hinsicht ist die Untersuchung der bei der Kohleverbrennung — das ist eine der größten Energiequellen — ermittelten Teilchen, insofern ihr Einfluß auf die Umgebung betrachtet wird, unzweifelhaft von Bedeutung.

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With 4 Figures     

Thermal expansion and dehydroxylation of phengite micas

Phengite samples (2M ₁ and 3T politypes) and a synthetic end-member muscovite specimen were studied by in situ high-temperature synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction. The measured volume thermal expansion of 2M ₁ phengite (<α _V> ≈ 36.6 × 10⁻⁶ K⁻¹) was systematically greater than <α _V> of the 3T polytype (≈33.3 × 10⁻⁶ K⁻¹). A positive linear correlation between the average thermal expansion on (001) plane and the mean tetrahedral rotation angle at ambient condition is proposed on the ground of new measurements and literature data. Dehydroxylation processes were observed in 2M ₁, starting at 1,000 K in 3T at 800 and 945 K in synthetic muscovite. Rietveld refinements allowed a determination of structural variations upon heating of phengite samples and their dehydroxylate phases. The phengite structure expands by regularizing the tetrahedral sheet and by reducing the bond length differences between the outer and inner coordination shell of the interlayer site. The dehydroxylate phase derived from 2M ₁ is characterized by fivefold polyhedra in the low temperature form as a consequence of two OH groups reacting to form H₂O + O (residual). The dehydroxylate exhibits an increase of the cation–cation distances along the M–Or–M bonds with respect to low-temperature phengite structures. For the 3T phase, we were unable to achieve completion of dehydroxylation. The refined structural model of the dehydroxylate phase shows two hydroxyl sites, but at a short distance from one another. This result suggests that the dehydroxylation reaction did not proceed to completion. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Modern analogues for Miocene to Pleistocene alkali basaltic phreatomagmatic fields in the Pannonian Basin: “soft-substrate” to “combined” aquifer controlled phreatomagmatism in intraplate volcanic fields Research Article

The Pannonian Basin (Central Europe) hosts numerous alkali basaltic volcanic fields in an area similar to 200 000 km². These volcanic fields were formed in an approximate time span of 8 million years producing smallvolume volcanoes typically considered to be monogenetic. Polycyclic monogenetic volcanic complexes are also common in each field however. The original morphology of volcanic landforms, especially phreatomagmatic volcanoes, is commonly modified. by erosion, commonly aided by tectonic uplift. The phreatomagmatic volcanoes eroded to the level of their sub-surface architecture expose crater to conduit filling as well as diatreme facies of pyroclastic rock assemblages. Uncertainties due to the strong erosion influenced by tectonic uplifts, fast and broad climatic changes, vegetation cover variations, and rapidly changing fluvio-lacustrine events in the past 8 million years in the Pannonian Basin have created a need to reconstruct and visualise the paleoenvironment into which the monogenetic volcanoes erupted. Here phreatomagmatic volcanic fields of the Miocene to Pleistocene western Hungarian alkali basaltic province have been selected and compared with modern phreatomagmatic fields. It has been concluded that the Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF) in New Zealand could be viewed as a prime modern analogue for the western Hungarian phreatomagmatic fields by sharing similarities in their pyroclastic successions textures such as pyroclast morphology, type, juvenile particle ratio to accidental lithics. Beside the AVF two other, morphologically more modified volcanic fields (Pali Aike, Argentina and Jeju, Korea) show similar features to the western Hungarian examples, highlighting issues such as preservation potential of pyroclastic successions of phreatomagmatic volcanoes.     

Combined geological and gravimetric mapping and modelling for an improved understanding of observed high-resolution gravity variations: a case study for the Global Geodynamics Project (GGP) station Moxa, Germany

Geodynamic observatories around the globe continuously monitor signals like gravity, tilt and strain as a function of time. However, global signals are often masked by local effects, caused by the direct surroundings of the station, including the local geological setting. This link is well established for superconducting gravimeters (SG) that observe the gravity field variations at very high resolution. An enhancement of the SG time series by the application of local correction is exemplarily shown here in a very practicable procedure for the Geodynamic Observatory Moxa, Germany. We show how the combination of geological and gravimetrical mapping and modelling around Moxa results in a significant correction of the original gravity data, as can be proven by comparison with the satellite-derived gravity field. Detailed geological mapping of the observatory surroundings, including measurements of fold axes, foliations and joints, was the basis of the present study. The fold structure in the area of interest was interpreted by geometrical 3D modelling. The complete representation of different rock types in space also provides a better understanding of the local hydro-geological situation. Using a combination of the 3D geological model with the high-resolution Bouguer map of the observatory surroundings, we developed a 3D density model. This model enables the correction of small gravity effects caused by mass variations close to the SG, in particular local hydro-geological mass changes. Thus, the procedure presented here, based on a close connection of geology and gravimetry, is a powerful tool for the reduction of local gravity effects on SG recordings. It should be applicable to SG stations worldwide, where similar hydrologically driven mass changes can be assumed.