Experimental solidification of anhydrous latitic and trachytic melts at different cooling rates: The role of nucleation kinetics

Two sets of cooling experiments were run at atmospheric conditions for two anhydrous starting latitic and trachytic melts: 1) five cooling rates (25, 12.5, 3, 0.5, and 0.125 °C/min) between 1300° and 800 °C, and 2) a 0.5 °C/min cooling rate from 1300 °C with quench temperatures at 1200°, 1100°, 1000° and 900 °C. Trachytic run-products are invariably glassy. Nucleation is also suppressed in the latitic run-products at the three highest cooling rates. Conversely, in the 0.5 and 0.125 °C/min runs, latites have a crystal content of  90 vol.%. The phases are: plagioclase, clinopyroxene, glass and iron-bearing oxide (in order of abundance). The variable quench temperatures, investigated by coupling experiments with Pt wire and Pt capsule sample containers in set 2, again did not produce crystallization of trachyte, whereas latitic samples are characterized by  10 vol.% of oxides, pyroxenes and plagioclase (in order of appearance), at temperature < 1000 °C. Effects of (preferential) heterogeneous nucleation on sample holders, of superheating degree, and chemical species loss during cooling are absent for both melt compositions. The difference of solidification paths between these two silicate melts can be ascribed only to their small chemical differences. In comparison with calculated equilibrium conditions all the experimental latitic and trachytic run-products revealed strong kinetic effects, interpretable in the light of the nucleation theory. The glass-forming ability (GFA) of trachyte is higher, whereas their critical cooling rate (Rc) is lower (< 0.125 °C/min), in comparison to latitic melts (Rc > 0.5 °C/min). The experimental results carried out in this study can be applied to lava flows and domes; trachytic lavas are able to flow for longer period with respect to latitic ones in a metastable condition. Glass-rich terrestrial lavas, i.e. obsidians, can be the result of sluggish nucleation kinetics due to the relative high polymerisation of evolved silicate melts.     

The Estimation of Secondary Production of the Marine Bivalve Spisula subtruncata (DA COSTA) in the Area of the Po River Delta

Abstract. The secondary production of Spisula subtruncata (somatic production) is calculated in the framework of a benthic monitoring study in a coastal area. The temporal trends of density, biomass and growth increments are examined in the three year-classes present. These are compared to certain physical and chemical parameters.     

The Bayesian detection of discontinuities in a polynomial regression and its application to the cycle-slip problem

This paper deals with the problem of detecting and correcting cycle-slips in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) phase data by exploiting the Bayesian theory. The method is here applied to undifferenced observations, because repairing cycle-slips already at this stage could be a useful pre-processing tool, especially for a network of permanent GNSS stations. If a dual frequency receiver is available, the cycle-slips can be easily detected by combining two phase observations or phase and range observations from a single satellite to a single receiver. These combinations, expressed in a distance unit form, are completely free from the geometry and depend only on the ionospheric effect, on the electronic biases and on the initial integer ambiguities; since these terms are expected to be smooth in time, at least in a short period, a cycle-slip in one or both the two carriers can be modelled as a discontinuity in a polynomial regression. The proposed method consists in applying the Bayesian theory to compute the marginal posterior distribution of the discontinuity epoch and to detect it as a maximum a posteriori (MAP) in a very accurate way. Concerning the cycle-slip correction, a couple of simultaneous integer slips in the two carriers is chosen by maximazing the conditional posterior distribution of the discontinuity amplitude given the detected epoch. Numerical experiments on simulated and real data show that the discontinuities with an amplitude 2 or 3 times larger than the noise standard deviation are successfully identified. This means that the Bayesian approach is able to detect and correct cycle-slips using undifferenced GNSS observations even if the slip occurs by one cycle. A comparison with the scientific software BERNESE 5.0 confirms the good performance of the proposed method, especially when data sampled at high frequency (e.g. every 1 s or every 5 s) are available.     

Gravity changes and present-day dynamics of the island of Pantelleria (Sicily Channel—Italy)

The island of Pantelleria is an active volcano located in the Sicily Channel (southern Italy), occurring in the middle of a continental rift system.Since the 1980's the island has been periodically surveyed by means of geodetic and geophysical methods to monitor the regional and local volcanic dynamics. Also, high-precision gravity measurements were started in 1990.The present paper is an analysis of the time-space gravity changes. Gravity measurements were carried out on a network presently formed by twenty stations. The gravity network was fully surveyed in June 1990 and June 1995 and partially surveyed in September 1993. Two absolute gravity stations were established in 1993 to provide a reference system and to check for long-term variations.The areal distribution of the gravity changes during the 1990–1995 time interval, obtained in the thirteen stations of the 1990 network, is strongly similar to the Bouguer anomaly field and to the large-scale features of the basement of the island. Otherwise, gravity changes are directly correlated with the Bouguer anomaly and inversely correlated with the altimetric variations. Comparison with the geological setting suggests that the present activity may be ascribed to the influence of the geodynamics of the Sicily Channel.     

Tsunamis generated by landslides at the coast of conical islands: experimental benchmark dataset for mathematical model validation

This paper presents a new experimental campaign aimed at reproducing tsunamis generated by landslides at the flank of conical islands. In order to describe in high details the wave field around the island a special acquisition system, which consists of both fixed and movable wave gauges, has been employed. Indeed, each experiment has been repeated several times by changing the configuration of the movable gauges, then obtaining a single virtual experiment with high spatial resolution measurements. Fixed run-up gauges measure the waves at fixed locations to statistically quantify the repeatability of the experiments. Selected experimental results are illustrated within the paper that is mainly aimed at defining a benchmark dataset, available on request, for the development/calibration/validation of analytical and numerical models of tsunamis generated by landslides.     

Biosorption with autochthonous and allochthonous fungal biomasses for bioremediation and detoxification of landfill leachate

Landfill leachates are not adequately treated in traditional wastewater treatment plants, on account of their problematic peculiarities: i.e., dark colour, high concentration of recalcitrant pollutants and COD, and high toxicity. In this work, 19 biomasses (15 autochthonous and 4 allochthonous) were exploited in biosorption treatment for the remediation of a leachate (influent) and the effluent coming from the biological oxidation with activated sludge and nitrification–denitrification treatment. The effects of the initial pH, the biomass amount, and the medium for the biomass pre-culture were considered. The best configuration was: pH 5, 5 g L^??1 biomass cultivated on STY medium. Eventually, the two most effective biomasses, Cunninghamella bertholletiae MUT 2861 and Aspergillus fumigatus MUT 4050, were used in consecutive 2 h cycles in a batch biosorption experiment. The effectiveness of the treatment decreased in subsequent cycles in terms of decolourisation (31–15%). COD, Cl^?, SO₄^2?, total N, and toxicity were removed mainly in the second cycle of treatment (up to ??36, ??12, ??15, ??17 and ??49%, respectively). The results suggest that the effluent toxicity was basically due to uncoloured substances, which were mainly removed after coloured molecules.