Paleoenvironmental reconstruction in the western lacustrine plain of Llancanelo Lake,Mendoza, Argentina

Lakes are key sites for studying paleoclimates. Llancanelo Lake (southern Mendoza Province, western Argentina) is an endoreic, highly saline water body located in the southern extreme of a tectonic basin, the Central or Huarpes Depression. The lake is located between the Andean Cordillera, San Rafael Block and Payenia Volcanic Field. The lake evolved as a major regional depocenter during the Pliocene-Quaternary, hence it contains important thicknesses of intra and extra basinal clastic and evaporitic sediments mainly dominated by volcaniclastic products. The main conditioning factors in the lake evolution were arc and back-arc volcanism as well as climatic changes. Geomorphological and sedimentary evidence supports the hypothesis that the lake was in past times larger than in present days. This paper estimates the lake’s former extension on the western lacustrine plain using electromagnetic induction (EMI) and geoelectricity (Multielectrode Resistivity Meter) surveys, as well as shallow wells, along an 8 km long transect perpendicular to the lake’s western shoreline. The geophysical and sedimentological information, as well as microfaunal studies, lab analysis and petrographic/EDAX determinations, support the presence, in the subsoil, of a lacustrine sequence at least 30 m thick composed mainly of volcaniclastic sediments. Volcanic eruptions and climatic changes influenced the evolution of the lake, producing intercalations in the lacustrine sedimentary sequences of ash layers, evaporites, soils, and eolian and swamp deposits.     

The climatic characteristics of extreme precipitations for short-term intervals in the watershed of Lake Maggiore

Alpine and Mediterranean areas are undergoing a profound change in the typology and distribution of rainfall. In particular, there has been an increase in consecutive non-rainy days, and an escalation of extreme rainy events. The climatic characteristic of extreme precipitations over short-term intervals is an object of study in the watershed of Lake Maggiore, the second largest freshwater basin in Italy (located in the north-west of the country) and an important resource for tourism, fishing and commercial flower growing. The historical extreme rainfall series with high-resolution from 5 to 45 min and above: 1, 2, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h collected at different gauges located at representative sites in the watershed of Lake Maggiore, have been computed to perform regional frequency analysis of annual maxima precipitation based on the L-moments approach, and to produce growth curves for different return-period rainfall events. Because of different rainfall-generating mechanisms in the watershed of Lake Maggiore such as elevation, no single parent distribution could be found for the entire study area. This paper concerns an investigation designed to give a first view of the temporal change and evolution of annual maxima precipitation, focusing particularly on both heavy and extreme events recorded at time intervals ranging from few minutes to 24 h and also to create and develop an extreme storm precipitation database, starting from historical sub-daily precipitation series distributed over the territory. There have been two-part changes in extreme rainfall events occurrence in the last 23 years from 1987 to 2009. Little change is observed in 720 min and 24-h precipitations, but the change seen in 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 120, 180 and 360 min events is significant. In fact, during the 2000s, growth curves have flattened and annual maxima have decreased.     

Architecture and recognition criteria of ancient shelf ridges; an example from Campanian Almond Formation in Hanna Basin,USA

Shelf ridges are sedimentary bodies formed on the continental shelf due to transgressive reworking (tidal or storm) of lowstand deposits. Common on modern shelves, they are under‐represented in the geological record due to a lack of recognition criteria and facies model. This article proposes a new facies and architectural model for shelf ridges, linked to their inception–evolution–abandonment cycle and the process regime of the basin. The model is mainly based on new outcrop data and interpretations from three sandstone bodies of the Almond Formation, an overall transgressive interval during the infill of the Campanian Western Interior Seaway. Building from the case study, and ancient and modern examples, six characteristics are proposed for the recognition of ancient shelf ridges. Shelf ridges: (i) are encased between thick marine mudstone intervals; (ii) have a basal unconformity that erodes into marine muds or into the remnants of a previous shoreline; (iii) have a non‐erosional upper boundary that transitions into marine muds; (iv) are characterized by clean and well‐sorted sandstones, often cross‐bedded; (v) contain fully marine ichnofauna; and (vi) present compound architectures with large accretion surfaces and lower order structures. Although shelf ridges have been described in previous studies as generated exclusively by either tidal or storm currents, it is clear, from modern examples and the case study, that these two processes can be recorded and preserved in a single shelf ridge. The stratigraphy of these sandstone bodies is therefore much more complex than previously recognized, bearing the signature of changing tidal and storm intensity through time. Because they are developed during transgressions, shelf ridges are commonly subject to strong changes in process regime as sea‐level changes can easily affect the oceanographic conditions and the morphology of the basin. For this reason, shelf ridges can provide the best record of shelf process variability during transgressions.     

Neogene Through Quaternary Tectonic Reactivation of SW Iberian Passive Margin

Southwest Portugal, the Gulf of Cadiz and Morocco are under the potential threat of natural hazards linked to seismicity and tsunami generation. We report the results of two multi-channel seismic (MCS) surveys carried out in 1992 and 1998 along the continental margin and oceanic crust of SW Iberia. This MCS data set shows the evidence of the compressional deformation which involves both the continental and the oceanic crust of the study area. The area of deformation extends from the southern border of the Tagus Abyssal Plain to the Seine Abyssal Plain, encompassing the continental margin of SW Portugal. Most of the structures observed are probably related to a Mid-Miocene phase of Africa-Europe plate convergence. In this paper we discuss the recent advances on the identification of the tectonic structures that are still active and that may generate great earthquakes and tsunamis. The tectonic structures identified are located respectively at the Guadalquivir Bank, along the eastern border of the Horseshoe Abyssal Plain and along the southern continental slope of SW Portugal.BIGSETS Team: L. Mendes Victor, C. Corela, A. Ribeiro, D. Cordoba, J. J. Danobeitia, E. Grácia, R. Bartolomé, R. Nicolich, G. Pellis, B. DellaVedova, R. Sartori, L. Torelli, A. Correggiari, L. Vigliotti.     

Forecasting the evolution in the mixing regime of a deep subalpine lake under climate change scenarios through numerical modelling (Lake Maggiore,Northern Italy/Southern Switzerland)

Climate Dynamics - The impact of air temperature rise is eminent for the large deep lakes in the Italian subalpine district, climate change being caused there by both natural phenomena and...     

Distribution and population structure of deep‐dwelling red coral in the Northwest Mediterranean

Commercially harvested since ancient times, the highly valuable red coral Corallium rubrum (Linnaeus, 1758) is an octocoral endemic to the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent Eastern Atlantic Ocean, where it occurs on rocky bottoms over a wide bathymetric range. Current knowledge is restricted to its shallow populations (15–50 m depth), with comparably little attention given to the deeper populations (50–200 m) that are nowadays the main target of exploitation. In this study, red coral distribution and population structure were assessed in three historically exploited areas (Amalfi, Ischia Island and Elba Island) in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Western Mediterranean Sea) between 50 and 130 m depth by means of ROV during a cruise carried out in the summer of 2010. Red coral populations showed a maximum patch frequency of 0.20 ± 0.04 SD patches·m^?1 and a density ranging between 28 and 204 colonies·m^?2, with a fairly continuous bathymetric distribution. The highest red coral densities in the investigated areas were found on cliffs and boulders mainly exposed to the east, at the greatest depth, and characterized by medium percentage sediment cover. The study populations contained a high percentage (46% on average) of harvestable colonies (>7 mm basal diameter). Moreover, some colonies with fifth‐order branches were also observed, highlighting the probable older age of some components of these populations. The Ischia population showed the highest colony occupancy, density and size, suggesting a better conservation status than the populations at the other study locations. These results indicate that deep dwelling red coral populations in non‐stressed or less‐harvested areas may diverge from the inverse size‐density relationship previously observed in red coral populations with increasing depth.     

Extreme rainfall events: evaluation with different instruments and measurement reliability

With regard to extreme events, it is well documented that an intensity of about 1 mm/min already represents an extreme intensity. Under alpine conditions, a precipitation event with an intensity of 3 mm/min has occurred. Therefore, the rain gauges in this region have to be able to measure in this and even in higher intensity ranges. This study deals with basic automated tipping-bucket rain (TBR) gauge and Bulk precipitation samplers, which are able to hold more than 95 % of the cumulative rainfall, that are verified within the space of the week without losses during the extreme events and with minimal evaporation loss. Bulk samplers collected more rainfall than TBR gauges in 110 of 221 extreme events analysed over the past 10 years. In 17 extreme events, an underestimation greater than 10 % was evaluated. The objective was to single out the counting errors associated with TBR gauge, during extreme events, so as to help the understanding of the measured differences between instruments in the field. We want to determine whether the automated precipitation gauge can provide a reliable and precise measurement of precipitation with particular interest regarding heavy and extreme events.     

The coral assemblages of an off‐shore deep Mediterranean rocky bank (NW Sicily,Italy)

In this study we characterized the deep assemblages dwelling at 200–250 m depth on a large shoal off Capo St. Vito Promontory (Northwestern coast of Sicily, South Tyrrhenian Sea) by means of ROV‐imaging. Two assemblages of suspension feeders, dominated by the gorgonian Callogorgia verticillata and by the black coral Leiopathes glaberrima, together with a tanatocoenosis of the colonial yellow scleractinian coral Dendrophyllia cornigera, were examined. The three main species were significatively distributed into two areas corresponding to different habitat preferences: a more elevated hardground hosting black corals and a gently sloping, silted rocky bottom hosting the other coral species. The study area is subjected to a heavy pressure from the professional fishery, resulting in the mechanical damage of numerous colonies, some of which are then overgrown by various epibionts including a parasitic bioluminescent zoanthid, new for the Mediterranean fauna, and tentatively identified as Isozoanthus primoidus. In the Mediterranean Sea, these deep off‐shore rocky banks are widely known among recreational and professional fishermen due to their rich fish fauna. However, there has been still little effort into quantifying and characterizing the extent of the impact and its consequences on the benthic communities, which may represent, as in this case, only a partial picture of their original structure and extent.     

Over 10 years of variation in Mediterranean reef benthic communities

During the last several decades, the Mediterranean littoral shallow water benthic communities have suffered significant changes in their structure and taxa composition. Despite numerous studies conducted to characterize these changes at various levels, it has always been very difficult to disentangle the effects of natural factors from anthropic ones. The main purpose of this work was to evaluate possible changes, over a 10‐year scale, in diversity and abundance of the most representative species of the benthic communities considered to be primarily and potentially affected by natural stressors in a highly protected area. Sets of macro‐photographs were taken in 2002–2003 of three sites inside a small bay called Ca’ dell'Oro, which is the “no entry—no take” zone of the Marine Protected Area of Portofino, in order to analyse the structure of the benthic communities at different depths over a short time scale. The same sampling was repeated 10 years later in 2013. In the 10‐year span, a significant change in the macroalgal coverage and composition was observed, while the overall richness and coverage of species remained almost unchanged. This process resulted in a significant reduction of the habitat complexity of the three‐dimensional algal components. Likewise, a remarkable change in terms of presence and abundance occurred among all zoobenthic components. The benthic communities seem to have suffered from detrimental effects probably caused by climatic events that have been occurring in recent years in the Ligurian Sea.