Multi‐proxy study of Holocene environmental change and human activity in the Central Apennine Mountains,Italy

This paper describes a multi‐proxy palaeoecological investigation undertaken in conjunction with an archaeological survey of the Upper Sangro Valley in the Abruzzo National Park, Central Italy. Despite being a biodiversity hotspot and regarded as a near‐pristine area, the pollen, spore and diatom data all show major changes in the vegetation extending to over 2000 m a.s.l. during the mid to late Holocene. Although there are changes in ecological composition earlier in the Holocene they are different in type and magnitude from the changes which began about 800 cal a BC. The pollen and diatom evidence do not correlate well with regional palaeoclimate data, or on‐site isotopic evidence, but do appear to be related to Samnite (later Iron Age) clearance and upland grazing associated with transhumance and later annexation (and centuriation) of the lower slopes by Roman surveyors. The greatest change in vegetation was during the period c. AD 500–600 and corresponds with the Byzantine–Gothic Wars, and Lombard–Carolingian settlement reorganization into nucleated hilltop settlements which managed upland grazing. This pattern of intensive land use at all altitudes persisted until the early 20th century and only changed following rural depopulation after World War II. These data illustrate how cultural factors had a profound effect on this mountainous region which, in this case, far outweighed the effects of climatic fluctuations which are known to have occurred from both this study area and the region. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Site response study in Abruzzo (Central Italy): underground array versus surface stations

In this site response study we examined local earthquakes recorded at surface stations of a local seismic network and at a temporary underground seismic array installed in a tunnel underneath the Gran Sasso Massif in Abruzzo (central Italy). This allowed us to compare the seismic site response beneath the mountain and on the surface in similar geological environment (soft rock sites). We applied spectral ratios method on different segments of the seismograms and used different reference spectra in the 1–20 Hz frequency band. We found little or no amplification effects at most of the surface stations whereas site transfer functions evaluated with respect to underground sites show an amplification factor up to 6 in the 1–8 Hz frequency range. Coda spectral ratios estimated at soft rock sites are confirmed as good estimates of shear wave transfer function.     

Reducing atmospheric noise in RST analysis of TIR satellite radiances for earthquakes prone areas satellite monitoring

Space–time fluctuations of the Earth’s emitted Thermal Infrared (TIR) radiation observed from satellite from months to weeks before an earthquake are reported in several studies. Among the others, a Robust Satellite data analysis Technique (RST) was proposed (and applied to different satellite sensors in various geo-tectonic contexts) to discriminate anomalous signal transients possibly associated with earthquake occurrence from normal TIR signal fluctuations due to other possible causes (e.g. solar diurnal–annual cycle, meteorological conditions, changes in observational conditions, etc.). Variations in satellite view angle depending on satellite’s passages (for polar satellites) and atmospheric water vapour fluctuations were recognized in the past as the main factors affecting the residual signal variability reducing the overall Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratio and the potential of the RST-based approach in identifying seismically related thermal anomalies. In this paper we focus on both factors for the first time, applying the RST approach to geostationary satellites (which guarantees stable view angles) and using Land Surface Temperature (LST) data products (which are less affected by atmospheric water vapour variability) instead of just TIR radiances at the sensor.The first results, obtained in the case of the Abruzzo earthquake (6 April 2009, M_W ∼ 6.3) by analyzing 6 years of SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager on board the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation satellite) LST products provided by EUMETSAT, seem to confirm the major sensitivity of the proposed approach in detecting perturbations of the Earth’s thermal emission a few days before the main shock. The results achieved in terms of increased S/N ratio (in validation) and reduced “false alarms” rate (in confutation) are discussed comparing results obtained by applying RST to LST products with those achieved by applying an identical RST analysis (using the same MSG-SEVIRI 2005–2010 data-set) to the simple TIR radiances at the sensor.