Signs of potential renewal of eruptive activity at La Fossa (Vulcano,Aeolian Islands)

Since the end of the last magmatic eruption (1890), activity of La Fossa (southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) has consisted of fumarolic emissions of fluctuating intensity. Fluids are discharged principally at two fumarolic fields located in the northern rim of the active crater and at the beach sited at its northern foot. Increased thermal, seismic and geochemical activity has been recorded since 1978, when an earthquake of M=5.5 occurred in the region. This paper combines available geophysical and geochemical information in order to develop a tentative interpretation of two episodes of apparent unrest which occurred in 1985 and 1987–1988, enhancing the risk of renewal of the eruptive activity. The 1985 unrest consisted essentially of a sharp build up of the internal pressure in the shallow hydrothermal system, which was induced by the injection of hot gases of magmatic origin. The crater fumaroles displayed significant increases in CO₂ and other acid species, but their outlet temperature did not change. Conversely, the 1987–1988 episode was characterized by appreciable modifications at the crater fumaroles, with only secondary effects at the fumarole system of the beach. The sliding of part of the eastern flank of the La Fossa cone into the sea occurred on 20 April 1988, when the region was affected by crustal dilatation producing a seismic sequence of relatively high intensity. Both episodes of unrest were accompanied by increases of local microseismic activity, which affected the nothern sector of the island in 1985, and the southern one in 1988. Finally, a phase of appreciable areal contraction was detected in 1990, probably due to the effect of the cooling and crystallization of magma at relatively shallow depths, accompanying the increased thermal activity at the crater fumaroles. Regional tectonic stress seems to play an important role in the transition of the volcanic system from a phase of relative stability to a phase of apparent unrest, inducing the heating and the expansion of shallow hydrothermal fluids. Available information is insufficient to indicate whether or not the volcano is building towards the renewal of a magmatic eruption, and there is no evidence to hypothesize episodes of significant magma migration. The frequency of measurements of many parameters needs to be increased in order to learn more about the temporal relationships between geochemical and geophysical variations preceding and accompanying periods of increased thermal activity. This will probably be a valid tool for recognizing short-term precursors of a future eruption, reducing the risk of false alarms.     

雅鲁藏布江河谷风沙地貌分类与发育问题

雅鲁藏布江河谷风沙地分类体系则４级２１个类型组成，其中风积地貌划分为谷底与谷坡风积地貌２个亚类。河谷风沙地貌面积１９２９．９４６ｋｍ＾２，可称为“雅鲁藏布江河谷沙地”。河谷区具有沙源，风动力和堆积场地等风沙地貌形成的基本条件。     

Variability in terrigenous sedimentation processes off northwest Africa and its relation to climate changes: Inferences from grain-size distributions of a Holocene marine sediment record

Variations in deposition of terrigenous fine sediments and their grain-size distributions from a high-resolution marine sediment record offshore northwest Africa (30°51.0′N; 10°16.1′W) document climate changes on the African continent during the Holocene. End-member grain-size distributions of the terrigenous silt fraction, which are related to fluvial and aeolian dust transport, indicate millennial-scale variability in the dominant transport processes at the investigation site off northwest Africa as well as recurring periods of dry conditions in northwest Africa during the Holocene. The terrigenous record from the subtropical North Atlantic reflects generally humid conditions before the Younger Dryas, during the early to mid-Holocene, as well as after 1.3 kyr BP. By contrast, continental runoff was reduced and arid conditions were prevalent at the beginning of the Younger Dryas and during the mid- and late Holocene. A comparison with high- and low-latitude Holocene climate records reveals a strong link between northwest African climate and Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation throughout the Holocene. Due to its proximal position, close to an ephemeral river system draining the Atlas Mountains as well as the adjacent Saharan desert, this detailed marine sediment record, which has a temporal resolution between 15 and 120 years, is ideally suited to enhance our understanding of ocean-continent-atmosphere interactions in African climates and the hydrological cycle of northern Africa after the last deglaciation.     

Imaging and modelling the subsurface structure of volcanic calderas with high-resolution aeromagnetic data at Vulcano (Aeolian Islands,Italy)

In this paper, we present a magnetic model of the subsurface structure of Vulcano island based on high-resolution aeromagnetic data. Three profiles across the most intense magnetic anomalies over the Piano and Fossa calderas were selected for the magnetic modelling, which was constrained by structural and volcanological data, previous geophysical models, paleomagnetic data, and borehole stratigraphy obtained from two deep wells. The interpretation of the magnetic sources represents a significant contribution to the understanding of the Piano and Fossa calderas’ underlying structure, providing us with evidence of the lateral discontinuity between them at depth. We propose that the positive magnetic anomalies in the Piano caldera area are caused by: (a) the remnants of an early submarine volcano; (b) an outcropping dyke swarm related to the feeding system of the Primordial Vulcano phase (beneath Mt. Saraceno); and (c) the presence of a non-outcropping dyke system intruded along a NE–SW-oriented intra-caldera fault (beneath the eastern part of the Piano caldera). Offshore, to the west, the magnetic anomaly map suggests the presence of a submarine volcanic structure, not revealed by bathymetric data, which could represent the eruptive centre, the presence of which has been indirectly deduced from the outcrop of eastern-dipping lavas on the western seashore. Magnetic modelling of the Fossa caldera points to the presence of a highly magnetized cone-like body inside the Fossa cone, centred beneath the oldest crater rims. We interpret this body as a pile of tephritic lavas emplaced in an early phase of activity of the Fossa cone, suggesting that the volume of mafic lavas that erupted at the beginning of the construction of the Fossa edifice was more significant than has previously been deduced. Furthermore, the presence of a magnetized body inside the Fossa cone implies that high temperatures are contained in very limited spaces, do not affect its bulk inner structure, and are restricted to fumarolic conduits and vents. In addition, structures beneath the western and northern part of the Fossa caldera are revealed to have null or low magnetization, which can be ascribed to the presence of pyroclasts and hyaloclastites in this area as well as to a large volume of hydrothermally altered materials. This suggests that the hydrothermal system, with a very limited extension at present, affected a larger area in the past, especially beneath the western part of the caldera.     

Sedimentological study of the Chernobyl NPP site to schematise radionuclide migration conditions

The approach, methods and results of a sedimentological study of a near-surface stratum of Late Pleistocene-Holocene deposits in the near-zone (5–10 km radius) of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant are presented. Sedimentological analyses are carried out at three levels of detail: regional-, local- and object-scale. The unsaturated zone and unconfined aquifer at the site are composed of two main genetic types of deposits, aeolian and alluvial, including several dynamic facies. Consideration of lithological properties leads to following ranking of the main genetic sediments facies with respect to radionuclide migration retardation potential: aeolian <alluvial channel <alluvial overbank <alluvial abandoned channel. Based on sedimentological interpretations, the geological environment is schematised into a set of typical geological sections possessing different radionuclide retardation potential.     

Elongation and migration of sand dunes

Two distinct processes are known to act on dynamic dunes, the process of migration by erosion on the windward side and deposition on the lee side, typical for transverse dunes, and the process of elongation typical for linear dunes. These two processes are determined by wind direction relative to the dune alignment. This article reviews the assertion that linear dunes experience lateral displacement in addition to elongation. Fieldwork on vegetated linear dunes (VLDs) and GIS work on seif dunes indicates no lateral migration for these dunes. Linear dunes can shift laterally only when a slip face, formed on the lee side, reaches the plinth of the dune. The winds from both sides of the seif dune are never symmetric; usually winds from one direction are more dominant and effective. The outcome is the formation of peaks and saddles along the dune. The strongest winds create a slip face on the lee side of the peak segments of the dune, oblique to the dune alignment, which reaches the base of the dune and displaces the peak downwind along the dune alignment. The internal structure of the seif dune is formed mostly by this dominant wind direction and gives the impression that the dune has shifted laterally. On the other hand, there are cases in which the wind directions relative to dune alignment fall between those of transverse and seif dunes. In such cases, both processes act on the dune, which subsequently experiences migration as well as elongation.     

Optical dating of aeolian dynamism on the West African Sahelian margin

The Sahelian Margin of West Africa is widely recognised as an area of recent environmental catastrophe and human suffering arising from food shortage and land degradation associated with prolonged drought. The propensity of this region to suffer drought has been related, using environmental data collected during the period of instrumental records, to a combination of low mean annual rainfall levels and a high degree of rainfall variability which relates to sea surface temperature anomalies in the adjacent tropical Atlantic Ocean. Despite the significant environmental and human consequences of such droughts, there is a paucity of long-term environmental data for the West African Sahel. Aeolian dune reactivations in this area are a potentially highly useful environmental archive of past periods of extended drought conditions, which may have resulted in localised or widespread dune reactivation. Here we describe the initial results from an ongoing programme of research, which seeks to develop a detailed record of past dune reactivations in Mali. We find evidence for repeated Holocene dune reactivation events and a significant number of reactivations, which commenced at the time of onset of the last major drought cycle in the early 1970s. We obtain ages as young as 20–30 years for some significant dune units (thickness up to 1 m) and describe the results of experiments which test the performance of our dating exercise. We specifically test for the significance of preheat temperature on single aliquot regeneration (SAR) equivalent dose determinations and recycling ratios; neither are found vary significantly as a function of preheating. Optical dating of sand sized quartz could provide a useful tool for palaeogeographical mapping of ancient and historical dune reactivations in this region and elsewhere.     

Mineralogical maturity in dunefields of North America, Africa and Australia

Studies of dunefields in central and western North America show that mineralogical maturity can provide new insights into the origin and evolution of aeolian sand bodies. Many of the world's great sand seas in Africa, Asia and Australia are quartz-dominated and thus can be considered to be mineralogically mature. The Algodones (California) and Parker (Arizona) dunes in the southwestern United States are also mature, but have inherited a high degree of mineralogical maturity from quartz-rich sedimentary rocks drained by the Colorado River. In Libya, sediments of the Zallaf sand sea, which are almost pure quartz, may have originated in a similar fashion. The Fort Morgan (Colorado) and Casper (Wyoming) dunefields in the central Great Plains of North America, and the Namib sand sea of southern Africa have an intermediate degree of mineralogical maturity because their sources are large rivers that drained both unweathered plutonic and metamorphic rocks and mature sedimentary rocks. Mojave Desert dunefields in the southwestern United States are quite immature because they are in basins adjacent to plutonic rocks that were their sources. Other dunefields in the Great Plains of North America (those in Nebraska and Texas) are more mature than any possible source sediments and therefore reflect mineralogical evolution over time. Such changes in composition can occur because of either of two opposing long-term states of the dunefield. In one state, dunes are stable for long periods of time and chemical weathering depletes feldspars and other weatherable minerals in the sediment body. In the other state, which is most likely for the Great Plains, abrasion and ballistic impacts deplete the carbonate minerals and feldspars because the dunes are active for longer periods than they are stable.     

Aeolian influences on the soils and landforms of the southern Yilgarn Craton of semi-arid, southwestern Australia

Within a landscape developed on the deeply weathered, dominantly granitic rocks of the Yilgarn Craton in southwestern Australia, there is strong evidence of prior aeolian activity. Multiple arrays of clayey saltation deposits occur as clay dunes or lunettes extending up to 5 km to the southeast of playas, and quartzose sand dunes and sheets occur in a 2-km wide band that extends 10 km southeast of an ephemeral creek line. Parabolic dunes occur within some clayey lunettes. The parallel orientation of these diverse features and the elliptical shape of the playas suggest that the winds that have created these geomorphic entities have been from the northwest. Multiple lunette arrays with up to seven members have not been previously reported in this region.There is evidence for a more widespread, but more subtle, aeolian influence on the soils. Dust deposits appear to mantle parts of the landscape and are inferred to be coeval with the clayey saltation deposits. Although these do not occur as a discrete layer, evidence includes a plume of calcareous and illitic soils southeast of the major playa, in a landscape otherwise characterised by acidic, kaolinitic soils. Similarly, the occurrence of deep sandy soils on many slopes with a southeasterly aspect may indicate the interference of topography on the transport of saltating sands during an arid climatic phase. The presence of such aeolian deposits has implications for agricultural management, mineral exploration and the interpretation of ecological gradients in similar undisturbed landscapes.Current desertification, in the form of salinization and wind erosion, has precedence in this landscape. The aeolian deposits provide a means of interpreting landscape-scale responses to previous climate change and a key to predicting possible outcomes of both desertification and future climate change. Assuming that Bowler's theory that clay dunes require an adjacent salinized playa bed to form is correct, the arrays of clayey lunettes together with vegetated former playas indicate that the landscape has undergone multiple cycles of salinization and recovery. The lunettes may thus provide a means of predicting landscape hydrological responses to the widespread removal of natural vegetation for farming. Dating of the various sequences is required to provide a time scale for these landscape processes.     

Collisions of quartz grains with a sand bed: The influence of incident angle

The velocities with which grains were observed to emerge from a sand bed after an intersaltation collision at u_* = 40 cm s^?1 are reported for four bed attitudes, from horizontal bed to adverse bed slope 15°. The principal effect of bed angle is to alter the magnitude and direction of the ricochet velocity. However, emergent velocities of dislodged grains are consistent with reptation path lengths comparable to the length of the upwind face of ripples in the corresponding wind. Calculations of the loss of forward momentum at collision, using the data for the range of bed attitudes studied suggest that creep is most vigorous on the sloping upwind face of the ripple and diminishes at the crest. As a result, the crest would be expected to accumulate the coarse material which moves predominantly by creep. The saltations originating in ricochet from the sloping back of the ripple are more vigorous and more concentrated in plan than are those originating at the crest. However, the saltation path length is at least an order of magnitude greater than the ripple wavelength and the probability distribution of path lengths is quite dispersed. Consequently it is very unlikely that these spatial patterns of ricochet are preserved sufficiently distinctly in the saltation cloud and subsequent collision distribution to be the agent of ripple development. This study therefore supports a view of moving grain interaction with the bed in which saltation provides the power to mobilize grains but ripple growth is associated with reptation and particularly with a pattern of impact which develops with the bed relief. Creep is more active on upwind facing slopes than at the crest, which therefore is a zone of net creep grain deposition.