Rock mapping of glaciated areas by satellite image processing

A model is presented that performs spectral deicing of mixed pixels in satellite images of glaciated areas. The model was tested in Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica. For this region we assumed that pixels could be grouped in two broad categories representing pure ice and pure rock. Naturally mixed ice and rock pixels are present in satellite images; these were recomputed to separate the spectral component related to the rock fraction. We used Landsat TM images as input data and aerial photographs, maps and field surveys as reference data. By making use of sample populations of pixels corresponding to pure ice and to pure rock groundels (i.e. ground elements, the ground portions corresponding to each pixel), we detected the linear correlation between pairs of bands and selected the two most suitable bands. For every pixel falling between the correlation lines of the two categories, the rock fraction in the corresponding groundel was computed. This fractional value was then used to perform the automatic deicing process with which the DNs of the selected mixed pixels were recomputed. In the utilised Antarctic image, this process increases about 2.7 times the number of pixels in the pure rock category, allowing the production of enhanced images and, as a side product, a thematic map of rock percentage in the groundels.     

Sedimentology, petrography and geochemistry of a limestone breccia (Pietra di Billiemi) from north-west Sicily, Italy: implications for evolution of the Tethyan basins around the Triassic/Jurassic boundary

In this study, the Pietra di Billiemi , a famous dimension stone, is investigated because it records the tectonic evolution of the south Tethys continental margin and preserves a record of major environmental changes occurring near the Triassic/Jurassic boundary. The Pietra di Billiemi is a grey, coarse-grained and clast-supported limestone breccia cropping out in an area of the Palermo Mountains representing a segment of the Apennine–Maghrebian chain in western Sicily. The rock consists of metre-sized to centimetre-sized angular clasts, derived from Upper Triassic sponge boundstones and rudstones, with a differently coloured, silt-grained matrix. Fitted fragments are observed commonly which suggest an in situ origin for the bulk of the breccia. The matrix is characterized by the absence of biogenic components and by variable mineralogy and geochemistry. Petrographic features and Sr-isotope values indicate that the most important and earliest fillings of the breccia consist of black matrix and white matrix temporally referable to Hettangian–Sinemurian times. Clotted micrite, carbonate fluorapatite and abundant pyrite, in addition to relatively high contents of redox-sensitive elements (V, Ni, Zn and S), are consistent with deposition in anoxic conditions that favoured microbial mediation for authigenic carbonate (calcite and dolomite) precipitation in the matrix. As a whole, the Billiemi breccia can be considered a product of tectonic fragmentation of a Tethyan carbonate platform edge around the Triassic/Jurassic boundary, formed when the drowned platform edge was covered by hemipelagic mudstones recording the anoxic conditions existing during Early Jurassic times.     

Controls and predictability of carbonate facies architecture in a Lower Jurassic three-dimensional barrier-shoal complex (Djebel Bou Dahar, High Atlas, Morocco)

Spatial information on lithofacies from outcrops is paramount for understanding the internal dynamics, external controls and degree of predictability of the facies architecture of shallow‐water carbonate‐platform tops. To quantify the spatial distribution and vertical stacking of lithofacies within an outer‐platform shoal‐barrier complex, integrated facies analysis and digital field technologies have been applied to a high‐relief carbonate platform exposed in the Djebel Bou Dahar (Lower Jurassic, High Atlas, Morocco). The outer platform is characterized by subtidal, cross‐bedded, coarse grainstone to rudstone grading into supratidal, pisoidal packstone‐rudstone with tepees that together formed a 350 to 420 m wide shoal‐barrier belt parallel to the margin. This belt acted as a topographic high separating a restricted lagoon from the subtidal, open marine region. Low‐energy tidal flats developed on the protected flank of the barrier facing the lagoon. Lithofacies patterns were captured quantitatively from outcrop and integrated into a digital outcrop model. The outcrop model enabled rapid visualization of field data and efficient extraction of quantitative data such as widths of facies belts. In addition, the spatial heterogeneity was captured in multiple time slices, i.e. during different phases of cyclic base‐level fluctuations. In general, the lateral continuity of lithofacies is highest when relative water depth increased during flooding of the platform top, establishing low‐energy subtidal conditions across the whole platform, and when the accommodation space was filled with tidal flat facies. Heterogeneity increased during deposition of the relief‐building bar facies that promoted spatial diversification of depositional environments during the initial phases of accommodation space creation. Cycles commonly are composed of a thin transgressive tidal flat unit, followed by coated‐grain rudstone bar facies. Lateral to the bar facies, pisoidal‐grainstone beach deposits accumulated. These bar and beach deposits were overlain by subtidal lagoonal facies or would grow through the maximum flooding and highstand. There the bars either graded into supratidal pisoidal facies with tepees (when accommodation space was filled) or were capped by subaerial exposure (due to a sea‐level fall). Modified embedded Markov analysis was used to test the presence of common ordering in vertical lithofacies stacking in a stationary interval (constant depositional mode). Analysis of individual sections did not reveal any ordering, which may be related to the limited thickness of these sections. Composite sections, however, rejected the null hypothesis of randomness. The addition of stratigraphically significant information to the Markov analysis, such as exposure surfaces and lateral dimensions of facies bodies, strengthens the verdict of unambiguous preferential ordering. Through careful quantitative reconstruction of stratal geometry and facies relationships in fully integrated digital outcrop models, accurate depositional models could be established that enhanced the predictability of carbonate sediment accumulation.     

SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF GULLIES IN AN AGROPASTORAL AREA IN SARDINIA, ITALY

1 INTRODUCTION Many studies on soil erosion by water have been carried out in the Mediterranean area, since erosion is considered as one of the most important land degradation processes in these environments (UNEP, 1994). Those studies mainly focused on r…     

ALEXANDER THE GREAT'S MOUNTAIN*

ABSTRACT. The metaphorical power of natural landscapes and geographical objects has attracted an increasing amount of critical interest. The myth of Dinocrates planning to carve Mount Athos into the figure of Alexander the Great epitomizes the complex relationship between the insistent materiality of prominent geographical features such as mountains and imagination. Through an iconographic reading of different renderings of the Dinocratic myth in western Europe, this article explores the way Mount Athos turned into a powerful emblem circulating across space and time. While considering the continuity of a Classical vision projected on rock, the article focuses on its constant reappropriations and transformations in different historical and geographical contexts. Dinocratic Athos becomes a metaphor of egotism, power, and desire but also a free‐floating referent, reflecting a shifting relationship between the microcosm of the human body and the natural macrocosm.