water geochemistry and soil gas survey at ungaran geothermal field central java indonesia abstract a soil gas survey for radon rn thoron tn co 2 and mercury hg and the chemical analysis of hot spring waters were undertaken in the ungaran geothermal field central java indonesia the results of soil gas surveys indicate fault systems trending nne ssw and wnw ese particularly high co 2 concentrations 20 and high hg concentrations were detected in vicinity of the fumaroles emanometries of rn tn and co 2 also conclusively identified the presence of a fracture zone for the migration of geothermal fluid the hg results infer that the up flow zone of high temperature geothermal fluids maybe located in the north of fumaroles in the gedongsongo area near the collapse wall chemistry of thermal springs in the up flow zone are acid ph 4 and show a ca mg so 4 composition the thermal waters are mainly ca mg hco 3 and ca na so 4 hco 3 types near the fumarolic area and are mixed na ca cl hco 3 waters in the south east of gedongsongo the 18 o between 5 3 and 8 2 and between 39 and 52 indicate that the waters are essentially meteoric in origin a conceptual hydro geochemical model of the gedongsongo thermal waters based on the soil gas isotope and chemical analytical results was constructed

soil gas method for tracing neotectonic faults in clay basins the pisticci field southern italy abstract two soil gas surveys were performed in 1991 and 1993 over an area of 95 km 2 at pisticci southern italy the research was aimed at assessing the relationship between soil gas distribution and fracture systems in a plio pleistocene clay basin located in the bradanic trough more than 400 samples were collected to measure the he co 2 and 222 rn concentration in soil atmosphere very large helium anomalies he up to 21 000 ppb above atmospheric reference were detected in 1991 in correspondence with the youngest fractures reported in the literature in order to verify the persistence of such soil gas anomalies a survey was conducted again in 1993 in subareas where major helium anomalies were previously detected the values of co 2 and 222 rn have shown about the same average as that in the 1991 survey while he values have revealed a sharp decrease with maximum values not exceeding 3000 ppb this considerable difference is tentatively related to the seismic activity that occurred just before the 1991 survey whereas no appreciable seismic activity was reported in 1993 the results of the soil gas surveys show that the shape and spatial distribution of the gas anomalies are related to the structural pattern of the area whereas the magnitude of gas leakage is controlled by the occurrence of deep gas bearing traps hydrocarbon reservoirs and possibly triggered by seismic activity

application of 222rn technique to locate subsurface coal heatings in australian coal mines abstract subsurface coal heating poses a significant problem in many coal mines the identification of the exact location of the heatings that occur in often inaccessible locations several hundred meters deep in goaf areas is a key to allowing effective control measures to be taken detailed investigations were carried out to apply the surface based 222 rn technique to locate subsurface coal heatings in australia the results of two field trials indicated that subsurface coal heatings at depths up to 450 m lead to isolated 222 rn anomalies on the surface vertically above the heating zones the geogas microbubble model for 222 rn transport through strata appears to be most in accord with the results of the field trials

morphometric analysis of three dimensional networks of karst conduits the main idiosyncrasy of a typical karst system is the presence of a three dimensional network of conduits behaving as drains in the system and being responsible of both the quick response of karst springs to rainfall events and the complex distribution of solutes in the system a morphometric analysis of the three dimensional geometry of conduits provides quantitative measures that can be used in a range of applications these morphometric parameters can be used as descriptors of the underground geomorphology they provide information on speleogenesis processes they can be correlated with karst denudation ratios they can be used to control the simulation of realistic stochastic karst networks of conduits and they can be correlated with hydrogeologic behaviour of the karst system the main purpose of this paper is to define describe and illustrate a range of morphometric indexes and morphometric functions that can be calculated nowadays because the availability of three dimensional topographies provided by speleological work and the availability of the computational and graphical power provided by modern computers some of the morphometric parameters describe the existence of preferential directions of karstification others describe the kartification along the vertical and the possible presence of inception horizons other indexes describe the shape complexity of the karstic network whilst other indexes describe spatial variability of the conduit geometry and other parameters give account of the connectivity of the three dimensional network the morphometric analysis is illustrated with a three dimensional karstic network in southern france

assessment of rockfall susceptibility by integrating statistical and physically based approaches in val di fassa dolomites eastern italian alps rockfalls constitute the most significant gravity induced natural disaster that threatens both the inhabitants of the valley who are few and the thousands of tourists who populate the area in summer and winter to assess rockfall susceptibility we developed an integrated statistical and physically based approach that aimed to predict both the susceptibility to onset and the probability that rockfalls will attain specific reaches through field checks and multi temporal aerial photo interpretation we prepared a detailed inventory of both rockfall source areas and associated scree slope deposits using an innovative technique based on gis tools and a 3d rockfall simulation code grid cells pertaining to the rockfall source area polygons were classified as active or inactive based on the state of activity of the associated scree slope deposits the simulation code allows one to link each source grid cell with scree deposit polygons by calculating the trajectory of each simulated launch of blocks by means of discriminant analysis we then identified the mix of environmental variables that best identifies grid cells with low or high susceptibility to rockfalls among these variables structural setting land use and morphology were the most important factors that led to the initiation of rockfalls we developed 3d simulation models of the runout distance intensity and frequency of rockfalls whose source grid cells corresponded either to the geomorphologically defined source polygons geomorphological scenario or to study area grid cells with slope angle greater than an empirically defined value of 37 empirical scenario for each scenario we assigned to the source grid cells an either fixed or variable onset susceptibility the latter was derived from the discriminant model group active inactive membership probabilities comparison of these four models indicates that the geomorphological scenario with variable onset susceptibility appears to be the most realistic model nevertheless political and legal issues seem to guide local administrators who tend to select the more conservative empirically based scenario as a land planning tool

gis techniques and statistical models in evaluating landslide hazard geographical information systems gis and numerical cartography may greatly facilitate the development and use of statistical models for the assessment of regional landslide hazard from a small drainage basin located in central italy relevant geological and geomorphological factors were collected and processed by applying gis technology in particular modules were used which both generate high fidelity digital terrain models and automatically partition the terrain into main slope units the resulting information was then analysed by discriminant analysis which enabled landslide hazard and risk to be evaluated in each slope unit although not lacking drawbacks the method proved to be a feasible and cost effective approach to landslide susceptibility assessment and mapping

channel networks a geomorphological perspective the study of channel networks has been dominated since 1966 by the random model however recent work has shown 1 that although the topological properties of small networks conform to the random model more closely than those of large ones even small networks exhibit systematic deviations from topological randomness and 2 that the topological and length properties of channel networks are controlled to a large degree by the spatial requirements of subbasins and the need for these subbasins to fit together in space by the size sinuosity and migration rate of valley bends and by the length and steepness of valley sides the factors that control the density properties of channel networks vary with the scale of the investigation and the geomorphic processes governing channel initiation although progress has been made toward a satisfactory stream junction angle model further work is needed the evolution of channel networks has been investigated by a variety of methods including the development of conceptual and simulation models the monitoring of small scale badland and experimental drainage basins and the substitution of space for time the morphology of most channel networks is largely inherited from the past or strongly influenced by inherited forms inasmuch as there is no way of ever knowing the origin or complex history of such networks the use of stochastic models in their study seems unavoidable

analysis of co2 leakage through low permeability faults from natural reservoirs in the colorado plateau east central utah the numerous co 2 reservoirs in the colorado plateau region of the united states are natural analogues for potential geologic co 2 sequestration repositories to better understand the risk of leakage from reservoirs used for long term underground co 2 storage we examine evidence for co 2 migration along two normal faults from a reservoir in east central utah co 2 charged springs geysers and a hydrocarbon seep are localised along these faults these include natural springs that have been active for long periods of time and springs that were induced by recent drilling the co 2 charged spring waters have deposited travertine mounds and carbonate veins the faults cut siltstones shales and sandstones and the fault rocks are fine grained clay rich gouge generally thought to be barriers to fluid flow the geologic and geochemical data are consistent with these faults being conduits for co 2 to the surface consequently the injection of co 2 into faulted geologic reservoirs including faults with clay gouge must be carefully designed and monitored to avoid slow seepage or fast rupture to the biosphere

time series analysis of soil radon data using multiple linear regression and artificial neural network in seismic precursory studies this paper reports the analysis of soil radon data recorded in the seismic zone v located in the northeastern part of india latitude 23 73n longitude 92 73e continuous measurements of soil gas emission along chite fault in mizoram india were carried out with the replacement of solid state nuclear track detectors at weekly interval the present study was done for the period from march 2013 to may 2015 using lr 115 type ii detectors manufactured by kodak pathe france in order to reduce the influence of meteorological parameters statistical analysis tools such as multiple linear regression and artificial neural network have been used decrease in radon concentration was recorded prior to some earthquakes that occurred during the observation period some false anomalies were also recorded which may be attributed to the ongoing crustal deformation which was not major enough to produce an earthquake

precursory subsurface 222rn and 220rn degassing signatures of the 2004 seismic crisis at tenerife canary islands precursory geochemical signatures of radon degassing in the subsurface of the tenerife island were observed several months prior to the recent 2004 seismic volcanic crisis these premonitory signatures were detected by means of a continuous monitoring of 222rn and 220rn activity from a bubbling co2 rich gas spot located at 2 850 m depth inside a horizontal gallery for groundwater exploitation at tenerife multivariate regression analysis mra on time series of the radon activity was applied to eliminate the radon activity fluctuation due to external variables such as barometric pressure temperature and relative humidity as well as power supply material failure forecast method ffm was successfully applied to forecast the anomalous seismicity registered in tenerife island in 2004 the changes in the 222rn 220rn ratio observed after the period of anomalous seismicity might suggest a higher gas flow rate and or changes in the vertical permeability induced by seismic activity

nitrogen as the carrier gas for helium emission along an active fault in nw taiwan variations of he gas concentration are widely applied in studies devoted to the location of faults and to monitor seismic activities up to now its migration mechanism in soil is not fully understood a systematic soil gas survey across an active fault in nw taiwan provides the opportunity to closely examine the mechanism of he migration in the fault zone significant spatial and temporal correlations observed between soil n2 and he gas support the hypothesis that n2 is the probable carrier gas for he emission in the studied area based on n2 ar ratios and n2 isotopic results the excess soil n2 in this study is considered to be largely derived from ancient atmospheric air which was dissolved in groundwater furthermore observations rule out the possibility of co2 being the dominant carrier gas for he in the studied area based on the c and he isotopic compositions and the relationship between concentrations of these gases at least two soil gas sources a and b can be identified in the studied area source a is an abiogenic gas source characterized by excess n2 and he and very low o2 and co2 content source b on the other hand is a mixture of biogenic gas and atmospheric air the development of the fault system is an important factor affecting the degree of mixture between sources a and b therefore variations of soil gas composition in particular those derived from source a could be a useful proxy for tracing faults in the area

graph theory recent developments of its application in geomorphology abstract applications of graph theory have proliferated across the academic spectrum in recent years whereas geosciences and landscape ecology have made rich use of graph theory its use seems limited in physical geography and particularly in geomorphology common applications of graph theory analyses of connectivity path or transport efficiencies subnetworks network structure system behaviour and dynamics and network optimization or engineering all have uses or potential uses in geomorphology and closely related fields in this paper we give a short introduction to graph theory and review previous geomorphological applications or works in related fields that have been particularly influential network like geomorphic systems can be classified into nonspatial or spatially implicit system components linked by statistical causal relationships and spatial units linked by some spatial relationship for example by fluxes of matter and or energy we argue that if geomorphic system properties and behaviour e g complexity sensitivity synchronisability historical contingency connectivity etc depend on system structure and if graph theory is able to quantitatively describe the configuration of system components then graph theory should provide us with tools that help in quantifying system properties and in inferring system behaviour

geochemical characteristics of soil radon and carbon dioxide within the dead sea fault and karasu fault in the amik basin hatay turkey abstract the study area is close to the boundary of three tectonic plates anatolian arabian and african plates and is characterized by important tectonic lineaments which consist mainly of the dead sea fault dsf the karasu fault and the east anatolian fault eaf systems to understand the origin of soil gas emanation and its relationships with the tectonics of the amik basin hatay a detailed soil gas sampling was systematically performed together with co2 flux measurements 220 soil gas samples were analyzed for rn and co2 concentrations the distribution of soil rn kbq m3 co2 concentration ppm and co2 flux g m2 day in the area appears as a point source spot and or diffuses halo anomalies along the buried faults fractures due to crustal leaks the results revealed that rn and co2 concentrations in the soil gas show anomalous values at the specific positions in the amik basin the trace of these anomalous values is coincident with the n s trending dsf co2 is believed to act as a carrier for rn gas based on the rn and co2 concentrations of soil gases at least three gas components are required to explain the observed variations in addition to the atmospheric component two other gas sources can be recognized one is the deep crust component which exhibits high rn and co2 concentrations and is considered the best indicator for the surface location of fault fracture zones in the region the other component is a shallower gas source with high rn concentration and low co2 concentration moreover he isotopic compositions of representative samples vary from 0 94 to 0 99 ra illustrating that most samples have a soil air component and may have mixed with some crustal component without significant input of the mantle component based on the repeated measurements at a few sites soil gas concentrations at the same site were observed to be higher in 2014 than in 2013 which may be associated with the activity of the dsf in 2013 2014 this suggests that soil gas variations at fault zone are closely related to the local crustal stress and hence are suitable for monitoring fault activities

interpretation of radon anomalies in seismotectonic and tectonic gravitational settings the south eastern crati graben northern calabria italy the study area is located in the south eastern part of the crati valley northern calabria italy which is a graben bordered by n s trending normal faults and crossed by nw se normal left lateral faults numerous severe crustal earthquakes have affected the area in historical time present day seismic activity is mainly related to the n s faults located along the eastern border of the graben in this area much seismically induced deep seated deformation has also been recognised in the present paper radon concentrations in soil gas have been measured and compared with a lithology b quaternary faults c historical and instrumental seismicity and d deep seated deformation the results highlight the following a there is no evidence of a strong correlation between lithology and the radon anomalies b a clear correlation between the n s geometry of radon anomalies and the orientation of main fault systems has been recognised except in the southernmost part of the area where the radon concentrations are strongly affected by the superposition of the n s and the nw se fault systems c epicentral zones of instrumental and historical earthquakes correspond to the highest values of radon concentrations probably indicating recent activated fault segments in particular high radon values occur in the zones struck by earthquakes in 1835 1854 and 1870 d deep seated gravitational deformation generally coincides with zones characterised by low radon concentrations in the studied area the anisotropic distribution of radon concentrations is congruent with the presence of neotectonic features and deep seated gravitational phenomena the method used in this study could profitably contribute towards either seismic risk or deep seated gravitational deformation analyses

the chaotic characteristics of landslide evolution a case study of xintan landslide a new method based on the chaos theory is used to assess the evolution process of a slope system the method is applied to the xintan landslide and the results show 1 the slope movement is a complex process of the slope going in and out of the stable and chaotic state 2 the method reveals the evolution process of the slope pointing to the slope failure while the observed movement shows a simple monotonic increase with time 3 the method is not sufficiently mature to precisely predict the time of failure but it has potential for improvement with further research and more field data for analysis

ocean circulation beneath larsen c ice shelf antarctica from in situ observations 1 hot water drilled access holes were used to obtain oceanographic data from beneath two sites on larsen c ice shelf one in the north and one in the south at both sites the entire water column was colder than the surface freezing point and the temperature salinity characteristics are consistent with a high salinity shelf water source of maximum salinity 34 65 psu at the southern site the 0 08 c thermal driving at the ice base and the 0 2 m s 1 rms water speed resulted in a melt rate of 1 3 0 2 m a 1 as measured over an eight day period when combined with the available ship based data the evidence suggests that the sub ice cavity is flushed only by water at the surface freezing point this implies that the reported decrease in surface elevation of larsen c ice shelf is unlikely to be a result of thinning due to an increasing rate of basal melting

correlations between the radon concentrations in soil gas and the activity of the anninghe and the zemuhe faults in sichuan southwestern of china abstract the anninghe fault anhf and the zemuhe fault zmhf with left lateral strike slip located along the eastern boundary of the sichuan yunnan block southwestern of china are some of the most active faults these faults mainly control the seismicity of southwestern area of china measurement of soil gas radon rn emitted from fault along the anhf and the zmhf has been carried out for the research of tectonic activity we obtained the rn concentrations at 394 sampling points along 15 profiles across the anhf and the zmhf in 2016 the measurement results show that the values of rn in the anhf are significantly higher than that in the zmhf the relative coefficient kq of rn activity attained in profiles of the anhf ranges from 3 3 to 9 1 which are obviously higher than that of 2 1 2 5 in profiles of the zmhf the radon flow brings up the deeper and radon richer gas upward through the high level cracked strata caused by the tectonic activity accounts for the anomalously high values attained the spatial variation of rn in the concentration profile and the relative coefficient kq calculated indicate that the tectonic activity of the south segment of the anhf is significantly higher than that of the north segment of the zmhf

radon and helium in soil gases in the phlegraean fields central italy the distribution and migration of radon and soil gas concentrations in the phlegraean fields italy are controlled by the tectonic features of the area radon is supplied from surficial sources and helium has both surficial and deep origins there is no direct correlation between the two noble gases on a point to point basis but the areal distribution of both gases is similar suggesting that the distribution is controlled primarily by fractures and movement of geothermal fluids

spatial radon anomalies on active faults in california abstract radon emanation has been observed to be anomalously high along active faults in many parts of the world we tested this relationship by conducting and repeating soil air radon surveys with a portable radon meter across several faults in california the results confirm the existence of fault associated radon anomalies which show characteristic features that may be related to fault structures but vary in time due to other environmental changes such as rainfall across two creeping faults in san juan bautista and hollister the radon anomalies showed prominent double peaks straddling the fault gouge zone during dry summers but the peak to background ratios diminished after significant rain fall during winter across a locked segment of the san andreas fault near olema the anomaly has a single peak located several meters southwest of the slip zone associated with the 1906 san francisco earthquake across two fault segments that ruptured during the magnitude 7 5 landers earthquake in 1992 anomalously high radon concentration was found in the fractures three weeks after the earthquake we attribute the fault related anomalies to a slow vertical gas flow in or near the fault zones radon generated locally in subsurface soil has a concentration profile that increases three orders of magnitude from the surface to a depth of several meters thus an upward flow that brings up deeper and radon richer soil air to the detection level can cause a significantly higher concentration reading this explanation is consistent with concentrations of carbon dioxide and oxygen measured in soil air samples collected during one of the surveys

integrating field measurements a geomorphological map and stochastic modelling to estimate the spatially distributed rockfall sediment budget of the upper kaunertal austrian central alps abstract the estimation of catchment scale rockfall rates relies on the regionalisation of local measurements here we propose a new framework for such a regionalisation by the example of a case study in the upper kaunertal austrian central alps 62 5 km 2 measurements of rockfall deposition during 12 months onto six collector nets within the study area were combined with published mean annual rates from the literature and a probability density function was fitted to these data a numerical model involving a random walk routing scheme and a one parameter friction model was used to simulate rockfall trajectories starting from potential rockfall source areas that were delineated from a digital elevation model rockfall rates sampled from the fitted probability density function were assigned to these trajectories in order to model the spatial distribution and to estimate the amount of rockfall deposition by recording all trajectories as edges of a network of raster cells and by aggregating the latter to landforms or landform types as delineated in a geomorphological map of the study area rockfall sediment flux from sources to different landforms could be quantified specifically the geomorphic coupling of rockfall sources to storage landforms and the glacial and fluvial sediment cascade was investigated using this network model the total rockfall contribution to the sediment budget of the upper kaunertal is estimated at c 8000 mg yr 1 16 5 of which is delivered to the glaciers and hence to the proglacial zone the network approach is favourable for example because multiple scenarios involving different probability density functions can be calculated on the basis of the same set of trajectories and because deposits can be back linked to their respective sources while the methodological framework constitutes the main aim of our paper we also discuss how the estimation of the budget can be improved on the basis of spatially distributed production rates

study of radon in soil gas trace elements and climatic parameters around south kordofan state sudan this study was conducted primarily to measure and map radon activity concentration in soil gas and to understand the effect of geology and lithology and meteorology on radon concentration portable radon meter has been used for the measurement of soil gas radon at 30 different locations around uro and korn area in eastern nuba mountain south kordofan state the results indicate that the activity concentrations of 222rn in soil gas fall within the range of 20 1 359 bq m3 with geometric mean of 102 80 bq cm3 the obtained data show that samples around uro have anomaly of 222rn concentrations than the sample around korn the reason could be attributed to differences in the geological structure lithology and climate parameters gis predicative map has shown that the elevated levels of radon concentration were measured in north study area upon comparing the results with global data it was found that the obtained values are far below the reported range of india slovenia portugal and syria however the range of 222rn concentrations in the soil observed in this study is significantly high relative to similar data reported from libya the regression analysis has shown that no correlation was noted between radon concentrations climatic parameters and trace element

the coupling status of alluvial fans and debris cones a review and synthesis alluvial fans and debris cones link two zones of the fluvial system e g hillslope gully systems to stream channels mountain catchment sediment source areas to main river systems or to sedimentary basins and therefore have important coupling or buffering roles these roles may be both functional and preservational the functional role includes debris cone coupling which controls sediment supply from hillslope gully systems to stream channels influencing channel morphology coupling through larger alluvial fans expressed by fanhead trenching causes a distal shift in sedimentation zones or when expressed by through fan trenching causes complete sediment by pass the preservational role stems from the fact that fans and cones are temporary sediment storage zones and may preserve a record of source area environmental change more sensitively than would sediments preserved further downsystem fan coupling mechanisms include distally induced coupling basal scour toe cutting marginal incision and proximally induced coupling fanhead and midfan trenching these mechanisms lead initially to partial coupling either extending the immediate sediment source area to the stream system or shifting the focus of sedimentation distally complete coupling involves transmission of sediment from the feeder catchment through the fan environment into the downstream drainage or a sedimentary basin the implications of coupling relate to downstream channel response fan morphology sedimentation patterns and vertical sedimentary sequences temporal and spatial scales of coupling are related and with increasing scales the dominant controls shift from storm events to land cover to climatic and base level change and ultimately to the relationships between tectonics and accommodation space finally future research challenges are identified modern dating techniques and sophisticated analysis of remotely sensed data can greatly improve our understanding of fan dynamics and should lead to better cross scale integration between short term process based approaches and long term sedimentological applications while maintaining high quality field based observations copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

soil gas monitoring a tool for fault delineation studies along hsinhua fault tainan southern taiwan many studies have shown the soil gas method to be one of the most reliable investigation tools in the research of earthquake precursory signals and fault delineation the present research is aimed finding the relationship between soil gas distribution and tectonic systems in the vicinity of the hsinhua fault zone in the tainan area of southern taiwan more than 110 samples were collected along 13 traverses to find the spatial distribution of rn he co2 and n2 the spatial congruence of all the gases shows that n2 is the most probable carrier gas of he whereas co2 seems to be a good carrier gas of rn in this area from the spatial distribution of rn he co2 and n2 the trace of hsinhua fault and neotectonic features can be identified the spatial distribution of studied gases shows a clear anomalous trend ene sws along the hsinhua fault

soil gas radon emissions and volcanic activity at el hierro canary islands the 2011 2012 submarine eruption 1 soil gas radon 222rn and thoron 220rn activities have been continuously measured during the period of the recent volcanic unrest that occurred at el hierro canary islands at two different monitoring stations namely hie02 and hie03 significant increases in soil 222rn activity and 222rn 220rn ratio from the soil were observed at both stations prior to the 2011 2012 submarine eruption off the coast of el hierro showing the highest increases before the eruption onset and before the occurrence of the strongest seismic event m 4 6 statistical analysis showed that the long term temporal trend of filtered radon data matched closely that of seismic energy release during the volcanic unrest the observed increases of 222rn are related to the rock fracturing processes seismic activity and the magmatic co2 outflow increase as observed in hie03 station

advances in soil gas geochemical exploration for natural resources some current examples and practices field studies have demonstrated that gas anomalies are found over buried mineral deposits abnormally high concentrations of sulfur gases and carbon dioxide and abnormally low concentrations of oxygen are commonly found over sulfide ore deposits helium anomalies are commonly associated with uranium deposits and geothermal areas helium and hydrocarbon gas anomalies have been detected over oil and gas deposits gases are sampled by extracting them from the pore space of soil by degassing soil or rock or by adsorbing them on artificial collectors the two most widely used techniques for gas analysis are gas chromatography and mass spectrometry the detection of gas anomalies at or near the surface may be an effective method to locate buried mineral deposits

deterministic chaos and historical geomorphology a review and look forward the study of nonlinear dynamics in geomorphology has been dominated by analytical techniques derived largely from other fields ultimately however confronting nonlinear complexity requires problematizing from within a geomorphological context this paper focuses on deterministic chaos the major classes of techniques for detecting chaos in geomorphic systems are reviewed while the long time series most amenable to traditional methods of chaos detection are only occasionally available to geomorphologists there are methods for detecting chaos in spatial data including qualitative and categorical data many of these are similar to or are adaptations of familiar techniques for partitioning within and between unit variation and for identifying elementary uniform landscape units the manifestations of chaos in landforms and landscapes take the form of divergent vs convergent evolution increasing vs decreasing irregularity disproportionality vs proportionality of response to perturbations or initial variations and the lack of geographical consistency or commonality of response these also serve as criteria for distinguishing between achievement of a new steady state and unstable divergence in interpreting geomorphic changes study of nonlinear dynamics in earth science need not be dominated by theoreticians and modellers as complex nonlinear behaviors can be identified and diagnosed using the types of data observations and methods typically available to geomorphologists even more important is the need to further inform the study of nonlinear dynamics on the basis of field based geomorphology

geomorphons a pattern recognition approach to classification and mapping of landforms abstract we introduce a novel method for classification and mapping of landform elements from a dem based on the principle of pattern recognition rather than differential geometry at the core of the method is the concept of geomorphon geomorphologic phonotypes a simple ternary pattern that serves as an archetype of a particular terrain morphology a finite number of 498 geomorphons constitute a comprehensive and exhaustive set of all possible morphological terrain types including standard elements of landscape as well as unfamiliar forms rarely found in natural terrestrial surfaces a single scan of a dem assigns an appropriate geomorphon to every cell in the raster using a procedure that self adapts to identify the most suitable spatial scale at each location as a result the method classifies landform elements at a range of different spatial scales with unprecedented computational efficiency a general purpose geomorphometric map an interpreted map of topography is obtained by generalizing allgeomorphons to a small number of the most common landform elements due to the robustness and high computational efficiency of the method high resolution geomorphometric maps having continental and even global extents can be generated from giga cell dems such maps are a valuable new resource for both manual and automated geomorphometric analyses in order to demonstrate a practical application of this new method a 30 m cell 1 geomorphometric map of the entire country of poland is generated and the features and potential usage of this map are briefly discussed the computer implementation of the method is outlined the code is available in the public domain

morphological and geochemical evidence of neotectonics in the volcanic area of monti vulsini latium italy interdisciplinary research has been carried out to contribute to the definition of the neotectonic arrangement of the eastern area of monti vulsini affected by upper pleistocene volcanic activity particularly geochemical and geomorphological inquiries have been performed to identify tectonic elements whose recent activity could be related to the volcanic history of this area the morphological field evidence of tectonics as well as the analysis of azimuthal distribution of stream channels and the statistical analysis of the amplitude of relief ar revealed the eastern monti vulsini volcanic area to be controlled by different tectonic alignments at the same time the geochemical contribution focused on geostatistical elaboration of soil gas data has attempted to process unbiased criteria to define soil gas anomalies and to infer correlation with their fault related linear geometry in particular rose diagrams of anomalous gas concentration alignments and azimuthal distribution of stream channels performed for each hierarchical order were compared to obtain information about the location and orientation of tectonic elements as well as about the possible reconstruction of their activity in recent times by means of relative chronology