Seismotectonic scheme of Central and Eastern Europe

Summary The distribution of earthquake foci in the crust and the upper mantle indicates the position of mobile zones. Comparing epicentral maps of Central and Eastern Europe, known tectonic lines, results of deep seismic sounding and gravimetric survey enables a scheme of potential seismogenic zones, which correspond to active fault zones separating plates and blocks in the area, to be compiled. The level of earthquake activity varies along the investigated boundaries and can be considered as a measure of the intensity of the present geodynamic processes.Paper presented at the joint symposium AlO of the XVIIth General Assembly of the European Seismological Commission and of the 7th Annual Meeting of the European Geophysical Society, Budapest (Hungary), Aug. 21. – 29., 1980.     

Time pattern of large earthquake sequences in Europe in 1976–1979

Summary The time development of three large sequences, Friuli 1976, Thessaloniki 1978 and Monte Negro-Albania 1979, was investigated by analysing the characteristics of the time distribution of magnitudes of the events, M(t), of average magnitudes, (t), and of the number of events, n(t), as well as the strain release curves and the magnitude-frequency relations, N(M). The existence of time gaps and of an anomalous decay of the numbers of shocks before major events, as well as the oscillation of ( const b^–1) may be considered as precursory phenomena. The clustering of events has been tested by the Poisson and negative binomial laws.Communication presented at the XVIIth General Assembly of the European Seismological Commission in Budapest, 21–29 August, 1980 under the title Properties of Seismic Regime and Recent Earthquake Sequences in Europe.     

The solubility mechanisms of volatiles in silicate melts and their relations to crystal-andesite liquid equilibria

The anionic structure of magmatic liquids has been estimated at 1 atm and at pressures corresponding to those of the upper mantle. These estimates are based predominantly on spectroscopic data on binary metal oxide-silica and ternary metal oxide-silica-alumina melts. Structural information on melt compositions in aluminate-silica joins has been used to provide detailed information on the role of Al³⁺ in natural magma at atmospheric and high pressure.Regardless of pressure, andesitic melts may be described as combinations of chain, sheet, and three-dimensional network units. Nearly all Al³⁺ in the magmatic liquid resides in the three-dimensional network units. This Al³⁺ is locally charge-balanced with Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺. In the latter two cases, Al³⁺ and Si⁴⁺ are ordered, whereas for Na⁺ and K⁺, Si⁴⁺ and Al³⁺ are randomly mixed. Solution of water in natural magma results in the formation of new nonbridging oxygens in addition to OH groups attached to Si⁴⁺ and metal cations.On the basis of determined solution mechanisms of CO₂ and H₂O in silicate melts, thermodynamic properties of HO+CO₂, fluids and hydrous silicate melts and melting phase relations in peridotite-H₂O-CO₂, systems, it is found that natural andesitic magma in equilibrium with spinel Iherzolite in the upper mantle (10–20 kbar) must contain at least 5–7 wt.% H₂O. Andesitic magma with 5–7 wt.% H₂O in solution may be described as a mixture of Al-free three-dimensional units, sheets, and chains with a small proportion (less than 10%) of monomers.     

The Alta case: Learning from the errors made in a human ecological conflict in Norway

This paper explores the historical, geographical and human ecology aspects of an extreme conflict between development and conservation in northern Scandinavia. Development of hydro-power projects not only affects the physical environment but also conflicts with the culture of a distinct ethnic community, the Sami Lapps. Over one hundred power and mining projects have now been constructed in Sami territory, the cumulative effects of which have focused opposition to the Alta—Kautokeino Waterway. The long- and short-term origins of the conflict are analysed in the light of Sami ecology and Norwegian administrative principles. How the Sami ecology has affected the national frontiers and recent resource management issues are described. Finally, the importance of environmental protests and public hearings in the resolution of fundamental resource/land use conflicts is discussed. The author concludes that the basic aspects of land use conflict may be analysed by using a symbiotic ecology model and applying this to technical human activities.     

Downscaling a twentieth century global climate simulation to the North Sea

The regional ocean model system (ROMS) is used to downscale a 26-year period of the twentieth century 20C3M experiment from the global coupled Bergen climate model (BCM) for the North Sea. Compared to an observational-based climatology, BCM have good results on the mean temperature, except for too low winter temperature. This is connected to a too weak inflow of Atlantic water. The downscaling gives added value to the BCM results by providing regional details, doubling the Atlantic inflow, and improving the mean winter temperature. For mean salinity, BCM has values very close to the climatology, whereas the downscaling becomes too fresh. The downscaling, however, improves the sea surface salinity, the vertical structure, and the Norwegian Coastal Current. It is concluded that the downscaling procedure as presented here is a suitable tool for assessing the future Atlantic inflow and sea temperature in the North Sea based on a global climate projection.     

Diel changes in the feeding behaviour of Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Ellidavatn, a small lake in southwest Iceland

In the lake Ellidavatn, southwest Iceland, the diel activity of Arctic char and brown trout was studied in autumn (September) and spring (April) by removing the fish from gillnets every 3 hours for three days. Additional fish samples, evening and morning, were taken at other times of the year. The catch per unit effort was about 10 times higher during the nighttime than daytime for both char and trout. The median weight of char was lowest near the middle of night (80 g) and highest near the middle of day (140 g). The median weight of trout was also lowest near the middle of night (110 g) and highest near the middle of day (330 g). The main diet of char consisted of the cladoceran Eurycercus lamellatus in September and chironomid larvae in April and the main diet of trout was always sticklebacks. In autumn and spring, the feeding was nocturnal in the char but crepuscular in the trout. The median stomach content of char was highest at dawn (0.52% of body weight) and lowest at dusk (0.14% of body weight). It is proposed that nocturnal char shift through the bottom substrate in search for prey. The median stomach content of trout was highest at 09.00–18.00 and 24.00–03.00 hours (0.13–0.18% of body weight) and lowest at 03.00–06.00 and 18.00–21.00 hours (0.02–0.07% of body weight). Different feeding times may help to secure mutual coexistence of char and trout in a small lake. In autumn and spring, the average daily consumption of char was about 0.8% of body weight, less than half their maximum food intake.     

Hydrogeologic studies for nuclear-waste disposal in Sweden

Safety Report 1997 (SR 97) of the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company is a comprehensive performance assessment of three hypothetical radioactive waste repositories in Sweden. It includes hydrogeologic studies (data compilation, parameter synthesis, and groundwater flow modeling) to determine groundwater flow and the associated uncertainties for the three sites. This report reviews and compares the hydrogeologic characterization programs, the site characteristics, and the groundwater flow models used in the SR 97 performance assessment. Although differences in site-characterization programs tend to mask differences in site characteristics, the sites do have notable differences that affect the results of the performance assessment. The effects of model uncertainties evaluated by the variant cases appear to be smaller than the variability of results for the base case (best estimate of site conditions) of each site. Electronic Publication     

Atmospheric concentrations of nonmethane hydrocarbons at a North European coastal site

Two years of individual nonmethane hydrocarbon (NMHC) measurements at a rural site close to the south coast of Norway show that there was a distinct annual cycle with a late winter maximum and late summer minimum in the slowly reacting NMHCs acetylene, ethane, propane and i- and n-butane. The average January—March concentrations were a factor 2–4 higher than the July-September concentrations. Also ethene, propene and the pentanes show a similar annual cycle, but the individual scatter in the measurements in particular of propene, is large. The highest concentrations of NMHC were found in winter for easterly transport on a regional scale (out to 1500 km from the site), and for southeasterly transport in the summer.