Re-appraisal of seismicity and seismotectonics in the north-eastern Algeria Part I: Review of historical seismicity

As large destructive seismic events are not frequent in Algeria, anexhaustive knowledge of the historical seismicity is required to have arealistic view of seismic hazard in this part of the world. This research workpresents a critical reappraisal of seismicity in the north-eastern Algeria forseismotectonic and seismic hazard purposes. This part of work focuses onthe seismicity of pre-1900 period for the area under consideration[33^°N-38^°N, 4^°E-9.5^°E]. By going back tothe available documentary sources and evaluating and analysing the eventsin geographical, cultural and historical context, it has been possible toidentify 111 events, from 1850–1899, which are not reported in therecent Algerian catalogue. Several spurious events, reported in standardlistings, have been deleted and nine unknown events have been discovered.It is quite clear that macroseismic information derived from press reportsand published documents in Algeria, under certain conditions, is veryincomplete, even for destructive earthquakes, located in the countrysideaway from communication centres. One of the reasons for this iscensorship, noticeable during the colonisation period. Critical analysis ofnewly collected information has allowed the determination and/or theimprovement of the macroseismic parameters of each event, such aslocation, maximum epicentral intensity and magnitude to produce anearthquake catalogue as homogeneous and complete as the available data,for the zone under study. The criteria used in this research are explainedand eight historical earthquakes have been the subject of retrospectivemacroseismic field construction.The investigation of historical earthquakes is one of the most important taskin studying seismotectonic for seismic hazard evaluation purposes.     

European conquest, Indian subjection and the conflicts of colonization: Brazil in the early modern era

This paper discusses the questions that emerged from the contact established by Europeans and Indians during the early modern era in what is today Brazil. It aims at demonstrating that dual structuralist models, which overemphasize material arguments of economic expansion and place conquerors and conquered in opposite ends, fail to grasp the rich cultural history embedded in the encounters that took place in that period. Colonization was a multifarious process that involved dealing with incompatible world views and often resulted in a complex history of temporary alliances, of conflict and strife, of negotiation and dialogue. The conquest and appropriation of the Brazilian territory, and the questions that they provoked, did not always put Europeans and Indians one against the other: not rarely, colonization demanded that the Europeans allied themselves to the natives against other Europeans, and that the natives allied themselves to Europeans against other natives. Even the control of the colony by the mother country should not be understood as a top-down movement, for metropolitan policies did not always have the expected answer from the colony or had differentiated social and spatial impacts there. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Construction of a historical Water Pollution Index for the Mersey Basin

The Mersey Basin has been significantly polluted for over 200 years. However, there is a lack of quantitative historical water quality data as effective water quality monitoring and data recording only began 30–40 years ago. This paper assesses water pollution in the Mersey Basin using a Water Pollution Index constructed from social and economic data. Methodology, output and the difficulties involved with validation are discussed. With the limited data input available the index approximately reproduces historical water quality. The paper illustrates how historical studies of environmental water quality may provide valuable identification of factors responsible for pollution and a marker set for contemporary and future water quality issues in the context of the past. This is an issue of growing research interest.     

The historical geography of prostitution in Perth,Western Australia

This paper charts major changes in the locational distribution of female prostitution in the Perth metropolitan area during the twentieth century, and aims to explain why these changes took place. The study confirmed that there is a positive relationship between changes to law enforcement policy and changes to the spatial distribution of the sex industry. Factors that affect law enforcement policy (and thus the location of prostitution) include the social stigma associated with prostitution, economic forces that compete for urban space and political pressures to contain and occasionally relocate the trade. At the same time, and despite a number of major spatial redistributions caused by changes to law enforcement policy in Perth, the central city area has remained the sex industry's geographical focus throughout the twentieth century. This strong preference to be centrally located is related to the sex industry's primary locational imperatives, being access to major client catchments and availability of appropriate operational premises. The paper argues that a complex set of endogenous and exogenous factors contribute to the locational behaviour of prostitution, and that these forces and their associated dynamics need to be understood in order to successfully integrate the sex industry into an equitable and orderly town planning process.     

Telegraph Messenger Boys: Crossing the Borders between History of Technology and Human Geography*

Historians of telegraphy have traditionally focused on the system‐builders who invented wire communications technologies and incorporated them into profit‐making enterprises. Geographers of communications have traditionally traced the changes that the telegraph network wrought on the rank‐size of cities and the speed of business. Both have ignored the history of the telegraph messenger boys and the “lived geography” of the telegraph network. This article summarizes a study of telegraph messengers as both active components of technological systems and laboring agents within produced urban spaces, bringing together the fields of both history of technology and human geography.     

历史时期莱州湾沿海平原湖沼的变迁*

莱州湾沿海平原地区,古代曾有许多湖沼,其中以巨淀湖最大。根据历史文献和考古资料,查明了随着历史的发展,巨淀湖发生空间转移,并查明大部分湖沼最后逐渐消失的过程,阐述了这些湖沼空间分布特点以及导致变迁的因素,探讨它们消失的环境后果,并尝试提出吸取历史教训改善环境的建议。     

Seismic analysis of the Asinelli Tower and earthquakes in Bologna

The existence of a valuable historical heritage of the Medieval age in Bologna has motivated a deeper study on the seismic behaviour of the Asinelli Tower, which, beyond being the town symbol, has a structural configuration prone to seismic damage. Accordingly, in the present paper, the seismicity of Bologna is reviewed and a synthesis of the damage observed in the urban area, based on an accurate historical research, is given, with the objective of evaluating the behavior of the Asinelli Tower within the framework of the effects localized in the municipality. An assessment of the tower's stability with respect to compatible seismic events, at least qualitatively, with the region seismicity is then carried out by means of a non-linear dynamic analysis on a simplified model.