on late miocene to recent vertical motions in the cretan segment of the hellenic arc abstract high resolution foraminiferal and calcareous nannoplankton biostratigraphy and reliable paleobathymetry estimates based on plankton benthos ratios in foraminifera make it possible to reconstruct in detail late neogene vertical motions along the central cretan segment of the hellenic arc these motions are considered to express the surficial effect of the roll back process of the hellenic subduction zone which started about 12 ma ago in contrast to earlier views there is no sustained uplift since the late middle miocene successive paleotopographic profiles for central crete show a predominance of subsidence coupled with an increase of differential reliefs from the latest serravallian until the messinian subsidence was most pronounced between the tortonian messinian boundary interval and the early part of the early pliocene locally up to a magnitude of more than 1000 m a two phased uplift history coupled with tilting to the north or northeast can be inferred from the late early pliocene recent record separated by a short early late pliocene episode of subsidence rates of uplift were highest in the early pliocene up to about 125 cm ka the central cretan late neogene to recent paleotopographic profiles are compared with those reconstructed from seismic interpretations and drilling data from the cretan sea the combined results show that paleotopographic configurations between the cyclades and crete were fairly similar to those on central crete until messinian time foundering of the cretan basin started in the course of the early pliocene but subsidence rates were less than the contemporaneous uplift rates of crete the timing and magnitude of the vertical motions along the cretan sea central cretan transect put detailed geological constraints on tectonophysical modelling of the surficial effects of the roll back process these vertical motions are discussed in view of the model of southward translation of a large supracrustal slab resulting in the origin of the cretan sea and in thrusting and uplift in the frontal parts of the slab where it thrusted over the northern limb of the subducted ionian plate

coastal uplift on active normal faults the eliki fault greece the eliki fault forms part of a system of major normal fault segments that borders the southern margin of the gulf of corinth half graben radiocarbon dating of elevated marine fossils reveals broadly uniform holocene coastal uplift at a time averaged rate of 1 5 mm yr both along the eliki fault and in the transfer zone that separates it from the neighbouring fault segment coseismic uplift increments are considered to account for only a minor part of the 6 m of emergence recorded here in the last 3000 years reappraisal of shoreline data from the perachora peninsula at the eastern end of the gulf of corinth indicates a similar though less rapid 0 7 mm yr pattern of uniform holocene emergence as these holocene coastal records embody both coseismic and interseismic deformation they can be used to characterise long term tectonic strain

rock surface modeling as a tool to assess the morphology of inland notches mount carmel israel abstract inland notches are elongated c shape indentations carved into hard dense carbonate rocks of the mediterranean climate zone in recent years these unique features became of particular interest as geoindicators of denudation and slope erosion processes the study goals are to learn the processes acting upon the notches cavity by 1 examining the micromorphology of the backwall 2 identifying and classifying zones of erosion 3 learning the surface flow pattern and 4 proposing an erosion mechanism induced by exfoliation to this end a machine learning algorithm was designed using the microstructure texture streamlines formation and potential focal flow the workflow uses data from terrestrial laser scanning applies high resolution textural and curvature analyses and trains an artificial neural network to the different segments of the notch the reconstructed surface model shows division into three distinct belts within the cavity surface 1 the spalled belt sb 2 the transition zone belt tz and 3 the deposition belt db each belt owes its distinct microtopography implying on different geomorphic processes the newly developed methodology improves the recognition of streamline networks along the cavity backwall which mimic alluvial networks the organization of the reconstructed micro channels is similar to drainage basin systems where first order channels developed upstream converge into larger ones and diverge as distributaries as the gradient decreases depositing tufa along the notches base

seismicity normal faulting and the geomorphological development of the gulf of corinth greece the corinth earthquakes of february and march 1981 three major destructive earthquakes of m s 6 7 6 4 6 4 occurred in the eastern part of the gulf of corinth in february and march 1981 associated normal faulting was observed on both the north and the south sides of the gulf examination of teleseismic local seismic surface faulting and geomorpbological data suggests that the first and second of these shocks activated major north dipping normal faults these faults control the topography and bathymetry and are related to the recent uplift and subsidence of the coastline it is probable that the first earthquake occurred on a faultwhich outcrops underwater and the second on a fault which is visible on land it appears that the third shock activated an antithetic normal fault dipping southwards on the north side of the gulf and that the overall structure of the gulf of corinth graben is asymmetric the northern antithetic fault clearly demonstrates the geomorphological changes associated with developing young normal faulting in addition we suggest that observations of recent coastline movement provide a powerful tool for identifying major active fault systems and predicting their historical role in the paleogeography of an area

a comparison of 103 105 year uplift rates on the south alkyonides fault central greece holocene climate stability and the formation of coastal notches 1 measurements of holocene coastal notch sequences exposed in the footwall of the active south alkyonides normal fault greece reveal 3 holocene paleoshorelines near the lateral fault tip rising in elevation eastward toward the center of the fault where a 4th paleoshoreline appears the implied eastward increase in holocene uplift rate mirrors that for an uplifted quaternary marine terrace 0 29 mm yr 0 55 mm yr from west to east assuming these uplift rates were constant through the holocene notch elevations predict ages of 650 1900 3700 and 6500 years b p comparable with published 14 c ages on notch fauna and well correlated with periods of relatively stable holocene climate we propose that the notch sequences formed when post glacial sea level rise became outpaced by the coastal uplift rate whilst individual notches formed when stable climate facilitated sustained erosion the parity of the holocene and quaternary uplift rates suggests that notch sequences could be used to characterize long term patterns of uplift slip rate and seismic hazards on active normal faults if 6500 years is long enough to fully characterize temporal variation in the seismic cycle citation cooper f j g p roberts and c j underwood 2007 a comparison of 10 3 1 0 5 year uplift rates on the south alkyonides fault central greece holocene climate stability and the formation of coastal notches geophys res lett 34 l14310

coastline retreat via progressive failure of rocky coastal cliffs despite much research on the myriad processes that erode rocky coastal cliffs accurately predicting the nature location and timing of coastline retreat remains challenging and is confounded by the apparently episodic nature of cliff failure the dominant drivers of coastal erosion marine and subaerial forcing are anticipated to increase in the future so understanding their present and combined efficacy is fundamental to improving predictions of coastline retreat we captured change using repeat laser scanning across 2 7 104 m2 of near vertical rock cliffs on the uk north sea coast over 7 yr to determine the controls on the rates patterns and mechanisms of erosion for the first time we document that progressive upward propagation of failure dictates the mode and defines the rate at which marine erosion of the toe can accrue retreat of coastline above this is a failure mechanism not conventionally considered in cliff stability models propagation of instability and failure operates at these sites at 10 yr time scales and is moderated by local rock mass strength and the time dependence of rock fracture we suggest that once initiated failure propagation can operate ostensibly independently to external environmental forcing and so may not be tightly coupled to prevailing subaerial and oceanographic conditions our observations apply to coasts of both uniform and complex lithology where failure geometry is defined by rock mass strength and structure and not intact rock strength alone and where retreat occurs via any mode other than full cliff collapse

atmospheric co2 fluctuations during the last millennium reconstructed by stomatal frequency analysis of tsuga heterophylla needles a stomatal frequency record based on buried tsuga hetero phylla needles reveals significant centennial scale atmospheric co2 fluctuations during the last millennium the record includes four co2 minima of 260 275 ppmv ca a d 860 and a d 1150 and less prominently ca a d 1600 and 1800 alternating co2 max ima of 300 320 ppmv are present at a d 1000 a d 1300 and ca a d 1700 these co2 fluctuations parallel global terrestrial air temperature changes as well as oceanic surface temperature fluc tuations in the north atlantic the results obtained in this study corroborate the notion of a continuous coupling of the preindus trial atmospheric co2 regime and climate

new empirical relationships among magnitude rupture length rupture width rupture area and surface displacement source parameters for historical earthquakes worldwide are compiled to develop a series of empirical relationships among moment magnitude m surface rupture length subsurface rupture length downdip rupture width rupture area and maximum and average displacement per event the resulting data base is a significant update of previous compilations and includes the additional source parameters of seismic moment moment magnitude subsurface rupture length downdip rupture width and average surface displacement each source parameter is classified as reliable or unreliable based on our evaluation of the accuracy of individual values only the reliable source parameters are used in the final analyses in comparing source parameters we note the following trends 1 generally the length of rupture at the surface is equal to 75 of the subsurface rupture length however the ratio of surface rupture length to subsurface rupture length increases with magnitude 2 the average surface displacement per event is about one half the maximum surface displacement per event and 3 the average subsurface displacement on the fault plane is less than the maximum surface displacement but more than the average surface displacement thus for most earthquakes in this data base slip on the fault plane at seismogenic depths is manifested by similar displacements at the surface log linear regressions between earthquake magnitude and surface rupture length subsurface rupture length and rupture area are especially well correlated showing standard deviations of 0 25 to 0 35 magnitude units most relationships are not statistically different at a 95 significance level as a function of the style of faulting thus we consider the regressions for all slip types to be appropriate for most applications regressions between magnitude and displacement magnitude and rupture width and between displacement and rupture length are less well correlated and have larger standard deviation than regressions between magnitude and length or area the large number of data points in most of these regressions and their statistical stability suggest that they are unlikely to change significantly in response to additional data separating the data according to extensional and compressional tectonic environments neither provides statistically different results nor improves the statistical significance of the regressions regressions for cases in which earthquake magnitude is either the independent or the dependent parameter can be used to estimate maximum earthquake magnitudes both for surface faults and for subsurface seismic sources such as blind faults and to estimate the expected surface displacement along a fault for a given size earthquake

tidal notches in mediterranean sea a comprehensive analysis abstract recent works evelpidou et al 2012 suggest that the modern tidal notch is disappearing worldwide due sea level rise over the last century in order to assess this hypothesis we measured modern tidal notches in several of sites along the mediterranean coasts we report observations on tidal notches cut along carbonate coasts from 73 sites from italy france croatia montenegro greece malta and spain plus additional observations carried outside the mediterranean at each site we measured notch width and depth and we described the characteristics of the biological rim at the base of the notch we correlated these parameters with wave energy tide gauge datasets and rock lithology our results suggest that considering the development of tidal notches the consequence of midlittoral bioerosion as done in evelpidou et al 2012 is a simplification that can lead to misleading results such as stating that notches are disappearing important roles in notch formation can be also played by wave action rate of karst dissolution salt weathering and wetting and drying cycles of course notch formation can be augmented and favoured also by bioerosion which can in particular cases be the main process of notch formation and development our dataset shows that notches are carved by an ensemble rather than by a single process both today and in the past and that it is difficult if not impossible to disentangle them and establish which one is prevailing we therefore show that tidal notches are still forming challenging the hypothesis that sea level rise has drowned them

reconstructing rainfall and land use conditions leading to the development of old gullies knowledge of past erosion events and their controlling factors is an important key to understanding the impacts of environmental change climate land use on the landscape in this study knowledge about erosion processes on the development of present day ephemeral gullies is used for reconstructing conditions leading to the formation of old permanent gullies empirical relations between flow hydraulics and channel geometry have been recently established for gullies hence using measured bottom width wbttom of old gullies as input peak flow discharges qp of these gullies can be estimated in two forested areas in central belgium 52 old gullies were mapped the old gullies had an average wbottom ranging between 1 1 and 1 5 m corresponding calculated qp values ranged between 0 04 and 0 07 m3 s rainfall intensities i were also deduced from qp using the rational formula by simulating various land use scenarios and thus various runoff coefficient c values i and concentration time tc could be ca

a comparison of the gis based landslide susceptibility assessment methods multivariate versus bivariate the purpose of this study is to evaluate and to compare the results of multivariate logical regression and bivariate landslide susceptibility methods in geographical information system gis based landslide susceptibility assessment procedures in order to achieve this goal the asarsuyu catchment in nw turkey was selected as a test zone because of its well known landslide occurrences interfering with the e 5 highway mountain pass

lateral propagation of the surface trace of the south alkyonides normal fault segment central greece its impact on models of fault growth and displacement length relationships abstract the evolution of deformed marine terraces and drainage systems have been examined in order to investigate the growth and lateral propagation of an active normal fault geological mapping has revealed three distinct raised marine terraces in the immediate footwall of the western end of the active south alkyonides fault segment safs gulf of corinth central greece we correlate these terraces with sea level highstands at 125 240 and 330 ka using elevation estimates of the inner edges of the terraces we show that uplift rates decrease towards the perachora fault segment boundary at the western end of the safs analysis of terraces and drainage wind gaps in the footwall of the fault shows that the surface trace of the safs propagated westwards at a rate of 12 1 16 7 mm y over at least the last 330 ka whilst the surface trace length has increased analysis of the geometry and kinematics of fault slip suggests that fault length at depth has remained fixed implying progressive increase in the values for the displacement length ratio if this is correct growth is not self similar and fault length has been established early in the evolution of the system i e before 330 ka

innovative tidal notch detection using tls and fuzzy logic implications for palaeo shorelines from compressional crete and extensional gulf of corinth tectonic settings abstract tidal notches are a generally accepted sea level marker and maintain particular interest for palaeoseismic studies since coastal seismic activity potentially displaces them from their genetic position the result of subsequent seismic events is a notch sequence reflecting the cumulative coastal uplift in order to evaluate preserved notch sequences an innovative and interdisciplinary workflow is presented that accurately highlights evidence for palaeo sea level markers the workflow uses data from terrestrial laser scanning and iteratively combines high resolution curvature analysis high performance edge detection and feature extraction based on the assumptions that remnants such as the roof of tidal notches form convex patterns edge detection is performed on principal curvature images in addition a standard algorithm is compared to edge detection results from a custom fuzzy logic approach the results pass through a hough transform in order to extract continuous line features of an almost horizontal orientation the workflow was initially developed on a single distinct and sheltered exposure in southern crete and afterwards successfully tested on laser scans of different coastal cliffs from the perachora peninsula this approach allows a detailed examination of otherwise inaccessible locations and the evaluation of lateral and 3d geometries thus evidence for previously unrecognised sea level markers can be identified even when poorly developed high resolution laser scans of entire cliff exposures allow local variations to be quantified edge detection aims to reduce information on the surface curvature and hough transform limits the results towards orientation and continuity thus the presented objective methodology enhances the recognition of tidal notches and supports palaeoseismic studies by contributing spatial information and accurate measurements of horizontal movements beyond that recognised during traditional surveys this is especially useful for the identification of palaeo shorelines in extensional tectonic environments where coseismic footwall uplift only 1 2 to 1 4 of net slip per event is unlikely to raise an entire notch above the tidal range

tidal notches a sea level indicator of uncertain archival trustworthiness abstract in this paper after a short summary on the processes and rates of bioerosion that contribute to the deepening of a tidal notch profile some mediterranean case studies are presented where a tidal notch is prevented either from forming or from being preserved furthermore as shown also in a complementary paper the recent global sea level rise is preventing the development of new tidal notches in the present mid littoral zone this very useful sea level indicator of past temporary standstills of the relative sea level in carbonate rock areas is of great value in assisting interpretations of relative sea level change in locations where it is preserved the possibilities of absence of formation or of preservation however imply that it should be interpreted carefully before reconstructing local relative sea level histories in particular the lack of fossil tidal notches cannot be relied upon to interpret the absence of past periods of relative sea level stabilization

active faulting within the offshore western gulf of corinth greece implications for models of continental rift deformation discrimination between different lithospheric extension models focusing on the roles of low angle vs high angle faulting and how strain is distributed requires high fidelity imaging of brittle deformation high resolution seismic reflection and multibeam bathymetric data in the western gulf of corinth continental rift were collected to establish the contribution of offshore faults to extension onshore fault slip here is significantly less than expected from geodetic strain rates the rift at this location is a half graben tilted to the north by s dipping faults within the uppermost crust a basement horst on the northern margin is uplifted by the north and south eratini faults and the axial channel is fault controlled subsided lowstand shorelines in the hanging wall of the north eratini and the well studied aigion fault suggest that the faults have similar displacements summed extension from the four major faults across this part of the rift eliki subchannel south eratini north eratini is 8 16 mm yr thereby reconciling geologic and geodetic data sets distributed deformation across isolated multiple faults can model this part of the rift without recourse to and potentially incompatible with an underlying low angle detachment

disruption of the hellenic arc late miocene extensional detachment faults and steep pliocene quaternary normal faults or what happened at corinth 1 extensional faults exposed in the peloponnesus and mainland greece most of which are described here for the first time record a transition from regional extension of the aegean domain to the modern tectonic system the east peloponnesus detachment system trends north northwest from the southern peloponnesus to 30 km north of the gulf of corinth dips gently northeast and is late miocene early pliocene in age it has a minimum displacement of 25 30 km and appears to be the youngest of the regional scale extensional systems with significant displacement that formed parallel to the hellenic arc the partially coeval east sterea extensional system which extends from the gulf of corinth to the aegean sea contains low angle normal faults that both crosscut and trend parallel to older structures of the hellenic arc late miocene to early pliocene displacement within this zone disrupted the arc parallel structures of the hellenides upper pliocene quaternary normal faults which trend approximately east west and generally dip steeply at the surface continue the disruption of the hellenic arc much of the subsidence within the gulf of corinth appears to be unrelated to the younger faults and is instead related to the motion on the east peloponnesus detachment which crosscuts the modern graben

stomatal evidence for a decline in atmospheric co2 concentration during the younger dryas stadial a comparison with antarctic ice core records a recent high resolution record of late glacial co2 change from dome concordia in antarctica reveals a trend of increasing co2 across the younger dryas stadial gs 1 these results are in good agreement with previous antarctic ice core records however they contrast markedly with a proxy co2 record based on the stomatal approach to co2 reconstruction which records a ca 70 ppm mean co2 decline at the onset of gs 1 to address these apparent discrepancies we tested the validity of the stomatal based co2 reconstructions from kru akenes by obtaining further proxy co2 records based on a similar approach using fossil leaves from two independent lakes in atlantic canada our late glacial co2 reconstructions reveal an abrupt ca 77 ppm decrease in atmospheric co2 at the onset of the younger dryas stadial which lagged climatic cooling by ca 130 yr furthermore the trends recorded in the most accurate high resolution ice core record of co2 from dome concordia can be reproduced from our stomatal based co2 records when time averaged by the mean age distribution of air contained within dome concordia ice 200 to 550 yr if correct our results indicate an abrupt drawdown of atmospheric co2 within two centuries at the onset of gs 1 suggesting that some re evaluation of the behaviour of atmospheric co2 sinks and sources during times of rapid climatic change such as the late glacial may be required copyright 2002 john wiley sons ltd journal of quaternary science

the 8 5 magnitude ad365 earthquake in crete coastal uplift topography changes archaeological and historical signature abstract an up to 9 m uplift of western crete a cluster of coastal uplifts in the east mediterranean radiocarbon dated approximately 1500 bp as well as historical and archaeological data are evidence for major although poorly documented seismic destruction on a nearly mediterranean scale in the 4th to 5th c ad including the destruction of the nile delta in egypt by a tsunami in ad365 these data represent parts of a puzzle for historians archaeologists geologists and seismologists detailed analysis of geological historical and archaeological data including precise numismatic evidence permits recognition of a major earthquake in crete responsible for coastal uplift at ad365 elastic dislocation analysis of coastal uplift data reveals that this earthquake was associated with a reverse fault offshore of southwestern crete that its minimum magnitude was 8 5 and that this model is consistent with the available seismological and large scale tectonic data despite its magnitude this earthquake cannot have produced the necessary short period high energy waves which are necessary to explain the seismic damage which occurred circa ad365 in a very broad region from sicily to cyprus and libya hence the ad365 earthquake sequence included at least two other major events with epicentres close to cyprus and sicily although significant changes in the coastal morphology widespread destruction and a high human death toll occurred the ad365 crete earthquake was not responsible for any major cultural change it occurred during the transition from the roman to the christian period characterized by vast luxurious villas and modest dwellings on crete respectively

rapid atmospheric co2 changes associated with the 8 200 years b p cooling event by applying the inverse relation between numbers of leaf stomata and atmospheric co2 concentration stomatal frequency analysis of fossil birch leaves from lake deposits in denmark reveals a century scale co2 change during the prominent holocene cooling event that occurred in the north atlantic region between 8 400 and 8 100 years b p in contrast to conventional co2 reconstructions based on ice cores from antarctica quantification of the stomatal frequency signal corroborates a distinctive temperature co2 correlation results indicate a global co2 decline of 25 ppm by volume over 300 years this reduction is in harmony with observed and modeled lowering of north atlantic sea surface temperatures associated with a short term weakening of thermohaline circulation

late glacial and early holocene variations in atmospheric co2 concentration indicated by high resolution stomatal index data data from ice cores suggest that late glacial and early holocene atmospheric co2 variations were rather conservative the most important change being a gradual younger dryas increase by contrast palaeo co2 records based on the inverse relationship between co2 partial pressure and stomatal frequency of terrestrial plant leaves reflect a more dynamic co2 evolution including an abrupt decrease at the allerod younger dryas transition here we present a late glacial and early holocene co2 record based on stomatal index data from leaves preserved in the sediments of a small lake in southwestern sweden three independent records constructed from stomatal index data of salix polaris salix herbacea and betula nana leaves were combined to form a high resolution co2 reconstruction for the period 12 800 10 800 cal yr bp atmospheric co2 concentrations were found to have decreased rapidly from c 260 ppmv to 210 215 ppmv within 200 years during the allerod gi 1 younger dryas gs 1 transition after 100 200 years co2 concentration started to gradually increase to 270 290 ppmv at the end of the younger dryas stadial gs 1 co2 concentrations were relatively stable during the early holocene except for a short lived period of lower 240 250 ppmv values c 11350 11200 cal yr bp this late glacial and early holocene co2 evolution partly resembles previous stomatal based co2 reconstructions and the overall trend is almost identical to that seen in ice core records the amplitude of change is however markedly higher in the swedish stomatal based record compared to the ice cores this difference may partly be accounted for by the inherent smoothing of ice core co2 records caused by diffusion but a major part of the difference in amplitude between ice core and stomatal based records still remains to be explained based on our reconstruction atmospheric co2 may have played an important role in climate dynamics during the last deglaciation c 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved less

2700 years of mediterranean environmental change in central italy a synthesis of sedimentary and cultural records to interpret past impacts of climate on society abstract abrupt climate change in the past is thought to have disrupted societies by accelerating environmental degradation potentially leading to cultural collapse linking climate change directly to societal disruption is challenging because socioeconomic factors also play a large role with climate being secondary or sometimes inconsequential combining paleolimnologic historical and archaeological methods provides for a more secure basis for interpreting the past impacts of climate on society we present pollen non pollen palynomorph geochemical paleomagnetic and sedimentary data from a high resolution 2700 yr lake sediment core from central italy and compare these data with local historical documents and archeological surveys to reconstruct a record of environmental change in relation to socioeconomic history and climatic fluctuations here we document cases in which environmental change is strongly linked to changes in local land management practices in the absence of clear climatic change as well as examples when climate change appears to have been a strong catalyst that resulted in significant environmental change that impacted local communities during the imperial roman period despite a long period of stable mild climate and a large urban population in nearby rome our site shows only limited evidence for environmental degradation warm and mild climate during the medieval warm period on the other hand led to widespread deforestation and erosion the ability of the romans to utilize imported resources through an extensive trade network may have allowed for preservation of the environment near the roman capital whereas during medieval time the need to rely on local resources led to environmental degradation cool wet climate during the little ice age led to a breakdown in local land use practices widespread land abandonment and rapid reforestation our results present a high resolution regional case study that explores the effect of climate change on society for an under documented region of europe

slip distributions on active normal faults measured from lidar and field mapping of geomorphic offsets an example from l aquila italy and implications for modelling seismic moment release surface slip distributions for an active normal fault in central italy have been measured using terrestrial laser scanning tls in order to assess the impact of changes in fault orientation and kinematics when modelling subsurface slip distributions that control seismic moment release the southeastern segment of the surface trace of the campo felice active normal fault near the city of l aquila was mapped and surveyed using techniques from structural geology and using tls to define the vertical and horizontal offsets of geomorphic slopes since the last glacial maximum 15 3 ka the fault geometry and kinematics measured from 43 sites and throw heave measurements from geomorphic offsets seen on 250 scarp profiles were analysed using a modification of the kostrov equations to calculate the magnitudes and directions of horizontal principal strain rates the map trace of the studied fault is linear except where a prominent bend has formed to link across a former left stepping relay zone the dip of the fault and slip direction are constant across the bend throw rates since 15 3 ka decrease linearly from the fault centre to the tip except in the location of the prominent bend where higher throw rates are recorded vertical coseismic offsets for two palaeo earthquake ruptures seen as fresh strips of rock at the base of the bedrock scarp also increase within the prominent bend the principal strain rate calculated by combining strike dip slip direction and post 15 3 ka throw rate decreases linearly from the fault centre towards the tip the strain rate does not increase across the prominent fault bend the above shows that changes in fault strike whilst having no effect on the principal horizontal strain rate can produce local maxima in throw rates during single earthquakes that persist over the timescale of multiple earthquakes 15 3 ka detailed geomorphological and structural characterisation of active faults is therefore a critical requirement in order to properly define fault activity for the purpose of accurate seismic hazard assessment we discuss the implications of modelling subsurface slip distributions for earthquake ruptures through inversion of gps insar and strong motion data using planar fault approximations referring to recent examples on the nearby paganica fault that ruptured in the mw 6 3 2009 l aquila earthquake

abrasive notches along the atlantic patagonian coast and their potential use as sea level markers the case of puerto deseado santa cruz argentina patagonia argentina is a key area for the study of sea level changes in the southern hemisphere but the availability of reliable sea level markers in this area is still problematic in fact the storm deposits beach ridge commonly used here to reconstruct past sea level oscillations introduce a wide error along the puerto deseado coast santa cruz morphometric analyses of 11 features were carried out using traditional measurement tools and a digital software based method tested on one selected feature with the aim to investigate the possibility of their use as sea level markers by undertaking accurate topographic profiles we identified the relationship between notches and current sea level in detail we identified two clusters of notch retreat point elevations with a very low internal variability the lower was located a little below the mean high tide level mht and the upper located at least 0 5 m above the maximum high tide level mht field observations of tidal levels and the position of notches suggest that the lower notches are active and the upper are inactive this study on the abrasive notches attests their quality as sea level markers and opens up the use of fossil abrasive notches as palaeo sea level markers because the error linked to these features is substantially smaller than that introduced by beach ridges commonly used in the study area copyright 2014 john wiley sons ltd

localization of quaternary slip rates in an active rift in 105 years an example from central greece constrained by 234u 230th coral dates from uplifted paleoshorelines mapping dating and modeling of paleoshorelines uplifted in the footwall of the 1981 gulf of corinth earthquake fault greece ms 6 9 6 7 are used to assess its slip rate history relative to other normal faults in the area and study strain localization the 234u 230th coral ages from cladocora caespitosa date uplifted shoreface sediments and paleoshorelines from glacioeustatic sea level highstands at 76 possibly 100 125 175 200 216 240 and 340 ka uplifted quaternary and holocene paleoshorelines decrease in elevation toward the western tip of the fault exhibiting larger tilt angles with age showing that uplift is due to progressive fault slip since 125 ka uplift rates varied from 0 25 to 0 52 mm yr over a distance of 5 km away from the fault tip tilting was also occurring prior to 125 ka but uplift rates were lower because the 125 ka paleoshoreline is at 77 of the elevation of the 240 ka paleoshoreline despite being nearly half its age comparison of paleoshoreline elevations and sedimentology with the quaternary sea level curve shows that slip rates increased by a factor of 3 2 0 2 at 175 75 ka synchronous with cessation of activity on a neighboring normal fault at 382 112 ka we suggest that the rapid localization of up to 10 15 mm yr of extension into the narrow gulf 30 km wide resulted from synchronous fault activity on neighboring faults followed by localization rather than sequential faulting with consequences for the mechanism controlling localization of extension

a gis based approach for gully erosion susceptibility modelling using bivariate statistics methods in the ourika watershed morocco gully erosion is an important environmental issue with severe impacts this study aimed to characterize gully erosion susceptibility and assess the capability of information value infval and frequency ratio fr models for its spatial prediction in ourika watershed of the high atlas region of morocco these two bivariate statistical methods have been used for gully erosion susceptibility mapping by comparing each data layer of causative factor to the existing gully distribution weights to the gully causative factors are assigned based on gully density gullies have been mapped through field surveys and google earth high resolution images lithofacies land use slope gradient length slope aspect stream power index topographical wetness index and plan curvature were considered predisposing factors to gullying the digitized gullies were randomly split into two parts sixty five percent 65 of the mapped gullies were randomly selected as training set to build gully susceptibility models while the remaining 35 cases were used as validation set for the models validation the results showed that barren and sparse vegetation lands and slope gradient above 50 were very susceptible to gully erosion the roc curve was used for testing the accuracy of the mentioned models the analysis confirms that the fr model auc 80 61 shows a better accuracy than infval model auc 52 07 the performance of the gully erosion susceptibility map constructed by fr model is greater than that of the map produced by infval model the findings proved that gis based bivariate statistical methods such as frequency ratio model could be successfully applied in gully susceptibility mapping in morocco mountainous regions and in other similar environments the produced susceptibility map represents a useful tool for sustainable planning conservation and protection of land from gully processes

natural and anthropogenic changes in atmospheric co2 over the last 1000 years from air in antarctic ice and firn a record of atmospheric co2 mixing ratios from 1006 a d to 1978 a d has been produced by analysing the air enclosed in three ice cores from law dome antarctica the enclosed air has unparalleled age resolution and extends into recent decades because of the high rate of snow accumulation at the ice core sites the co2 data overlap with the record from direct atmospheric measurements for up to 20 years the effects of diffusion in the firn on the co2 mixing ratio and age of the ice core air were determined by analyzing air sampled from the surface down to the bubble close off depth the uncertainty of the ice core co2 mixing ratios is 1 2 ppm 1 preindustrial co2 mixing ratios were in the range 275 284 ppm with the lower levels during 1550 1800 a d probably as a result of colder global climate natural co2 variations of this magnitude make it inappropriate to refer to a single preindustrial co2 level major co2 growth occurred over the industrial period except during 1935 1945 a d when co2 mixing ratios stabilized or decreased slightly probably as a result of natural variations of the carbon cycle on a decadal timescale

effects of syn pandemic fire reduction and reforestation in the tropical americas on atmospheric co2 during european conquest abstract a new reconstruction of late holocene biomass burning in the tropical americas is consistent with the expansion of fire use by mesoamerican and amazonian agriculturalists and a subsequent period of fire reduction beginning 500 years bp the marked reduction of biomass burning after 500 years bp a unique feature of the fire history of the tropical americas relative to other regions of the globe is synchronous with the collapse of the american indigenous population during pandemics accompanying european conquest we predict that fire reduction contemporaneous with pandemics in the tropical americas was associated with massive forest regeneration on 5 105 km2 of land and sequestration of 5 10 gt c into the terrestrial biosphere which contributed to the 2 global reduction in atmospheric co2 levels and the 0 1 increase in 13c of atmospheric co2 from 1500 to 1750 a d this study 1 builds upon prior fire history reconstructions by synthesizing a substantially greater number of stratigraphic charcoal accumulation records and soil charcoal 14c dates to resolve features of the late holocene biomass burning record in the tropical americas and 2 corroborates the hypothesis advanced by ruddiman ruddiman w f 2003 the anthropogenic era began thousands of years ago climatic change 61 261 293 ruddiman w f 2005 plows plagues and petroleum princeton university press princeton new jersey that biospheric carbon sequestration via reforestation of cropland abandoned during pandemics contributed to changes in atmospheric co2 concentration during the past millennium

marine notches in coastal cliffs indicators of relative sea level change perachora peninsula central greece abstract in several sites in the complex faulted western part of perachora peninsula central greece three principal marine notches in rocky coasts are present in each site no holocene notches occur above the upper of the three notches only subaerial weathering affected the rocks lateral variation in the heights of notches demonstrates differential uplift due to fault control and illustrates the complexity of application of marine notches in interpretation of tectonic history the lower undated notch is prominent in places coincides with modern sea level and is interpreted to be forming now it suggests that the western part of the peninsula has been stable for a considerable time the middle and upper notches vary in height between sites and may not be time equivalent but represent earlier sea level positions in the harbour adjacent to the heraion archaeological site the middle and upper notches are preserved in most places as notch roofs so that gradual uplift led to removal of notch floors by physical chemical and biotic processes in exposed locations however within a few hundred metres west of the harbour four uplifted plus a fifth forming now notches have been illustrated by pirazzoli et al tectonophysics 229 1994 201 that cannot be readily correlated to the harbour site and indicate differential uplift by fault displacement in a more complex situation at mylokopi 6 km ne of heraion three different notch profiles occur in three blocks separated by two faults however within the central block of the three two very different profiles are preserved only tens of metres apart beneath one continuous upper notch roof at the same height this complex arrangement interpreted as variability of exposure to marine processes on different parts of this irregular embayment such that one profile containing three notches was controlled largely by abrasion and formed notches that are vertically more extensive while the other profile containing five narrow notches formed by dissolution and or biological erosion at the same time in the protected east end of the block however if only one or the other profile was visible very different tectonic interpretations would result the bedrock of perachora peninsula also shows important variations in resistance to erosion affecting the resulting notch profiles and some sites are influenced by structurally controlled differential subaerial weathering forming ridges and grooves giving the false impression of extra minor notches the distinction between dissolution controlled and structure controlled minor notches may not be possible in some places the interpretations of notch profiles can be highly complex and influence views of tectonic history in a given region overall the occurrence of three principal notches beneath one uplifted notch roof in several sites indicates that a holocene uplift rates outpaced post glacial sea level rise b there were three principal periods of relative sea level stillstand affecting the perachora peninsula and c uplift of the entire western part of the perachora peninsula is an important component of its tectonic processes probably more important than fault movement within the peninsula

holocene coastal notches in the mediterranean region indicators of palaeoseismic clustering abstract marine tidal notches are developed by bioerosion in the intertidal zones of rocky coasts but a combination of sea level change and crustal movements can result in them being raised above or submerged below the water line for that reason the present day elevation of these former shorelines relative to the mean sea level has long been used to quantify relative coastal uplift and subsidence in tectonically active areas assuming that the sea level eustatic change component is known along the microtidal mediterranean littoral it is generally assumed that notches develop during relative stillstands of sea level when tectonic and eustatic trends are in unison and that discrete notch levels record abrupt shoreline changes caused by local seismic displacements recently however a climatic model for notch formation has been proposed in which stable periods of holocene climate favour enhanced erosion in this competing model the rate of sea level rise is lower than the tectonic uplift rate and individual notches are not specific seismic indicators because marine notches are widely used as geomorphic markers of tectonic and in some cases palaeoseismic movements a reappraisal of the geological significance of these strandlines is warranted in this paper we explore the two conflicting notch models using a database of eastern mediterranean palaeoshorelines although we conclude that the spatial and temporal distribution of the notches supports a dominantly tectonic control on notch genesis as a result of earthquake clustering we highlight how the diachronous timing of notch development tempers their value as tectonic markers

quaternary evolution of the corinth rift and its implications for the late cenozoic evolution of the aegean summary we present geological and morphological observations at different scales to constrain rates of faulting and the distribution of deformation in the seismically active aegean region we focus first on the 130 km long corinth rift an asymmetric graben where a flight of terraces of marine origin are uplifted we show that the edges of the terraces lie in the footwall of the normal fault bounding the corinth rift and correspond to sea level highstands of laic pleistocene age using a detailed analysis of aerial and spot imagery supported by field observations we have mapped 10 terrace platforms and strandlines ranging in elevation from 10 to 400 m over distances of 2 to 20 km from the fault the elevation of the terraces inner edges was estimated at 172 sites with an error of 5m this data set contains a precise description of the uplift and flexure of 10 different palaeohorizontal lines with respect to the present sea level to date the deformation we correlate the corinth terraces with late pleistocene oxygen isotope stages of high sea level stands and with global sea level fluctuations using a thick elastic plate model consistent with our current understanding of the earthquake cycle and a boundary element technique we reproduce the geometry of the shorelines to constrain both mechanical parameters and the slip on the fault we show that the seismogenic layer behaves over the long term as if its elastic modulus were reduced by a factor of about 1000 all the terraces are fitted for fault slip increasing in proportion to terrace age and the component of regional uplift is found to be less than 0 3 mm yr 1 the best fits give a slip rate of 11 3 mm yr 1 on the main rift bounding fault over the last 350 kyr other geological and morphologic information allows us to estimate the total age of the main fault 1 ma and to examine the mechanical evolution of the corinth rift the minimum observed sediment thickness in the gulf places an extreme check on the results of the modelling and a lower bound on slip rate of 6 7 mm yr 1 40 per cent less than estimated with modelling even this slip rate is nearly 10 times higher than for comparable features in most of the aegean and elsewhere in the world at a larger scale the spacing and asymmetry of the rift systems in the aegean suggest strain localization in the upper mantle with slow extension starting 15 myr ago or earlier the more recent 1 myr rapid phase of rifting in corinth partly reactivated this earlier phase of extension the younger faulting in corinth appears to result from its present location in the inhomogeneous stress field process zone of the south westward propagating tip of the southern branch of the north anatolian fault we extend these relations to propose a mechanical model for the late cenozoic evolution of the aegean as the arabia europe collision progressed in eastern turkey it caused anatolia to move to the west and the north anatolian fault to propagate into the aegean where the early slow extension started to be modified about 5 ma ago the process of propagation dramatically increased the activity of some but not all of the earlier rifts the model we present is compatible with tectonic observations as well as with the seismicity the palaeomagnetic rotations and the displacement field now observed with gps and slr

coastal notches their morphology formation and function deep coastal notches develop through undercutting of steep coastal slopes consisting of rocks that are strong enough to support the weight of the overburden notches are found from the tropics to the poles and in a wide range of rock types virtually tideless to megatidal seas and high to low wave energy environments the emphasis in the literature has been on notches in calcareous rocks in warm microtidal seas and with the general assumption that they have been produced by bioerosion or chemical dissolution few scientifically rigorous attempts have been made to determine the processes responsible for notch formation in different environments and rock types however or to determine whether different processes produce distinct notch morphologies within the same tidal and wave environments the use of notches as palaeo sea level markers and to determine rates of tectonic uplift has been particularly important in the mediterranean notches are more difficult to employ for this purpose in the middle latitudes where higher waves and tides amplify the range of elevations over which the erosional mechanisms are effective as well as increasing the exposure and effect of rocks of variable resistance to erosion to maximize the utility of notches as sea level markers and to better understand and model their development in a wide range of environments we need to understand and be able to quantify the relationship between notch shape and size and the elevational efficacy of the various erosional processes

corinth rift margin uplift new evidence from late quaternary marine shorelines 1 new evidence for uplift of the southern margin to the corinth rift one of the world s most rapidly extending continental regions defines an area of uniform uplift separating a more rapidly uplifting western rift flank from a slowly backtilting eastern flank this major tectonic boundary coincides with geophysical evidence for a junction between flat underlying subducted oceanic plate and steep subduction we propose that trench rollback by the anatolian plate over the subducting african plate has led to differential uplift and possible migration of active faulting at the southern rift margin in the last few million years

reprint of bedrock fault scarp history insight from t lidar backscatter behaviour and analysis of structure changes abstract this paper provides a research approach and develops a methodology that helps natural weathered bedrock fault scarps to be understood in terms of their structural changes and backscatter behaviour when using terrestrial laser scanning t lidar we tested our approach on the pisia fault in greece that ruptured during the 1981 alkyonides earthquake sequence in corinth gulf the method describes how to correlate fault geometry and structural variations with the backscatter signal of t lidar data from naturally exhumed bedrock fault scarps using this method we are able to reconstruct the past slip history we used t lidar for the analysis of the monochromatic laser beam s backscattered signal to define unsupervised classes of unknown objects on fault surface seven classes were created based on the dendrogram technique using the maximum likelihood method these were used to determine their spatial distribution throughout the scarp height and to calculate the terrain ruggedness index tri in the defined classes the combination of these results shows that i the ruggedness increases with the scarp height and ii the ruggedness and backscattering describe different fault plane conditions we found evidence for past earthquakes on the pisia fault at our study site with average displacements in the range of 30 60 cm with corresponding magnitudes of 6 4 6 6 0 1 ms these results help to reconstruct the recent fault history and potential palaeo events and can also be used i to detect appropriate sample sites on the fault plane for absolute dating and ii as an independent constraint on tracing slip events assisting absolute dating techniques this method can significantly reduce the sampling requirements and costs of cosmogenic absolute dating techniques overall it might be a valuable tool for extracting data regarding the faulting history and slip events for defining seismic hazard parameters

eastern mediterranean tectonics and tsunami hazard inferred from the ad 365 earthquake historical accounts describe an earthquake and tsunami on 21 july ad 365 that destroyed cities and drowned thousands of people in coastal regions from the nile delta to modern day dubrovnik the location and tectonic setting of this earthquake have been uncertain until now here we present evidence from radiocarbon data and field observations that western crete was lifted above sea level by up to 10 m synchronously with the ad 365 earthquake the distribution of uplift combined with observations of present day seismicity suggest that this earthquake occurred not on the subduction interface beneath crete but on a fault dipping at about 30 within the overriding plate calculations of tsunami propagation show that the uplift of the sea floor associated with such an earthquake would have generated a damaging tsunami through much of the eastern mediterranean measurement of the present rate of crustal shortening near crete yields an estimate of 5 000 yr for the repeat time of tsunamigenic events on this single fault in western crete but if the same process takes place along the entire hellenic subduction zone such events may occur approximately once every 800 yr in the year ad 365 an earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of the eastern mediterranean coastal regions the distribution of uplift at the time suggests that the earthquake occurred on a fault within the overriding plate at the subduction zone beneath crete and not on the subduction interface itself

holocene carbon cycle dynamics based on co2 trapped in ice at taylor dome antarctica a high resolution ice core record of atmospheric co2 concentration over the holocene epoch shows that the global carbon cycle has not been in steady state during the past 11 000 years analysis of the co2 concentration and carbon stable isotope records using a one dimensional carbon cycle model uggests that changes in terrestrial biomass and sea surface temperature were largely responsible for the observed millennial scale changes of atmospheric co2 concentrations

the application of gis based logistic regression for landslide susceptibility mapping in the kakuda yahiko mountains central japan as a first step forward in regional hazard management multivariate statistical analysis in the form of logistic regression was used to produce a landslide susceptibility map in the kakuda yahiko mountains of central japan there are different methods to prepare landslide susceptibility maps the use of logistic regression in this study stemmed not only from the fact that this approach relaxes the strict assumptions required by other multivariate statistical methods but also to demonstrate that it can be combined with bivariate statistical analyses bsa to simplify the interpretation of the model obtained at the end in susceptibility mapping the use of logistic regression is to find the best fitting function to describe the relationship between the presence or absence of landslides dependent variable and a set of independent parameters such as slope angle and lithology here an inventory map of 87 landslides was used to produce a dependent variable which takes a value of 0 for the absence and 1 for the presence of slope failures lithology bed rock slope relationship lineaments slope gradient aspect elevation and road network were taken as independent parameters the effect of each parameter on landslide occurrence was assessed from the corresponding coefficient that appears in the logistic regression function the interpretations of the coefficients showed that road network plays a major role in determining landslide occurrence and distribution among the geomorphological parameters aspect and slope gradient have a more significant contribution than elevation although field observations showed that the latter is a good estimator of the approximate location of slope cuts using a predicted map of probability the study area was classified into five categories of landslide susceptibility extremely low very low low medium and high the medium and high susceptibility zones make up 8 87 of the total study area and involve mid altitude slopes in the eastern part of kakuda mountain and the central and southern parts of yahiko mountain

normal faulting and crustal deformation alkyonides gulf and perachora peninsula eastern gulf of corinth rift greece geophysical structural geochronological and geomorphological data indicate that the psatha east alkyonides skinos and pisia faults are holocene active structures whereas the status of the west alkyonides strava perachora and loutraki faults is less certain we see no evidence for significant lateral surface fault growth new data for late pleistocene footwall uplift of the psatha fault are comparable with previously estimated holocene rates pre holocene stratigraphic sequences in the alkyonides gulf allow calculation of vertical displacement on the skinos fault of 1 42 1 60 km over a period of 0 6 ma previous palaeoseismological studies indicate comparable displacement rates extrapolated to 0 61 2 20 ma whereas extrapolation of previous geodetic data indicate a range of 0 17 0 46 ma the latter is too short given the evidence of the stratigraphic record signifying either that these data may not be representative of longer term rates or that significant deformation has taken place elsewhere for example on offshore antithetic faults a case is established for uniform late quaternary post mis 7 uplift of the perachora peninsula at rates of c 0 2 0 3 mm a 1 the lack of regional tilting over perachora corinth isthmia is in marked contrast to the situation in the alkyonides megara basins to the east

analysis of factors determining sediment yield variability in the highlands of northern ethiopia in many developing countries sustainable land management and water resources development are threatened by soil erosion and sediment related problems in response to such threats there is an urgent need for improved catchment based erosion control and sediment management strategies the design and implementation of such strategies require data on erosion rates and understanding of the factors that control the delivery of sediment through the catchment system in this study reservoir sedimentation and corresponding catchment attribute data were used to investigate the major factors controlling sediment yield variability in a mountainous dryland region of northern ethiopia sediment yield data were acquired for representative 11 catchments above reservoirs geomorphological and anthropogenic catchment attributes were extracted for each reservoir from different sources including digital elevation models satellite images and field surveys different statistical analyses such as pearson s correlation principal components and multiple regression were implemented to analyze the relationship between sediment yield and catchment characteristics and to determine the major factors controlling the variability of sediment yield the results show that terrain form gully erosion surface lithology and land cover explain most of the variability in sediment yield among the catchments the implications of the results for relevant management intervention targeted at ameliorating the major causative factors of erosion are also outlined

assessment of landslide susceptibility on the natural terrain of lantau island hong kong steep terrain and the high frequency of tropical rainstorms make landslide occurrence on natural terrain a common phenomenon in hong kong for example more than 800 slope failures were triggered by a rainstorm in november 1993 on lantau island hong kong maps of recent landslides interpreted from aerial photographs in combination with a geographical information system were used to evaluate the frequency and distribution of landslides with particular reference to such physical parameters as lithology slope gradient slope aspect elevation vegetation cover and proximity to drainage line all of which are considered to be influential in the occurrence of landslides a stepwise logistic regression model was obtained between landslide susceptibility and the above mentioned physical parameters the study area has been classified into five classes of relative landslide susceptibility namely very low low moderate high and very high based on this methodology

distributed normal faulting in the tip zone of the south alkyonides fault system gulf of corinth constrained using 36cl exposure dating of late quaternary wave cut platforms abstract the geometry rates and kinematics of active faulting in the region close to the tip of a major crustal scale normal fault in the gulf of corinth greece are investigated using detailed fault mapping and new absolute dating fault offsets have been dated using a combination of 234u 230th coral dates and in situ 36cl cosmogenic exposure ages for sediments and wave cut platforms deformed by the faults our results show that deformation in the tip zone is distributed across as many as eight faults arranged within 700 m across strike each of which deforms deposits and landforms associated with the 125 ka marine terrace of marine isotope stage 5e summed throw rates across strike achieve values as high as 0 3 1 6 mm yr values that are comparable to those at the centre of the crustal scale fault 2 3 mm yr from holocene palaeoseismology and 3 4 mm yr from gps geodesy the relatively high deformation rate and distributed deformation in the tip zone are discussed in terms of stress enhancement from rupture of neighbouring crustal scale faults and in terms of how this should be considered during fault based seismic hazard assessment

modelling the occurrence of gullies in rangelands of southwest spain gully erosion has been recognized as an important soil degradation process in rangelands of southwest spain in this paper a relatively new data mining technique called multivariate adaptive regression splines mars was applied to construct a model capable of predicting the location of gullies a large database was used to support the model composed of a target variable presence or absence of gullies and 36 independent variables related to topography lithology soils rainfall land use and vegetation cover the performance of the model was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic roc curve for five external datasets the model had high predictive power with values for the area under the roc curve of the external validation datasets varying from 0 75 to 0 98 1 0 being perfect prediction the most important variables explaining the spatial distribution of gullies were lithology and soil type finally the model was compiled and implemented into a geographical information system to obtain maps of susceptible areas for gully erosion these maps show that approximately 7 of the study area presents favourable conditions for the development of gullies the results demonstrate that mars constitutes a valuable model in geomorphic research and could also be a useful tool for assessing the impacts of changing climate and land use on gully erosion copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd

numerical modeling of tidal notch sequences on rocky coasts of the mediterranean basin publisher s version pdf must be used in institutional repository 6 months after publication

a holocene co2 record from the stomatal index of subfossil salix herbacea l leaves from northern sweden a stomatal based method of palaeo co2 estimation has been applied to a temporally detailed sequence of leaves from a high latitude lake 68 n in northern sweden spanning the last 9000 years the resulting atmospheric co2 reconstruction documents the onset of a gradual increase c 5000 years before present indicating that the carbon cycle has not been in steady state over this time stable carbon isotope 13c measurements of the subfossil leaves constrain the interpretation of the inferred changes in the operation of the global carbon cycle the 13c data reveal no marked or systematic shifts towards more negative values indicating that the co2 addition to the atmosphere 5000 1000 yr bp may have been predominantly of oceanic origin

forest re growth on medieval farmland after the black death pandemic implications for atmospheric co2 levels well dated pollen assemblages from an organic rich infill of an oxbow lake of the river roer southeastern netherlands provide a high resolution reconstruction of regional vegetation development and land use for the period between ad 1000 and 1500 regional effects of the mid 14th century plague pandemic known as the black death are reflected by a period of significant agricultural regression between ad 1350 and 1440 concomitant re growth of forest indicates the existence of a terrestrial carbon sink following the black death pandemic a direct temporal correlation of the reconstructed changes in land cover with a proxy record of atmospheric co2 mixing ratios based on stomatal frequency analysis of quercus robur leaf remains suggests the coupling of long term co2 trends of the 13th 15th centuries and coeval trends in regional forest density during the period of maximum reforestation between ad 1400 and 1440 co2 levels seem to be relatively low but the onset of a co2 decline may predate the spread of the black death in europe 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

abrupt climatic changes and an unstable transition into a late holocene thermal decline a multiproxy lacustrine record from southern sweden the transition from a middle holocene relatively warm and stable climate to a cooler and unstable late holocene climate is reconstructed using sediments from lake igelsjon south central sweden this multiproxy study illustrates local regional and global scale responses to climatic change by focusing on a previously identified abrupt hydrological shift to cooler and or wetter conditions around 4000 cal yr bp the results suggest that between ca 4600 and ca 3400 cal yr bp the environment around and within the lake responded in two major well defined steps the first between 4450 and 4350 cal yr bp and the second between 4000 and 3800 cal yr bp a series of rapid fluctuations of short duration were superimposed on the general cooling trend with the most severe aquatic response peaking at ca 3800 cal yr bp pollen percentage and influx values show forest composition and pollen productivity changes and a distinct decline in total and corylus pollen influx in the period of 4000 3500 cal yr bp stomatal based reconstruction of atmospheric co2 concentration produced a tenuous decrease with a minimum between 3650 and 3500 cal yr bp copyright 2005 john wiley sons ltd

active faulting on the island of crete greece in order to characterize and quantify the middle late quaternary and ongoing deformation within the southern aegean forearc we analyse the major tectonic structures affecting the island of crete and its offshore the normal faults typically consist of 4 30 km long dipslip segments locally organised in more complex fault zones they separate carbonate and or metamorphic massifs in the footwall block from loose to poorly consolidated alluvial and colluvial materials within the hangingwall all these faults show clear evidences of recent re activations and trend parallel to two principal directions wnw ese and nne ssw based on all available data for both onland and offshore structures morphological and structural mapping satellite imagery and airphotographs remote sensing as well as the analysis of seismic profiles and the investigation of marine terraces and holocene raised notches along the island coasts for each fault we estimate and constrain some of the principal seismotectonic parameters and particularly the fault kinematics the cumulative amount of slip and the slip rate following simple assumptions and empirical relationships maximum expected magnitudes and mean recurrence periods are also suggested summing up the contribution to crustal extension provided by the two major fault sets we calculate both arc normal and arcparallel long term strain rates the occurrence of slightly deeper and more external low angle thrust planes associated with the incipient continental collision occurring in western crete is also analysed although these contractional structures can generate stronger seismic events m 7 5 they are probably much rarer and thus providing a minor contribution to the overall morphotectonic evolution of the island and the forearc a comparison of our geologicallybased results with those obtained from gps measurements show a good agreement therefore suggesting that the present day crustal deformation is probably active since middle quaternary and mainly related to the seismic activity of upper crustal normal faults characterized by frequent shallow 20 km moderate to strong seismic events seldom alternating with stronger earthquakes occurring along blind low angle thrust planes probably ramping from a deeper aseismic detachment ca 25 km this apparently contradicting co existence of juxtaposed upper tensional and lower compressional tectonic regimes is in agreement with the geodynamics of the region characterised by continental collision with nubia and the aegean mantle wedging

episodic uplift deduced from holocene shorelines in the perachora peninsula corinth area greece four raised shorelines between 1 1 m and 3 5 m have been identified at two localities on the perachora peninsula and were dated by ams 14c to between 6400 and 1500 calibrated years ago uplift movements seem to have occurred in increments of 0 8 0 3 m with a return period of about 1600 years the last uplift coincided with a regional tectonic paroxysm which has already been documented in several areas of the eastern mediterranean the average uplift rate was probably faster during the holocene than the average since the last interglacial period no important vertical displacement occurred in this area at the time of or after the 1981 earthquake but a new episode of coseismic uplift may be in preparation

implications of ice core smoothing for inferring co2 flux variability 1 ice core records are commonly used to infer information about past variability of co2 fluxes because of processes involved in enclosing this air in ice ice core records are a smoothed representation of the actual past atmospheric variations as such there is a limit to how much information ice core measurements can contain about flux variability on short timescales with a numerical model of the firn processes we quantify this smoothing and describe how it can be reproduced with pulse response functions we generate and make available pulse response functions for co2 at the de08 site on law dome antarctica we discuss implications of the smoothing for inferring co2 flux variability from the law dome ice core record in particular we look at results from an intercomparison of terrestrial biosphere models over the twentieth century and show how much of the co2 variability would be reflected in the law dome ice core record we also smooth atmospheric 13co2 from a study that compared fixed and varying isotopic discrimination we find that the impact of changing discrimination shown previously to be large on interannual timescales is small on the decadal scales accessible from ice core records

integrating observational targets and instrumental data on rock coasts through snorkel surveys a methodological approach abstract this work deals with recent advances in scientific snorkel surveying starting from the results of several case studies in the mediterranean between 2012 and 2018 for a total survey length of 531 4 km with the aim of illustrating the pros and cons the snorkel survey method described here also called geoswim allows rough and ready surveys of long sectors of rocky coasts in particular it is able to collect time lapse images perpendicularly to the coastline and observe long sectors of rocky coastline with particular reference to the tidal zone in addition to the photographic survey along the coast rough measures lateral variations in geomorphological geological biological and ecological parameters and the collection of hydrological data are usually performed during the work the expeditions also provide the opportunity to produce large databases of coastal landforms such as coastal sea caves and tidal notches the data collected can be improved by additional on the spot observations the evaluation of the methodology here proposed was based on the results of swot analysis starting from the results and the experience of previous expeditions geoswim is the first snorkel approach that allows the collection of large amount of multidisciplinary data along wide sectors of rocky coastline at the moment this approach is the best and probably the only technique for characterizing the tidal and nearshore zone but also to collect observational data of prominent objects along rocky coasts however snorkel observations are affected by limitations similar to those of terrestrial field surveys the ability to observe specific forms or phenomena increases through the practice of field observation and are strongly observer influenced sheltered sea basins are better suited than ocean basins where tides and wave energy are generally higher data collection is also affected by weather and sea conditions the quality of time lapse images and videos may be reduced as a result of breakers at the cliffs producing images that cannot be used for subsequent analysis as for external factors some sectors of the coast may be closed due to local restrictions on field activities