Recent geomorphological evolution of the deltas of the rivers Seman and Vjosa,Albania

Rising in the Neogene hills of the Mallakaster, the rivers Seman and Vjosa have built up two large joint deltas on the Albanian Adriatic shore. This shoreline is characterized by a low sandy coast with bars and spits. Changes in the river courses and migration of the mouths of the deltas were rapid and numerous from the Holocene period until the beginning of drainage works in the 1950s. The drainage basins of the two rivers are developed in soft clastic rocks (flysch and molasse) in the proportion of 71·4 per cent for the Seman and 44·8 per cent for the Vjosa. Both rivers carry abundant sediment loads, amounting to 6·7 × 10⁶ tonnes per year for the Vjosa and 13·2 × 10⁶ tonnes per year for the Seman. This is the reason why the alluvial deposits of the Seman have built up two‐thirds of the alluvial plain. The use of a SPOT image dated 25 May 1995 (HRV 3 081‐268) enabled us to view the effects of coastal and fluvial dynamics, the role of neotectonics as well as the predominance of the plume of suspended sediment of the Seman river. Using this image, a geomorphological map was drawn, which identifies the palaeochannels of the Seman and the Vjosa. In order to date those palaeochannels we have made an archaeological inventory from oral and written published information. The location of the sites we studied was checked systematically in the field. The mediaeval and Ottoman archives kept in Tirana also provided substantial information, as well as the reconstitution of the evolution of the shoreline between 1870 and 1990, carried out using an inventory of topographic maps. This work allowed us to reconstitute the progression of the deltas of the Seman and the Vjosa since antiquity. We may then infer that from antiquity up to the Middle Ages, the deltas of the Seman and the Vjosa both progressed very moderately and in a comparable way. However, at the end of the 15th century the Seman underwent a major change in its course, through a southward migration of the river. The natural processes of alluviation and changes in the river courses seem to have been accelerated as agricultural exploitation of the Neogene hills that form most of the drainage basin of the Seman increased. This exploitation is linked with the massive exportation of cereal from the port of Skela e Pirgut, which started in the 14th century. It appears that the 20th century has been the period of the largest progression of the deltas during historical times. The speed of progression increased as early as the beginning of the century, as a result of the rapid growth of the rural population densities. Soil erosion from arable fields increased catchment sediment yields to promote rapid changes in the river courses. This resulted in abandonment of deltaic mouths, a phenomenon leading to a straightening of the coast. Thus to the south of the present mouth of the Seman the coast receded by 7 to 30 m per year between 1968 and 1990 as a result of the abandonment of a mouth. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vertical Dynamics of the Energy Release Process in a Simple two-Ribbon Flare

Observations of the quiescent filament eruption and the spotless two-ribbon flare of 12 September 2000 are presented. A simple flare morphology, large spatial scales, and a suitable viewing angle provide insight into characteristics of the energy release process which is attributed to the reconnection process in the current sheet formed below the eruptive filament. The flare ribbons appeared and started to expand laterally while the filament was still recognizable, enabling simultaneous measurements of the ribbon separation w and the height of the lower edge of the filament, h. The ratio w/h estimated for the expanding portions of ribbons indicates that the width-to-length ratio of the current sheet at the onset of the fast reconnection ranges between and . The ribbon elements characterized by w/h> remained stationary. The Nançay radioheliograph data in the decimeter–meter wavelengths show one group of radio bursts ahead of the filament (moving type IV burst) and another group behind the filament. The centroids of the radio sources behind the filament were confined to the region outlined by the lower edge of the filament and the magnetic inversion line, suggestive of emission from the current sheet. Sources were preferably located close to the lower edge of the filament and some appeared close to the magnetic inversion line. Two possible explanations are discussed: one in terms of the fast-mode bow shocks in the reconnection outflow jets, and another in terms of a multiple tearing of the current sheet and subsequent coalescence of plasmoids.     

2 1/2-Dimensional Reconnection Model and Energy Release in Solar Flares

We employ a 2 1/2-dimensional reconnection model to analyse different aspects of the energy release in two-ribbon flares. In particular, we investigate in which way the systematic change of inflow region variables, associated with the vertical elongation of current sheet, affects the flare evolution. It is assumed that as the transversal magnetic field decreases, the ambient plasma-to-magnetic pressure ratio increases, and the reconnection rate diminishes. As the transversal field decreases due to the arcade stretching, the energy release enhances and the temperature rises. Furthermore, the magnetosonic Mach number of the reconnection outflow increases, providing the formation of fast mode standing shocks above the flare loops and below the erupting flux rope. Eventually, in the limit of a very small transversal field the reconnection becomes turbulent due to a highly non-linear response of the system to small fluctuations of the transversal field. The turbulence results in the energy release fragmentation which increases the release efficiency, and is likely to be responsible for the impulsive phase of the flare. On the other hand, as the current sheet stretches to larger heights, the ambient plasma-to-magnetic pressure ratio increases which causes a gradual decrease of the reconnection rate, energy release rate, and temperature in the late phase of flare. The described magnetohydrodynamical changes affect also the electron distribution function in space and time. At large reconnection rates (impulsive phase of the flare) the ratio of the inflow-to-outflow magnetic field strength is much smaller than at lower reconnection rates (late phase of the flare), i.e., the corresponding loss-cone angle becomes narrower. Consequently, in the impulsive phase a larger fraction of energized electrons can escape from the current sheet downwards to the chromosphere and upwards into the corona – the dominant flare features are the foot-point hard X-ray sources and type III radio bursts. On the other hand, at low reconnection rates, more particles stay trapped in the outflow region, and the thermal conduction flux becomes strongly reduced. As a result, a superhot loop-top, and above-the-loop plasma appears, as sometimes observed, to be a dominant feature of the gradual phase.